Tag: marketing

The End Part 20: Dancing Days Are Here Again

“Lost time is never found again” – Benjamin Franklin

If you recall, the opening quote from the last part was “silence is a source of great strength.” If Lao Tzu is correct, than I must be really strong. I sit here typing away after a year of silence. My last part of this piece was published last June. Why the silence? I am not sure, but if I had to guess here are my two best.

One, I just didn’t feel like I had much to say. That is simply a cop-out. There is always so much going on in my mind and in my life as a business owner that there is always something to say. The truth is that I have learned over the years that when I don’t fell like sharing or do not feel motivated is usually the most important time to dig deep and just do it. I simply did not do that.

Two, I felt embarrassed and a bit ashamed that this negotiation had been taking so long. Here I was wrapping up this series getting ready to finally close the Go-Go Babyz chapter that has endured for two decades of my career. I was just waiting for the ink to dry to publish the last details and my final thoughts.  The ink never dried.

I really think that I let this negotiation get me down. It started off very smooth. The buyer and I worked well together in the beginning and settled the majority of the terms over the phone. The troubles began when two of the buyer’s lawyers got involved. Things started going south fairly quickly. Just when I thought things were good, they would throw another curve ball.

Things got even more frustrating when their lawyers began working with my lawyers. Suddenly, the terms that the buyer and I originally discussed began to change and the fundamental structure of the deal that we were originally working on changed and left me way too vulnerable and exposed. For whatever reason, the buyer tried to change a very important detail in the agreement that we originally discussed that ended up breaking the entire deal.

It is very frustrating that so much time was spent on this deal and in the end it fell through. What is more frustrating is that I had a couple other interested parties that I had to table discussions with due to an exclusivity period with the current buyer at that time. Unfortunately, the ship sailed for the others. I can’t get the time back so I am trying to just be open to learning whatever lessons I can from this experience and use it to move forward better prepared what comes next. If I can successfully pull that off, then the lost time will not be a complete loss.

For now, dancing days are here again. I just need to find a new party to dance with.

Talk Soon,

Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

Ramble On, 2.7.2022

“Helping customers not only renders more sales, but also stimulates positive word of mouth” – Mark Joyner

As a small company, customers are our life blood. No customers, no business. They are what keep any business alive, and when you are starting out you can’t afford any bad word of mouth. The way to militate against that is by taking care of your customers, which you should be doing any way! Right?

The reality is, it shouldn’t be a question. Excellent customer service should always be a top priority and executed at the highest level. It doesn’t matter what size or type of business you are, quality customer service should be woven into the fabric of the company and culture.

When Go-Go Babyz started out we didn’t have much of a budget to speak of so we couldn’t afford much marketing. We used to get calls about marketing services and they would always ask “what’s your marketing budget?” or “what do think you can spend on our service?” Our response was usually asking them us to tell us what it would cost and then we would look at the bank account to confirm or deny if it was “in the budget.”

Marketing is a vital part of any business, especially new ones, but many times we just couldn’t afford the advertisements or other expensive marketing activities. That resulted in placing a lot of value in word of mouth. Obviously, what we needed was positive word of mouth. The problem is, a small percentage of happy customers actually go out of their way to provide that. I understand,  treating customers well is what all companies should be doing and customers expect that so why should they spend their precious time telling people how good of a job we did doing what are supposed to be doing anyway?

Because, I can guarantee that a high percentage of unhappy, disgruntled customers will shout it from the roof tops. There’s no excuse for poor service but it would be great if customers would give businesses the benefit of the doubt and contact them directly to resolve their issue instead of taking it to the streets. In my experience, most bad reviews are knee-jerk reactions usually posted while a customer is still in the red zone, feeling the blow of disappointment. They just want to be heard. Once they get it out it usually fades.

We always do our best to resolve any issue and take care of our customers so they will keep coming back and, because it’s the right thing to do.

Talk Soon,

Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

Ramble On, 1.10.2022

“The oldest, shortest words – ‘yes’ and ‘no’ – are those which require the most thought.” Pythagoras

Isn’t this so true? There are so many opinions on saying yes or no these days. If I am to consolidate the thoughts and opinions of all my mentors throughout the years I think it would come down to this…

In the beginning, say yes to EVERYTHING! When you are staring out and have not made any sort of name for yourself you should say yes to anything that comes your way.

Once you have established yourself, learn to say no. It seems to be a common theme that once a level of success, however one defines that, is achieved, saying no is what will provide the greatest opportunity for continued growth and freedom.

I am not going to argue with this but I do think there are exceptions to every rule and personal influences on them as well. The reality is these cannot be blanket statements. The rules for saying yes or no cannot be made as one-size-fits-all solution.

For example, I actually need to learn to stop saying no. I say no all the time. Too much I am told. My no saying issue falls into the knee-jerk reactive category. This type of reaction without any thought has caused a lot of problems for me. I need to learn to process the data and provide a responsive answer of yes or no. The truth is that many of my knee-jerk no’s have turned into yeses once I stopped and thought about the question, offer, or proposal in question.

The lesson for me is to work on responding rather than reacting. This is a lesson I have been working on, and getting better at I might add, for years. It goes beyond the simple yes – no dilemma.

Think before you speak!

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

AIM TO PLEASE…Everyone???

