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Small Business Corporate Culture
Every business must take the right steps to cultivate the culture it desires. The culture is the single greatest force that affects your employees. You want all employees to convey the feelings and attitudes that best support your company's goals. No matter how many employees you have, you want all of them to project the coherent company culture that you want customers, vendors, and others to perceive about your company.Your corporate culture does not relate directly or exclusively to your profit margin. Rather, it relates to the emotional health and well-being of your employees which is closely related to your profit margin. Be sure your employees get the right training to do their job well and to grow professionally. Be sure that the work pace is sustainable and will result in good quality. Always show employees that you appreciate their contributions and reward special achievements.You can gauge the health or your corporate culture by observing your employees. You want to hear laughter in the office, and you want employees to be focused. If you notice the absentee rate increasing or employees taking longer lunches and breaks, it may mean that your corporate culture needs to be revisited. On a regular basis, have lunch or coffee with different employees and ask them to discuss their concerns and make suggestions.To really show your employees that you care more about them than profit, schedule a social event during work hours.Jo Ann Joy, Esq., MBA, CEO Copyright 2006 Indigo Business Solutions. All rights reserved.

e the Nickel-And-Dimers specialist and more of them will come.

I believe money is the walk of the talk. When you ask people to invest in their own futures, you quickly learn how serious they actually are by whether or not they cough up the dough.

3. Nickel-And-Dimers Ruin Your Market Reputation And Your Credibility In The Eyes Of Great Clients

While Great Clients and Nickel-And-Dimers hardly ever flock together, still, Great Clients can hear from the good deals Nickel-And-Dimers got cut for themselves. How do you think it will impact the perception Great Clients have about these deal-cutters. Why do you think people haggle with car salespeople and realtors but not with lawyers or doctors?

Car salespeople and realtors are notorious for "cutting deals": "Buy now and I'll give you a special deal." In spite of the "special deal", most people hate this approach because they know what the special deal really is: No big deal. Just a previously inflated price shrunk back to normal with lots of fanfare and manipulation.

My friend, Katie (not her real name) is a web designer. She got a call from Fred on a web design project. With lots of pe

How Well Do We Know Our Consumers
As disciplined marketers let us have a look on how well we know our consumers. Because we all do research our consumers to know them better, to know who they are and how best to talk to them what to tell them in order for them to feel that we understand them and for them to stay with us.And we do research them geographically - to know where they are, and demographically - to know how many are male vs female and what is their predominant age group, and what is the life-style they have - all of this to get a clear image in our mind as to who are they, identify them in every possible detail.And then we come to their media habits and we do ask them on how much and what TV station and programs they are most interested in, what newspapers and magazines they read and which radio stations they listen to when going to work in the morning. And we come to the internet and the question is – what do we ask them about it. Do we just ask them if they use it or not and if only for emails or also to surf. Do you stop there?Because as we know unless we ask them the right questions - there is no way for them to give us the right answers - the ones we are really interested in: Do you ask your consumers if they blog and where? Do you ask them if they podcast? Do also ask them what they go online for - for information, to purchase, for entertainment and where - which sites. Because if you are to reach them where they are - you have to know these things. And unless you ask them - they are not going to tell you. So unless you include these questions in your questionnaires you would be missing a big part of the puzzle - they might be spending a lot of time online, but answering you questions they would answer only those which you ask them. And we do not want to misinterpret their media behavior because we did not ask.

There are some buyers out there who understand value but there are many of them who understand only price. A few years ago when I was doing a course for my Certified Management Consultant accreditation, I had some debates with one of the instructors. He kept saying that my idea about value was a delusion, and the reality of consulting was the number of hours I spent working with the client. His idea was that clients must be able to derive huge value from my services, but I could only get paid for the number of hours I actually worked because of the obscure nature of "value".

I may be wrong, and unlike him, I don't have an MBA, but I believe if the client derives huge value from my help, a deserve more than a competitive(ly low) hourly rate. I got into business to overcome the typical wage slave syndrome as an employee, and it would be plain silly to become a self-employed wage slave. I also believe that I shouldn't be penalised just because I don't take much time and effort to create that new value for the client.

