Microsoft Stores
February 14, 2009 by Aristocrats LLC
Filed under Running a Business
Imagine if you opened a store where selling stuff wasn’t the main idea. What would be the point of that?
That’s the challenge — and opportunity — facing David Porter, the former Wal-Mart executive just hired by Microsoft to figure out what a Microsoft “store” should be.
In fact, David told the Wall Street Journal that he already has a pretty clear idea: “The purpose of these stores is to create deeper engagement with consumers and learn firsthand about what they want and how they buy,” he said.
According to the Journal, “the stores could feature a range of personal products from personal computers running its Windows operating system to cellphones running the company’s Windows Mobile operating system to its Xbox videogame console.”
But since Microsoft, unlike Apple, is mostly in the software business, David will have to “figure out whether to actually sell computers rather than merely show off their features.”
Predictably, some are saying that opening stores risks alienating retailers like Best Buy that sell Microsoft software. Presumably, these are the same people who said Apple would alienate retailers by opening its own stores. Obviously, things turned out okay for Apple.
Things probably will turn out okay for Microsoft, too, because David Porter seems to understand that stores aren’t just for selling stuff. They are also for building stronger relationships with your customers and creating better, more relevant, products for them as a result.
Vote for Fast Cities 2009
February 14, 2009 by Aristocrats LLC
Filed under Running a Business
Chicago and London topped our 2008 Cities of the Year list. This year we’re asking for your help in choosing the most exuberant, diverse and growing city to top the list of Fast Cities for 2009. Click here to submit your nomination.
The Man Behind Wrigleys’ Chris Brown Scandal
February 14, 2009 by Aristocrats LLC
Filed under Running a Business
This hasn’t been a good week for the celebrity product hawking industry. First there was Michael Phelps and the case of the bubbling bong. Now the brand called Chris Brown is under fire after allegations that the suave R&B singer Chris Brown left bruises on his girlfriend pop singer Rihanna Sunday night before the Grammys.
Advertising Age has just reported Brown’s first endorsement fall-out from an alleged crime that makes Phelps look like a choir boy in comparison: Wrigley suspended its TV ad starring Brown and his top-10 hit song “Forever.” Said the company in a statement, “We have made the decision to suspend the current advertising featuring Brown and any related marketing communications until the matter is resolved.”
Right now I imagine adman Steve Stoute is probably frantically pacing his Midtown penthouse office. Last year the former record exec (now founder of Interpublic’s Translation Advertising, whose partner is Jay-Z) brokered the deal between Brown and the gum company to finance Brown’s “Forever” song, which is covertly embedded with Doublemint slogans (”double your pleasure, double your fun” Brown sensually croons).
When I met with Stoute last year he made it clear he saw himself pioneering a new model between brands and bands. However when the musical bait and switch was revealed last summer (there’s really a corporation behind this song!), the strategy backfired: many saw the deal as a deceptively lame attempt by a company trying to co-opt culture and an artist selling out.
Now, of course, the strategy has really backfired. Wrigleys will probably go into hibernation mode, recovering from the shock of making such a bad bet on a personality. Between Brown and Phelps, brand managers across Madison Avenue are being reminded that even glossy celebs–who in marketing are typically regarded as expensive, but safe and efficient–are probably more dicey now than throwing their budgets into some Alternate Reality Game.
As for Stoute, who Business Week deemed the “McKinsey of Pop Culture,” if he can find any solace in this, he’s probably just thanking his lucky stars he didn’t convince any of his other clients to hire Christian Bale as their poster boy. Now that would have been one crappy week.
Love in the time of recession
February 14, 2009 by Aristocrats LLC
Filed under Running a Business
Last week, a bride-to-be visited online wedding hub TheKnot.com and posted a wistful set of questions to her virtual sisters. “Fiancé got laid off a month ago. We’re trying to keep our wedding the way we had originally planned. How many of you are working through similar situations, and how do you…adjust your wedding/honeymoon plan?”
Go to Source
Paperless profits
February 14, 2009 by Aristocrats LLC
Filed under Running a Business
Say good-bye to the piles of paper that arrive in the mail anytime you buy shares of a stock, bond or mutual fund.
