Get Repeat Customers – The AdvanceMe Business Blog

Posted on November 2, 2012 by AdvanceMe Team

The Importance of Keeping Up Your Spa’s Appearance

How do you get customers to come to your spa in the first place and how do you get them to keep coming back, and (hopefully) to get people they know to come, too. Of course, to do a credible job on the subject would take a few books, at the very least, and we doubt you’re particularly inclined to read that much… at least, not in an online article. For that reason, we’ll just toss out a few general ideas, planting seeds, as it were, and let your creativity and business acumen flesh out a program that works for you.

Naturally, the first consideration – before even opening your spa – is to choose a location that will be attractive to your chosen clientele. That might mean a stand-alone facility that exudes beauty, sophistication, and escape, or alternatively, a small storefront in a strip mall that projects an ability to serve your clients quickly and inexpensively. That’s not to say that one is inherently superior to the other or not mutually exclusive, since each will appeal to some customers more than others.

No matter what type of facility you run, you should strive to make the facility itself project the kind of image (as a business) that your customers want to project as individuals. Here are some points to remember.

1. Put on a good front. The first impression begins with the storefront. Choose your décor wisely, and keep it fresh. We’ve all seen spas that have suppliers’ promotional posters proudly displayed, and many of those promotional items are quite beautiful. By the same token, we’ve also seen those same posters that, having been exposed to sunlight for an extended period, have faded into a bluish-tinted mockery of their previous selves, and are torn or curled to boot. That just looks wrong, and it gives the impression that you don’t pay as much attention to detail as you should. So make sure all of your printed promotional materials – posters, brochures, flyers – are in tip-top shape.

If you have plants in your storefront, make certain they look “all dressed up and ready for the ball.” If they’re real and start looking wilted, replace them. If they’re artificial, keep them dusted and as real-looking as possible. Just as a customer wouldn’t think of showing up for an important engagement with their lipstick smeared, foundation cracking, and clothes wrinkled, you don’t want your spa to look the worse for wear, either. So by all means, use the promotional materials you get and add fresh touches to your storefront.

2. Make your reception area inviting. The second most important “first impression” your business makes is in the front room. The furnishings should be tasteful, but not necessarily expensive. Above all, the waiting room – just like the rest of the facility – must be spotless. You might not think it too important if a customer spills a few drops of wine or coffee on the sofa, for example, but you’ll want to remove the stains as quickly as possible, because as we all know, one small stain, left to its own devices, will multiply rapidly, and before you know it, your furniture will start to make “shabby chic” look tasteful by comparison. (Hint: Wait until your customer is being taken care of before beginning an aggressive clean-up of the mess he or she has made. Make a customer feel guilty for any reason, and you’re not likely to see that person again.)

3. Cleanliness … The other areas of your facility – everything from the treatment areas, to the restrooms, to the kitchen if you have one – need to shine just as much as the storefront if you want to keep your customers coming back. Obviously you want to comply with all local health regulations, but you should do more than just comply; it should be very apparent to your clients that they are being pampered in a clean, healthy environment. This involves more than just displaying your licenses, certifications, and compliance notifications in visible areas. Beyond hygiene issues, your facility makes a statement about your attitude toward appearances, and since your customers are there to make themselves look as good as possible, you want to project a sense that you share their appreciation for (and commitment to) beauty. Keeping the hair swept up in the salon area is just the beginning. Keep an eye on the little things, too, such as making certain that shampoo and conditioner bottles don’t have any residue on them, that your equipment doesn’t bear evidence of even having been used. Perhaps most importantly, make certain that all mirrors are crystal clear, and free of spots or imperfections. Your customers will be looking in those mirrors a lot, and you don’t want them to notice anything except how beautiful you have made them look.

4. Make sure your staff is as spiffy as your spa. One other area that altogether too many spa owners either overlook, or simply choose not to address, is the appearance of employees in general, and stylists in particular. There’s nothing wrong with employees exhibiting their stylistic flair in the form of avant-garde hairstyles and fashion, but most people will flinch if the stylist giving them a perm has bubblegum pink hair. Here, you need to make a judgment call, something between stifling their creativity and allowing a free-for-all. If you’re unsure, just listen to your customers. You can be assured that they will let you know what they think. Just don’t wait for them to express their opinions by disappearing! And be sure to let your employees know beforehand what you consider to be appropriate.

There are few hard and fast rules when it comes to making your spa attractive to customers, but by tempering your own creativity with a good dose of common sense and a finger on your customers’ pulse, you aren’t likely to go too far wrong.

The New Rules of Green Marketing – The Business Book Club

Posted on October 26, 2012 by AdvanceMe Team

Business Book Review – for the Busy Business Owner

The New Rules of Green Marketing By Jacquelyn A. Ottman Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2011, 256 pp. (including resource list, endnotes, and index), $21.95 (Paperback) *

Capsule review:

Rating:

Pluses: Comprehensive and credible, with an abundance of useful tips and real-world case studies of many types of businesses. While some may still take issue with Ottman’s larger messages about sustainability, those people are increasingly in the minority, and this book presents solid guidelines for the majority who are interested in green product design and marketing.

Minuses: A little dry; it reads more like a textbook than a popular business book. The author overlooks some points, particularly regarding green consumer demographics, and as policies and practices are changing on an increasingly frequent basis, some information may be outdated soon. However, there is a resource list at the back so readers can keep up with information online.

