Inflation is on the Horizon for Small Businesses and Consumers

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Administrator

There is mounting evidence that the cost of living, or inflation is on the rise for American businesses and consumers. We are seeing a price rise in the commodities markets of things like oil, corn, coffee, and wheat. All across the country, gas prices are up with gas prices in some areas hitting $3 per gallon this week. (And far more expensive in Canada).

At the same time, with commodity prices up, grocery store and restaurant prices are following suit. The latest Consumer Price Index shows that food jumped 1.4%. According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, major grocery chains such as Kroger plan to pass costs from their suppliers on to their consumers. Restaurants, even MacDonalds, are anticipating price hikes for food.

If consumers have to pay more for gasoline and food, that means fewer purchases from small businesses unless you are in one of those two industries. Even if you are in one of those two industries, you may not reap any more profit as the price hikes will go to pay your suppliers. Either way, consumers will have less disposable income; their dollars will simply not stretch as far. Not good news for the U.S. small business.

Posted in Finance | Leave a comment

Online Wine?

Posted on October 23, 2010 by Administrator

Imagine for one moment that the products you sell are subject to government regulation and the requirements vary from state to state — and in many states, from county to county. To make matters worse, the rules keep changing and you have to keep track of it all in order to remain in compliance. And if that’s not enough, there’s proposed legislation in the works to enforce a strict, three-tier distribution system and prevent you from selling direct to the consumer.

Welcome to the “Wonderful World of Wine,” which is what the “dub dub dub” might as well mean for the 6,000-some-odd wineries in the United States. According to one online wine merchant interviewed by The New York Times, “It’s easier to deal in guns than in wine.”

Ever since the end of Prohibition in 1933, it has been up to the states to tax and regulate the sale of alcoholic beverages. At that time, most states established the three-tier distribution system that continues to this day. Currently ninety-nine percent of U.S. wine production is sold through middlemen who purchase wines from winemakers, and then resell it to retailers and restaurants. The remaining 1% is made up of mostly small, family-owned vineyards, the majority of which rely on direct-to-consumer sales.

According to the VinQuest™ U.S. Consumer Direct Wine Sales Report,

Online wine sales grew 29% in 2009

63% of U.S. wineries projected consumer direct as their fastest growing sales channel in 2010

While the number of wineries selling consumer direct is on the increase, the number of wholesalers has markedly diminished. According to Whole World Wines, “Mergers among wholesale distributors have reduced their number by 75% over the last 30 years. Today, the 10 largest distributors control 58% of the U.S. market.”

Enter H.R. 5034 — The Comprehensive Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness (CARE) Act, also known as “The Wholesaler Protection Act” — a bill introduced to the U.S. Congress in March 2010 by the National Beer Wholesalers Association with support by the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America and sponsored by Rep. William Delahunt of Massachusetts. Writing in the National Law Journal, Carrie Levine explains, “The Bill would strengthen the states’ ability to regulate alcohol and solidify the role of wholesalers,” while “making it harder to challenge state alcohol laws in court.” The issue is being played out on Facebook, with fan pages for those who SUPPORT HR 5034 and for those who want to STOP HR 5034.

Free the Grapes! is a national coalition of wine industry associations that opposes the legislation and considers it to be an “unprecedented special interest power grab that is a direct threat to legal, regulated winery and retailer direct shipping.”

The ability to sell direct to the consumer is the lifeblood of most winery Ecommerce. Rick Gideon writing in Mutineer Magazine, observes,

Small wineries are especially susceptible to this legislation, which could potentially take away their ability to offer wine clubs and other direct-to-consumer services. These channels allow them to service their patrons better than they might be able to through the traditional distribution system.

Coincidentally, the proposed legislation comes on the heels of the second largest grape crush in history, described by Harry Cline, editor of Western Farm Press as topping “4 million tons — enough to produce over 5 billion bottles of wine.” Meanwhile, “the average price for wine grapes increased 8 percent to $605 from 2008′s $561 per ton, boosting the gross value of the 2009 production by 32 percent to $2.24 billion.”

To put this into perspective, the projected 2013 grape crush from my thirty-three Shiraz vines is expected to produce fifty-four bottles of wine, which should be enough to last until my next great crush, plus one for a gift.