1. Nickel-And-Dimers Waste A Hell Of A Lot Of Your Time

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to come to agreement with prospective buyers who actually have an intention to change and now is just looking for a fit with a consultant with whose help and guidance to go through the changing process?

Now contrast this to Nickel-And-Dimers, who want to make sure all Ts are crossed and all Is are dotted even before making a shred of commitment.

When Carl Rogers, a pioneer in social psychology was asked about the most important aspect of human interaction when there is a strong difference of opinions, he said this: "Unconditional positive regard for the other person. It's about holding the other person in a positive light and assuming that his/her interest is for the best interest of the discussion and the relationship, regardless of what the person actually believes at that moment."

A few months ago the business development manager of a web design firm told me "I've forgotten more about marketing than you will ever learn. I just don't have time to do it." Yet, instead of implementing proper marketing (which he’s apparently a master of), his firm peddles its services using three call centres (Los Angeles, India and China) to cold call harass people to find new business. It seems the worst underperformers claim to know the most about everything.

Remember, low-level prospects usually drop to an even lower level as clients. Send them on their way with an imaginary recreational kick in their butts, and move on with a lesson learnt.

2. Nickel-And-Dimers Like Bragging About The Special Deals They've Received

A few years ago a friend of mine worked with a large manufacturing company, and some six years later that manufacturing company referred one of their vendors to my friend. Yes, the manufacturing company was a Nickel-And-Dimer and they were bragging to their vendors that with the right pressure they could arm-twist my friend to give them very very good per diem rates. The vendor expected my friend to give the per diem rate he was charging the manufacturing company six years before. It was a retarded situation. He was given a fait accompli: "Either you give us the same rate you gave them or you're out." And sadly my friend did, simply because the immediate smell of money was more attractive than the gut-wrenching stench of a slowly decomposing project that was waiting for him down the road.

And it was waiting all right. The client demanded detailed reports on everything. My friend had to write reports on report, memos and meetings. He had to document every second of his time. Really. The client demanded a time sheet from him in 15-minute segments. He would hand in the time sheet and the client would decide which segments got paid and which got deleted. On average, 35% of his time sheet got unpaid. When he asked the client why, the client just shrugged, "I don't think it was necessary for the project." Imagine, here is this egotistical, stupid idiot who hasn't been able to solve his problem for himself, and then when the hired help does the work, he decides what's needed and what's not.

The problem is that when Nickel-And-Dimers brag, they don't brag about the great service they've just received. No! They brag about how cheap the service was. And just as birds of the feather flock together, so do Nickel-And-Dimers. So, if you accept work with one of these business cretins, rest assured that you will be favourably inducted into the world if Nickel-And-Dimers, and many of them want your help. And from here on it's a downwards spiral. Bad projects attract each other. The world will soon know that you're the Nickel-And-Dimers specialist and more of them will come.

I believe money is the walk of the talk. When you ask people to invest in their own futures, you quickly learn how serious they actually are by whether or not they cough up the dough.

3. Nickel-And-Dimers Ruin Your Market Reputation And Your Credibility In The Eyes Of Great Clients

My friend, Katie (not her real name) is a web designer. She got a call from Fred on a web design project. With lots of pe

