2. February 2010 by The Original Bulldog - Bob Griffin.

I was looking around my house for new items that would help me convey a sense of team dynamics to a group I will be speaking to later this week.  I have a speech I will use about the disconnect in most teams and how the dynamics of getting a team to embody a message is difficult, but not impossible.  Great speech if I do say so, but it was missing an element.  Something for the audience to “visually” hold onto while I made my story come to life.

22. January 2010 by The Original Bulldog - Bob Griffin.

Draw three circles - one around the next.  This is all the business model you need to create a dynamic growing business in this depressed economic environment.

10. January 2010 by Noel Guilford.

OK, so now you’ve found your way down that long path to business ownership. First, congratulations! You have done something that many only dream of and even fewer have the courage to pursue that dream. Over that rise, past your opening day, lies a expansive land full of responsibilities and challenges…many of them daily. For those people with enough foresight and vision it gets easier over time. The reality is that most business owners have no experience and often feel lost even after many years of running their first or even second business. If any business owner should find themselves in this position there is no shortage of assistance out there for those that look.

Of all the obstacles faced, nothing compares to how difficult people-management can be, especially in today’s work force.  You can go absolutely mad trying. The most commonly used tactic is to find someone else to deal with it. Sounds easy right, well who is going to manage that person? If anyone needs sound and consistent leadership it’s the middle management. To manage a strong leader takes an even stronger leader. This is all considering that the right person can be found, hired, trained, compensated, and retained. I wont take the time here to discuss the possibility of doing that when there is a more effective and rewarding option available.

Unfortunately the “no wait, right now” society that we have become totally conflicts with the time and effort needed to effectively mentor anyone. Yes I said it! That person with the extensive resume and years of experience didn’t crash land in your lobby.  They were made just like me, just like you. Someone molded and honed the well qualified professional aspirant looking to fill a position in your business. Good thing you found them and they you. If you haven’t yet found a gem of a worker for yourself then make one.

Take the hand of an employee with the determination and drive to excel and push them. Some of my most rewarding experiences has been laboring over the spark of potential and watching it grow. The biggest benefit to hatching your own egg is you get the desired experience necessary to fit your needs and the needs of your business with the added factor of the earned loyalty.

This is the real world and these eggs hatch and sometime move on to bigger and better opportunities. What I will leave you with is this - If a protege of yours needs to grow beyond you and your organization and has the chance to do so consider it the highest compliment to your ability to lead that you will ever receive. So find an employee worth the effort and sit on them.

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7. January 2010 by The Original Bulldog - Bob Griffin.

There are two types of owners that need to grow their view of the business they own.  One type of owner spends a lot of time on numbers.  They see the trends and how the customers respond to the marketing or employee efforts.  The “Number Cruncher” is a good master of his domain.  He is up to date on what has happened in his business and what works.  He can plan and explain his business in terms of dollars and cents.  Why is this not a big enough view?  He is good with changing to a new plan.  He can see what works and plan, but moving to a new plan is outside his view.  Limits like this are part of an old way of doing business.  I grew up in this format.  I am happy to look through these eyes.  I also know that if I want to make stores successful I need to look bigger and make changes quickly to stay ahead of the competition and fire up my team.  Numbers tell no lies, but they also do not inspire growth.  People do.

Look at the whole picture.  Crunch numbers to see what works best.  Take the best parts of a campaign, product, or service and build your store around it.  The best businesses ask more questions than make statements.  Every question or answer should bring more questions or answers.  Look bigger.  Dream about where your business can grow.  Do not EVER be comfortable.  Comfort is good for a blanket, but bad for a business model.  Be ready to change.  Look inside your business first to ensure that when you go out and invite customers in you are ready to make them say “WOW”.

Posted in Marketing, Customer Service, Creating the Culture, Making Money | Print | 1 Comment »

2. January 2010 by The Original Bulldog - Bob Griffin.

When we talk with owners, there is a need for them to ask certain questions immediately that always makes me think they may or may not be ready for the next step in the evolution of their business.  The issues are money and time.  If you want to have a strong business, you need to spend either more money or more time or both.  If you are not ready to do so, please find the time and money and then find the help in getting started right.