Go to Source
Investing with a no-loss guarantee
February 14, 2009 by Aristocrats LLC
Filed under Running a Business
A.Y. Brown is reaping the rewards of successful entrepreneurship. Over decades of financing and developing apartment complexes around Memphis, Brown, now 70, socked away enough money to retire at 52. Today, he and his wife live comfortably - off investment income - on their horse farm in Columbus, N.C. But the couple worry about the recent volatility in the financial markets.
Go to Source
Listen to Your Employees
February 14, 2009 by Aristocrats LLC
Filed under Running a Business
A CEO should do 3 things ever day. “Should” is kinder, gentler, term for must.
- Listen to your customers
- Talk with your employees
- Read Your Reports
I’ve blogged separately about the first two.
Now, let’s talk about your employees. They’re the ones who create your brand, execute your strategy, build your business.
Listening to your employees is the number 1.1 task for CEOs. Your company depends on this conversation.
It’s importance parallels that importance of listening to your customers.
I listed listening to your customers as number one priority and explained there why it is a slightly higher priority than listening to your employees. The operative word is slight and it’s ever-so.
The ever-so slight preference for listening with your customers over employees is only because we can only do one thing at a time. And…your customers are the final arbiter of your success. You start there and work back.
But, work back quickly to your employees. You see your employees are the ones who create your customers.
- Are your customers evangelists or vigilantes?
- Do they refer their friends or warn them off?
- Are they repeat buyers or one-hit wonders?
Your employees create, reinforce and sustain those definitions of your customers, for your customers.
And, never forget that your employees are listening to you. They’re listening to you for answers to these three questions:
- What’s in it for me?
- Why should I believe?
- Why should I care?
Those answers are delivered by you in everything you say and do to communicate your Purpose, Your Mission and Your Vision.
Those answers motivate them….to volunteer their passion, energy, solutions, patience, initiative. Mike Wagner of White Rabbit Group pointed out that employees become volunteers, now, only after they’ve been inspired them to bring their passion, energy, solutions, patience…initiative, leadership to the day.
- Employees arrive on time and leave on time.
- Volunteers arrive early, leave late.
- Employees fufill the terms of their contracts
- Volunteers build movements, create followers, innovate new products which lead to new companies which lead to more employees.
How do you listen to your employees/volunteers?
First off, honor the ears to mouth ratio. That’s a ratio of 2:1. Listen twice as much as you speak. Tough habit to learn. You’re a leader. Leaders don’t arise from their silence.
But now, you’re a leader. And you want, need, more leaders with more solutions. You want to create opportunities for others to lead. Listen twice as much as you speak.
Stop by daily and say hi. Don’t talk about work unless they bring it up. Talk about their interests, their hobbies, their goals, their parking spot, their drive to work…and you know what these are, because you’ve listened.
It’s not all about work. This is tricky. All work and no play make for…employees, not volunteers. Find what else interests them. Include it in your discussions. Then find ways to include those interests during the day. Creative solutions arise when the analytical side of the brain relaxes. Helping everyone find solutions, their solutions, is your number one mission.
Regular Meetings. An annual review or a bi-annual review, even a quarterly review is too infrequent to add meaning for either of you. Meet weekly, in person. Obviously this has to be limited to direct reports, if you lead a large organization.
Document your meetings. Nothing is more destructive to a relationship than failing to remember the conversation. Nothing communicates disinterest than failing to remember the important details you discussed, agreed to, assigned.
I use the wiki Basecamp to document conversations, create follow-up to-do’s and timelines, keep everyone’s memory clear. Even mine. Even when it’s a conversation with myself. That keeps your time and attention focused on accomplishments, not resolving misunderstandings.
Sit at their desks. There’s no better way to build a better understanding of their challenges, their day, their rewards, than to regularly sit at their desk and do their job. Nothing shows you care more than helping in this way. Granted you can’t sit and do everyone’s job. But, there are many you can, without threatening to burn the office down.
All of these deserve discussion in greater detail.
But, the most important point is the 2:1 ratio. Listen. Listen and you’ll hear what you need to do.
You’ll lead by example, too. You’ll volunteer to listen, to hear their dreams, their needs, their ideas and solutions. Sure, you’ll hear their problems and have to slice some cheese to offer with their whine. You’ll find out about their families, their child’s first recital or first home run, their parents health issues. You’ll volunteer to be a human. And you’ll create a movement of volunteers…who maybe, just maybe, input word-of-mouth, WOM, WOW into the DNA of their creation. And that’s when your business starts its journey towards sustainability.
