Archive for the 'INTERNET Marketing' Category

Jun 21 2010

The top 19 branding lines – Yours?

 Here’s my vote 

                                       

for the all-time top

                                         

branding theme lines.

                                                                                       

     I get asked all the time about branding themes and theme lines because they are the single most important set of words a business can have, and because they are the hardest of all words to write if they are to have great impact.

     The only business writing forms that come close in terms of difficulty and potential power are advertising billboards, website banners, and new venture business plans.

     In fact, the simpler they seem, the harder they are to write. Contrary to popular opinion, no one just goes into a closet for a couple of hours and comes out with these brilliant messages.

     In fact, it can often take weeks of fine-tuning to get to the kinds of branding theme lines represented here.

     The following list of 19 (Will yours be #20?) are all perfect examples of the art and science of marketing word craftsmanship, and I submit them here for your enjoyment, consideration (see if you figure out what they all have in common; answer at end), and most assuredly for inspiration:

  • You deserve a break today at MacDonald’s.

  • Think outside the bun – Taco Bell

  • You’re in good hands with Allstate.

  • American Express – Don’t leave home without it.

  • AT&T – Reach out and touch someone.

  • Greyhound: Leave the driving to us.

  • Campbell’s Soup is M’m M’m Good!

  • Clairol – Does she or doesn’t she?

  • Energizer Batteries – It keeps going, and going, and going…

  • General Electric – We bring good things to life.

  • Kleenex – Don’t put a cold in your pocket!

  • Lay’s Potato Chips – Betcha can’t eat just one!

  • Maxwell House – Good to the last drop.

  • Morton Salt – When it rains, it pours.

  • New York Times – All the news that’s fit to print

  • Nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee

  • Schlitz – The beer that made Milwaukee famous.

  • Sun Microsystems – We put the . in dot.com

  • Armour Hot Dogs – The dog kids love to bite.

      Besides all of these having a certain positive and proactive message to share that directly relates to or ties to the benefits of the products and services offered, they also each possess a definite word delivery rhythm that is easier felt than explained . . . almost a poetic balance with a direct or directly implied promise attached.

     And what else do you notice?

     Because there are no rules in business, and least of all in marketing, there are always exceptions. In this list, however, as will be found in almost every other comparable list of outstanding branding identities, please also note that each uses seven words or less.

     And those that include the company or brand name within those seven words or less are the true diamonds in the forest of glass!

What are some of YOUR suggestions for this list? Click on “Comments” below and include them in the window! The best will be added to a sequel list!

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You. 
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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Jun 19 2010

More Economy-Coping Moves

Is your business

                                      

constipated?

                                                               

     Have you withdrawn from your industrial, professional, or community contacts in order to economize time and effort, and consolidate expenses?

     Have you pulled your business back from expansion ventures and marketing budgets in favor of maintaining salaries and benefit plans?

     These questions are reminiscent of the old story about the successful hot dog wagon vendor whose son returned home from college filled with fresh learnings from his economics class:

Dad,” he said, “my business professor says this economy is going belly-up and that small businesses will suffer the most. He says small business owners should pull in their sidewalks, cut back on expenses, and stop advertising because there really is no hope.”

Well, the father thought to himself, I guess I’d better do as my son says. After all, I saved up all my money to send him off to college to learn about what business decisions to make. So, the father cut back on hot dog and bun quality, and took down his sign.

In two weeks, he was out of business, and telling everyone how smart his son was to have predicted the hot dog wagon shutdown.

     Now if any of this is even remotely familiar, I am not at all suggesting you run out to stock up on laxatives, enemas, and prune juice. But maybe it’s close to the point where you may want to evaluate how much you’ve given up in the process of thinking about giving up.

     If you’re continuing to draw a consistent salary while cutting back quality, service and marketing, you’re going to win the national spelling bee with an example of how you use the word, “disaster.”

     Look again at your business priorities.

     In fact, no matter what your current status of business “regularity,” it’s a good idea to re-check what exactly you and your business are actually doing? Who is in fact doing what? And in what order of  importance?

     Do your daily priorities match up with your adjusted goals? If you must continue with marketing cutbacks, are you at least substituting other less-expensive-than-media alternatives . . . like blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, BizBrag, MerchantsCircle, and email blasts?

