Are you cashing in on Cyber Monday?

Have you seen any of the data from the latest holiday sales frenzy? You know, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Shopper Tuesday, etc., etc.?  The numbers actually are quite staggering!

On Cyber Monday alone, over $1.2 billion dollars was spent on items ONLINE! In the 39 days of shopping leading into the holidays, more than $24 billion has been spent already. Depending on which study you look at Cyber Monday sales increase 13% or 24%. More than 226 Million surfers used the web – a record – as their method of searching out the best deals. What’s even more interesting is that 6.6% of those shopping virtually utilized Mobil devices such as iPhones, Blackberry smart phones or tablet devices such as an iPad or Galaxy Tab. That’s how younger people shop. In fact, that’s how younger people talk to each other, read the news, watch videos and so much more.

How we communicate as a society has changed!

Despite all the data and evidence to the contrary, there are still small businesses out there that believe they don’t need a web presence at all, let alone eCommerce capability. Ironically, many of these businesses are the same ones complaining because their bottom line – and their top line for that matter – has not increased for several years. I say to them “If you don’t expose your business to more people nothing is going to change. Having a web page and social media page is a way to great potential customers and show them what your business is about when you’re not there.”

The simple truth is not matter what you are doing right now to get information out about your business, there’s always room for improvement.

Can you adapt to be relevant?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: in order for your business to thrive, not just survive, you have to be relevant. In order to stay relevant in the competitive world of commerce, you must continually adapt to changes in the market and the consumer community as a whole. Technology is at the root of that adaptation.

As we have seen recently, there is a highly competitive world of smart phones – Apple being the leader.  But others, like HTC, LG or Blackberry, are reinventing themselves to stay in the game. Technology is continually reshaping the way companies and consumers interact at a speed that moves more dramatically than the number of smart phone apps. It isn’t slowing down anytime soon nor is this phenomenon limited to one field or another.

The availability and accessibility of nearly everything at the speed of “now” is changing the way consumers think about commerce and the onus is on the business community to keep up.

Whether you’re a large or small business, non or for profit, we are all in the same boat. You have to be creative because what you did five years ago, or even two years ago, you must adapt to meet the current demands.

Generational gaps are nothing new in business – just look at the ads from different clothing companies and you’ll see right away who they are appealing to. But anyone – young and old – can adapt to our changing world of commerce. Ages 55-70 are the fastest demographic joining the Facebook revolution.  Shouldn’t you and your business be there too?

Can you Make Time?

Well, not literally, I’m sure. Like most of the busy people I know out there, we have come to the realization that there are only 24 hours in each day even though we try to squeeze out more. But no matter how we try those extra hours remain elusive.

I hear people all the time say “If I could just find the time” or “One day I’ll find the time to get that done.”  I’m here to tell you that you’ll never FIND time. Once each second, minute and hour has past, it’s gone. You cannot find it again. but don’t despair – there is a way: You have to MAKE the time. Make the time to post new material; make the time to play ball with your kids; make the time to get that workout in. It may also be called Re-Prioritizing your day and determining what is really important for you to get done and what is not.

I live in Nevada and our legislature is in session only every other year (yes, that’s right) and I am there quite a bit when the gavel drops. I have little time for anything else but that it seems let alone all the things I want to do personally – the past month has been extraordinarily business thus my less frequent posts. I can admit, albeit with some reservation, that I couldn’t make the time to do all the things I would have liked. But I still managed to be extremely productive despite my hectic, frantic schedule. How? I took out all the time sucking items from my day.

Television – I’m not a proponent of television and normally don’t watch that much anyway. I do watch news and occasionally a show now and then. My wife and I like movies so we get them from Netflix. in order for me to have more “creative” time I cut out television almost altogether. I spend hours a day in the car going to and from the legislature so I would listen to news there – I didn’t have to watch at home. Time created – 1 hour per day.

Lawn work – I can honestly say I love to piddle around in my yard. I take pride in my home and like the way I can keep my property looking nice. But I found that it became less of a priority when things piled on to my schedule. The worse the lawn looked the more stress out I got. My solution – I hired a teenage boy to do it for me. He comes by once a week to trim, weed and mow [and bag] my lawn. I pay him $15 for about 1hour of work. I’m just one lawn he mows regularly so it’s good for him. Now I’m not stressed and saved me some time. Time created – 1 hour per week.

