The building where I work is getting a new roof. It’s been needed for a while. It’s an old building, and when leaks developed in the original roof, the building owners didn’t patch the roof. They put a new roof over that one. They’ve put four roofs on over the original one. So over the years when leaks developed, they would trickle down through the layers of roofing and the leak would come out nowhere near the actual hole.

I was talking with a graphic designer and web developer friend of mine recently, the day after the roofing work started. She said she had a client who created a website several years ago with a sentence containing a date. It’s one of those situations we try to avoid when we’re writing web text. It says something like, “We started this site 5 years ago…” and each year it’s wrong, because another year has gone by. (Say, “We started this site in 2010…” Problem solved.)

This client also used a non-web-based font for this text. So they had to add this text to their website as an image. Even if the designer sent them a file that they could edit, they wouldn’t be able to because they wouldn’t have the fonts.

The result? Every year they have to ask the designer to update the image and put it on their site. They’re paying her hourly fee to do this. She’s suggested that they replace the text with a different font that they can edit themselves. They keep saying no to this because paying her to replace the text costs a little bit more than paying her to fix the image each year.

Seth Godin said there are three ways to deal with a problem:

Lean into it.

Lean away from it.

Run away.

When you lean into a problem, you can solve it. Our roofers now are pulling up 5 layers of roofing material to get to the original roof so that they can finally, after decades, give it a proper fix. My friend’s client is going to pay a lot more for the website updating over the life of the site because they are running away from the solution of being able to update it themselves. Each year they pay $50 to have her fix this, when one year they could pay $100 to have her fix it permanently.

If you feel like you’re constantly butting up against something that you have to keep dealing with in an unpleasant way, give a little thought to how you can fix it. Not patch it. Fix it.

Are you constantly deleting unwanted emails? Decide that for one week you’re going to take the extra few seconds to unsubscribe from the unwanted emails. I’ve done this, and it’s amazing at what a lighter feeling I get now looking at my inbox.

Are you constantly paying someone for something that is on ongoing or recurring issue on your website? Maybe your inventory isn’t tracking very efficiently. Maybe you send out emails and they don’t get read. Maybe you’re meeting with people, but they don’t call you back.

Lean into the problem until you can find a way to fix it. Leaning away from a problem and running away from a problem are never going to pay off in your favor.

When you’re in business and you don’t know where you are going, the path can be scary. Looking ahead often reveals nothing but a tangled thicket, with brambles at every turn.  But when you know where you’re going, the path ahead suddenly starts to look different.

The walls that formerly looked like obstacles shrink. What formerly looked like an impenetrable thicket worthy of Brer Rabbit becomes a warren of passageways and possibilities.

Not knowing what’s next instills a feeling of inadequacy and anxiety. What’s the most effective way to avoid these feelings? Set goals.

List your wants, needs and ideas. Chart a path. Figure out where you are and where you want to be.

Notice how I’ve not said, “Make a plan.” Don’t plans fail? Aren’t plans made to be changed? I’ve heard that somewhere before. That’s why I say set goals instead.

Yes, plans do not always go as planned! But when you set a goal, you decide how to achieve it. You are at Point A and you want to get to Point B. There could be a multitude of paths between Point A and Point B and you could find yourself on any of them at any given time, depending on what decisions you make along the way. There is no right or wrong way to get to Point B. And if you’re focused on a goal of arriving at Point B instead of following a plan, it hardly matters.

If you really want to achieve the goal, you will. Nothing will stand in your way, and if something does stand in your way, you’ll find a new path around it.

If a product launches and no one hears about it, does anyone care? We know that not every product can drop with the hype of a new Apple iPhone. But a key to building successful sales and repeat customers is for as many people as possible to hear about a product launch. Not just when the launch happens, but before and after as well. How can you do that? How can you maximize your product launch? The best launches have some momentum you can build on.

1. Make sure people know your backstory. We touched on this in the post, “Introduce Yourself, Get Personal, Share Your Motivations.” If people know your story, then the conversation changes. It can go from, “Oh, did you hear there’s another product that does this?” to, “Oh, did you hear that the people who did this made a new product?” The second example makes the launch of the product not just about the product, but about the people behind it, and that’s ideal.