     Are you and your people making yourselves more visible in your industry or profession? In your community and neighborhood? Are you letting go of old ideas about how to cope with a tight economy? Hopefully. . .

www.TWWsells.com or call 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless Our Troops “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

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Jun 13 2010

NOISE ANNOYS

Hey!

                                

Ease up on the ears

                                                   

a little, will ya please?

                                                                                        

     Where is it written that business and professional sports success must hinge no longer on performance, but on the tumult and hoopla that surrounds them?

     How did it ever get to be that attending a professional football, basketball, or baseball game meant giving up one’s sense of hearing for a week?

     I am nor referring to the yeas, boos, chants, whistles, claps, and songs of enthusiastic well-meaning fans. With or without cheerleaders, those natural outbursts of energetic support — together with the crack of a bat, the swoosh of a net, and the thud of a tackle — are the real true sounds of sports.

     I’m talking about the machine-generated, artificial bombardments of drum-banging, hand-clapping, bugle-blowing, spiral-buzzing racket that has absolutely nothing to do with the sport-at-hand, nor the performers, and which is a genuinely disruptive insult to our respective brains.

     No I’m not turning into a grouchy, out-of-touch, old guy. I am simply resentful of how noise has risen to the top of the consciousness disruption charts, and literally taken over what it was originally designed to merely support.  

     I was reminded of this again today as I went to see my favorite NY Mets play the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. I’m not singling out any team or stadium here because it’s ALL of them; today was simply an example.

     And just like in business— some know-it-all marketing whiz-kids have literally commandeered every professional, semi-pro and college stadium and gymnasium, and forced each venue into becoming a catch-all of suffocating, obnoxious, insulting, decibel-threatening sound effects.

     How stupid is sports top management to have been sold on the idea that blasting noise (and even, but to a less annoying extent, music) through seat-and-building vibrating speaker systems will contribute to successful team status?

     In fact, it seems to me to be doing the reverse. I see many more fans staying home to watch sports on TV and not subjecting themselves to this deafening fun for the feeble-minded.  

     In business, educational and entertaining market-ing approaches seem universally preferable to those parts of the population that I’m exposed to, than the screaming in-your-face, sleazy fast-talk of car dealership advertising and many late night info-mercials. Yet the audio clutter continues.

     Greedy pro sports management convictions that noise sells . . . and that the way to an enthusiast’s heart and wallet is by prompting pounding headaches . . . is serving to set the stage for other businesses to follow suit. Does it all originate in Hollywood? Well, let’s see: how many movies can you name that haven’t wrapped their messages in earth-shattering sounds? (Oh, sorry, “Special audio effects.”)

     No matter what your business message is and no matter how you say it, when you surround it with too much noise, you will suffer the consequences of lost trust and lost credibility. People who really mean what they have to say don’t need to wrap it up in fireworks, sirens, explosions, and other deafening audio garbage.

     Just say it like it is.

If a certain sound is part of what’s being sold or sets a receptive stage, use it.

If not, don’t.

www.TWWsells.com or call 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  
Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless Our Troops “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

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Jun 12 2010

GET VOCABULATED!

Can we learn and use

                           

more words that

                                                                            

are more simple?

                                                                                                      

     Could be that nobody’s getting our message, but maybe it’s because we’re just talking to ourselves?

     We need to educate ourselves to think and communicate in simpler terms. Fancy industrial and professional jargon gets us nowhere, except as the old expression goes, tangled up in our own underwear. Our central business messages must be so simple we could recite them to our grandparents and –in a flash– they would “get it.”

     We have to stop trying to impress people with how much we know, and start trying to explain how our product or service can provide them with the solutions and benefits they seek . . . in simple, easy-to-understand words and steps. Tossing off a string of tech talk when we’re not communicating with other geeks is an increasingly common happening. 

     Frankly, I’m convinced that even talking geek-talk to geeks is not necessarily the best way to go! Why? Because “GEEKS ARE PEOPLE TOO!”

     Do we trust a doctor who dumbfounds us with her anatomical references, or one who explains an ailment in ache-and-pain terms we can understand?

     This simplification process is something I call getting vocabulated (actually a word I stole from my inventive granddaughter — thank you, Talley — to use in this blog!). My meaning is to describe an attitude we all need to put into practice with our paid advertising and websites, and then remember not to then leave it (simplicity) standing alone outside the door of meeting and presentation rooms. 

     Do we just rely on public messages to carry simplistic terms, but get down on the heavy duty industry, trade and professional verbiage when we write an email or business plan or ebook or news release?

     Do we use “proximity” for “area”? Do we “mitigate” or “lessen” (or “ease”)? Are we in pursuit of “opulence” or “wealth” (or even more simply, “money”)? Does “SEO” get any simpler when we’re talking to a non-website person (roughly half the business population!) about “Search Engine Optimization”? How about just saying “Help to increase search window rankings”? 

     Are we perhaps afraid of peers looking down their noses (or critics looking over their glasses) at us if we use words that sound too childish? What’s “too childish” if what we have to say makes sense?

     Do we think underlings won’t be sufficiently impressed when we (again with a doctor example) tell a patient’s family that their son has a broken bone in his hand below his pinkie finger instead of informing the parents that he has a fractured fifth metacarpal? 

     When we’re talking with others in our industry and refer to “sustainable manufacturing processes,” we will no doubt be understood, but the general public (and probably 95% of our target markets) will not need to shake their heads in wonderment if instead we talk about “not using dangerous chemicals like lead and mercury to make our products.” 

     The simpler we can explain ourselves and the benefits of what we have to offer, the more others will gravitate toward us, and the more sales we’ll make. Now, there’re a couple of vocabulated goals. Y’think? 

www.TWWsells.com or call 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  
Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless Our Troops “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

No responses yet

Jun 06 2010

The Missing Business Spark . . .

Been Tweaked? 

     If  you haven’t had a professional examine the words you’re using for your business — to communicate, explain, describe, sell, plan, promote, publicize, print, email, broadcast, and blast across the Internet — you’re missing great potential sales, revenues, and profits.

     And you may be adding untold hidden expenses every day, even every hour.

     You could very well be the best at what you do, but if you’re not trained and experienced as a skilled professional business marketing writer, it won’t matter.

      It takes only one slightly wrong word to UNdo all your years of hard work, to UNdo the strength or promise of your customer or investor bases, to UNdo your employee, supplier, and community relations.

     But here’s the best kept secret of successful businesses and practices in your industry and profession:

They’ve all been tweaked! 

     Every highly profitable revenue-charged business and professional practice is measured by its leadership, reputation, productivity, and the words it uses.

Research proves time and again that what your business says (and the ways that your business says what it says) makes the difference between success and failure

. . . on the Internet; in emails, news releases; promotional, ad, branding and marketing campaigns; mission and vision statements; employee and sales training; supplier, investor, and referrer motivational programs

. . . on the front lines and telephone lines with customers, clients, patients, and prospects.

     How does one get her or his business “tweaked”? Where do you start? You start by submitting rough or revised drafts for professional review and input. The finished product is the revised return of a polished document, ad, release, web page, branding theme line, business plan narrative, layman translation from technical material, ebook, training outline, whatever.

It’s a process that raises your ideas up a notch

and puts you ahead of the competition!

     The good news is you need NOTspend a fortune to get tweaked. Many mid and large size companies that use internal Tweakers, also hire outside firms to tweak and prepare their messages (often at outrageous fees of $10,000 to $20,000 a month!). But this is SMALL business. And no one else can represent your business ideas as well as you.

     You don’t need high-priced outside service firms to tell you what to say. You need a budget-conscious, experienced, professional Tweaker who can take what you’ve done and put it in the right language and context for the market you want to target.

     Some, like having preventive maintenance visits, get a “Tweak Cleaning” twice a year. Some are happy with an annual “Tweak Insurance” Review. Still others want “On-Call Tweakability.” Oh, and if you’ve read this far, you must be interested. So yes, I tweak.

# # #

Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You!

Make today a GREAT Day for someone!

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Jun 03 2010

The Internet Challenge and A Couple of Laughs

DID YOU KNOW THAT

YOU-KNOW-WHAT

HAPPENS?

     It used to be that the only shovelfuls of you-know-what that hit the proverbial fan were flung at us relentlessly from our TV screens. And still we need only watch about 6 seconds worth of any network news broadcast (and how amazing these have not yet come to be called opinion broadcasts) to know that this bull you-know-what stuff is still spewing (splattering? Ugh!) forth about every other tick of the clock.

