Tim Andren - At the corner of Innovation and Marketing Ideas

Investing in yourself

What have you been investing in? 

What are you betting on? 

It should be you.

The general population has recently felt a crunch on their main asset classes (both housing and equities) and a shift has occurred leaving a lot of people feeling out of sorts. Many business owners were counting on these assets to build for retirement while others used their home equity as a source of income or spent beyond their means.

Your money where your mouth is

The important question to ask yourself is 'how have I spent my money?' Actions speak louder than words so you can expect your debts to read loud and clear whether you've spent your money wisely or not. If you drew a pie chart displaying your debts would the biggest slice represent a money making investment such as your college education or business loan? Or are you making your biggest payments on a vacation you took last year?

I saw a financial analyst give a speech recently who illustrated the semantic difference between the words 'spending' and 'investing'. He described a situation where if two people asked him to borrow money, he'd much rather service a good debt for a business owner who was investing in himself (his business) versus someone who wanted to spend the money to purchase things. His focus was on the reliability of his investment, 'Will this borrowed money be put to use in such a way that I can guarantee it's return?'

Your greatest money making asset is you and your business. Are you investing in yourself?

Businesses should ask what you want for Christmas

Photo credit: Fuyoh!

You know that feeling you get when you receive a present from someone you love that you're not crazy about? You want to try to show enthusiasm and appreciation, but inside you struggle because the gift just doesn't appeal to you.

I was reading some articles at lunch today about how companies have been struggling to connect with their core audience. They cited figures, focus groups, branding methodology, design UI testing, demographics, psychographics and on and on. While each of these approaches has their place, many decision-makers are paralyzed from the 'too many moving parts problem. How can even the best experts make a decision with all of this information in a blender? Which do you prioritize? What data takes precedent? Which is gaining or losing relevance?

The more I read, the more it became clear to me that they're probably not doing enough simple interaction with the apple of their business eye.

It reminded me of a Christmas present of years ago.

"What do you want for Christmas?"

When Christmas season arrives you'll inevitably begin to ask your kids or nieces and nephews what they'd like for a present. Sometimes they'll even do you a favor and innocently (or not so innocently) drop hints about the latest cool toy or shoes. If Jimmy wants a certain something, it's going to have specifics. It's a good idea to really listen to him describe the color, cool factor and why he'll be over the moon if he could just have a pair of Heelys.

One Christmas as a kid, when my mother asked I said "the only toy in the world I want is a Transformer." Christmas Day came and I tore into my present only to discover that my parents had accidentally bought me a Go-Bot. I was bummed - and didn't do a good job of hiding it! 

Go-Bots were not Transformers. They simply weren't as cool. This 'coolness' is the reason why the Transformer brand is still going strong with blockbuster films and merchandising. My parents hadn't remembered the brand name, they just had 'toy-that-transforms-from-car-to-robot' in their minds. 

Luckily they had the receipt so we were able to exchange the gift for a Transformer. This is not the case with your business. Often you don't get a second chance for brand impression or sale.

When it comes to marketing, a simple discussion with pen and paper will suffice. Write down the wants and needs, put a survey on your website. Remove the guess work and make sure to remember the specifics. It's what separates you from a competitor. Focus groups are great, but they have to practically be done in a sensory deprivation tank with electrodes and lasers pointed at someones head to get the proper results. 

When in doubt think Christmas.

Learning to learn

My girlfriend and I have been taking swing dancing lessons lately. We both enjoy music and dancing and decided it would be fun to learn to actually dance together through swing.  

While I enjoy the actual dancing, one of my favorite aspects of swing has been the process of learning it.

I've always had a bit of natural ability with music-related subjects. They come easily to me. When I used to go out dancing I would just hit the dancefloor because the music sounded good. Not the case with swing dancing. Swing requires you to learn the moves before you can dance. This was a bit of a struggle for me at first, because I just wanted to be able to move freely to the music. 

The first few weeks of classes we had to learn the six-count and eight-count step patterns. This wasn't too hard except that the counts are mixed throughout the series of the dance and partners are required to switch back and forth multiple times very quickly. 