2. Get people talking before the launch. Leave some room in your budget for some pre-launch excitement. If you’re boosting on Facebook, you might boost some posts that give a little excitement or teaser of the product without revealing exactly what it is. If you know your product will launch in summer, when spring comes put something on your website to tease it. When you send out newsletters prior to your launch, put in a little house ad or photo teasing what’s to come. Check this link on Pinterest which has some clever examples of ways that images can be used in your newsletter, on your website and in your social media posts to generate interest on a product or service that is yet to come: https://www.pinterest.com/explore/teaser-campaign/

3. Get people talking, part two. Reach out to leaders in your industry and tell them that you have an exciting product launch planned. Get them on board to write reviews or articles about it when it’s ready.

4. Set the scene. When Apple launches a new product, they have closed their online store, so that people who visit their website know something exciting is taking place. Their customers almost have no choice but to listen. Can you instigate that level of excitement in your launch? If you, with your non-Apple-sized budget and your busy life, were going to really get people to pay attention to your launch, how would you do it?

5. Take pre-orders. There are many ways that this can work. You could invite people to pay $10 ahead of time for $10 off their order when your new flavor of smoothie bowl launches. You could sign people up ahead of time for an appointment as soon as your new service launches. Get some buy-in and harness some of that enthusiasm you’re hoping to create ahead of time.

6. Be different. Perhaps the main reason that Apple can sell 1.7 million units of an iPhone within the first three days of a launch is because the product that they offered was not only revolutionary. It also was marketed in a way that spoke to people. Steve Jobs didn’t just talk about how great the phone was. He talked about how it could make life easier for people. He talked about how it made common every day tasks easier and more convenient. That made people want it. And the phone delivered on its promise.

What room do you have to be different? Can you offer something above and beyond what anyone else in your niche is doing? If so, that’s what people will resonate with and that’s what they’ll buy. Something different. Something that helps them.

​There’s so much pressure when you sit down to write an advertising piece or blurb for your website, isn’t there? Just google “how to write advertising copy” for gazillions of articles about how the copy has to be JUST RIGHT or you won’t EVER SELL ANYTHING. Well, we know it sucks! What will you do if you NEVER SELL ANYTHING EVER and it’s your copywriting that’s to blame?!

The truth is, the copywriting may be bearing too much of the marketing load. Here’s why…

1. Most people decide on a purchase or to hire a service provider based on a combination of elements. We wrote this last week, that buying a service is more emotional than logical. The customer has your social media, your email newsletters, all the “freebies” you’ve given them over the years (value added downloads or extras), your About page, your advertising, and all of the other content on your website to use to make up their minds about whether to buy from you or not. Are you really worried that the emotional resonance of the paragraph you’re toiling over is lacking and therefore YOU WILL NEVER SELL ANYTHING EVER? Allow your body of work to carry the weight of your products and services. The one thing you’re stressed about writing right now is probably not that important.

2. You want it to be “perfect.”

Here’s how we feel about perfection.

3. You fear sounding silly.

The great thing about the internet is that websites can be changed. Write your product description. Go back to it a couple days later. Ask a colleague or friend to read it over. If you’re not happy with it, change it.

4. ​You hate writing.

This one is legitimately hard to overcome. Some people just don’t enjoy writing. It can be hard to mentally get over starting at a blank screen or blank piece of paper and make any ideas come out. If that’s the case for you, there are website development agencies, like ours, that offer these services. There are also resources for finding freelance writers and editors who can take the information you want to present and craft it into something you can be happy with. Take advantage of these services and reduce the load on yourself for the things you really just don’t want to do. It’s ok!

Here’s what you need to remember….the offer is more important than the words. Make it truly valuable, and offer the customer service that makes people happy, and you’re golden. Maybe even, you’ll come to like copywriting someday!

If you’re in a service business, your customers are the reason you’re in business. Right? You’re out there doing what you do for the people who want it. If you find out what your customers really want is something almost exactly like what you’re offering but slightly different, would you change your service?

