February 2024
Volume No. 25, Issue No. 3

Smokey the bear says...

Marilyn Shay gets the credit for the idea of this month's lead story. We had stopped by a business to pick up an item we had ordered. We know the owner and like doing business with their staff.

Walking into the business, it was the usual experience as we could best describe this business as looking like that drawer many of us have in our kitchen which is appropriately named, "the junk drawer".

Unfortunately the item was not ready and the owner gave more explanation than most would want to hear as he told of why the job had not been completed.

As we left, I mentioned that this owner was always putting out fires in their business. To which Marilyn responded, "Smokey Bear says, 'only you can prevent forest fires'".

The additional point to this story, is that I can expect several owners of businesses where I shop will come asking if this story is about them.

And the part about Pringles in the subject line of this email? You will get that story when you receive the Small Business Advisories later this month.

How to become extinct - article of the month

The focus of many businesses is not where it should be. Ask small business owners about their business and they will tell you what they sell or the service they provide. Their focus is on "what" they sell or do because that product or service is what they know.

The challenge with that strategy is that the wants and needs of customers change; technology and creativity help to develop new products and services. As that occurs, those who have a focus on "what" have a distinct possibility of becoming extinct.

The focus on "who" is where we should all be. Sometimes the shift is something minimal. As an example, we heard a restaurant report this week that stated that people are wanting to eat earlier in the evening. While 8 pm has been the most popular reservation time for years, it is now becoming 6 pm. Several of our favorite restaurants open at 5 pm. We would take this report as a reason to review the reservations as well as consider opening at 4 pm.

This is another example of focusing on who.

Article of the month

Book of the month - Zero to one

Peter Thiel and Blake Masters wrote this book some ten years ago. As a New York Times best seller, the book continues to have relevance to small business.

Think about the comment by Charles H. Duell, commissioner of the US Patent Office in 1899. His comment was, "Everything that can be invented has been invented".

Now bring that comment to the present and listen as Thiel and Masters give ideas of being creative.

Book of the month

Internet Tool for Your Business - AMP calculator

We call it the AMP, which stands for Advertising, Marketing and Promoting. This is a downloadable tool that helps you to plan all of your expenditures for a twelve month period.

It is based on what my father taught me to do many years ago. Although at that time it was done with pencil, paper, and a ten key calculator. (I know some of you will have to do an online search to know what this last item is.)

This AMP calculator can save you a lot of time and money because it can help eliminate spur of the moment buying decisions. We found that many of the media had better prices when we would buy in bulk

Each month we highlight one of the 47 free tools on the Profits Plus website; we call them "calculators". While some provide analysis by numbers and ratios, some are assessments and others are self-examination questions. Many are downloadable while others, because of the complexity of the calculations going on behind the scene, are a part of the website and allow you to print your answers. None of them require you to give any personal information nor are there any "cookies" tracking you or your information.

Internet Tool for Your Business

February Staff Incentive - Give them knowledge

The example we share this month has occurred many times; different cities; different products; different services. However, the scenario is the same.

While on a trip, I asked for a nearby restaurant suggestion. The suggestion was a pizza specialty restaurant. After being seated at the restaurant I asked the waitress what type of pizza they served. She was puzzled so I rephrased the question to ask if their pizza was New York style, St. Louis style, or Chicago style.

She did not know as she had never noticed any difference. After explaining the three types, she said she would go ask someone.

It clearly showed she knew nothing about what she sold. That is embarrassing and makes it challenging for her to make any suggestions to the customer. It also means it will be challenging to do anything to increase the tips she receives.

No one wants to be ignorant. And two of the essentials of human fulfillment is that of self esteem and self-actualization. Education will do a lot to provide both of those essentials. You will find you providing an incentive to people to continue to work for you because you are meeting their basic human needs.

And in that rare case you have any employee that does not want those essentials? We don't think you really need or want that person to be part of your staff.

We want to recognize A Carrot A Day by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, whose book provides the basis for each month's incentive idea.