Look Before You Leap

April 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment

As a lifestyle design coach, a mid-point Boomer (born in 1955) and just a generally nice guy (:->), my best advice for any Boomer looking for a “retirement business” is to look before you leap!

One of the most popular business options for Boomers is in the field of “home-based” businesses. These businesses are appealing because of they are simple to start (it usually requires filling out an “application” and paying a “start-up fee.”) And they are relatively simple to run. (They usually include a website to order products and/or recruit new distributors)

On the downside, many of these businesses have a distributor force whose only business acumen is that they filled out the application and paid the start-up fee. They are excited about the “flagship” product and how much money they are going to make, but don’t know much more about true business success. Many made the decision to “join the business” based solely on emotion and without much, if any, real investigation of the company its products or its long-term business viability.

Companies come and go in this industry at a staggering pace. What looks like a “can’t miss” opportunity dissolves to nothing from one day to the next. Companies make promises they cannot keep, change the compensation plan, cheapen the products/service, and exercise their option to stop paying distributor compensation on a regular basis.

In the end, real people get hurt and the industry takes another hit for being “scams,” “get rich quick schemes,” “pyramids,” etc. When in fact, most companies using this method of business are real and legitimate businesses, with great products, and good people at their helms.

So, as I said at the beginning, Look Before You Leap!! Any legitimate company will welcome your investigation of their products/services, their business model, their compensation plan, and their plan for long-term sustainability. This model of doing business is a good one, but it must fit your lifestyle to be successful for you. Any business takes time and effort. Don’t be fooled by fast talk, high pressure, and/or special deals. Look Before You Leap!!

(In the interest of full disclosure, I have been, and am now involved in this industry as a part of my overall business model.)

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Filed Under: Entrepreneurialism, Retirement Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Social Media and Real Business

March 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

An example of the share buttons common to many...

An example of the share buttons common to many social web pages. Thanks to http://www.nouveller.com for the free icon pack image. The author (Benjamin Reid) releases the image into the public domain, with the following text available at the source page: "You can use them anywhere you like, absolutely anywhere, anything. No attribution, 100% free.". (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The lure of social media is everywhere today. (I watched my Twitter stream all day yesterday to see the fate of Tim Tebow.) Nearly anyone can be found online and in the social media world. As recently as the last couple years the largest segment of growth online were Boomers and Seniors.

 

Businesses of all shapes and sizes are being inundated with “gurus” who are insisting that no business can survive without a social media marketing plan. Yet, thousands and thousands, and thousands, and thousands (you get my point) of businesses don’t really know what to do with social media or how to do it.

 

Let me give you three quick tips on how to use social media in a real business:

 

  1. Create a social media plan that is heavy on the social. The point of social media for business is to build relationships and to actually carry on conversations with your customers and prospective customers. Most companies believe that if they just send out enough information to enough people they will gain enough customers. (That is really just “old school” marketing in a new medium.) Social means social, so talk!
  2. Create a social media plan that allows your customers and potential customers to ask questions that then get answered for everyone’s benefit. The more you can answer questions before and after the sale, the more people will buy from you again and refer you to others.
  3. Create a social media plan that allows you to monitor your brand and respond quickly to any negative comments. People today are more apt to take their anger with you and your company online these days than they are to talk directly to you. If you are monitoring your name and the name of your company, you can usually respond to and defuse most complaints in real time. This kind of open and thoughtful response will go a long way in repairing relationships with an existing customer and showing potential customers the kind of effort you will make with them should an issue arise!

Real businesses (not the shame groups teaching you to make money online by teaching people to make money online to teach people to make money online) need to have an online presence these days. But, don’t let the lure of the online cause you to loose sight of the rest of your business planning, marketing, and efforts. Social media is one tool in the tool box. Essential …YES! But, not to the expense of all others!

 

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Social Entrepreneurship and a Local Business

August 1, 2011 by 4 Comments
Corporate Social Responsibility

Image by Tom Raftery via Flickr

I was reading a book today about managing a social media strategy for your business. I was struck by something that the authors said that I have thought to be true for some time. While speaking to the responsibility a business has to its social media followers they said, “Consumers are evaluating their providers with the social responsibility yardstick today more than ever. Companies that don’t measure up in the consumers” eyes risk being taken to task and exposed of all the world to see.” (The Social Media Management Handbook, Nick Smith and Robert Wollan with Catherine Zhou, pg. 13 – Affiliate Link) This is often called social entrepreneurship and it is as important for local businesses as it is for multinational corporations.

My take on this quote is that, like it or not, we live in a world where people want more from the businesses that they work with than just the product they sell or the services they perform. Instead, they want to work with companies and entrepreneurs that see their place in the world as something more than just a place to make a dollar. They want to see that we are concerned with what we produce, how we produce and how our products/services/business benefit not only the customer, but society at large.

Even though local companies/entrepreneurs don’t have the time or the resources that large companies do, customers still expect to see and hear that your company is concerned about making society better with our products, our services and/or a portion of our proceeds. The more that you make this social entrepreneurship known, the more your customers will see the heart of your company and the more prepared they will be to not only buy your products/services but the more they will be your vocal advocates both on and offline.

Now it’s your turn!

What do you think? How do you make your social responsibility known and visible to your customers?

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When Customers Complain Online

July 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Complaint Department Grenade

Image via Wikipedia

In this technological age customer care and what to do when customers complain is a much more tricky concept than it has been at other times in history. Before the rise of the social networks, customer care was done by companies and customers “having it out” in person or over the phone. The offended customer could also tell his/her immediate friends, but that was about it.

With the advent of the social web, a complaint by a customer can go viral in just seconds and a company caught unaware can have their reputation (and their bottom line) damaged in the blink of an eye. So what is a small business/solo-entrepreneur supposed to do when customers complain online? There are three principle things that you need to do:

  1. Get to the complaint as quickly as possible. This means that you are going to have to monitor your name and the name of your company online. There are several options with which to do this. Find the best one for you and monitor things closely.
  2. Respond in a personal way to the complaint. Don’t just “fire back” at the complainer. They are upset about something and you need to both understand their complaint and what they would like you to do to fix the problem. Seek to make sure everyone online who is following you knows you have seen the complaint and are working with the customer to straighten things out. Then send a PM to the customer and work with them personally to resolve the issue.
  3. Once the issue is resolved ask the customer to post that the issue has been resolved. The same people who heard the complaint should also know that it was heard and resolved. You need to also post that a resolution has been achieved to your online community so that they will have confidence that you will consider any problem that they may encounter with you, your products/services.

Not every complaint can be resolved amiably, but if the complaint is made online, then you need to allow your online community know that you are doing everything you can to resolve every issue that arises. This kind of quit response will limit any damage to the reputation of you and your company when customers complain online.

 

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