May 2008
What makes a business blog successful?
Businesses who blog can take a few different approaches to how the blog can be presented. If you are going to follow a business' blog, what type of posts would get you to continue to follow that blog?
Option 1 (Fact Based Information):
An informational blog that provides keys bits of information relating to products and services they sell.
Option 2 (Industry Opinions):
An informational blog that provides opinion on topics surrounding their industry and topics that might interest their target market but not necessarily be related to products they sell.
Option 3 (One Big Sales Pitch):
Every post relates to a product they sell with a call to action like "click here to learn more about this product."
Option 4 (A Little of This... A little of That):
A general opinion blog from someone in the company. Wouldn't be too unlike a blog you would find on MySpace... just random thoughts and personal commentary.
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So, what do you think? Which is the best option for a business blog? continue reading...
Why Unions Make Justin Foster Wrong
The thought of empowering people so they fill the gaps in processes and procedures is a simplistic perspective on the argument for finding the right people.
Justin Foster says, "The Right People will help create the right processes!" While I agree with that, so often, finding the right people is either illusive or impossible.
One of the key factors his argument doesn't take into consideration is that of unions. I have talked on this subject a little before. But I would like to share another example.
My sister-in-law purchased a treadmill last week. The delivery driver was going to drop it off in the garage. It was fully assembled and was incredibly awkward and heavy.
She asked him to take it inside. continue reading...
10 Life Lessons from a Rubik’s Cube
My seven year old son bought a Rubik's Cube with some money that he saved. He wants to learn how to solve it but isn't quite experienced enough to do it all on his own.
As the leader of this house, it falls upon me to figure it out and teach him (that, at least, is the excuse I use because I have always wanted to learn how to solve it).
So, I have been spending quite a bit of time learning how to solve it. I can solve it in about 3 minutes now and have all of the major patterns memorized. I am starting to learn some of the simpler patterns so that I can learn how to make it easier for him (plus, I think it is pretty cool).
I realized, as I was spending some time this weekend, that there are many lessons that can be learned from the Rubik's Cube. Applying these lessons to life and business will help us get a lot more accomplished.
Here they are (or at least the top ten that I came up with). continue reading...
Are you available or not?
Do you sometimes tell your customers you don't have time for them because you are not available or because you think your are not available?
Think of this as you read this anecdote (I don't call it a story because I am not sure if it is true):
George Phillips of Meridian, Mississippi , was going up to bed, when his wife told him that he'd left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window. George opened the back door to go turn off the light, but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things.
He phoned the police, who asked "Is someone in your house?" continue reading...
Design is not about you
When you are redesigning or redefining your company's image, one of the things that is very hard to do it to step back and understand who your real audience is.
Designing a logo, a website, a brochure or even something as simple as a blog post is not a task to have the attitude of, "I like it, so it is good."
The most important thing about any design is to remember your audience. Who are the people that you want to attract? When you do something personal, it is all about you. When you do something for you business, it is all about them. continue reading...
When you don’t know your own products
What does it say about your company when your CTO doesn't know your core product offering?
Scobleizer had a great interview with Xerox's CTO, Sophie Vandebroek. It was a great interview... he did a great job, but one thing struck me as odd.
Sophie said, "We no longer make copiers."
I have spent a lot of years in the "copier" industry and what management of manufacturers say about what they sell is always different than what the down the street sales reps actually sell.
Here are some quick stats about Xerox from Marketlineinfo. continue reading...
You can’t always find the right people
The right people are everywhere... they are all around you. Yet the statement is always heard among employers, "It is so hard to find the right people."
What they are really saying is, "It is so hard to find the right people at the cheap price I am willing to pay."
Justin Foster comments that if you find the right people, you don't need a process for everything. His terminology seems a little different than mine. He talks about people filling in the gaps when not having a process and I think of the gaps as the procedures of a process. I think that everything needs a process.
The challenge, though, is finding the right people. Although the people are all around, they aren't going to come to work for you based on your current tactical approach? continue reading...
Processes and Procedures
In business, to ensure efficiency, you should have a process for everything. You should know what needs to be done to accomplish everything you do as effectively as possible.
You may not realize it, but even if you are a one man show, you have processes that dictate the things you do. If you are a small operation, then it is likely very easy to tell me what you do on a regular basis. As you get larger, that becomes more complicated.
Ask five people in your organization how you do something. I bet you get five different answers. Five different ways of doing the same thing. Five different reasons for doing those things. Five different timelines for getting those things done. continue reading...
Law Doesn’t Make It So.
I am often at a boiling point thinking about the laws we have. We have so many laws that infringe upon our personal rights. Laws as simple as a requirement to wear a seatbelt to as critical as the laws that protect one against violence from another.
I heard on the radio today that more and more businesses are putting into place no gun policies. As if telling someone, that wants to bring a gun, that it is wrong will magically stop that person from bringing a gun. It is the same with any law that we have. Making a law requiring seatbelts, speed limits, shoplifting, larceny, theft, drugs, etc does not, nor ever will prevent a "thing" from happening.
Congress can pass laws till they are blue in the face. Businesses can have policies that affect customers and, more specifically, employees, but it doesn't make a difference. People do not follow a law or a policy simply because it exists. continue reading...
If Businesses Were Doctors…
I had an appointment at the doctor's today for my little girl. The appointment was set for 3:15pm. I arrived at 3:14pm. After a minute or two at the check-in desk, I was told to go in the waiting room.
After waiting for 15 minutes, I went to the desk to get an idea of how long I would have to wait... if you know me, I am not a patient person, but I am far more accommodating if I am armed with information.
First, I was told that I was waiting in the wrong waiting area.
I didn't know there was more than one. I just went where I thought the receptionist told me to wait.
I was then informed that this particular doctor is routinely 15 - 30 minutes behind schedule. continue reading...
