The Business of Competition

How many businesses would you say are your competition? Depending on the industry you’re in and services/products you offer, there may be a ton of competition that you think about or face on a daily basis. Is it nice to be one of only a very small handful that people may consider? Yes, but only to an extent because if you’re the only or one of only a very few options out there, you’ve got a lot more pressure from people to offer different things or meet all their needs, which gets overwhelming and impossible after a while. So for that reason alone it’s good to have at least a few other businesses that people can choose from so it’s not all on you to be everything for everyone.

I also think it’s good to have some competition so that you’re encouraged to keep growing and learning and don’t get lazy or complacent in your business but instead are offering contemporary and up-to-date services and products as is appropriate for your business. And even if you don’t need to upgrade your offerings, the business side of things like technology, decorations, music and marketing are all changing on a regular basis and keeping up with what your competition use or do can really matter to your customers.

But I also know that comparison and focus on the competition can distract you from being the best you can for your customers and employees. If you’re so focused on trying to top the competition or do something first or best or beat them to the bottom dollar you can get away from doing what’s most important: offering the best products and services to your customers and supporting your employees to the best of your ability. It’s also not healthy to spend time on comparing your customers and complaining about those you still choose to serve even if they’re “annoying” or “challenging” because you do have the final say and in many situations there are polite ways of getting out of having someone as a customer (and I can also guarantee you that there are other customers out there).

So the next time you find yourself comparing your business to another, or a customer to another, or an employee to another, consider if it’s really a good thing to do. Will that comparison help you build a better business, one that better serves customers and provides a great place to work, or will that comparison take you down a rabbit hole that’s better off left alone? I think we do a lot more comparison than we should and it’s about time that we start focusing on being the best we can be and caring for our customers and employees as individuals. What’s one thing you’re proud of about your business, not because it’s better than another, but because it’s what you’re good at and something your customers are happy you bring to the table?

Caring Businesses

Sunday in many parts of the world is Mother’s Day. You hopefully came up with a great package or offer for moms or those buying for the moms in their life or have prepared for the moms that will shop with you on Mother’s Day. There are so many connections we could talk about when it comes to moms and business, but as I was thinking about it and some recent experiences, the one that came to mind was how caring mothers can be and how much of a difference make that can be for businesses too.

When you’re building and running a caring business you think about things differently and often make slightly or very different decisions based on that perspective or foundation. Caring businesses will put effort and heart into their communications so that they aren’t snotty or arrogant or dismissive or rude to the customers. Caring businesses won’t work on things like DEI and sustainability to put a check mark next to them, they’ll do it because it brings them to or makes sure they get the best team members for their organization (not the quickest or easiest), or because they know that having a planet here for people to live on so they can sell to for more than one generation matters. And when you have leaders that care about all their employees and their customers you’ve got an opportunity to make a lasting impact on people’s lives and build an incredible legacy.

Yes, a business exists to make money, otherwise it’s a hobby. But I don’t believe businesses can thrive for decades or generations if they aren’t built on and run by something other than money. Money is part of it, but I believe that people and humanity are necessary to really make a business not only successful but maybe even beloved by people. So as you maybe deal with some serious crowds over the next few days or are inundated with people that somehow didn’t get the message yet that Sunday is Mother’s Day, maybe you can be the voice of caring and patience and give them a bit of peace in all the chaos. How does your business and your leadership show you care?

No More Excuses for Small Business Success

It’s National Small Business Week! I love small businesses, don’t you? There are some decent big businesses, but there’s something special about knowing that the person or people who make or ship your products or provide the services you’ve purchased knows you as a customer and person and not just a number. I also often feel like a small business can provide more detail in their products and services, more customization or more unique products/services, as well as pivot more to meet customer needs especially when we’re talking local customers. I also love knowing something about the person or people who my dollars go to and knowing that more of my dollars are staying local and not being spread around a global company.