Business owners has a desire to fulfill a vision for what the business should look like and sometimes miss the basics of how the business should run.  I do not blame them for that fact.  If you start a business from scratch, even a franchise, requires that you are a real estate expert, contractor (or at least oversee the contractor), and the middleman between the business and the government agencies that require that you have permits and fees paid before you are allowed to make any money.  Transitioning to from that to handling the day-to-day operations can be a dilemma when the store opens.  At this point, they either invested well enough to hit the ground running or they stumble out of the gate.  You spend a lot of money and time getting things rolling.  The last thing you want to think about is how much more time and money it will cost to get the business open and keep it open, but that is where your thinking should be.

More often than not, owners stumble on day one.  The problem starts with having the basic operations knowledge and then translating it to a function of getting the job done by leading the team and communicating the vision.  Working in an industry for more than a year is a sure fire way to learn from the ground up.  This gives you a chance to work as a leader, find the answers on how things should work, and how to communicate effectively to employees.  Most entrepreneurs do not spend that kind of time or want to make that kind of sacrifice.  It is the difference between being in business in five years or dying out your first few months.

One problem that I see very often is - Ego.  When someone wants to start a business they say it is for the money.  That, unfortunately, is only half the reason.  The other reason is that it is something that will give them the ability to tell friends and family that they are a business owner.  Most people you see each day do not own a business.  They are happy to work for someone else, but do give credit to others who jump over to being an owner.  Ego gets in the way because the owner wants to be the owner more than the operator of a business that may require them to be on the front line.   Do not think you can delegate to a successful business.  Bulldog Rule # 14 - The right people never want to work with the wrong people - hits the nail on the head.  Make sure you are the right person to lead…not yell at people and be angry or make the place a “work-hell”.  Otherwise, you will spend more money to hire the right person to lead.

I have been enjoying reading for the millionth time The E-Myth Revisited by  Michael E. Gerber.  He makes many valid points on hiring people who can be trained and can follow your lead.  This requries that you have a training program for them to follow and are able to lead someone through training to be the best employee for the job. You can’t have a big ego and lead employee through training (no one would follow).  Creating a great training program removes you as the main focus of the business and makes the system most important.  I was also reading What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell where he made this point.  He interviewed Ron Popeil, the founder of Ronco and the Inventor of many products you probably have in your kitchen.  I was impressed with the way  Ron took the interest off himself and made the product the star.  Coming from a family of salesmen, that was always the formula, but for someone without that kind of knowledge and with an ego going into business, it is easy to see where a person can slip up and make the product or service second to the messenger.  Lose the ego and make the system follow the sale.  You may want to take a vacation.  If the emphasis is on you and your ego, what happens when you are not there?

Great leading through training requires a few items:

• Each job has a cost and an outcome.  List the parts of the job and the desired outcome.  Be prepared to change the training and the costs as your business grows.  There is never just one way to do a job and costs change over time.
  
• Be a coach, a mentor, and a teacher that someone would want to learn from.  This implies that you can lead through teaching.  If you can’t or are not very good, find someone who can.  Yes, this costs more money, but it will save you from wasting time and money in the long run.
• Invest money and time early in the game to make more later.  When you spend, spend wisely.  Getting the ship headed in the right direction from day one is the best way to jump ahead of the competition and find better people who want to work with you.
• Fire yourself if you need to.  Being an owner does not mean that you need to be the leader of the organization.  Set the tone, set the budget, keep up with the data, and get the heck out of the way.

There are great ways to make a great business and they all come back to spending your time and money in ways that make you more down the road.  Be prepared to keep spending time and money on training, firing/hiring, better information, and better processes.  The investing does not stop when you start making a great paycheck.

Posted in Customer Service, Training, Making Money | Print | 1 Comment »

28. December 2009 by Susan Kempton-Smith.

How do you know for sure that you’ve made the right hiring decision? You don’t, or at least you can’t be absolutely sure until the new hire has passed the test of time. What you can do is take some practical steps to reduce your risk of hiring the wrong person.

Step 1 - Without a road map you’ll be flying blind, so make sure that before you begin your search for the perfect employee, you develop a job description that truly encompasses necessary hard and soft skills.

Step 2 - Eliminate the candidates whose resumes suggest a less than perfect fit.

• Does the candidate’s job history indicate stability, or someone who changes positions frequently?
• If a college degree is required, does the candidate possess a degree that’s job related?
• If relocation expenses are not reimbursed, then it’s best to focus on local candidates.
• If the candidate’s residence is far away, will the long commute be an issue?
• If the candidate lists himself as the CEO, owner, or president of a company, this could indicate that he has a small business on the side, which could present a conflict of interest for someone who may not be able to commit himself to the job.

