photo credit: josemanuelerre

If you ask anyone who has kids how long you should wait before having kids, you’ll probably get an answer like: “You’re never really 100% ready, so if you want kids, just have one.”

The same goes for the things you’re not doing in your business.

We always think we need one more piece of knowledge. One more employee. One more location. One more revenue increase. One more class. One more tool.

So we wait.

The Fear Muscle

Thinking we need one more whatever is our subconscious “fear muscle” protecting us from some little piece of unknown, as if the one possible obstacle we can think of is enough to prevent us from starting, much less succeeding.

That one thing is usually not a start/stop choice, much less a project-ending obstacle. It’s usually just something we have to deal with – and it might not become an issue for weeks, months or even years. The scope of the project, the market and who knows what else could change by then. This hesitance tends to be an internal protection mechanism that we really don’t need. As a species, we’re far more adaptable than we realize, but our subconscious loves to protect us from what feels like an unknown.

In business, it’s protection we rarely need. In fact, if we need protection from anything, it might be protection from the inertia that keeps us from starting things.

Inertia is often the biggest obstacle we face. We tend to be afraid, or at least hesitant, to start as if we can only create the perfect child by having that child at the perfect instant in our lives. Anyone with kids knows better. Anyone who has started and built a business (or anything of substance) already knows this – but sometimes we still wait.

We’re not talking about the normal kind of afraid, just the “well, I need one more whatever to be certain this will work” kind of afraid.

Really, you don’t need that one more whatever. You just need to start. Start on the next project, the next service, the next journey or the next challenge and see where it takes you.

Do one thing

I know, it sounds simple. It sounds like common sense. Yet how many times have you waited and then later, wondered why you waited so long?

If you have to backtrack or stop to learn something, so what? It’s part of the process. You may zig or zag now and then, but that’s no different than what Marissa Mayer, Richard Branson or Warren Buffett deal with. Maybe the scale and probably the resources are different for them, but the PROCESS is the same.

Just get started…and keep moving.

How we talk, write, stand, sit or hold our hands and arms plays a huge part in how effective we are in helping others understand what we have to say, much less keep their attention long enough to finish the message.

If they don’t get it all, at best you may as well have said nothing. Worst case, the other person could misinterpret your message and think or react the opposite of what you want.

Imagine that you make a trip to an Eastern European country.

You arrive by boat and step onto the dock with your bags in your hands.

A young Lithuanian man standing on the dock looks at your feet and says something to his friend. By the way his voice rises at the end, you’re sure he either asked a question or made a joke about your legs. Too bad he isn’t speaking your language. If he was, you would know that he was telling his friend that a camera fell out of the unzipped side pocket of your bag.

If you don’t understand the man, you might keep walking without paying attention. Once the man realized you didn’t understand, he would take another step to let you know what he was saying. He might make eye contact with you, repeat his comment and point at the camera.

As with the Lithuanian man, your business communications – from marketing messages and press releases to ads to fill staff openings – will be ineffective if they don’t use the right language and the right context, much less speak to the right person.

What is the right language?

The boy’s effort to make eye contact and point is no different than speaking in a language you understand. By establishing eye contact and pointing, he brings context to the conversation – a context you care about.

The language and context you bring to conversations with your prospects and customers is equally important. The right language provokes your audience to think, act, react, remain attentive, follow your instructions (or advice) and believe in your message.

Or not.

Robert Collier famously suggested that writers “join the conversation already going on in the prospect’s mind”. Collier wasn’t encouraging you to be creepy and spy on your prospects and customers. He’s encouraging you to get to know and understand them, including their needs, desires and fears.

The right language…like the empathy that the video gets across so well… requires listening, paying attention and understanding what’s going on behind the face they put on.

Until you make the effort to learn, listen and observe these things, how can you begin to join their conversation? How can you engage with them in a conversation they care about? How can you understand what they lose sleep over? How else can what you say begin to address what’s critical to their decision-making process?

All of these things help you use the right language and the right message, whether you’re on the phone, writing an email or composing text for a billboard.

You wouldn’t walk up to a few people who are actively chatting at a gathering, interrupt them and start talking loudly about something they don’t care about – yet that’s exactly what most marketing does.

It helps me to imagine that I’m speaking directly with a single person who is exactly the type of person whose needs, desires and fears my message will resonate with in the strongest possible way. Notice that I didn’t say “the group of people my message targets”, or that I said “speaking with” rather than to.

Think about how important the positioning and context of your message must be in order to move from broadcasting like someone yelling at passersby on a random big city street corner, to that of a personal conversation with a trusted advisor.

