kiss2

In the world of free, everyone can play.

Perhaps you too read (about) Malcolm Galdwell's disagreeing review on Chris Anderson's new book: “Free: The Future of a Radical Price” and perhaps you agree with Seth Godin's opinion of the review: "Malcolm is wrong".

I've been thinking of the concept 'free' even more since I've read Seth's post and Glaswell's review. According to Anderson's new book (not free ;-)) because of enhanced and advanced technology, IT infra-structure more and more products/services can be offered for free. Gladwell states that's rather utopian thinking: IT infra-structures aren't free (he points towards YouTube), nor is the infra-structure to deliver cheaper and cheaper power.

Seth on the other hand points towards the unlimited advancement of 'free' information: "In the world of free, everyone can play".

I've read Gladwell's Tipping Point, Anderson's The Long Tail and plenty of Seth's books. I also read Dan Ariely's "Predictable Irrational" (great read, really recommend it to everyone). This book is mentioned too in Galdwell's review of Anderson and in Anderson's new book. What Ariely's experiment shows IMHO that even free has a perceived value, depending to what the free item is compared.

And it is that perceived value I think will always be "top of the bill" - not "Free":

• perceived value of free advice: if it's free there is hardly any commitment to implement the free advice, no matter who gives it out
• perceived value of that one single precious item that will never be infinite: time.

Seth states:

People will pay for content if it is so unique they can't get it anywhere else, so fast they benefit from getting it before anyone else, or so related to their tribe that paying for it brings them closer to other people.

In my humble opinion and experience as retailer of physical products who sees a tremendous increase in the sale of our 'digital products' (digital delivered PDF guides on various aspects of our trade, how to... etc) it is and always will be:

People will pay for content if it is perceived coming from an expert and saving them time to find and implement quickly what they are after (advice or training).

In the world of free, everyone can play is correct: where 'everyone' are those who are able to turn free information into knowledge and they can now play and profit in the world too, where before only those with expensive publication channels could play (and profit).

When working "on" your business feels like working "in" your business

There's something wrong with the title, not? I'm sure you, like me, have been told many times that the only way to grow your business is by working "on" your business; where working "in" the business only means you're working for a wage, nothing more.
Some state you should dedicate at least 3 hours a week on working "on" your business and preferably more than that. Working "on" your business to improve sales rates, conversion rates, customer care, worth of mouth and overall performances. To increase profit.

So what is working "in" your business really?

Welcoming visitors in your showroom? Delivering ordered materials to your client? Calculating and writing a quotation for a prospect? Carrying out a survey to determine what and how many materials and labour are needed? Doing the actual work of - in our case - installing or maintaining a wooden floor? Following up on prospects? Sending out snail mail letters to existing clients to remind them of the need of maintenance? Writing another follow-up message or newsletter broadcast for your email campaigns? Washing our van to make sure it always looks presentable? Counting stock so no job is delayed because of shortness in materials? Replying quickly and adequate to emails coming in from prospects/clients? Keeping your website up to date with the latest news on products, procedures and prices? Keeping the books up to date so suppliers are paid in time to continue a good relationship with them?

But......
Isn't every single one of those tasks dedicated to provide your prospects/clients with the best available products/services your business can provide?
So isn't working "in" your business also working "on" your business?

Or do I see this wrong?

I got confused this week - sitting in our sunny garden one evening after work - pondering about all the things I'd done that day and the days before. It felt I only had been doing 'regular' tasks, taking care of our prospects and clients any which way. Shouldn't I make more time available for working "on" the business instead? But where would my and my partner's tasks be different then?

I mean, if my dear partner - who does the surveys, fitting, most of the deliveries and maintenance services - doesn't have the right materials at the right time, drives in a dirty van and doesn't pay respect to the prospect/client with his manners, that wouldn't do our "worth of mouth" and therefore existing and future profits no good at all. Same with all our marketing and systems/procedures I take care off. All are in fact targeted to provide our prospects/clients with the best possible service (be it physical products or simple advice) we can give them.