Step 3 - Screen the candidates for hard skills. You can determine the qualification potential of applicants by devising questions that can be administered over the phone, saving both of you time and money. For example, if a job requires specific computer skills, you can ask software-specific questions to help determine their skill level.

Step 4 – Have the applicant fill out an application and have them email or fax it to you prior to the face-to-face interview. This process helps to answer several questions. When driving is a job requirement, then a space for driving history should be included on the application. This can reveal DUIs or excessive speeding tickets, which would be probable reasons for elimination.

• If more than a few days lapse before the application is returned, then I would question how serious the candidate is about the job.
• Did the candidate pay attention to detail?
• Was the application complete?
• A section for the salary required by the candidate can help to eliminate candidates with an asking price that is out of range.
• Does the job history match the resume?

Step 5 – The face-to-face interview. This is the time to get to know the applicant.

• Were they punctual?
• Were they dressed appropriately?
• Were they confident without appearing cocky?
• Listen to your gut and don’t ignore the signs.
• Why are they interested in the position?
• Why do they want to work for your company? Did they do their homework and at least look up your company’s website?
• Get them to relax by initiating casual conversation. You’ll be surprised as to the insight you can gain into a potential hire by talking about recent events, vacations, favorite restaurants, books, and movies.

Step 6 – Picture them in your environment.

• Are they a team player, or do they need to work independently?
• Are they a self starter, and if not, how much training will be available?
• Keep the following in mind during the hiring process.
• Don’t be too hasty to hire. Your need to fill a position should not outweigh your need to hire the right person. It’s much easier to hire right the first time than to manage or possibly fire the wrong individual.
• A positive employee is a great marketing tool; however, a negative employee can have an equally or worse impact on your business and your bottom line.
• Can you see the potential hire becoming friends with other employees? Having a buddy at work can make all the difference when it comes to motivation.
• Will they mesh with their immediate supervisor? If you pair someone who seeks constant recognition with a manager who doesn’t adhere to that philosophy, don’t expect to get the very best from that new hire for long.
• If they’ll be working on a team, are they extroverts?
• Don’t sugarcoat the position or your expectations. It is better that they know exactly what they’re getting into than feel as if they were lied to during the interview process.

Finally, remember that skills can be taught. Personalities can’t. You can only expand what’s already there. It’s impossible to build on something that doesn’t exist.

Posted in Hiring Process | Print | 2 Comments »

27. December 2009 by The Original Bulldog - Bob Griffin.

The article I wrote on compliments has been downloaded and printed a few thousand times I want to add to it to ensure you have the tools to help this value-adding idea to your own business philosophy.  There is more than just being polite to getting compliments, although that is a good place to start.  There is an  ideology that many small business owners and managers fail to notice and so fail to foster in their employees.  Business Bulldog, Inc. was started to help get businesses back to the basics and grow with time-tried, recognizable ways of growing.  It is what helped start the best businesses around.  It is also the path that businesses that do not worry about what people have to say about them use.

To just read the above paragraph and think you understand how to get compliments would be a mistake.  There is a school of thought that guides the best in business that must not only be understood, but lived. It is something that all good people know in their heart and live by.  It can be broken down to one simple, yet profound word.  It usually makes owners cringe and fail to see it’s worth and for employees to throw out of their vocabulary after the first hour on the job.

Trust

Compliments are broken down into three parts: the actions that bring about a compliment, the action of giving a compliment, and the context in which it is received.

Very often we hire “warm bodies”.  I mean - the people needed just to keep things going.   They fill a spot on the schedule, but do not really make things better.  Kind of a “space filler” on the payroll.  I call them a waste of space since I would not hire someone I did not see helping the culture of my organization.  All employees are a representation of the brand.  If you do not think so, you are in for a rude awakening when things go bad and you need everyone to step up and help with jobs they do not normally do or were hired to do.  Want to see just how cranky the person who normally unloads trucks can get when asked to answer a phone?  A quick check - - would you be comfortable letting anyone in your organization tell a news reporter about your business?  If that answer is no, you have “warm bodies”.