Hippity Hop

If you overheard just a nibble of a conversation about hops, you might guess that someone was talking about the communications via the internet, frog jumping competitions or rabbits.

On the other hand, they could be talking about craft beers or microbrews. You’d have to listen to more than just one word (hops) to figure out the topic – and that’s the key.

Listen. Observe. Develop empathy and understanding. Join the conversation.

Disclaimer: I am blogging on behalf of Visa Business and received compensation for my time from Visa for sharing my views in this post, but the views expressed here are solely mine, not Visa’s. Visit http://facebook.com/visasmallbiz to take a look at the reinvented Facebook Page: Well Sourced by Visa Business. The Page serves as a space where small business owners can access educational resources, read success stories from other business owners, engage with peers, and find tips to help businesses run more efficiently. Every month, the Page will introduce a new theme that will focus on a topic important to a small business owner’s success. For additional tips and advice, and information about Visa’s small business solutions, follow @VisaSmallBiz and visit http://visa.com/business.

photo credit: The Wolf

Many of us have something about our business that acts as a barrier that limits what we can do.

In many cases, this barrier isn’t real – it’s simply a belief we’ve allowed to infect our mindset.

The trouble with this is that if you believe there’s a limit to your business – there is, because you’ve bought in to it.

These limits might be about limited cash flow, access to capital, inability to hire enough (or enough qualified) staff, raw materials supply, a lack of time, the inability to make decisions, politics, legislative pressures, market uncertainty, customers who won’t pay what your products/services are worth, or something closer to home – like the fact that you’re letting one of these or something else act as a wall between you and the next step.

If you look at that list, you’ll notice that there are two types: things you can do something about and things you can’t do much (if anything) about.

Both have something in common – your belief that they are THE factor preventing you and your business from doing something.

But that’s not the biggest lie of all.

The biggest lie is telling yourself that this limit is insurmountable. That it has a solution beyond your reach, or that it has no solution at all.

What’s your lie?

Think about it right now. What’s the unspoken assumption you think is limiting your business?

What are you doing to challenge its perceived hold on your business?

I have a friend whose “insurmountable limit” is that his market’s prospects are mostly losers and that only 4-5% of them will spend any money on what he produces. He knows he has to solve this, so he’s far better off in dealing with his business’ limitation than many others are.

Still, it’s a good example of how poisonous these things can be.

It doesn’t mean that there isn’t a limit. The lie is that the limit cannot be eliminated.

What about real limits?

Real ones are out there.

The lie isn’t that the limit exists. The lie is that it is insurmountable or that you’re incapable of eliminating it due to a lack of skill or resources. When you start to believe that, your mind subconsciously stops working on it because you’ve accepted the belief that it can’t be beat.

Think about it – would you wake up in the middle of the night with a solution to something that cannot be solved? Probably not.

This is one reason that coaches are so valuable. They see what you cannot. They believe things about you that you don’t. They provide clarity for you when a situation confounds you to the point of exasperation, desperation and acceptance of it. The baggage of the lie doesn’t burden them, so they can tell it like it is.

Challenges

Challenge the unspoken assumption you’re making by accepting the belief in your business’ limitation. Ask yourself “Why is that?” enough times that you figure out the real root of the limit. Ask yourself what Jobs, Gates, Buffett, Branson or others would do when faced with the same issue. You might think they would simply pour money or people into it and that you can’t do that (another limiting belief) – but that probably isn’t the case.

They would probably do something else entirely. Sit down with one of them and discuss the problem and see what they come up with. I realize you might not be able to do that because you don’t have access to them (particularly not for Jobs, since he’s dead), but you can consider what they would say if you had a conversation with them about the problem. Why not do just that. Ask them what they would do if they were your age and had your assets. Consider how they might respond, knowing what you know about them.

You’d be surprised how real a pretend conversation like this can be, and how much it can reveal to you.

Break through the limiting belief. Stop perpetuating the lie.

Finally…Think back to something you accomplished in the past that you never thought you could do. How’d that happen? Intense focus? Drive? Or did you simply decide that nothing was going to stop you from getting that done?

Try that again.

photo credit: Rafael Acorsi

If your customers were a litter of puppies, would they lick your face or pee on your carpet?

Puppies have a pretty direct and obvious feedback system.

They wiggle.

They wag their tails. They make deposits on your carpet.

Finally, they sleep in funny positions in order to get their photos posted on Facebook.

Like that of your customers, how they feel is easy to interpret if you’ll just look.

How do your customers feel?

• What are you doing to keep them fulfilled and interested in what you do?
• What are you doing to improve the relationship with the ones who might not be “wagging their tails”?
• Do you have some stained carpet to clean up?

photo credit: ground.zero

One of the first questions I ask business owners when we start working on their company is “What will it take to transform your business?”

