Today’s word is worried. Worried because in the last week these are the things that I’ve overheard in my travels that have left me feeling exhausted, deflated and just a tad worried:

1. “Customer service isn’t anything to do with me.” 

2. “Customers ask us if we are generalists or specialists and we say we are whatever you want us to be.”

3. “I believe in marketing to everybody.”

4. “But our profession is different.”

5. “We are battening down the hatches and doing what we have always done, it’s business as usual.”

6. “What you have to do in these times is lead from the front, control everything especially employees and customers.”

Anyone else frightened?…………….

Simple, consolidate first then expand. That way you don’t take any excess weight with you as you grow again. But don’t cut the wrong costs. There’s nothing wrong with being more efficient but make sure you don’t suck the life out of your business either.

As you expand put relationships ahead of profits, make it trustworthy so anxiety and doubt are removed from the buying process. Your challenge is to get your business products/services/ideas to spread. That way you create a more sustainable business and eventually a more profitable one too. 

In some areas of business we have no choice, we have to file tax returns, we have to submit end of year accounts, we must comply to employee legislation to name but a few. But, and it’s a huge but, we also have total choice over how we manage our businesses.

We are in an envious position to be able to influence how our business responds to change. We have a choice on whether we see opportunities or threats especially in this business climate. We have a choice whether to market effectively or market inefficiently. We have a choice about how we treat the customer, how we inspire our people and what products/services we want to develop. The future isn’t completely out of our hands, in fact, potentially we are in the best position to choose our own successful tactics.

The greatest risk is not seeing this and not doing anything at all about the choices we have…..

Make hay whilst the sun shines. When the sun is shining brighter or for longer periods at a time, then pick and choose your customers more carefully!

Great post by Tom Peters. Considers the ‘real’ business of leadership/management of people, nurturing, inspiring and motivating people along with spotting opportunities and potential. Follow the link below:

http://www.tompeters.com/entries.php?rss=1&note=http://www.tompeters.com/blogs/main/010713.php

It’s interesting to see how various small businesses are marketing at the moment. I have a long standing client who’s work has just about dried up (luckily he has some other irons in his fire.) He has decided to stop marketing as his clients and prospects are just not interested in commissioning work at the moment He has a point. Others are finding that their business is still growing and will do for the next year. Marketing spend has, in fact, increased.

But what do you do if you’re clients are just not in the mood to spend money with you? Do you keep marketing or save some money whilst you can? Depends, but I guess you can potentially do more harm to your brand profile if you stop than if you continue!!! Oh and someone else might be creeping in the back door whilst you’re not looking……!!

Over the next few days, perhaps a week or so, I’m going to pick a word at random and post my thoughts on that word and it’s application/relevance to small business in today’s sophisticated, complex and rapidly changing world. I hope it helps small business owners reflect on their business and stimulates some thoughts. Today’s word is ‘ESSENTIAL.’ Told you it was random.

It’s a word used seldom other than by authors in the title of their latest book on improving your business. You’ve seen it… the essential guide to this, the essential rules for that (I know i’ve done it). Well perhaps those books are very useful, they help us prioritise, they condense the abundance of things we have to do into a quick way of dealing with the obvious….but they are changing! The essentials used to be great products, they are a given now. The essentials used to be a well established business, it doesn’t matter any more, the essentials used to be having premises well located, in most cases who gives a damn about that any more. Our priorities have changed substantially, it’s all got a bit human again!

It’s clear how things are panning out…. great customer experiences. I’ve written a lot about this but it’s essential. According to Colin Shaw in his book ‘The DNA of Customer Experience’ 95% of business leaders believe customer experience is the next competitive battleground. It’s no longer good enough to have a great products or a great idea. Engaging, involving and having conversations with your customers is the next phase.

And, ensuring your people are doing meaningful work they are committed to. In fact, I would as far to say your people want to be part of something that matters, where they are energised, free and inspired by what you do. It’s about skill and behaviour not authority and they want to be led not managed.

As I said it’s all got a little human. What’s ‘essential’ in our small business has fundamentally changed. Moving towards a more human to human experience is something small businesses are in a great position to take advantage of. I’m not so sure our corporate competitors have that.

So how to combine your offline and online marketing campaigns? Using the web is not just another channel to market, it’s not something you stick on the end as an after thought nor is it something you ‘play’ with, it’s a lot more sophisticated than that.

Offline and online campaigns need to fit your marketing objectives, they should be synchronised, intergral and totally complement each other. Using the web though allows you to create a business that is more customer led, where the customer participates in your business, gets involved in dynamic conversation with you. It provides you with the ability to gain feedback from customers, respond better to requests and have a constant dialogue.

You can never over communicate with your customers but you can bombard them with crap. The web and your website should be designed and built so that the customer ultimately drives your business. Consider how your website can support your offline activity and how offline activity can drive people to your site.

There are no quick fixes but by looking at other sites perhaps we can learn a thing or two. Some great examples; Easyjet, Ebay, Tango, Harley Davidson and Firebox. 

I like this article/post by Kevin Kelly author of ‘Cool Tools.’

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/bigquestions.html?pg=3#questions

Once you’ve read it, try and answer this…..have your biggest questions in your small business been answered yet? If not what’s stopping us?

Why? You don’t have all the answers! It’s just as important to recruit, reward and have trouble makers on your team as well as trouble shooters. Engage with not only the reliable people who keep your business ticking over but with the people who are going to radically change it too!

However….. remember to be courageous enough to get rid of those that expend large amounts of energy maintaining the status quo!