Worst practices in business: Who DOES that?

You’ve heard of business best practices, of course. They are the subject of books, articles and seminars nearly every day.

Far less often do people talk about the all-too-common everyday worst practices that can annoy your customers and vendors, slow your progress, squander your opportunities, and eventually, lead to serious harm or failure for your small business. You may have experienced many of these either from the customer or vendor side.

But who on earth would routinely behave in ways that could have such a negative impact on their business’ short- and long-term well-being? In fact, these everyday “worst practices” are surprisingly common:

• Fail to provide project or delivery updates when your customer requests them

• Turn in projects late or incomplete

• Over-promise, then under-deliver – and deliver when it’s too late for the customer to request changes

• Cut corners in quality and refuse to make good when requested to do so (or at best make good reluctantly)

• Don’t return phone calls or respond to emails from business associates in a timely manner

• Don’t show up when you say you will; make them wait

• Forget you asked for a meeting at your office, and be out at another meeting when your guests arrive

• Take the attitude that if they want your business, vendors should be available to answer your calls 24/7, holidays, weekends and late nights included

• Argue about price, even if the price you’ve been given seems fair (you can always save a little more, right?)

• Demand that vendors rush to do your work – every time

• Then, don’t pay the vendors for a long time – and make them inquire repeatedly about payment

• Lose your vendors’ invoices – every time, if possible

• Refuse to track your time, expenses, sales, and work product, and then blame everyone around you for poor profits

• Insist that you’ve “always done it this way”

• Think of business as a “zero-sum-game” – one person wins and the other must lose

• Assume that everybody else does business just the way that you do, and that you can go on this way indefinitely

In fact, you can get away with some of this for some period of time. One day, however, your customers may wander away, your vendors fail to jump to attention, your employees bail, and your profits vanish.

Before that happens, if you have an inkling that some of this sounds just a little like you, keep this list handy, and cross off each behavior as you eliminate it from your own everyday practices.

 

The hard, critical work of updating your business premise

[caption id="attachment_2350" align="alignleft" width="316"] Michelle van Schouwen and her treasured Mac SE, circa 1988.[/caption]

First published in Succeeding in Small Business.

Our marketing company, van Schouwen Associates, LLC, has been in business since 1985. That’s three change-filled decades.

Early on, we had a Mac SE; it was great for words but too slow for design work. Before that, we made do with my manual typewriter from college! We had a huge stat camera and a darkroom, too… but more important than all of that is the fact that we operated in a whole different business environment.

At one time, say, around 1985, it paid to be a "full service ad agency." Now we have determined that, in our case, it is far better to be neither "full service" nor an "ad agency." Business analysts in fact have written such cheery articles as How Ad Agencies Can Avoid a Death Spiral.

In this post, I’ll share the strategies and tactics that allowed us to change and thrive – rather than circling the drain as many other companies have done.

Unplanned potential obsolescence has loomed as a possibility for many companies – take Bakers Furniture in Stafford Springs, CT, closing its doors after being a well-respected retailer for over two centuries (and the oldest furniture store in the United States). Avoiding obsolescence is a big deal.

Updating your business is tough. How much easier is it to come to work each day and do what you did the day before? The answer: It IS easier, until you have too few customers, too few sales, too many stronger competitors, and/or a dim future.

In vSA’s case, we’ve made updates to our business model over time. As the company’s president, I’ve made it a policy that every week I must set aside time for what I (somewhat sardonically) call “Big Thoughts.”

To stimulate these Big Thoughts, I make sure to:

-Continually read articles, books and blogs created by the smartest businesspeople and relevant thinkers – from consultants to entrepreneurs to climate change experts and social policy developers.

-Ask our customers what they need, what they don’t need, what’s changing (and a whole lot more). Even when I don’t enjoy the answers, I absorb and deal with them.

-Listen to my staff.

-Create off-the-cuff notes, visions, elevator speeches, Q&As, and more – all for my own creative thinking process.