     So TV-after-Sesame-Street actually has some value. It taught us boredom. It taught us all how to not step in you-know-what. (Curiously, though, some who make it big are said to have stepped there. Hmmm. Go figure.)

     And then along comes the Internet: a truly remarkable and revolutionizing challenge to our senses. Compared to TV, which puts it right out there, the Internet rolls it all up in clandestine little balls and tucks it neatly into our pockets, between the sheets, into  overhead compartments, and under our tongues (well, okay, the tongue thing is pretty disgusting, even after being ordered to eat you-know-what!)  

     We have mastered TV you-know-what, but we’re being tricked everyday by the Internet versions. Can you forever avoid opening a spam email? Isn’t there always that one-time appearance of an old lover’s name in the FROM column, just enough to trigger-finger that mouse of yours into a giant porno pop-up that blazes your trail for 6 months of Pfizer Viagra email you-know-what?

     How about all the websites that start you out with a free ebook download – a terrific 7-Step Action Plan for boosting sales and winning 635 new customers by 9am tomorrow — that takes up two whole paragraphs buried in 19 pages of splendorous full-color you-know-what sales spiels.

     And what else could this innocent little download website possibly be selling except (Aha!) replacement color print cartridges that you just dried up in exchange for your email address that now entitles you to 476 exciting new junk emails a week for life. TV was never like this.

     With TV, you change the channel. With the Internet, one slipup, and a little hourglass guy jumps in your face and freezes your screen to the point where you either heave the whole pile of hi-tech you-know-what out the window, or you start banging on your 15 year-old neighbor’s door to see if you can pry the iPod loose long enough to enlist some hourglass killing skills at a hundred bucks an hour. AW, YOU-KNOW-WHAT!  

     Well, here you are, a respected (let’s hope) business owner. You’ve worked your butt off to get where you are and build your business, working nights and weekends. Your geeky brother-in-law works four-day weeks out of his bedroom closet in his pajamas selling search engine optimization services online and makes twice as much as you.

     No you-know-what! That you-know-what head?

     TV taught us to relax and let down our guards because all of it is no-brainer you-know-what. The Internet has forced us to arm ourselves, and be forever on the alert to keep our businesses out of the deep hmmm-hmmm-hmmm. Internet business buyers beware!

 Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless Our Troops “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

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Jun 02 2010

HIRING “Outside Experts”

Pay for Performance 

 . . . Not for Promises!

 

     The best business consultants, advisors, coaches, trainers, and counselors base their fees on what they’re able to accomplish, not on how great they tell you it’s going to be.

 YOU’RE PAYING TOO MUCH IF:  

1)  You’re paying ongoing fees and can’t see any ongoing results.

2)  You’re paying any kind of “retainer” fee, and you’re not sure of what it is that you’re “retaining.” 

3)  You’re paying for dead-end training, coaching, or counseling support that assures you of new and improved leadership/team-work . . . or communications, or customer relations, or sales . . . but that doesn’t produce noticeable change in 21 days, and that doesn’t then keep it going with meaningful, targeted, personal follow-up long after scheduled sessions are completed.

4)  You’re paying for outside services that continuously blame your inside services for stalling/blocking/obstructing/interfering or foot-dragging and/or lack of commitment.

5)  You’re paying for professional expertise exclusively because of long-term relationships and because that individual or group has maintained all your records for a long time. Would you not go to a medical or legal or financial expert you know has the ability to heal you just because your present advisor was hired by your father (or grandfather) and has your complete history in his files?  

6)  You get billed for every breath taken on your behalf. Outside experts unwilling to invest a little extra time and effort on your behalf as an expression of their customer / client relationship management are not worth the invoice postage or email review time. They are easily (and happily) replaced.

     There are a gazillion qualified groups and individuals out there who will deliver ongoing attention and ongoing results. In case you think you haven’t enough time to go shopping for the kinds of outside experts who breed authenticity, consider how much money you’ve been (or are presently) wasting  by not finding more honorable replacements.

     Even hiring someone else to shop for you – with your criteria of course – will probably still end up being a financially-smarter and more performance-rewarding move than avoiding the issue.

     The hardest thing any of us have to do in life – and consequently the hardest thing any business owner or manager has also to do – is to let go.

