Mine Your Own Business

Some Times Things Are Not as Bad as They Seem

This short posting is a little different than usual since it really doesn't involve small business directly, but it does provide some encouraging news on a Friday afternoon. A recent article in Time makes the point that perhaps the results of the spill in the Gulf of Mexico may not be as disastrous as originally predicted. Some of the effects will not be known for some time, but at this point it appears we may have dodged a bullet in this disaster.

Two more interesting aspects of this article is that there is a link to a counterpoint to the article about two thirds down on the first page of the article and there is also a link to some very interesting comments. This does relate to small business in one sense, when you are facing some difficult issues in your business the final results may not turn out to be as bad as they initially appeared.

Make a Customer Feel Special

Today's post will be a little different than most of our posts, since we usually link to another article. Today we are going to start out with a quote and give two examples of making customers feel special. Here's the quote:

People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

--Maya Angelou,
American writer

Now for two examples of putting this quote into practice.

“I was in a Cricket telephone store with my brother last week.  He was getting a new cell phone when his old one got lost when it fell out of his pocket on the bus.  He didn’t mention this to the store owner until after he had paid for the new phone.  The store owner reached over to a display rack, took down a plastic cell phone holster and told him that maybe that would help.  No charge.  A very inexpensive way to make a customer feel special.” 

Bill Hinderer

I was on vacation in Florida for the last two weeks and one restaurant we have visited almost every year for the past fourteen years is Johny Leverock's Seafood House in Placida Florida. The food and service is always excellent, it has a great view of a marina, and it is locally owned. We were in a fairly large group of family and friends when we visited them one evening for dinner, but there was a very large group that arrived just before us and the service was slower than usual.

Here is how the waitress made our group feel special. She brought us two free appetizers after taking our orders, without us even requesting them. The two orders of crab cakes were excellent (we'd never tried them there before) and it made the wait much more tolerable. She turned what could have been hungry and cranky customers into very satisfied customers and our friends who had never eaten there were very impressed.

So do you have an example of ways some business has made you feel special or perhaps something you have used in your business to salvage a bad situation or make a customer feel special?

Small Business Help

The current difficult economy has been especially tough on some small businesses. A recent poll by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) bears this out by reporting that the NFIB Index of Small Business Optimism lost 3.2 point in June after minor gains for several months. Maybe the Summer doldrums? Perhaps and hopefully things will improve in the next few months but a recent article points out many of the difficulties facing small businesses in the current economy.

The good news is that the article does make the point that the public can help small businesses by buying locally from small businesses whenever possible. This has been a recurrent theme in Mine Your Own Business and it may be more important than ever. The other point the article makes is to do the research and vote for political candidates that truly support small business. The last thing you might be able to do is print out a copy of the article and post it in your business, it might make some of your current customers realize how important it is to support local small businesses.

Business Vacation

We promised in the last post to follow up on how to delight your customers, but in the meantime this article on the importance of small business owners taking a vacation and also emphasizing that their vacation may actually have some positive impact on their business caught our attention. The article presents four points on how a vacation can be beneficial to the owner and the business:

1. Define Success.
2. Hire Quality.
3. Delegate.
4. Leverage Technology.

The last point of the article about leveraging technology really caught my attention. I'm on vacation in Florida for two weeks, but I can log in to my computer at work, check my e-mail, and even do this blog. I don't spend hours every day online, but just a few minutes early in the morning or late at night gives me peace of mind that when I return from my vacation everything will be just fine with no disasters when I return. Something to think about when a small business owner takes a well deserved vacation.

Baker's Dozen

Ever wonder where the term Baker's Dozen comes from? There was an interesting post on small business and the Baker's Dozen (which I'll get to later), but I got curious on more of the background on the Baker's Dozen, did some research on the Internet, and and here is what Wikipedia reports on the history of the Baker's Dozen.