So perhaps the title is wrong and should it say: when working "in" your business feels like working "on" your business?
'Cos when is "in" actually only "in" and "on" actually only "on"?

Or perhaps we need a completely different phrase all together? How about:
Working "with" your business?

What do you think?

Two combined principles that'll make your business (life) more efficient

Subtitle: and if you combine two software programs with the two principles it can triple the effect!

Half a year ago I never thought I would hear myself say this, after I decide then to untweet myself. But others convinced me - rightly so - that if you use twitter strategically and tactically it can do 'wonders'.

Therefore this statement: Twitter is a great tool to discover not only people but also principles that can make your business (life) more effective, efficient, profitable etc. Like bloggers can shows you, teach you; only tweeters tell you (redirect you more often) in a very short and effective way (140 characters). As with everything in business (life) it is what you do with it that counts.

Last week a twitter 'discussion' about the use of AWeber with @adriarichards made me aware of a principle I hadn't actually heard of being named this way: Inbox zero (as part of GTD: Getting Things Done). Adria pointed me to a video where Merlin Man explains the principle (I do recommened you watch it but be aware the video is almost 1 hour long!) in, I think - never have seen him before - his normal straightforward, no-nonsense, sometime hilarious way.

Inbox Zero does not mean reducing the amount of emails coming in, as business in these modern Internet times almost impossible. (If you don't want any email coming in, don't get an email address - again for a business almost impossible.)

Inbox Zero means: taking decisive actions on the emails coming in. Either:

1. Delete (or archive)
2. Delegate
3. Respond with one effective answer
4. Defer - when you need time to make sure the answer you do give is as effective as possible
5. Do - immediate action such as buy the product, schedule the meeting, phone the sender etc

And nobody orders you you should check your email every other minute. My email program only connects with the email server every hour to collect new emails from prospects, clients, suppliers, friends and of course the spam and phishing emails that somehow get past the spam filter.

After watching the video I had a proper look in my 'inbox' - I'm a kind of a horder apparently, I even found emails in there 1 year old! Decisive actions followed: a handfull got archived and 3 were responded to. None of the remaining needed a deferred or an immediate action any longer - had already happened - but still hovered in the inbox. They got deleted. (Now I have to tackle the 'outbox' the same way.)

Your inbox might look like mine did: still filled with emails you have already tackled. It is not just that a clean and uncluttered inbox gives you a feeling of accomplishment, following the Inbox Zero principle will spur you on to be more effective/efficient with responding to incoming messages.

And that's were the subtitle comes in: combining the principles of GTD and Inbox Zero with two software programs.

To help you increase the numbers of email you can respond to immediately and reduce the numbers of 'defered' emails you - as many businesses have found - will notice that many will contain the same questions/answers many times over. Using ScreenSteps in combination with ScreenSteps Live gives you an instant database filled with Q&A's. Now with the new widget of ScreenSteps Live Support Client (desktop application for listing, searching and quickly getting urls for your lessons on your ScreenSteps Live account) your respons is almost automated.

You can create a complete 'instruations of use' or training manual, step by step guides using multiple ScreenStep's options. The only response your prospect/client needs is the link to the right page of your Live manual/lesson. And he/she will be grateful too.

And what if your prospect/client has also implemented the Inbox Zero principle in his/her life? Can you, as business, still market them effectively without running the risk being deleted? You can, when you use email marketing strategies and tactics that makes your message anticipated in such a way your prospect/client can only take the 'Do' action.

Get Things Done and help your prospect/client Getting Things Done, be it buying your product or receiving the most effective answer to his/her question about your product/service.
And it starts in the inbox, yours and theirs.

Weather or not?

The weather forecast of last week didn't promise many sunny days. Heavy rain, blustery showers and overcast skies was the daily recipe.

