I have moved this blog “Creative Entrepreneur” to a diferent url that better reflects what this blog is all about. If you have registered to receive the rss feed or updates by email, please go to www.giftbusinessowners.com where the new blog is located and reregister so that you will stay up to date.
While there, you’ll find new posts that have been added as well. Continue to be a Creative Entrepreneur.
Once upon a time, under a magical rainbow, was a magical castle. The land of the magical rainbow was occupied by many leprecon families. They owned their own farms and depended on the king and queen, who lived in the magical castle, to guide them in the best ways to grow their crops, where to sell them, and how to be prosperous.
The king and queen, and all the knights and ladies in the court, were loved by the little people. They admired the fact that the king and queen had not always lived in the magical castle but had once been one of them. As little people, they had grown their farms to be more prosperous than most of the others and helped the other leprecon familes learn what they needed to know to increase the production of their farms.
Years earlier, the former rulers of the magical kingdom had beceme more interested in increasing their wealth than in helping the little people increase theirs. This had resulted in an uprising to overthrow these rulers and replace them with the new king and queen that they respected so much. Soon the new king and queen moved into the magical castle under the magical rainbow. They brought with them some of the little people, whose farms had also grown and prospered, and made them knights and ladies in the magical kingdom.
As time went by, many of the original knights and ladies were replaced with others from the magical kingdom. Gradually, the magical rainbow was covered with dark clouds as the king and queen took on new powers and silenced any members of the court who spoke out to disagree with them.
The little people, who used to line the streets whenever the king and queen came down from the magical castle to the town to visit with them, noticed that the visits were fewer. And, when they happened, the king and queen, and even many of these newer members of the court, were more interested in the protocol and the visit than in taking time to actually stop and talk with the little people.
The older leprecon families became angry and frustrated as they still needed help growing their farms and their children needed advice as they started new farms. Gradually, other little people who lived in the town, stepped up to offer their help and provide the advice that was so badly needed. Some of the ousted members of the court, who had returned to their own farms, shared their knowledge with the little people as they continued to maintain their own farms.
The clouds grew darker as the king and queen became more isolated in the magical castle on top of the hill above the town. There was talk of another uprising, which was quickly put down by the court members who had been ousted from the court. They told the leprecon families that these changes within the kingdom provided opportunities for them to be more self-sufficient and to create new means of receiving advice and information. They provided the leadership to help the leprecon familes become less dependent on the court and the king and queen who lived in the castle at the top of the hill.
The leprecon families created new ventures within the town to help each other. The older ones provided advice and shared knowledge with the younger familes as changes within the kingdom resulted in new ideas and new methods of communication with each other. And they all grew and prospered as the king and queen became more isolated from the people and the town they had once ruled.
This story can apply to any industry or even any government. We’ve all seen this tale occur in countries throughout the world and in businesses that once were leaders in their industry. It can even apply to our own businesses as we grow them to be prosperous and loved by our customers. If we aren’t careful, it’s all to easy to isolate ourselves from those whom we have depended on to grow our business. There is always another business, standing in the wings, waiting to step in and take our place.
Something to think about! I invite your comments.
I’m going to make two statements that seemingly contradict each other:
- The best form of marketing is networking.
- It’s hard to get business from networking events.
Both are true. And my perspective is a result of attending a number of networking events through the years. When I attended my first Chamber of Commerce Networking Event (and this was true of a local networking Club that I belong to), I tell you I was shocked to see that most people’s idea of networking was all about “Me, Me, Me!” People were so impersonal and took the event as their opportunity to pass out THEIR business card and tell you about THEIR business and what THEY could do for me. The goal of most people at these events was to either get someone to sign up for their business opportunity or to find a new customer. I was amazed at this short-sighted and short-term networking idea. To me, networking is about building relationships—finding others that you can create a MUTUALLY beneficial relationship with.
The most effective result of networking is finding someone who reaches a similar market as mine and then trying to build a partnership. If you have similar, but non-competing products…you can work together. My most loyal customers are those with whom I’ve become friends and shared either information or something else that was of value to them–and that doesn’t mean trying to sell them one of my products.
Let me tell you a story. Way back in the late 70’s, I started and published a statewide Singles newspaper. In each month’s issue, I ran a photo of myself and a “Notes from the Editor” column.” My readers got to know me from the tidbits of personal information that I included in that column and from the help that I provided when they called me. Many were lonely and just needed someone to talk to. I didn’t care if they were running their “profile” in my paper or not. I was there if they needed me. As a result, singles in other communities throughout the state organized parties or dinners for singles in their area and invited me and my husband to attend. We always did–and got to know our readers and potential readers on a more personal level. We weren’t selling them anything. We were building relationships.