“Everyone is not your customer.” – Seth Godin

If you cast your net wide enough you are surely to catch something, right? Probably a lot something. Sounds good, but is that “something” what you really want?

There is a saying in sales and marketing that “if everyone is your customer, then no one is your customer.” Another variation is “when you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.” I have heard several other variations and I am not quite sure to whom it is originally attributed to. The gist is the same for each; be deliberate in your targeting.

Using the shotgun or wide net approach might deliver your message to more people and create the illusion that you market is larger than it is. However, is your message being heard? That is the key question. To be effective, your message must be heard and consumed by your intended audience. The message is useless if it fall on deaf ears. Think of mass mailers and junk mail. Little marketing postcards are sent to every household for product x. The majority of these postcards are most likely tossed in the trash because most people do not need or want product x.

Who didn’t throw out the postcard? Those are the ones that are important. How can a marketer distill their message to reach those people and others like them? How can one define that group of people that read the postcard? What is it about product x that resonated with those people? How are they similar? These are just a few questions to ask. There are hundreds.

If you aim to please everyone you will end up pleasing no one. Or at least not enough to call a viable market that can sustain a business. It is important to know and understand your market as best you can. Create avatars for you ideal customer so you know as much as you can about them. That way you can create messages that will actually be read by them about products and services they actually want and need and are willing to exchange their money for.

At the end of the day, it is better to have a small market that you can serve well with a high rate of conversion than a large market with low conversion. When you create that market and truly understand them you will chow how to please them. That will create a market of loyal customers that will continue to buy from you.

Once you lose sight of your market and how to serve them you lose your ability to please them. That will be the beginning of the end of your business.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

CAN YOU DELIVER?

It doesn’t matter what you do or what you sell, all businesses are in the delivery business – they have to deliver value.

Value is a funny thing, right? We all might have a different definition or PERCEPTION of what that means. A seller might think one thing and a buyer another. In any situation it’s the perceived value that matters most. If the buyer does not see the perceived value of what it being purchased to be higher than what it being paid, there is either no deal or a resentful buyer. Resentful buyers do not turn into repeat or loyal customers.

The best policy is to under promise and over deliver. Eliminate any question about the value of your offer. Who wants to be in the hard selling business? Not me. It all boils down to offer creation. How you create, position, and deliver your offer should leave your prospect with no questions, arguments, or resistance. Or should I say, customer? Create the irresistible offer and prospects quickly become customers.

How to do that? That is longer discussion for another time.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W. @Leap272
Owner – Operator

You have to leap if you want to live.

AGAIN WE RISE: An Entrepreneur Always Gets Back Up

Again we rise, we do our thing and we fall. Again we rise, we do our thing and we fall. Again we rise, we do our thing and we fall…

Each time we fall we must rise again…
Each time we rise again we must rise higher…

Entrepreneur is a sexy buzz word today that motivates the lazy, entitled, bottom feeders of society. Alright, that’s a bit harsh, but there is some truth to it. There are so many people – wantrepreneurs, looking for the easy way out, the quick fix, and the get rich quick formula. These are the ones giving real entrepreneurs a bad rap rivaling the stigma of the insurance salesman, or the vultures of the used car lot, and, let’s not forget the pyramid scheme pushers. They are the ones that have the 5 easy steps, the 12 hour this, the secret this and the proven never shared before that – all of which will make you rich in no time flat. They are the ones that prey on the weak, the desperate, and the lost.

There is no overnight success. There is no get rich quick anything, except those that took a thousand sleepless nights and countless years to materialize.

You want to be a successful entrepreneur? Get ready to fall and rise again…and again, and again.

The key is to always get up. We all fall down, we all fail, what sets the entrepreneur apart is, we always get back up.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live

Go All In

“The risk of going all in only scary until you do it.” – me

The clichés the mottoes, the personal mantras are everywhere. “go all in”, “go big or go home”, “I am I can and I will.” They are cute. They are nice. And, they are true. If you use them as words to live by and actually do it, that is.

The reality is that if you want to succeed at anything from running a marathon to landing your dream job to running your own business, you have to go all in. You can never reach your full potential running the rim. You have to go big and you to believe that you are capable and that you can and will accomplish what you set out to do. If you don’t you are already starting behind the eight ball; your very own eight ball that can be the hardest one to get around.

There are enough doubters on any path; you can’t afford to be one of them. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that self doubt is part of the process, but you must learn to move through that quickly. You have to be confident. You have to be your number one fan. You need to rally the squirrels in your head to spin the wheels in unison and cheer you on. And, you must go all in. If you don’t you will never really know what might have been. What could have been. And, quite possibly, what should have been.

Don’t resolve to live a life with that thorn gently poking your side, leaving that itch unscratched, lurking below the surface causing a life a regret. Manufacturing those thoughts of “if only…”,”would if I…”, “I should have…”

You’re right. If only you went all in. Would if you had gone all in? You should have gone all in because if you do and you fail, you can’t walk away with your head down full of regret. You can walk away a winner because you tried your best and your mind is open to possibility instead of packed with embarrassment and regret. Your mind is open to the lessons of failure that make you stronger and better, and most importantly, willing to go all in again and again, and again and whatever is necessary to accomplish what you set as your goal.

The risk of going all in only scary until you do it.

Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator

You have to leap if you want to live