Grow Your Business

I had a message on my desk the plant manager wanted to see me. As a newly promoted fresh-faced department head I hadn’t been jaded to the fact I was wanted in the plant manager’s office. To my eagerness this was an opportunity for face time. To shine. To please my boss.

He asks me to close the door and have a seat. The tone was stern and unemotional. His first question to me was, “Russell do you want to be a success in this business?” Of course! There was never a doubt. How could he question this? I answered immediately, “I’ll do what ever it takes to be the best manager I can be.” He smiled, sat forward in his seat and said, “I knew you’d see it my way.”

He continued, “The first thing you need to do is get rid of the boots.  (There were plain black not the red ones) I don’t care how polished you keep them and how nice they are, they’ll always be sh*tkickers in my book and no one in management in this company wears those things to work. Second, you have a personalized license tag on your car and Read more »

Back in the dark ages I owned record albums with “hidden” soundtracks and “backmasking.” Monty Python’s Matching Tie and Handkerchief album had a second, or “hidden,” groove on one side of the album that only played if the stylus hit it accidentally. We called this the “third side” of the album.

The Beatles White album has a message recorded backwards under the song Revolution Number 9. I had access to a radio studio turntable, so I could play the album backwards and hear what the words really said. These were the surprise prizes that were shared from person to person; the “inside” information made us feel in the know, clever for having figured it out, and part of a special crowd.

DVDs now do the same thing with Easter Eggs. They are exciting to discover, and the customer feels special and rewarded. And the best part for the customer — sharing the “secret” with someone else! For example, the Cars DVD has hidden treasures aficionados enjoy. If you’ve seen “Boundin’ with Mater,” you are an Insider!

Even TV shows. The little icons prior to commercials on Fringe spell words in code.

What are you doing to create the buzz of word of mouth marketing for your surprise prizes?

Do you know about the “secret menu” at In and Out Burger? Have it “Animal Style!” Are you a Maker’s Mark Ambassador with your own barrel of private stock bourbon? Now you want to be an Insider don’t you?

Define the “Insider” Read more »

Lately I’ve been listening to people who are always upbeat and excited about life and their optimism is great but it’s missing something. “Sure the economy will turn around.” “I have my health.” “There are a lot of people a lot worse off than me, so I have nothing to complain about.” Some of the optimism seems Pollyanna to me and wishing and hoping optimistically isn’t enough! You need to be opportunistic!

When I bought this house I live in on the lake I was looking for not just a nice house but a good deal and great investment opportunity. That fact that we found a house underpriced because of an acrimonious divorce just wanting to get rid of the last connection they had was my good fortune! Had we not signed the papers the day we did the opportunity would’ve been lost because literally there was a couple flying across the country from Seattle to come put a contract on it. They were in the air when we inked the deal! Oh yea! That’s opportunistic!

Those reading this can scoff but winners take control and grab opportunity when it presents itself. I got to watch the Panthers beat the Packers at Lambeau Field because I grabbed opportunity. I got to see a Styx concert in Vegas for free because I grabbed opportunity. I met my breakeven figure for the year before the year started because I grabbed opportunity.

Opportunistic seems to have a negative connotation to it, I figure that’s because there are more people who miss out on opportunities than those who grab it. Be the one to grab opportunity and elevate your optimism to opportunism.

Do you know where to focus your growth efforts?  Do you know what your break-even point is?  Do you know how your numbers compare to your peers – and not just your revenue numbers?

These are questions that I work on daily with small business owners.  Most business owner’s think in terms of one line item when they try to grow their business – revenue.  This is logical choice.  After all, if revenue is higher, you must be making more money, right?  Wrong.  While this may be the case in a perfect world, it often leads to business owners struggling for years to make ends meet when the mathematics of the business just do not work.  What can be done to fix the problem?  It’s simple.  We just have to change the number so that the math works.

We recently helped a client who had been consistently loosing money for seven years – at a rate over of about $175,000 per year.   When talking with the client, his solution was that he needed more sales.  If he could just get more sales, he would be profitable.    We sat down with him and did a thorough break-even analysis.  Using his current cost structures, it was going to take nearly $3 million in sales for him to breakeven.  He was currently sitting at $700,000.   The answer to his problem was not sales, it was his cost structure. Read more »

When I speak at conventions and conferences in breakout sessions, one of my main goals is to shut down one other concurrent session. I want to have such a large audience eager to hear my information that I have standing room only and one other speaker has an audience of 3 or less. It works regularly and I’m proud of it.