Fast forward 25 or so years. Today, we still are friends with many of those singles today. I’m in a totally different industry today — but those lessons learned from Arizona Singles are still an important part of my business philosophy today.
Offer friendship with no strings attached and you will build relationships that can last a lifetime.
If you think of customer service and marketing as being expensive and complex, here is a valuable lesson about how simple it can be:
The Simple Truths of Customer Service (and marketing, too!)
If the video about Johnny has changed your way of thinking about customer service and marketing, tell us about it by adding a comment.
Tags: Add new tag, Business Marketing, Customer Service, Micro Business, One Minute Wisdoms
Here is a “One Second Wisdom” piece of advice from American industrialist Henry Ford.
A Market is never saturated with a good product, but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one!”
After seeing today’s report from the Auditor’s at General Motors, I thought that the CEO of the company (as well as all the other automobile manufacturers) might appreciate this bit of advice from someone that developed the industry.
A business has two functions:
- To serve its customers better than anyone else
- To make a profit
If your business fails in either function for any length of time, the business itself will fail.
So you already provide great customer service and you’re still not making a profit. What can you do? Profit is simply the difference between income and expenses. You can either cut expenses or increase your income or you can do both at the same time.
Your financial records can point out some ways to cut expenses but increasing profits may require some creative thinking. But, after all, we are creative entrepreneurs or we probably wouldn’t be in business.
Put on your thinking cap, brainstorm with friends and associates, and make a list. Include everything you think of regardless of how silly it may sound. Write down the traditional ways but make sure that you also think outside the box. Every industry will be different but regardless of whether you’re a service or a product-oriented business, by being creative, you can increase your income.
For example:
- You’re a gift basket business: Think more than gift baskets. Individual products can sometimes sell better than the baskets. Add a new niche to market to, for example, apartment move-in gifts or locally-themed gifts. Is there a service you could provide- such as gift wrapping, personalized products, promotional items?
- You’re a bed and breakfast business: How about partnering with a local tour company, restaurant, or transportation service and receive a referral fee for sending referrals their way. Add a bicycle rental service for your guests. Provide a cake and decor for special occasions–for an extra charge, of course.
- You’re a website designer: Add hosting, templates and help for DIY folks who want to create their own website with some help. Offer classes either at your location or through the local community college. Offer a class for seniors at the local senior center.
- You’re a retail store owner: Add a workshop or one-time class on anything that relates to your business and would be interesting to your customers–and charge for it. If you have some extra space in your store, contact a local homebased business owner whose products would complement your business and offer to rent them that space to display and sell their wares.
- You’re a Realtor: How about an ebook that you sell on your website about “The Ins and Outs of Buying or Selling a Home”. Advertise that you will help For Sale By Owner people ,who have found their own buyers, go through the process of dealing with the mortage and title companies all the way to the close of escrow–for a fee, of course. Manage rentals for out-of-town owners who haven’t been able to sell their house in this down market.
So be creative. Think outside the box. And that next bright idea might be just the one that you need to increase your income. What other bright ideas can you think of for your business? Share your thoughts with our readers.
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I don’t know who wrote this as there was no credit given when I first read and saved it back in 2004. But it’s a fun list of “One Second Lessons for Both Life and Business:
- Don’t name a pig you plan to eat.
- Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.
- Life is simpler when you plow around the stumps
- Trouble with a milk cow is she won’t stay milked.
- Words that soak into your ears arewhispered, not yelled.
- Meanness don’t happen overnight
- Never lay an angry hand on a kid or an animal; it just ain’t helpful.
- Forgive your enemies. It messes with their heads.
- Don’t sell your muloe to buy a plow.
- Don’t corner anything meaner than you.
- It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.
- You can’t unsay a cruel thing.
- Every path as some puddles.
- The best sermons are lived, not preached.
- Happiness comes through doors you didn’t even know you left open.
- Most of the stuff people worry about never happens.
I’m sure that you could add many, many more “One Second Wisdoms” to the list. Feel free to log in and add yours in the comments.
Tags: One Minute Wisdoms
Ken Blanchard, author of “The One Minute Manager and other business books” , told the story about the little boy who really wanted to beat his grandmother at Monopoly. He studied. He practiced. He learned. Until one day, he beat her at the game and told her, “Finally! I beat you.”
