Crumbs from the Scone
“At least once every day I consider replacing myself with a ‘real’ CEO,” writes Ian Lurie at Conversation Marketing. “Then I could just be the nerd in the cave, writing and programming and SERPing and such.” But—like many entrepreneurs who love their business passionately—Lurie never follows through on the threat.
And he maintains his sanity by following rules like these:
Brace yourself for unexpected trials and tribulations. The top job comes with more headaches than the normal stress of making payroll or dealing with irate customers. In Lurie’s case, unexpected snafus have included “busted air conditioning pouring water into your office, the fired client driving down from Canada to accost you in your office, and of course the loss of phone service for five days.”
Hire people who fit in with the rest of your team. “If you hire for skills, you get someone who can do the necessary work right away,” he says. “Hire for smarts and you get someone who can learn a lot. Hire for chemistry, though, and you get someone who meshes your team, does a fantastic job in the long term and will probably be smart and skillful.”
Make your physical and emotional wellbeing a priority. When you’re in charge of a small business, it’s easy to work an insane number of hours, seven days a week. Because of that, notes Lurie, it’s important to create manageable routines in a comfortable workspace. “Your personality drives your company,” he says. “If you start to fall apart, your company will, too.”
No one said running your own business was easy—but the right approach can make it much less difficult.
Source: Conversation Marketing.
Crumbs from the Scone
If you say “this is she” rather than “this is her,” or “it must have been they” rather than “it must have been them,” your high school English teacher would give you a gold star. But your customers? Not so much. The reason: Most people often don’t use traditional grammatical rules in conversation, so you run the risk of sounding stilted—or even wrong—if you always stick to those rules.
That’s why you might need to fudge some rules when you communicate with customers, whether on the phone or in your marketing copy. “I will confess that I sometimes make the technically wrong but conversationally right choice under these circumstances,” writes Julia Rubiner at Editorial Emergency. “Because sometimes, the technically right choice—’It is I,’ for instance, instead of ‘It’s me’— makes you sound like the Scarlet Pimpernel.”
If you’re nervous about using incorrect grammar, Rubiner cites feedback like this from Grammar Girl’s Mignon Fogarty: “Most … grammarians agree that unless you’re answering the phone for the English department at the University of Chicago or responding to a Supreme Court judge, it’s OK to use what sounds right rather than what’s grammatically correct.
Like it or not, language is in flux. And while it can be downright painful for grammarians, going with the conversational flow might be what it takes to connect with your customers.
“I can only conclude,” says Rubiner, “that there’s nothing wrong with being right. It’s just that sometimes, in life as in branding, it’s better to be unstuffy than right.”
Crumbs from the Scone
In a post at his Marketing Minute blog, Drew McLellan talks about the frustration he felt every time he made deposits at his bank. “Like most bank drive-throughs,” he says, “they have a commercial lane on the far left and then several ‘everybody and anybody’ lanes to the right of that.” The commercial lane at this branch, however, has a few impediments; it curves to the right and is hemmed in by large poles that keep cars from running into the building.
“I [could] never get quite close enough to the drawer (even when … fully extended) to comfortably put something in it or take out my receipt,” he explains. “More than once on a windy day, the receipt … fluttered off and I [had] had to chase it through their parking lot.” As a result, he dreaded the banking experience.
Then McLellan had an epiphany. “[I]t occurred to me that I didn’t need to use the commercial lane,” he says. “I could use any of the drive-through lanes [that] are straight and utilize the tube/chute thing rather than a drawer with a paperweight in it.”
Banking from the regular lane couldn’t have been more pleasant, and he realized why he hadn’t thought to try it before: He was a commercial customer and went where the sign told commercial customers to go. “Human beings, even incorrigible ones, typically do as they’re told,” he explains. “We are all, even me, rule followers by nature. We want to get it right.”
If you tell customers what you want them to do, they will probably follow your instructions—just make sure it leads to an experience they’ll enjoy!
Crumbs from the Scone
“The recession has caused lots of companies to panic,” writes Laura Ries at Ries’ Pieces. “And when companies panic, they print coupons and throw up sale signs. Look in your mailbox, your email inbox or your newspaper and you will see what I mean. Everybody is having a sale.”
There’s only one problem, she argues: Though deep discounting works in the short term, it causes long-term damage to your brand. This is why:
For some companies, the culture of discounting has spiraled out of control. “Try checking out of one of these stores without using a coupon and even the sales clerk looks at you like [you’re] a pathetic loser,” she says. “Nobody pays full price here, what’s the matter with you! She may even reach down to pull out a coupon of her own to give you.”
Resisting the urge to offer coupons isn’t easy—especially when everyone seems to be doing it. But protecting your brand now will provide better overall results in the long run.
As Ries sees it, discounting creates a lose-lose situation by lowering both your customer’s opinion of your brand and your profits.