Details: “Green” is a word that has taken on a vibrant – and often controversial – life of its own within the past couple of decades. For many, green implies a wealth of virtues that include environmental consciousness, concern for one’s fellow citizens, and regard for future generations. It’s all about sustainability, which has become another buzzword for advocates and activists, and certainly for marketers. Green is cool, green is trendy, green shows the world that you care. And most important of all, green has become mainstream, to the point that any business not jumping on the “green” bandwagon in some conspicuous manner risks losing market share to more environmentally aware rivals. Granted, some vocal factions maintain their stance that environmental issues are no big deal, and they argue that we shouldn’t hamper our lifestyles and, more importantly, the income streams of certain big industries, by overhauling our habits. Notwithstanding these skeptics, there seems to be a consensus now among scientists, as well as among a growing number of consumers and the business owners who cater to those consumers, that the Earth and its inhabitants will benefit if industries and individuals reduce their carbon footprints.

“Fine,” you may say, “but as a business owner/manager, how do I do that?” How indeed, particularly if, like many small businesses, you’re on a tight budget, and you are pretty sure that “going green” could entail a significant capital outlay? And how can you tell which practices, processes, or products are genuinely green, and which ones only seem that way? These issues are addressed in Jacqueline Ottman’s The New Rules of Green Marketing, but Ottman is also concerned with an equally important question: How can you work your company’s green ways into your branding in the most effective – and ethical – way? Making a commitment to sustainability raises many questions for the business owner, and Ottman provides a wealth of answers.

Ottman is a green marketing pioneer who, it might be said, has been into recycling since she was a child (her siblings called her “Junkie Jacquie” when she dragged home treasures from the neighbors’ trash). Today her company, J. Ottman Consulting, Inc. helps businesses develop and market the next generation of sustainable products, serving a client list that includes more than sixty of the Fortune 500, as well as the USDA’s BioPreferred and other U.S. government labeling programs. Ottman is also a keynoter at conferences and corporate forums all over the world, and is involved in numerous other organizations and activities devoted to sustainability. She has written three previous books on green marketing, which have been translated into several languages, and she is the author of hundreds of articles on the topic. In other words, she is well qualified to write about greenness and sustainability.

One of Ottman’s core messages in The New Rules of Green Marketing is that green is indeed mainstream and can no longer be considered just a passing fad. Green thinking is entrenched in numerous aspects of our culture, reflected in everything from mass media to shopping habits to legislation. While this may seem self-evident to some, others don’t quite “get” it yet, but Ottman makes the case strongly without being preachy. In the very first chapter she jumps right in with a discussion of the many ways in which today’s consumers, industries, institutions, and (looking at things on a broader scale) governments demonstrate environmental awareness and at least a theoretical desire for sustainability. Of particular importance to businesses marketing to consumers are Ottman’s explanations of the many ways in which green consumers can be segmented, such as by degree of greenness or by generation.

Ottman also excels in providing a holistic view of greenness, urging product designers and manufacturers to look at the entire lifecycle of a product in order to determine its true environmental impact. Among the points to consider are water and energy used in manufacture and transportation, the length of time the product is expected to last, the resources consumed during the product’s active lifetime, and end-of-life disposal or recycling. No product or path is completely green, and there may be trade-offs, but they should be trade-offs a company can live with and that will fit in with its mission and values. And, stresses Ottman, quality and value are especially important; today’s consumers will no longer tolerate the flimsy “green” products of past decades.

Apart from the core message that green is mainstream, Ottman takes care to demonstrate that brands must position themselves as being green, particularly if there are no certification labels to bolster the branding. Proper positioning is the key to attracting green consumers. Yet Ottman also cautions against the notorious practice of “greenwashing” – misrepresenting something as green when in fact it is not. Sometimes greenwashing is unintentional, but sometimes it is deliberate and disingenuous. Companies practicing greenwashing will be found out sooner rather than later, Ottman cautions. She devotes an entire chapter to this important topic.

Ottman is all about showing companies how to deliver value, and sets the example with The New Rules of Green Marketing, which delivers value in spades. The informative text, bolstered by the latest research, is enhanced throughout with “New Rules” checklists, charts, and bullet points. There are also interesting case studies of companies and products to illustrate Ottman’s points. In many ways, The New Rules is really more of a textbook than a casual business book.

For that reason, the text is a little dry in places, which may be a turn-off to impatient readers or those who are used to absorbing information in “sight-bites.” The New Rules is certainly no breezy pop-business book, and it isn’t intended to be. Yet even the busiest entrepreneur, business owner, or manager will find something of use in these pages if he or she is interested in building a more sustainable company or product line.

That said, Ottman seems to have overlooked a few points. For instance, when discussing green consumer demographics, she defines baby boomers (who, in the US, constitute those born from 1946-64) as being the first green-conscious generation. While it may be true that boomers were the first to become vocal environmental advocates and activists on a wide scale, we shouldn’t give short shrift to those who were born before or during World War II. These folks not only tend to have a lot of disposable income (though of course this isn’t always the case), but they have a long-term perspective and know the value of frugality and avoiding waste. Many are very definitely green in their own way. In addition, Ottman doesn’t take into account rural versus urban or suburban residency. These are distinct demographics, and green marketing should be targeted accordingly.

Additionally, green policies and practices change frequently, so some of the information in the book will obviously become dated. However, there is a comprehensive resource list at the end of the book, so readers can keep up with data online. And no doubt Ottman will continue to revise and expand upon the print book as appropriate.

