How to make your small business brand promise and deliver on it
I had the privilege of speaking to a great group of Denny’s franchise holders recently and as I was preparing for the event, I reflected on the many times over the years that I had eaten at a Denny’s. If you’re like a lot of Americans, you have found yourself on a long road trip – probably with your family – and you needed a place to eat. Suddenly you see a Denny’s and you pull off the highway, having no second thoughts. Why can you pull into virtually any Denny’s anywhere with that kind of confidence? The reason is that the company has created an unspoken brand promise to America that goes something like this: Denny’s promises a pleasant dining experience with consistently good food reasonably priced in a bright, clean facility. Denny’s didn’t have to voice its brand promise, but that’s okay too. FedEx has used slogans such as, “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.” That is obviously a brand promise. Whether spoken or unspoken, a brand promise goes to the core – the heart and soul – of a business. A quality assurance professional friend of my told me that one of the ways they joke about a bad business is to say, “Acme Widgets: Where quality is our slogan!” If you can’t think of what your small business brand promise is, you need to do a gut check and maybe even ask yourself why you’re in business in the first place. You see, if you can’t define it, your customers will never feel it. Ask yourself this question: What special and valuable expectations do my customers have of my business (or that I want them to have) that I will meet every time without exception? This will be what you are known for or would like to be known for. You may have heard of The Wieners Circle in Chicago. It’s a hot dog joint that is famous for its char dog, cheddar fries and inability to tolerate any hesitation from customers. If you order a tube steak there, you better be ready to weather some verbal abuse along the way. People go to The Wieners Circle for the experience. The hot dogs are great and the service is, as one customer put it, “brutal.” That’s their promise and they always deliver. I mention The Wieners Circle because it’s obvious what sets them apart from all the other hot dog stands in Chicago. If your brand promise isn’t apparent, people won’t pick up on it. And if it’s not consistent, people will end up disappointed by your business. To focus in on your small business brand promise you need to know: What your value proposition is, What your noticeable difference is, and How these two attributes are embraced and embodied by the culture of your small business. Those three things need to be working together in harmony to deliver a brand promise that your small business customers and clients are going to sense and, hopefully, fall in love with. You may want to capture it in a tagline that communicates to customers, but you also want to capture it in a few sentences or paragraphs so you can communicate it to your team. It should be part of your training. It should be part of your...
read moreHow to multiply yourself through small business automation
I’ve written on my site and in my books about what I call the Mytop Theory™ – multiply yourself through other people. It’s a great way to approach hiring in your small business. With the incredible evolution of cloud services and mobile apps, small business owners can now affordably “multiply themselves” through automation, and this is true if you’re a one-person shop just starting out, or have a fairly large team working for you. There are new software as a service (SaaS) providers popping up every day, so this short introduction is far from comprehensive. However, I want to give you a glimpse at the range of small business automation tools you have at your disposal and encourage you to dig a little deeper – you may find that someone has created the ideal service for your niche. Social media automation In terms of the number of services and apps available, social media automation is probably the biggest single category. I recently was talking to an upscale professional social media service provider and entry level pricing started at north of $1,000 per month. I’m sure the company was excellent, but honestly, a smart small business owner armed with the right apps can get at least that much value – and probably more – for less than $25 a month, or even free. Finding content to share is one of the most important and time-consuming jobs in social media branding. There are several small business automation tools available for free or small monthly fees. I like the free Juice app, which looks at your Twitter followers and recommends about 10 pieces of sharable content each day. I also like Hootsuite Suggestions, which requires a subscription. But it integrates so well with Hootsuite, that it’s probably worth your money. It will automatically slot suggested content into the ideal time slots over virtually all your social media accounts and platforms. If you have a series of Tweets that you like to send on a revolving basis, or a list of Tweets you want to blow through one time, Tweet Juke Box is perfect and you’ll probably be okay with the free version. Set it up and walk away! Loading and managing your sales funnel Second to social media management, when you’re looking for cost-effective small business automation, you’ll probably want to get into the various levels of customer relationship management SaaS. For smaller teams Pipedrive is often the perfect fit. It’s simple and effective. Your employees will be able to master it quickly, which is a big plus in the small business environment. When your budget grows and you need more bells and whistles, as well as more nuanced CRM, Infusionsoft is worth a look. It not only has all the CRM features you’ll want, but it brings small business automation to marketing. It allows you to build in “if-then” logic and it even lets you identify your hottest prospects through how they interact with you and your materials online. But you need to get people into your sales funnel or pipeline before your CRM system can do anything with them. If your small business contacts prospects via phone, you might want to investigate a predictive dialing service such as Calltools. The automation feature built into it helps eliminate the time your...