“Warm bodies” are the reason most places do not get compliments.  They drag down the rest of the employees who want to be proud of the company and the job they do.  I have seen far too many organizations that think that is the only way to keep the business going.  The reason I have heard is, “Employees do not want to do any more than they have to.  You have to push them to get anything done around here.”  That is the business with the going out of business sign on the front door and the merchandise being stolen by employees when the boss turns his back.  The culture there is “I don’t trust you”.

So, how do you start trusting people when your organization is geared to pushing and dragging crew to do their job?  The first step is to change the way you look at your business.  Why did you get into business?  Was it for a short term gain or for the long haul?  Businesses built for the long haul are the only ones we work with.  Why start with you?  Because you are the driving force in your organization.  If you make it important, the employees will see it as important.  Make your actions compliment worthy.  The rest of your team should see this as a clear path for them to follow.  It is also easy to see where your weak link is when you are acting professionally and expect others in your organization to act similarly.

We have mentioned a few times that getting compliments should be an easy task for your customers.  How many businesses do you visit each week that do not have a way (an easy way) for you to give feedback?  That is where you need to spend a few budgeted dollars (or for our international friends euros, dinars, etc.).  Find ways to get customers to give you their honest opinion.  Walk around your store and ask, place a phone call to a recent customer, give surveys, or have a third party ask.  I do not recommend using it as part of a promotion - you give us a score and we will give you a chance to win a prize.  There are too many ways for that to muddy the message.

Finally, how are you going to receive the message.  By that I mean, what are you going to do with the information?  If you are going to just look at it and thunder orders to your front line crew, forget it.  You don’t make changes that matter by pushing your team.  Either they are part of the answer or you are fooling yourself into thinking you are a leader.  If you want to use the information to make changes that will change your business, post the best examples of compliments that show the path you want your team to follow.  The feedback that is not a compliment is valuable too.  Use it to make changes, but do it as a team.  If you have field people, get them in the office for a meeting and have them brainstorm was to make the customer’s experience better.

Trust is an amazing thing when you have it in your business.  Trust your employees to do the right thing.  Trust your customers to give you meaningful feedback.  Finally, trust your team to help you build a stronger business.  Compliments can be an amazing part of your brand image.  It is tough to tear down a brand that has dedicated followers.  Just remember to start the path to compliments inside your business.

Posted in Customer Service, Creating the Culture | Print | 1 Comment »

16. December 2009 by Noel Guilford.

It is obviously difficult to live in a society that is permeated with the idea that only total and absolute disaster can be the catalyst of necessary and long over due change. That may be the case for most of us, but we have the choice to be a fish that slips through the net or canned tuna. Many, many businesses and organizations find themselves too far along to take any type of corrective action that will make a difference. They flop around on the deck in vain protesting to be thrown back into the sea. The sad part is, that as the net of this recent economical environment sweeps up more and more businesses…I mean fish, how many will really be missed in the commotion?

So a show of hands for everyone that would prefer to sabotage their own business by being reactive rather than proactive…anyone? Great!

Now, lets not make this complicated shall we? It takes more courage than anything to put ourselves underneath the microscope. I’ll give you 7 easy steps to giving your business a self diagnostic and we know that checkups should be done regularly so your first time should not be your last.

• Step 1: Why am I in business for myself?

Never stop asking this question as the answer can change over time. The current answer will be the direction that you drive your business in and the ultimate goal of all your work. If you don’t clearly know, you will be like a ship lost at sea with no bearings. Totally subject to the forces around you and utterly powerless to determine your own destiny.

• Step 2: What is my role in the business?

There are no right or wrong answers here just honest realizations.  Are your a front-line type of leader or more of a hands-off delegate type? Perhaps you don’t need to lead your business at all and it would be best lead by another person accountable to you.  It could simply be that you best serve the business by managing the financial aspects rather than the day to day. Decide and stick with that decision.

• Step 3: How do I rate my business?

On a scale from one to five, rate exactly how you believe your business performs in four separate areas. Five being excellent, three being fair, and one being poor. Not sure what a five looks like, that’s where step four comes in.  This step is to make sure you calibrate what you believe to be good performance.

• Marketing
• Operations
• Training
• Customer Service

• Step 4: Do I have a second opinion?

If the President needs an adviser then so do you. Some solicit the counsel of other business owners that they may know or have met through an organization of business owners. Others opt to enlist that aid of a consultant, personally this is an instance where the more really is the merrier. Let your adviser or advisers rate your business on the same scale and see what they have to say. At the end of the day the decisions are still yours to make. If others can help you see your situation from every angle would you not be able to make a better informed decision?