Source: Ries’ Pieces.
Crumbs from the Scone
I had a truly wonderful experience on Saturday…
A week or so ago, I was contacted by a new client who wanted me to produce a dvd slideshow for him. Okay, no problem there. Then I found out the slideshow was to be played at the memorial service for his recently deceased father. Well, having lost my father just a couple of years ago it occurred to me that I had an opportunity to produce something really special.
I contacted Will Hawkins at Wilco Films who is my “all-things-video-and-film” superhero and got started on the project. The client sent over the images and music that was to be used and WIll (once again!) went above and beyond anyone’s expectations with regard to the quality of the work and the design/layout concept. The project was completed ahead of schedule and the client was absolutely satisfied with the preview of the finished piece.
Not wanted to leave anything to chance, I suggested (since this was all local) that I meet the client at the restaurant where the gathering was to take place. I was told that they had all of the equipment that would be needed and I just wanted to set things up, put the dvd in place, run the presentation and make sure everything went smoothly. Then I would hand over the finished DVD to the client so he could bring it to the Saturday event and play it in the DVD player…. simple right?
You know the answer already don’t you…
We arrived at the restaurant only to find that they had a PA system but absolutely nothing in the way of TV/DVD/Projector equipment other than a portable screen. This was Tuesday… the gathering was on Saturday.
Think fast wabbit…
Okay… I new I had my laptop with a digital copy of the presentation, and I knew someone who had a projector. I had (only a few weeks earlier) helped a client setup his new Epson projector and configure it to his laptop for presentations at his local Rotary Club. I rang Dr. Bob Turcios of Advanced Eyecare Optometry and he was gracious enough to let me borrow his projector for the event. Now with only a day or so to get this all together, and since I would have to used my own laptop for this, a decision was made that I would actually attend the event and run the presentation myself so I took everything back to my office, set everything up, configured it and made sure the presentation ran smoothly.
Saturday came and I arrived at the event to find a double sized meeting room filled with people. The setup went smoothly and went it came time for the presentation, the announcer called for a champagne toast and then I hit the play button… I must admit I held my breath for a second or two, but then the presentation started and the gathered friends and family fell quiet.
The presentation itself was less than 10 minutes long although it seemed much longer. As the music and slides played I watched and listened as certain groups connected with the music and specific images. It was incredibly gratifying to know that Will and I were responsible for producing this piece that touched people in a very special way. As I stood in the back of the room I could see people react to the images and hear the comments about… “oh I remember that” and “oh that’s so-and-so”. There were some tears and some laughter, and at the end there was some applause and smiles on almost all the faces.
I packed up my equipment quietly as the speakers and presenters continued and just before I left my client came up and let me know how grateful he was that I was able to make this happen for him. I told him I was very happy to have helped make this event special for him.
Sure Will and I got paid for this project, but on occasion, there are other things that make the work that I do so much more satisfying than just getting paid. This was one of those very very special projects that I will always remember working on.
It makes me smile thinking about it even now as I write this.
Take care,
Skip
Crumbs from the Scone
Choosing a good domain name for your blog or website is vital. Why?
Because the domain name is the corner stone of your online brand.
People will link to your site using your domain, your search
engine results will contain your domain and so on.
One common mistake people make when choosing a domain, however, is
to only consider the short term. That is, they figure what their
website will look like for the next three or four months, and they
buy a domain name around that idea.
Let’s suppose that a guy loves the Corvette cars, and he decides
to start a blog on that topic. After researching for a while he
purchases the domain CorvetteCentral.com. It is a good domain,
because it is short, descriptive, it has the main keywords in it and
so on.
The blog grows healthily, but after one year it reaches a plateau.
The guy realizes that in order to make the blog grow further he
would need to start covering other sport cars, and not only the
Corvette. Guess what… too late! He is already trapped with his
domain. At this point his choices are either to keep writing about
Corvettes and accept the fact that his audience will be limited to
fans of that car, or buy a new domain and start from scratch.
I have been in that position myself, and it is not cool.
If you don’t want to get trapped by your domain, you must plan
ahead.
Ask yourself how far you can take a website with the domain you own
or are planning to purchase. What limitations does it have?
Creating niche websites is not a bad idea per se, but you must be
aware that they have limited potential. If you want to create a
business out of your website or blog, then the domain name must
not limit you to a small niche or market segment.
Going back to the example above, a better domain would be
SportsCarsCentral.com or MySportCar.com. This would allow the
person to write about Corvettes the same way, but the moment the
wanted to expand beyond that, the domain would allow it.
source: DailyBlogTips january 11th, 2011
“At least once every day I consider replacing myself with a ‘real’ CEO,” writes Ian Lurie at Conversation Marketing. “Then I could just be the nerd in the cave, writing and programming and SERPing and such.” But—like many entrepreneurs who love their business passionately—Lurie never follows through on the threat.
