Create for Cash Blog - Creative Marketing

Are You Really Listening to Your Customers?

When you travel you get the best chance to observe good customer service firsthand. A hotel is your home away from home, and you have many places to choose from. It’s the customer service that makes the difference between a great experience or a lousy one. So, on my recent trip to NY I got to see some of both.

Listening to your customers

I got to the hotel quite late and was just ready to get to sleep. I quickly found out that the heat had two settings, boiling hot or freezing cold. There was a draft so bad it blew the curtains. And the heating system was so noisy I couldn’t even hear the TV. When I checked in, the only thing I asked for was a quiet room with temperature control. I didn’t care if it was the size of a closet with no frills.

An employee came up to see if he could fix the heat and said he would have to call the maintenance guy in the morning. Really? So, I would have to freeze all night? They offered me a free breakfast and a foot rub to make up for it. Okay, so they didn’t offer a foot rub, but a free breakfast wouldn’t save me from hyperthermia and lack of sleep. They finally moved me to a bigger room which was slightly better, but still very noisy. The whole time I was there I felt like I was talking to a brick wall. No warmth or friendliness. And they definitely weren’t listening. I couldn’t help thinking that the place could have been run better by robots. [Read more…] about Are You Really Listening to Your Customers?

Are You Romancing Your Joint Venture Partners?

Valentine’s Day had me thinking about relationships of all kinds. Not just significant other, but friends, family, and business relationships. Which brings me to this question “Are you romancing your joint venture partners?” A joint venture is one of the best things you can do to increase your business. It’s a synergy between two or more entities where you share costs, risks, and rewards. It’s a way to acquire skills, new customers, and new markets quickly.

But, just like your relationships with significant others, you need to romance your joint venture partners. Always think about what you have to offer and how you can help the other person. A joint venture arrangement has to be a win-win for all parties involved for it to work. Partner with people who have as much to offer as you do and then make it worthwhile for them to want to work with you.

A good place to start is with people you already know. And if you don’t know them, follow them and get to know them. You don’t want to get into a partnership with someone who expects you to do all of the work and doesn’t offer anything in return. Just like in your personal life, that gets old quick. Do your homework and learn how the other person operates. I watch people to see how quickly they expand their business and whether they are going to stick with it or not. I like to know that the other person is going to work just as hard as I do. [Read more…] about Are You Romancing Your Joint Venture Partners?

How to Be a Real Fan

I just got a nice letter from a fan of a movie I did with Dan Haggarty years ago. The movie was called “Elves“. It was a campy horror movie that was a B movie cult classic. I still occasionally get letters from people who have seen and appreciated the movie. It’s probably not for everybody, but if you like that kind of film, check it out.

The letter was detailed and not a carbon copy of a letter that’s sent to hundreds of people in a mass mailing. This got me thinking about how we connect on a personal level. Everyone wants to be appreciated and called by name. We want to know that someone took the time to learn something about us, whether it’s reading our blog or website, or in this case, watching my movie. In other words, be a real fan.

When I used to work in film casting it was always surprising to me when actors came in to audition and didn’t know anything at all about our company or any of the movies we made. One of them was an Academy Award winning film, but rarely did any actor mention it. I wouldn’t have cared if they liked it or not, but at least having some knowledge about what the company did would have been helpful.

So, who are you a fan of? Think beyond just the A list celebrities. I’m sure they already get tons of mail. Think about the people that you really admire who aren’t on the list. I’m sure, like me, they would appreciate getting a letter that shows that they know and enjoy your work. Be authentic and just speak from your heart. You never know if that person will think of you for a job or pass your information on to someone who could help you.

Read this about a special fan letter to an author.

Also, think about people who aren’t in the spotlight. Or maybe they are up and coming. Someone who does make it to the top will most likely remember that you “knew them when”. And even if they don’t, at least their autograph will be valuable.

Set Long Term Goals Instead of New Year’s Resolutions

Studies show that 20% of New Year’s resolutions are broken within a week and about 80% within the year. So, why do we keep doing it? I think the answer lies somewhere between habit and peer pressure. And I think that’s setting you up to fail from the start. Instead of rewarding yourself for doing something good, you’re going to be punishing yourself for breaking a promise. Even if the promise is to yourself and you never tell anyone what it is.

This is why I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I would rather make long term goals and allow myself to fail… a lot. Because it’s through those failures that you learn the most. And you can’t be afraid to fail if you are trying too hard not to fail. If that makes any sense.

Blueprint for setting and achieving long term goals:

Check one thing off your list every day – One thing I’ve learned from being an entrepreneur is that you should always be making strides towards a bigger goal by accomplishing small goals every day. Even if it’s as small as just writing a blog post. It means you’re that much closer to your bigger goal. Achieving small goals gives you the courage and enthusiasm to keep going.
Prioritize your goals – I have white boards full of ideas, but there are only so many hours in a day. Make sure you prioritize them and do the most important ones first. Writing the great American novel might be on your list, but if you have to pay the bills, your career as a novelist will have to wait. That’s why I like to have long and short term goals. The pie in the sky dream ideas are still going to be on the list, but down near the bottom. [Read more…] about Set Long Term Goals Instead of New Year’s Resolutions

3 Ways to Thank Your Customers

The two most important words in the English language are “please” and “thank you”. You should be using them every single day. So on Thanksgiving weekend not only am I grateful for friends and family, but for all of the customers and clients I’ve had through the years.