When customers buy a service, they want their problems solved. Messy house and no time to clean? They want a cleaning service. But that’s not all. They want cheerful service. On time-service. Service that delivers what was promised. That doesn’t make them feel inadequate for needing or wanting to hire a cleaning service in the first place. They want that service at a fair price. They want to be able to trust the service completely, even if they aren’t home. If you get any of these things wrong, you probably have lost a customer.

The person who hires a cleaning service–or any service–is struggling with a problem they want solved, and is buying into much more than just “a product.” The transaction is much more emotional than logical.

You fail to give customers what they really want when you do one of three things:
1. Treat every customer the same
2. You’re not asking customers what they really want
3. You’re not listening when they tell you

Treating every customer the same…what does that mean? Don’t dumb down your services so you’re reaching the lowest common denominator. Don’t assume that the complaining customer only wants a refund. Maybe he wants an apology, and one that seems sincere at that. Not treating every customer the same means being an authentic human that is relating to that authentic human that is talking with you about their concerns.

Asking customers what they really want can be easy. Use recent subscriptions or purchases as triggers to follow up with an email asking for product reviews, service feedback or survey participation. If you use an automated email for this, offer different ways of receiving replies, including calling you with a direct phone number.
When you get feedback, don’t use a cut-and-paste response.

Find out what your customers really want. Let them know that you got their answers and that you really care. Use that information to enhance their loyalty to you. It might mean slightly changing the formula of your product or service. Maybe even just for that one customer. Because after all, without customers, you have no service.

How do you get your business on a fast-growing trajectory? Here’s one thing you don’t do…keep wishing. Wishing your business was on a fast-growing trajectory is not what it takes. Here are the three ingredients to rapid business growth.

1. Overcome your fear
Yes, you might fail. You might get some negative comments. Your attempts to connect with someone might not work. Everyone struggles with fear and anxiety. Think of a song or piece of art that you love. What if that musician had not written the song because she was afraid she would sound silly singing it?

We all have fear. How do you get rid of it? The only way to get rid of fear is to do things that will never have any possibility of failure. That’s not the path to be on. Tell yourself, “I’m scared, but I’m going to do this anyway.”

Things will change when you do something different. Make something happen. What is it you want to achieve? If you want a newspaper article about your business, reach out to someone in the press. Are you trying to find a blogger to review your product? Reach out to one. If you already did that and nothing happened, reach out again.

If you don’t like how things are going, imagine your business as a river with kids playing on its banks. Even moving a small rock can have a big impact on which direction the current flows. Something is going to happen because you have done something.

3. Learn from your mistakes.
It is not always possible to know what the outcomes of a decision will be. It’s not always possible to know HOW or WHY something happens, just that it DOES. Many times in business, you must act, then adjust. It is best to make an informed choice as best you can. Think things through, ask for advice, consider all possibilities. And then, see step number two, above. Take action.

If it doesn’t work out the way you intended, learn from that and revise your strategy next time. Obstacles will always appear and change shape and form. Sometimes they will disappear when you approach them. Setbacks will always be there in some form or another. Learn from them and keep moving.

Can you do good work and fail? Yes.

Can you do good work and be bad? No.

If you wake up in the morning and are working to achieve your goals that day, you are doing good work. That could mean chipping away at a large goal or achieving something small.

If you sit at your desk but aren’t sure what to do, that’s also good work. The important thing is that you show up and are trying.

It’s possible that the outcome of your work is not what you wished. Perhaps you didn’t connect with someone like you expected to. Your customers didn’t respond to your offer like you anticipated they would. The board members or the presentation group didn’t understand your ideas they way you thought they would. That is disappointing. But it’s not bad work.

What does it mean to do good work? Show up, regroup, try again and learn from both your successes and your failures.

You signed up to be a business owner! But you didn’t major in bookkeeping in college, or marketing. Payroll or scheduling is always stressful, and you don’t look forward to inventory day. What can you do to spend more time on what you love about your business?

Now that you’ve been in business for a while, you probably spend a lot of time things you don’t like doing. Like resolving problems between employees. Customer service issues. And managing the mountain of business-related paperwork that never seems to get smaller. But what you really need to do is get to the grocery store. And your kids have been begging for one-on-one time.

Owning a business is stressful. Many business owners find out that they don’t have the time to do what they truly love about the business. Or, at least, not what they hoped they’d be doing as a business owner. Here are 5 ways to spend more time on what you love about your business.

