Don’t be a turkey: Focus on small business success.
Susan Says: Sometimes what appears to be a failure at first glance, can turn out to be a success. Everything depends on your perspective. Today is Thanksgiving and people all across the U.S. are stuffing themselves with turkey, dressing and all the trimmings. It’s tradition. At my house, my husband is in charge of cooking the turkey while I do all the rest. Our strategy is to cook the turkey the day before, slice it and then warm it before dinner the following day. A few years ago, my husband, who takes great pride in his turkey cooking skills, carefully prepared our bird and slid it into the oven. When the timer told us it was done, we couldn’t wait to see our succulent, plump turkey emerge. Much to our dismay, the turkey looked more like an anorexic pigeon. Instead of a golden brown breast on top, there was very little meat to be seen and lots of bones. Panicked, I immediately went into scramble mode. How could I get another turkey at this late date to feed all our guests? Trying to identify the most expedient way out of this situation, I called our neighborhood grocer that had advertised fully-cooked Thanksgiving dinners. “Could you possibly prepare a turkey for me, large enough to feed 24 people before you close tonight,” I asked. Thankfully, the answer was “yes”, so now I knew Thanksgiving dinner wouldn’t wind up being hot dogs and burgers which was about the only alternative I had in my house. Next, I told my husband he should take that darn bird back to the store where we bought it and show them what a defective product they had pawned off on us. So he loaded the turkey, still in the roasting pan, in the car and away he went. At the store, he was directed to speak to the manager of the meat department. My husband explained the situation to the manager and then unveiled the evidence. With one quick look, the manager explained we had simply cooked the turkey upside down. Then he went on to note that cooking a turkey upside down actually makes it moister. Red faced, my husband brought the bird back home and it truly was delicious. Of course, having ordered more turkey we had enough to feed an army the next day. The moral of this story is, as you are feasting with family and friends today, remember that sometimes what appears to be a disaster in your business, could be a huge success if you look at it from a difference perspective. There are myriad stories of products you enjoy everyday, that were originally considered mistakes or failures, until someone took a different viewpoint. For example, if you’ve ever visited the predominantly Italian neighborhood known as The Hill in St. Louis, MO, you may have enjoyed toasted ravioli at one of the many Italian restaurants located there. This culinary delight was stumbled upon when a ravioli was accidentally dropped into a fryer. Legend has it that Baseball Hall-of-Famer, Joe Garagiola was the first to taste this “mistake”. It was a hit and soon became a staple on menus throughout The Hill. So the next time you find yourself in a panic mode, stop and think about my turkey. Is...
read moreReady to “Deck the Halls” for Holiday Success?
Can you believe this is Thanksgiving week? Thanksgiving traditionally marks the official beginning of the holiday season — although in recent years it’s been gearing up before Halloween which is an entirely different subject. Anyway, when I landed this week at my home airport from business travel, it was fun to see the entire place decked out for the holidays. Decorating for the holidays isn’t just for our homes, it’s also important for small businesses to “Deck the Halls”. It’s a perfect time to let the holiday frenzy work for you by focusing your marketing efforts and connecting with your customer base. Here are a few ideas. Get Going. As I mentioned earlier, businesses started marketing for the holidays before Halloween. Personally, I think that’s pushing it a bit. But now’s the time to get going if you haven’t already started. Social media can be your key to success. Creating an online buzz is an excellent way to get your customers excited about the season ahead. Get into the spirit by giving your logo a unique holiday twist. Use your holiday- themed logo across all promotion platforms helping to make your business more festive, memorable and ultimately more profitable Price Sensitivity. During the past several years, we’ve seen customers become more and more price sensitive. This year will be no different. It goes without saying that keeping these price-centric shoppers in mind is imperative during the holidays. Leverage your social media, email and mobile marketing strategies to make sure your holiday deals are easily reaching your market. Catering to these consumers doesn’t necessarily mean a huge hit to your bottom line, or that you must have door busting sales on all of your latest products. Sometimes it’s as simple as offering free shipping or a small discount for purchases over a certain dollar amount that will give your customers the confidence to purchase instead of price shopping with your competitors. Community Presence. The holidays offer an excellent time to connect with your community. Consider hosting an open house and collect donations or items for a local charity. One year my company collected lightly worn or new shoes to donate to a worthy cause. Don’t forget about social media too with these efforts. For example, offer to donate a can of food to a local food pantry for every new “like” on Facebook or follower on Twitter. A local television station is offering to provide one year’s worth of food and care for an animal at a local pet rescue shelter if they reach 200,000 likes on Facebook. Don’t Neglect Your Online Customers. The majority of consumers are “omni-channel” shoppers; which means they will be shopping just as much online as in traditional brick and mortar stores. (In my case, much more.) Although the internet can be a lucrative sales opportunity, its non-personal nature means consumers have the power and convenience to shop anywhere and everywhere with a simple click of the mouse. So how do you engage your customers online? Keep your content fresh, relevant and interactive. Make sure you make it easy for your customers to do business with you. And don’t forget to provide information about how they can contact you offline. Sometimes people just want to talk to a live person. Of course, once again...