-Question my own assumptions and give weight to my own priorities for the company. See, for example, my recent Succeeding in Small Business post Make conscious decisions about growing your small business.

-Pay consultants when I need fresh thinking specific to my company. “(Know what you don’t know.”)

-Avoid clinging to the past. Avoid clinging to fantasies.

-Recognize 1) that arguably, the primary purpose of a business is to make money even if that means a pivot in services or purpose; 2) that change is constant and accelerating; and 3) that you can often develop new opportunities when old ones fade away.

For our company, the concept of being a “full service ad agency” was nice 30 or even 15 years ago. However, we found that it became more useful to focus on business-to-business (B2B) customers. We found as well that it was smart to develop sector expertise within the B2B category. We also found that we place a lot less advertising than we did 30 years ago, and that we are in fact not really an “ad agency.” Oh well.

Best, we realized that we are fantastic at launching things – “things” that range from new companies to new products to messages. We can, within our proven capabilities, conduct the whole marketing launch, from strategy to tracking and everything in between.

Today, van Schouwen Associates is a B2B launch marketing company. The hard work of updating the company now allows us to do work that matters to our customers, and work that matters to us.

Need further inspiration to change? Check out six successful companies who have changed their business strategies in recent years.

What will updating your business premise mean for your company?

Top five truths to review before your marketing launch

Recently I had the privilege of speaking to a group of entrepreneurs and business leaders to share facts they needed to know for any marketing launch.

There is nothing better than speaking to a crowd to vet what matters most to real businesses launching real stuff. It was a great experience, and I look forward to giving the same presentation again.

Among the 50 facts I shared, there are perhaps five basics that are most important for launchers to understand. These can form the overlay for all your efforts to follow.

1. You should exercise the full power and the breadth of launch marketing.

If you can offer “something” and it’s worth offering at all, it’s probably also worth launching. This means that you can conduct a marketing launch not only for a new product or service, but also for your brand, your messaging and even your point of view and organizational changes.

2. Many companies give up marketing at the least indication that “it’s not working.” Yet if you keep on marketing, you are already one BIG step ahead of the game. Many times, it takes repeated exposures to a brand, product or idea before a prospect becomes a buyer. By giving up too soon, you fail to achieve that critical number of prospect touches.

3. On the other hand, if you don’t believe what you’re saying, don’t say it. Sometimes we’ve worked so hard on something that we feel we have to keep pushing it along, no matter what. Consider the principle of sunk costs. Peddling a bad concept? Selling a product that should be retired already? Adapt, pivot or drop it.

4. ROI is important… and you won’t always have the means to track it. Sure, it’s important to make sure you’re getting results. But there are some really great forms of marketing (media relations, speaking engagements and cause marketing are just three examples) with which you won’t always be able to quantify precisely the fruits of your efforts…especially not immediately. Don’t get caught up in bean counting. Do the marketing anyway.

5. Assure prospects that they are not about to make a mistake in dealing with you. People seldom buy what they can’t understand. Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) kill the sale. Solving the problem of FUD makes the sale. Just remember, fear of regret is a very powerful anti-motivator.

Remember that basic wisdom - that which is most easily forgotten - can take you far.

A dozen considerations to build and protect your small business’ reputation

Among the most important assets a small business can have is its good reputation. In many cases, this reputation is an umbrella that includes the reputation of the business itself, your own professional and personal reputation, and the apparent attitudes and behaviors of your employees. This article was first published in Succeeding in Small Business.

You have probably heard Warren Buffett’s sage words on this topic, but they are relevant here, so we will repeat them:

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

In both good times and bad, your reputation will serve you well. It may win you customers. It will make your day-to-day interactions more often pleasant than not. It also helps assure that you are treated with respect when times are tough and you could use help, advice or even another couple of weeks to pay that invoice sitting on your desk.

Start with just 12 ideas to help you develop and keep a great reputation:

1. Whatever you stand for as a business, make sure it’s well-intentioned. In other words, don’t run a business whose premise is to rip off customers in any way. (And yes, such businesses certainly do exist. Ever heard the phrase “tourist trap,” for example?)

