December eNewsletter

    In this Issue...

• Spark Creativity with a Change in Scenery
• SpiritBank Event Center
• What Small Businesses Should do to Plan for 2010
• To Find Best Hires, Firms Become Creative
• How Disney Works to Win Repeat Customers
• 5 Ways to Make Next Year Your Best Yet
• How to Work ON Your Business, Not IN it

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The SpiritBank Event Center is offering a special discount for our eNewsletter recipients on all banquet space booked by January 31st. The SpiritBank Event Center, located in South Tulsa, has space available to hold planning sessions, events, conferences and more for groups as small as 25.

For more information, please contact Kim Parsons at kim@spiritbankeventcenter.com, Blessing Marova at blessing@spiritbankeventcenter.com or call 918-369-9360 and tell them you heard about this special offer through the SpiritBank eNewsletter.

6 Tips to Small Business Success in 2010
By Wink.es

It's a tough business environment but there's hope for the small business owner to succeed in 2010. We've compiled six tips to help you re-think the market and how to approach it.

1. Don't Take Notes From Big Business
Is your marketing not yielding results justifying the investment? Before you react, consider your view of marketing itself. There's a tendency for small business owners to consider marketing in the way big businesses practice it.

To illustrate the point, think of five advertisements. Now, compare your marketing budget to theirs. Do they compare?

Celebrity endorsements, television commercials and billboard ads are expressions of marketing that typically come to mind. It's natural. We're a product of our environment and we're constantly saturated with corporate messaging.

How businesses have marketed over the past 80 years is a result of mass production. Large-scale output led to mass marketing and created mass media. Like its products, companies found that packaging and delivering marketing content was also an efficient business practice.

Businesses wanted their messages to be seen by the most people possible. The bigger, the better philosophy worked because demand exceeded supply. "Market" evolved into a verb. It became something that producers did to customers.

2. Return to the Marketplace
To reevaluate your view of marketing, consider an original practice. Marketing began hundreds of years ago as literally going to a marketplace to sell a good. Craftsmen would engage buyers face to face. He encouraged conversations and built relationships in order to sell his product. His craft became an extension of him. "Market" was something done with customers.

For small businesses to succeed in 2010, you'll need to return to the marketplace. Rather than setup a booth at a flea market, try to give customers what they want. Not just with your product or service, but in your marketing.

You probably can't think of someone who demands more adverting but everyone appreciates a good conversation. Conversations engage us in a powerful way. They contribute to partnerships, inspire ideas, make us laugh and may even cause you to sell something.

Determining the best place to start your conversation will depend on your product or service. Start by investigating options to market online. Consider social media networks as an opportunity to allow you to convey your unique voice. Like the old marketplace, encouraging a conversation will build relationships. Not only is it more personal, it's more effective.

3. Continue to Invest in Your Business
When some small business owners feel the pinch, they react by drastically reducing their marketing budgets. However, continuing to invest in your business is especially important during a downturn.

Competition actually increases during a recession. As many talented people are laid off, they substitute their time by innovating and opening businesses of their own. The Internet itself is also increasing competition. For example, the website esty.com allows individuals to sell goods without having to operate a business of their own.

As consumers become more conscious of the dollars they spend, they more thoroughly evaluate potential purchase decisions. Consumer review and price comparison websites keep today's consumer well informed.

Facing increased competition is not a time to lay-low. Smart marketers know that their efforts create long-term friendships. When we emerge from the recession, the value of continually maintaining friendships will be realized. If your business isn't proactive, your competition could recruit the majority of post-recession friends!

Continue to invest into your business. If you're marketing efforts haven't achieved the results you desired, re-think your strategy. Consider relying on a professional or hiring a consultant to advise potential strategies.

4. Stop Considering Yourself A Company
This may seem counterintuitive. As a small business owner you wear many hats, from accountant to supervisor. The next time you put on your marketing hat, stop thinking of yourself as a company.

People don't particularly like companies. Companies want to sell us on something. They use automated phone systems that keep us from a human being for as long as possible. They charge us too much for coffee.

The challenge isn't to convince people to like your company. That's a difficult fight to win. Instead focus on the associations people have with your company. What does your product or service mean to them? To help realize your potential in 2010, consider your business' identity in the minds of your customer. It's how they define you that really matters.

5. Take Calculated Risks
People like to stick to what they know. We are creatures of habit and tend to fear change. But, if you completely eliminate risks, you also eliminate the opportunity to grow.

