The World’s Your Oyster Now, What The Heck Are You Waiting For?

Here’s something a little different from the usual blog posts. I hope you can add to it with your insights too. I welcome everything with a big hug. You could call them insights, ideas or just plain old words, strung up to make sense. I call it my Saturday night musings (so now you know what I actually do on Saturday nights, besides baking bread!) 1. It’s OK to Jump If You Know There’s a Rope Tied To Your Feet There’s a lot of ignorance about websites and what setting up a website entails. Never do it unless you know what you’re doing. 2. If You’re Afraid, Go Home and Sleep Some people are afraid of using technology to market their business – they don’t want to put stuff on their website! They’re afraid of everything – competitors stealing their ideas, ripping off their products, copying their ideas. Kalau takut, balik tidur….that’s what I saw on a big bike during a big bike motorcade once. It’s funny but so freaking true. The slogan was deftly illustrated by this real skanky cartoon of a scaredy cat biker, you know the the Gila-gila cartoon type. 3. The World’s Your Oyster Now, What The Heck Are You Waiting For? Some people are not savvy enough to use the available (and often) free tools on the web to market their business. If you are not savvy, help is on Google. All you need is google for the info and you will be a pro in no time. Look at the amount of videos, wikis, blogs, websites, forums, directories, social bookmarking sites online! When I was your age (haha, I get to say this now that I am 34), if I needed info, I had to go to the library (OK, I didn’t need to walk 10 miles. I’m not Abe Lincoln). Even then, I wouldn’t be too sure if I could get my hands on the right book. The librarians in my town were not very helpful people. Grouchy, yes. Helpful, nope. 4. Ask and Ye Shall Receive! People don’t want to ask for fear of looking dumb. I guess this happens because we never had real formal, structured classes on using the web or downloading software (unlike driving lessons where there’s an actual syllabus). Most of what we know is taught to us by savvier, geeky friends or through hit-and-miss or lots of errors. I lived in an age where the floppy disk was a BIG deal. A CD was a big deal. I know. I am 34. I’ve even used those old fashioned Macs before. But there’s no reason not to ask. If you ask, you learn. If you don’t, you get burnt. 5. We Are All Lazy But That’s Not New Sometimes, people do ask. Yet even if they knew help is in Google, people are still inherently lazy and want to pick up the phone and call friends for answers they could’ve found themselves. I do it all the time. We like shortcuts in our lives. Plus our friends feel useful and smarter too. And when they do call you, you need to break it down to them in layman terms and avoid jargon because they really won’t understand. 6. Your Website Is Your Best Marketing Tool, I Swear Not everyone ‘gets’ it about using a website as a marketing tool. Make that a scientific marketing tool. Why scientific? You can track and measure. You can change stuff and move things around. You can access some 1 billion or more potential customers if you are online. But hey, who am I to argue if some people like being that regular mom-and-pop store in this little town? The town’s business keeps them happy. But the potential! The potential of growing business is there. Ackkk…am I the only one who sees potential everywhere? 7. Be Ruthless Now, Not Sorry Later Unqualified prospects are a waste of time and effort. So be ruthless and cull all your prospects and see if they are able to buy. Some people may never buy and you don’t have to be offended (some folks get offended if you unsubscribe from their ezine…oh dear. Have they not heard Trump’s it’s not personal, it’s just business mantra?). Just realise this: not everyone is a customer. Some people end up good friends but not really the best customers. So work that list harder. 8. Get the CEO On Your Side If you’re a corporate executive, this is for you. Make sure all levels of your team understand and take part in the website development process. It’s not the IT manager’s role. It is not relinquished responsibility. It is the whole company’s. The website is your business, your rice bowl. Keep that rice bowl a shared job. A great CEO would personally take note of what’s in the website, sits in on meetings with the website developers and asks intelligent questions. He would not leave it to his staff because the website is the ‘face’ most people see before they even call or visit the real company. Most times, we get face-to-face meetings with the CEOs. And when the CEO makes the decision, you can bet it’s going to be a strong validation for you and your colleagues. So get him on your side. 9. Get Ready For The Future, Now If you think you can still do business the old way, I hope you are ready for the next 2 years. I honestly hope you are. Because at the rate things and technology run today, so many methods are popping up and even if you don’t give two hoots, at least take time to know about them. If you know about them and don’t want to use them, fine. At least you have considered them. But don’t dismiss them as newfangled technology mumbo-jumbo because there’s rubies in them. How to mine the rubies is up to you. The new ruby rush is on the Internet. I’m not saying this because I live and breathe the Net. I am saying this because I see a lot of people putting their heads in the sand and trying to ignore the not-to-be-ignored. Technology is not for the young. It’s for those who want to learn. Period. I know I said 9 valuable insights but here’s a bonus insight for you: 10. Get Rid of Lousy Customers Yes, get rid of lousy customers. Lousy customers are a pain in the rear, always whine, never pay on time and always annoy you to no end with meaningless requests. A lousy customer will not refer customers to you. They will suck your time and patience like Count Dracula. It sounds painful to get rid of them (hey, that’s money flying away) but your stress flies away too. Work on getting better customers. They will love you and send more (good) customers your way. You’re in business because you want to be happy. And customers are not always right, especially lousy ones (usually it is the lousy ones who keep harping that in your face!). Don’t ever let anyone or any management book tell you that. You know better. Now’s YOUR turn. I want to hear your insights about life, business, the many ways to bake bread, whatever. Sharing insights means everyone gets smarter, a bit at a time. Tell me what you’ve learnt over the years, what works and what works in the oddest ways.