She smiled as she picked up the pieces and put them back into the monopoly box. She then told the child, “Yes, you did. But let me tell you another lesson that I’ve learned about playing the game of life. You can work hard, study, practice and become whatever kind of person you want to me. But when the game of life is over, it all goes back into the box. The only thing that’s left behind is what you’ve created or done for others.”
I’ve heard the phrase, “You have to give to get” and have also heard results of how people have been blessed as a direct result of what they have given to others. But I have a different philosophy. I don’t think you have to give to get. I think you give, not because of what you will receive in return, but because your giving is from the heart.
There’s a country-western song that tells the tale about a young man who stopped to help an elderly lady stopped on the highway with a problem with her car. The young man was broke but instead of taking payment for his help, he told the lady to “Pass it On!” The song goes on to tell of a waitress, who was pregnant, tired, and discouraged. An elderly lady left a $100 tip. That night the waitress laid in bed beside the young man who had helped the elderly woman with her car and told him about the woman who had left the $100 tip. And the song ends with the magical words of “Just Pass It On.”
I am a business coach for a County Business Empowerment Class in my community. Last week, a local entrepreneur, who has become very successful, spoke about how he started his business hoping to make lots of money. He said that he was in the business for the money–not just because it enables him to live well and do things he’s always wanted to do–but because he can use that money to help others as well. I remember the author of “Everything I needed to Know About Life I learned in Kindergarden” say basically the same thing.
Successful entrepreneurs have to be interested in money if they hope to be successful. You can’t just forget the financial parts of a business and operate it any way you feel like. How you treat your customers, your investors, and even your vendors go a long way towards determining how financially successful you will be.
There are, of course, those like Ken Lay of Enron fame and Mr Matoff of Ponzi scheme fame, who cheat others to make their millions and then use it to live like kings. Then there are those entrepreneurs who achieve their business goals while practicing the principal of “Pass It On!” When the game of life is all over, and it all goes back into the box, the Ken Lays and Matoffs of the world will leave behind people who have been hurt or destroyed. The “Pass It On” entrepreneurs will leave a legacy that may not even be known by most but will be appreciated and remembered by those they helped.
We are in the midst of changes in the world. Changes bring opportunities. What will you do with them?
“I’m a great believer in luck. And the harder I work, the more I have of it.”
Stephen Leacock, writer and humorist
Ponzi schemes don’t just exist in multi-level marketing and the financial investment world. The internet world is full of them. You’ve all seen the red flags:
-
instant success
-
get a fancy car, house, vacation if you only go this seminar or join this membership group
-
pictures of paypal, checkbooks, etc showing big bank balances and numbers of orders
-
a sales page filled with testimonies of others of how great this program is
Most of the internet sites like this are Ponzi schemers. They make their money, by taking the hard-earned money of those who are itching to get rich quick without having to work at it. These people then turn around and try to sell the same scheme to you.
I’ve read a lot of these sales pitches. Their websites are enticing. Their guarantees sound fool-proof . And you’re sure that you, just like them, can have that fancy car, long vacations, and realize your dreams by following their advice — without a whole lot of work.
But I’ve realized that I don’t really need a fancy car or exotic vacation (or the bills that go with it). What I wanted was much simpler. I wanted to have time for myself and my family. Set my own hours where I could work in the middle of the night or take my dog, Delilah, for a walk on a bright sunny day. I wanted to make enough money to feel secure and buy a few extras like this laptop. I wanted the challenge of building a business from the ground up and growing it into one that I could be proud of. And I wanted to be able to share what I learned with others–without charging them more than their wallets could bear.
Hard work didn’t scare me. But I didn’t want to work every hour of every day. And I wanted time to just sit and do nothing but read, or enjoy a cup of tea.
So I did it my way. I started an internet business selling gift baskets at Creative Gifts To Go. I grew it gradually, working hard as I taught myself FrontPage, html, and search engine optimization. I didn’t make a lot of money that first year but with every passing year, the simple dream gained momentum. I added a teddy bear gift website followed by a website for those who had memories of Route 66. They required hard work and time spent learning skills but the results have been worth it.
Five years or so ago, I added another website to use my learned skills to help others in my industry attract traffic to their websites. This was in the form of Gift Basket Network which now has over 100 members throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, and Australia. About a year ago, I expanded on the idea and added a benefit site for my members at GiftRetailersNetwork which included business articles, a private forum, and an opportunity to network with each other and our vendors.
I’m doing fine now with lots of time for walks with Delilah and my husband, fun with grandkids, visits with my daughters, and oh, yes, there’s even time for reading that mystery novel and drinking that cup of tea. Although I haven’t bought that fancy car, big mansion or taken an exotic vacation, the money isn’t too bad either. For me, life is perfect. A simple life for a simple person.