I’m asking for several reasons – each of which are critical to knowing where you are with your business.

I want to find out what is top of mind – in other words, what tends to consume your thoughts about the business.

I want to learn what you’re focused on beyond that one thing – assuming there’s only one.

I want to know how big your thinking is.

And I want to know what’s next – but sometimes, that isn’t important yet.

That payroll thing

Why? Because another issue that’s consuming your thoughts has a way of blocking your ability to think clearly about anything strategic, including what’s next.

The issue that usually does this? Making payroll.

The pressure of making payroll has a way of becoming such a focus that it distracts you in the worst sort of way – like an itch you can’t scratch.

To make serious strategic progress on your business, whether you’re working with a coach or trying to grow things on your own, you need to get things to the point where you aren’t totally consumed with the worry (or fear) of not making payroll every week.

A little bit of that fear is probably a good thing – but the key reason to eliminate it is that when payroll isn’t the number one thing weighing on you day-in and day-out, you’ll be able to think far more clearly and more strategically about your business.

In other words, I’ll get a much better answer to the original question, “What will it take to transform your business?”

Five K

More often than not, the solo business owner answers that question with a number in the neighborhood of $5,000. Per month, that is.

This, despite the fact that my “transform” question said nothing about revenue,  money or payroll. The vagueness of the question lets them reveal their focus.

If five grand is the difference between confidently making payroll and the distraction of sweating payroll down to the last few hours every week, it’s usually an indication of some basic things that aren’t getting done – most of them related to paying attention to the details that your customers (and your customer database) should be none too shy about.

Once you get past the FiveK challenge, you can start focusing on the things that still might keep you up at night, but in a good way rather than in that payroll-induced cold sweat, how do I avoid laying someone off kind of way.

I don’t know

With the smallest businesses, it’s not unusual to get no answer to the “transform” question, or “I don’t know.”

That usually means you’re part of the FiveK club and don’t want to admit it, or you’re so involved in creating what your business delivers that you spend way too little time thinking about (much less working on) the strategic aspects of your business.

If you don’t want to admit the FiveK thing, it might be because you think no one else is in the same boat. The reality is that lots of businesses are one bad revenue month away from punting and starting a job search.

If that sounds like your situation, you’re probably so focused on making payroll (paying the minimum on bills, etc) that you risk taking your eye off the ball strategically, as well as in in ways that your customers will notice.

Getting the FiveK monkey off your back starts with marketing – even if you don’t have money for a marketing budget - and attention to basics like follow up, customer service and the sales your customer database can tell you about.

The bottom line

My goal is to bring transformational improvement to a client – which is pretty tough to do when they’re worried about this week’s payroll. The FiveK thing is nothing to be ashamed of, but it should make you want to take action. It’s simply a step along the road, even if the only one on the payroll is you.

Another place to deal with this is your customers. Ask them two simple questions: “What are we doing wrong?” “What are we doing right?”

Listen, but don’t take the answers personally. Take action.

PS: When is $5000 like $100000? When you don’t have it.

photo credit: mickyc82

This past weekend, I took one of my favorite drives of the year – that first drive after removing studded snow tires.

I enjoy the feel of a performance tire in a tight turn and that’s something studded tires just don’t offer. As I waited for my tires to be swapped and munched on Les Schwab’s complimentary popcorn, I looked forward to that first drive.

While I waited, a friend who works there mentioned a new restaurant in town – a place he’d first heard about the day before despite the fact that they’d been open for over six months. Neither of us could remember seeing any marketing from them. This doesn’t mean there wasn’t any, just that we hadn’t seen it.

Today, I remembered something they’d done. It was a good way to introduce what they do to those likely to visit their place, thanks to an affinity with another business.

One (apparent) marketing effort in six months is not ideal and is usually the result of a single, often fatal, mindset: “We can’t afford to market the business.” The reality is that you can’t afford not to.

If cash is tight, what can they do?

Frugal but effective

First, know that there is no magic pill, despite what so-called “gurus” will tell you while trying to sell you a shovel. “Shovel sellers” is a reference to those who made a fortune selling shovels during the California Gold Rush, yet never used a shovel to work their own claim and thus learn which (much less IF) shovels are best for the job.

Marketing is steady, don’t ever stop kind of work. If you don’t have a bunch of cash to invest, you’ll need to find inexpensive, effective ways to share what you do with those who would be interested.

Getting Local

Have you filled in your business info at Google Places? How about Bing Local? What about local business directories?

There are plenty of free and paid directories out there. These can consume a lot of time and capital, so use them wisely. Try a few Google searches to see how their results place. Talk to someone who uses the directory (they’ll be listed). Ask if they get good customers from these listings and what techniques they’ve used successfully. The most effective local directories are likely to be those run by local people, so do your homework.

Registering is not marketing

Is your business registered on Trip Advisor, UrbanSpoon, FourSquare, Facebook, FoodSpotting, Twitter and Yelp?

Registering is only the first step. Each of these outposts require regular attention. Investing five or ten minutes per site every other day (worst case) will give you enough time to answer questions, comment on reviews, post a daily tip/menu item or recognize a customer, supplier, neighbor or event (remember: give first).

The business I’m speaking of is registered in several of these places, but appears to have done little to build and maintain an active presence on them – a critical step. Remember – these sites are about attracting and engaging people who self-identify themselves as “interested”.

Keep the mobile user in mind. Encourage reviews. Reward the mayor. Reward check-ins. You don’t have to throw a pile of money at them. A free cup of coffee or a dessert is more than enough. Make them customer of the day – and find a simple, inexpensive way to make that day special. So few businesses recognize mayors (much less check-ins) that you’re sure to stand out.

Doing The Legwork

Keep your customers informed without the hard sell. Stories evoke interest.

Start an opt-in email list and make it worth reading. Send postcards or a monthly flier/event calendar to locals so you stay on their radar – same as you would by email. Print up plain paper menus and drop them off at local retailers and motels.  Offer the front desk/register staff a sample tray now and then so they can make a legitimate recommendation. Listen to their feedback.

Follow Tourism Currents and similar rural / tourism / local marketing resources. They frequently talk about strategies and tactics other small rural businesses have used and offer valuable tips about connecting with locals and tourists.

None of this is free, but all of it is inexpensive.

If you don’t market your business, how will your situation improve?

photo credit: tipiro

What would happen to your business if you fell in love with your customers, rather than with your products and services?

How would that change what you do and how you do it?

How would that change the way you conceive new products and services?

How would that change how you attract new customers?

How would that change how you treat the customers you already have?

What would come of these changes?

While I doubt it was their intent, the soap makers at Dove created something that perfectly illustrates the power of one of the best sales and marketing tools you can use.

It might be the best demonstration of that tool I’ve ever seen.

The experiment

The Dove “Real Beauty” experiment has three parts:

• First, an experienced police artist draws a woman’s face based solely on her features, as she verbally describes them to the artist. He asks her about hair, eyes, chin, nose etc and she provides what she thinks the world sees in her own words.
• Second, a stranger describes that same woman to the police artist and again, he draws her face based solely on the verbal description.
• Third, the woman compares the portrait drawn from her verbal self-image to the one drawn based on the stranger’s description.

I suspect the results are obvious: The stranger thinks the woman is more attractive and/or less “flawed” than the woman views herself.

The reveal

When the woman compares the two portraits, they describe what each one looks like to them: Emotions, looks, age, features, mood, and so on. In each case, the woman sees a more attractive, happier, friendlier face in the portrait based on the stranger’s description. If you look at the drawings, you’ll likely see the same trend.

What I found interesting was that the stranger did a better job of providing details that resulted in a realistic portrait – whether that realism was flattering or not. You knew that drawing went with that woman while some of the original ones were a bit off the mark due to the woman’s self-described facial characteristics. Some of them clearly felt much worse about themselves than they really looked.

Obviously, the experiment has quite an impact on the women, but what does this have to do with your small business?

The experiment describes a situation that plays out in sales every day: the stranger’s drawing acts just like a powerful, believable testimonial.

A believable pitch

If you listen to the women describe themselves, you’ll hear one of them say something about her big chin. While she didn’t say it, it was hard not to wonder if she was thinking “I’m ugly, because I have a chin like Jay Leno.”  Later, the stranger says she has a nice normal chin and moves on without commenting further – and the stranger is right. The portrait’s chin matches hers.

When the women viewed their portrait based on the stranger’s description, it might have been their first chance in years to honestly see themselves through someone else’s eyes. You didn’t hear a single one say “Oh, that’s not what I look like. This is all wrong.” None of them appeared to need convincing that the drawings accurately portray how the world sees them.

They believed the story that the second drawing tells because it came from someone who had nothing to gain from describing it that way – just like a testimonial should.

Suddenly, they were the friendlier, more attractive, happier woman – and it was possible to believe it by hearing it from someone else.

What’s in a chin?

“I couldn’t use that system. It’s too hard to learn” sounds quite similar to ”I’m ugly, because I have a chin like Jay Leno.”