• Step 5: Compare/Identify/Plan

Take everything you know and everything that has been said by your adviser or advisers and lay it all out together. Give it all equal amounts of consideration, if it doesn’t work (even if its your idea) then it hits the cutting room floor? It helps at this point to remember step one. Keep what works and what has never been used. From these things create your business plan. This can be an overall business plan or one to tackle an area of your business that needs improvement.

• Step 6: The right players in the right positions

Before you start leading employees out to the gallows lets give this a second look. Everyone has their strengths and their weaknesses, and in order to use an employee to their fullest you must know what those are. As loyalty is hard to come by, before you replace someone determine if there is another position on the team that makes good use of their talents. If not then the decision is clear. Always use a diagram on this step. It helps to make sure that you pair who you have and what they can do, with what you need done.

• Step 7: Commitment and Accountability

Alright coach, now you should know your role, know where you are, have a goal, have what your need done, and who you need to do it. Great! Now it’s time to get everyone on board. This may require one large meeting or several small ones. Lead as many as dictated by the role you play in your business. Just remember that most of all they need to know why they are there (why they work for you ), where they stand in performance (just the facts), what function they have, and what needs to be done next. Lastly give them your reasonable expectations to be accomplished in a reasonable time frame and who will be holding them accountable to these expectations and why.

Wondering who is going to hold you accountable? Each time you perform this seven step check up have your previous one handy. Commitment and accountability should begin and end with you regardless of your role. Even though no business fails in a day, and no business corrects itself in a day, there is only one time to begin change and that time for you can be today.

Posted in Creating the Culture, Being the Boss, Training | Print | 1 Comment »

22. October 2009 by The Original Bulldog - Bob Griffin.

I hate Mission Statements.  There I said it.  There is absolutely no reason to waste good time on a paragraph of words that no one looks at, lives by, or is inspired by.  Do NOT create a Mission Statement.  If you must, here are all the words you need: excel, inspire, create, serve, endure, success, and forge.  Man, I had to struggle to write that last sentence.  Yuck!

Instead of a Mission Statement, make a Vision Statement.  What’s the difference?  Peanut Butter!

I wrote recently about listening to elevator pitches from MBA candidates and I started thinking about a speech I heard from Ray Barton, CEO of Great Clips, Inc, who instructed new franchisees to the chain to create a vision statement.  Ray said that a Vision Statement is more than a bunch of words, it is your vision for your business.  (I may be paraphrasing.  It’s been some months since I heard him speak those words).  The idea is to have something you can describe in vivid detail how it works and where you see the business going.

Mission Statements are an endgame approach to describing business.  It’s a “This is what we do” statement.  Vision Statements paint a picture of what success is and the path it is on.  Ask Ray what he sees when he thinks of Great Clips and in a few words will make you want to buy a franchise to be a part of that vision. There are only a few people I have met in my life that make be thankful for having the time to speak with. Ray is one of those people.  He paints a picture you can see yourself in.

OK, so where does the peanut butter fit in?   When you describe your family or your favorite car or something you love.  You have words that make the description stick.  Those are peanut butter words.  It’s those words that are still on the tip of your tongue after you hear someone talk about something they are passionate about.  As the listener, you internalize those words like they mean the same thing to you.  If you can’t describe your business with the same kind of peanut butter words that you would use to describe something you love, sell and get out before the business sells you out.

To describe what I do, I say:

“I use magic bullets to make small business owners successful.” 

I am asked for the magic bullets all the time.  Those are my peanut butter words.  The bullets I use are the Bulldog Rules for Business on the second tab of this website.   It makes people interested in what I do.  I never want to sound like I am bored telling you what I do.  A Mission Statement will do that.  I also don’t want to be glib and say, “I increase sales and lower costs for business owners.”  What sticks there?  Nothing!

When you say your Vision Statement be creative, inventive (no one says you have to use real words), and keep changing it up.  Your business is never the same form one day to the next.  Why should your description of it stay the same?

Inspire me with your peanut butter words too.  I bet there is a Peanut Butter phrase that will make me talk about YOU next.  As of now, we have more than three dozen countries reading this blog and more joining every week.  I would love nothing more than to give you a forum for highlighting your business, job, or talent.  That is why I created this site in the first place. Which country has the best Vision Statement?  I guess we will see who grows the tastiest peanut butter.