2. Make sure you fulfill your business’ promise in the everyday choices you make. In How Google Works, authors Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg describes the meaning of Google’s famous mantra as follows: “Yes, it genuinely expresses a company value and aspiration that is deeply felt by employees. But “Don’t be evil” is mainly another way to empower employees… Googlers do regularly check their moral compass when making decisions.” As a small business, you should do the same.

3. If you feel that business conditions are starting to demand that you relax your ethical standards, it is likely time to change the business, not your standards.

4. Lead by example. Especially if you have employees, recognize that company culture develops top-down. If the CEO is a miserable you-know-what, employees often start to behave the same way. If she is savvy, wise and good-natured, her staff will tend to follow suit. Here is a good article from The CEO Institute on this subject.

5. Off-hours, continue to be that great person. Don’t have temper tantrums in the mall, underpay the babysitter, get drunk and carouse in public (or drive under the influence) and don’t be rude to people. This is always good advice, but as a businessperson with a reputation to maintain, you have one more reason to make it so.

6. Watch your keyboard! In these heady days of social media, that can be easier said than done. Your one rash or inopportune social media post or your one furious letter to the editor can go farther than all the carefully-thought-out communiques you’ve issued all year.

7. Make changes whenever you need to. This includes customer and business direction moves, staffing changes, and other alternations to course, difficult or not, that keep your business healthy. In the long run, doing the right thing for the company is good for your reputation as a savvy business owner. BUT…

8. Whenever possible, don’t burn bridges and don’t make enemies. In most circumstances, you can handle change either the right way or the wrong way. Don’t be nasty when you stop using a vendor. If you must fire an employee, help him maintain his dignity. Be deferential to competitors. BUT…

9. When that’s not feasible, minimize the unpleasantness. It buys you nothing.

10. Get involved in something positive. Pay it forward, share your expertise, give your time. Maybe you’ll coach a team, serve on a board, support a non-profit, or mentor a young person. Do this consistently, not just for your reputation, but also because it feels good and is a good thing to do. (See my post “I gave at the office:” 17 ways to give back that are good for you and your small business in the Succeeding in Small Business blog).

11. If you have employees, make clear to them your expectations for customer service, work performance, decorum, dress, and anything else that is important to your business reputation. What’s more, employees with terrible reputations outside the office will unfortunately reflect poorly on your company as well. Within the bounds of your legal rights as an employer, strive to have respectable, nice people working for you.

12. Give yourself the mental space and sources of relaxation and renewal you need to maintain your own wellbeing. It is a lot easier to maintain the standards described in this article when overall, you are reasonably happy, rested and calm.

A good reputation will be your reward.

Make conscious decisions about growing your small business.

Article originally published in Succeeding in Small Business.

Entertainer Sophie Tucker (and others) famously said, “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. Rich is better.”

Some people would make a similar remark about owning a business, with larger being better. But is it always true?

As a small business owner, you may want to grow your company, and you may even have plans to do so. Before you put your foot on the accelerator, take the time to decide whether (and how much) you should grow your company.

What do you really want?

Do you very much want to scale a business? Have more employees to help carry the weight? Have the potential to make more money? Create something that is worth a great deal of money, or that changes the world? You have the entrepreneurial drive to build your small business into a large one.

Do you need to grow to appear competitive in your market? To have the budget to get the word out, make more sales, and become an industry leader?

Can you be successful as a boutique? In some industries, the Davids are giving the Goliaths a run for their money.

Do you want a business that comfortably supports you and also leaves time for you to be with family, pursue other interests or take vacations? You may want to grow but to control the growth so that you can enjoy what some people call a lifestyle business. While this term has been used condescendingly in entrepreneurial circles, there is also an increasing recognition that a solid lifestyle business can indeed be a great business to run. Check out 7 Reasons Most People Should Build Lifestyle Businesses, Not Startups.

Potential

What potential does your business have to grow? Some businesses are like finely tuned sports cars. They aren’t working at full capability unless they are on the track, racing forward. They are built to move fast and make things happen.