1. Use scheduling tools.

The beauty of tools such as Facebook and Hootsuite is that you can write something now and get it ready to post days, weeks or months in advance. Do what you can when you have time, and these tools will let you skip days when you don’t.

2. Hire out what you love least.

If you’re constantly stressed about bookkeeping, or blog post writing, find a professional to do those things for you. The more stressed you are about the big things that you really don’t like doing, the less time and energy you have for the little things. Businesses big and small have professional service providers. You can too.

3. Give yourself permission to say no.

Your friends, or your kid’s school, may think that because you are a business owner, you have employees to manage everything for you. They may truly not realize how busy you are. When you get asked to do things like help out with the school’s holiday party or coach little league, there’s no need to recite a list of everything you’re already doing.

Train yourself to say something like, “That sounds fun, I’m sorry I can’t help.” Or, “I’d like to, but my schedule is full.” Resist the urge to say, “ask me next time,” because that’s setting yourself up for a similar question next week. Instead, ask for a calendar of events they need help for so you can sign up in advance. Or tell them what you can do. Say, “I have time on Monday afternoons, so if you need any help on those days, let me know.”

The more you practice this, the easier it gets!

4. Give your employees permission to make decisions.

Since I’ve worked in marketing and also writing articles for so many years, I have had a lot of experiences with small business owners who missed out on being interviewed by our town’s newspaper or magazine simply because they weren’t around, and no one else could speak for them.

You can’t be on call or in the office every hour of every day. Designate one of your employees to speak to the press on your behalf. A trusted employee can handle problems as they arise, so if you aren’t reachable your employees can still make progress.

I’ve met business owners who set aside Wednesdays as personal days, and refused to answer their phone or email at that time. There’s no harm in doing this, and in fact this may be a good way to preserve your sanity. But do empower your employees to move forward even if you can’t be reached.

5. Focus on what you did do, not what you should have done.

Set your agenda for the day, but leave some wiggle room for the unexpected things that come up. I am a list maker. I have found that I continually put about 3 times as many items on my daily to-do list as I can reasonably accomplish. I’m stressed when it’s the end of the day and I still have incomplete tasks.

I have found that simply keeping things reasonable helps so much. Write down the most important items, and hold a couple back. If you find that you have more time, you can always add them. And at the end of the day, look at what you did, and praise yourself. That’s a lot more pleasant than looking at what you didn’t do and feeling upset.

I just got back from Las Vegas, where I attended two different, very large trade shows and conventions that were both happening the same week. Both of these events are large enough to draw people from all over the world, and both are in extremely different industries. One I had attended before and the other I had not.

I picked up literature of the numerous business development seminars being offered at both events. One topic each offered was a session on the theme of working with Millennials. The first conference had a seminar about managing and motivating your team based on personality, and leadership in a multi-generational workforce, both of which addressed Millennials. The other offered a similar program entitled “Managing in the Multi-Generational Workplace.”

Both sessions referenced the exit of Baby Boomers from our workforce and the influx of Millennials. This is a broad name for a group of people born in the years 1980 to 1999. According to Forbes, by 2025 Millennials will make up to 75% of the world’s working population.

Each generation is convinced that the other generations “just don’t get it.” This feeling can lead to confusion and friction in the workplace. The second session described “radically different core motivations” for each generation. I’m personally experiencing that as I’m working with one team of older people who have been very slow to accept technological advances. This older group is not comfortable doing things such as updating a website. Even the “simple” things such as using Dropbox or accessing services like Google Drive through a gmail account, which is very common in work places now, is very challenging for this particular group of people. Because of this, their business has suffered.

We’re not suggesting that every Millennial is the same, but in general, researchers have concluded that Millennials have certain differences. Here are our tips for working with Millennials. Leave your own tips or experiences in the comments!

Millennials are motivated by things other than money.

Millennials place a high priority on healthy work-life balance. They want flexible work times, the ability to work from home, paid time off and personal days that they can use without feeling guilty. They appreciate workplace perks such as a stocked cafeteria or access to professional development courses or training so they can advance.

Millennials want to understand why.

