Pro global business

Don’t do business with a company that outsources any customer interactions to India or any other country where English is not spoken well.

I called Spirit Airlines the other day to get a price on a flight (first time ever). I spoke with a man who said his name was “Dan” that barely spoke or understood English.

1. Don’t lie about the names of the people you are using for outsourcing. It insults our intelligence and is offensive. We know his name isn’t Dan, you’re not fooling us.

2. We know you’re trying to save money by outsourcing but have you considered your brand and how your customers feel when having to deal with these people?

3. Americans hate, repeat…hate dealing with people that don’t speak English well.

4. I will never call Spirit Airlines again because I had such a bad experience. You’re reading this now and so are the thousands that read this blog. In the long run this lack of caring for the customer will catch up to companies that outsource.

If you don’t care about us why should we care about you?

3M has completed the development and installation of an RFID (radio frequency identification) Smart Shelf System to track and manage the more than 150,000 medical files of U.S. Army personnel and their family members at Fort Hood, Texas.

Why?

Almost all businesses have a logo, whether it was designed by a professional, or simply the company name in a special font and color. Some are just graphic, some just text - others are a combination. The importance of your logo depends on a lot of factors, not the least of which is what business you are in. To many of our clients, such as restaurants, pubs and beauty parlors, logos can be incredibly important.

A logo differentiates your business from your competitors and should give your prospective clientel a feeling about the way you want to present yourself. A logo can be classy, modern, chic, silly, fun, olde-fashioned, etc. Whatever style you choose, it sends a message to your customers. As time passes, you may decide to keep the same message, or change it, but either way you may need to update your logo.

When?

Once you have been in business for over 10 years, or if you are trying to change your image, you may want to consider updating your company’s logo, especially if it looks like it might be a tad outdated. Even big corporate giants change their logos every so often: I just read that Walmart, the retail giant is about to change theirs. Yes, Walmart. Not Wal-mart anymore. Their new logo is a one word Walmart with a white sunburst at the end, with a burnt orange background. The new look is more modern and looks a bit “internety” to my untrained eye.

What?

What changes might you consider to your logo? Well, first I recommend looking at the colors - do they still look good 10 years after you picked them? If there is a graphic, does it still send the message you are looking for? Also, since today you can advertise in more forms of media - in particular on the internet, does it look good online?

Many businesses have a couple versions of their logo. One is simpler, perhaps just text in a specific font and color, and another one with a graphic, whether abstract, geometric, or a caricature. This gives more flexibility when the business name is used. A menu, for example, might show the whole logo, while the sign might show the text logo.

How?

Depending on your budget, type of business, and what you are looking for, you have a number of options. Traditional options include consulting a graphic artist or marketing firm. Other more artistically minded business owners, or cheaper ones, design there own. Here are some other creative ideas on how to brainstorm a new logo:

• Have a customer contest.
• See if any of your employees with an artistic bent have any good ideas.
• Offer it to the local community college’s graphic art’s instructor as a class project.
• Post a barter offer on craigslist.
• Barter through a traditional barting organization. (see my posts on bartering for small businesses)

Have any other ideas? Let me know, and I’ll add them.

We all know that it is hard for small businesses to get financing these days from banks - it was never a piece of cake, and now that the credit crunch is on for so long we see it has gotten ridiculous.  But… did you ever wonder what a bank does when it needs financing?  Yes, banks need money too!  In fact, banks don’t just give you a hard time when you want a loan because they are unsure if you’ll default — they sometimes just don’t have the money.

Lenders, especially small ones, struggle regularly to find investors.  This is in part because of federal regulations placing restrictions and rules on investors who invest in a lending institution.  Basically, if a private equity fund (or other investment entity) owns 9.9% or more of a bank, then they are required to do special reporting and subject itself to regulatory scrutiny.  Beyond that annoyance, in order to own more than 24.9% of a bank, an entity has to register as a “bank holding company” and must be a “source of strength” for the lending institution.

