Keep Your Eye On Your Targets for Your success

One of the smartest things I ever did was move into a neighborhood I couldn’t afford.  On the surface this sounds stupid, so please let me explain why it wasn't.  This wasn’t a neighborhood of new fancy tract homes that all of the other couples my age were moving into.  This was a neighborhood full of what my friends called “old people and junky homes”.  My wife and I both liked the neighborhood because you had to pass by a winery while cruising down a road lined with old walnut trees to get there.  The area just had a great romantic feel and was very close to both of our offices at the time.  There was also a private country club featuring a championship golf course.

Years earlier I had discovered this little area of about 100 homes while out on a Sunday drive.  My wife and I later set our sights on living in that area at any cost.  We would scrimp and save and just about when we thought we could afford a house out there, the prices would go up.  We drove the neighborhood at least twice a month.  We thought we knew every street and every house in the area cold.  We went to every open house, and knew all the real estate agents.

Eventually we were the last of our friends in our old neighborhood.  Everyone had moved away into some “cool” area.  Some new tract of houses with a neighborhood pool, or that was closer to shopping would attract our friend’s attention.  I knew it wasn’t right for me to move into one of those neighborhoods so I stood my ground and waited. 

Is A Business Strategy Important to Building a Business?

Recently I have been working with a couple of business owners who are stuck on the whole strategy thing. These owners want me and my company to take over their internet marketing, you know SEO, pay per click and all of that kind of stuff. The problems is they can't clarify their strategy for us. My rules are pretty simple, no strategy, no marketing. The simple reason is I want to keep clients for a long time.

What I have learned in 20 years of owning and building businesses is that anyone can grab an opportunity, throw money at it and fail. I don't want these clients because I am lazy. Not lazy because their business is too hard to market, but lazy because I don't like chasing down new clients if I lose one.

Before we had the strategy requirement in place, clients would last anywhere from six months to about a year and a half. The few that have been with us over five years all have two things in common. First they have a strategy. While the strategy has changed a little over time, we have been involved with the changes so we could change the marketing to meet the needs of the client and their market.

The clients that we took on who were opportunists and didn't have a strategy would not see the progress they expected and jump on the next opportunity. Every six months we had to completely revamp their marketing. In the world of the internet, consistency is a critical component of success. The first month of any campaign is the most expensive, and we usually lose money getting a client set up. In fact most of the time, you don't see real progress for two or three months.

When a client jumped from opportunity to opportunity it was like getting an entirely new client. None of them would pay the higher fees of the first month, so each time they "re-invented" their business we lost money. The clients with a strategy are all still in business, still clients and still profitable.

Stay Fit and Healthy To Better Help Your Business.

One of the hazards of being a business owner is getting caught up in the day-to-day operation and minutia. Staying fit is difficult for most people already in becoming a business owner can make staying fit even more difficult. Finding a fitness program that works and doesn't destroy your schedule can be a huge bonus for a new business owner who is already completely time stressed.

Even if you are fortunate enough to live in Southern California so you can take advantage of my friend Chad Morris's program, you can at least watch his videos. Chad is done something very cool and outlined his entire program for busy executives in an easy to watch video format. If you don't think you have the time to stay fit, invest a few minutes to watch the videos and then reprioritize your time so you can make this exercise program work for you.

A Letter To The President

Normally I don't write letters to politicians, but I felt this letter to the president was worth sharing with anyone in small business.  Feel free to copy it and send one yourself.

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

I am writing this letter to you in response to your selection of Jeff Immelt to run the Jobs Council.

Selecting the man that built GE, Jack Welch, might make sense, but his replacement doesn’t.  Mr. Immelt like many bankers and large corporate leaders have been quick to accept help from the government and slow to work towards the goal of a better country.

It is the small businesses that the country depends on, not those who are chosen to be members of the S&P 500.  Your thoughts of working with businesses to solve the problems of the country are on the right track.  A council of small business owners are what you really need.  Big banks and big business need to be disrupted from time to time in order to prevent a larger melt down. 

Todays Internet Marketing Tip - Are You Yelping?

This is going to be short and sweet.  If you own a business, you need to be on Yelp!.  Why?  The simple fact is you need to stay in touch with what your customers are saying about you and your competition.  While there are at least a dozen similar websites with mobile apps that we watch for our customers.

For a small business owner, the most important is probably Yelp!.  If you have time, look at the others to see if you have more ratings and reviews somewhere else.  If not, get on Yelp! and stay in touch with your business and your customers.

There are two sides to Yelp!.  One for customers and one for business owners.  You need to be on both as an owner.  As the customer, you can see what your customers are saying about the competition and what you can do to improve your relationship with them.  Improving your relationship will improve the business automatically.  If you have a smart phone, the Yelp! app is free.

The business owners side of Yelp! will allow you to post correct information about what you do, where you are, what your hours are and other information that potential new customers need to know.  When this information is wrong because you didn't sign up and you made Yelp! guess, then your potential new customers start off with the wrong expectations.

Get on Yelp!, set the right expectations from the start and see new customers every day.

A Quick Start On The Internet

In todays market place, having a website that is easy to find is critical to your business success.  The bad news is there are over 1 million new websites being added to the internet every day.  These new websites are all after the same eyeballs and dollars that you are.  The yellow pages don’t work anymore and you’ve tried pay per click ads only to blow your budget and give up.  What is a business owner supposed to do?

The good news is that the search engines are making enough money and are starting to listen to complaints about fake or misleading advertising pages.  Google is starting to look closely at websites to make sure that there is a real business behind it.  Even the big domaineer sites are starting to add content that is almost worth reading. 

A Focused Business Strategy should Lead to a Focused Marketing Strategy.

Yesterday I was putting around Orange County in my favorite little car, a 1966 Mercedes 230SL.  There is something mystical about this car that creates an immediate love or hate response just like Beetles and Mini Coopers do.  The people that own them are more often than not smiling while they are driving around.  There is just something fun about it.  The controversial Pagoda Top of the late 60’s model Mercedes SL’s  has been the butt of jokes by many great automotive writers.

For me however, there is nothing cooler than putting up PCH in my little convertible.  The only thing missing is a cup holder.  As a Porsche engineer once told me “We make cars to drive, not to enjoy a Coca-Cola.”  Since I still have an addiction to Diet Coke, I am pretty familiar with every McDonalds in the Reno-Lake Tahoe area and Orange County, my two major hangouts.

As long as I can remember I have been going to McDonalds and In-n-Out.  My dad liked the chocolate milkshake and coffee at McDonalds better so we went there more often, at least that was his story.  I think it was because the owner of the McDonalds franchise next door to his office was a patient and we were getting free food.