But when I look back at last week, we did manage to spend some late afternoons enjoying the sunshine in our garden. It wasn't as nice at it has been two/three weeks ago, but the heavy downpours didn't arrive. We did have some rain, more a drizzle, too some days. Much needed rain for the garden.

What we did see in the distance were dark, angry clouds coming our way often, to take a left turn at the last moments.

Charing is located at the foot of the North Downs and not very far from the rolling hills of The Weald. Apparently in the most perfect location to avoid most of the downpours and worst of the weather forecast for the Eastern Regions. Located there where the weather fertilises the land/gardens best.

As business, in these stormy economical climates, it is the same. Find the location where you grow best, where you can take full advantage of fertilising circumstance.
Now I don't mean you have to physically pick up your business and (re)locate to a different location. 

Sitting in our sunny garden last week, watching dark clouds being side-tracked in their path towards us again, made me aware of this metaphor. These thoughts could haven been triggered by another rather good month in turnover of course (and it's not even the end of May).

• Location in the market, are you placed in the best possible location you can?
• Do you make it as easy as possible for your prospects to reach you? Not just physical - easy to access and find,
• but do you have multiple ways they can contact you?
• Do you attract the right type of prospects/clients or are you wasting both your and their time?
• Have you created a fertile climate for yourself or are you at the mercy of those dark clouds heading your way?
• Have you located your business in the right way to 'weather' the economical storm?

Like our garden and our village, you can't avoid a drizzle. But a drizzle might just be the right fertilising circumstance you need to brace yourself. Our garden is protected against the worst of the winds with high trees and a big robust building. And we protect ourselves against the colder days by wearing sweaters.

We still catch the most of the sunshine, even when a few clouds overcast the sun, because we are out there. We want to be out there too.

(Just some sunny ponderings)

How to......... free book

The title of the book I'm going to recommend below is too long to put in the title of the post, but here goes:

"How to Fill your Small Business with Non-Stop Customers, Money, Success and Growth... Leave Every Single one of your Competitors Scratching their Head to the Bone.. and Create Great, Great Personal Wealth Quickly!"
by Paul Gunter and Andrew Shorten.

Don't let the modern long title fool you, or come to think of it, the 'volume' of the book - 'only' 80 pages.
It is a good read, simple and straight forward. It contains one of my all time favourite quotes: "Good Fortune is what happens when planning meets opportunity". (You do make your own luck.)

Although thin (what's 80 pages nowadays, my own début business novel contains 168) and happily without any 'credit-crunching' references like we seem to be bombarded with today, I would even go so far as to state:
It's "Good to Great" in a nutshell.

And it is (still) offered for free, no catches. (Just a tiny fee for P&P and it is delivered extremely quickly too, mine arrived 1 day after claiming my own free copy)

The moral of the story: morals are what the economy needs (again)

The more the 'Credit Crunch' seems to bite, the more the blame-game is being played.

It's the banks.
No, it's the hedge-fund manager.
The short sellers are to blame.
The Government should have send the regulators in way earlier I say.
It's the cheap import, we can't compete any more!
No, it's the number of immigrants taking over our jobs.
How about the property developers, they forced up the house prices way too high in the first place, all for a quick buck.
The shareholders - they are to blame!

How refreshing is it then to read the article by Sir Jonathan Sacks (Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth) in this Saturday's Times, putting his finger on the real issue IMHO:

Morals: the one thing markets don't make - No amount of regulation will restore our sense of honour and shame. Economics needs ethics

"Often, these past months, I have found myself going back to one of the most painful conversations I have had. It was with one of Britain's leading industrialists. He had led his company to consistent success for decades. When I met him he had retired and was near the end of his life.

He was not a religious man but he was a deeply moral one. He spoke of the principles that had guided him in business and of the salary he had drawn. It was not negligible, but it was modest. What pained him was that his successor had awarded himself a salary ten times that amount, while systematically destroying the company he had so carefully built."

"Common to these stories is the gradual disappearance of the cluster of principles that went by the name of morality. Whatever its source - religion, conscience, custom or code - it meant that there are certain things you don't do because they are not done."

"Somehow, between the 1960s and 1980s the idea prevailed that we could do without the moral sense. Who needed it any more? In the 1960s we thought that the State would take care of our problems. In the 1980s we thought that the market would. Self-imposed restraints were dismissed as outmoded and killjoy. Greed was good. The guy with the most toys when he dies, wins."
(I'll hope you will read the whole article!)

He ends his marvellous and full of - for some hurting - truths article (rant?) with this pondering question:

The big question is: how do we learn to be moral again? Markets were made to serve us; we were not made to serve markets. Economics needs ethics. Markets do not survive by market forces alone. They depend on respect for the people affected by our decisions. Lose that and we lose not just money and jobs but something more significant still: freedom, trust and decency, the things that have a value, not a price.

I sincerely hope we go back to 'the old times' where ethical and honest common sense principles of "doing good for the long-term benefit of all of us" wasn't even thought about: it was just there.

In every dealing you do, in every contact/contract you make.

It seems to be forgotten by most, traded in for short term individual benefit. Let's take that pledge again and work ethical on/for the long term benefits and value for all. It is really simple to do - just give it a decent try.

You'll at least sleep better tonight.

Well done Wellworth, the latest Green Shoot

Last week - as most of all weeks - the news was filled with doom and gloom stories about the economy, the recession, the redundancies, the closures and struggling businesses.
But hurray, there was one significant Green Shoot the journalists did dare to report - always wonder when they too realise we're kinda fed up with doom and gloom stories, I hear from more they don't really turn on the TV to watch the news lately.

When Woolsworths - a dinosaur institution - closed the last of its 807 shop early January was this really due to the recession or, as my insertion mentions, had it become too old, too rigid, too stuck in its ways to survive the changes of this Millennia?
(In Ashford there used to be a Woolworths too, brown lino on the floor and rows of just a little bit of everything. From cd's, clothes, small electrical goods, cutlery and linen to books and toys - never sure I think of its target market.)

It seems the shop manager of "Woollies" in Dorchester had no intentions to let things end this way - as things had ended for most dinosaurs. There is still life in the beast I presume she thought, if the beast adepts to the modern times (there are still offspring of dinosaurs around too).
"Dorchester always was a profitable shop, even though the company wasn't."

With backing from financiers she re-opened the old location of Woollies in Dorchester, changed the name to "Wellworth" - adding a catch phrase: well worth the money" - which now already has been nicknamed "Wellies" and kept the best bits of the dinosaur, those bits the local customers liked. Familiar items and familiar faces:

Pick & Mix and more importantly re-employed 20-22 of her old staff (in the news report I watch some of the employees shed a tear of joy and pride no doubt!).

But no more cd's, dvd's or clothing. Claire Robertson has filled "Wellies" with more locally produced lines: pet and craft section and wooden toys.
This local focus in products will no doubt support not just her shop but more businesses in the region: now that's got to be a win-win situation in anyones book!

So, well done "Wellies" and all the best! Go for it!

(sources: Brournemouth Echo and Daily Start)

Banks, bonuses and marketing

When I watched the news yesterday evening one question came to mind:

Who will have the nerve to swap bonuses for marketing?

Banks are known to pay big bonuses, banks are known to market themselves as trustworthy institutions where it is safe to leave your money.
Banks now also are known to receive/ask taxpayers rescue packages.

Would you leave your money in the hands of a bank, who - cap in hand - asked for Government funds/guarantees (taxpayer's money - our money) to survive but still pay those big bonuses?

Or would you trust a bank who sends out a clear marketing message:

We need your money in more ways than one, you can trust us to to manage your money (businesses, personal and tax payers) properly so we've binned the bonuses.