Here’s what Tom Wark, writing for WineInterview.com, has to say about the current distribution system:

…it’s true that the three-tier system is effective, but only if you are a wholesaler. Thousands of wine brands are prohibited from reaching retail shelves and wine lists in numerous states not because the market won’t sustain these brands but because the wholesalers are either unwilling or incapable of representing them. The system is not set up to handle a 21st century wine marketplace and everyone knows this.

Posted in Business Planning | Leave a comment

Facebook Tops in Display Advertising (again)

Posted on September 5, 2010 by Administrator

According to a recent comScore study, Facebook now accounts for nearly one in four online display ads in the United States. In the third quarter of 2010, Facebook beat all online publishers with 297 billion display ad impressions, which represents a 23.1 percent market share. Yahoo ranked second with 11%, followed by Microsoft with 5%, and Fox Interactive Media with 3.8%. Google came in fifth with 2.7% market share. (These figures do not include impressions from text-based advertising.)

If you haven’t gotten around to it, maybe it’s time set up that Facebook fan page and online store.

Posted in Advertising, Marketing and Publicity, Business | Leave a comment

Top Ten Tips: How To Keep Your Job In Today’s Economy

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Administrator

If you’ve got a job working for someone else, and want to keep that job, here are ten essential techniques which you absolutely must follow in order to keep your job today:

1. Don’t Excel (Use balance with this tip)

If you excel at your job, you’ll get noticed. Your co-workers will notice that you are doing well and start talking to the boss about it. They’ll gang up on you to try and take you down. They’ll look for some evidence which poses you in some negative light, and use it as an excuse to get rid of you. Any excuse works in this climate. So don’t excel. Excellence makes you different, and “difference” is a negative. Don’t be different.

2. Don’t Do Poorly

Don’t let yourself slack off in any way either. They will use any excuse in a change in your job habits in order to red circle your position. Don’t give them any kind of excuse. However, make sure that you also always follow rule one: don’t do any more or less that what is expected of you, if you do you’ll stick out, and that’s the last thing you need right now. Keep on steaming at that exact same clip; don’t vary your speed in any way.

3. Don’t Complain

This is a sure job buster. Management is strung tight: stress is at an all time high. Money is barely trickling in, if at all. Now is not the time to complain. Bottle it all up, and never say a SINGLE word to anyone at work, or anyone who knows anyone at work, no matter how unfair or wrong things are. Management doesn’t want to hear problems OR solutions. They’d like to hear NOTHING. Nothing is king. Silence is queen. They do like to hear keys busily tapping though.

WARNING: Don’t be fooled by an “open door policy” or your boss asking you “How Are Things?” or “What’s wrong”. Always respond to the former with “Fantastic” and never, never respond to the latter with anything other than “Nothing! Everything’s just great”. In fact, don’t ever give him the reason to say “What’s wrong”: see point 7

4. Use the mantra “I’m just happy to have a job”

Every day, when you get up, in the shower, while you’re shaving, on your way to work, just repeat, again and again. “I’m just happy to have a job, I’m just happy to be working”. When your boss cuts your salary, just say “That’s OK, I’m just happy to be working”. When your boss gives that hot sales lead to another sales rep, just say to yourself “It’s OK, because I still have a job”. When your boss ask you to work the weekend, just say “No problem”, and think to yourself. “I’m just happy to have a job.” When your boss goes to Hawaii but you have to stay behind and work, remember the mantra.

5. Take a salary cut gracefully when offered

If your boss cuts your salary in order to keep the company afloat (or for his new minivan purchase) just smile and say “I know that its all for the good of the company, that’s fine, we’ll just get by with less”. Even better, offer to take a salary cut, if you know that the company is in trouble.

6. Get politically neutral

Always good advice, but even more so now. If you ally yourself with the wrong crowd, you could be in trouble. If you ally yourself too closely with your boss, you could be in trouble if he goes. Be very aware of what’s going on, but don’t ally yourself with anyone. Remember your mission here is to keep your job at all costs. Look out for number one.

7. Wear a Mask

Every morning, before you go to work, put on your “work mask”. Here are some key things to remember about your work mask. Keep a SMILE on that mask! It is never unhappy. At worst it’s neutral, but never for long. Never, ever let down your work mask while you are at work, or while you are in the company of anyone from work, or anyone who knows anyone at work. Smile, be happy, and never give anyone a reason to say “What’s Wrong”. That, my friend, is the beginning of the end. You may as well get your resume out.