What You Need in Your Marketing Calendar
Marketing calendars are used by many businesses to help keep sales pipelines full of new prospective customers. Small businesses may just keep a simple calendar with handwritten items on the dates that marketing efforts need to be completed. These items might include attending a trade show, sending out an email campaign, or placing a buy for a magazine advertisement. Larger corporations typically have a more detailed marketing calendar planned out a year in advance. Regardless of the size of the business a good marketing calendar does have to have some key elements to assure the monthly activities in which the business is investing are paying off.Here are a few things you need to include in your marketing calendar in order to maximize your return on your marketing investment:1. List all of the activities you plan to do by month. Activities should include efforts like direct mail, keyword search, media buying, PR, attending trade shows and networking events, and anything else you think will help bring awareness to your business and generate qualified leads.2. Estimate how much it will cost each month to execute each activity. If you don’t have enough information about the cost of an activity, make an educated guess and make your estimate higher than you believe it will really be.3. Estimate the number of prospects the activity will expose your brand or message to and record these in the calendar as “impressions”. For example, you may send out a press release and an industry trade publication prints it. In this scenario, the number of subscribers to the magazine would count as the number of “impressions”.4. Estimate the results each activity will bring to your company in the form of revenue. Usually this is measured in the form of new customers with an average annual value associated with the revenue this customer represents to your business. Depending on the activity, the results of the effort may assist in retaining an already existing customer for a longer period of time. The value of this activity may be a more challenging number to represent, but still make an effort to assign revenue to the effort. For example, hosting an open house for your business may bring in both new prospects and current customers. If the activity results in one new customer who will spend $5,000 over the next 12 months and 10 current customers with a combined value to your business of $50,000, you might want to represent the activity as having a $15,000 return. Remember, whe

buyers who actually have an intention to change and now is just looking for a fit with a consultant with whose help and guidance to go through the changing process?

Now contrast this to Nickel-And-Dimers, who want to make sure all Ts are crossed and all Is are dotted even before making a shred of commitment.

Remember, low-level prospects usually drop to an even lower level as clients. Send them on their way with an imaginary recreational kick in their butts, and move on with a lesson learnt.

2. Nickel-And-Dimers Like Bragging About The Special Deals They've Received

I believe money is the walk of the talk. When you ask people to invest in their own futures, you quickly learn how serious they actually are by whether or not they cough up the dough.

3. Nickel-And-Dimers Ruin Your Market Reputation And Your Credibility In The Eyes Of Great Clients

My friend, Katie (not her real name) is a web designer. She got a call from Fred on a web design project. With lots of pe

Don't Puke on Your Audience
Graphic design is a key element in communicating effectively with your audience; whether it is for a trade show or any other form of marketing communication. The tendency in trade show marketing is to say as much as possible in the time and space allowed during a trade show. Generally, you have 3-10 seconds to capture the attention of a trade show attendee. Companies often try to cram as much information into a 10x10 or 20x20 space as possible. From graphic images to text relating to the companies products and services companies put way too much information into their trade show displays.So how do you speak to your audience so that they retain some of what you’ve said and even more importantly take action and buy? Below are a few ways to improve the visual performance of your trade show display.1. Understand your goals with your display. Are you exhibiting to sell, for market awareness, client education, or other purposes? Communicate this purpose through the graphics and copy on your booth. 2. Have a central theme that can resonate with people in a short time. 3. Is there an emotional connection to what your company is about? If so, connecting with people on an emotional level has the greatest impact. 4. Keep your display and booth area clean. Less is definitely more here. Visual space on your display is a good thing. It allows your audience to absorb your message. Remember you have 3-10 seconds to attract them. 5. Any images or photography should be of the highest quality. Images used for brochures often cannot be used for trade show display graphics. 125 dpi at finished size is what we recommend to clients for crisp clean images. 6. Stick to one message. You can elaborate through conversation, follow up communication, literature, and your web site. 7. Pre-marketing your brand prior to the show helps as well. If you send attendees postcards, letters, or other communication before the show they naturally will be attracted to something they have seen before. These are a few ways to target your message, get heard and seen by your audience, and generate the sort of response that puts you at trade shows in the first place. After your clean visual trade show display attracts people the rest is up to you and your staff to connect and sell.

rformers claim to know the most about everything.

Remember, low-level prospects usually drop to an even lower level as clients. Send them on their way with an imaginary recreational kick in their butts, and move on with a lesson learnt.

2. Nickel-And-Dimers Like Bragging About The Special Deals They've Received

I believe money is the walk of the talk. When you ask people to invest in their own futures, you quickly learn how serious they actually are by whether or not they cough up the dough.

