No Pain, No Gain

With any new activity, some individuals are fast out of the starting gate, while others prefer to cautiously take their time, with most of us falling somewhere in the middle. Our risk-taking tendencies actually start developing in infancy. Some of us crawl, walk, and even talk, at the encouragement of our parents, much sooner than others of the same age. Even though we are too young to realize it, the seeds of risk-taking have been planted. We soon learn that in order to walk we have to fall down a lot, sometimes hurting ourselves, in order to achieve the benefit of walking. It’s those first few wobbly steps that set us on our journey of recognizing the benefits that come from risk-taking.

Risks come in many shapes and sizes but each person determines the degree of each risk they encounter based on their own life experiences. For instance one individual may view buying a business or running into a burning building as a huge risk while these may be viewed as no-brainers for others. Technology is just one of the many “risks” that we are encouraged by society, the business community or family to try. New things like automobiles, telephones, canned and frozen foods, air travel, radio, and television and of course computers have challenged us for generations with “try it, you’ll like it”. So as new technologies like emails and blogs present themselves we can eagerly embrace them or we can avoid them until we assess our personal risk. What we are doing is determining if the benefits outweigh those risks. Along the way we find that taking risks can be challenging, rewarding, maybe a little dangerous, but also fun.

This blog began as a college business class assignment. Although the writer has owned a small business and accomplished many other things that to some would be risky, this project created many anxious moments for the author. Throughout the last few weeks of writing this blog, the writer has come to recognize that the mere attempt of the “new” is better than no attempt at all. We learn much about ourselves when we stretch the edges of our envelopes and try the things that we perceive as risks for us.

Society assumes that women by nature aren’t risk-takers. Existing research shows that women avoid risk which is financial, health and safety oriented. But according to a new survey by Boston’s Simmons School of Management http://www.businesspundit.com/women-in-business-are-risk-takers/ women business owners are breaking that mold. The new survey finds that when projects have investments of time and money and which require learning-by-doing, women will in fact take big risks. Like many others in this economy, I am involved in a big career change, which has required going back to college, investments of substantial time and money and a hands-on learning-by-doing process of training. It would appear that this author has mimicked the results of this new survey without even being aware it.

By participating in this series of blogs I have come to a personal definition of risk-taker as someone who risks something of value in the knowledge of a greater benefit or outcome. “No pain, no gain” have always been good watchwords and will be ones for me to remember as well as acknowledging that good risk-takers are always able to find that benefits outweigh the risks. Good luck to anyone who is considering the risk of a new business venture or blog. Remember the gain will be much greater than the pain.

Blogging Ethics and Etiquette

This series of blogs has introduced many topics to business bloggers. But the two most critical aspects of both your business and your blog will be following Ethics and Etiquette Rules. Ethics can generally be defined as doing the right things; Etiquette is doing things the right way.

Every child is taught to know the difference between right and wrong. As we grow we encounter situations which give us the opportunity to make decisions based upon that knowledge. But soon we learn that maybe it’s okay to bend the ethic rules just a little, we give ourselves permission by saying, “everyone else does this.” Knowing the rules of ethical behavior and following those rules 24/7 is challenging to say the least. But then again no one ever said it would be easy. What we were taught was that following the rules of right and wrong and doing the right thing would be beneficial to us in the end.

Etiquette is how society guides the things we have been taught. Etiquette rules include how we speak, act, write, dress, behave, and treat others and so on based upon societal norms. For instance if we’re playing outside, we dress casually, but if we’re going out to dinner, work, church or a funeral, the etiquette rules on clothing changes.

Now let’s look at our businesses and business blogs. How we handle a disgruntled customer who wants to see us or decide what information we should include in our blog are prime opportunities to be both ethical and handle the situation using the appropriate etiquette rules. As business owners and writers of business blogs, we are confronted daily on both these types of situations.

Two websites/blogs which discuss ethics and etiquette are http://blogs.suite101.com/article.cfm/blogging_etiquette and http://nafasg.blogspot.com/2007/08/blogging-etiquettes.html
These websites offer points that can be helpful to all of us who choose to blog or comment on a blog. The main points of etiquette are to remember that blogs should be informative, can be viewed globally due to the internet, never steal another’s work, always give credit or cite your sources, and post comments that are relevant to the blog. The Ethical point to remember is simple; always be ethical. Whether you are at your business or on a blog make the right decisions even if they are hard, and your business and your blog will benefit. Don’t think like you did as a child, that you can hide behind your business or your blog and that unethical behavior will never be detected. Remember your professionalism, your reputation, your blog, your business and your success will benefit from making ethical decisions and following the rules of good etiquette. Decide which road you will take and don't let an easy decision ruin all that you have worked for.

Why Do We Blog?

Over the last six weeks, I have discussed what business blogs are, whether businesses and business owners should blog, potential negatives in blogging, and various other topics that businesses could blog about. Today let’s look at why individuals and businesses blog. There are thousands of blogs on the internet, so what’s the big thing about blogging? Why do we blog?