Posted in Marketing, Creating the Culture, Being the Boss | Print | 1 Comment »

17. October 2009 by The Original Bulldog - Bob Griffin.

I had the opportunity to work with Chris Hanks, Director - Terry College of Business - University of Georgia, this past week.  Chris has created one of the best Entrepreneur Programs in the country and is working to develop the best new minds in the business world.  I was blown away by the ideas, the concepts for business models, and the services that were being brought to life and could see in the eyes of the students the desire to make millions of dollars.

For this event I was a judge for an elevator pitch competition for the MBA candidates.  It was eerie to be back in the hallowed halls I once wandered myself as a student.  I didn’t mind being older, but there was a sense of “what would I have become if I had the knowledge then that I have now”.  I could see myself up at the front of the class as a student and I cringed knowing what they needed to know.  For all the great ideas that were tumbled out before us in 60 second speeches, there was an element that was missed.

I come from a background of sales and retail.  That’s my bias.  It comes from that place where the customer and the deal meet.  I understand that there is a critical point where things are changing and in the end I am going to have to change my views.  The internet, networking pathways, viral marketing, and emerging future trends are all moving the dynamics of business beyond the brick and mortar stores we see today.  With that said, I can easily see that almost all of the businesses pitched are missing the direct communication of the product or service to the customer.

Before I start getting emails telling me all about elevator pitches and what they mean, I had the chance to ask questions after the pitch to clarify the statements and get a better idea of what the students were asking vendor capitalists to invest in.  Take it easy readers.  I wouldn’t make a leap from a 60 second pitch to a full blown critique of a business.

I was struck by the lack of any business having a store front and how that simple change in strategy is a clear indication of where the next generation of business owners is going to move.  This is not to say that some of the groups didn’t need the traditional businesses to sell to.  In fact, their products and services were dependent on having the traditional business owner buy from them or have them sell the products on store shelves.  There was, however, no one willing to have a retail shop of their own.

I have pushed and pulled this through the filters of my brain for days.  Do we need stores in the community to sell things?  Is it possible to have businesses totally free from rented spaces and still grow?  Will the human need for face-to-face contact be eliminated?  If you spend enough time on anything, there begins to be a fuzzy logic that can make the ridiculous seem correct.  I got a bit overwhelmed and decided to go eat.

I went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant.  The food was good, the presentation was pleasing, and I was satisfied when I was done and paid the bill.  In this example, someone had to make and sell the plate I ate from, the chair I sat on, and the glass I drank from.  What I saw at the University of Georgia was similar to all the businesses that made this restaurant work.  Without the restaurant running well, there is a lot of other businesses that go under.

Where is the desire of the students to be on the front line and see the customers?  Have things become so disconnected that we are creating new ways to avoid each other?   This is the same question that has been bounced around since the phone was invented.

The true problem is easy to see if you look at your hand.  I was speaking to a group of franchisees a few days ago.  I held up my hand, spread my fingers and a told them to look at the distance between my thumb and my little finger.  There is a gap between each finger leading all the way from thumb to pinky.  The thumb represented them as the franchisee.  The next finger was their General Manager.  The next finger was the Manager, then the front line employee, and then the pinky was the customer.  The gap between them and the customer, although not far, was far enough for any message they wanted to get across to be muddled and confused.

You can have the owner and the General Manager be on the same page and the rest of the people pulled away.  This is a weak link if all you are doing is touching the thumb to the first finger.  You could add the Manager and the crew, but you are still weak.  It isn’t until you have a clear message from all parts of the sales process that you have strength.  Put all the fingers together and you have a fist.

How can you have a strong business model if you are not a part of the sale to the customer?  How many businesses fail, not because they did something wrong, but because they were dependent on someone else selling their stuff?  Can you change the businesses of all these students and have a model that helps the retail outlets sell merchandise?  Yes.  Can you have the businesses open retail outlets to sell directly to customers and take the message directly to the customer?  Yes.

What I see is that there is a focus for new businesses on not having to be bothered by the general public.  That is where the next business is going to succeed.

Closing the gap is where the next billionaire will be made.

Posted in Marketing, Customer Service, Creating the Culture, Being the Boss, Making Money | Print | 2 Comments »