Market Like a Politician

These guys can be as slippery as eels at times, but you have to give them credit for one thing - Marketing.
Who is the only person to disagree with Rumsfeld's strategy?
Who has the moral authority because they were an ordained preacher?
Who wants to unite the country with a message of hope and change?
Who has 35 years of experience of fighting for people?
Who has experience in the real economy with real life business experience?

I would be willing to bet that if you have any interest in politics and have been exposed to the debates you can answer each one of these questions correctly.

What's the point? Know your target market. Clearly articulate a message why you are the best choice for that market and repeat the message consistently and often.

Stand Up or Sit Down

Well once again the folks that we elect to run this country on our behalf never cease to amaze me. We had the state of the Union Address to congress last night and it looked like a bunch of kids at a sporting event.
Stand up when your cheerleader calls out the right cheer. If your cheerleader stands up quickly you stand up quickly to show the other side that you mean it more.
"We support a strong defense" , Republicans stand Democrats sit. We love and respect our troops, quickly now be first to stand. Bag of Bones Pelosi beats a weak hearted VP to her feet. The Democrats must love the troops more. The Republicans on the defensive now. The Cheerleaders and Loud Speaker start a chant Dee-Fense, Dee-Fense, Dee-Fense.
What the heck are these idiots doing? Quit with BS games of pandering and get down to business. There is a strong majority in the middle of this nation's populous that is willing to compromise on issues, but not ideals. We are not ready to Move-On to socialist policies that crush the business community and the spirit of the American entrepreneur.
If you believe in the ideals of this country, then quit trying to create a socialist debacle of a country. Get out of the way of small business. Return power to the local governments. Get your hand out of our wallets. In the end we want our politicians to make a decision. Stand up for an America of the people and for the people or sit down and shut up!

Focus, Focus, Focus

With respect to marketing and growing your business, focus is the answer to many of your ills. When you think of focus what comes to mind. For most people it is related to vision. The ability to see clearly. That can be true of the lens in photography it can also be true of your eyesight and the need for corrective lenses to bring clear vision.

What is your business vision? What did you hope to achieve when you went in to business? Some people will respond "make money" and that's fine, but what was the approach? Did you expect to be the best barber in your area? If so then surely the money would follow.(everyone likes a good haircut) What if you wanted to sell baby furniture? What would be the approach?

Whatever your vision for the business, you probably have an ideal buyer of your goods and services. Focus your time, money and energy on getting a message to that group. This is your target market. Most businesses fail in marketing because they try to use a net to fish for business instead of a hook and the right bait. You will end up with a ton of people looking with very few intending to buy.

Get focused on your target market and utilize all of your time,energy and money to attract the exact customer that will use your goods and services.

What a Porn Site

Martin , GO4BIG sounds like some of those e-mails that are flying around the Internet. Or so I was told one time when my e-mail was blocked by a client's server. I was a little offended that anyone would think that my organization would have anything to do with pornography. I guess I can see how they would come to that conclusion. When I look through my spam blocker I see the subject lines that have been changed with symbols to replace letters such as
have better s3x for sex,
Bigger and better results with v!agra for viagra,
Call today for a bigger p3n!s for penis. Okay you get the picture. Well now I sometimes have my valuable e-mails lumped in with the porno e-mails,the Girls,Girls,Girls requests and all the other pornography e-mails.

GO4BIG is an acronym for my unbelievably long corporate name Georgia Organization for Business Improvement and Growth (GO4BIG). It seemed logical to me when I started using it to share my business wisdom with small business owners. The old cliche says that sex sells. In this case my site has nothing to do with sex and I am being blocked from selling even though it has nothing to do with the sex trade.

What I find to be obscene is an electronic system that would block my information because it may be perceived inappropriate by an algorithm, but when people read the name there is no confusion whatsoever. I hope that this post will set the record straight. I am willing to bet that somehow this post will end up on some search lists as pornography because I did use the words sex, penis, girls and pornography in the same page. I hope that I am wrong, but we'll see.

In the meantime if you came across this site because of the business content you are in the right place. Please feel free to sign-up for my newsletter "52 Weeks to a better business" in the sign-up block to the right.