3. Nickel-And-Dimers Ruin Your Market Reputation And Your Credibility In The Eyes Of Great Clients

My friend, Katie (not her real name) is a web designer. She got a call from Fred on a web design project. With lots of pe

Interview Tip: Companies Hire People They Like
All things being equal, companies hire people they like.Obviously, skills are important and you are not likely to get a job just because you’re nice if you don’t appear able to do the job.But given a qualified candidate who comes across as likeable and an equally qualified candidate who gives the hiring manager the impression that they are going to be a problem, the hiring manager will undoubtedly hire the likeable candidate.It seems fairly obvious to state this but the question is really:What makes one person come across as likeable and another person come across like a jerk?Some people are just naturally likeable and immediately come across as such.Some people give the impression of being aloof especially if they are quiet or detached and are perceived to be socially inept and as a result, not likeable.Some people are good actors and can appear to be nice when they want something.The point is that you make an impression during the interview process and the people you interview with make assumptions based on how you act and what you say.When interviewing, always remember the following: 1. The hiring manager is determining not only if you can do the job but if you have the personality to get along with the other members of their group.2. Being overly talkative during the interview might make you come across as being desperate or aggressive.3. Being too quiet during the interview might give the impression that you are distant and aloof even if you’re not. This is an especially important point if the job you’re interviewing for requires a “talker.”4. Nobody likes desperation. If you appear really enthusiastic to the point of being desperate, most good interviewers will notice. No one wants to hire a desperate person. Enthusiastic, yes. Desperate, no.5. Understand the difference between confidence and arrogance. One of the biggest turnoffs for most hiring managers is arrogant interviewees. On the other hand, you need to be confident of your abilities and you need to sell yourself during the interview. Walk a fine line between exuding confidence and arrogance. Likeable (and qualified) people get jobs, it’s really that simple.Likeable people are those who act naturally and let their true personality shine through.Likeable people don’t try to be something they are not and they are comfortably confident but not arrogant.

demanded detailed reports on everything. My friend had to write reports on report, memos and meetings. He had to document every second of his time. Really. The client demanded a time sheet from him in 15-minute segments. He would hand in the time sheet and the client would decide which segments got paid and which got deleted. On average, 35% of his time sheet got unpaid. When he asked the client why, the client just shrugged, "I don't think it was necessary for the project." Imagine, here is this egotistical, stupid idiot who hasn't been able to solve his problem for himself, and then when the hired help does the work, he decides what's needed and what's not.

I believe money is the walk of the talk. When you ask people to invest in their own futures, you quickly learn how serious they actually are by whether or not they cough up the dough.

3. Nickel-And-Dimers Ruin Your Market Reputation And Your Credibility In The Eyes Of Great Clients

My friend, Katie (not her real name) is a web designer. She got a call from Fred on a web design project. With lots of pe

When The Stars Align - Choosing the Right Entertainment
Savvy event producers follow the Golden Rule: know thy audience. When they set out to create a special event, the first thing they do is slip into the shoes of a typical guest. Understanding their audience helps them choose the right location for the event, determine ticket prices, and select the proper advertising and promotional vehicles.The same measured approach should go into selecting the entertainment. The right band, comedian or speaker will drive ticket sales, help secure sponsors and generate the right amount of excitement, glitz and glamour for the occasion. Indeed, the most carefully considered entertainer can reach far beyond the event, generate a great deal of publicity, and build equity for your client or cause.Such was the case when we booked Jessica Simpson at a corporate event for Chicken of the Sea. Most of America had seen, or heard about the episode of MTV's "Newlyweds" in which Simpson, while eating out of a can of Chicken of the Sea, wonders aloud whether it is tuna or chicken. This, along with many other gaffs, helped cement Simpson as America's favorite ditz.By agreeing to appear for Chicken of the Sea, Simpson showed she could laugh with us. And Chicken of the Sea laughed all the way to the bank. We secured her services for less than her usual rate and, though no press attended the event, a post-event release with photo generated press coverage worth an estimated $1 million dollars (ad space equivalent). In our ten years of booking celebrities for events, this project had by far the best return on investment (R.O.I.) for any client."How can I possibly replicate that?" you ask. Admittedly, Chicken of the Sea was very lucky. The planets and stars did align on that occasion. But the principle of relevance still applies. Producers must commit to researching talent for common touch-points. Whether you capitalize on current events as they did, or you focus on which talent best matches your objectives, the more relevant your talent, the better it will serve your needs. And, sometimes much more

e the Nickel-And-Dimers specialist and more of them will come.