read moreShop Small Saturday – It’s Service That Sets Small Businesses Apart
It’s unquestionable that many large businesses are giving superb customer service and that’s why I’m so dumbfounded when I encounter the opposite. Here are two examples: As I prepared to leave a hotel recently I called for a bellman and requested a taxi. I waited for 15 minutes. Cue the crickets. I eventually wrestled my two suitcases down to the lobby where – surprise! – no one had any clue about the taxi. Further, no one took any interest in helping me handle all the stuff I was dragging along. That was an upscale hotel. Here’s a big box store example. A friend wanted to buy an expensive game console. There was no one in the department. He tracked an employee down who called for help. No one came. He tracked down another employee who called for help. Same (non)response. Humorously, at the end there were four employees in the department but none knew enough – or had the right key – to help. (On his way out of the store he passed another employee restocking a shelf while she chatted away on her cell phone.) Bigger is not always better Both of these horror stories happened at major national chains. Unfortunately, unless they are superbly managed, the customer service at these large national brands can vary tremendously. As bad as that is for customers, it’s good news for small business owners and also offers some important lessons. You might not be able to compete on price on some items with the mega-stores. However, you should be able to clean their clocks when it comes to customer service. Spend some time in the facilities of your biggest competitors and see what they are doing wrong and right. Refocus your business so you excel on both fronts. You don’t make their mistakes and you’re even stronger where they seem to be doing okay. It’s called excellence and you may remember Tom Peters went in search of it back in 1982. Be sure your customers and clients find it all throughout your organization. No time to relax However, don’t get too smug about the customer service misadventures of your bigger competitors. If you do well and grow your business, that could be you someday. See if you can relate to this: A favorite restaurant does well and opens a second location. After a year or two neither restaurant seems quite as good as the original. When you experience growth you must do two things: * Maintain your company’s unflaggingly excellent customer service DNA, and * Provide the systems that enable your employees to make great customer service a reality (not just a slogan). The first point requires personal dedication from the top. If ownership and management start to believe that customer service is a line-level responsibility, it’s game over. The tone must be set from the top. The second point requires training, empowering, supervising and retraining. It’s not a “once and done” event. In fact, if your customer service is not always improving, it will gradually decline. The second law of thermodynamics – the law of entropy – applies to human systems. They need to be constantly fed with new energy to keep them moving forward and prevent eventual chaos. Make customer service part of your company’s culture at every level,...
read moreShould Your Small Business Provide Cell Phones? The Answer Just Changed…
Editor’s Note: This post is sponsored by Staples. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I think companies like Staples, that offer an expansive selection of cell phones, are in a great position to help small business owners who want to take advantage of recent a rule change from the IRS. To make the tax code more simple and predictable for small business owners, the new law eliminates the onerous reporting requirements that used to be necessary whenever a small business provided a cell phone for employee use. You can now write off the cost of small business cell phones for tax reporting purposes without having to substantiate business versus personal use. Previously, that required cumbersome recording keeping on the part of businesses and employees. By the way, if you want to take advantage of these changes for this tax year – and it’s virtually always smart to front load your write offs as much as possible – a trip to the Staples cell phone department before year’s end would be smart. I should also add that timing new smart phones for your staff during the holidays is a great way to lift their spirits and show your appreciation. (Other tech purchases and upgrades boost employee loyalty and engagement as well; more on those in a moment.) Aside from the new tax advantages there are other reasons to provide company smart phones for your team: * If you don’t, both you and your staff have a bigger record-keeping burden. That’s lost productivity. * Company cell phones eliminate various accounting headaches. * You can maintain continuity with business phone numbers. Do you really want clients calling your employee’s personal cell phone numbers? If you own the phone, you can own the number and keep it as your workforce evolves. * You have far better control over data security. * Upgrades and maintenance is easier for your IT department, which is often you in a small business. * You can define a set of apps you want your team to use and also have private apps created for your business. * You can be sure that cell phones are safely recycled. The next hurdle for small business owners is to zero in on the best cell phones for their teams. This is where a trip to Staples can be extraordinarily helpful. If you survey cell phones at Staples, you’ll find virtually all the brands, all the operating systems, and phones that are compatible with all the carriers. Whether you want an Android phone, iPhone or a Blackberry, you can browse a full lineup of gear from all the top manufacturers. You aren’t limited like you are when you get corralled by a sales rep at one of the major carriers. For example, you could settle on one platform but at the same time know that you’ll have some heavy users and some lighter users. You could match employees to phones that have the features that best fit their usage. And speaking of platforms, are your computers running Windows 10? If not, you need to upgrade. Microsoft made major strides with this release. It’s not merely a computer operating system, it’s a platform that will power virtually any kind of device and that means that universal apps will function everywhere –...
read moreWondering how to sell a small business? Three ways to groom it for maximum value.