Listen to your employees volunteers. They’re important.
* * * * *
About the author: Zane Safrit’s passion is small business and the operations excellence required to deliver a product that creates word-of-mouth, customer referrals and instills pride in those whose passion created it. He previously served as CEO of Conference Calls Unlimited. Zane’s blog can be found at Zane Safrit.
Every Business Has Its Pitfalls
February 14, 2009 by Aristocrats LLC
Filed under Running a Business
When people find out I’m a stay-at-home dad as well as a cartoonist, I often get comments like “I bet you get a lot of jokes from your kids!” Unfortunately, while my kids are often very funny, I find that when I’m being Dad I’m not looking for material so much as trying to put down Cheerio related uprisings.
The above cartoon is one of the few exceptions.
I recall I walked through the family room while my son was watching Sesame Street. They were showing an older segment where Ernie can’t sleep and instead, much to Bert’s irritation, performs a dance number complete with boogie woogie sheep.
I love that bit. It makes me laugh every time I see it.
Anyway, it got me thinking about counting sheep to fall asleep and what an odd cliche that is and this cartoon came out.
(Now that I think about it, a few weeks back an old Mary Tyler Moore show inspired a cartoon too. I have to start writing off cable on my taxes.)
* * * * *
About: Mark Anderson’s cartoons appear in publications including The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. Anderson is the creator of the popular cartoon website, Andertoons.com, where he licenses his cartoons for presentations, newsletters and other projects. He blogs at Andertoons Cartoon blog.
Every Business Has Its Pitfalls
Accountability Part 4: Crystal Ball and Chain
February 14, 2009 by Aristocrats LLC
Filed under Running a Business
(This is the fourth of a five-part series for Small Business Trends on accountability in the new world, the increasing need for fundamental accountability in small business as the business landscape breaks apart into cyber vs. physical. Part 1 was War of the Worlds, Part 2 was Both Sides Now, and part 3 was Metrics and Management. I’d like to thank you all for some great additions in the comments, too.)
I’ve been around long enough to experience the introduction of accountability through planning, metrics, and management in actual real-live business situations many times. That’s led me to develop the theory of the crystal ball and chain problem. It’s very common. It gets in the way. And you can avoid it.
It’s Very Common
True story: back in the middle 1980s I was consulting for Apple Latin America. When general manager Hector Saldana asked me to do the business plan for the fourth year in a row, he added a condition: “you have to stay around to help us implement.”
Gulp. Accountability, oh no.
But I did. And it required getting a dozen middle managers to set up specific concrete and measurable goals so we could review, track, and manage.
The early response included some negative reactions. We talked. It became clear that some worried it was about getting them down on paper with specifics that could be used against them later. Tracking as planning for firing later if they failed to meet the goals.
We had a gamesmanship problem. It comes up a lot with sales quotas that trigger bonuses. Sales wants a low quota so they can beat it. Management wants a higher quota so they have to work harder. That kind of thinking made it harder to create a clean and healthy planning process. That’s the crystal ball and chain.
It Gets in the Way
A good clean planning process, the foundation of accountability, requires realistic achievable goals. But when people start gaming the goals, the system is much harder to deal with, and much less likely to produce benefits in accountability and management.
It’s not just the middle managers; it goes both ways. I’ve seen people try to sandbag their goals — keep them unrealistically low so they can beat them — and I’ve seen owners and managers trying to inflate their goals — make them way too high so people would have to work extremely hard, and still not reach them.
And You Can Avoid It
Avoiding the crystal ball and chain problem takes two steps: first, talk about it openly; second, manage it right.
For the talking step, you — owners and managers — promise everybody that it’s about cooperation, coordination, and teamwork. Make it clear that you want realistic goals throughout.
Use this example: the original annual plan, developed mostly in the Fall, called for a big seminar program in May. As it turns out, May is a bad date because a key audience group is already committed to something else. With good planning process, the monthly plan review meeting in March turns up the problem with May, so the project is moved to July. Everybody wins. Nobody is saying that the manager is charge gets dressed down in June for having failed to implement as planned for May. The process turns future guesses into reminders and alerts to make better management with the ongoing plan.
