Independent Thinking » Business

Google, Doodles, and Showing You Care

Daria Steigman — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:02:41 +0000

The alt text said "Happy Birthday Daria"

This is what I found when I popped over to Google the other day.

Obviously not every company can customize its logo for its customers. But what about:

Sending a “happy birthday” postcard (as did one of my doctors)?
E-mailing a “happy birthday” greeting (race organization)?
Providing a free dessert (restaurant)?
Offering a birthday discount and free shipping on an order (retail store)?
Loading a “special surprise” onto a loyalty care (coffeehouse chain)?

What can you do for your customers that’s personal, keeps you top-of-mind, and shows you care?

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Your Customers Are Not Morons

Daria Steigman — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:02:29 +0000

This should be obvious, right?

[Insert BIG SIGH here.]

There’s a lot of talk these days about “empowered consumers” and what this means for companies. It’s an issue for pricing and sales, and for what consumers want and expect from the brands we interact with.

We have more information than ever a mouse click, search term, or social scroll away.

There’s a big gap between the empowered consumer and many sales and customer service teams.

Case in point. I was shopping around the other day for information on Internet service providers. Mine has been very reliable–but the price has gone up astronomically. So here’s how the conversations went.

1. Existing provider said they felt my pain. Customer service agent put me on hold for a couple of minutes while he (maybe) went off to see if he could give me a different service or a better price point on this one. Came back and spouted a company line about having only one speed of service and that I was paying the standard rate for that. I told him I was going to cancel. Said he would be sorry to see me go.

The rate I was paying was $7 over the highest rate listed on the company’s Web site. The base rate was 40% lower than what I was paying.

2. Prospective company’s sales guy wants to know what I’m paying now. Not relevant, I reply, I want to know what options you offer. Sales guy asked what provider I have now. (Nice try, same answer.) Then he starts talking about bundled new services–which I say is not what I’m asking about either. Finally, he quotes me a price.

The price he quotes me is 25% higher than the rate listed on the company’s Web site. And it’s for completely unbundled service–and I already have one service through this company.

They must think we’re morons.

Clearly, companies have a long way to go in understanding how the Internet–let alone social platforms–impacts the business/customer relationship.

Photo by macinate (Flickr).

What Andy Warhol and Joe Paterno Have in Common

Daria Steigman — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:01:37 +0000

Have you ever listened to Songs from Drella?

The album is Lou Reed and John Cale‘s brilliant tribute to Andy Warhol‘s life and art. It’s fascinating, personal, and emotionally raw.

The penultimate verse:

They really hated you, now all that’s changed
But I have some resentments that can never be unmade
You hit me where it hurts I didn’t laugh
Your Diaries are not a worthy epitaph

Your legacy is all your atoms and bytes.

When Joe Paterno died on Sunday, I wasn’t so much surprised as saddened by all the glowing words being said about him. Calling him a “flawed hero,” or talking about how he handled the Penn State scandal “with grace” (seriously?). Somehow I don’t think this is what my high school English teacher had in mind when she was teaching us about Shakespeare and Aristotelian tragedy.

You can be really great at something (for Warhol, art; for Paterno, winning football games), but you don’t get to write your epitaph. And the consequences of your words and your actions all become a part of your legacy.

Your brand, at the end of the day, is what other people decide it is.

Here’s the question: What would you like your epitaph to be? Will it?

Photo by Podknox (Flickr).

Are You Embracing Risk?

Daria Steigman — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:03:21 +0000

I had a conversation with my mom recently about an apparel retailer that is going out of business. She had attributed their fate to a declining economy. My own take: the clothing was staid–and there’s a limited market for boring. The company never took a risk. It didn’t try to refresh, modernize, reinvent for changing styles.

Successful businesses don’t sit still.

There’s a reason abandon is one of my 3 words for 2012.

There’s a terrific piece on Inc.com about taking risks and making mistakes. Author Paul Schoemaker points out:

If you have ever flown in an airplane, used electricity from a nuclear power plant, or taken an antibiotic, you have benefited from someone’s brilliant mistake. Each of these life-changing innovations was the result of many missteps and an occasional insight that turned a mistake into a surprising portal of discovery.

His point: you have to take risks, and test things, and be willing to fail (i.e., make a mistake). It’s a short article and well worth the read.

Photo by Brett Jordan (Flickr).

Why the Small Business Haters Have It All Wrong

Daria Steigman — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:02:59 +0000

Have you noticed a trend lately disparaging small businesses (especially solo-owned ones)?

It’s a bit ironic that the people who are taking chances, thinking creatively, and testing out new products and services are getting slammed for not creating jobs at a time when the economy is mired in inactivity.

The haters have it all wrong.

We’re not too big to fail. But we’re small enough to succeed.

One big thread in this conversation seems to revolve around employment. At one level, the naysayers have it absolutely right: I’m not hiring.

But that’s not my business model. My model is to partner. Which, last time I checked, generates income for other people so that they can pay bills, buy groceries, and shop at the mall–all the same stuff that salaried jobs enable, albeit at a much smaller scale. But I’m just one small business among many.

It’s not just about jobs.

There is a jobs crisis. But don’t blame small businesses for it.

I’m not an economist, but jobs don’t spring from nowhere. We need a reboot, and that’s going to require innovation, creativity, research and development, and risk-taking. (These and a bunch of other things too.)

Ashvini Saxena had a terrific post recently on how Entrepreneurship Benefits the Economy More Than Just Generating Jobs. In it, he talks about four other factors:

Entrepreneurs invent.
Entrepreneurs optimize.
Entrepreneurs find hidden demand (and create plans to exploit it).
Entrepreneurs hire people with skills.

