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Two Hands Dancing

Smart Recession Beating Action for Small Business

May 25th 2009 02:05

You Can Take Action In The Recession To Boost Your Business Results.
(And it doesn't have to bust your budget.)

You and I could be very much alike... I bet we both shake our heads in wonder when we see some of the latest TV advertisements.

I mean, lately when I see a new ad, I'll watch it - hey, it's new, right?
And when I watch it, I'm waiting to see what the point of it is...

I have to say, most of the time, I am dumbstruck by whatever alleged "genius" may have been called upon to concoct the ad campaigns.

I won't name brand names here for fear of litigation, but the ad about the baby vegetables... where the young couple talk all goo-goo gah-gah to their baby bags of peas...
BLURGH!
What an irritating stupid and annoying ad. I can see why I would buy that product, after such a compelling ad... NOT!

I could waffle excessively about endless streams of these kinds of mindless and expensive drivel.

However, the point of today's blog is to talk about ways for Small Business to take a competitive stance in the current recession and turn difficult times into better ones.

1. If you are thinking of having an advertising or media agency create a Television advertisement for your Small Business - DON'T.
No, please, I am serious.
You won't get much spare change out of $30,000.00 if you can get away with it at that price... and I bet you can ill-afford to spend that kind of money when it comes with NO guarantees of success.
Arguments against expensive TV advertising:
It comes with a spray and pray mentality - unless you have a random and completely untargetted audience, you don't want to spend money on advertising that reaches out to people who don't give a rats xxx whether you have a new product, a new service or a fantastic new package deal to offer.

2. If you think it might be better to use cheaper radio advertising - DON'T!!
Just like TV, radio ads reach a random audience and unless you have a guarantee for the number of listeners and the demographics to fit your product or service, you are pouring money down the drain.

3. So, maybe you're thinking newspaper... yes... there's a good medium.
DON'T!
Expensive.
Untargetted.
And no guarantee your target market even read a newspaper these days.

4. Okay - so maybe a good catalogue mailout...
NOOOO!!!
STOP!
Expensive.
Wasteful - for you and the environment.
Untargetted.
And a good half of them will end up in the recycle bin straight from the mailbox.

SO, WHAT, THEN???

Great question... glad you asked.

Don't use expensive advertising... Instead sit down, look at your business and consider the most valuable things about your business.
Can it run without you?
If not, does that make you the expert?
If so, do your customers know this?
Why do customers shop or spend with you?
Have you ever asked them?
If not, why not?
Are you using technology within your business?
If no, why not?
Do you think it is expensive?
If you are, are you putting it to the best use?

What is so special about your business anyway?
Have any of your customers told you that?

Do you have goals or visions for your business?
Do you even want to grow your business?
Could you sustain your business growth with the right staffing and infrastructure?

LOTS of questions and we haven't even started.

I have many more questions. And you can find out the answers if you connect with me.

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Posted By: twohandsdancing - Category: No Category

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Why do you feel so bad about yourself?

December 19th 2008 04:20

Years ago I was at a free community Christmas event in the park. Besides the usual MC and band, there was a performance by a well-known TV character-bear, and his sing-along co-host in her pony tail and heels. Hundreds of parents and children were happily clapping along in the audience, and the night was unfolding pleasantly.

Until the co-host asked for 10 children to come up to the stage and dance with the bear.
What happened next disturbed me.

About half of the kids eagerly scrambled up to the stage, yelling and screaming with joy.
The other half were near-pushed up to the stage by over-enthusiastic parents... much to the dismay of their children.
As the co-host welcomed them all to the front of the stage with her big booming microphone voice, she gave them simple orders to stand in a line along the front of the stage in preparation for the next song.
These children were to dance along with Bear while Co-Host sang... and at least half the children were bopping and grooving as kids do - in some cases as uncoordinated and oblivious to the beat as any one could imagine. Yet, they were blissfully happy and that bliss made watching them so much more enjoyable.

But what of the other half of the stage bound children?
The looks on their faces were wooden, fear-stricken and clearly spelling out deepest discomfort about being in the spotlight. Their bodies barely swayed, their feet were firmly planted on the one spot and there was no joy in their experience.

Just why this disturbed me may become more apparent when you realise that these children who were earlier bopping, grooving, singing out of tune and clapping while safely hidden in the mass audience became frozen with terror when standing in front of the crowd... and these children would have been lucky to be aged 5-7 years old.

What could possibly have happened to these poor little kids to have them so utterly terrified in a public setting where the joy and bliss of innocent childhood seemed to evade them?

I clearly remember being an oblivious, joy filled child up to the age of 6... off in my own wonderland of imagination.
Public performance didn't bother me. I simply went with it.

How is it that little kids get to feeling so filled with paranoia about being watched... or filled with fear about being centre of attention?
How do we adults create such irrational experiences for our children?
Why do we insist on robbing our children of that naive bliss that is part of the innocent wonder of being a child?

Undoubtedly, at some point this ill-at-ease feeling must cement it self into the child's persona... and somehow we reinforce all along through our child's development so that when they reach adulthood, they have a deeply buried subconscious view of themselves as unworthy, not good enough, terrified of attention, angry about missing out, frightened of having good feelings about themselves...

Can you dare to remember back to a time in your childhood where you recall - even one time - an episode where you felt totally at peace and in bliss as a child?
What were you doing?
Where were you?
How did that feel?

