Archive for the ‘just good business’ Category

You can’t run with an umbrella, but you can avoid the rain.

06.21.10

I’ve done 5Ks here and there since high school, but I’ve only considered myself a serious runner for the past six or seven years, since I began running more long-distance races. My distance-running reached its peak in 2008 when I completed my first (and possibly only) marathon. Though I have not even considered another full marathon for my future, I am still running these days, religiously signing up (or being forced to sign up by my running family members) for half marathons and 10-mile events.

This past weekend, I ran the Baltimore 10-Miler, which started and ended at the Maryland Zoo. And while I am proud to say that I achieved my 10-mile personal record at this race, there were more than a few moments between 7:30 and 8:58 a.m. on Saturday when I just wanted to call it quits. Of course, I knew that stopping in the middle of an organized race wasn’t an option for me.

For starters, I’d still have to somehow make it to my car (which was at the finish line). Unless I required an ambulance, I’d have to get there on foot. So I figured the faster I ran, the sooner it would be over. Secondly, I was in a crowd of 4,000 people that included my usual race mates — my sisters and brother-in-law — and I knew I would never hear the end of it from this close-knit running group if I had no finishing time to compare to theirs.

So, instead of throwing in the towel (and boy, could I have used a cold, wet towel), I picked up the pace. To get myself out of my running funk, I reverted back to my high school days (when I would only dare enter a 5K, let alone a 10-miler!) and switched on my cheerleading persona. I began cheering for myself, my fellow runners, even for the sedentary spectators, whose unofficial but obvious  job was to root for participants. I’m not talking about a mental in-my-head pep talk, either. I’m talking about “Let’s go runners!” and “One more mile!” and “Hey, you guys are supposed to be cheering for us!” All while I’m running by the Waverly Giant shopping center and some boarded up housing.

And you know what happened? My attitude grew confident, the finish line grew nearer, and my sweat grew out of control (but the race organizers provided the cold, wet towel relief I was looking for; I just had to reach the 10-mile mark to get it).

What does this have to do with business or marketing? If I may, I’d like to present a comparison: Running a race is like running your own business. You can pray for good weather and few hills (or for ideal market conditions and demand for your product). You can prepare yourself by going on training runs (or to business seminars and networking events). You can rely on bystanders to cheer you on (or on friends and loved ones to refer you business). But when it comes down to it, much of the fate of your company lies in your own control.

Instead of praying that customers want what you’re selling, why not look to your customers to see what they want, and sell that? Instead of attending workshops and taking detailed notes that only you will read, why not lead discussions and share your findings on your blog or Facebook page? Instead of depending on your family to spread the word, why not motivate current and past clients to generate leads for you?

You can hope for sunny skies all you want, but if the rain comes falling down on your business, ultimately you are the only one who can run it up the hill. I just hope your legs don’t feel like mine do when you’re done.

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Struggle of the Juggle: how to stay on task while working on your own

03.08.10

As a small-business owner (coincidentally, I’m also a small business-owner; what a difference a hyphen placement can make!), I know how hard it is to do it all alone. I am the sole employee of this operation, which means I’m in charge of getting new business, following up with prospects, coordinating with printers and other vendors, sending invoices, following up on unpaid invoices…the list goes on. Oh, not to mention, actually doing the work that is my business! Sometimes, it can be difficult to keep it all straight, and get it all done.

Below is a list of tips for my fellow solopreneurs. If you have any to add, please comment on this post.

  1. Make to-do lists. This is my absolute favorite thing to do (sorry, I couldn’t help myself). I love the rush of having a long list of tasks, and then individually crossing off each item as the day goes on. Your list doesn’t have to be old-school like mine, on a real piece of paper. Make use of the tasks function in Microsoft Outlook or other online and electronic tools. It’s almost as much fun to check them off with a click of the mouse.
  2. Automate your processes. If there is a task that you do regularly, help yourself by simplifying the process. When I get a new project, there are a number of questions I need answered before I can get started. Instead of having a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants conversation with every new client, and having to call them back because I forgot to ask if they have a color scheme in mind for their new logo, I have developed questionnaires for the most common types of projects that I work on. Need a website? Let’s fill out the new website questionnaire. Need an email newsletter? Let’s complete the email newsletter questionnaire. Get it? Reinventing the wheel every time = bad. Figuring out the most efficient way to do something, and doing it once = good.
  3. Schedule your time. If you know you have deadlines, put them on your calendar. Figure out when you can fit these projects into your busy schedule, and mark that time. When someone calls you to grab lunch for a time when you are supposed to be working to meet a deadline, the blocked out time on your calendar will keep you from being tempted to blow it off and save it for later. Because guess what? Later, you have something else you need to accomplish (just check out your newly filled calendar and all the reminders that keep popping up)! It can also be helpful to schedule tasks that are not time-sensitive, such as networking, reading industry blogs, and taking breaks (yes, you must schedule your breaks or you will forevermore work through them).