Some people will undoubtedly still take issue with Ottman’s larger messages about the need for sustainability. Increasingly, though, they are in a minority, and for those who are ready and willing to go green, or at least greener, this book is a terrific resource. Green products and businesses have been around since the time of the first Earth Day in the early 1970s. In the decades since then, and particularly in more recent years, there have been quite a few books written about green marketing and green business practices in general. The New Rules of Green Marketing is a credible and comprehensive resource.

* The New Rules of Green Marketing is currently available in paperback and Kindle formats.

Amazon link for paperback print version reviewed here: http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Rules-Green-Marketing/dp/1605098663

For more information on the author’s work, as well as a wealth of tips on green-ness and sustainability, see www.greenmarketing.com.

Based on this review, would you read this book?

The author of this review was provided the book by Capital Access Network, Inc. The views expressed represent those of the author and do not reflect those of Capital Access Network, Inc. nor its subsidiaries. Any opinions and/or advice expressed by the author do not imply endorsement by Capital Access Network, Inc. nor its subsidiaries.

Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit – The Business Book Club

Posted on October 4, 2012 by AdvanceMe Team

Business Book Review – for the Busy Business Owner

Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit: The Secrets of Building a Five-Star Customer Service Organization By Leonardo Inghilleri and Micah Solomon AMACOM, 2010, 320 pp., $26.00 (Hardcover) *

Capsule review:

Rating:

Pluses: Useful tips on how virtually any provider of services, products, or a combination thereof can go beyond providing customer satisfaction to create customer loyalty. A wealth of actionable information packed into a short book.

Minuses: The book’s brevity necessitates a somewhat superficial treatment of some subjects (however, there are endnotes and a resource list for further reading).

Details: If you’re tempted to roll your eyes at the prospect of yet another book about the importance of customer service, you are probably not alone. You may think you’ve read everything there is to read on this much-covered topic, and perhaps you doubt that any author could have anything new to say on the matter. Then again, it is possible that you and your fellow cynics have not read Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit by Leonardo Inghilleri and Micah Solomon. Even the most well read businessperson might be pleasantly surprised by the quantity of useful information packed into this short book.

A company is nothing without its customers, and serving those customers well should always be a top priority for any firm that wants to stay in business. Every business owner knows this; do we really need yet another book to remind us? Perhaps so. Even though customer service remains a hot topic for the business gurus and their endless books and seminars, and although business owners everywhere may acknowledge that the customer is king or queen, the actual quality of service in the real world often falls far short of the widely embraced ideal.

Even the most well intentioned business owner can have customer service challenges. After all, today it’s tougher than ever to be in business. Not only is there more competition in just about every field, but rapid changes in technology – and in the culture at large – have created a two-edged sword. Today’s business owner has unprecedented potential to personalize customer interactions through a number of avenues such as social media, judicious data collection, and the like. However, technology also presents many ways to further depersonalize these interactions: witness the perennial customer complaint that it’s nearly impossible to get hold of “a real person” when one has a question for or problem with a company.

Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit addresses these essential problems and many more challenges to modern business, giving realistic, actionable advice on how virtually any business owner or manager can go beyond providing mere customer satisfaction and actually create customer loyalty. And the authors manage to present their case in a way that is both informative and respectful of business owners’ limited time. Inghilleri and Solomon jump right in with what they see as the four elements of customer satisfaction: perfect product; caring delivery; timeliness; and an effective problem resolution process.

Granted, some of these elements can be a challenge to master. Take the “timeliness” issue, for example. Even though many consumers have unfortunately come to expect lackluster service in some areas, that two-edged sword of technology has also raised the bar in others. What might have been considered a timely response just a few years ago may now be looked upon as unacceptably sluggish. In a society increasingly geared to instant gratification, technology has further accelerated the gratification process, making people less tolerant than ever when it comes to waiting for anything. They’re less likely to accept being kept on hold on the phone for more than a few seconds, or to having their emails go unanswered for more than a day or two. They want web sites to load instantly. They want their mail-order merchandise in a few days or less without paying extra for fast delivery. They want the world and they want it now, but yesterday would be even better – and companies that can’t keep up with increased expectations will suffer. The authors of Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit offer plenty of tips to help business owners navigate this brave new world of instant, on-demand everything.

Another frequent customer complaint is lack of accessibility to people in the organization who can actually get something done when there’s a problem. The authors recommend a twofold solution. First, employees should be empowered whenever possible to solve customer problems without first getting the approval of a manager or supervisor (and indeed, we’re seeing more companies, ranging from big-box discount stores to car rental firms, that are doing just that). Secondly – and the authors acknowledge that this may not set well with many business owners – the head honcho or honcho-ette should also make himself or herself much more available to the teeming masses. This doesn’t necessarily mean going out among the crowds and shaking hands and kissing babies, but there should at least be an email address or even (gasp) a phone number where a customer has a reasonable chance of communicating directly with the owner.

Problem resolution is another area that gets a lot of much-deserved attention in Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit. Inghilleri and Solomon are at their best when they explain how service breakdowns are potentially good news, because they allow a business to show its true colors (hopefully, pleasing ones). “You’ll find an opportunity hidden in your company’s worst moments: the opportunity to bring a customer closer to you,” the authors write. Handle the problems masterfully, and you just may create that all-important customer loyalty.