read moreFamily-owned Distillery Beats the Odds and Builds Success
Editor’s Note: This post is sponsored by Staples. All the comments and opinions are my own. Nestled in the heart of Loudoun County Virginia which is often called D.C.’s Wine Country, you’ll find the first legal distillery located there since Prohibition — Catoctin Creek® Distilling Company. That’s not all that makes this business unique. It was founded by husband and wife team, Becky and Steve Harris during the height of the Recession in 2009. But the dynamic duo have beaten the odds and their business is flourishing. I originally interviewed co-founder Scott Harris in 2014 so I decided to catch up with him to see how things are going this holiday season. THE Small Business Expert: Scott, you have certainly beaten the odds. What do you think makes your business successful? Harris: I think our business is successful for a number of reasons, but the top two reasons are that we have an amazing, and unique product, and we market it really well. The Roundstone Rye, our flagship rye whisky, is of superb hand-crafted quality, and although we are a very small producer, we have received national and international acclaim for the product, which has helped us to get entrance into some of the top bars in New York, London, and Washington DC. THE Small Business Expert: Recently you hosted a Virginia Oysters and Virginia Cocktails event at your facility. In fact, you pick many of your supplies for these events, such as tasting cups, from Staples. Is this a good way to market and grow your business? Harris: We constantly strive to have people visit us in person and get to know our small business by being here. There’s nothing like seeing the whisky stills for yourself, taking a tour, and becoming infected with our passion and enthusiasm. Events like concerts, bottling workshops, dinners, and cocktail education classes are all ways to connect with our audience on a one-to-one level that is meaningful and lasting for brand loyalty. It requires an enormous amount of effort, but works really well for a local audience. THE Small Business Expert: Many small businesses are still worried about the economy moving into 2016. Do you feel as though the economy has affected your growth? Harris: We have a saying in our business: When times are good, people drink. When times are bad, people drink!” No matter the economy, sales in spirits are usually pretty good, and during the Recession, our business was doubling every year. Choosing a good product, that people want, will help insulate you from any ups and downs the market may endure. It’s really important to know your product and know the market for it. THE Small Business Expert: During the holidays you stocked up on office supplies from Staples. How does Staples help you run your business more successfully? Harris: Staples is our go-to place for all the tools we need to run our business. From getting copying done, to printer ink, office supplies, and even computer accessories, we rely on Staples when we need something for the office. The nice thing is that they’re close, and we can get something the same day. And saving time is something that is greatly valued in the hustle-and-bustle of our daily lives. Harris also purchased a big screen television...
read moreOne Bad Apple Can Really Stink up Your Business
Small businesses typically morph into family-like environments. The small team gets to know each other well and often they become social friends as well as co-workers. That’s fine as long as things are going smoothly. But when one employee isn’t performing or doesn’t get along with the rest of the team, the affect can be disastrous. Most entrepreneurs understand a strong team can be their biggest asset. That’s true when you have the right people in the right seats and they’re all rowing together in the same direction. But one bad apple — one weak link — can turn a high-performing team into one filled with chaos and conflict affecting productivity and profitability. Yet too often, small business owners fail to make timely personnel decisions. After numerous customer complaints about a particular employee and countless attempts to rescue her, Ann Ross, founder of The Paper Warehouse, finally had to cut the cord. “The UPS man came in the next day and asked where she was. I told him she wasn’t here anymore. And he said ‘Well, it’s about time.’ That’s when I knew I had been far too tolerant and patient and that it was really harmful to the store,” Ross explained. Ross, like many entrepreneurs, feel responsible for the well-being of their employees and that, combined with the personal relationships, results in a reluctance to terminate poor performers, even when it would be in the best interest of the business. As an owner, you must recognize the need to make timely personnel changes sans the emotions. Personally, I’ve been guilty of doing it myself. I had an office manager who was constantly in conflict with other staff members. After trying to change her responsibilities so she’d have less interaction with the rest of the team, I finally had to terminate her employment. When she left the office that day, the entire staff exploded with applause. Wow! I really hadn’t realized the serious impact she’d had on company morale and I apologized to everyone. Disciplining and/or terminating an employee is never easy. It’s probably one of the toughest issues any business owner has to face. I seriously doubt anyone enjoys letting an employee go. (Unless perhaps you’re George Clooney in “Up in The Air”.) Dealing directly, fairly, and professionally with your employees is a sign of respect. An employee who isn’t working out with your company may thrive in another organization. Sometimes personalities and organizational cultures don’t click. Or perhaps the employee out grows your business and becomes bored or conversely the employee can’t keep pace with the growth of your enterprise. Whatever the reason, it’s important to act in a timely fashion. One bad apple can really stink up your...