8. Work longer hours

You may think that this point conflicts with point 1, but its how you do it, not what you do. Make sure that you actually spend more time working, but not do more work. This may sound confusing but it’s actually quite simple. Your boss doesn’t usually care how much you produce, but they do care when you come in and when you leave (sometimes, they are simple creatures). Always, always come in before the boss and leave after. If you do leave before the boss, make sure that you send email to “the team” but copying your boss at 1am (or even better) 2:00 a.m. in the morning, so that he gets the impression that you are hard at work, even at 2:00 a.m. Even though you’re really only working hard at keeping your job, 2:00 a.m. emails are still pretty damn impressive to the boss.

9. Sacrifice everything for your job.

Now is the time to stay at work long hours, keep your head down and shut up. Don’t miss your wife, don’t miss your kids. Don’t miss the karate lessons, soccer games and Little League games. What you are doing is way more important than that right now. You are focused on keeping your job. That is all that matters. That is all your boss cares about, and this is tricky, no matter how much he talks like he cares, he really doesn’t. Don’t let your guard down. Not for a second.

10. Be a work-bot

When you work for someone else, you are not yourself. You are a robot. A cog in a machine. Sure, some of us are bigger or smaller cogs, in bigger or smaller machines, but we are all cogs. Do your absolute best to be the best cog that you can be. A cog that doesn’t fit always gets replaced.

Now, do you really want to keep that job, or work for yourself?

You don’t have to wear the mask anymore.

Now doesn’t that feel better?

If you’ve got a job working for someone else, and want to keep that job, here are ten essential techniques which you absolutely must follow in order to keep your job today:

1. Don’t Excel (Use balance with this tip)

If you excel at your job, you’ll get noticed. Your co-workers will notice that you are doing well and start talking to the boss about it. They’ll gang up on you to try and take you down. They’ll look for some evidence which poses you in some negative light, and use it as an excuse to get rid of you. Any excuse works in this climate. So don’t excel. Excellence makes you different, and “difference” is a negative. Don’t be different.

2. Don’t Do Poorly

Don’t let yourself slack off in any way either. They will use any excuse in a change in your job habits in order to red circle your position. Don’t give them any kind of excuse. However, make sure that you also always follow rule one: don’t do any more or less that what is expected of you, if you do you’ll stick out, and that’s the last thing you need right now. Keep on steaming at that exact same clip; don’t vary your speed in any way.

3. Don’t Complain

This is a sure job buster. Management is strung tight: stress is at an all time high. Money is barely trickling in, if at all. Now is not the time to complain. Bottle it all up, and never say a SINGLE word to anyone at work, or anyone who knows anyone at work, no matter how unfair or wrong things are. Management doesn’t want to hear problems OR solutions. They’d like to hear NOTHING. Nothing is king. Silence is queen. They do like to hear keys busily tapping though.

WARNING: Don’t be fooled by an “open door policy” or your boss asking you “How Are Things?” or “What’s wrong”. Always respond to the former with “Fantastic” and never, never respond to the latter with anything other than “Nothing! Everything’s just great”. In fact, don’t ever give him the reason to say “What’s wrong”: see point 7

4. Use the mantra “I’m just happy to have a job”

Every day, when you get up, in the shower, while you’re shaving, on your way to work, just repeat, again and again. “I’m just happy to have a job, I’m just happy to be working”. When your boss cuts your salary, just say “That’s OK, I’m just happy to be working”. When your boss gives that hot sales lead to another sales rep, just say to yourself “It’s OK, because I still have a job”. When your boss ask you to work the weekend, just say “No problem”, and think to yourself. “I’m just happy to have a job.” When your boss goes to Hawaii but you have to stay behind and work, remember the mantra.

5. Take a salary cut gracefully when offered

If your boss cuts your salary in order to keep the company afloat (or for his new minivan purchase) just smile and say “I know that its all for the good of the company, that’s fine, we’ll just get by with less”. Even better, offer to take a salary cut, if you know that the company is in trouble.

6. Get politically neutral

Always good advice, but even more so now. If you ally yourself with the wrong crowd, you could be in trouble. If you ally yourself too closely with your boss, you could be in trouble if he goes. Be very aware of what’s going on, but don’t ally yourself with anyone. Remember your mission here is to keep your job at all costs. Look out for number one.