The key lies in making the customer feel valued. It’s important first of all to apologize, and to make the apology sincere and unconditional, without implying that the customer is wrong. After apologizing, fix the problem in a way that’s satisfactory to the customer, and then follow up. Always try to provide “something extra.” Service recovery is a process, which the authors outline in detail, but it isn’t merely a nuts-and-bolts, no-nonsense procedure to be gotten over with as quickly as possible. It is a potentially emotional and very personal moment in a relationship, an opportunity to foster a deep and lasting loyalty. Some studies have shown that a customer’s trust in and sense of camaraderie with a company actually increase after a problem has been solved – in comparison to a situation where the customer never had a problem in the first place. There’s a special bond that forms when a business owner and a customer have shared an experience.

While the chapter on service recovery alone is arguably worth the price of this book, Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit also offers good advice about many other topics. Among these: Up to the minute Internet and phone etiquette, the importance of non-verbal communication and other cues that show a customer just how much you care (or don’t care), how to solicit and manage customer feedback, how to get the most from each and every one of your employees, and many other tidbits of well-timed business wisdom.

On first glance it may seem that this book is geared primarily to the hospitality industry – hotels, restaurants, and the like. After all, co-author Leonardo Inghilleri is a long-time hotelier who, among his many other accomplishments, has played an instrumental role in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company (and several others), and who created the Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center and Learning Institute. But one shouldn’t be so quick to judge the book solely by Inghilleri’s creds. Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit is also full of useful truths for just about any business that provides a service, a product, or a combination thereof.

Even so, for those who are in service industries some of the advice might seem counter-intuitive, most notably, the authors’ suggestion to look to successful manufacturing companies as role models. In a useful chapter titled, “Building Anticipation Into Your Products and Services,” there’s a sidebar explaining why it is wise for just about any company to look to manufacturing wizards in order to optimize efficiency, reliability, and delivery. And there’s a wealth of other good advice learned on factory floors over the years. This is understandable when you consider that co-author Micah Solomon is president of Oasis Disc Manufacturing, a company he built up from a one-room operation.

If there is a downside to Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit, it may be the book’s brevity, which necessitates a somewhat superficial treatment of some topics. But the brevity is also a plus, for this book is concise, easy (and often entertaining) to read, and packed with real-world examples to illuminate the authors’ points. For those who wish to explore further, there are endnotes and a resource list for further reading.

There is one other minor criticism: some readers might be a little uncomfortable about the idea of striving to form an “emotional” relationship that is, after all, based on commerce. This is a perennial complaint about business books that focus on forming relationships with customers; purists may insist there’s something phony or manipulative about the whole prospect. Yet when it comes right down to it (and providing the business doesn’t resort to sneaky or underhanded marketing tactics), the relationship is one of equals: both parties are aware that the bond, such as it is, is based on the exchange of money for goods and/or services. Why not treat your customers like human beings while you’re taking their money (and, presumably, providing them with excellent services or products in the process)?

All things considered, readers who are tempted to roll their eyes at the idea of yet another book about customer service would be well advised to save themselves the eyestrain. They just might find Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit to be…well…exceptional. Like one of those dollar energy shots, it packs a lot of punch into a small container. And unlike those shots, whose effects are generally short-lived at best, the authors’ advice, if put to use wisely, can have powerful long-term results. Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit is a smart addition to just about any business bookshelf.

* Exceptional Service, Exceptional Profit is currently available in hardcover and Kindle formats.

Amazon link for hardcover print version reviewed here: http://www.amazon.com/Exceptional-Service-Profit-Five-Star-Organization/dp/0814415385

Based on this book review, would you read this book?

Preventing Inventory Shrinkage in Retail – The AdvanceMe Business Blog

Posted on September 6, 2012 by AdvanceMe Team

Starting with your staff, what your employees can do to help your business maintain merchandise

In the retail industry, there are various ways for a business to lose out on capital. Some reasons can be due to too much or lack of inventory, pricing, store credit (if offered) – when customers are not keeping up with monthly bill payments and seasonal downfalls. However, one major and preventative cause of losing capital within the retail business can be inventory shrinkage. Shrinkage (in the retail world) is defined as the loss of products/inventory. Many businesses install security cameras to help catch culprits once the crime has been committed however, it is best to take certain measures to prevent these actions. These measures can consist of getting your employees on board with things they can do to prevent this from happening within your business.

Training new employees on inventory shrinkage and how they can prevent it is essential to this process. Reviewing this information with seasoned employees on a quarterly basis can ensure that all staff is on the same page and executing the same protocols when dealing with this matter. In addition, new – as well as existing – employees should be advised of the ramifications of employee theft. It is best to show that there is a “no-tolerance” policy for employee theft and how serious this matter is taken within your business, for instance legal action.

Customer Service

By providing excellent customer service to each visitor can help hinder the desire of the “posing customer” to cause shrinkage within your business. Usually when a patron enters the store with bad intentions, he/she feels as if they are unnoticed which makes it easier for them to steal merchandise and leave before their actions have been noticed by the staff. However, your employees should show the same level of customer service to every patron to which will help your business in two ways: 1. the business gains a loyal customer OR 2. The business prevents a thief from carrying out his/her mission within your business. Although this may not be 100% in every case, potential thieves will be reluctant to steal once they determine that employees are constantly watching and taking notice of every action of their customers in hopes to obtain a potential sale. Employees should not look at a particular customer type to focus all of their attention on; visitors who feel unsupervised are more likely to take that risk in causing shrinkage within your business.

