have a dream, bring a lifeboat

Wow, do I ever strongly (ahem) encourage my clients to stay on top of their content production...particularly when said content is a critical path to business development and execution of a strategic communications plan. I can see the forest, I can see the trees. I know how to help and guide. But you, gentle client, have to do the work. And then I go and do a pretty bad job at keeping up on it myself. For all of the very same reasons that my clients struggle. Life, business, busy-ness, summer, visitors, new clients, old clients. I could go on, but this is nothing new to any of us. And content development is just one of those areas that can fall off our radars. So, what's a consultant to do?

I guess I'm trying to put myself in your shoes, figurative client. And think about how I might help you through this facet of your business. There are so many "knowns" out there, so many reasonably expectable bumps in the road. And my general answer to this conundrum is two-fold:

1. Have a plan.
   
2. Anticipate the bumps.
   

You don't get into a car without fastening your seatbelt, right? You (theoretically) pay attention to the flight attendant's safety demo. If you have an allergy to bee stings, you don't leave the house on a sultry summer's evening without your trusty Epi pen. And most of the time it happens so subconciously that you don't even consider what the plan is. Mostly that's a good thing. But in other, trickier places in our lives - like our businesses - a little more cognitive, purposeful thinking helps.

So let's start at the beginning: a plan. How many entrepreneurs start businesses without a decent business plan, marketing plan, schedule to allocate their time, etc? Most of us are guilty of this...and in more than one of those categories. For whatever reason, we believe it's better to just get started than it is to plan. And believe me when I say, I'm impatient, quick-thinking, speed-talking and an Activator. I tend to jump first and measure how high that cliff was later...and not even always then. So it's one of those places where I have to work hard to impart the importance of a plan on not only my clients, but myself as well. Without at least a general map of where you are headed, it's going to be very difficult to get there.

Then we think about the glitches. I believe contingency planning is just as important as planning those basic elements of your business. What I refuse to believe is that naming and acknowledging contingencies is the same thing as opening yourself up to defeat. I appreciate those that say "failure is not an option" because I absolutely believe in the need for setting your mental energy in the right direction. But this isn't failure I'm talking about. It's the inevitable ups and downs and twists in the road that require our sharpest thinking and creativity. And it's difficult to be thoughtful and innovative when disaster (real, imagined or whatever) is at our door. Long-term planning is for stretching, big fat hairy audacious goals. Short-term planning is for tactics and contingencies, and identifying little course corrections that might be required to navigate through tricky waters.

Laying bare our fears of failure and thoughtfully addressing the "knowns" can make the unknown little surprise events much easier to manage. We aren't in crisis mode ALL THE TIME (have you ever had a job like that? I have.). We can stay level headed, we can ask for advice and brainstorming from other smart people, and we can put some switches in place should they need to be flipped.

So give it some thought. What are the top 5 things that MIGHT happen? Are they related to money, reputation, amount of work, what? What are the worst case scenarios? How would they affect your business and what ideas do you have about mitigating those impacts? Who would you call on for help? Advice? A kick in the butt? And what might you do next time to potentially avoid this situation in the future?

Create a plan. Then find the emergency hatch so you know where to find it.

bee in my small business bonnet

Small business owners – listen up. There’s no sense running around any longer pretending social media isn’t for you. This is a brand new marketing world these days. No one’s saying you have to give up the old ways in order to embrace the new. And no one’s saying you need a MySpace page. Somewhere on the continuum of traditional horses and new media ponies, there is a ride for you. But, particularly for smaller businesses, eschewing this new fangled media because you don’t understand it or see how it could work for you doesn’t make great strategic sense. At this point, I just beg you to stay open minded enough to consider the possibilities. Ok? Ok.

Sorry about this, I had a couple of frustrating conversations last week with clients that made me want to whip out my PC and start blogging on the spot. My point isn’t that traditional marketing and advertising are bad. Nor is it that only new methods of marketing will help your business. That’s not my point at all. But, let’s face it, most small businesses are operating on a limited budget and cannot afford to put all of their eggs in a single gilded basket. A well-planned, thoughtful and strategic marketing and communications plan will help ALL businesses regardless of which marketing levers you choose to pull. Whether you’re retail, B2B, a consultant – whatever – there are ways to manageably blend social media marketing into your strategic plan to help build your bottom line. But the first question always should be: where on earth are you trying to go?

A targeted consultant needs to build up “subject matter expert” cred. A retailer needs to connect with her customers and know what they want. A restaurant needs to keep track of what other restaurants are doing in their market, genre and industry. And hear this: all of these things end up generating revenue! But you can’t just pull levers and push buttons willy-nilly and expect a successful (much less repeatable) result. Nor can you pull the blanket up over your head and wait for it all to just go away, already!

Social media is so NOT on one of my potential client’s radar that she laughed out loud, rolled her eyes and informed me that Twitter was only used by 20 year olds. (Her customer is 30-55 year old women.) I hesitated. Because realistically, any single tactic is not going to work if a client is disinterested to the point of venom. I realize that just because I have consumed the sugary beverage, it doesn’t mean others are here with me.

And yet this is where I go sideways. Because I think the best small business owners are the ones with natural curiosity and a desire to learn what’s affecting them. They are willing to put a goal in place, fight for it tenaciously but then retreat and course correct when necessary. Shutting down and fighting evolution in business – and believe me folks, you could call social media one of those evolutionary points – means potentially atrophying and dying off prematurely. Like everything else in life, leading from a place of fear and lack of knowledge does not propel you to wisdom and success.

Social media, like any single platform or tool, will be neither your deliverance nor your demise. It’s not a silver bullet and it does take some time and thought to implement. So, no. Social media isn’t for everyone. Unless you want to have a direct and immediate conversation with a particular audience, that is. To me, that’s an incredibly powerful reason to dip a toe in the water and ask a few questions. Dream a little. Adapt and evolve. Grow up.