7. Wear a Mask

Every morning, before you go to work, put on your “work mask”. Here are some key things to remember about your work mask. Keep a SMILE on that mask! It is never unhappy. At worst it’s neutral, but never for long. Never, ever let down your work mask while you are at work, or while you are in the company of anyone from work, or anyone who knows anyone at work. Smile, be happy, and never give anyone a reason to say “What’s Wrong”. That, my friend, is the beginning of the end. You may as well get your resume out.

8. Work longer hours

You may think that this point conflicts with point 1, but its how you do it, not what you do. Make sure that you actually spend more time working, but not do more work. This may sound confusing but it’s actually quite simple. Your boss doesn’t usually care how much you produce, but they do care when you come in and when you leave (sometimes, they are simple creatures). Always, always come in before the boss and leave after. If you do leave before the boss, make sure that you send email to “the team” but copying your boss at 1am (or even better) 2:00 a.m. in the morning, so that he gets the impression that you are hard at work, even at 2:00 a.m. Even though you’re really only working hard at keeping your job, 2:00 a.m. emails are still pretty damn impressive to the boss.

9. Sacrifice everything for your job.

Now is the time to stay at work long hours, keep your head down and shut up. Don’t miss your wife, don’t miss your kids. Don’t miss the karate lessons, soccer games and Little League games. What you are doing is way more important than that right now. You are focused on keeping your job. That is all that matters. That is all your boss cares about, and this is tricky, no matter how much he talks like he cares, he really doesn’t. Don’t let your guard down. Not for a second.

10. Be a work-bot

When you work for someone else, you are not yourself. You are a robot. A cog in a machine. Sure, some of us are bigger or smaller cogs, in bigger or smaller machines, but we are all cogs. Do your absolute best to be the best cog that you can be. A cog that doesn’t fit always gets replaced.

Now, do you really want to keep that job, or work for yourself?

You don’t have to wear the mask anymore.

Now doesn’t that feel better?

Posted in Business Planning, Human Resources | Leave a comment

Nice, Fresh Tweets for Sale!

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Administrator

Have you ever received a product recommendation from a friend on a social network?

By the way, did I tell you about this great product I discovered?

I think that generally, a product recommendation coming from a friend carries a lot of weight. In the same way, online ratings and reviews can exert powerful influence over the buying decision.

In the article, “The Power of Referral Selling,” sales coach and author Jonathan Farrington explains why:

These types of opportunities are much warmer than a cold-call based opportunity because it maximizes the goodwill, inherent in the relationship between the referred customer and the referring person.

But what if the person recommending a product or service is actually being paid as a shill? Do you think your friends on a social network would ever stoop so low? Many would, according to a recent study.

Eliot Van Buskirk writes in Wired Magazine, that many big name companies routinely pay for sponsored conversations, tweets, and blogs. In the article, “Gaming the System: How Marketers Rig the Social Media Machine,” he describes an emerging underbelly of social networking where Twitter friends are for sale, and companies pay big cash incentives for sponsored conversations, tweets, and blogs.

For example, the company SponsoredTweets paid Kim Kardashian $10,000 per tweet for mentioning certain products on Twitter. The company also encourages other (not so famous) people to monetize their Twitter accounts by sending brand messages to their followers. Apparently this has become quite a lucrative, part-time job for many work-at-home celebrities. (Ashton, tell me it isn’t true!)

According to a study cited by Van Buskirk, sponsored conversations, paid tweets and blogs represent one of the fastest growing segments in advertising–one that is expected to grow to about $57 million by the end of the year.

This also answers a question that has been lingering in the back of my mind. I’ve noticed that quite a few marketing people lately recommend that their clients do a search on social media sites to see how often their products are mentioned. This struck me as rather odd, because I rarely talk about products to my friends and family — but when I do, I like to think that it carries some weight. The truth is, many marketeers are busy planting phony conversations into social media sites, and so naturally want their clients to see how the campaign is going.

So much for “building trust and loyalty”…

By the way, did I tell you about this great product I discovered? I just can’t stop talking about it! Do you have a moment?

Posted in Advertising, Marketing and Publicity, Business | 1 Comment

Avoiding Sabotage

Posted on July 13, 2010 by Administrator

A long time client of ours was very frustrated that she wasn’t seeing the great results she expected after being with us for two years. We looked at her account, talked to her in depth and researched her company. We couldn’t find any reason of why she wasn’t selling more product through her home based business.