It's a new era in business. We have new challenges that require new solutions. Perhaps you have refrained from new opportunities to market your business fearing they won't match with your customers. But consider the importance of reaching and influencing existing customers. Yes, frequent customers make up a significant portion of your sales but frequent customers aren't synonymous with loyal customers.

Consider marketing less-popular products or services to target lower-volume customers as they represent the greatest growth potential. Small businesses are more nimble than the big guys. If you try something new and it doesn't work out, you can more quickly change your strategy. You don't face long negotiation processes, there's no red tape and minimal office politics stand in your way.

There is uncharted territory to be covered along with new successes to be realized. Maintaining complete control is a losing game in today's market place. Instead take a managed risk. Just start small. Until you venture to try something new, you won't know your business' full potential.

6. Re-Define Failure
We have come to a universal understanding that failure is a bad thing and should be avoided at all costs. You've heard the phrase, "happiness is a state of mind," but consider that failure, too, can be a state of mind.

Failing can actually make us smarter. There is great value in learning from our mistakes. If we apply an understanding of what went wrong to future efforts we can improve their effectiveness.

Re-think your definition of failure. Even if an effort doesn't achieve your initial goals, don't jump to classifying your efforts as a failure. You may actually uncover success in your failure in the form of information. Apply what you learned to improve the effectiveness of your next initiative.

Just as there are new challenges for 2010, there are new opportunities. Technology has gifted business owners with thousands of new opportunities to reach customers. Unfortunately, new technologies are frequently avoided. We don't always understand them and they have yet to be "prove" their effectiveness.

The truth is that you don't have to be a technological expert to employ all these new technologies. Many innovations are so user-friendly; they don't require hiring an expert. Regardless of how your business uses technology, the role of technology in your customer's life is increasing in importance.

Once we realize that failure doesn't have to be a disheartening blow to your ego or bank account, we can begin to plan on failure. Accounting for failure reduces the risk involved with failing and establishes a system for future successes.

Read this article on Scribd.com.

What Small Businesses Should do to Plan for 2010
By Joyce Rosenberg, The Daily Herald, Everett, WA

With the end of the year approaching, small-business owners should be scheduling meetings to help them plan for a hopefully stronger 2010.

December is often a slow time for many companies, and owners should take advantage of the down time to do some planning. So meetings with financial advisers, bank officials and consultants should be on your schedule.

Equally important is for employers to meet with their staff. Employees wants to know what's ahead, especially with so much continuing uncertainty about the economy.

Meet with accountant

No matter what shape the economy is in, the end of the year is an important time to meet with a financial adviser such as an accountant. The conversation should be about all the facets of your business, and not just a talk about whether you'll end the year with a profit or loss.

Most companies have already been cutting costs throughout the recession. Those that are still having cash flow problems probably need an accountant's help to determine what their next steps are, whether that means cutting back further, being more aggressive about customers who don't pay or finding cheaper ways to get the work done.

But many companies will have more upbeat discussions with their financial advisers. Jeffrey Berdahl, a certified public accountant with Berdahl & Co. in Center Valley, Pa., said his clients, while they're expecting to see revenue flat or down this year, are cautiously optimistic about 2010. So they'll be coming to his office to discuss how they'll be changing the way they do business in the coming year.

"They know things will turn around. It's a matter of when, and what the new business model will be going forward," he said.

Talk to your banker

Berdahl said it's critical for small-business owners to be speaking with their bankers, not just at year's end, but periodically throughout the year. If you haven't been in touch with the bank, you need to do that soon. Your line of credit could be at stake.

Berdahl said owners need to be up-front with lenders about their companies' cash flow and receivables. "Keep your banker on notice on what`s going on, good, bad or indifferent," to avoid any surprises that could make the bank more cautious about lending to you, he said. And, Berdahl suggested, "treat them as your ally, not your enemy."

Other advisers

If you have other advisers, now's a good time to check in with them, too. Berdahl said owners need to be thinking about marketing - "Let people know you're still out there" - so a call to a marketing consultant is in order. If you feel you can't fit marketing into your budget, then get some help from a counselor at SCORE, the organization that offers free advice to small businesses. You can find a counselor at www.score.org.

Listen to employees

Owners who have focused on trying to keep customers happy and maintain a steady cash flow may not have devoted enough time to their employees. The year's end gives you a chance to talk to workers about how the business is doing, what you're expecting 2010 to look like, and what you're expecting from them.