These two items alone gained me 7 hours a week! What could you do with 7 hours? I know there are more areas where I can make time by stopping something that really isn’t that constructive to my creativity and what I specifically what to accomplish. In business, and personally, I try to adhere to the 80/20 rule, and that’s a whole other topic.

What I can say is stop trying to find time, make it.

Advertising – In Five Seconds

We have all heard of the Five-Second Rule, right? You know -  a piece of candy or food falls to the floor and you know how good it will taste but are torn between following proper food-safety etiquette and just quickly blowing on it and popping in your mouth. After all, it was on the floor for less than five seconds – what could possibly happen to it, right? Let’s take a look at how a five second rule in advertising can revive your small business.

I see small business owners daily whose number one complaint is their advertising is not working. Whether print or digital media, their campaign is getting them lack luster results. When I look at these ads I can tell the reason these ads fail is because they’re not built for today’s environment. What do I mean? Look at how we communicate with each other. How do we exchange ideas? No longer do we rely on carrier pigeons to send information – can you imagine? Today we share information at a mind-numbing pace and consumers of all ages have adapted to this phenomenon – GenYers and Baby Boomers alike.

Have you ever wondered why television adverting was whittled down from a standard 60 second ad to 15 second spots? Not only is it profitable for the station airing the spot but done correctly, a 15 second spot can have a greater impact than the old 60 second ads.

Brevity is the art of persuasion. Nothing is more true, especially when your audience sees your ad while doing 75 on the interstate, sees your ad buried with other business signs or sees your ad for just a few seconds as a rotating banner on a web page.

Five seconds is the maximum amount of time given to make this initial contact with potential clients. You need to grab their undivided attention in these initial moments or they won’t hang around to hear the whole story and then it’s too late.

Let’s explore the Five-Second Rule in the following areas:

A few tips:

-Limit your text to one line (even better – 4 to 5 words max)

-Use a large, rounded or block typeface/font with maximum contrast from the background

-Avoid redundancies – in text and images

Do’s

-Use Humor

-Start with a special offer

-Use catchy music or a jingle

-Use premium paper and printing

-Use non-traditional image sizing

Don’ts

-Avoid using look-alike lettering or imaging

-Avoid repetition: space and time are limited

-Avoid the spam locker – use free spam checkers

-Avoid wordy subject lines – make it brief, make it great

-Avoid too many images – less is more

Don’t forget to run all adverting by a focus group or a even just a few customers – remember their opinion matters and they will feel like they have ownership in assisting you!

Is your business prepared for a disaster?

The world watched in shock and profound grief as the tsunami ravaged Japan this past week. Then the realization there were issues with the nuclear facilities because of the earth quake, tsunami and massive damage to infrastructure they caused. The human element in this disaster is apparent and credit the Japanese people for their strength in trying to stoically pick up the pieces of their lives. In fact, I saw a video yesterday showing a group of Japanese children doing school work even though their school was gone – in an attempt to quickly get back to a sense of normalcy.

It made me think – what are those small businesses doing to get back to normal and assist with the rebuilding of their country’s economy. Were they ready for a disaster? How prepared were they for something like this? How about closer to home – is your small business ready to handle a disaster?

The thing about disasters is that no one can predict when they will happen. In the blink of an eye all you have worked so hard for can be gone. If there are any lessons to be learned from the disaster unfolding in Japan is this –are you prepared? If you are a small business owner below is some information that can assist you in preparing for a disaster to make sure your business can get back to business when the disaster is over.

Disaster strikes – rarely: When it does though, proper preparation can save your business.

Safely Store Information: Backup, backup, backup! Any important documents or electronic data for your business should be stored in a portable, fire and water proof safe box.  Insurance documents, legal documents, flash drives with backups of financial records. There are several off sight data storage companies that will automatically backup your data on a schedule you choose. Don’t wait until it’s too late to realize you should have safely guarded this information.

Document: In an emergency or crisis the last thing you need to be looking for is a phone book or numbers for key contacts. Moreover, if your business performs key processes as part of your operations and only you know what they are, write them down and store them for safe keeping.  This way there’s easy access to pertinent information. Your emergency plan can be 5 pages or 5 manuals – it doesn’t matter so long as you or your employees can answer the question – What now?