Employee Theft

Informing of previous examples from your business or surrounding businesses can give new employees a heads up on how employee theft is actually handled. Although it is not a best practice to instill fear into your staff, keeping them informed on every detail that goes into the punishment of employees stealing inventory or money from your business will cause them to think twice before considering shrinkage.

For more information, ideas and tips you can refer to this great article titles “20 ways to prevent shrinkage” by Sid Peimer on BizCommunity.com.

What are some practices within your business to prevent inventory shrinkage?

Delivering Happiness: The Business Book Club

Posted on August 15, 2012 by AdvanceMe Team

Business Book Reviews – for the Busy Business Owner

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose, by Tony Hsieh, Business Plus, 2010, 253 pp. (including source list, bibliography, notes, and index), $23.99 (Hardcover) *

Capsule review:

Rating:

Pluses: Interesting, fast-paced story about the phenomenal growth of one of the most remarkable (and unconventional) online retailers in the world. Filled with worthy business lessons (and the occasional life lesson as well).

Minuses: Somewhat superficial, exploiting vastly overused concepts such as “passion” and “purpose,” and the author seems to be an evangelist for the current trend of “workplace happyism,” which, carried to extremes, may not necessarily be a good thing.

Details: Tony Hsieh (pronounced “Shay”) was only 24 in 1999 when he sold a company he’d co-founded, LinkExchange, to Microsoft for $265 million. Shortly afterward he signed on with the fledgling online shoe retailer Zappos as an adviser and investor who eventually became CEO. Within ten years, with a lot of hard work and no small amount of his own money, he had helped Zappos grow from next to nothing to more than $1 billion in gross annual merchandise sales. In 2009 Zappos was the highest-ranking newcomer in Fortune magazine’s annual roundup of “Best Companies to Work For.” That same year, Zappos was acquired by Amazon (or, rather, the two companies exchanged stock) in a deal that was valued at $1.2 billion on the day of closing.

The Zappos of today sells far more than shoes, but the company has retained its core values and larger mission, a point which Hsieh makes repeatedly in this book. These ten core values, hammered out after a year of brainstorming among employees, include but are not limited to: delivering a “wow” experience through customer service; embracing change; creating fun and “a little weirdness”; pursuing growth and learning on both a personal and professional level; team building and family spirit; passion; and humility. Hsieh goes to some length to expound on these values, incorporating the writings of other Zappos employees and principals where necessary. And at the end (spoiler alert) he reveals both his and Zappos’ “higher purpose”: delivering happiness to the world.

These days Hsieh, who stayed on as CEO of Zappos even after the marriage with Amazon, also does consulting to help teach businesses how to spread the happy virus among their employees. He seems serious about piloting a worldwide movement to make the world a better place through applications of the “science of happiness,” and he lays out his philosophy, as well as his story – and Zappos’ story, of course – in Delivering Happiness.

Accordingly, the unifying theme in this easy, breezy read is that of creating a corporate culture of happiness that extends far beyond the walls of the company headquarters. In fact, fans of the 1992 Barry Levinson movie Toys (starring Robin Williams, Joan Cusack, LL Cool J, and Robin Wright) may very well find themselves humming one of the movie’s songs, “The Happy Worker” to themselves as they thumb through this part biography, part-business wisdom book. (You are welcome to Google that song if you’re not familiar with it, but we refuse to accept responsibility if the tune stays in your head for the rest of the day and drives you slightly bonkers.)

Hsieh, who notes that writing a book was on his bucket list, says he wrote his parts of Delivering Happiness himself, without the help of a ghostwriter. He does a fair if somewhat superficial job, infusing the fast-paced story with appropriate hard-learned business lessons, and a few life lessons as well. At the end of the book, after the main narrative, he tacks on some sight bites featuring some of the findings from the science of happiness, including the obligatory reference to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Despite the superficiality of the writing, there are some good lessons sprinkled throughout the narrative – lessons that a seasoned entrepreneur or business might already know, but that are worth revisiting nonetheless. And new entrepreneurs, or those involved in startups, may very well find some worthy lessons in these pages. For example, when relating a tale of his former company, LinkExchange, Hsieh makes a good case for having a solid corporate culture, and supporting that culture by sound hiring practices. When LinkExchange reached a point in its growth where it was populated by employees who, he says, were motivated by self-interest rather than by “being a part of something new and exciting,” Hsieh learned the hard way what happens when a corporate culture that actually works is eroded.

Another hard lesson was learned at Zappos a few years later, when the firm decided to outsource fulfillment, with disastrous results. Lesson learned: Don’t outsource your core competency. Apropos of that, Hsieh also outlines the remarkable differences between Zappos’ call centers and those of most companies. Zappos is all about catering to the customer; accordingly, they don’t measure call times (their longest phone call was almost six hours long), and – hold on to your hat – they don’t upsell.

“We just care about whether the rep goes above and beyond for every customer,” writes Hsieh. “We want our reps to let their true personalities shine during each phone call so that they can develop a personal emotional connection (internally referred to as PEC) with the customer.” He speculates that a lot of folks might think it odd that an Internet-based company would be so focused on that old-fashioned instrument, the telephone, especially since only about 5 percent of the phone calls result in sales. But it’s one of the things that sets Zappos apart in an increasingly impersonal world, and it helps create an enviable level of customer loyalty.