But like any other business, small businesses are not without their issues and the one I want to talk about today is how they try to play on the same field as the big businesses. I think what bothers me most is that I’m not choosing to shop with a big business, I’m choosing to shop with a small business for specific reasons, so I don’t necessarily want or expect the same anything as a big business. I don’t expect packaging that’s been through 10 rounds of edits and tweaks (and looks like it belongs in a magazine). I don’t expect daily marketing emails with flashy pictures and videos. I don’t expect you to have sales figures or numbers of customer reviews that are comparable to big businesses. I want small businesses who deliver on their unique offerings to the best of their ability, and I’m willing to be patient and understanding because I know you’re doing the best you can and are going to deliver a product or service that’s made with love.

So stop with the excuses. You can tell people that it will take an extra day or three to get the order shipped out, don’t say you ship in 48 hours when you consistently don’t ship for a week or 10 days. You can invest another dollar or two to provide better packaging for items when you ship them so they don’t show up looking like they might fall out of the envelope or box, or even worse, arrive damaged. You can make the time to call up a local supplier so that you can provide local products and ingredients to customers instead of trying to master another social network. You can send a weekly email with little updates and reminders and post occasionally (but consistently) on just 2 social media sites. Even if you have a few employees you aren’t alone and don’t have to do business alone, there are tons of local and virtual organizations you can join that both support you and can be a marketing opportunity too. And if you can do more than all those things? Great, as long as it’s not going to sacrifice the quality and heart of what you’re delivering as a small business.

If you haven’t already give some love to some small businesses in your community and around the nation this week. Which small businesses do you love?

Back to Media Basics

How much time do you spend on all things media these days? And by media I mean pictures and videos, not news. For most business owners it’s something that comes up at least every day if not much more frequently than that between marketing and sales and customer service. I think by now we all know that our customers love all things media and expect that we’ll have a media aspect to our business even if it’s just our headshot, social banners, or the images on our book covers. But we also know that it’s insanely expensive to do everything in media if we were really to try to match some of the big corporations and organizations with the materials and quantity of what they put out. Today I thought we’d talk about just a couple of things that make a huge difference and don’t considerably stress your bank account or already limited available time.

Let’s start with stock images. Whether we’re talking book covers or social posts we’ve all seen some of the same images used multiple times by different businesses. One of the ways to try to avoid this is to dig a little deeper into the stock images, and by that I mean that instead of choosing from the “popular images” or “top choices” or those on the first page or two, to head a little further down the list of images because people won’t often make the effort unless they’re after something very specific.

Second, when it comes to product or service images always include multiples (more than 2). Again, something so simple can make such a big difference because so many things have more than one or two sides and being able to look inside a bag or see the bottom of a shoe or see the detail of the rock wall that was created or each menu item can mean the difference between a sale or not.

Third, check your background! The background of your image can be a big turnoff and can make your product appear to be of lower quality than it is, or at the very least it certainly doesn’t build up your credibility as a business that pays attention to detail. It’s not even about having a stage and super expensive lights or working with a photographer that will really set up the shot. It’s about not having green wall as a background or laying your product on a multi-colored carpet or having a background that is simply more interesting than your product and ends up taking away the attention from the product.

Fourth, even in this day and age of super smart people and being able to hire people to do stuff for you, your how-to/DIY/instructional manual still matters. Yes, go ahead and film someone putting things together or put the steps into an explainer video, but also include a hard copy or PDF of the instructions as well. Why? Because I can’t tell you how many things I’ve tried to put together with a video as the only instruction and it took 5x longer to do because I had to keep rewinding the video. Yes, the video is helpful to see the process work together and get some of the little details that aren’t as easy to convey on paper, but it’s not easy to stop and start when you’ve got your hands busy holding stuff and trying to put it all together.

Finally for today, whenever possible don’t have your text as part of the graphic or embedded into the video in such a way that translation software or programs don’t work. Yes, of course graphics look great with text and having captions with videos is helpful, but especially when it comes to products or services that are not language specific (i.e. shoes, landscaping/home maintenance, books available in multiple languages etc.) you limit yourself and your audience if you embed the text in such a way that they can’t translate it to understand it.

What are some of the simple edits and additions you would suggest for business owners looking to do better in the media for their business?

Shortfall Marketing

Recently I had a business owner email their list saying that they were a little short when it came to tax time so they were going to open up access to a product that basically wasn’t taking on new clients in a bid to get those extra dollars for their taxes. Whether that was a story to pull on readers heart-strings or an actual reality (from what I know I think it’s real) it’s something that we can all learn from for our businesses and our marketing.