I believe money is the walk of the talk. When you ask people to invest in their own futures, you quickly learn how serious they actually are by whether or not they cough up the dough.

3. Nickel-And-Dimers Ruin Your Market Reputation And Your Credibility In The Eyes Of Great Clients

My friend, Katie (not her real name) is a web designer. She got a call from Fred on a web design project. With lots of pep talk and promises on future projects, Fred convinced Katie to design a site with a serious drop on her fees. Fred manipulated her by telling her how good this would be for her portfolio. By the way, I've always believed that this "portfolio stuff" is highly overrated. Smart clients want to see value not portfolios. Well, she accepted the deal. And then two more.

Then she found out that Fred was just a broker between her and some real buyers. Fred knew that the lower price he could demand from Katie, the more money he would pocket. I have nothing against brokers per se. I too broker projects here and there. Over the years, thanks to my military training, skydiving and other experiences, I've become a damn good project manager and I have an innate talent to have people work together as a - real - team towards a common objective, so I co-ordinate large high-stake projects with functional experts. But I do have a problem that the greedy bastard Fred increased his money by lying to a good designer about future projects.

And rest assured that Fred will brag to his friends, that "If you need a super-cheap web designer, let me know. My contact is super-cheap and super-good." Yes, she is super-cheap because she was manipulated by this scumbag, and she is super-good because doing excellent work is part of her DNA. By genetic design she doesn't rest until she produces "WOW!" calibre work. And these are the people slime balls like Fred are seeking for "contract work".

Then she participated in my Fee Audit and Protection Plan programme and learnt that clients don't pay for portfolios but for value. With this realisation Fred was immediately out of the picture.

4. Nickel-And-Dimers Do Most Of The Complaining About You And Your Services

Nickel-And-Dimers are extremely good at complaining. They keep nudging you that they could get the same service next door a lot cheaper. Well, if they could, they wouldn't be arguing with you. They would go and get that cheaper service. But that cheaper service won't be the same.

There are some common factors in projects. Two of them are are...

Certainty of successful completion
Velocity of progress

And your fee is a reflection of these two elements. The funny thing is that Nickel-And-Dimers want to maximise both factors while minimising your fees.

If I want to travel from New York to Los Angeles, I can take different options. The option with the lowest investment can be a pair of running shoes. That will give me a certain velocity of progress and certainty of arrival. But if I invest in a plane ticket, I increase both the velocity of progress and certainty of arrival. I, the buyer, can choose which option to take and I get what I paid for.

And of course this complaining can go as far as the courtroom. When these people make up their minds to get full refund on a project that failed (over 90% of failed consulting projects fail because of clients' diminishing commitment - Dr. Edgar Schein, Process Consultation), they stop at nothing to blame their consultants and are willing to go to any length to recover their investments.

Studies done by McKinsey & Co also indicate that...

75% of solutions don't return a profit to the buying company
50% of solutions don't deliver the expected value

Now referring back to Dr. Schein's research, we can see that more often than not it is clients who disallow consultants to deliver the value that was laid out in the agreements. Nickel-And-Dimers complain because to them this is negotiation and they feel this is the only way to get a fair deal. They learnt in some Arab bazaar that haggling is part of life and without haggling they would be taken for a ride. So, they apply what they've learnt: "C'mon man, you can do better than that" or "Is this your best price". The funny thing is that when you start taking value elements out of your agreement, they scream like the proverbial stuck pig. They want it all and they want it now but at a lower price.

In negotiation the experts teach that upon hearing the price you have to flinch and the seller is likely to reduce the price. Yes, likely, but who says that you have to be a typical "likely" seller. When the buyer flinches you can also recommend an appointment with a neurologist. Check what the buyer's step is to this. Or if you're not sure what to say, just say what - according to Alan Weiss - can be said in almost any situation: "What's your point?" You will see some major league back-pedalling on the buyer's end. After all, they expect you to argue and defend yourself and your fees.

But defence can be dangerous, as General Patton explained

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