Zappos, it turns out, does a lot of things differently from many companies, and one of the most remarkable (besides the company’s call center policy) is the almost unheard-of transparency with vendors. Many retailers treat their vendors more like rivals or servants, playing all sorts of games with them in order to squeeze out the lowest prices for goods or services. Zappos, as outlined in an essay on vendor relations (pp. 184-190), treats vendors as respected business partners. Their policy is to create “collaborative relationships in which both [Zappos and the vendor] share the risks, as well as the rewards.” Whereas the normal practice in retailing is to hoard information and use it as leverage to get more out of vendors, Zappos shares data on inventory levels, sales, and profitability with its vendors. This policy has reaped handsome rewards for the company, not the least of which is passionate loyalty from their vendors.

The arc of Hsieh’s own biography is pretty revealing in its own way as well. On one level it appears that he is staying true to the Zappos core value of being humble, by presenting himself as just another everyman entrepreneur who made a lot of mistakes, but whose success story can be emulated with a bit of hard work and a determination to embrace sound values. However, even a superficial reading of his story reveals that Hsieh is anything but a typical American entrepreneur.

Undeniably Hsieh was bright, but he had something that was perhaps more important going for him: a fierce entrepreneurial streak that was apparent from the time he was a youngster. For Hsieh, being in business and making a profit were passions, if not obsessions, from a very early age. This is something that is of course common to many entrepreneurs. But it’s also worth noting that in addition to other factors working in Hsieh’s favor, he was the right age, and was in the right place at the right time, for his success story to unfold as it did. Still, many readers will find his story intriguing, and may find something edifying in his blow-by-blow accounts of his various businesses’ growing pains.

That said, a few things keep this from being a five-dollar-sign effort. People who are a little burned out on self-help and business/motivational books may roll their eyes at some of Hsieh’s preaching, not to mention his heavy use of already overused terms such as “passion” and “purpose.” And in places it seems he tries too hard to be witty. For instance, he starts his first chapter with a quotation from Gandhi, and then writes, “I’m pretty sure Gandhi didn’t know who I was when I was nine…” That’s a pretty fair guess, since Hsieh was nine in 1984, when Mahatma Gandhi had been dead for 36 years. Of course the Gandhi reference was meant to be humorous, and in the same context Hsieh also mentions Thomas Edison, acknowledging that the latter is no longer among the living. Still, the joke seems to fall a little flat.

And then there’s that happiness hook. Delivering Happiness often reads as if it had been written as a handout to Zappos employees to keep that corporate-culture mojo going, and no doubt it has served that purpose. But it is also an upsell for Hsieh’s consulting business/world mission, though arguably a subtler one than that of many business or marketing gurus. For Hsieh and a few others, selling happiness, or the idea of happiness, is a lucrative enterprise these days. On the web page describing Hsieh’s corporate consulting services, the copy reads, “We use happiness as a business model. We’ll work with you to engage your employees, empower them to drive and sustain positive change, and produce a company culture that will fuel your brand.” The copy is framed by photos of smiling, grinning, clowning, or otherwise visibly happy workers (or quite possibly, stock photos of people posing as happy workers).

It’s difficult to fault Hsieh for taking every advantage of his acclaim as a young, successful, and endlessly ambitious serial entrepreneur. It’s equally difficult to fault him for riding the coattails of the whole “happiness” segment of the self-help industry, which drew much of its inspiration from the positive-psychology works of Dr. Martin Seligman, and in more recent years from pop-psychology authors such as Gretchen Ruben of The Happiness Project fame. (Rubin, by the way, provided one of the testimonials printed on the cover flap.) However, “workplace happyism” has its share of critics who have raised some legitimate questions about whether there’s something a little askew in the idea of manufactured or institutionalized happiness.

In general, of course, it’s a very good thing for entrepreneurs and business owners to do everything they can to create a positive work environment as well as a pleasant customer experience – and, of course, a great investor or shareholder experience too, if applicable. Sometimes it’s hard to juggle all of these interests, and there are times when, unfortunately, some may prevail at the expense of others. Even so, consistently striving to treat everyone fairly and deliver on promises is the best way to stay in business: no argument there. But how much responsibility does a business owner really have to make the workplace “fun?”

Maybe work doesn’t have to be drudgery, but there’s no denying that some workplaces lend themselves more to the “fun” model than others. And happiness – even workplace happiness – is generally a byproduct of numerous factors, many of which are within the realm of a business owner’s control, but some of which are probably not. The question is: to what extent can happiness be quantified and measured? Happiness – along with its cousins, satisfaction and contentment – are certainly worthy goals to which business owners should aspire, but is there a danger of becoming too obsessed with the process of creating workplace happiness, or of attempting to institutionalize such an intangible state of being? What’s next: mandatory happiness?

Moreover, while it’s good for employers to care about their workers as people, should they try to be everything to them? Team building and encouragement of workplace harmony – even workplace friendships – are fine, but should the workplace be a surrogate for the family? Maybe that is feasible for certain types of young, vital e-commerce companies, but what about other types of companies? And just on general principle, shouldn’t there still be a little work-life separation?