Other businesses are engineered for steady travel instead. Carpooling and family vacations, say.

How about your company? And are you happy with that Chevy or Lamborghini your company is today? Or do you want to reengineer your business for a different driving experience?

Responsibilities

In a very small business, you do nearly everything yourself. As your business grows, you will delegate some tasks.

As you grow even more, or scale the business (see a nice explanation of business scaling in Fortune), your responsibilities are likely to change from doing or a blend of doing-and-managing to higher level managing.

Before putting your dreams of growth into practical steps, consider whether you like doing or managing or some blend of the two, and also whether the satisfaction you get from business is from the rush of entrepreneurial growth or from the day-to-day running of the company you have today.

Money

Depending on how you grow and what type of business you have, you have the potential to make more money as the company gets bigger. Generally, this is one major motivation for growing a company.

It should be recognized that there are times when the larger business is not more lucrative for its owner. As you take on more employees, more infrastructure and more risk (see below) you also have more potential areas for poor performance and resulting reduced financial returns. Which brings us to risk.

Risk

Big leases, big loans, shared equity, a larger staff, and other potential demands of a growing business carry with them higher risk alongside  higher prospective reward.

A fast-growing business typically brings some loss of control as well as challenges maintaining quality, assuring profitability, and managing your (potentially also large) competition.

Be aware not only of your best-case scenario but also your worst. Are you ready to deal with risk?

This article from Inc., 5 Risks for a Growing Business, and How to Manage Them is a good primer for companies planning significant growth.

Salability of company

What will you do with your company when you are ready to retire or move on? Will your children run it? Will key employees buy it or take it over? Will you sell it? Will it end when you stop working?

Size is one consideration in this matter. Many small business advisors recommend that you fund your retirement while you are working, in the event that “you are the company” and that the business “dies with you.”

A business that is not overly dependent on you, and that can continue to make money after you move on, is typically a more saleable enterprise.

Unless you have a novel technology in hand, cash is king when it comes to selling a business, so if making a lot of money from the eventual sale of your company is a key consideration in your planning, you may indeed want to grow the business aggressively.

Small businesses that can run without you can be salable, too, since people frequently prefer to buy an existing business rather than starting their own. However, the proceeds are likely to be lower.

So…

As a business owner, you have a unique opportunity to make conscious decisions about growth, based on the market for your services or products, and on balancing pros and cons of large versus small, considering your own management style, and reviewing how you want to blend business and life goals.

Whatever you decide, you have the privilege and the pride that comes with running a business. So many people would like to do what you are doing every day!

After 30 years in business, I'm learning from startups.

We all understand the need for fresh thinking and continuous improvement.

Of course, continuing to generate new ideas and improvements demands that one also seeks sources for inspiration.

I am fortunate in this regard to have found a wellspring of new and original thinking in the principals of entrepreneurial start-ups. In recent years, I’ve become involved in organizations whose mission is to further entrepreneurial success. One great example is Valley Venture Mentors (VVM), a Western Massachusetts organization providing “support to the entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

At VVM and other groups, I have the privilege of hearing early-phase new business plans that entrepreneurs are pitching or submitting for review. Sometimes, I offer counsel on launching ideas, products and brands. Often, I learn at least as much from the process as I impart.

Much of what is true for startups is also important to longer-established businesses. Lessons in “what makes for a successful startup” that have made a lasting impression on me include the following:

Focus is important.

Daniel Goleman, author of Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, claims that the ability to focus is the primary predictor of both professional and personal excellence and success. The entrepreneurs who most often succeed demonstrate this ability to both see and remain committed to the overarching goals they set.

Flexibility is important, too.

Yes, focus is great, but focus at the expense of the ability to regroup, redirect and (to use an overused phrase) pivot can go beyond persistence to become foolish stubbornness. When do you know a plan is not working? Thomas Edison famously said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” Sure, but more often, 10,000 failures indicate that it’s time to seriously tweak, pivot or discard.