Like any good blogger, I researched this topic and found a wonderful article which lists the reasons we blog. Susan Gunelius on About.com discusses reasons to Start a Blog at: http://weblogs.about.com/od/startingablog/tp/Top-Ten-Reasons-to-Blog.htm
Ms. Gunelius lists Ten Reasons we start a blog, but in reality they are the same reasons why anyone blogs or comments on blogs. Her ten reasons are:

1. To Express Thoughts and Opinions
2. To Market or Promote Something
3. To Help People
4. To Establish Yourself as an Expert
5. To Connect with People Like You
6. To Make a Difference
7. To Stay Active or Knowledgeable in a Field or Topic
8. To Stay connected with Friends and Family
9. To Make Money
10. To Have Fun and Be Creative

But her reasons are surprisingly familiar. It occurs to me that her reasons for blogging are the same reasons we began communicating in the first place.

Human beings are naturally social people. Since the beginning of time, mankind has communicated with others. Before the spoken word, early man used drawings or symbols to communicate with other humans. Then about 200,000 years ago the spoken word became “popular”. But verbal communication was limiting. Just imagine if the only communications we could enjoy were face-to-face?

Once we started talking nothing could stop us. What changed was how we communicated. A look at the history of communication, teaches us only the methods of communication are constantly changing. Whether we used cave drawings, Egyptian burial hieroglyphics, smoke signals, the spoken word, the written word, books, newspapers, magazines, Morse code, the landline telephone, satellite communications, and now the internet, nothing prevents humans from seeking others to talk to, to share ideas, express thoughts, establish ourselves as experts, have fun, and well just check out the list.

Blogging it seems is really just the 21st century’s version of the cave wall, the street market, the church, the fence, the water cooler and …….. Only time will tell what the next method of communication will be. Maybe psychic thought transfer????

Trick or Treat Business Bloggers

In the spirit of Halloween, today’s blog will offer a few tricks and treats for business owners. So choose a costume and let’s carve a pumpkin. In today’s economy it is even more important to set your business apart from the rest like when we wear costumes or put up holiday decorations.

Think for a minute about Halloween. Do you decorate the front yard? Do you carve pumpkins and display them on the porch? Do your make costumes for the kids? For yourself? You decorate your home and yourself for many reasons, but two stand out. One is for the fun of it and two so that your home or children will stand out in the crowd. That’s what you need for your business.

Think about the exterior of your business, the windows, or parking lot. Are they clean, professional, and inviting to your customers? How does your exterior compare to that of your closest competitor. Which store would you as a customer prefer to enter and do business with? These non-verbal statements are the esthetics of a business and quietly speak volumes about your business and are as important to the success of your business as your advertising program.

So the trick or treaters (customers) have chosen your house (business) to visit on beggars’ night. Now that you have them in the store what treat will you offer them? Of course you will provide an excellent product or service, but what will you use to distinguish your store from your competitors’ store? This is the million dollar question. But think about your trick or treaters. It really doesn’t take much to make them happy. Your customers are probably the same. Think small. Most people will be surprised to get anything above and beyond your standard product or service. Simple things like bowls of candy, business card bowls from which a weekly winner is selected, one day a month that you can “celebrate” all the monthly birthdays, even holiday decorations, and employees wearing Halloween costumes can be looked at as a “treat” from the customer’s point of view.

Of course all businesses can’t do some of the specific ideas mentioned in this blog, but the concept is the same no matter what size your business is. For some additional assistance in learning how to make your business different visit http://www.businessknowhow.com/Marketing/dominate.htm.

But in the mean time just remember Halloween Tricks and Treats and your business will be successful.

Know-ing or No-ing Your Customers

Which Road Do You Take?

So you think your know your customers or do you really no your customers. You’ve been calling on one customer for a few years. You’ve been moderately successful but you can’t quite make the big sale. You’ve prepared great presentations and the customer seems interested but when you go back, the customer either turns you down or just places a small order. You politely thank the customer for this order and suggest that maybe next time it can be larger. The customer says “yea, maybe next time.” As you walk back to the car, you scratch you head in disbelief. What are you doing wrong? Why can’t you get this customer to buy your product? You’ve tried everything you can think of to get this customer to place a large order. Maybe instead of know-ing your customer, you are in fact no-ing your customer. Whether you own a large business or a small Mom & Pop store, know-ing your customers is critical to your success.

Let’s consider how you may be no-ing a customer. Do you make decisions for your customer? Do you assume that a particular product or pricing structure would or would not be of interest to your customer? Do you trust your customer? Have you developed a business or personal relationship with your customer? Now turn the tables; what type of sales person do you prefer when making your own purchases? Do you prefer a sales person who includes you in the sales decision or one who tells you what you look good in or what and when to buy? The answers to these questions will help you to begin to understand whether you are know-ing or no-ing your customer.