"It's important to communicate what the course of the future is in the organization: Here's our plan for success, here's how we're going to survive and compete," said Leigh Branham, owner of Keeping The People Inc., an Overland Park, Kan., human resources consulting firm.

Branham said owners still need to acknowledge the ongoing anxiety that employees feel about their jobs. Even owners who have been communicating all along need to check in with staffers now, and, if possible, talk to them one-on-one.

"Ask, 'How are you doing? How do you feel about things?' " Branham said.

There could be issues an owner doesn't know about. They could affect the quality of an employee's work, and also make him or her look elsewhere when the job market improves.

Branham also advised owners not to assume that all employees have the same problems. "Some are concerned about career advice, or benefits or burnout," he said.

And, he recommended, "do what it takes to keep people aboard."

Read this article on Heraldnet.com.

To Find Best Hires, Firms Become Creative
'Speed Dating' Interviews and Personality Tests Help Winnow Deep Applicant Pools, Improve Matches
By Emily Maltby

Small companies that are managing to hire during the downturn face a challenge: Too many candidates are applying to the companies' job listings. As a result, some firms are trying creative methods to find the best applicants.

Take, for instance, I Love Rewards Inc., a 38-person consulting firm that advises companies that want to implement employee benefits and performance-based rewards. I Love Rewards, based in Wellesley, Mass., and Toronto, recently received 1,200 applications for nine job openings.

Instead of reading through each résumé, the company sent an email to each applicant, thanking the candidates for their interest and asking them to attend an open house in Toronto. Only 400 showed up. "That`s self-selection," reasons Razor Suleman, the company's founder and chief executive. "It's so easy to apply for anything but 800 didn`t take the first step. That lowered the screening process."

Over a few hours, Mr. Suleman and 31 of his employees arranged the two-story office so that the first floor was designated as an area where employees could mingle with the candidates. The second floor became a so-called speed-dating area, where the prospects had one-on-one contact with the employees for a few minutes.

"It was perfectly systematic because everyone had a time slot," says Mr. Suleman. "And in five minutes, we`d ask a few questions and see if they were right for the role. It was different but so efficient because you could remove people who aren`t wildly enthusiastic."

By the end of the evening, the team had found the top 68 candidates, who will be called back for group interviews and then individual interviews.

Especially in a time when firms are watching overhead closely, the cost of advertising the job, paying headhunter fees and finding a successor if a new hire doesn`t work out can be a major financial setback.

"We are much more strict now because we waste a lot of time and energy when the hire is not a right match," says Bob Herbst, a partner at the accounting firm of Fisher, Herbst & Kemble PC in San Antonio, which is now relying on personality tests by Mercer Systems Inc. before hiring candidates.

In years past, Mr. Herbst says he and others at the firm would trust their instincts during the interview process, but that didn't always produce the best hires. Now, he isn't taking any chances, making all candidates fill out 15-minute questionnaires designed to forecast behaviors such as interpersonal style, outlook and motivators.

"It's our defense [against] getting the wrong kind of people," Mr. Herbst says. "It`s a much more important factor than a résumé or anything else."

Physician`s Choice of Arizona, or PCA Skin Inc., a 100-employee company in Scottsdale, Ariz., that develops clinical skin-care products, started administering personality tests in June. Developed by Professional Dynametric Programs Inc., the test takes about 10 minutes and consists of dozens of trait descriptors.

"We have had about 65 candidates take the survey," says PCA Skin Chief Executive Richard Linder, who has filled 17 positions since June. "So far, every hire we have made in which we used the survey tool has resulted in a successful placement."

Other firms are willing to spend more upfront to make sure they are hiring bulls-eye candidates. Such is the case with Bart Cleveland, creative director and co-owner of McKee Wallwork Cleveland, an ad agency in Albuquerque, N.M. Instead of assessing behavior through personality surveys, Mr. Cleveland recently has begun to evaluate the candidates in person over the course of several days.

The firm is accustomed to paying for candidates' flights, so the added expense of car rentals and lodging has been a relatively small sacrifice, he says. Over the course of four days, one recent candidate for a developer position was privy to the culture of the firm and was even allowed to attend some meetings.

Since hiring that developer, the firm has had similar multiday evaluations with two more candidates, which Mr. Cleveland says is mutually beneficial for those who would need to relocate for the job.