Then we tried looking at it from a customers point of view. We visited her website, found the products we wanted to order, then went to her contact page. Listed on her contact page was her home phone number.

We phoned, and a man answered. We told him we would like to place an order, he told us to leave a message. A few days later we didn’t receive a response so we phoned again, and left a message with the same man. A few days later we phoned again, left a message with the same man.

We then had a hunch of what was going on, that man – our clients live-in boyfriend, was sabotaging her business. He was simply not passing on the orders or messages to his girlfriend, hoping she would fail and then have to lean on him for the rest of her life. It was easy for him because she was working a full time job anyway so she was never home, she trusted him to take the messages, respond to emails etc.

We figured out a different way to contact our client and told her what was going on, and she confirmed it. Got rid of her scumbag boyfriend, and her business has gone through the roof. She quit her full time job within 12 months, she’s now fairly wealthy.

This is not uncommon. We’ve seen it happen hundreds of times since we started in 1995. Bad secretaries that won’t forward messages, bad employees that ruin relationships with clients. Bad spouses that just want you to fail.

Please dont’ think that your enemy in business will always be your competition. Sometimes it will be the very people you trust to work with you. Keep your eyes open. Succeed.

Posted in Business | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The iPad – An Advertising Media Must? Or Too Far Ahead of the Curve?

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Administrator

From the buzz it’s generating, you might think that the iPad, Apple’s tablet computer, is transforming the marketing landscape by the minute. Phrases like “paradigm shift” and “revolutionary” are among the superlatives ad execs toss around when they describe its potential effect on the media and advertising industries.

To quote Huey Lewis and the News, print media could use a new drug. And few need it more than your local newspaper.

In the six months that ended March 31, the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) reported that weekday circulation of newspapers plunged by 8.7 percent, compared to the same period a year prior. Sunday circulation also plummeted by 6.5 percent.

And don’t look to magazines for a happier story. The ABC reported that retail purchases of U.S. magazines dove 9 percent in the second half of 2009.

All of which paints the iPad as the digital savior of everything that is fit to print, and a seemingly must-have media buy for agencies and their clients.

So, do you need to include the iPad in your media buy today? If your shop isn’t buying digital editions of major mags, are you behind the eight ball already?

For perspective, I spoke with representatives of two media buying and planner companies.

A Tale of Two iPads: International Media Conglomerate vs. Big Regional Media Shop

On LinkedIn, OMD describes itself as “the largest full-service media company in the world.” That’s an easy claim to make when you have over 5,000 employees in 80 countries, and clients like Gatorade, Dockers, McDonald’s, Fedex, Showtime, and Monster.

Shortly after the iPad launched, Fran Pessagno, director of operations for OMD, adopted a wait-and-see attitude in a New York Times article, stating that, “Until anything goes to market, it’s always viewed through the lens of, ‘it’s short term.’ ”

A few months and an a few iPad media buys later, Pesssagno was gung ho, touting the tablet during our conversation as a natural for client FedEx.

“Some marketers are not culturally suited to be first movers, but with Fedex being a leader in innovation, the iPad was perfect fit,” said Pessagno.

In addition to matching the company’s brand equity, the iPad also suited FedEx’s user profile, as the FedEx audience, said Pessagno, “is looking for up-to-the-minute information.”

To satisfy that info junkie behavior, OMD picked three news providers “we felt had good offerings on the iPad, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Reuters. The ability to download evolving news stories instantly was very appealing.”

Equally attractive is the ability to grab a metric for pretty everything. “We have tracking in place. You can look at video, and audio, and it’s measurable. You have various ways to identify evaluate the characteristics of the user…” what they are downloading, how long they spend on your screen, what stories drew who, and, of course, what they bought from your ad.

Pessagno’s obvious enthusiasm seemed well founded. “The iPad is going to a be game changer for publishing, and for consumers and their need to access mobile content.”

Posted in Advertising, Marketing and Publicity, Business | Leave a comment

How much should I spend on advertising?

Posted on May 11, 2010 by Administrator

This is a question that our clients often ask us: “How much money should I spend on advertising and publicity.”

It’s a good question. New companies usually have to spend 20% or more of their income (or projected income) on advertising. A more established company (Let’s say, Apple – spends a lot less, probably less than 2%). So as you grow and gain ground you can start to reduce that percentage.