Present your product or service in a way that lets the customer see how your product or service will help him or make his life easier. In order to do that you must know your product, know your customer and his needs and know how those issues come together. By the way let your customers know that you care about his business and how helping him, helps you, your business and your employees. In this economy there are many businesses that offer the same product and you can distinguish yourself and your business by remembering to know your customer versus no your customer.
There are here are a number of websites which offer suggestions on this topic. I found http://www.mycustomer.com/topic/how-get-know-your-customer-build-trust and the blog http://www.smallbusinessnewz.com/topnews/2008/07/08/getting-to-know-your-customers very helpful.

Marketing versus Advertising

As a business owner, one of your business goals may be to increase sales for the upcoming fiscal year or one of your goals may be to give a little back to the community that has supported you over the years or your goals may be something in between. Whatever your goal, you know that advertising is expensive and that there are many resources available, but you don’t know how much you should spend. Should you advertise or should you market your company, product or service? There is a difference between advertising and marketing and knowing that difference can assist you in making the decisions involved in setting up and spending your budget to meet your business goals.

Marketing is the plan you will develop to bring your customers, your business, and your goals together. Marketing is the umbrella under which you will gather all of these marketing tools. Some of the tools you might consider using are advertising, market research, pricing strategy, media planning, community involvement, web-site development and so on. You know that you only have a limited amount of money to spend so you need to begin by breaking your marketing budget down into these various components. The next thing you need to do is determine how much each of these components would cost you to implement. Along with that decision, you will need to decide which tool will get you closer to your goals. Once you have a starting point, you will need to edit and revise both the tool and how much to spend on each tool, until you have determined the right mix of marketing tools that will assist your company in meeting itsr specific goals. The chart below gives an example of how your marketing budget might look.

By using a pie chart, you can better visualize your budget. You can readily see that your current marketing budget is weighed too heavily towards advertising and market research. Based on the type of business and the location of your business you might want to adjust the budget items and the priority of your budget items. If, for example, you own a small business, you might consider spending more on school, church or community involvement projects which you believe will show the community that you and your business care about the growth of the neighborhood. If you manage a larger business and/or have a larger budget, you may feel that supporting a community-wide issue is a way of giving back to the community that has supported you and your business over the years.

The reasons behind why, which resource and how much to spend are as individualistic as the number of businesses and owners. Some owners are looking for immediate return on their marketing investment, while others are looking for the biggest bang for their buck. In the current economy though, many are looking for ways to reduce their marketing budget and still maintain their presence in the marketplace. Whatever your reason or goal, just knowing that all advertising is marketing, but not all marketing is advertising should assist you in meeting those business goals. For more information on marketing and advertising differences visit:
http://www.hands-onsolutions.com/articles/advertisingvsmarketing.html
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/oct2003/sb2003109_3183_sb006.htm.

Employee Blogging

Now it’s time to tackle the issues of Content. Business Blogs can cover many topics, ranging from Hiring, Firing, Marketing and Advertising, Charitable Contributions, Employees, Economic Trends, Health Care and so on. But you will not be the only one posting or commenting to the Company Blog.

Employee Blogging

As we all know, new communication technologies are popping up every day with email, instant messaging, texting, blogging, and twittering, just to name a few. As a business owner it is easy to think of the positives that can come from all of this new technology. But it is also important to stay ahead of the curve on the negative or possible negative impact of these communication tools.

What would you do if an employee were to share trade secrets or air internal bickering between employees? What would you do if a potential new client were to find out the “deal” being offered to them was higher than the “deal” offered to other clients through the company Blog? Can a company be legally responsible for the information on a Blog post? Could a company be sued for the information found on their Blog? Some of these questions have yet to be answered in a court room. But it is important that these and many other questions and concerns be addressed.

Employee Blogging Policies

Many companies are realizing, much to their chagrin that preventing the problem is easier than trying to apologize after the fact. Every company has or should have employee policies on topics including but not limited to employment expectations, vacation days, holidays, issues regarding conflict of interest, and harassment. Regarding the topic of blogging, think about what specific topics your company needs to protect and develop a policy for you and your employees to follow. Consider contacting your attorney on the terminology necessary for your Employee Policy Handbook. You will also need to develop procedures for punishment or dismissal when the inevitable happens and an employee breaks that policy.

Sample Blogging Policies

A Google Search on this topic as one would expect brings up a number of sites, two that I have found very helpful are Groundswell http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2004/11/blogging_policy.html and another Blog site http://mmanuel.typepad.com/media_guerrilla/2005/07/corporate_and_e.html. Both of these sites are keenly aware of the issues surrounding the topic of Blogging Policies. The Media Guerrilla site lists the three biggest blogging areas which companies are at risk:
1. Protecting the company’s intellectual property,
2. Slander and invasion of privacy and
3. Security law.

The Groundswell site actually provides an excellent Blogging Code of Ethics and has links to Blogging Policies currently being used by a number of corporations.

Remember: Blogging can be fun and informational, but blogging can also have its down sides. Whether you are an employee or the owner of the business, think before you hit that BLOG SEND or POST button.