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August 1, 2010 By

Are You (Gulp!) Scared?

scared My wife has been declaring to the world via Twitter and Facebook each time she tackles tasks that are outside her comfort zone. As any good spouse does, I listen to her talk herself through those fears – OK maybe sometimes I do zone out a little. I’ll admit, I don’t really understand some of her worries because she’s great at what she does and others are hard for me to identify because I don’t struggle with the same things.

But, I can tell you, those fears are very real for her. Today, I see she’s challenging herself again by publicly proclaiming she’s going to do something new that is outside of the norm for her. I’m proud of her.

Truth is, I too have my own fears. As a matter of fact, almost anyone who’s ever run a business fears something in varying degrees at one point or another.

Scared about some new strategy we have not tried, worried about upsetting customers over product changes, losing sleep over legal issues that have not materialized, nervous over the new product you are launching, quaking in your boots over the upcoming seminar you’ll be speaking at or an interview with the media. The list goes on.

The question is, will you rise over it? Face it and move forward or bail out and put a choke hold on your business? You can’t move forward if you bail out. But if you take them head on and do it afraid, next time, it won’t be that scary anymore and you’ll find yourself on the next upward rung of the ladder.

Some resources that you might be interested in concerning fear.

Photo by Bob Smith
File under: Business
November 23, 2008 By

Brand Common Sense in 5 Easy Steps

It’s a little late to think about buying a parachute when you’re going down in flames. Businesses that chose to ignore their brands and marketing to save a few dollars are now scrambling to try and and fend off their inevitable demise. Have you ever noticed that many in the retail world, both large and small do their best job at marketing when they are going out of business. The liquidation sales are adequately promoted with proper funding. When they had the opportunity to take marketing seriously they chose to pinch pennies and failed to invest in themselves, believing people would just beat a path to their door.

Their brands are now so weak they it will take very deep pockets just to stay above water let alone grow. Take this 5 step action plan that is more common sense than anything miraculous:

1) Respect your brand and don’t fall prey to the temptation of being all things to all people. Now is the time, more than ever before to define your brand and compel your customer. If you fall back on a price advantage, the competition will gladly buy the business back. Deeper pockets will work every time.

2) Get in the door with a competitive positioning strategy and sell up from there.

3) Build a relationship that builds loyalty and service the hell out of them.

4) Don’t rely entirely on technology for communication but put your bum in front of them when ever you can.

5) And for God’s sake, don’t stop trying to satisfy and keep your name in front of them – what ever it takes.

File under: Featured, Marketing