The point of the article is to give your customer a little bit extra, go above and beyond to satisfy their normal expectations, and even delight your customers (more to follow on that later). In the meantime here is a past post from Mine Your Own Business on exceeding your customer's expectations and a link to the article.

Do You Have to Cut Prices to Match the Competition?

Pricing is a frequent topic on Mine Your Own Business, one of the most recent ones was on June 10th in Time to Raise Prices? where we discussed if it was time to think about increasing the prices of your product due to the improving economy. While the economy is still slowly improving (at least for most of us), an article in USA Today caught my attention based on two things, the idea of cutting prices to match the competition and the fact that I'm on vacation in Florida and just flew down here from St. Louis via Southwest Airlines which is mentioned in the article (Southwest Airlines, not my vacation).

The flight from St. Louis to Florida was completely filled with not an empty seat, but the flight left on time, the crew was friendly and efficient, and we arrived on time. We got some snacks and a free beverage. What more could you ask for? The point made in the article is that Southwest Airlines provided just what we wanted, efficient transportation to Florida with minimal frills, something to think about when you are considering pricing for your small business.

Chaos Control

Small business owners know how hectic most days are and even starting the day with the best intentions can result in total chaos within a few hours. Now comes an article from Steve Strauss posting at USA Today that gives six tips on chaos control:

1. Build your emotional capital.
2. Practice disciplined optimism.
3. Assert your independence.
4. Organize your stuff.
5. Follow up, follow up, follow up.
6. Burn the to-do list.

All of us have our strengths and weaknesses, so anyone that knows me would say I need to especially concentrate on point 4 above with point 5 being a close second. If all else fails, try Steve's tip at the bottom of the posting. Many of us have problems with delegating tasks to others, but sometimes it can be one of the most effective tools to control chaos.

More on Social Media

Still hesitant to jump into the Social Media Marketing arena? So was Colgate
-- toothpaste giant. But, they did it successfully by mixing video, games
and Facebook to target a new segment -- 18 - 25 yrs.

Their key to making it all work was engagement. Traditionally, marketing is
measured by impressions -- how many people will see you advertisement in the
paper, billboard, magazine, etc. Now days, the focus is on engagement -- how
many people will engage with your marketing, inspiring them to try the
product. It's more than posting an advertisement and expecting people to
buy. It's about entertaining them, showing them and making it fun. It's
about relating to them as an individual, not as another face in the crowd.

How are you engaging your market?

Here is a link to an interesting article on how Colgate engaged their market.

Kind regards,
Kendra Jeffery
Online Marketing Manager
Tacony Corporation

Credit Unions and Small Business Loans

We've all heard about how tight credit is during the current economic situation and while this doesn't cause problems for many small businesses, it can have a dramatic impact on the one ones that do need a business loan. Now comes an interesting article that describes how credit unions are increasing their number of business loans while banks are decreasing their loans.

The article gives several examples where credit unions provided loans with a longer term and at a better interest rate than banks offered. Talk about a better situation with credit unions over banks, the loans are easier to get, are longer term, and have a better interest rate. So how are credit unions able to do this? The article describes how they don't have to worry about increasing quarterly profits for shareholders, so this allows them more flexibility in their business loans.

Hiring Tips

As the economy ever so slowly improves (and hopefully you are seeing improvement for your small business), the time will come when you will probably need to hire some new employees. Hiring new people is one of the more difficult tasks facing small business owners, because it can be very challenging and it is also crucial to your business to do it correctly. A recent article provides some help in this area. First it provides a list of questions that are prohibited by the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission:

• What is your maiden name?
• How old are you?
• Do you plan on having kids in the future?
• What religion are you?

You may have already been aware of most or all of these no nos, but the article goes a step further and gives some ideas on some questions that may help an owner to get a handle on the capabilities of the job candidate. These questions would help with understanding the motivation, work standards, and other important points of the  prospective employee. All in all there are six questions the article suggests and you can read the whole article here.