Keep pressing on :)  

If your business is brand new and you aren’t bringing in an income as yet, you have to spend money on advertising otherwise nobody will know about your companies products and services. Even in hard economic times, you must find out who your target market is and advertise to them.

Phone calls, emails, faxes, letters, tv, radio, magazines, flyers, internet ads, search engine marketing, website promotion, publicity and everything in between. Don’t let your business go under because nobody knows about you.

Now for those of you who already have a large volume of potential clients coming to your store or website, your focus should move towards converting them to buyers.

Posted in Business | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Why the Amish succeed in business (And why Overflow Cafe loves this fact)

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Administrator

Our staff keeps up to date on historical and current business trends, one of our favorite magazines is Canadian Business.  (www.canadianbusiness.com) and we’ve been reading it for years now.

We came across this article on Yahoo today - read the article and then read our additional comments below the article.

……………………….

Why the Amish succeed in business – by Jordan Timm, Canadian Business Online
Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Here’s some business advice from a venerable old leader: “He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: But the hand of the diligent maketh rich.” It’s a simple principle, and one almost universally acknowledged. More advice from the same guy: “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.” It makes sense: your name, or your brand, is everything. Here’s one more tip from King Solomon: “The way of the slothful man is as a hedge of thorns.” Can’t you just see it on one of those workplace motivational posters?

“I wish I could memorize the whole book of Proverbs,” says one Amish businessman about the Bible book from which the above verses are taken. “There’s a lot of truth in there, about business and about making money, and about using money, and handling people.” He calls it the ultimate guide to marketing. And fair enough; between the bits about avoiding “harlots” and “whorish women,” Solomon offers plenty of useful bullet points. But the question of why anybody in the secular world would turn to the Amish for business advice in the first place is answered right off the top in Erik Wesner’s Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive (Jossey-Bass).

Statistics from the United States Small Business Administration show that only half of new companies last more than five years, a failure rate that rises above 65% by year seven. Amish businesses, according to academic research, have a failure rate of less than 5% over the same time frame. And though the Amish, whose religion decrees that they reject modern technologies and fashions, are popularly thought of as buggy-driving, pie-baking farmers, a growing number of North America’s roughly 225,000 Amish are getting entrepreneurial. With an average of seven children per family, and with the cost of agricultural land rising in the Amish heartlands of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Ontario, not every young Amish will one day farm his own tract of land. There are now more than 9,000 Amish-owned and -operated businesses in North America, and while many depend heavily on family labour, some have dozens of employees, annual sales that exceed US$5 million, and contracts with corporations like Kmart or Ralph Lauren.

Wesner spent years as a travelling book salesman, developing a specialty in Amish communities. He became fascinated with their emerging business community, and how their businesses are thriving despite cultural restrictions against the use of technology, a deep-seated discomfort with self-promotion, and a lack of legal protection (the Amish don’t believe in lawsuits). Success Made Simple is Wesner’s attempt to condense the keys to Amish business success into a set of principles that are applicable in the outside world.

If you’re looking for some earth-shattering secret, something never before imagined, you’ll be disappointed. The key word in the title is “simple,” but while the strategies and management techniques employed by successful Amish businessmen may be literally thousands of years old, they’re often obscured or overlooked. “When it comes to business, the Amish haven’t reinvented the wheel,” Wesner says. Instead, they excel at consistently applying time-honoured principles, from a Golden Rule–based approach to relationship-building and word-of-mouth as the cornerstones of an effective marketing strategy. And because the Amish have limited recourse to legal action, they stress the importance of having an “evil customer radar,” recognizing that some people’s business isn’t necessarily worth taking.

Peter Drucker, the management expert whom some MBAs consider a latter-day Solomon, argued that all businesses have access to more or less the same resources, and that management makes the difference between them. “The first measurement of this crucial factor is productivity, that is, the degree to which resources are utilized and their yield.” Drucker’s claim highlights another cultural principal that the Amish turn to their advantage in the business world: the importance of efficiency.

At breakfast one morning in an Amish household, served after three hours of chores on the farm, Wesner enjoys a bowl of fried eggs, chipped-beef gravy and toast. When a second course arrives of cereal and shoofly pie, the Amish dump both into the same bowl, still smeared with egg yolk and gravy, then pour milk over the whole lot. It’s all going to the same place, Wesner realizes, and without the conveniences of a modern kitchen, setting, clearing, and washing 10 extra place settings represent the kinds of little chores that can add up. Remembering this lesson while observing Amish workplaces, Wesner notices a profusion of modest efficiencies that, combined, save these small workforces time and money.