Whereas older generations would likely do what they are told without question, Millennials will be more likely to ask, “Why?” That doesn’t mean that the Millennial is being disrespectful or questioning your authority, as that question might come across. It means they want to know your decision-making process. They want to know what the end goal is and how their piece is working towards it. They want a chance to see the big picture and give their opinion.

Millennials like feedback, but they also like to work independently.

That doesn’t mean they can’t be part of a team, but they don’t like to be micromanaged. And really, who does! Give them clear tasks and expectations, and a deadline, and let them do it. If they don’t meet the goals, then have a discussion about what might change. But there’s no need to check in with them on a daily basis as long as they have a clear idea of what they are supposed to be working on.

Many people have said, “Millennials don’t like to be told what to do, but it’s my job to tell them what to do.” How does that work together? Find a balance of granting autonomy while giving them space to check in with you when they feel they need to. When they do check in, provide honest feedback and praise where appropriate. Millennials seem to appreciate an employee-employer relationship that is more like mentorship than, “do what I say because I’m the boss.”

Millennials are more likely to have tattoos and piercings, and colored hair.

So what? Honestly, I’ve never met anyone whose tattoos or haircut affected how they did their job. Look at their talent and how they do their work, rather than their appearance. If their appearance is causing friction with other employees, address everyone at a meeting–you don’t single out a Millennial in front of the crowd–to make sure that everyone knows the dress code. Tell the employees who are having a hard time with the appearance that if the tattoo or piercing is actually affecting the Millennial’s job in some documentable way, you want to hear about it. But in the meantime, they should focus on doing their own work to the best of their ability.

Millennials are multi-taskers.

Millennials grew up with televisions, phone, computers, laptops, Kindles and tablets. And they use them. Don’t worry, unless the gadgets are affecting their work in some documentable way.

Millennials are early adopters of technology.

They are more likely to produce and upload content online than any other generation. This makes them a good choice for marketing and social media positions. If your company culture discourages the use of technology and social media, your Millennial will not be happy. Let the Millennial lead some workshops to teach other employees how to do things.

What are your own experiences and tips for working with Millennials?

Is your business poised to take advantage of the growth from 2016? One measure of a business’s strength lies in how quickly it can adjust to changes. There’s no better time than the beginning of a new year to look back on the past year and evaluate your business plan. Here are a few questions to keep you on track and focused as you learn and grow from 2016.

1. What were your successes and strengths over the past year?

Identify specifically what you can to do develop and enhance those strengths.

2. What didn’t work? What was challenging?

Evaluate what didn’t work like you expected and learn from it. How did you positively address challenges? Can you take even more specific steps to do better this year?

3. What were your missed opportunities?

You may have overlooked an opportunity to take good pictures, send out a press release, attend a conference, advertise in a new way or make new business connections. Vow to act differently when the opportunity next presents itself.

4. How have your competitors changed?

Your own marketing strategy should encompass offense and defense, so you can react flexibly to whatever your competition is doing — not to copy them but to keep an equal standing or better. If new competitors have entered the market, evaluate what makes them different and adjust your own strategies accordingly.

5. When was the last time you updated your website?

If you can’t remember, it’s time to do it now. Add a new project to your portfolio. Change the description of your services to keep it updated and fresh.

6. What are your biggest opportunities this year?

Develop case studies or cultivate relationships that will help you take advantage of the growth you are seeing in your area. Has technology changed? Have any of your competitors closed? There could be a new niche for you to take over.

7. What trends are you seeing in what your clients are asking for?

Put what the market wants front and center in your marketing materials and in the supplies you sell, if applicable.

8. What industry changes will threaten your segment of the industry and how can you address them?

For instance, are the costs of raw materials expected to change? Will you be affected if our foreign trade policies change?

9. Do you have the right people in your organization?

Hire a marketer to take that work off your plate. Invest in trainings to make sure you have well-skilled employees. What skill sets is your organization missing? Can you provide that or do you need to outsource or hire new people?

10. What is your annual gross and net income goal?

Break that down into a monthly figure and take steps to determine how you will get there.

11. What part of your business is under-performing?

Evaluate what is not working to help you meet your targets. Do these sectors of your business need to be eliminated or do they need a push to help them move forward?