read moreHow the Next President can be the ‘Small Business President’
Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty, III served under three presidents – Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter – and now he is the chairman and founder of McLarty Associates and chairman of the McLarty Companies, a fourth-generation family transportation company. That’s an incredible resume and I think it proves that he’s a “straight shooter,” a practical man and a man who understands how this country works. He just wrote a piece for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that’s an open letter to whoever becomes our next president, urging that person to be the “small business president.” That’s wonderful advice, but not easy advice to carry out, and here are some reasons. Writing for the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council recently, economist Raymond J. Keating outlined a survey of small business leaders that detailed various ways state small business development programs go wrong. He wondered if they are more a boost to small business or merely political grandstanding. My fear is that if our next president takes McLarty’s advice, the net result will be more political grandstanding than support for real small business. Here are some of the findings in the study that Keating discussed. Too much money is spent on big incentive deals that end up hurting state finances. Spending is biased toward big businesses. The voice of small businesses isn’t represented in state capitals. Small businesses that want to grow aren’t getting the help they need. Current state economic incentive policies are ineffective in promoting economic growth. We’ve documented the problems, excesses, and misappropriation of “small business” grants before, and I have no reason to think that this kind of thing will soon stop. Too often our leaders create a commission, a department or a special board, or fund spending in a certain area and they point to those things as “accomplishments.” An elected official might boast to voters by proclaiming, “Since I was put in office, we have created – and fully funded – the Boost Small Business Board!” That sounds great to voters, but the real issue is to find out if it has had any real impact on small business growth or creation. The irony here is that in scenarios like the one I’ve just described, the politician is essentially using our money to buy our support: our tax money goes to the government, the government spends it to hire bureaucrats to fill out a new board, and then the elected officials tells us that he (or she) has done something special for us. Keating very succinctly described the kinds of things government can do that would really help small business: What actually matters for entrepreneurship and small business growth from a policy perspective is to establish a climate in which entrepreneurs, businesses and investors are free to innovate, invest, compete and grow, with the market guiding resource allocation rather than government, thereby driving economic, income and employment growth forward. That means keeping tax and regulatory burdens low, property rights protected, and government limited but as effective as possible in its legitimate undertakings. Unfortunately “establishing a climate” is far less appealing to politicians than creating a program or handing out grant money. When you hand out a $1 million grant you can get one of those oversized checks made and have your photo snapped...
read moreHow the Internet of Everything Can Greatly Improve Business Travel
This post is sponsored by Samsung. All thoughts and opinions are my own. When you get into the slowest moving line at the supermarket, serving dinner late is about the worst thing that can happen. Have the same bad fortune at the airport and you could end up spending the night in the terminal. Savvy business travelers are going boldly into an era where the Internet we’ve all grown accustomed to using everyday is being wed to the Internet of Things (IoT) and evolving into the Internet of Everything (IoE). This emerging and immersing (I’ll explain why I used that word in a moment) technology is in the process of greatly improving airline travel. A common scenario Picture yourself on a business trip. It’s a weekday morning and you’re getting ready to head to the airport to make your next flight. Your smartphone is running the app of the airline you’re flying and you’ve probably checked in using the app and have your boarding passes on your home screen. You and your airline have already shared a lot of information with one another and you’re still hours away from your flight…if you haven’t overslept or the airline hasn’t changed the flight schedule. If there’s been any hiccup in your airline itinerary, your stress level is going to start increasing and problems begin to mount for the airline. Imagine an airline that can tell how far you are from the airport and realize that there’s no way you’re going to make your flight. You could be automatically alerted. The airline could automatically book you on the next available flight and know that it has an empty seat that it can now sell to another passenger. All of that is possible today and in this case, you haven’t even wandered into the airport’s IoE yet. Airports and airlines are busy finding ways to leverage the IoE using your smartphone, strategically located beacons, various sensors, smart signage and other interconnected technologies to improve the travel experience. This translates to a vastly improved customer experience for passengers and greater productivity for airlines, airports and vendors within airports. A digital valet Wouldn’t it be great to arrive at a busy airport and be assigned a personal valet whose job it is to make sure your travel experience is optimized? Airports from London to Dallas and airlines like Virgin Atlantic and American are beginning to leverage the power of the IoE to do just that, except the valet is digital, not flesh and blood. Let’s take a simple example, but one we all can relate to. You arrive at the airport and need to get to your gate. Beacons within the terminal can sense your presence and trigger a message to your smartphone that verifies your gate number, tells you how to get there and recommends the shortest security-check line along the way. It may also recommend some food options as you walk the aisles based on the time of day and the type of airport meals you typically opt for. Further, smart signage – vendors’ and the airport’s – can tie into the IoE and deliver messages customized to the preferences and situations of travelers in the immediate area. Mapping airport usage As this beacon-equipped airport terminal is connecting to passenger smartphones, it’s also...
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