Another part of the process was learning the moves well enough to be able to do them in a series of combinations. This required mastering the moves first and then setting them up for the combination. Finally, upon knowing all of this the leader can freely choose a move or combo on the fly, this the best part of the dance.

Our class meets once a week for an hour which is not enough time to really master anything. We both decided during the first class that we wanted to take swing dancing seriously and excel at it. The challenge was that our weekly schedules are very busy with work and life that we didn't have much shared time to practice. 

We thought it would be a cool idea to practice using a method we'd both read about called visualization to get the moves down and reach our goal. This process has been written about extensively and was made famous by a basketball study by Dr. Blaslotto of The University of Chicago. During the week we both individually spent some time before going to sleep rehearsing the moves in our minds. 

The visualization practice proved to be really effective and we're both very happy with the results. The first time we reached the point where we could perform multiple moves and combinations and dance to an entire song we were both giddy with excitement. 

The practice and visualization paid off and I learned about learning in the process.

The power of the referral

The referral is the most powerful force in the small business universe.

I had a great conversation with my partner Sally today about referrals. To borrow from her point, great referrals represent a steady path of growth to any successful business.

Here's why:

Free is good

A referral is free advertising. According to serious studies conducted in dark recessed laboratories by renowned experts....Free is good!

I'm listening

A referral is someone's strong statement of faith that you do good work, make a great product - that you are worth the money. 

Imagine how you'd respond if you just met a woman named Kelly and the first thing she did was tell you how smart she was and that she is an incredibly talented attorney. How would you react? You'd probably cringe a little, put a guard up maybe? 'I don't want to listen to that', you might say to yourself. 

Now imagine if a friend of yours recommended Kelly to you. They call you up and offer 'Kelly is smart and talented. She is a great attorney'. Chances are you will respond completely differently to this approach. 'Now I'm listening.', you say to yourself.

The interesting side to this is that nothing has changed about the intelligence or talent level of Kelly. When someone speaks of her, she doesn't have to sound like she is bragging. The messaging delivery has changed and it makes all the difference in the world. 

The Time Saver

Referrals save time for the interested party. They don't have to go out and search for a solution. They don't have to waste time filtering through Google results because they have everything they need packaged for them. My motto: Good people find good people.

Speak well of me

When you are being referred, somebody is speaking well of what you do, what you sell, what you stand for. For example, in a service-based business, it's been proven that you are able to make more money from a referral when compared to traditional advertising. 

Touchy-feely

A good referral reinforces your brand. A good referral generates better feelings than the indifference many people feel towards advertising. It's human, you can hear the words someone speaks. You can feel their emotional needs were met. It's like sharing your secret. 'Their cream really works!' 'They fixed my network and made my life easier.'

Advertising can hurt your business if not done correctly. The free referral does nothing but add positive value to your business and it's reputation. Some businesses set up incentivized referral programs or do affiliate type of work. This should be a last resort only. 

You've heard the saying, 'It's all about who you know'. The referral is a major reason why.

How to make lots of great friends and followers on Twitter

You want more people to follow you on Twitter right? We all do.

I had this conversation with several friends recently via IM.

I decided to do something about it by creating the blog post you are now reading. 

We can do this by using a link (this blog post) that by it's very nature would find people who'd willingly participate in finding other people.

The more each of you retweet this link, the stronger it grows and the more followers you will get.

You want more followers. It's up to you. 

All you have to do:

• Enter your Twitter address and why someone should follow you in the comments section below.    
• Retweet the link so more people find you and more people in turn retweet the link.

My only request for you is to use this post as a way to make social connections. Your introduction should be interesting and engaging. When someone follows you, follow them back and make conversation. Keep in mind that you will learn more by engaging with people from all backgrounds and walks of life. Twitter folk aren't just birds of a feather.

Do not use this as a way to just scoop up thousands of people. Even if you could, that's not going to get you anywhere. Selfish is not social.

I will moderate the comments stream so that each entry is legitimate.

This is going to be fun!