When one starts digging into these questions more deeply, the whole “delivering happiness” concept rings a little hollow, or at least reveals itself to be lacking in universal applicability for all businesses. Then again, it was probably beyond the scope of Hsieh’s book to discuss these muddying issues. Like so many business or other advice books, it’s best to take what you need here, and leave the rest. At the very least, Delivering Happiness is an easy and entertaining read, and most business owners and entrepreneurs who are at all concerned about customer service may find some inspiration in these pages, even if they’re not ready to sign up to be part of a mass “movement.” It may be overreaching to say that it is possible to actually deliver happiness to customers, employees, investors, shareholders, and vendors – but injecting a little bit of the fun factor, where possible and appropriate, surely doesn’t hurt.

Okay, everybody, all together: “I love my job, he loves his job…”

* Delivering Happiness is available in several print, audio, and digital formats.

Amazon link for hardcover print edition: http://www.amazon.com/Delivering-Happiness-Profits-Passion-Purpose/dp/0446563048

For more information about this book, about Tony Hsieh’s business and life philosophies, and for additional stories about people in business who are living these principles, as well as for information on joining “the movement yourself, see www.deliveringhappinessbook.com.

Based on this review, would you read this book?

The author of this review was provided the book by Capital Access Network, Inc. The views expressed represent those of the author and do not reflect those of Capital Access Network, Inc. nor its subsidiaries. Any opinions and/or advice expressed by the author do not imply endorsement by Capital Access Network, Inc. nor its subsidiaries.

Staying internally motivated – The AdvanceMe Business Blog

Posted on May 18, 2012 by AdvanceMe Team

Learning to stick it out when the chips are down

When a business is fresh, as a business owner, you are highly motivated, energized, and ready to dominate you industry. This motivation is then passed on to your staff to execute within their daily interactions with your customers. However, when the newness of your business dwindles, motivation tends to decrease causing a domino effect within the entire business.

All types of issues may arise within your business such as low/decreasing sales volumes, unexpected expenses, personal issues, and the lack of enthusiasm from your employees. Problems such as these can come with no warning and can leave the business with damages for you to fix. It is hard to continue keeping the mindset of tuning around for the better when the heavy loads of your business’ obstacles are weighing on you. How can you overcome the feelings of doubt? How can you continue to motivate your staff if you do not believe in the success of your business? In order for your business to get back on the up and up, a change of attitude must take place within the mind of the business owner in order for a positive outcome to overcome the dark cloud.

Staying focused on the mission and the vision of your business can help you to get that motivation back. You have to concentrate on the bigger picture of why you wanted to provide these products and services to your consumers. Another way to change your gloomy attitude towards your business is to seek out support from family and friends. Although they may not know firsthand what you are up against, these individuals can relieve the anxiety by just reassuring that you are not going through this alone. The best support can come from business owners/experts who have been where you are. Experts can provide you with a “blue print” to overcome these obstacles. Attending seminars and conferences can also help you get an unbiased opinion and advice to help you determine how to move forward.

One way to eliminate one of the previously mentioned issues, personal, is to keep business matters within the business, and personal matters at home. You cannot be a successful business owner when your personal matters are coming to work with you. Sometimes it can be difficult to practice this method; however you have to stay focused on keeping the business, as a whole, motivated. In addition, it is good to take time away from your business matter to gain a clear mind. Sometimes resolutions to issues within your business can be found just by taking a step back from the problem and giving it a break for a while. (Visit this Small Business Tip regarding taking time away from your small business for some pointers: Take Time Away from Your Small Business

Although these tips will not immediately eliminate the stressors from your business, they will help you to stay motivated, in turn your staff, and customers will be motivated to add to the success of your business.

When problems arise within your business, what are some good ways you tackle them to stay internally motivated?

The Accidental Entrepreneur: The Business Book Club

Posted on May 16, 2012 by AdvanceMe Team

Business Book Reviews – for the Busy Business Owner

The Accidental Entrepreneur: The 50 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me about Starting a Business, by Susan Urquhart-Brown, AMACOM, 2008, 179 pages (including index) $17.95 paperback.

Pluses: Well-organized menu of chapters classified by type (Defining the entrepreneur, Getting started, Marketing, Operations, Working with the Internet, Growth, Motivation, etc.) Individual essays or articles are short, to-the-point, and direct. The book includes dozens of tips, quizzes, worksheets, and case studies, as well as a thorough index.

Minuses: Not many. Something for the wish list: One thing many young “solopreneurs” could use is an easy way to relate their own businesses to case studies that are not obviously relatable. Also, many accidental entrepreneurs these days start their careers under duress or in extreme need. Any tips for them?

Details: As a former magazine editor, I understand the lure of numbers, especially in titles—Fifty ways to reach your goals, five secrets to keeping the pace, the 30-second vacation—books and articles with numbers in the title grab the reader’s eye and offer the solidity of the finite.

By my count, The Accidental Entrepreneur: 50 things I wish someone had told me about starting a business author Susan Urquhart-Brown actually delivers 54. Urquhart-Brown, an accidental entrepreneur herself, has compiled a kind of bible for getting started, staying the course, examining one’s motives and fears, using perceived weaknesses and keeping ahead of the tax man. In other words, a handy compendium of practical and spiritual considerations.

