Archive for November 2012
During the holiday season, many of us are looking forward to some downtime. As a small business owner, you may not have the luxury of taking extended time off during the year because you are your business. But, the long hours and sacrifice of time away from family and friends have taken a toll and we’re all struggling to stay motivated. Many of us make the decision to push everything off until the new year, when things pick back up.
Well, it’s true that some industries do slow down. In fact, some stop production entirely for two or three weeks in December. But chances are, the decision makers are still coming in. If they aren’t in the office in body, they still have access to email and voicemail. Many even have their mobile numbers as a part of their email autosignature so they can still be reached. And guess what, they have time to talk because everyone else is gone. Now is the time to make your move.
Last year around this time, I’d been given the name and number of a sought after neurologist who, among numerous other achievements, organized a monthly dinner for a group of fellow doctors. She brought in speakers to discuss non-medical issues relevant to them and their growing practices. I wanted that speaker spot! So, I picked up the phone, dialed the number, and got her voicemail. I didn’t panic nor did I give up. I tried again and again. And in December, not only did I reach her, but we met for coffee and quickly scheduled another meeting at my office to review the presentation and make final decisions. It was a whirlwind experience that landed me in front of a highly accomplished audience.
The lesson is this. She wasn’t avoiding me. I was just competing with so many other callers that my call didn’t stand out. But, because everyone else took a break in December, her call volume must have dropped to tolerable because I landed the seminar. So, take time off. Enjoy family and friends. But, block a little time for calls to those key decisions makers you’ve been unable to reach all year. Now is the perfect time to reach out and introduce yourself. No contracts, just coffee. No pressure, just planning. Don’t use the holiday slowdown as an excuse for call reluctance. What better way to start the new year than with a calendar full of appointments. Start filling your pipeline now.
**Buzzworthy: Cynthia P. Harper, CPA/PFS. Lattimore Black Morgan & Cain, PC
It can be argued that small businesses are the backbone of America, the ultimate expression of the American Dream. Many companies, though large today, started as a mom and pop store in the middle of Smalltown, USA but grew into the mammoths they are today because of you, our patrons. So, I want to say thank you for supporting us and helping us realize our dreams. But, there is still work to be done.
Tomorrow is Small Business Saturday®—a day dedicated to helping small businesses and the communities they call home. By supporting local, independently owned small businesses, you help create jobs, boost the economy and preserve the neighborhoods in which you live. You help keep food on the table for a child at your daughter’s school whose parents own the local deli around the corner. You help a young man provide for his family after he was laid off and couldn’t find work, but found the courage to go into business for himself.
You matter. Your presence in our stores matter. Your calls to our offices matter. And we thank you. We can’t always offer you the lowest price or the most convenient hours, but we can offer you this promise. When we say thank you, we mean it.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone…
**Buzzworthy: Jacqueline Hayes, MBA Avon Independent Sales Leader
About ten years ago, I was working at an affinity marketing firm. From time to time, management would get all associates together in a large banquet hall for the all-employee meeting. You’ve been to those…free coffee and poppy seed muffins. Well, these meetings were often used to tell us how good (or bad) the company was doing and plans to right the ship. But, this particular meeting was different. We sat and watched an animated video about two mice and two people running through a maze looking for cheese. The two mice were always moving and always found the cheese. But the two people, once the cheese ran out, panicked and couldn’t figure out how to get more. They stood still and waited.
Who Moved My Cheese, a best-selling business book by Spencer Johnson MD, is not about cheese at all. It’s about change and how we handle it. As a small business owner, change happens and fast. The norm one day is stale the next and what’s deemed profitable one quarter, isn’t the next. I like to call it the whiplash effect.
But you know, change doesn’t have to break you. Sometimes it’s a good thing, especially if you keep these three things in mind…
1. Anticipate change. Do your homework. Be aware of the shake ups in your industry. Keep an eye on your competition. Set up Google alerts. Be proactive so you won’t be blindsided by sweeping changes. Be nimble and quick to react to demands within your market. You want to be a part of the wave when it moves so you’ll have a better chance of finding the shore when it settles down.
2. Prepare for change. Keep binders of internal processes and procedures that include action plans of things that can be done ‘just in case’. A big mistake many of us make is not documenting what we do, how we do it, and what can be done if something crazy happens. We like to hold that information hostage in our brains for some reason, never considering what would happen if that brain was absent from work one day.Take the time to write everything down, step by step, with print screens and everything! When the cheese starts moving, you or anyone else in your office now has a plan to go find it.
3. Embrace change. Business is a rat race. A maze full of twisty turns and dead ends. But, there is cheese in this maze and only those that lace up and pursue it will find it. Change will happen so go ahead and accept it. Look at the obstacles you face and create a strategy to overcoming them. But, you’ll never overcome them standing still. Get your head in the game and go find that cheese.
I’ll end with this…it was only after the cheese was gone did one of the men realize that not only had he stopped running, but he’d taken his running shoes off and was relaxing. He wasn’t ready to go find more after it was gone. Look down at your feet. Are you laced up?
It’s fascinating to me to watch people network. The smiles and firm handshakes. The warm introductions and business card exchanges. All a necessary part of growing your business and getting your name out there. But I’ve also witnessed the other side of that. The whispers and eye rolls. The brush offs and avoidance. All unnecessary parts of growing your business and getting your name out there. Because of our size, small business owners, whether you like doing it or not, must dedicate time to network and build synergies. But, it’s the how we do it that gets me fired up!
Yes, we are all in business to be successful. To do that, we need clients to patronize our businesses, instead of the competition. No arguments there. But, as a small business community, we have a responsibility to share our experiences, those good and bad, with one another to help grow the pot for everybody. Now, I’m not suggesting that you make copies of your playbook or disclose your trick plays, but snubbing your competition at a networking event or refusing to give a new entrepreneur some much needed advice for FREE, shows poor sportsmanship and perhaps unveils a confidence issue on your part. A good mentor once told me, ‘there is enough out there for everybody.’ She wasn’t the least bit intimidated by her competition because she was confident in herself and her business model. In fact, she did the opposite. Her door was always open for questions and she answered them honestly. She is still a million dollar producer, despite the nuggets of information gold she drops along the way.
Small business owners, it’s time to reach across the aisle. On election night, we all saw states turn blue or red. And despite how the night ended for you one thing is certain, when you mix those two colors together, you get one of the prettiest colors in the primary line up, purple. So, let us set aside a personal need to be the best and focus on doing our best for ourselves, fellow business owners, and our customers. You may be surprised to find that your business does not suffer. Instead, you’re now branded as a thought leader in your industry and a friend to the business community. And that, my friend, can lead to a gold mine.
**Buzzworthy: PRO Coaching/Consulting. Lanette Thurman, Ph.D. E: LHThurman@aol.com
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