New Business Development – Page 2

Put Aside Resources For Repairs And Maintenance

We’re painting the front door
and some trim this upcoming weekend.
We do that every five years
or so.

We plan for it.
We put aside money
for the paint.
We dedicate a day to it.

Just as we put aside money
and time
to repair the car.
And the lawnmower.
And other machines/tools we use.

Because repairs have to be made.
Maintenance has to be done.
Sh*t breaks down.

That’s true for business sh*t also.

Set aside resources
for repairs and maintenance.
They WILL need to be tackled…eventually.

The Future Is Disability

With multiple pandemics
on the go
and several new ones
on the horizon
paired with very few mitigations
being in place,
a prudent business builder
plans for disability.

Ours.
Our employees’.
Our customers’.

What does this mean?

It means giving customers
a shop from home option.

It means providing masks
and hand sanitizer
to employees and customers
to decrease the odds
of being sued
when those employees and customers
become permanently ill.

It means installing systems
that make our businesses
easier to run
if we become permanently ill.

It means researching
the needs and requirements
of permanently ill people
and doing all we can
now
to ensure our businesses serve them
as customers, employees, owners
as best as possible.

(I’m not part of this group…yet.
I don’t have any insider tips
on how to do this.
I’m doing my research like you are.)

Don’t wait
until it is a requirement
to do this.

Plan for a world
of disabled people now.

How You React Changes Future Interactions

I have a friend
who expresses extreme irritation
whenever I call or contact her.

So I don’t call or contact her.
I wait for her
to call or contact me.

She told me
recently
our friendship is one-sided.
She always does the reaching out.

Of course, she does
the reaching out.
She has trained me
to not reach out to her.

(And it isn’t one-sided
because I almost always
accept her calls.)

How you react to people
trains them
and changes your future interactions
with them.

If you don’t like
your current interactions,
consider
changing the way
you react.

The Value Of Repeat Business

It is tempting
to build a fast craptastic product,
market the heck out of it,
and then
ignore the customer complaints.

You have their money, right?
Why should you care
if they’re unhappy?

You should care
because caring
is the ethical thing to do
but also
because it makes good business sense.

Almost every marketplace
today
is crowded with sellers.

Finding customers
and convincing them
to buy from us
is costly
– in time, money, other resources.

Doing all that
to sell them one craptastic product
is a waste of resources.

Most of us
should want repeat business.

That spreads the cost
of finding that business
over multiple sales.

That second sale
has a bigger profit margin.

Build a product
and a business
that encourages repeat business.

Your Customer’s Perception Of Ratings Is Different

In the writing world,
writers know
a 3 out of 5 star rating
at booksellers
is negative
for selling books.

It means
the book isn’t good
but it isn’t terrible.

And very few readers
are interested
in that type of book.

Some readers, however,
believe a 3 star rating
is good.

They happily tell us
they liked the book
and gave it 3 stars.

They think
their 3 star rating
will encourage us
to write more books.

It does the opposite.

If you’re sending your customers
a survey
asking them to rate your service,
be VERY CLEAR
about what each rating level means.

For example,
say
a 5 out of 5 star
means the customer would hire
your company again.

A 4 out of 5 star
means the customer would consider hiring
your company again.

A 3 out of 5 star
means the customer will hire
your company again
if the price is right.
Etc.

Be very clear
about what your ratings mean
on surveys.

Work WITH Your Environment

We have quite a few squirrels
in my neighborhood.

They LOVE to dig up
certain Spring bulbs.

In the past
I would wage war against them,
trying to save
my tulip bulbs.

I’d place wire mesh
over the ground.

I would drip hot sauce
or cinnamon or cut human hair
or…
over the soil.

I would try numerous ways
to stop the squirrels
from digging up the tulip bulbs.

Nothing worked
and I would become
extremely frustrated.

Now, I simply plant daffodil bulbs.

The squirrels leave those bulbs alone.
They dig elsewhere,
aerating our lawn.

And I enjoy the Spring flowers
with no stress.

It is much easier
to work WITH your current environment,
not against it.

(And your current environment
could be customer expectations,
industry norms,
the political situation,
etc.)

Give Your Employees Paid Lunch Breaks

I can’t believe this has to be said.
But since there are people
trying to eliminate the legal requirement
for lunch breaks,
I guess it has to be.

Give your employees
paid lunch breaks.

They aren’t robots.
They need water and food and rest.

When people are hungry or thirsty,
THAT is all they’re thinking about.

They aren’t thinking about
whatever task you’ve given them
to do.

They certainly aren’t thinking about
how best to serve the company.

They’re doing sh*t work for you.

So give them the hour off
and PAY them for that time.

If you can’t afford to pay them
for that hour,
you can’t afford to be in business.

Treat the humans you hire
as…HUMANS.

Batching Tasks

Yesterday was social media
promotional post day
for me.

I crafted all the graphics
and all the text
with links
for a month
and then scheduled the posts.

Instead of it taking me
two hours a day
for 31 days,
it took me around 15 hours.

THAT is the power
of batching tasks.

The programs were open.
I could cut and paste
taglines.
I only had to run image searches
for each type of graphic
once.
Etc.

If you want to get
a lot of similar tasks done
efficiently,
consider batching them.

Pay Attention To Trendlines

Two days ago,
a buddy told me
the high temperatures
for yesterday,
according to a certain
weather forecast site,
would be X degrees.

I told her
it would be X + Y degrees.

It WAS
X + Y degrees
and she asked me
how I knew that.

I knew that
because
that site’s
forecast model has been
Y degrees too low
for the past year.

Trendlines matter.
They matter
when hosting an outdoor activity,
when planning for a sales promotion,
when keeping our loved ones safe
from the multiple pandemics
happening right now.

Figure them out
BEFORE you truly need
to rely on them.

Pay attention to trendlines.

You’re Paying For Experience

We’re having solar panels
put on our roof.

The company quoted us
two days of work
to do that.

The team they sent
did it
in one day.

The price was the same
and we were fine
with it being the same.

Because the team
they sent
had years of experience.
They finished quickly
(and completed their tasks well)
because they were seasoned professionals.

We were paying for
that experience,
not the actual time.

We were paying
to ensure
the roof didn’t leak
and everything was firmly attached
and working.

If you’re hiring a professional,
you’re paying for their experience,
not merely their time.

If they finish early,
that’s their business.