Review your Insurance needs: You need to be aware of the level of life, liability and property insurance your venture needs. This should be evaluated at least annually. Too many times businesses purchase new equipment but fail to update their insurance for coverage. Following an incident they discover, too late, that their equipment is not covered and they can’t replace it because of costs.

Establish a line of credit: You don’t have to use it but it’s there as part of your recovery plan following a disruption from fire, flood, theft or other occurrence.

We all hope for Japan’s quick turnaround – what happened was truly cataclysmic. What if that happened here, where your business is? Are you prepared?

Don’t Be a Relic – Be Relevant

Ok. You have heard it time and time again yet you won’t jump in. Twitter this, FaceBook that. Social Beat me to death.  You can’t go anywhere these days, listen to any radio show these days or watch any television program these days without seeing or hearing some reference to social media. It’s like in high school everyone talked about sex and most of us though “Everyone’s doing it but me” only to find out that was a big lie. Well, I’m here to tell you the opposite is true with social media. If you say “Everyone’s doing it but me” regarding social media you’re most likely right.

This isn’t a fad. It’s not going away. Sticking your head in the sand waiting for it to pass is not going to make it go away. If you believe this — you’re in denial.

“How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him.” Frank Herbert

The social media movement — the evolution — is changing on an almost daily basis. How we interact with each other, how we do business with each other, how we communicate with each other; it’s all CHANGING. How we exist in this modern, information age is changing. We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to integrating social media into our daily lives – there are over 60,000 Apps for the iPhone alone — at the beginning of November 2010 there were 50,000. That’s extraordinary!  That’s truly evolutionary!

What most social media holdouts don’t realize is their failure to change will make them a remnant, an artifact of businesses of yore. Don’t be a relic — be relevant. Take that plunge and help your business evolve. Social media will only help you to bring more exposure to your business and what business doesn’t want more exposure.

Don’t be a holdout.

I’m already the person who shows up before everyone else, leave after they’ve gone home, do the books, hire or fire employees, do employee scheduling, order supplies, and make deposits. Now you’re telling me my website isn’t doing anything for my business and I need to get involved in in this stuff called social media?

Well, yes.

Hell yes!

When the internet was a relatively new thing, say 15 years ago, it had a certain level of doubt associated with it much like social media does today. Then if you asked a business if it had a “web portal” or “domain name” or even a “web site,” most would say no.  The value of a specific web site for a company was underestimated, therefore, underutilized.  A few forward thinking businesses started using the web as a means of reaching existing customers, but most importantly, new prospects.  It wasn’t long before the power of the internet took hold and made believers out of everyone. There had never really been a way to drive people to your business like the internet.

The perception has changed. Now, there are still some businesses out there, even now, that are holdouts — we’ve all come across one or two were we ask for a web address and they don’t have one, What?  Absolutely scandalous in today’s economy. What about social media?

We are at that same juncture with social media that we were with the internet a decade ago. Is your business in a vacuum? Have your customers’ changed over the years? Are you doing so well that you don’t need any new business? As the dynamics of our society change so must your business change.

Take a hint from some of the most powerful and successful businesses in the world which have multi-million dollar marketing and advertising departments, R&D divisions and designated branding departments. Look at Coca Cola Company, Ford Motor Company, GMC, Nabisco and Wal-Mart, just to name a few. What do they have in common? They all have embraced the social media movement to drive customers to their websites. These companies discovered the value in social media — how about you?

Why Your Small Business NEEDS to Use Social Media

A recent Nielsen study from August 2010 showed people spend up to one third of their time online in social network sites, primarily Facebook, which opens the door of opportunity for small businesses.  You need to recognize that no matter what your business is, or what it does, you need to be connecting with your customers or clients to maintain a strong marketing relationship with them throughout the year. That’s the power of Social Media

Here are some hints how to use social media to boost your bottom line.

1.       Consistency

If your business has a social media site and entrepreneurs have their own, they should use their own personal social media site to promote the businesses. Look at your site to see if people landing there, even if by accident; know that it’s tied to your venture. There should be a consistent feel from one to the other.