"Humans are on their best behavior when they meet new people, but you start to see who they really are when they are relaxed and are themselves," Mr. Cleveland says. "We are careful of screening them before they come out but once they get here it really makes a difference."

Read this article at The Wall Street Journal.

How Disney Works to Win Repeat Customers
Owners of retail shops and service businesses can borrow Disney's "secondary-guest" strategy to convince customers to keep returning
By Carmine Gallo

At Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., a 1% increase in repeat business translates into millions of dollars in revenue. How Disney (DIS) communicates its values to customers is critical to its success. To make sure each customer receives a positive experience, Disney has a strategy in place intended to woo "secondary guests;" - those who exert influence on the purchasing decision, but aren't considered the core customer. The secondary guest can stand in the way of repeat business.

"If a mother comes to your retail store and an employee is rude to her children, she may not return. If a parent is test-driving a new car and the kids are bored and unhappy, the parent may become distracted and more likely to leave without making a purchase," says Bruce Jones, programming director for the Disney Institute, the entertainment giant's professional development and external training arm. Jones says the secondary customer experience is critical to differentiate your business from others that may offer the same or a similar product or service. It applies to businesses large and small.

Here are five ways you can implement Disney's secondary-guest strategy to win fans and draw repeat customers this holiday season.

Train employees to be respectful of all customers, including children. If employees are kind and engage a child, a parent may be more likely to stay in the store, says Jones. For example, a small business in Valparaiso, Ind.- Flanagin's Bulk Mail - uses coloring sheets to keep clients' children and grandchildren occupied while in the store. Each time a child comes in to her store, the owner, Donna Flanagin, asks the child to color a sheet so it can be displayed on the front door. When the child's birthday arrives, Flanagin sends the coloring sheet and a birthday card to the child. "It costs virtually nothing, yet reminds the parents and grandparents about her business and helps her makes a connection with her customers," says Jones.

Make waiting in line an entertaining experience. Nobody likes to wait in line, even for a Disney attraction. But it's a fact of life. At Disney, employees are trained to strike up conversations with guests and to offer useful information about new attractions, fun facts, and upcoming show times. A small grain company in Kansas that learned this concept at the Disney Institute applied the idea to its plain waiting room. Since customers often brought children or grandchildren along, the grain company added magazines and toys and books for kids to its waiting room. The company also trained front-desk employees to let customers know the approximate waiting time and offer tips on less busy stretches of the day, in case customers preferred to return later.

Be "show-ready." Your "stage" communicates a lot about who you are. Disney will not tolerate trash and trains all employees to pick it up so that the resorts remain "clean, friendly, and fun." If a leader were to walk by trash without picking it up, it would send the wrong message to staff. For a small business that might not even have a physical location, this concept can be as simple as making sure your Web site is professional and easy to navigate. According to Jones: "your Web site is your front door. If it's not show-ready, it can make or break your business."

Keep the show on stage. Disney employees must always follow company guidelines for dress and customer service in guest areas. They can take a break and relax in areas unavailable to guests. As a small business owner, try walking the floor as a customer. Do you see or hear conversations that are best held amid the privacy of employee areas? Can your team members be easily seen by customers as they take a smoke break or talk on cell phones? If so, explain the difference between on-stage and off-stage.

Encourage your team to be "assertively friendly." Disney encourages its employees to actively seek contact with guests. For example, they will approach a family that appears confused about its park map or has misplaced its car in one of the vast Disney parking lots. They will proactively offer assistance instead of waiting for people to ask.

All these tips require leaders who understand the importance of communications and how to extend the conversation to secondary guests. The effort will pay off. Disney has discovered that if a customer appreciates your store or service and speaks highly of her experience, then her children and grandchildren are likely to become loyal customers, along with their friends, neighbors, and acquaintances.

Read this article online at BusinessWeek.com.

5 Ways to Make Next Year Your Best Yet
By John Jantsch

About this time of year, some people get in planning mode for the new year. Often times this planning involves dragging out white boards and reviewing last year's plan to evaluate progress.

My take is that kind of planning, trying to figure what to do next, only leads to mediocrity. It helps you get a little better, maybe, but it's usually all down there in the ground level, tactical stuff.

Look, you know what you need to do, why not just stop the planning and jump off the ledge with some audacious goals – the kind that force you to get really, really uncomfortable, the kind that start at about 50,000 feet and manifest as chaos. The kind that change your perspective, your breathing, and your entire organizational vibe.