Does this sound cruel to you? Does this sound like I have my priorities all askew? I am in a competitive world just as you are and everyone should be looking for ways to make your business such a draw it cripples your competitor.

I learned this years ago when I was working a cable television trade show and part of my compensation was to have a booth. It just so happens my booth was in between HGTV and the Playboy channel. Because of my antics in the booth, the games I was running and the prizes I was giving away created an excitement that drew a critical mass of people. Once there was the critical mass, people started to noticed and wondered what they were missing and the crowd grew even more. In fact for that show I out drew both of my neighbors purely because I created the right excitement and enthusiasm and had a plan to draw a crowd. Isn’t that the purpose of a trade show? It’s the same purpose for your business.

Read more »

I had the opportunity to meet with the CEO of a Fortune 500 company to pitch a project I wanted to do for them. In his spacious office John Wayne was everywhere: posters, autographed pictures, and even a life-sized cardboard cutout of the Duke himself standing in one corner of the office.

I commented on the memorabilia and he mentioned to me everyone who comes to his office wants to add to his collection, and the way he said it, I got the feeling his interest became more the passion of others with their gifts.

As I was leaving after my presentation I noticed one thing framed that had nothing to do with John Wayne. It was a certificate from Star Fleet Command. He was a closet Trekkie! When I asked about that particular framed certificate his eyes lit up and he told me all about his week at Star Trek camp! You never know do you?

In the thank you note to him for giving me his time I included two inexpensive items I found on ebay. One was a Star Trek communicator the actors would hit on their chest to communicate with others on board. The second was a red enamel Klingon war pin.

In the note I told him he could use these as indicators when he walked into meetings. If the communicator pin was on it was open communication. If he was wearing the Klingon war pin – the warrior was loose.

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I remember growing up playing with a Super Ball. I could bounce this ball from shoulder height on the driveway and have it bounce higher than the rooftop on my two-story house! People and companies need to have that type of bounce ability when facing tough times.

We are well versed in people and companies who struggle in bad times. It’s almost become sport in this county to see who falls on their face next. The falls make the headlines but what about the rest of the story after the fall? Those stories rarely make the headlines and that is actually where the greatest lessons exist in how well people and companies recover from their falls. Whether it’s personal or corporate there is going to be adversity in our journeys and how we respond and how quickly we respond demonstrated out bounce. You have options in your bounce ability.

What about the people who fall, fail or flounder only to bounce back stronger than ever? Robert Downey Jr. has good bounce. Vanessa Williams has good bounce. Starbucks has good bounce. How about you?
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In talking with a group of managers about the Next Generation I was trying to explain the differences between the generations and this guy from my audience says, “I don’t know what’s up with my younger employees but someone was handing out stupid and they were grabbing all they could get!.” Sure everyone laughed, but he failed to see the joke – because he didn’t have a mirror in front of him.

This new generation of workers is more intelligent, more technologically savvy, and better able to accomplish a multitude of tasks than generations prior. They are not stupid.

They also will not tolerate boorish managers, incomplete information and lack of proper training. There is where the stupid lies – in how managers are treating this generation that have the potential to make your organization soar! Read more »

By Russell J. White

I’ve always trained my clients that when dealing with an angry customer try to move them to a private place to address their issue because angry customers love to broadcast to an audience.

The days of “a private place” are over thanks to social media and the smart phone power to instantly notify thousands of people in real time about how; you the customer are being dealt with.

The old math used to be that only one of every twenty five customers complained and on average an upset customer would tell 16 other people. So the math used to be for every complaint you received, roughly 400 people would hear about your bad service.

Currently, I have over 6800 twitter followers, 900 facebook friends and 250 facebook fans. That is 7,950 people a click away. I also have a blog as do millions of other potential complaining customers. My numbers are by no means the top of the heap. In fact, I would say for those involved in social media, they would be slightly above average.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume my numbers are average and that one complaint still represents 24 other people just as upset who didn’t bother to let you know.  Under the new math of social media, for every complaint you receive, roughly (7950 X 25) 198,750 will hear about your bad service! Whoa! Read more »

By Russell J White

The people closest to you in your personal and professional lives will have a tremendous influence on who you become. As a friend of mine told me, “I put people in my life who don’t let anything stop them.”

They have the same success mindset she does, and at her young age she has accomplished more than most people do in a lifetime. How does she do this?

Think of yourself as a bus driver and the seats behind you are occupied by those closest to you. What are you hearing from them? How do they act from day to day? How much of a priority are you to them? What actions are they doing you are proud of? What positive influence do you feel in their presence?

People you want on your bus Read more »