For the second step, managing it right, make sure you do. Schedule in advance a regular monthly review meeting and stick to the schedule. Keep it short and specific. Review results of the recent past and look ahead to specific milestones and events in the near future. Watch for changed assumptions. Make it from the top down a matter of cooperation and coordination, rather than crystal ball and chain.
* * * * *
About the Author: Tim Berry is president and founder of Palo Alto Software, founder of bplans.com, and co-founder of Borland International. He is also the author of books and software on business planning including Business Plan Pro and The Plan-as-You-Go Business Plan; and a Stanford MBA. His main blog is Planning Startups Stories. He’s on twitter as timberry.
Accountability Part 4: Crystal Ball and Chain
12 Steps to Upgrade Your Business
February 14, 2009 by Aristocrats LLC
Filed under Running a Business
The first flush of New Year’s Resolutions has worn off. Are you still on task to meet your goals? Or is this going to be another year where your business runs you, instead of the other way around?
I decided on 12 things that I am doing this year to upgrade my business. Now, 12 things may sound like a lot, but the trick is to break it down into small steps, and that’s what I have done:
1. Ask Customers What’s Important to THEM
Talk with your existing customers — don’t just assume. Pick up the phone or send an email and ask “what can I do better for you?” In today’s environment they may have totally changed priorities. Take, for example, Wendy’s. Recently they changed their ad campaigns to reflect the new economic realities of their customers, with their “3conomics” campaign. Here are some ways to do this:
- Pick up the phone and call your customers – They’ll be delighted that you called!
- Do a customer survey – One of the unsung trends for small businesses is the entry into the market of easy to use, DIY survey tools, from Survey Monkey to QuestionPro.
- Implement one of the customer feedback services on your website – Get Satisfaction and similar apps are an easy way to “listen” to what customers think.
2. Be Strategic
Small businesses are notoriously thinly funded and thinly staffed (yes, I know all about that). Consequently, we business owners get into a habit of reacting. We spend much of our time putting out fires. Instead of guiding our businesses, they “happen to us.” Here’s what I am doing about that, this year:
- Make every action create the business I want, not the business that happens — After doing some traditional strategic planning, (1) I wrote down my strategic objectives, and (2) I am visualizing my strategy in action. For me, the visualization part is crucial. I sit down in a quiet room with the door shut. I carefully visualize in my mind’s eye what my ideal business will look like. I even imagine my P&L, visualizing a number for my desired top line (sales) and bottom line (profit). It helps me focus on what I need to do and not get distracted.
- Set objectives with your employees – Earlier this year, I “sat down” with my people (OK, we did it through email), and set objectives together with them — objectives that align with the company’s goals. I have their objectives tacked to my bulletin board. I also encouraged them to print them out and post them on their own bulletin boards where they can see them to stay on track.
3. Differentiate Your Business
Even if you are in an age-old industry, you can differentiate it. Zappo’s is in an old industry — selling shoes. Yet they manage to be different from the competition, starting with the memorable name, to their storied customer service and wide selection.
I started by writing down what my business will be known for. Imagine that you are a newspaper writer, writing a story about your business. What would you say in 25 words or less to finish this phrase: “my company, a business known for ______.” I’ve decided that I want Small Business Trends to be “an online publication known for having a finger on the pulse of trends and showing business owners how to capitalize on those trends.” That’s why we started our trend series earlier this year — a series of articles designed to profile trends for 2009. While this might seem obvious, it took the act of writing that down to crystallize that I needed to widen our circle of trends articles.
4. Partner - where it makes sense
“No man is an island.” That’s especially true for small businesses. I’ve often said that I owe a lot to partners, such as Federated Media, with whom I’ve partnered on advertising sales on this site. That partnership has been responsible for helping grow my business. But too often I see vague, poorly-defined partnerships that languish — heck, I’ve been in some. One side or the other doesn’t give a partnership enough critical thought, or is too timid to ask for what they want. The half-baked effort is a colossal waste of time.
So this year I am asking prospective partners “how exactly do you see us working together?” and “what’s in it for both of us?” I am insisting that any prospective partnership be distilled down to a few bullet points. If the partnership can’t be articulated in a few short bullets, don’t spend time on it or get caught up in aimless product demos. With a recession on, none of us can afford fishing trips.
5. Learn a new Web technology
The sheer number of applications now available for small businesses — especially online or “cloud” applications — is now so great that it feels impossible to keep up with them. But don’t give up because you feel overwhelmed. I have 2 action items:
- Learn one new thing myself – Forget boiling the ocean. If you’ve been holding back from learning how to design a brochure, or learning how to upload video from your Flip camera to YouTube, now’s the time to learn. But here’s the secret: just pick one thing. Get good at whatever you picked. You’ll gain confidence that will help you tackle other technologies and software applications later on.
- Encourage staff to each upgrade a skill – A former boss of mine when I was in the corporate world was fond of saying, “Inspect what you expect.” If your staff knows it’s important to you that they master a new skill, they will enthusiastically rise to the occasion. It increases their self-esteem, too.
6. Start a newsletter
OK, now I have to make a confession: I started a newsletter years ago — actually two different newsletters. One is for my radio show and one is a general tips and advice newsletter. Through a combination of factors, both have become sporadic instead of on schedule. So one thing on my to-do list is to: get that newsletter started (or in my case re-started).
Remember that email is best used for communicating with existing customers and contacts. So build a house email list of subscribers who opt in. Use a good email marketing program like Constant Contact (what we currently use), Vertical Response, or Campaigner to manage your subscriber database and compose professional-looking emails. And just get started. “Out of sight, out of mind.”
7. Cement relationships with key customers
It’s far less expensive to get a new sale from an existing customer, than to go out prospecting afresh to close a new customer. Make sure your relationships are strong. Work on them! In a recession loyal customers are your life vest. Invite a customer to lunch. If you are visiting their city, schedule an appointment. Consider holding an annual customer conference. Or it can be as simple as starting a thread on your blog asking readers to introduce themselves. We recently did that to a fantastic response – I can’t believe we didn’t think of it earlier!
8. Automate a process
If it were not for automation, my business would be more costly to run. It also would not scale well, and impede growth. I am already running into issues when it comes to accounting and invoicing, both of which take up more of my time than I’d like. Luckily, with so many “cloud computing” applications it is easier than ever to automate functions. So I am tackling some of my internal processes and automating them, such as using online bill pay for recurring invoices.
9. Do something green
I never used to think of ”green” as being something I could meaningfully work into my small business. But if last year’s high energy prices taught us anything, it taught us the value to our businesses of conserving energy, even in small amounts.
One area I know I can do more with is conserving energy with my computers. Last year I had the chance to talk with some of the HP product managers and my eyes were opened to the advances being made in areas such as “power management.” In its simplest form this means you set your computers to use less power when not actively being used, even if kept on. Even other products, including printers, are designed to go into a ”rest” stage and conserve power when inactive.
This InfoWorld survey lists a number of green actions that small businesses can take. I’ll bet there’s one thing on that list you can adopt in your business.
10. Spruce up your working environment
A cluttered workspace leads to a cluttered mind. So I have been clearing my workspace — and not just my physical workspace. You see I am online all day long, so my real “office” is inside my computer. I am organizing my computers files better. We do so much in our business (online publishing) through email, that organizing email is a big part of organizing the “office.” Desktop search, contact management/CRM applications, and email handling/organization apps can make a huge difference.
11. Think outside the box
A few months back Ivana Taylor wrote a great piece on holiday marketing tips that were unusual and innovative. The good news is, a number of those tips apply even outside of holiday times. The overriding point I took away from that article was to think differently … be unconventional … in your marketing.
12. Network, network, network!
For me, online networking has replaced about 75% of my in-person networking. I find online networking to be more efficient, not to mention reaching more people. However, so many people get caught up in our daily activities and neglect networking. Yet networking can help you find new suppliers; key partners; customers; and even staff.
No matter how much I feel pulled in different directions with the day to day demands of running a business, I won’t neglect networking. So I build it into my day, about a half hour a day, mostly from my computer, with the occasional in-person networking opportunity. I have gotten a good response from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn — I have gotten new business and more website traffic; found loyal suppliers; and made good friends who inspire me. Well worth the time.
Now, it’s your turn: What are the things you are doing to upgrade your business this year?
12 Steps to Upgrade Your Business