Read Saxena’s post as well as the smart conversation in the comments.

Have you noticed an attack on small business? What’s your take?

Photo by Jan Tik (Flickr).

3 Strategies to Excel in a Tough Market

Daria Steigman — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:01:39 +0000

How do you manage uncertainty when, by definition, it involves wrestling with stuff that’s difficult–and sometimes impossible–to predict?

It all starts with understanding (and then leveraging) your competitive advantages, says Keith Bickel, author of Mastering Uncertainty. The book posits three different business models to optimize your competitive edge.

Are you a pioneer, a pouncer, or a hedger?

Read about the three strategies in my book review.

Photo by Steve Snodgrass (Flickr).

“Just Because” is a Stupid Way to Run a Business

Daria Steigman — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:02:13 +0000

It’s a new year, but are you still doing the “same old, same old?”

I wrote recently about knowing when to fold–giving up a product or a service or even a business development strategy that’s run its course. But there’s another thing business owners need to consider: what might be working, but doesn’t make sense.

This can show up in the people you engage with and the processes you follow. For example:

Are you loyal to an accountant, a lawyer, or even an insurance agent who does an okay job year after year rather than making the switch to someone who will really shine? (For the record, I have an awesome accountant if you need one.)
Do you keep using that cumbersome e-mail marketing system or time-management software rather than switching to something faster and more user-friendly?
Are you still faxing documents because you don’t have an electronic signature on file? (Oops, that’s me.)

Make every business action a conscious choice (not “just because”).

A case in point: My condominium association raises the parking fee by $5 every other year. But no one knows why they’re doing it. It’s just what they do. What they’ve done. You know why they’re doing it? Because over 10 years ago when I was condo board president I said I thought it was ridiculous to nickel and dime people with $2 and $3 raises. Somehow that translated into the current “policy.”

It’s a good practice to evaluate your business processes and policies from time to time. Now I’m off to find a scanner.

Photo by Evelyn Giggles (Flickr).

Why I’m Not an NFL Owner

Daria Steigman — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:02:58 +0000

You might have read that the Green Bay Packers are selling ownership shares. Which means that, for $250, you can own a share of the franchise. You can’t sell you share (or shares) and it won’t increase in value–but it makes you an owner of the NFL-Super-Bowl-winning franchise that was once coached by Vince Lombardi.

It would look really cool on my LinkedIn profile. But I’m not going to be an NFL owner.

$250 is real money. It maybe buys my next smartphone. It definitely buys lots of pints of beer at the ballpark this spring. But that’s not the problem.

The fine print is.

Ownership has its privileges. And its price.

Page 5 of the Common Stock Offering Document has a clause entitled NFL Rules that reads, in part:

The NFL Rules prohibit conduct by shareholders of NFL member clubs that is detrimental to the NFL, including, among other things… publicly criticizing any NFL member club or its management, employees, or coaches or any football official employed by the NFL.

Which means that, as an owner, I could be fined by the commissioner and/or required to sell my stock back to the organization–for $0.025 per share. (Come to think about it, that’s better than zero. But I digress.) Which means I couldn’t opine about whether Dan Snyder is the worst sports franchise owner since Marge Schott. And I couldn’t tweet that even a 2-year-old has more discipline than the Oakland Raiders. Not to mention that “what’s up with [insert name of player here]” would be off limits.

There’s a point here. And it’s not about American football.

It’s about reading the fine print.

Fining fan-owners of the only public NFL team would be a public relations nightmare. It’s not going to happen (unless someone really provokes it, or behaves in “conduct unbecoming” that defies public mores). But the business reality is that buying into this deal requires limits on your free speech. Not illegal limits–it’s not a 1st amendment issue. But limits nonetheless.

Business is about choices and trade-offs. Before you make your next deal, make sure you understand both.

Photo by Jeramey Jannene (Flickr).

Three Words for 2012: Crayons and Continuity

Daria Steigman — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 07:02:24 +0000

For 2012, I’ve decided that I don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

Last year, I picked out 3 little words–crayons, velcro, and abandon–to guide my business. The whole point was to keep me focused on moving forward, while giving myself permission to take risks again. And to have fun and be creative.

I found the right guiding principles.

Since “a continuous or connected whole” (aka, continuity) is an asset, I’m going to keep these words front and center for another year.

What are your guiding principles for 2012?

Photo by evoo73 (Flickr).

Books, Velcro, and Celebrating Success

Daria Steigman — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 08:03:21 +0000

How do you measure success?

There’s a lot of conversation around business success, what it means, and how to measure it. (And we probably talk even more sometimes about lazy metrics and poor measurement.)

I’m not going to talk about measurement at all today. Just success. Because sometimes you need to celebrate the small victories.

One of my 2011 goals was to read more business books. I set two goals: (1) to read at least one book a month about business, entrepreneurship, and/or marketing communications; and (2) to review a book a month.

Velcro helps.

Velcro was one of my three little words for 2011. In a blog post to start the year, I wrote:

I’m good at coming up with ideas, but sometimes I need more focus to see them come to fruition… I need to keep the velcro handy to keep me locked in.

It worked. I started the year thinking about how 21st century businesses are putting the power of collaboration and openness to work. I also read about what makes a good entrepreneur and how to tap into your entrepreneurial DNA, received tips on how businesses can leverage social media to thrive, and ended the year thinking about being weird.

12 Books for 12 Months

Here’s what was on my 2011 reading list:

As for 2012? I have four books in the queue, including Mastering Uncertainty and The Introvert’s Guide to Business. Stay tuned.

What successes are you celebrating as 2011 draws to a close?

Photo by D. Sharon Pruitt (Flickr).