For the woman who thinks she could be Jay’s chin sister, a single stranger’s unbiased view changes everything.

For the prospect worried that it’ll take months to learn a new system, a comment like “I expected it to take months to learn how to use their system, but I got started on my own in about 30 minutes. A few days later, I felt like an expert.”  has the same effect on a buyer that “She has a normal chin” has on a woman.

So how do you get the perfect testimonial for the person who is worried about learning to use what you sell?

Ask good questions

You’ve probably been asked a meaningless question like “Rate your buying experience from one to ten.”

It’s meaningless because numbers mean nothing except at the extremes. Even then, a ten doesn’t help others decide even if they share the same pre-purchase concerns.

The right answer to the right questions can help many make the right buying decision.

photo credit: thejbird

When are you going to get serious about your business?

Identify one thing you can do today to attract a new customer, educate a prospect or answer a common question.

Do it again tomorrow. If daily is just too much (seriously?), can you do it every couple of days, or at least once a week?

Once the habit is cemented in place, don’t stop. Ever.

Now find another rough edge in your business. Repeat the same process.

Like the shampoo bottle says: “Wash, rinse, repeat.”

photo credit: Zanini H.

As someone on the dark side of 50, I’ve earned the right to use the “O” word.

So what exactly was I referring to when I said “old”?

You might’ve heard of the term “SME”, or subject matter expert. Depending on the business, your SMEs might be young, old or a mix of both. In many businesses, they tend to be older staff members.

So what’s the challenge?

It’s managing the transfer of domain knowledge between generations – without causing a significant drop in productivity during training time.

But that’s not all, there are people issues too.

Consider this:

• You have subject matter experts with deep domain knowledge and decades of work experience. They’re essential to production, support, sales and/or delivery of your company’s products and services.
• You have less-experienced staff members hungry to take on new responsibilities and learn new skills.
• You charge these less experienced staffers with learning from their more experienced peers and with taking over some production work from these subject matter experts when they’re ready.

Cross-training a crew of young, inexperienced staffers using SMEs has to be done carefully, but it’s critical to the survival of your business.

That isn’t all

Older workers can find themselves trapped by the very domain knowledge you value. The trap is being “too valuable” in their current position. Once they become the only person who can deal with things that might go wrong in production, opportunities tend to be offered to others. We can’t hurt production by moving the SME, can we?

Worse yet, they get used to taking calls on their sick and vacation days, eventually creating pressure and/or guilt over what their even well-deserved absence is doing to their employer’s business. They know that they’re essential to critical path processes and bear the burden of never having true downtime to recharge, much less grow into new and different responsibilities.

These pressures add to the difficulty of cross-training an inexperienced staff member, because that training slows down production and distracts that critical path worker. Yet every day you put it off makes it more expensive and more risky.

As management, you simply can’t let these destructive cycles get started.

It isn’t that businesses can’t survive without senior staff. Very few people are truly irreplaceable. However, SMEs experienced what got the business to this point and often, they’re the only people who know why you do things the way you do them – even if that needs to change.

Avoiding the potholes

The situation’s no easier for the younger staff. Look at it from their point of view.

If you’re young, you may be thinking that you’ve been fighting to get your chance and that these “old people” just won’t give it to you, that they’re stalling and have no patience, or that management just won’t make it happen.

While it’s normal to be impatient with the speed of change, I remind younger workers that those frustrating old staff members might be just as frustrated as they are, but about different things.

The critical role for management in this process is removing the unknowns. Until everyone understands how important these transfers are, your business is at risk. No matter who is involved and how many people are affected, any lack of consistency, purpose and clarity will be the source of the rumors that feed the fear of the unknown and create friction.

Value the past and the future

A few things to keep in mind:

Don’t give the experienced employee the feeling that they’re being put out to pasture, nor the cause of the problem. Fact is, their dedication, skill and productivity are likely what enabled you to put them in this position in the first place. This isn’t about their age or dedication or about devaluing them. It’s about the strategic importance of making sure that the business isn’t depending on any single person or resource for a business-critical activity. These employees deserve some peace of mind.

Likewise, the young employee will feel similar pressures. They need to know that they have time to learn and make mistakes and that being “tutored” isn’t a reflection of their current inexperience as much as it is an investment in their future value to the company.

 
Speaks for itself.
 

photo credit: x-ray delta one

There are at least two takeaways in this piece about historic Russian space equipment being sold on the open market.

First, know the difference between the value of the least common denominator of your skill (say, swinging a hammer) and the value of knowing exactly where to hit and exactly how hard to swing in any situation – even if your hammer is a keyboard or a dental instrument.