I’d write more, but I’m itching to cross through “blog post” from today’s to-do list, and I have a phone call in five minutes for which my calendar just alerted me with its no-nonsense reminder ding. Until next time, stay organized and productive!

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Choosing a company name should take more thought than signing for a package

02.01.10

If I were just starting out my business (you may be thinking that I haven’t been around for decades, and, if we’re being technical, I really only began focusing on my business for about as long as I’ve had the three containers of Yoplait yogurt currently in my fridge, but still, it seems like a long time), I think I would choose a different name.

LBK Designs logo

It’s not that I don’t love my initials (rather, my former, pre-married initials); everyone who knows me would tell you I love them. And please, if you run into me, feel free to call me LBK and I’ll answer with a smile. It’s just that I’m beginning to realize that although these three letters hold much significance to me, and perhaps to all the people on my family and friends calling plan, they really don’t mean a whole lot to anyone else.

This epiphany has recently come to my attention as my client base expands to include a number of initial- or acronym-based businesses, all of which require me to stop and carefully consider the letters before typing an email or sending a proposal. And if I can’t remember the first letter in each word of your business name (and I’m being paid), then maybe your customers are having a hard time, too.

You may be wondering what kind of right I have telling you how to choose your company name, when I’ve clearly not put as much thought into my own. But you see, my business was named long before I even had my own computer, let alone business cards with my name on them. I’ve been signing off as “LBK Designs” since I was able to write as much at the bottom of my childish doodles or on the back of a program I created for a school assembly. “LBK Designs” is as much a part of me as the chicken pox scar on my left cheek, or my signature attribute: the fact that I’m under five feet tall. So you see, when I made the decision to be a freelance graphic designer, I never really had a choice.

That being said, if you have no compelling reason to use a less than fabulous name for your business, keep reading…

Things to consider when choosing a company name

What does your company do? ABC & Associates could be a law firm, a dentist’s office, a contractor, a therapist, a pet groomer… Don’t make your customers guess what you do. Think about including your service in the name of your business.

However, when including your main service, don’t be too specific. What happens when ABC Pet Groomer decides to offer pet-sitting services as well? Suddenly, the name of the company is too limiting. Consider the growth of your company down the road.

What is your unique selling point? What makes ABC Pet Support (see how that allows room for growth?) different from XYZ Pet Support? If you’re not sure what makes you special, ask your clients why they give you repeat business. Maybe it’s your personalized service. Or your ability to take jobs at the last minute. Maybe it’s the way you send hard copy invoices splashed with The Gap’s grass scent (is that still out there?). Whatever it is, figure out a way to incorporate it into your brand.

Be reasonable. “Personal Service, Last-Minute, Grass-Scented Pet Support” is not going to fit nicely in a logo, and people will never remember your website. Boil it down to a few words, filled with meaning and your message.

So there are my two cents on the topic. I may not have followed my own advice this time, but I’m seriously chewing over a new business endeavor: Grass Roots Pet Services. I’m not totally sure the full variety of services we offer just yet, but I do know the basis of our business is to connect with the people and pets who are our clients. And, of course, all our products come with a complimentary outdoor-scented, pet-safe perfume.

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If you print it, you should honor it

01.14.10

I went out for a lovely Italian dinner last night with a friend. The waiter was pleasant, the food was pretty good, the wine was poured a little higher than it probably should have been. But the night took a terrible downward turn when I presented the server with a 10% off coupon that I had clipped from the multi-page book that gets mailed to me each month with hundreds of local deals.

“We don’t accept this anymore,” he said.

“Is it expired?” I asked.