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Get a Routine

One the biggest concerns that I hear from my clients and people who have attended my workshops is the inability to get themselves in to a routine. I think that this is true of most people. The benefit of working for a larger organization is the structure that has been created to make all of the moving parts work toward a common goal. Small business owners and self employed people do not have the luxury of an outside entity to create the structure for them. You should create a routine for yourself in order to be more successful. The following steps should be helpful in creating that routine.

1. Determine your desired workday. (We'll soon talk about a required workday)
2. Start with planning. Create a To Do List. (look at TaDaList.com for a fun tool)
3. Determine what needs to be done
4. Prioritize the list
5. Allow for delays
6. Get started
7. Review results at the end of the day
8. Start the to do list for the following day

This is the basis for a basic routine. I will have more detail on this in coming posts. Start today and handle the basics.

Start at the desired start time each day with the same to do list routine and you will be surprised at how you start feeling a sense of control of your day.

Time slipping away

It is now past the halfway point in January. In most organizations, the year end results have been calculated and adjustments made to first quarter goals. Where do you stand on finalizing your results? As was mentioned in the previous blog, I believe that the failure to measure results is one of the key reasons that businesses fail.

It is counter intuitive to think that a business owner who claims to be in tune with their business so well that they don't need to formally measure their results. It is through measurement and reporting that business owners can become more intimately involved with the performance of the business.

Start today with the measurement program. Ensure that you have entered all of your 2007 cost items in your accounting software. Categorize the expenses and then run your end of year reports. Closely analyze your expenses and set a budget for the 2008 year by month.

This is usually the point where most business owners start to balk. Why do I need to do all of this they ask? Isn't that overkill for a small business they will ask? It is not overkill and no you don't have to do it. You will do it because it is good business for those that want to be successful. The choice to succeed is yours.

Time is slipping away. Run your reports, give yourself the best chanceto be successful!

Measure It

I attended a Sales Partners Worldwide Seminar last night and it was time well spent. Blair Singer was the featured presenter and he was a pleasure to listen to. There were many things that he discussed that are probably common knowledge within sales circles, but it is his mindset that is a differentiator.

He is a big believer in team and accountability. I appreciated hearing that message, because it is fundamentally how I live my life and coach my clients. It was probably when I first started playing sports as a youth that I learned the benefit of team work and accountability. A well coordinated team effort would out perform a group effort of more talented individuals most of the time.

That brings me to the purpose of this message. How can you determine how well you are doing if you don't measure the results? The answer is you can't determine the results if you don't measure the performance. That which you measure will improve. The assumption there being that you react to the results.

Follow this basic system to see where you stand and what you need to do.

1. Pick the element: (Sales, Cost, Marketing, Service Levels, etc...)
2. Baseline your current performance (Where are you today?)
3. Set your goals (Where do you want to be?)
4. Take action (You know what to do, just do it!)
5. Measure your results. (Daily, Weekly,Monthly,Quarterly,Annually)
6. Readjust your activities. (Do More, Get Help, Get Focused)
7. Repeat steps 5 & 6 until you have achieve your goals.

If I learned anything from my seminar last night it was the need to measure my own activities. As a small business owner, I am constantly in need of a check-up. Most of the time it is a check-up from the neck up that I need most.

Select your issue and get started.

Success in 2008

It is now 2008 and the election season is in full swing. What a bunch of hooey if you ask me. The media machine is running all over the free will of the American people. How is it that Rudy Guliani was once the front runner in national polls, but because he didn't go hang out in people's living rooms in Iowa, he is no longer considered a viable candidate. Don't get me wrong. I am not so much pulling for Rudy as I am someone who will shake up the system. We need someone who can create an environment that is friendly for small business. How about a ticket that has Romney for Prez with all of his business savvy and Huckabee with his fair tax philosophies.

Irregardless of the silly season of politics I wish the media would quit trying to talk us in to a recession. The small business community will carry the load for the media created slowdown. We need the American people to choose some folks that want to shake up Washington and create a fair tax that will rid the power brokers of their addiction to tax breaks for the special interest and lobbyists.