Second, look hard and well beyond the obvious. The metal shard is a great example of looking for meaning beyond the obvious.

What else strikes you about this story?

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Just minutes after Adam Scott won the 2013 Masters on the 2nd playoff hole, caddy Steve Williams‘ wikipedia page reflected his involvement.

How long would it be before Britannica or Encarta included this information?

Which product does your business resemble? Wikipedia, Britannica or Encarta?

Is the difference important to your business? How important is speed to your customers?

While looking for new post fodder in my drafts folder, I found this unpublished post from 2009. I hope you enjoy looking back over it, while considering how things have changed with “free” since that time and how those things affect your business today. Note that four years later, the Beacon is bigger and stronger than ever and the news business has continued to react to the things this post talks about. Enjoy. – Mark

Before I got around to listening to Free a few weeks ago, I’d tossed some thoughts together in my Beacon column about ESPNChicago and (soon) ESPNbigcitynearyou.com, partly in response to a local writer’s consternation about ESPN’s entry into the local sports/newspaper scene.

As you might expect, I segued into how that relates directly to what you do, but I had other motives as well.

Those other motives? I wanted to stir the pot at the Beacon a little bit.

In 2007, the Flathead Beacon was the new media darling (news-wise) in Northwest Montana.

Primarily, it had 3 things going for it.

• A new coherently-designed website, driven by a modern content management system.
• Up to the minute news and opinion written by news professionals (myself excluded) who were exclusively educated at the U of Montana journalism school (hometown rep), earned their reputations at places like CNN, then became “comebackers” by returning to the Flathead to work for the Beacon
• Content published in its entirety online, with a subset published in print on a weekly basis.
• Free. The Beacon is advertiser supported (and 2 years later, solvent).
• It offered an alternative voice to the media-conglomerate-owned, long-time daily in town, whose site was little more than an afterthought of their business.

2 years later, despite numerous ongoing improvements and definite success, I have concerns that it could slide back into the comfort of old media and compete with the newspapers who don’t get it, such as those publishing news online only after it has gone to press.

Myers’ story about ESPNChicago.com and the ensuing move into NYC, Dallas and LA was the perfect opportunity to talk about it and get a column on the books as well. Two birds.

Meanwhile, as yet unreleased post that uses the newspaper biz as an example while focusing on changes in technology and their impact on your business continues to languish at 4000-5000 words (note: that turns out to be this post).

Seth v. Malcolm

To that end, I recently got around to reading what Seth said about the whole Free thing and particularly what he said about Malcolm Gladwell’s comments about Free (these 3 make an interesting triad of ‘arguing’).

While in the middle of reading the dustup between Malcolm, Chris and Seth, Seth says this: “People will not pay for yesterday’s news, driven to our house, delivered a day late, static, without connection or comments or relevance.”

When you describe a newspaper that way, it sure sounds quaint and outdated. And that’s exactly what many of them have become.

While “people will not pay” might not be 100% true today, that day is rapidly approaching as my parents’ generation ages. Take one look at the financials of the newspapers across the U.S. if you need evidence.

It’s obvious to state that people may not pay for it online either, but figuring out how to make it work is the premise of Chris Anderson’s Free. If you’re asking “Who is Chris?“, there’s your answer. It’s worth doing your homework on this topic, so have a listen (or read) Free and consider how it might reinvent your business.

One thing is certain: When my parents’ generation is gone, the news business is in for yet another shakeup.

Paging Mr. Cialdini

Beyond the financial obviousness, an awful lot of this Free thing goes back to what Robert Cialdini talked about in Influence.

Reciprocity. Guilt. Call it what you will.

Meanwhile, as you read/listen to Free, you almost get the idea that all of this is somewhat new fangled and currently relates primarily if not exclusively to (as Anderson puts it) products “made from pixels rather than atoms”. Obviously that’s not the case.

Who hasn’t accepted a tasty snack-sized nugget from a nice grandmotherly type, enjoyed it and ended up tossing a box of that item in the cart? Sam’s Club and Costco sure didn’t invent that strategy, but they use it.

Meanwhile, how exactly do you get home with a box of deep-fried, fudge-coated wookie bars that you’d never buy intentionally? Reciprocity? Guilt? Or is it about that nice grandmotherly person?

Should you give it away?

If you have trouble with ideas on this, think about what would be most painful if your strongest competitor started giving it away. Likewise, what would pain that competitor the most if you gave it away? It’s a place to start the thought process and might even identify a new value proposition for your business.

All of this is about finding a way to reinvent your business more so than just that Free thing. Not necessarily because your business is broken, but because reinvention forces you to improve strategically rather than being forced into it in an attempt to survive.