The best entrepreneurs combine the ability to focus with the ability to continue generating ideas.

This is why we see so many serial entrepreneurs, who develop a company, sell it, and then develop another. And if an idea doesn’t quite work, they can often refashion it into one that does.

No entrepreneur should be an island.

During business plan reviews, many a seasoned businessperson will offer advice – on concept, phasing, financials, regulatory and testing matters, competitive scene, and more. Not only does the entrepreneur learn something, the rest of the review participants often do as well. There are a lot of really smart people out there, with a great deal to share if you have the willingness to hear it.

This is still a great world full of wonderful ideas.

Many of the business plans I hear are confidential, so just let me say… world health, the environment, education, communication, and a multitude of other burning needs give us the opportunity to improve the world. If indeed the world does improve, I bet it will be in large part thanks to the efforts of focused, flexible, imaginative, and well-mentored small and growing businesses and, of course, their fearless leaders.

Reaching unreachable people

I don't answer my phone at the office anymore unless I know the caller.

A lot of my email goes in the trash unread.

I don't even listen to my voicemails.

I can't possibly read everything I need to read.

Does this sound like your customers and prospects? Let's face it, many decision-makers are overwhelmed with demands, sales calls, interruptions, and urgent tasks. This is especially true with the ever-increasing number of channels contributing to information overload. The jaunty concept of the information superhighway is not only antiquated but far out of sync with where we are today; standing in the middle of a field in an intense information hailstorm, with little chance of respite or shelter.

Much as you may empathize with everyone who wants to shut down all the noise, you have urgent needs of your own.

There are customers and prospects to reach, new products to launch and messages and a brand to promote. How can you reach your particular "unreachable people" who have resorted to avoiding unwanted messaging? How do you compete in this crazy environment?

-Use multiple channels. We know that people are still reading, viewing and listening to some information - they are just skipping lots more. What exactly any one person is taking in varies, of course, although there are clear trends among specific groups. By employing, let's say, social media, content marketing, press visibility, select advertising, trade show and conference presence and engagement, and maybe even the surprise of a print (gasp) newsletter, you will get through with some percentage of your efforts.

-Be useful more than you are promotional. Remember, in an ideal world, your offerings solve a problem your prospect has. Give a little, in terms of information, advice or value, and you will enjoy better reception than you would otherwise receive.

-Remember that no matter how busy your prospects and influentials are, they take time out for social media or content that they think constitutes a a bit of a break from their primary pursuits. Since the new equivalent of water cooler socializing and coffee breaks is reading an article on LinkedIn, checking Facebook or reading a blog, be a lively and interesting participant online. Do communicate, on occasion, about something other than your own company and its products. Engage in give-and-take discussions about trends, industry activities, customer accomplishments, and more. People enjoy engaging a lot more than they enjoy being sold to.

-Make it a better world. Guide your company to develop or express social responsibility. Become involved in cause marketing. Sponsor important events. Mentor youth. Create truly green products. Save the environment. Whatever you do, do something valuable - and in the process, reach unreachable people.

-Don't waffle. How many companies start a project (and marketing outreach is as valid an example as any other) and then don't fulfill, change course, lose faith, or make crippling budget cuts? After three decades in the business, the vSA team can assure you that the most successful marketers are continuous, consistent marketers who don't try to grow chiefly by cutting costs.

-Put in your 10,000 hours. Author Malcolm Gladwell estimates that the world's best (at anything) enjoyed not only talent and good fortune but also put in an estimated 10,000 hours of effort before becoming so-called overnight successes. Whatever that true effort-hours number may be, a solid commitment contributes to the difference between mediocre and great results.

In short, it is indeed difficult to reach "unreachable" prospects and customers, but it must be done if you plan to maximize sales and business success. Make sure your message is meaningful, your methods multiple, your purpose at least in part noble, and your activity and motivation unflagging.

By doing ALL these things, you are likely to outperform many of your competitors not only in your reach but in reaching other key, quantifiable business objectives as well.