Of course the first thing that came to mind when I read the email was awe that we live in a day and age where you can send out an email or a social post and the money just rolls in. It really goes to show how much has changed in the world over the years that a business can recognize that they’re short and in a matter of hours or days they can do something about it, instead of hoping that someone will wander through town and decide they want the product or need a service and just get lucky that any extra money came in, or knowing that you were really in trouble and not having any really good options at your disposal.

But as anyone who has tried this method before knows, it doesn’t always work. I’m sure most if not all of us have sent out promotional emails and posts and heard back less than crickets about our offer. But let’s assume that we are targeting the right people with our offer (i.e. we’re in touch with people who live in our service area or love a specific sport or live where it snows or have kids etc.). If you’ve got the right people targeted and you don’t get a response then two big reasons why they aren’t buying come to mind: they don’t really know you or your offer isn’t the right value. The first reason has to do with one of the foundations of successful marketing: consistently engaging with your people. If they hear from you twice a year maybe they’ll be so excited by what you have to share (i.e. a Black Friday offer), but chances are just as good that you’ll have missed out on the sale because they went with someone else who they know/like/trust more. And with the value question, I totally understand the feeling of panic when you’re short on finances, but putting out high-end offerings and hoping that you get people willing to break out the big cards doesn’t often work, especially if you don’t often offer big packages or it costs more than people would easily hand over in a short amount of time (most people don’t have money for a big theme park trip or home renovation just lying around as “extra” in that months’ budget). I’m not saying that big ticket offers are a bad idea, they’re not, just that they can be hard to sell in this type of situation, even when you manage to clearly communicate the value.

So the next time you’ve got something going on in your life, don’t be afraid to be a little vulnerable with your audience, especially if you generally do share some personal information with them. Also, take time to celebrate the gift of being in business when we are! Finally, are you taking advantage of all the opportunities that are available to you? Are you showing up for your customers in such a way that they will show up for you when you need them to? If not, start today.

Business Lessons from Tax Day

Next week here in the US we’ve got Tax Day for most people, so I thought today we’d talk about some lessons from this event as they apply to our businesses.

First, of course, money matters. You’ve probably heard the old saying that if you’re not making money on the work you do it’s a hobby. Hobbies are great, they’re good for stress reduction, exploring the world and enriching ourselves, but not so great for trying to make a balance sheet work or feed your family from it. While I always say that money is only part of a business, it definitely does matter and being a good steward of that money, both in being wise as it goes out and making sure it comes in, is essential.

Second, Tax Day is a reality check if you will for many who don’t look at their paychecks or don’t pay as super close attention to their finances. You can only hide your head from the facts for so many days during the year before you’re forced to face reality of what you’ve spent and earned in the past year. I know that business owners have a ton going on and a ton to pay attention to so it can be easy to not give much attention to anything that isn’t in the “on fire” (aka problem area) category. Thanks to technology though it’s much easier than it used to be to stay on top of more and to be aware of more of what’s going on in your business and how your business is doing than it used to be.

Which brings us to the third and final point: Tax Day is a reminder to be responsible. I have no problem paying the taxes I’m responsible for, but I’ve always said that I wish I could have a little more say in choosing where those dollars went to, in effect holding the government a little more responsible for putting money in certain directions where I think they’re not being as responsible as they could be. So when it comes to your business, choose to be responsible to the commitments that you’ve made to customers. Be responsible about your employees and contracts you have with suppliers (including any landlords regarding the spaces you use). Be responsible to your family and yourself and make sure that you do more than work your business 24/7.

Have you learned any lessons for your business from Tax Day?

Destination Business Success

This week people in my area, and probably many other areas around the US departed their local geographic regions for wherever they chose to take vacation on spring/Easter break. If you don’t live in a particular destination area you probably experienced what I did: less traffic! It was like a little preview of summer with fewer people on the roads, shopping in stores, hanging out in restaurants and coffee shops and generally just being around. Of course that’s not great for businesses in the non-tourist locations, but I’ll admit I enjoyed getting out and about with fewer crowds and cars to deal with.