For many – if not most – small business owners, the biggest “chunk” of value they have is their business. Often small business owners look forward to cashing out someday with hopes to retire or perhaps start another venture. However, it’s easy for small business owners – who have been so intimately involved in the growth of their companies – to suffer a huge letdown when someone slaps a price tag on their “baby.” Waiting to the last moment isn’t how to sell a small business and expect to get its highest value. I want you to consider three specific areas that will bring down the value of your business, no matter how impressive your yearly revenue looks. If you give these areas some attention, not only will it increase the value of your business when it’s time to sell, it will increase your revenue and safety in the meantime. 1. Little or no recurring revenue There are few things more valuable to a small business than a steady flow of recurring revenue. Being able to automatically charge a client’s credit card every month or year boosts the value of your company. It also lowers your overhead because you don’t have to be working your tail off for those sales. Do you have any revenue streams like this? If they are in place already, give them more attention so they grow even bigger. 2. Revenue overly concentrated If you have one or two big clients who contribute to your profits in a major way, it pulls down the value of your business. We’ve all seen the movies where a major New York firm is about to lose its biggest client. Everyone goes into panic mode. No one wants to buy a business where panic mode is just one lost client away – or at least they won’t pay top dollar for a business like that. This certainly isn’t how you want to sell a small business. Look at your list of customers or clients. Do just a handful contribute the lion’s share of your revenue? If that’s the case, you need to find ways to diversify your clients. It might mean being more creative in finding new clients or maybe you need to branch out into a related area that would bring greater diversification with it. 3. Your business depends on one person If there’s a key individual in your small business who keeps everything going, who’s the keeper of the “secret sauce” – and this might be you – that makes buying your company a risky venture and it pushes down its value. If this isn’t you, then perhaps your key person is the logical buyer for your company. This person may be your best shot when you consider how to sell your small business. If that’s the case, you need to start planning a sale in plenty of time. If you don’t, this person could take his or her knowledge and leave if there’s no future in your company. If this person isn’t going to buy your company, they you need to make him or her less mission critical to your operation. There are a variety of options to give yourself and potential buyers insurance against this problem. You can cross train, develop systems, create training modules,...
read moreThis Week in Small Business: Break out of blogging and get ready for holiday sales
Ready to break out of the blog rut and start cashing in on other forms of content marketing? This week’s roundup has some great advice. Of course, we’re on the cusp of the year’s major shopping season, so that topic is covered as well. Marketing and sales Get the most out of your blog content by transforming it into new media. And if this interests you, here’s more good information on non-blog content marketing. When you want to make a big leap and truly differentiate yourself from the crowd, you need to focus on branding…and most small businesses don’t! Maybe that’s why it’s the first “secret” in this article about small business marketing. If you don’t want to pay for Facebook ads, you need to be sure you’re doing all the little things right to engage your prospects. These 11 tips will help a lot. Chad Brooks, Business News Daily Senior Writer, looks into his crystal ball and discusses 10 trends that will impact small business marketing. Leadership, management and productivity After 10 years as a Special Forces Green Beret, Michael Montgomery joined the army of small business owners. Learn from how he is conducting this mission. When it comes to customer service, small business owners should think like a customer, says an American Express survey. Are you handling your seasonal hiring in the best way? Check out these tips from Daniel Flores. You need to pull out all the stops to make this holiday season a rip-roaring success, like impressing your customers with mobile pay. Tabatha Coffey, of “Tabatha Takes Over,” gives us three ways to guarantee small business success. To grow your business you need to grow your knowledge and expertise. Here are seven web resources to get that done. Entrepreneurship, startups and innovation Entrepreneurs and startups: Check out this advice on how to handle big data that is especially targeted to your position. If you’ve enviously watched “accredited investors” make fortunes through startup equity investing, you need to know that new SEC rules are game changers that allow average folks to invest. Politics, government and the economy First-time CEO and startup founder Chris Myers thinks rising interest rates could be good for entrepreneurs and small business. Read what he has to say and see if you agree. The economics of small business health insurance continue to have a critical impact on profits. 90 percent of small biz owners surveyed say their costs are up and they expect them to go even...
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