He brought the coupon close to his face to read the fine print. “No, there’s no expiration date. We just don’t take the ValPak coupons anymore.”

“Doesn’t the restaurant pay to have their coupons printed in the ValPak?” I asked.

“Well, yes. But they just decided to stop accepting them.”

I knew that the piece of paper in question was a recently clipped coupon; based on the small number of folds and how none of the ink had worn off from rubbing against dozens of other coupons in my handy-dandy coupon wallet, I estimated I had carefully filed it under the “restaurants” tab less than a month ago.

I have no idea how to run a restaurant, and I’m no expert in the coupon-printing vs. coupon-accepting cost analysis. But part of the reason my friend and I decided to go to this particular restaurant (that shall remain nameless but feel free to identify it in the photo at right) was precisely because I recalled I had this no-expiration-date savings in my purse. I feel strongly that giving us customer satisfaction by honoring their own promotion would have been well worth the six dollars and 70 cents it would have cost them.

I may not be a food industry professional, but what I do know is this: A satisfied client may or may not pass your name on to a friend or two; a dissatisfied one will surely tell 10 before the next day. And if the dissatisfied client has a blog, it may well reach hundreds or thousands.

Do right by your clients and customers by honoring your own promotional materials.

Need help designing your coupons or advertisements?

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The first item on my 2010 to-do list

01.04.10

I never used to be one to set goals, at least not long-term, life-changing ones (my list of things to do would be more likely to include “Pick up dry cleaning” rather than “Save the world”). But a couple years ago, with the gentle persuasion of The Secret (a concept-turned-huge-marketing-success, which I’m not endorsing, just passing on through my personal experience), I did make a list of more serious ambitions.

One was to complete a marathon. At the time I wrote this down, the idea of running 26.2 miles didn’t seem completely absurd; after all, I did run three miles several times a week, and even 10 miles on occasion for races for which my sisters forced me to sign up with them. But running long distances day in and day out to train for the big event for months ahead of time did not sound like a commitment I was ready to make. So I jotted “marathon” on my list, and I didn’t give myself a deadline — I figured when my schedule cleared up and I was ready, I’d do it and check it off the list — no rush. And if I happened to grow old, break both my legs, or otherwise impair myself in the meantime in a way that made this goal impossible, well then at least I tried.

But lists don’t work that way. The moment something is down on paper (and not on a Post-It note that you may be tempted to throw away; this is the perfect reason to use the pretty journal that you’ve placed in a drawer because it’s too nice to use for grocery lists and errands), you have completely obligated yourself to that item. Had I not written that one word in my otherwise blank notebook more than two years ago, I may still be just talking about the idea of a marathon and congratulating my sister on completing one without me.

But I did write it down. And so, when my sister approached me on January 1, 2008 and said, ”We have exactly 12 weeks to prepare for the DC National Marathon, are you up for it?” I knew I had no choice but to begin training that very day. On March 29, 2008, I crossed that finish line in 4 hours, 58 minutes and 4 seconds (a full 30 seconds before my sister, but this isn’t really the place for bragging).

Less than a year later, I set a new goal for myself: natural childbirth. Since this one evolved over a period of time I spent researching the topic, I never actually put a pen to paper to record the goal. Instead, I ended up telling everyone I knew about my plan to accomplish this feat, so that come baby’s birth day, I’d feel like a complete hypocrite if I didn’t follow through with it. This method worked just as well as the journal approach for me, and after training for months through yoga and Hypnobirthing techniques, I delivered a healthy baby boy with no more than an affirmation-filled iPod and the force of my own sheer will.

LBK Designs - full-time business!You’d think after accomplishing these two lofty goals, which I’d venture to say very few people have under their belts, I’d be finished, right? Well, as it turns out, I now thrive on goal-setting and goal-achieving, which leaves me pretty busy and with what I hope is a healthy amount of stress. My current endeavor: Leaving my 9-to-5 (which came with regular paychecks) for a more balanced life of running my own business and enjoying time with my family (which comes with regular hugs and kisses, and sometimes paychecks, too).

While I’ve already met the goal of quitting my day job, the success of my business as my full-time gig has yet to be determined. But as I have done with my other aspirations, I am pouring my heart and soul into this mission, and telling everyone of my plans as a means to encourage victory.

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