That’s what Free (as a tool, rather than book) did to the record companies, some newspapers and many other businesses. Better to act strategically than to react to someone else’s.

It’s interesting that the book “Free” isn’t free.

photo credit: Evil Erin

Go ahead, admit it – if it fits.

Your business plan doesn’t really reflect your real business.

You may not even use it.

Ask yourself these questions:

• “Do you use it to run your business day to day?”
• “Does it bear any resemblance to what really happens at your business?”
• “Did you write it just to get a line of credit?”

If your answers are “No”, “No” and “Yes” respectively, your business plan probably doesn’t matter. So how do we fix that? Really, why do we care?

Why do we care?

We care that our business plan matters, meaning that it serves and guides us every month, because:

• Running a business without consistent cash flow is a drain on both financial and mental resources.
• It’s nice to know in advance where 63% of our revenue will come from next month.
• It’d be nice to know in advance that we’ll need three extra people and 34 extra pallets of flour next month, vs. finding out when the orders come in.
• It’s scary not knowing for sure that we’ll have any revenue next month, much less enough.
• We had a horrible sales month that killed our cash flow and we’d rather not have that happen again.
• We’d like to know these things by some means other than gut feel.

But how?

Knowing your numbers

Developing a way to consistently predict your cash flow and revenue numbers isn’t magic. It’s dependent on tracking month to month lead flow and how those leads perform as they flow through your business processes.

Do you know the history of your leads’ performance? What about closing percentage? Your new and returning customers per month? Their average purchase size, respectively? Can you break those numbers down for each lead source?

These numbers are critical to managing the impacts on cash flow of your operations, marketing and advertising efforts.

Manage it

Weather forecasts help us manage our expectations and alter our behavior so we don’t spend our lives cold and wet. Cash flow can work the same way, rather than simply accepting it as unpredictable.

The early years of my photo software business are a perfect illustration: Our customers hunkered down in September, October and November. They were busy with senior portraits, yearbook photos and Thanksgiving portraits that would become Christmas gifts. In December, they were focused on getting all those orders ready and shipped in time for gift giving.

Guess what many of them didn’t do during those months? Buy software.

A consistently lower level of first time sales during these months also meant that there would be low recurring revenue during those months during ensuing years. It forced us to change our revenue model to smooth out the peaks and dips in our cash flow, which made monthly revenue far more predictable.

That’s the kind of thing that many retailers face every January.

Collect them all

The primary key to dealing with events like our October surprise and the typical January retail sales drop is tracking your lead / sales / closing history and using it to predict future activity. Next, use actual performance data to improve your predictions. As they improve, you’ll see issues coming in advance – buying time to solve them.

The finance component of a meaningful business plan will depend on your lead-related performance data if you’re actually going to use the plan to run your business. This component includes financing (credit card, bank, mortgage, payables, receivables), cash flow management, taxes, legal, benefits, and insurance. For retail businesses, open-to-buy planning (OTB) is critical. Ignoring OTB can kill a retailer.

Next, integrate your lead performance data in your daily operations planning. Lead performance will always drive the resources used in day to day operations, since sales volume impacts the need for raw materials, tools and the trained people necessary to crank out what you make. This helps you predict expenses since they’re driven by the performance of your investments to market your products, manage their leads, and sell / service their customers.

Each of these components help your business plan reflect reality and actually use it to run your business.

Why do all the work to write a plan and then not use it? Make it matter.

Disclaimer: I am blogging on behalf of Visa Business and received compensation for my time from Visa for sharing my views in this post, but the views expressed here are solely mine, not Visa’s. Visit http://facebook.com/visasmallbiz to take a look at the reinvented Facebook Page: Well Sourced by Visa Business. The Page serves as a space where small business owners can access educational resources, read success stories from other business owners, engage with peers, and find tips to help businesses run more efficiently. Every month, the Page will introduce a new theme that will focus on a topic important to a small business owner’s success. For additional tips and advice, and information about Visa’s small business solutions, follow @VisaSmallBiz and visit http://visa.com/business.

This “Sorry” image is what you see on YouTube when you’re prevented from viewing a video because the uploader decided not to make their content available in your country.

In this case, the video was a seven minute news clip from 1970.

NINETEEN SEVENTY.

I understand how allowing a viewer in another country to see 43 year old content of historical interest would seriously undermine that organization’s ability to sell advertising, much less how it would damage their credibility in the news market.

I wonder if the decision to limit this company’s news footage to their home country was considered long and hard in policy meetings and with legal. Was much discussion dedicated to finding reasons to limit access? How about efforts to find reasons to not to?