Here are five needle moving ways to make big impact in 2010

1) Embrace One Big Change at a Time

Lots of people make all these resolutions that turn into lists of things they kind of wish they would do. Not real powerful. Decide to make one big change and don't even think about anything else until you've made it. Real change comes to those that understand progress is a process and doesn't happen in a week.

Is this the year you quit smoking, become a vegetarian, start your business, get up at 5:30 a.m. to write that book, take up yoga ... one thing at a time, that's all your brain can handle. In order to make room for your change you need to make the space to push something out. That's why it's so hard. Make it big and make it one thing. But, ask yourself this - what's going to change this year if you don't make this leap?

Leo Babauta of Zen Habits offers this for some help: The Habit Change Cheatsheet

2) Make Meaning Important in Your Business

If you are considering new strategies for your organization, consider this - culture is probably more important than strategy. What if you went to work on figuring out how to make your business or department a place where people find meaning? Where they want to come to work because they get fed and taught and appreciated. People don't quit businesses, they quit their bosses.

This is such a tough one for business owners and managers because it means you have to put your ego away and let other people be right or fail in ways that teach. It's so much easier just to tell everyone how to do it, but there are few things more attractive from a marketing standpoint than a company full of people that are jazzed to be doing what they are doing.

This segment of Guy Kawasaki's lecture for the Stanford Entrepreneurship Program is a excellent place to start: Make Meaning in Your Company

3) Do Remarkable or Quit Being Boring

You're boring, your products are boring, your people are boring, your packaging is boring, your pricing is boring, and you wonder why nobody is talking about your perfectly adequate business. How's that for some tough love? Everybody wants to get better, but slightly better and slightly less expensive is not remarkable. Are you stuck in a rut of trying to act like what's normal for your industry?

This year, you've got to do something in your business that takes your competitor's breath away or at least makes them mutter about your sanity. Remarkable resides in innovations that are both simple and brilliant, but nobody thinks or dare to do. Ridiculous service (Zappos), value based fees (no more hourly thinking), hip design (Jones Soda), simplified products (Orbit Baby), an unusual combination (Mo's Bacon Chocolate Bar), authentic stories (Terracycle) – this is the stuff of remarkable.

4) Get What You're Worth

Take a good, long look at your entire customer base and product and service mix and ask yourself about profit. Where does it come from? Usually the answer is from a select group of ideal customers or certain offerings that you are good at delivering. The flip side of course is that there's always a group of customers or things you offer that drag your profits down – worse yet, they're almost always unprofitable because you shouldn't be working with them at all, and because of that, they also produce the most headaches and negative buzz.

Stop taking clients and work that isn't right for you!

Focus on understanding the make-up of the ideal customer for your business – one you enjoy working with, one that values your unique way of doing business, and one that understands they will pay a premium to get what you have. Then, raise your prices and focus on communicating why you`re worth it. This may actually be harder for you to swallow than your customers. Too many business owners are trapped in hourly wage thinking and can't ever get their heads wrapped around getting paid based on the real value they provide.

Start focusing on measuring and fully appreciating the value of the results you bring and this hourly wage trap may become a thing of the past. I wrote a post on Value Based Fees that might add to this thinking

5) Fuse Online With Off

By now I hope you've jumped into social media with both feet and are finding out just how tremendous some of these new tools and platforms are when it comes to reaching new folks and creating awareness about your business without spending much more than your time.

Now it's time time to take what you've learned online and find ways to use it to help make the cash register ring. I'm not talking about tweeting your sales message to all who follow, I'm talking about getting your team, your suppliers, and your customers active in social media and using tools like LinkedIn to create deeper connections with prospects you meet at face to face functions. Setting up classes at your business and teaching your customers how to get more from online participation is one great way to deepen your customer loyalty, no matter what your core offering.

Read this article online at DuctTapeMarketing.com.  

How to Work ON Your Business, Not IN it
By Jason Cohen, founder of Smart Bear Software

We get so caught up in the daily life of running a business, it's easy to miss the forest for the trees.

Not that you have a choice! You're fighting fires, handling a pissed-off customer, rending your face over an emergency bug-fix, the website just went down, and the accountant is coming tomorrow and the books are in shambles.

All normal. But still every month or so it's nice to take a step back and see whether you're missing a chance to make a more meaningful change to your business.

Here's some things you can do: