Episode # 27 Will You Hullabaloo?
What is Hullabaloo? Well if you are as old as I am, and odds are you aren’t you might remember a TV show from the 1960’s . It featured musical performances by folks like: Sammy Davis Jr., Petula Clark, Paul Anka, Jack Jones, and Frankie Avalon. I included the links so you could figure out who I am talking about.
Anyway, I am off topic, because the Hullaabloo I am really excited about being a part of the Spring Hullabaloo hosted by Address Two . I interviewed event organizer, Nick Carter the other day about the program and learned a few things.
I got a run down on who was speaking, why Nick organized thte program, and discovered Nick can’t spell Hullabaloo! We had a good time recording the conversation and I hope you will enjoy the interview and the event.
Date: Thursday, April 22nd
Time: 1:00-6:00 PM
Where: Crowne Plaza (Union Station)
What: Sales & BizDev Training
For questions, call 317-594-9550 or email contact@addresstwo.com.
Out of the Mouths of Babes
I have spent several hours last night reading some amazing business plans. The would-be entrepreneurs who submitted the plans are not currently looking for investors or loans. These are student plans, written by High School students ( juniors and seniors) as part of the Hamilton County Entrepreneurship Advancment Center’s Education Program.
This is the 4th year I have been involved in the competition and it is always a treat. Some of plans are well written and well researched, but aren’t viable businessess. Others contain a great idea, hidden in a poorly written plan.
And every year, there is at least one, which makes me stop and think someday, I am going to say I knew him/her when.
This year the plans are less innovactive, more practical; a computer repair shop, window cleaning business, designer dress shop and a paint ball facility.
Like their adult counterparts the young entrepreneurs create unrealistic finanical projections. They have however, in many cases, really thought through the elements which will be necessary to pull of the business they have conveived. I know a number of adults who could take lessons from him.
The oral part of the competion is Saturday, January 9th and I can’t wait see if they are as good selling their ideas in person, as they are on paper. Do bankers or VC’s get this excited when the read a really good plan? I hope so! Our economy needs the plans and people who will be excited to seem them succeed
Holiday Greetings
My son just called to wish me a Merry Christmas. That doesn’t sound strange, until you realize we are Jewish. But my son is in the Navy. And I can tell you as a military mom, when your child calls on Christmas Day it doesn’t matter what religion you are. 
So to all the military moms and dads, I hope you get a Christmas call too.
Happy Holidays! Wishing your children a safe return home!
Episode # 11 My Secret to Real Weight Loss
I suppose you are surprised to see this topic in a small business blog. But there is a connection, I promise. You see the same strategy I used to lose weight this past year,will help small business owners grow sales next year.
There is no magic formula, but setting a goal, creating and sticking to a consistent action plan, measuring your progress will keep you on track in 2010!
Listen to Episode # 11 of More than a Few Words to discover my secret!
Shop Local!
As the internet makes the world seem smaller and smaller, it is easy to forget that you are part of a local business ecosystem. As you make purchase decisions you choices impact the local economy. If, like me you are concentrating in a specific community, hoping to generate revenue from the community, then you need to put money into that community.
As consumers, we have power. Use it to actively support the businesses you care about and force change in the ones we don’t. Seth Godin summed it up well when he said:
If you don’t like what an organization stands for, work actively to spread the word and force them to change
AND
If you will miss a product, a service, a book, a site or a professional when they close up shop, stand up, speak up and bring them masses of new business.
This was the theme of my presentation at Rainmakers last month. ( I just got the video links) . The video is in two parts and it contains a serious call to support local businesses.
With this local focus in mind, I thought I would share just a few of my favorite local restaurants. These are places I would miss if they were gone. . I hope you will consider voting with your dollars this holiday season, paying them a visit, and helping to build a strong local economy.
No links to websites sorry, but more importantly I have listed address so you can check them out yourself.
Ocean World on 86th Street and Ditch. Some of the best and most reasonably priced sushi in town. The food is so good it is easy to overlook the mediocre service. It is usually busy, but not overcrowded at lunch time, 1/2 prices specials on Sunday, and always a long wait on Friday night.
LaPeidad 6524 Cornell Ave – Great, authentic TexMex. Fast friendly service, good food, reasonable price. Nice outdoor dining when the weather permits. When I need a TexMex Fix this is my favorite.
Kona Jack – Meridian and 96th Street – Not to be confused with the Kona Grill chain in Clay Terrace. This Indy tradition has a wonderful, diverse fish menu, and even sells fresh fish for you to take home and prepare yourself. Sharing a kitchen with Daddy Jacks, you can often convince your waitress to serve something off the menu from the other side.
Santorini Greek Kitchen – 1417 Prospect Street, in Fountain Square – Well worth the trip to Fountain Square for the huge portions, home-style Greek food, and great service. It is also the only place in the city that makes Eggplant parmesan the way I like it – I think you will too.
These are just a few of my favorites. What are yours? List them here, and more importantly, pay them a visit this month!
Will You Be at the Main Event on October 27?
If you are based in Indy, I would hope you will check out the Rainmaker Main Event this Month. It is always a good time, but this month even more fun, since I will be the featured speaker.
I could tell you all about myself.. ( whatever) or simply let Rainmaker Founder do it for me.
The meeting will be Tuesday Night, October 27 at 5:30. The cost is $20 for members and $35 if you are not. Hope you can make it!
And while I am on the subject of shamless self promotion, this blog has been nominated on a few local Top Fifity Lists and I would love your support!
Check out: http://top50indianablogs.com/ and http://ow.ly/vEma and vote for your favorite blogs! ( I hope I am on your list!)
Cliffe Metal Website Redesign
by Erica Gardner
When we first met with Cliffe Metal they were looking for a new web site which met several criteria
- Easy to update - As a manufacturers representative, their product line changes frequently, as they add new principles to their lines. They were frustrated by the amount of time it took to update the site – sending changes to their designer, and waiting for her to find the time to make the updates.
- Improved SEO - The lack of fresh content, conversion forms, and key terms was clearly keeping them off the first page of Google.
- A fresh look consistent with their professional image. The red, white and blue theme made the site look like 100 other sheet metal firms, all with logos that dated back to the formation of the company.
We started with a redesign of the their logo and color scheme. Moving away from the “patriotic red, white and blue, we encouraged them to consider colors in a metallic family and stronger fonts.
We recommended a transition to Wordpress to address their update issues. The site now includes a blog where they feature pricing and product availablity updates, along with other company news. This ability to share information as it becomes available was impossible with their original site. And given the volatile nature of raw material pricing, this gives them a unique competitive edge in the marketplace.
We designed the website to showcase the specific metal products they sell. We selected theNextGEN gallery to offer a better solution for displaying their products than simple pasting images of different sizes onto each page. We also added a sidebar to feature links to their top suppliers.
Using the All in One SEO plug in, along with new content, we have begun to improve their visibility on key terms. It will take awhile to move up the rankings, but they are on their way.
How to Lose a Customer
by Erica Gardner
There are several ways to keep your customers on board with you for a very long time. There are also several ways for you to lose customers.
Recently, we were working with a client to rebuild his website on a Wordpress platform. He was tired of the unresponsive service he was getting from his current web support team and wanted greater control over his web updates.
We make these conversions for existing websites on a regular basis, and have worked with a number of companies on the transition. Most of my peers both locally, and around the country understand websites move on a regular basis, and make the transition as easy as possible.
Obviously, The Computer Shop in Brownsburg, hasn’t learned this. What should have taken an hour took several weeks to complete. While we were annoyed, we began to understand why their client wanted to leave them as quickly as possible.
Here are just a few of the reasons why they lost a valuable customer:
- Never answering the phone
- Never calling us back when a message was left
- Screening their calls so they wouldn’t have to talk to us
- Not giving us the correct information we needed
In the end, they lost a very client because of their poor customer service. While they may not miss one client, when he, and the team at Roundpeg share our experiences, it is likely they will miss opportunities for other clients.
Seth Godin had an interesting post on a related topic, entitled, Win the Fight, Lose the Customer. In it he explains
“The customer is always right” doesn’t mean that they’d win in court or a debate. It means, “If you want the customer to remain a customer, you need to permit him to believe he’s right.”
I think this behavior should extend, when possible, even if you think you are going to lose the customer. You never know, if down the road they may want to return or talk to a prospect about you.
Clearly, the Computer Shop in Brownsburg is so busy digging trenches, they will lose both the fight and the war.
Being Part of a Community Takes Work
About a month ago, my good friend Doug Karr, creator of the Marketing Technology Blog invited me to become part of the team, and write the occasional blog post as a member of his community. I was excited, and flattered, but challenged as well. Now in addition to writing almost every day for Roundpeg ( I do enjoy when a member of my team writes a post, and gives me a day off) I have to develop relevant content for his audience too.
Sometimes it is tough, because the same story will be a fit for my audience of small business owners, and his tech community, so who gets the post? How do you decide because Google doesn’t really like duplicate content. I finally came up with a compromise, I am going to quote myself. (Ok, a bit of ego, but it is a good post) I gave Doug the original, and I am simply going to point anyone interested in a short case study on rallying your fans to the post. Here is an excerpt:
In the end, this was a great case study in how companies should use social media to manage their online brand and reputation. You cannot prevent or control negative comments. They will exist. But if you have an army of loyal fans, they will spring to your defense, and help you manage the situation. In addition, instead of hiding in the sand, proactively reaching out to unhappy customers or critics in a public forum, will strengthen your reputation overall.
Mistakes are Like Sand Castles
Staring at the ocean, watching the waves inch their way toward a sand castle I realized, the internet is like the ocean.
It moves on its own, while some things will hold it back, for awhile, sooner or later it erodes the barriers which hold it back and continues its path.
It is filled with life, and new organisms’ spring up all the time, while others die and are recycled into the ecosystem.
And sandcastles on the beach are like mistakes. Obviously out of place on the flat sand, they catch your attention, but if they are built too close to the water, in a day or so they have been washed away.
That was one of the key messages I took away from BlogIndiana. Mistakes happen, but with so much content being generated daily, yours will soon be forgotten. Use the mistakes to learn from, to get better, but then move on. If someone else was impacted by your mistake, apologize; make it right, but then move on.
The bottom line is the ocean of the internet will keep moving. And if you don’t want to be swept under, you need to keep swiming.
Ok, so I have played the beach metaphor out as long as I can for now. Back to work!