It should go without saying that as a business owner you should have great customer service, but you should also make a point of thanking your customers personally. It really goes a long way. The Journal of Marketing conducted a study about the positive reinforcement of customers. They found that customers from one retail store who were called and thanked showed a 70% increase in sales. There was only a 30% increase when they were also told about a sale. [Read more…] about 3 Ways to Thank Your Customers

Prepare For Your Business Like You Would Prepare For a Storm

Hurricane Sandy, or “Frankenstorm” as it’s been nicknamed, is barreling down on the east coast this week. Home owners and business owners are boarding up in anticipation of a monster of a storm that is expected to last for up to a week.

Prepare your business

We never expect anything like this to happen, but the truth is that it does. The same thing can happen with your business, so you should prepare for it now. As a manufacturer I did think to prepare in case anything happened to the factory, like a typhoon or political upheaval. But I didn’t anticipate the price of oil going up so much (affects the price of plastic and shipping) or how bad the economy would become (not just here, but around the world).

Here are some things to consider when preparing for a natural disaster or one that hits your business: [Read more…] about Prepare For Your Business Like You Would Prepare For a Storm

Why Didn’t I Get Hired?

On my trip back east last week I shared a cab with a guy who had graduated from college a couple of years ago and was still looking for a job in his chosen field. He was in Washington, D.C. for a job interview, but said he didn’t think he got the job. As a business owner and someone who has hired a few people in the past, I could immediately tell why he didn’t get it. Unfortunately I think it may be a long time before he does get a job. And I’ll tell you why.

Why didn’t I get hired?

First of all, he was a very nice, polite guy who was dressed in a suit and tie. That part is actually ahead of many people I meet at job fairs who show up in jeans, T-shirts, mini skirts, and flip flops. So that wasn’t the issue.

He was well spoken and well educated. I didn’t see his resume, but if he graduated two years ago and hasn’t had a job since then, that resume is going to be quite thin. But that also isn’t the problem.

The very first thing I notice at job fairs after the dress code is the person’s attitude. I could care less if you have the best resume on the planet. In fact, I’ve hired plenty of people who were fresh out of college and barely had anything on their resume. But what they had, that this guy lacked, was enthusiasm, passion, curiosity, and creativity. I worked three jobs to start my business. I sacrificed nights, weekends, holidays, and vacations to put everything into the business. Hiring an employee is one of the biggest costs of running a business. As a small business owner I simply can’t afford to hire the wrong person. So I’m as careful as I can be about who I put on the payroll. And I don’t think I’m that different from other business owners.

Here are some issues that need to be addressed from the employer’s point of view. This is just from my own view of start-ups, which may be different from large corporations. [Read more…] about Why Didn’t I Get Hired?

Are You Creating Loyal Customers?

customer loyalty

I would be willing to bet that most people are creatures of habit. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, because when we find companies we like we tend to stick with them. That could be a brand of clothing or a type of car or the restaurants we frequent. And we usually tend to stick to our own neighborhood restaurants for various reasons.

So, when I found out one of my favorite restaurants had gone out of business, it was sad. This is where I spent many Thanksgivings and Christmases enjoying the holiday special of turkey and pumpkin pie. They were always creating loyal customers.

I went through the restaurant reviews and found out that I wasn’t the only one that felt that way. In fact, some of the reviews were quite interesting. [Read more…] about Are You Creating Loyal Customers?

My Week Without TV or Internet

I just realized it’s been quite a while since I wrote my last blog post. I’ve been on the road traveling and had no Internet access or even a TV. I think the last time I did this was years ago when I was backpacking through New Zealand. I didn’t exactly do it on purpose, but the places I stayed didn’t have either one.

Funny, I did have a phone, but no one called me all week. I was already getting to the point that I thought many people have stopped connecting to each other. And after stepping back and watching the world go by in my week without TV or Internet I realized I was right.

You would think by the way I’m talking that I was on a mountaintop in Siberia, but no, it was New York City, Washington, D.C. and places in between. I stayed in B and Bs and hotels in the middle of nowhere with no Internet access and bad cable reception. [Read more…] about My Week Without TV or Internet

To Whom it May Concern – Cold Emailing

Cold emailing. It’s kind of like cold calling, but without the really scary part where you have to talk to a live person and get rejected. Sometimes over and over again. Hiding behind an email may feel safer, but it’s less likely to get a response, especially if it’s not done right.

Cold email

I got a cold email today from a company that wanted me to hire them as a publicist. It started with “To whom it may concern”. Okay, already I’m going to delete it, but not before checking out their site. This is already more homework than they did on me. It just takes a few extra minutes to at least look through someone’s site before contacting them, especially when you’re asking someone to spend $5,000 a month.

If they had looked through my site they would have seen that I have quite a lot of PR already and just by Googling swiggies and publicity. My Linked In info comes up on my page along with the title of “publicist”. [Read more…] about To Whom it May Concern – Cold Emailing