2.       Share

Share what your business does, share new products or services, share special sales and events to online people, share interactive online Q&A’s with followers. All this helps create a buzz around your business and brand.

3.       Manage Your Online Presence

You may find that managing both your business and online presence is difficult. If you can’t update regularly – at least daily – you may need to consider hiring someone to do it for you. It’s key to hire the right person, with the right skill set and understanding of today’s technology, trends and capabilities. Social media gurus can be hired in expensively and can take the pressure off of you.

4.       Learn and Listen

It’s important to constantly learn what the latest market trends are for your business or service but also the latest marketing trends and how to use them. Learn how to use social media as a tool rather than a toy.  Most people haven’t fully developed an understanding of the power of social media. And listen to what your online followers are telling you about your products or services. Use the feedback they provide to adapt your business to your customers’ needs.

Three Business Lessions I learned from Surgery.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed some abdominal discomfort. Being my usual self I kind just blew it off. A few days later I had severe discomfort – so much so just bending over nearly made ma break out in a sweat. The pain subsided but I noticed my abdomen was bulging in a particular spot and my naval was misshapen.  As I dropped my youngest off at the sitter – my in-laws – I had my doctor, who is also my father-in-law, look at my stomach.

“Looks like you have a hernia.”

A quick trip to the surgeon and I was scheduled for repair. It was explained to me that the majority of umbilical hernias are congenital defects and I probably had mine all my life and just didn’t notice it. Age and lifting something most likely aggravated it to the point of needing repair.  As I was laid up post-surgery for a few weeks I was thinking about how I could relate this issue to small businesses.  Below are the lessons I came up with.

If there is a problem you need to fix it quickly

If I had waited to have my hernia repair completed it could have quickly turned into something much more serious, even life threatening: strangulated bowl or hernia sac (tissue coming through the peritoneum), either of which can send a person to the hospital for emergency surgery. Unfortunately, small businesses have problems needing immediate attention yet owners and proprietors wait until the business is on life support to make a move to resuscitate the business. If your business encounters a problem, address it now, not later because it may be too late.

Generally, you can’t fix it alone

They don’t sell home hernia repair kits at the store so I knew there was no way I would be able to do this one on my own – not that I would have attempted to fillet myself open anyway. The same can be said for those small businesses encountering problems. It’s key to know your own strengths and weaknesses so you know in which areas you need to seek help. I am terrible at QuickBooks so if there is an issue, I don’t even bother trying to fix it myself. I call in the experts. I let them fix that so I can focus on the things I do well. That leads me to the next lesson.

Follow the experts’ advice

I haven’t been to medical school, haven’t performed surgery on anyone, nor been responsible for follow-up care. I relied on what my surgeon told me I could and could not do: don’t lift over 10lbs for the first two weeks, 40lbs for two weeks after that, Steri-strips will come off on their own – don’t pull them off, etc. I have followed his orders to the “T”. If I didn’t and I had problems during recovery I would only myself to blame.  When a small business owner has problems, seeks out advice and then doesn’t follow the advice given, they have no one to blame but themselves when the business can’t move forward and ultimately succumbs through its own device.

I’m still on lifting restrictions but I know soon I’ll be fully recovered and able to do things better than ever.  If you’re a small business encountering problems, don’t wait, seek out advice and follow that advice and your business may be on the road to recovery before you know it.

Are you a serial killer?

There are a lot of entrepreneurs out there struggling to make ends meet. Some are new to being their own boss while others are seasoned pros.  And depending on who you talk to a “seasoned pro” could be someone who has survived just a year at running their own business.  I have seen so many small business owners over the past few years who are serial entrepreneurs – these are people who start up many ventures over the years, sometimes with multiple operations at the same time.

What most people don’t know about these serial entrepreneurs is many have been serial killers – killers of small businesses. What does this mean? Quite simply that many entrepreneurs have killed more than one businesses venture before they got it right. The point is they didn’t stop trying.

If you want to be your own boss, want to start and run your own business, it’s imperative that you develop personal relationships with other entrepreneurs – preferably one who has made it through tough times. Their struggles add credibility to any advice they give.

If you’re going into business don’t be discouraged if you have struggle at first – in fact, you may become a serial killer.