     Letting go of anything that we own, command, raise, invent, enhance, fix, inherit, create, design, develop, build, or even just think about, is like giving up a piece of our existence. How big of a piece determines the amount of anguish and reluctance and hesitation and whining and complaining that is sure to surface.

     And you’ve already been around long enough to realize that the total of all the upset added together multiplies according to how much time, money, and effort has been invested. So, the time to act is now. Clean house. Find experts who are willing to roll up their sleeves and work with you, who will act like partners, not leeches.   

 

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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May 31 2010

Great Marketing Pushes Customer Hot Buttons

People today only buy

                                 

what makes sense.

                                     

 Don’t believe it!

 

Excerpted from comments by Hal Alpiar published in today’s issue of  COMMUNICATION EXPRESSWAY ISSN: 1544-8312 Better Business Communication Judy Vorfeld – www.ossweb.com March-April-May 2010 – Issue # 74

                                                                                                               

     Assessments surfacing about today’s consumers being more savvy, more rational-minded, more interested in authenticity, and less susceptible to some of the more trite expressions that have long passed their days of influence is – in most entrepreneurial minds — 100% correct.

     Where business owners and managers need to depart though from what is being said is that these kinds of comments tend to lead owners and managers down the path of focusing their business marketing messages on rational, logical, unemotional, product and service features alone (i.e., ingredients, warranties, greenness, discounts, etc.) when — in fact — every consumer purchase has been repeatedly proven to be emotionally-triggered.

     That is not to say that price is not important or that features and rational chunks of sales pitches and marketing pieces should be abandoned or sidetracked. This kind of information is required by consumers as justification for their purchases — and more so today than ever before because of speed-of-light information access, and an economy that demands closer dollar-value scrutiny.

      Case in point (which, in concept, applies equally to every conceivable product or service purchase) . . .

      You probably tell everyone all the reasons that you buy a particular vehicle: it gets great mileage; it is ranked among the top in safety tests; the manufacturer is reliable; the warranties are among the best available; parts are easily and inexpensively replaced and service is readily available. And monthly payments? They’re at an all-time low. Sounds great, right? Kind of makes rational, unemotional, authentic mouths water? (Or at least drool a little?)

     The truth is (which you would never own up to in public) that the real deep-down reasons you bought the vehicle are that you think you look good driving it, and that the salesperson wasn’t pushy.

     These dynamics, by the way, are the same for seemingly rational purchases like insurance policies, accounting services, a can of beans, or the daily newspaper.

     So, the bottom line is that while rational, logical information needs to be presented as a marketing cornerstone, it’s always going to be an emotional trigger that makes the sale. But we shouldn’t abandon one approach for the other. They need to work in tandem. It’s what makes great marketing so challenging, and why so few really understand how to do it effectively.

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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May 24 2010

NO SOCIAL MEDIA BIZ “Secrets”!

How to bypass

                               

banishment

                            

to the social media

                            

basement of

                                                            

business blunderers…

                                                              

     Don’t let the hype-artists intimidate you into thinking there are some kind of magical secrets you need to know in order to make social media work for your business. Sorry for the sprinkling of reality, but the “magical” part is simply common sense, and the “secrets” are nothing more than common courtesies

     There is just the first name of the thing to be tended to: Social.

     If Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and the others were intended to be all about business, they would have been called business media. But, Aha! They are social media, which means that if you choose to bring your business to a social gathering spot, you’d better be willing to lighten up and socialize.

     If you instead insist on being a pushy, boorish business type (even if your comments are entertaining), you can count on being left standing in some damp, dark, obscure corner looking forlornly at all those who are having fun bippity-bopping around. You won’t just be feeling left out, by the way, you’ll actually be getting deleted, disconnected, and blocked by the socializers. (Now there’s a concept!)

     Imagine! People hooking up and chatting with one another for the sake of hooking up and chatting? Now that’s not to suggest that all the millions of business-minded, entrepreneurial folks out there cannot go to the party, and cannot talk business. But — like handing out business cards at a wedding — you’ll go further with your pursuits if you focus on being discreet.

     Realize that the vast majority of social media users (“followers” and “friends”) are actively engaged for personal gain and well-being, to look and feel important, and to chit-chat freely with friends, family, acquaintances, and complete strangers in the mad rush of what we have come to call life in our ever-less-personalized, busy, instant communications hi-tech age.