Most notably, though, the Amish have a different outlook on growth. In their egalitarian society, too much too soon (or at all) can be frowned on; most are culturally attuned to prefer the small-scale. But the prudent management of growth can be a key to modern business success as well. “Carefully managed expansion can mean preserving attributes core to the identity of the firm,” Wesner says. (Think of a dot-com flameout or a car company that expanded beyond its ability to preserve its usual quality control.) “Though it may sound heretical to some, learning to be satisfied with a measure of success is actually an integral part of being successful.”

That speaks to what might be the most pertinent lesson here: have what one Amish calls a “contentment mentality.” As Wesner says, “Long-term business success entails formulating a big-picture vision, a guiding why. … Fulfilling the why is what brings real joy and contentment in the long run.” That may mean conquering the world, or it may mean having more modest goals, but that understanding is crucial. Just ask King Solomon: “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, And the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, And the gain thereof than fine gold.”
………………………………………..

Overflow Cafe thoughts:

Bravo! We agree completely. I don’t just say this because we have many Amish clients but also because our business model is very similar. Good hard work, steady gains, avoiding bad customers and pressing on through hard times.

in 2006 I was at an Amish styled wedding, mostly Amish and related people. I was amazed at the effeciency and friendliness of everyone. I watched as the young teenagers helped to setup, serve and even tear down after the reception. A lavish, yet completely debt free wedding reception held for over 100 people with over 50 kinds of delicious food (potluck style).

We try to have our entire team take on a similar mind set. Each employee helps with clean up and customer service. Each employee helps with errands and charitable work. The list goes on.

Posted in Business | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A Fan On Facebook. Stealth Advertising

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Administrator

Is it just me, or does it seem like everyone’s inviting you to become a fan on Facebook? In the just the last few weeks, I’ve been invited to become a fan of:

  • Whole Foods
  • A neighborhood bakery
  • A number of political causes
  • A Philadelphia wine, beer and dessert cafe’
  • American Idol

In case you’ve just arrived on Earth (and if so, welcome!), and you don’t know how this works, I’ll explain. Your FB friends join various groups and fan clubs that interest them, often at the request of their FB friends. And then they invite you to join their party.

Putting Fans to Work

What seems like an innocent bonding activity may be the slickest, under-the-radar marketing tactic in the history of commerce.

Because now, my real-life and Facebook buddy who owns Tria, that small wine and beer cafe’ in Philadelphia, can use his FB army of 725 “fans” to promote him and convert other friends. He also has a captive audience for his frequent promotions. When you visit his Facebook page, or any other good fan page, you find that these fans behave like a community, chatting and exchanging news often unrelated to the page’s theme.

Advertisers everywhere are getting wise to the idea that your best customers can also be your best digital sales force, and your best repeat customers.

Nutella Fans Go Nutty on Facebook

And if you still doubt the power of Facebook fans, consider the story of Nutella. When FB ranked its fan pages in February of 2009, guess who came in behind President Barack Obama at number 1, and Coco-Cola was at number 2?

Angelina Jolie? George Clooney? The Beatles? Gene Simmons? No, no, no and NO!

Taking third place was Nutella, the Italian hazelnut/chocolate spread with three million loyal fans. Okay, so Nutella is an international product, used for breakfast, lunch and dinner by apparently a lot of sweet-toothed enthusiasts. But three million fans?

Today, Nutella has slipped a bit — not in the number of fans, but in ranking. With 3,784,078 at this writing, their clique has grown significantly, even as their ranking dropped to 25th in January of 2010. For a brand that does very little advertising, that’s still amazing. And that is the flip side of the coin, perhaps explaining why the can get away with doing so little advertising.

What makes this fandom possible are Facebook’s remarkable numbers. According to their digital pressroom, Facebook…

  • Has more than 400 million users
  • Of those, 50% FB’s users are active daily
  • The average users becomes a fan of four pages a month
  • The average user belongs to 13 groups
  • More than 20 million FBers become a fan of something EVERY DAY

And here’s the monster metric: There are more than 5.3 billion fans on Facebook!

So, clever marketer, why are you just sitting there? Go find yourself some fans. And encourage them to do the same.

Posted in Advertising, Marketing and Publicity, Business Planning | Leave a comment