I wonder who will be the first to use the binning of bonuses for long term branding result.

The power and promise of snowdrops

Did you ever see little snowdrops forcing their unstoppable way through inches of snow? No matter how cold or fierce the weather forecast is, those snowdrops just keep popping up: powerful, unstoppable, full of promise of better and warmer times.

And at the same time you will hear:
"Nah, winter will take a turn for the worst yet."

As if positive glimpses are not to be trusted and should be covered with even worse forecasts.

"I see a few green shoots of economic recovery" - Barones Vadera

 

Blogapalooza 2008: looking back to go forward.

Like last year, Robert Hruzek over at Middle Zone Musings is inviting us to submit 12 blog-post (one per month) of 2008. It’s becoming one of those traditions really. And a good tradition it is too. Nothing gets the mind focused forward than looking back I’ve learned.

2008 was truly an exciting year: the 5th Anniversary of Wood You Like, the end of the housing boom, the banking crash, the ‘credit crunch’, the tremendous drop of the stock-exchanges, the ‘banking rescue’ plans and at the end the free-fall of the pound.
Great tidings when you are in a business related to the housing market.

This year my selection of Kiss2 blog-post centres around keeping our business on track, one way or the other – which we did, although behind on last year’s great result our books also show a profit for this year. Main trick: we never wavered from our hedge-hog concept, simple but effective.

“Supplying high quality products best suited for our client’s circumstances, interior design wishes and budget.”

January: Team work, team building outside your company

Even when you run a one-man-and-one-woman business you need a team of experts to make the best of everything. ‘Our team’ of experts brought together one of our most talked about marketing efforts, The Acorn. So, thanks again Richard and Danny.

February: AWeber as conversation tool
I love AWeber – that’s by now a known fact – and even more so when I discovered that a simple submit form could do so much more to start a two-way conversation with a prospect.

March: Business Conversations, the new way
(Not a hard choice, turns out it was the only article I wrote that month! Must have been very busy with other things! - one sad fact happened that month too, my father-in-law passed away.)
Social media, progress in technology. Not always needed in business conversations.

April: The problem with “New Customers Only”
One of my pet-hates in regards of most business advice books: they all forget about one type of business. Still plan to write a book about it that does cover advice for these businesses – we’re one of them.

May: Common human reaction or common sense?
When the so-called "credit crunch" started to bite and a new media hype was born. Still no such thing as a free lunch in my book.

June: Kind request with a kiss gift from me
June seemed to be all about AWeber and my newest blog: “1 Plus 1 Makes 3, where combined expertise gives you triple value”. So I selected the post in which I give away my business novel (E-book version)

July: When the going gets tough...
Two reasons for selecting this post for July: it was Kiss2 200th post and a reflection on the first 6 months of troublesome 2008.

August: A month all about marketing efforts by others and us, not really sure which one to choose to be honest, but I go for the one that irked me most and was closest to home: Village Marketing

September: Book review: Content Rich by Jon Wuebben
Where last year I wrote plenty of book reviews, this year I seemed to have read only. Jon’s book stands out miles above most “copy-writing for SEO” books, getting the mix between the two of them precisely right – for any business.

October: Why don’t I hear from them?
 My thoughts on spending a meagre 27 pence to gain more business and why most small businesses still seem to find that a too high a price – weird!

November: When wood turns digital
An example (true to the tag-line of my newest blog) of how combing various software programs can turn any product into a digital one. I’ve listed all the simple but very effective programs (or training courses) we used to turn wood digital.

December: The Principle of IST
Although December became a banking mystery month I decide to select this post because it is such a basic, simple and effective principle. Not just in business, in life too.

------------------------------------------------------

2009 promises to be even more exiting! Over the Christmas period I’ve written our business plan for next year, just stay tuned here for all marketing projects we’re putting in the pipe-line.
Overall thought: I still have the best job in the world!

Wishing you a Happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year!