Of course this started me thinking about summer and summer travel destinations, and how in recent years it seems like the powers that be have done a bit better job working to spread the love around to different parts of the US with the big sports events being in different cities, music tours visiting different cities (and booking more dates), and conventions popping up in all corners of each state throughout the year. It’s really done good things for many state and local economies.

Which brings us back to two oft-discussed and essential aspects to business success: invest in/create reasons for people to visit you and raise awareness of what’s going on. Just about everywhere I’ve traveled I’ve found towns that have made themselves a little destination in one way or another (and I’ve been to quite a few states on road trips over the years). Maybe they’re not Nashville, St. Louis, NYC or Sacramento, but these little towns have created an atmosphere that welcomes people in and makes them want to come back time and again. Do all businesses in those towns participate in that atmosphere? No, of course not. But of those that do you end up leaving with fond memories, usually a purchase or two, and an intention to come back again some day or at the very least share about that spot with others. Again, you don’t need every business to be on board, but if you have at least half you’ll be on your way to maximizing some of the vacationers and tourists.

Of the destination towns I’ve visited some were planned stops and others were happy surprises. I mentioned earlier that there are big sports events that happen in cities around the US, well a client was traveling recently and they had an issue with their plane ticket and were frustrated to find that there weren’t any other options and nothing could get switched (unless they were willing to fork over a serious amount of funds) and they had no idea why. It turns out that there was one of those big sporting events where they were and they had no idea that their trip coincided with that sporting event and that’s why any changes were such a challenge. Did lots of people know about the sporting event? Definitely, but the fact is there’s so much going on that it’s impossible to be up to date on all the news and all the happenings in the US let alone the world. But if the goal isn’t to make sure that everyone knows about your business and destination town, it’s definitely possible to have a physical and online presence that people can find when they’re looking for something to do near where you are and to occasionally be the spark that draws someone to your corner of the globe. So join those local listing websites, pay attention for key search terms in questions and posts on social media, have your own social media presence, cross promote with other local businesses and do create seasonal events and happenings that will draw people to you and start to build recognition.

What small destination cities and towns do you love, and what small businesses in them are worth revisiting time and again?

A Little Good (Business) News

If there’s one thing I know it’s that everyone can use some good news. How often does your business share good news with your customers? I know I personally chose the charities and non profits that I support based on who actually follows up with donors and shares where their donations are going to and the difference the organization is making in the world. I buy products from stores and sellers who not only are committed to product quality but also make a point in giving back when they can. I know I’m not alone in those choices either, countless customers also state that these things are important to them.

Do you know how often you’ve lost a customer simply because you didn’t bother to keep them in the loop on anything more than what you’re selling (if that!) or that you need more money? It really comes down to a question of once you’ve conquered product/service quality what efforts do you make to remind customers that you’re there? Because people are easily bored and easily distracted, people like to try new things, people do shop around for price so they may not just shop with you if a product is available for less elsewhere that isn’t a big inconvenience for them to buy it there, needs and priorities change, and people are constantly dealing with all manner of challenges, changes, issues, concerns and struggles, so if you don’t make any or sufficient effort to connect with them, they’ll shop wherever is easiest, quickest, cheapest or most interesting to them at the moment.

Whether you keep your supporters and customers informed daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, it’s really easy to come up with a little good news. You can share good news about what’s going on in your business like new milestones you reach. You can share customer stories as they have to do directly with your business or organization or as they have to do with the greater community. You can share employee stories about good things that they’ve seen or things they’re loving in the business right now. If you’re a local business or organization you can share about good news in the community. And the best part is because you’re reminding people that there’s still good in the world and that good things do happen, they begin to associate your business with good news and a bright spot in their day and look forward to hearing from you. Do you include good news in your marketing and business communications?

Leaders Who Listen

There are so many things that can trip you up as a leader, or make it much harder for you to be the leader that you could be. One of the decisions leaders face is accepting the fact that there’s no way you personally can know everything that’s going on in your business. You can’t be everywhere at once, can’t do everything every day, and can’t be every person at every level of your organization. Even if you’re a solopreneur or running your own business, it’s been a very long time since one person has done it all or knew it all (hundreds of years maybe even). So if you look at most businesses, the leaders who are able to say they really have their finger on the pulse of the business are those who have a team that keeps them updated on the information they need to know, including information that may have either slipped by them or they don’t even know to ask about but is really important to know.