And I still get emails from those get-rich-quick merchants. Reading them used to make me mad until I realized that they serve a purpose. They were attracting those who were interested in taking the short cut and believed that even though they couldn’t learn to play the guitar with one easy lesson, they could learn to be a millionaire in a week or less. They were weeding out those who thought they could buy success but became impatient when they tried something for a half hour and it didn’t work. They weeded out those who thought that work was a dirty four-letter word.
But there are those out there who think as I do. They have their dreams but know that hard work is required. They learn from others who have gone before them and offer their experiences and advice without requiring a lot in return. And, they too, will succeed because they know the secret to success as I learned it years ago.
When I work, I work hard. When I don’t work, I don’t. And I drink my tea in peace because I know that those internet pozi schemers are helping to sort out the impatient dreamers from the working ones.
Most businesses accept loss of customers as a fact of life — a cost of doing business. But it costs much more to obtain a new customer than to keep an existing one. If you can increase your customer-keeping rate by as little as 10%, you can increase your long-term revenues by more than 50%. An amazing increase in income, if you think about it.
One of the reasons for this is that it costs five to 10 times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to sell products and services to an existing customer. Once you’ve acquired a customer, you no longer have to convince them that you’re the company to buy from. Your primary goal is to let them know how much you appreciate their business.
I read somewhere that a jeweler once said, “If I lose the diamonds, the insurance company will pay for them. But if I lose my customers, I’m out of business.”
Something to always keep in the front of your mind is: A business only has two functions: to serve its customers better than anyone else and to make a profit. If your business fails in either function for any length of time, it will fail. This is true in boom times and in depressed times.
Why do customers leave or buy once and never again?
A consumer Services Institute study showed that:
- 1% die
- 3% move away
- 5% buy from friends instead of from you
- 9% prefer the competition
- 14% judge your business by a bad encounter
- 68% leave not because of anything you did. They’re not angry or dissatisfied with you. They left because they thought you didn’t care about them. You didn’t make them feel special.
The solution is simple — Treat all of your customers like they’re special. This is called Relationship Marketing and is something we’ll discuss in more detail in later posts. But basically the secret to Relationship Marketing is simply having Regard
Respect
Admiration
And Appreciation for your customers
And, most important of all, letting them know that you do!
Tags: Business Marketing
Are you doing a good job meeting the needs of your small business? Keeping a good handle on finances? Networking? Do you have a system for organizing your marketing strategy? Do you even have a marketing strategy?
If you are running a small business, you know that to be successful you need to be a jack-of-all-trades. The smart way to manage everything from company finances, to client relations, to marketing, is to use the right tools tools that are simple enough that they won’t require you to spend a lot of time and money you don’t have setting them up.
In a guide provided by “Directory Aviva”, you’ll find the 25 best applications for entrepreneurs who are looking for simple, cheap, and effective solutions to solving some of the tasks facing their small business or startup. The 25 applications selected were chosen both on the basis of their usefulness for the individual small business manager as well as their effectiveness in providing community support and networking opportunities for users.
Check this one out at http://www.avivadirectory.com/entrepreneur-apps/. There’s something for everyone!
Tags: Business tools
I heard on public radio a few days ago that defaults on SBA guaranteed loans to franchisees rose more than 50% last year. One in 10 franchises closed their doors. Many businesses that are not franchises will fail as well.
I mention franchises because they supposedly have an edge over independently owned businesses. When you buy a franchise, you buy an established brand and a business and marketing model that has proven to be successful.You get the resources and suppliers. You get the advertising slicks that all you have to do is fill in your local info and send them to the local media.
The problem with most—both franchises and independent businesses — isn’t just the economy, but it’s really more the mistakes they’ve made from the day they opened their doors. The economy is merely the straw that broke the camel’s back. We’ll talk about some of these mistakes in a later post. But also during depressions and economic downturns, new independent businesses that will later become franchises are begun. They don’t start as a huge business with all the resources they need to get established. They start out just as you are. McDonalds is one example. It started as a small local business in a depressed economy. It was grown into a huge franchise much later.
Independent businesses have advantages over franchises that are rarely mentioned. A franchaisee trades dollars for a business model
BUT YOU:
- You begin with an idea that you’re enthusiastic about.
- You do your research and learn whatever skills you don’t know.
- You locate your own suppliers and talk to those suppliers about the particular niche you’ve chosen
- You learn from the ground up.
- You create your business plan based on what your vision is for your business and what money you have to put into it.