The more vividly you can recall this moment, with as much detail as you can, the better. Take that moment and look into it and think about whether you can revisit that moment in your adult life now.
Can you go back and do all over again what you were doing in that moment?
If you were colouring in, go get pencils, crayons, paints and start making beautiful pictures.
If you were playing on the swing, go find a swing and start flying through the air.
If you were laying in the grass gazing at the clouds, go find a patch of grass and watch those clouds drift by.

You once felt wonderful, free, and oblivious to your size, your skin colour, your height, your nose, your hair, your body... Once upon a time you were just YOU... and you lived and loved and enjoyed in that moment.

If you feel bad about yourself, then revisit that innocent YOU from those moments of childhood bliss and ask that child to teach you how to experience the state of selfless loving bliss... to rediscover the joy that once transported you to imaginary timelessness, and to find yourself so absorbed in the activities of innocent explorations - coloring in, dress-ups, climbing trees, building sand castles, dancing... whatever you did in those moments of childhood bliss.

You can learn to feel so good about yourself all over again, when you realise that you are an adult now and can choose how to feel because now you are in charge of where those emotions and feelings come from.
You can be the child in the spotlight on the stage, dancing, singing and bopping and grooving in a really positive state of delight.
Let go of agonising over what others might think of you.
Be you, the best and most loving you that you can be.
And learn to feel great about who you are.

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Posted By: twohandsdancing - Category: No Category

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Would You Like Customer Service With That?

December 18th 2008 04:00

You can't help but wonder sometimes how there can be such a BIG difference in the customer service from one store to another.

Sure, some of the difference can be put down to differences in personalities working in the stores. The bright, cheery, always smiling, always chatting, friendly helpful personality stands out no matter what store you spend your money in.

Exploit Customer Service - it is your business asset
In today's "doom and gloom" economic climate, where every possible spend in the store could be the difference between booming, breaking even or going broke, wouldn't it seem only "logical" that customer service be the MOST important asset a business exploits?

After all, we all know we refuse to return to a store where we received lousy customer service (even if we got the product that we wanted.)

We "hate" (severely dislike) bad customer service.

Recently, I went to a major retail store for an ink cartridge. It was unfortunately clear the store didn't have the particular colour cartridge in stock.
That wasn't the problem.
The customer service representative for the store had a miserable look on his face, and made NO attempt to help me - he certainly tried to upsell me to a full package of all the ink cartridges because as far as he was willing to explore it, I would need to replace all the inks one day.
Yeh, buddy, never mind the difference in cost ($16 for one, $90 for all).

Had he asked me any questions, like, how soon did I need it, approximately what area had I come from, he might have learned I needed it asap, and was willing to travel to another store in the same chain to get the ink cartridge.

When it was clear I wasn't getting any further help and he had totally lost interest in me, I walked out and made my purchase at their competition (where I received friendly customer service).
Ironically, the CEO of the chain store was interviewed on the news only days later saying there were likely to be store closures if the hard economic times kept on.

In another incident, my mother and I had a light lunch at a franchised cake shop where they serve great snacks (like pasties, sandwiches) and coffee, which is what we had for our meal. I had the pastie and forgot to order tomato sauce (in one of those squeeze packets for .30c).

When the very pleasant assistant brought part of the order over, she stood for a moment, looked directly at me and said apologetically, "I didn't ask, did you want tomato sauce with that?" - at which time I immediately smiled and handed her the coins which I'd already fished from my purse. She anticipated well and made the experience of our lunch really pleasant - because she went out of her way to ensure great customer service was delivered along with our food order.

Never Underestimate the Importance of Customer Service
Customer service may seem like a menial task in the minds of some - but most businesses if not every business can ill-afford to fall down on highest standards of customer service.
With the internet and other mod cons we have ready access to so many goods and services these days that we don't need to be loyal to any store.

However, product reputation, location and cost may keep us returning to the store of choice, but it only takes ONE episode of poor customer service to lose our business.

And what does that loss of business really mean to the store owner?
You won't tell your family or friends where you shopped, or you will tell them to avoid that store like the plague.
Your friends and family won't shop there, and so they won't then tell anyone to shop there.

If we consider that most of us have at least 6-10 people in our immediate circle, who also each have 6-10 people in their immediate circles, it doesn't take a mathematician to realise hundreds of potential referrals, and literally thousands of dollars are LOST when a store owner is ignorant of the level of customer service on offer to their customer base.

We should never have to ask for customer service - it is a business "given".
It is expected and the highest standards should be met and maintained.
It is in the financial interests of the business owner to invest in customer service education for all staff.

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Posted By: twohandsdancing - Category: No Category

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Getting over Pimples - Steps You Can Take.

October 9th 2008 01:17

Having pimples can be a totally horrible, emotionally damaging, and self-esteem destroying experience. When it is just a zit on the chin, a pimple is easy enough to live with. But when those painful, irritating and debilitating eruptions seem to be spreading from one side of your face to another, down your neck and across your shoulders and back, then pimples are beyond painful. They are distressing, embarrassing and can really leave you feeling discouraged, upset, and lonely - especially when you feel too ugly to be seen in public. It doesn’t matter if you are 14 or 40, pimples still have the same effect on how you feel about yourself and how you think others look at you, and how they see you as a person.

Skin outbreaks can happen to anyone (okay, so some “beautiful people” never seem to have a pimple… get over it. It’s in their genes.) You, however, are like those “other” people, the ones destined to deal with lumpy, sore, nasty pimples that dare you to pick, squeeze and poison with gunk from pharmaceutical companies

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