If you’re following along with the many holidays throughout the year you may know that Purim is on Sunday. It’s the remembrance of when Queen Esther chose to be courageous to speak uninvited with King Xerxes I in order to save the Jewish people, her people, from destruction at the command of an official named Haman (it’s a story that also appears in the Bible). Whether you’re leader of just a few people or enough people to fill a nation, most leaders would not want to lose a significant percentage of their people essentially overnight. So whether the King didn’t understand what the edict he had signed meant (the context) or just didn’t read it, it took Esther’s speaking up to get him to understand the consequences of such a law and save the Jews, and as a result there’s now a celebration each year of this event.

At the center of all of this is trust. King Xerxes I trusted the wrong person and as a result almost got the Jews killed, but fortunately it’s not usually that dire for the rest of us as leaders. That said, we do need to be smart about building relationships with and putting trust in people who can help us get the information we need to know with the appropriate context. Maybe that looks like a daily/weekly/monthly email from each of your managers or top leaders or whomever is in a position to get a lot of information and be involved in different day-to-day aspects of the business. Maybe it’s a subscription to a few newsletters that help you stay on top of what’s changing in industries that affect your business including marketing and legal from experts that you trust. Maybe it’s monthly meeting with certain stakeholders to make sure that you haven’t missed anything they deem super important or noteworthy or go over things they see to be potential or current issues that may or may not be being addressed.

Most of all, don’t forget to listen and hear what your people have to say. If you’ve entrusted them to take a leadership role in some aspect of your business and then asked them to keep you in the loop, don’t be dismissive or ignorant towards the invaluable information they send your way. Maybe you’ll have to work with them a bit initially to establish how much detail you need on various reports or updates, but that little effort is worth it to get the information you need to make the big decisions and be prepared for how things may be changing or may need to change. How do you stay updated about everything going on in your business and the business world?

Businesses that Change Die or Grow

Does it hurt you when you go into a business that you love or used to love and they’re just not that busy? That’s the experience that I’ve been having at a grocery store near me that used to have the best fruits and vegetables at reasonable prices. And I’m not just talking lettuce and carrots and things from the potato family, but lots of exotic fruits that your kids would ask you about and you’d normally say “maybe if we’re ever on vacation in a tropical location” (translation: not happening). In the last 6-8 months though the store has changed and it hurts me to shop there now for several reasons, but most because I know what the store used to be and am sad that they aren’t as busy as they are. Let’s talk about some of the things that are hindering their success.

One of the big changes that has happened is they did a little redesign and started offering more products outside of their original core offerings. So now it’s a lot more like a regular grocery store and less like a farmer’s market. Every business has choices to make about how they’re going to grow if they’re interested in growing. I think the store made a wise choice in what they added and how they’ve displayed it. All the things they’ve done should be adding to their receipts, but instead there aren’t any lines to check out and I’d guess that receipts are smaller than they used to be. Why? Because they haven’t paid enough attention to the core reason they’re in business, the core reason that people are shopping with them in the first place. Their core offerings have been much higher priced, had very little available, and aren’t always in the freshest condition, which means that people think twice before shopping there when before it was a no brainer. Expansion is great, but not at the cost of losing your customers and not being able to replace them.

There’s something though that they’ve never done well, and that’s marketing. Prior to the renovation and lower inventory that they’ve had recently for some reason, they didn’t need to do a whole lot of marketing because people knew that they’d have a large variety of good stuff and could get what they needed at great prices and people would just show up and shop for whatever they had. But they didn’t change and start marketing once they did the renovation, which would have been smart so they could let people know about all the new awesome stuff they had and how fresh the store looked and felt. They aren’t on social media, they don’t have a newsletter, and they aren’t working with local food bloggers, essentially they aren’t doing any of the really simple and inexpensive stuff that would help keep them top-of-mind to local shoppers without taking away too much from their bottom line.

So if you’re thinking about an expansion for your business, make sure that you’re ready with the marketing to tell the world about the awesome new stuff you’ve got going on, and don’t ever neglect the pieces that are core to who you are as a business because it often turns what could have been a great growth opportunity into the end of a business. What lessons have you learned as you’ve grown your business?