As I read The Accidental Entrepreneur, I found myself treating it the way I would a magazine full of self-help articles that I could jump to, read, digest, and then leave. Each article stands alone in its message, yet thanks to the book’s organization, each addresses an angle of one topic. For example, there are two short articles and a quiz in Chapter 1, “What is an Entrepreneur, Anyway?” Here, Urquhart-Brown provides answers to an essential list of questions all wannabe entrepreneurs should be able to answer. These questions begin with self-examination (“Who am I?) and end with funding. The chapter also covers common myths about going into business (Forget the four-day work week) and concludes with the first of many quizzes designed to bring one face-to-face with the naked truth.

Subsequent chapters contain more articles, tips and case studies. In Ready, Set, Go!” (Chapter 2), there are six brief pieces dedicated to preparing for the adventure of going into business and the pitfalls one can expect to encounter. I found it refreshing to hear that I could expect to fail, that, in fact, failure is a necessary component to success. Chapter 3’s “Taking Care of Business” includes nine pieces, including a handy checklist, that help readers determine the structure of their business along with the pros and cons on working with a partner.

As someone who works with very young entrepreneurs, I welcome Urquhart-Brown’s tough-love tone. Of the half-dozen ongoing themes that run through every section of The Accidental Entrepreneur, self-awareness, i.e., knowing who you are and what your motives are is the most dominant. While close to half of all businesses fail within the first three to five years, the obvious reasons, according to Urquhart-Brown are weak capitalization and poor planning. A third reason should not be ignored. “The business owners had weak underlying reasons for going into business,” she writes. “Having strong and meaningful reasons for going into business cements your commitment to a new enterprise and keeps the business going in good and bad times.”

The personal themes of motivation, accountability, self-sabotage and success comes front and center in chapter 4 “What Do You Bring to the Party?” While I found it easier and more useful to dip into The Accidental Entrepreneur and read whatever struck me, I did find myself following the text in this chapter most avidly. This is probably because anyone, “solopreneur”, business owner or worker bee, can relate to the challenges of burnout, procrastination and fear. Action is nearly always the antidote to these problems and Urquhart-Brown provides plenty of exercises, journal prompts and tips for working with (not avoiding) the inevitable inner hurdle.

No self-help book about business is complete without chapters dedicated to marketing and The Accidental Entrepreneur is no exception. There’s a particularly interesting essay on cultivating the “something special” in one’s business in which Urquhart-Brown defines the “inner ecology of the business environment” as interior landscape of a business owner and his employees.” “Inner ecology is the relationship between your actions and your understanding of what makes you tick,” she writes. “Ask yourself: How well do I truly know myself? What motivates me? Do I follow my dreams? Do I find peace and joy in what I do? The more you understand what makes you tick, the more present and available you become to life in general. This presence and availability energizes those around you and produces a harmonious work environment… that is palpable to customers.”

Anyone serious about going solo should read all the advice in this book and commit to all the exercises. Those unwilling to wrestle with the finer points of a business (no, not the money, but the mission, the motivation and the fear) can congratulate themselves on finding out sooner than later that owning a business is not for them. At $17.95 a pop, such a learning experience is a deal.

Book website: http://www.amacombooks.org/book.cfm?isbn=9780814401675

Visit Urquhart-Brown at her business website Careersteps123

Based on this review, would you read this book?

Small Business Best Practices – The AdvanceMe Business Blog

Posted on January 31, 2012 by AdvanceMe Team

Introduction – Small Business Best Practices Tip Series

Every successful business owner knows two things: one is that success is determined by the choices made on a daily basis and two is that growth is not possible without focus. One element that goes unnoticed until a problem arises is the best practice of a business. It is there, silently in the background until the need to be reassessed. I liken them to the belts in a car engine, they work until they need attention and then they start making noise. Best practices are the cogs in your business wheel, from the best way to clean your grill to the best way to deal with a customer complaint. Some are documented, some are ingrained in your business know-how, and others are passed down from management to employee and from employee to employee.

Knowing what works in your business and documenting those best practices make decisions easier to make because they have been made before. Having a best practice helps to avoid errors and get things done faster.

In our Business Tips series, we highlight five business types and discuss best practices as related to these business types. We discuss restaurant sustainability and retail and spa/salon customer experiences. We also highlight the need to find best practices that work in the automotive industry and the importance of quality and atmosphere in the bowling industry.

We have combined these tips into a mini eBook, click here to view – http://www.advanceme.com/bestpractices-ebook.htm

To sign up for our eBooks email notification click here - http://www.advanceme.com/eBooks.html

Restaurant Cartoon – The Extra Revenue of Take Out

Posted on January 30, 2012 by AdvanceMe Team

BizDoodles – Restaurant The Extra Revenue of Take Out – “Thanks for dining with us. Here’s your check and your Pear Flambe dessert ‘To Go’.”

Quick Guide: Foursquare for Business – The AdvanceMe Business Blog

Posted on January 27, 2012 by AdvanceMe Team

Using Foursquare for Business: The Location – Based Social Networking Website For Mobile Devices

New social media mobile apps allow users to update their followers on everyday whereabouts – from pumping gas at the service station or stopping for a quick bite to eat at their favorite restaurant or heading off to the Laundromat. “Checking in” is a new feature offered by mobile apps and many social sites like Facebook and Twitter. Foursquare took the status update concept and created an entire social media site around this one feature. Foursquare provides a way for users to “check in” when shopping at their favorite store or eating at their favorite restaurant. The user can let their friends and family know where they are and also where they like to be.

Click below for your own personal “Quick Guide” for using Foursquare for your Business

Quick Guide: Foursquare for Business

Based on this guide, would you use Foursquare for your business?