Was the cost of making that decision higher than the cost of letting anyone in any country view the video?

It reminds me of people who put more effort into controlling the public’s perception of their company than they do into taking actions that actually impact the company’s public image. The irony is that attempts at perception control tend to damage their employer’s image more than the truth would have.

We often ask the wrong questions.

Every day that you look the other way in your business when faced with perception vs. reality issues, your business becomes less personal, easier to hate and easier to replace.

Is that really what you want?

photo credit: AlexPears

Yesterday, we talked about Roger Ebert and how his TED talk was such a great validation for the Apple speech synthesis team.

I asked you about your work and talked a little about finding meaning in it no matter what you do – as well as considering where your current work is taking you.

Employers have a role in that discussion too.

Who cares?

If you employ people, you don’t escape these things. In fact, they become more important. Are those you perceive as your “most valuable” staff members being challenged by work they find meaning in? If not, you risk losing them. The situation is no different for the rest of your staff.

Your responsibility as the leader in your business includes helping your staff find meaning in their work.

You might feel the staff should find their work meaningful because if they don’t you will replace them. After all, they should be happy just because they’re getting paid, right? While you might have fit in nicely during the days of copper barons and coal-fueled railroads, smart business owners know better.

Showing your staff how to find meaning in their work is what helps them care about what they do and, ideally, who they do it for. The last thing you want is a staff “going through the motions”. Show me a restaurant with a dirty floor and nasty restrooms and I’ll show you a restaurant with ineffective management.

Menial, schmenial

Even those who are commonly undervalued (such as the people who sweep the floors and shovel the sidewalks) find value in their work unless you’ve devalued it for them. This “menial labor” can reduce on-the-job injuries due to falls (reducing insurance costs as a result) and has a substantial impact on the first impression your customers have of your business.

Ultimately, helping people find value in their work is as simple as showing why it means something to you.

Like a lot of people, I was drawn to this TED talk by the death of Roger Ebert.

As you watch it, imagine how it must’ve felt to see that as a member of the speech synthesis team at Apple. Hearing Roger appreciate what they have done and describe how meaningful their work is to him, his life and his work must have been incredibly rewarding.

What a gift such validation must be for that team, in return for the gift that their work clearly gave Roger. Not just because validation was delivered at TED, but because it came from someone whose life was so intertwined in the ability to communicate.

Find meaning

Depending on what we do and perhaps because of where we do it, our work may never get validated in that way. It’s even less likely to be validated on the TED stage. I think that’s OK. After all, if your work is all about waiting for validation, maybe it’s the wrong work for you.

What isn’t OK is to spend a substantial portion of your life doing work that has little meaning to you. Is that what you want to tell stories to your grandkids about 30 years from now? I suspect not.

That doesn’t mean your work is meaningless unless you cure that terrible disease or rescue people in burning buildings. While there’s little doubt that kind of work is meaningful, but it may not be what gives *your* life meaning. That’s the difference.

Why spend your life doing work that doesn’t interest or motivate you? Why work at a place that doesn’t value what you do?

Yeah, but…

Almost everyone has had the opportunity to do what they might consider “less than meaningful” work because they have obligations to fulfill. Things like mouths to feed and bills to pay tend to trump finding meaning in people’s work, at least in the short term.

Even if you’re in that mode – and particularly if you expect to be there a while – find a way to make that work meaningful to you until another opportunity presents itself.

The speech synthesis team at Apple didn’t likely start their programming careers on that work, but something from their past that they found meaning in probably led them to it. Some of them likely had rather winding journeys to that team, so don’t feel like you have to be doing the work of the next Jonas Salk on day one. If you are, that’s great – but it might not work out that way when you start.

What are you working on? Where is it leading you?

photo credit: milos milosevic

Dan Sullivan’s favorite question: If we were getting together to chat three years from today, what would have to happen during that three year period of time, looking back on it, for you to feel satisfied with your progress?

One of mine, a trio in fact: If we were to redesign your business based on what you’ve learned since you started it, what would it look like today?

Where would it go from here?

What sort of things do you need to do in order to make that happen?

Start today.

Rather than spend a bunch of time fretting about which of these things are most important, just pick one and do it every day.

Then do the next one.

http://leadershipfreak.wordpress.com/2010/09/21/the-most-powerful-question-of-all/ prompted this post. Thanks:)

photo credit: Gabriel Rocha (a.k.a. BRIEL)

Open this page: 
http://nytm.org/made-in-nyc/

It lists internet startups that are making everything they make in NYC.

Look for the words “hiring”.

What is your community waiting for?