     In other words, if you’re going to go on or into any of these social networks, attempting to hawk your wares or services, you need to remember that you’re a guest at the party that’s catering to friendships, acquaintances, and life issues. If you overlook basic courtesies and fail to indulge in some friendly banter because you’re so focused on selling, you will be banished to the basement of business blunderers!

     And, it is that — first and foremost — that business moguls must remember: Always thank your host and hostess or, in this case, those who mention you, who connect with you, who introduce and applaud you, and even those who disagree with you. Don’t pass up any chance to express your appreciation and gratitude to others by name.

     Start out timid. Brash crashers are viewed the same in social media as they are at a real party. If you stick to an agenda of being discreet, polite, friendly, and caring, fellow followers and friends may even outright welcome your sales spiels . . . especially when what you have to say changes frequently and gives others pause to think about, laugh at (be careful here!), or learn from.

     Best to stay clear of the same topics you are generally best to stay clear of at a real party — religion, politics, family laundry, and sex (not necessarily in that order). Remember the alternative: basement banishment is not typically a pleasant experience.  

 Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless our troops “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

No responses yet

May 16 2010

E~X~P~A~N~D YOUR BUSINESS NOW!

“Whaddaya, nuts?

                                 

My business

                               

is shrinking.

                                       

What’s to expand?”

                                      

In the “Flower Power” 60’s with psychedelic drug influences on music, clothes, and lifestyles of people who’d grown up with the Lone Ranger, there emerged what had to be the greatest name for its time for a music group that I ever heard. I haven’t a clue about anything they recorded, but I always thought they earned the gold medal of rock group names: TONTO’S EXPANDING HEAD BAND.

     I thought of this name today for some reason, and was prompted to address the subject of business expansion in a still-rotten-and-getting-rottener economy where most businesses are tucking in their tails, cutting corners, and consolidating at every opportunity. Withdrawal, though, is not always the most advisable action to take when the competition heats up and pickings are slim.

     “Yeah, but our budget is slim too, and the last thing we can afford is to expand what’s already suffering; it’ll just create more suffering!”

     BRRRAAAAAAAAT! (That’s a basketball court sound.) Time Out! As truth will have it, if indeed you really think you need to be bailing out the boat instead of adding a swim platform, you are probably:

  1. working for the government (probably the dead and dying Postal Service; but, then, you wouldn’t be reading this), or 
  2. a major corporate executive (probably a hospital administrator type who’s big on efficiency and outcomes; but, then, you wouldn’t be reading this either!), or 
  3. a small business owner who’s lost sight of how you got started, and you may have gotten so beat up by the A and B guys above, that your entrepreneurial spirit has risen on up into the Ozone, and left you struggling to survive. Sound familiar? No? Good! But if it does . . .

     Guess what? You still have what it takes, and so does your business. Remember the sports training we got as kids? The best defense is an offense . . . stop blocking punches and start swinging!

     To effectively expand your business in an economic choke-hold, you need first to allow your brain to expand, and you’ve probably been pulling in the reins on your innovative thinking in order to pay the bills. Reality is though that there are plenty of ways to expand while others are shrinking, without murdering your finances!

     You need to look harder at what you’re doing. How can you offer more to customers without spending more? Instead of 9-5, can you stagger work hours and stay open instead from 8-6? Or re-think coverage possibilities for Saturdays and/or Sundays?

     Can you hand out free appetizers to customers who have to wait for dinner? (You don’t run a restaurant? This example applies to EVERY type of business. Consider how some version of it might work for yours!)

     How about expanding your marketing efforts with a service like www.BizBrag.com that allows you free website postings of your news releases and promotional flyers, and then sends them out to your target email list besides (also free!)

     Shall I go on or will you just counter with excuses? Are you choosing to seek new pathways or choosing to simply settle for excuses about why new pathways won’t work? Hard times mean survival of the fittest. Hard times also mean that those who choose to step it up, make waves, and expand their horizons by expanding the the ways they do business, will thrive.

     What can you do better or more of tomorrow morning than you did today? Money need not be a growth issue.

Expand your mind to expand your business.    

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! God Bless America, and God Bless our troops “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]  Make today a GREAT Day!

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