- In the end, Your business isn’t a replica of one in San Jose, CA or Tampa FL.
- Your business is unique.
As a result, when you talk about your business you understand it. You’re enthusiastic. And, if you’ve done your research right, you’ve selected the proper business model, the best location for your business (whether it’s in rented real estate or is homebased) and you know what to expect from your business. You are your business and your decisions will determine its success or failure.
Tags: Micro Business
Dollar Tree for almost nothing.
COFFEE FILTERS: Not just for making coffee…
1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave.
Coffee filters make excellent covers.
2. Clean windows and mirrors. Coffee filters are
lint-free so they’ll leave windows sparkling.
3. Protect China.
Separate your good dishes by putting a coffee filter
between each dish.
when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through a
coffee filter.
5. Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in
the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.
6. Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.
7. Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through
a sieve lined with a coffee filter.
8. Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a
coffee filter on a kitchen scale.
9. Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers
for messy foods.
10. Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line
a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent the soil from
going through the drainage holes.
11. Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two
holes as needed in a coffee filter.
12. Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows?
Use strips of coffee filters.
13. Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, French
fries, chicken fingers, etc on them. Soaks out all the grease.
14. Keep in the bathroom. They make great “razor nickfixers.”
Tags: coffee, coffee filters
You never know when you’ll suddenly happen upon an unexpected moment of inspiration. I’ve visited the Grand Canyon many times. I’m not sure what I was expecting but the first time I ever saw it back in 1960, I was a little disappointed. Sure, it was massive, beautiful, impressive but as I told my husband, “it’s just like looking at a postcard.”
I visited the Grand Canyon once again last week. Once again, it was massive, beautiful, impressive and was like looking at a postcard. But there was an unexpected moment that made the Grand Canyon suddenly come alive and become more than just a view.
O, lord , my God
When I, in awesome wonder
Consider all the world’s thy hands have made
I see the stars I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power thru out the universe displayed
Then sings my soul my savior God to thee
How great thou art how great thou art
Then sings my soul my God to thee
How great thou art how great thou art
As I stood there, looking down on that group of tourist as their voices echoed through the Canyon, it was truly “How Great Thou Art!”
Tags: Arizona, Grand Canyon
I was the guest speaker at a class last night for people who are starting a new business. The topic was “How to Get Your Customers to Buy From You Without Breaking the Bank” — in other words, marketing on a shoestring.
I’ve grown my business slowly over the past 16 years and didn’t realize, until I was preparing for this presentation, how much more difficult it is in today’s world to market a new business than when I was started. My first business was Arizona Singles — a singles newspaper that we grew from a Flagstaff publication to a statewide one before selling. Ron (my husband and the wind beneath my wings) picked up a singles paper while he was on a Forest fire in Idaho about 20 years ago. We decided it would be a fun business and started out knowing very little about publishing or business in general. But we learned quickly.
The one thing that wasn’t a problem back then was marketing. The city directory provided a list of singles living in the community and, with the help of SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Exuctives), we created and mailed a brochure to every one of them. We sent press releases to the local papers, radio and TV stations and they eagerly responded. A feature on the evening news and a radio talk show, as well as an article in our local newspaper, had us off and running. Distribution of the paper and word of mouth took it from there.
A few years later, when I started Creative Gifts To Go (a local gift basket business), it was still fairly easy. The media was still receptive, membership in the local Chamber provided opportunities for networking, and direct mail completed the basic marketing.
But today’s world is different. My local gift basket basket has expanded into a nationwide gift service with customers in every state. The local newspaper is no longer so receptive. I sent a press release to them last year after winning the Master Designer award for Best Corporate Gift Basket. Even though this was a national honor, the press release was ignored. Our local Chamber is more interested in pushing for the Big Box stores that bring larger membership fees than they are in the locally-owned businesses in the community. As a result, I and many other locally owned businesses, no longer find membership worthwhile.
Marketing on a shoestring is still possible but harder. Postage has increased for direct mail but selective mailings to prospective customers and current ones still pays off. But until I started preparing this presentation, I had never thought about how the internet has made marketing–at a reasonable cost– not only locally but across the country possible. There are online companies that make it possible to buy professionally printed business cards and post cards at a reasonable cost. Email newsletters and even blogs, such as this one, makes it possible to communicate with customers everywhere.
The world is rapidly changing. The economy is at a standstill or whirling downward. The value of the dollar has made prices on gas, food, and other products skyrocket. But, thanks to the technology of the internet and using guerilla marketing techniques, it is still possible to start, build, and grow a business on a shoestring.