To say the least, these can be big deterrents to investors considering investing heavily in a bank — when combined with the uncertainty about the future of lending, this makes for a shaky proposition for a bank in search of cash.  If the bank doesn’t have cash, it can’t lend you or your business any either!

It was recently reported in the Wall Street Journal that officials from the Fed have been meeting with various buyout firms to brainstorm issues and solutions which they face when considering investing in a bank.  If they succeed in finding a way to reinterpret /re-legislate the current laws, then more private equity firms may be able to invest in banks.  The real question is: given the current lending crisis, will any one will want to invest, even if the red tape is cut?

If you don’t want to wait to find out and you need cash for your business today, then check out alternative financing options like credit card factoring and business cash advance.

Every successful company has a list of values, vision and goals — although some “mean” them more than others. What I mean, is that sometimes they are empty phrases so that they have an answer if someone asks, “What are your company values?” Other companies, really try to integrate their values, make decisions with their vision in mind, and set goals which will help them in their vision. If these 3 definitions are important for a company, then they are crucial for an individual. Without values, vision and goals, individuals float around life with out anything _real_ to base their decisions on, and without working towards anything in particular.

1) Discover Your Values

A good first step in uncovering values, is the “eulogy” exercise. Sleep on it, and then don’t spend more than three minutes jotting down a eulogy that you hope is said one day (many years from now) at your funeral. Who would say it? What do you hope they would say about you? Now, go back and read it and see what the central themes are. It is likely that these are your values.

2) Pare them Down to Core Values

Most people can come up with a ton of things that they value, but it is impossible to focus on all of them at once. Pick about three core values which are most important to you and non-negotiable.

3) Integrate your Values into your Vision

Your vision should deal with your place in the world and the effects from your actions. It should take your values and place them into context of what you want to do with them, where you want to be in life, and how you want to effect those around you.

4) Defining your Goals

Goals should be attainable and in line with your vision and values. It is good to have staggered goals — some which are easier to attain in a short amount of time, and other bigger, more challenging ones which are in the distance.
5) Checking-In

As you progress through life, you may find that your values change - as you attain goals, you will have new ones. Sometimes you will lose track of your values, vision and goals. In any of these cases, a regular “check-in” will be helpful. Ask yourself questions such as: Have I been living according to these values and this vision? and Am I making progress towards my goals. If the answer is no, then either you have been lazy, or else you might need to reexamine the values, vision and goals that you have set.

Web regulators Thursday voted to allow the creation of thousands of new domain names, from .paris to .Pepsi, in one of the biggest shake-ups in Internet history, a French web official said.

The overhaul is expected to radically change the way users navigate the Internet and has major implications for businesses and consumers worldwide.

Under the new system, the web’s 1.3 billion users would be able from 2009 to buy an unlimited number of generic addresses based on common words, brands or company names, cities or proper names.

The popular online trading site eBay is one of the many companies that wants to have its own domain name.

Read the entire story here

Imagine the branding opportunities this will create. Looks like I’m going to have to buy:

www.brandidentityguru.marketing, www.brandidentityguru.branding etc. etc.

Sometimes you just scratch your head, or in this case your butt. This is no joke, here is a TV ad I just watched on the early news:

The actor in the TV commercial wants you to know that he and his monkey friend Richard are “riding easy”. Wow, thanks for that visual!

And you wonder why I say TV advertising is dead!

 

Obama has done a brilliant job at developing his brand identity of “change”. But what the heck does that REALLY mean? Change what and how? Even the Republicans want out of Iraq so it’s not that. What does Obama mean when he says “change”?

A new study is raising questions over how radio frequency identification chips could be interacting with hospital equipment. The report, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests RFID chips could cause some medical devices to fail when in close contact.

iDTRONIC, a leading supplier of RFID Hardware solutions, announces the introduction today of its UHF Long Range Gate Starter Kit