28. August 2010 by Bob Griffin.

I was speaking with a class of management students this week at the University of Georgia.  My topic was on getting customers, but I veered off topic a little when we got to communication to customers and word-of-mouth marketing.  I mentioned that bad word of mouth marketing - the media saying bad things about you or your business - can actually help you if it is played well.  Since it was a group of students and Thursday is the unofficial start to the weekend, I was impressed when they sat up and took notice of my statement.

There are exact times and places when bad word-of-mouth marketing works when nothing else will.   Seems counter-intuitive, but it is true and we have real world examples of this to point to.  BP has been dragged through the mud (or mucky oil if you wish) with little hope of recovery.  When the oil platform exploded and people died, that was a low point for them.  When millions of gallons of oil washed up on shore killing wildlife and the economy of several states, that was another low point.  It seemed that there was no end to the bad news and the CEO, Tony Hayward, was not helping the situation…except he was.

When bad things happen (and bad things will always happen) you have two ways of handling it.  Fight it or deal with it.   The first part, fighting it, seems to be what Tony wanted to do and we can see how far that got him.  He was covering his company’s rump with as much actions as he could stand, but he was ill prepared to make much positive change since he really did not understand why everyone was upset with him.  He wanted things to “go back to normal” as fast as possible since the accidents did not impact him directly.  He was mad and all of the actions he showed indicated he wanted to fight back.  To the families who lost a loved one or the people who live and work by the Gulf coast, they wanted to fight too.  One man against a population who have been harmed is ugly.

So, when the cap was attached to the pipe and the oil stopped gushing out of the well, they fired old Tony.  Look back and you will see, the bad press for the most part stopped as well.  All of the bad word-of-mouth marketing ended when the target - Tony Hayward - left the scene.  BP and the Board of Directors were smart enough to see that they had a chance to let the bad press go when they let Tony go.  No face to the business means the press is unable to fight and the population has no target for tough words.  Did the problem go away? No, but the bad word-of-mouth marketing was carried away on Tony’s shoulders.  Now, any news is going to be compared with the bad news that Tony endured.

Timing is everything.  If they fired Tony before they capped the well, it would still be BP that was the bad guy.  With a built in bad guy, they waited and made the change when good news was available.  BP is a media savvy company.

I was going to add in examples of other industries and celebrities, but you get the idea.  Since bad things happen, you have a choice in what you can do.  Fighting is sometimes an option.  Tony Hayward thought so.  BP let him fight. Then, they let him go away with the bad press.  Will BP bounce back? Yes.  Exxon did and they did the same thing with the Captain Joe Hazelwood of the Exxon Valdez.  There are ways to let things work out without losing your business.  Are you ready for all of the kinds word-of-mouth marketing?

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3. June 2010 by The Original Bulldog - Bob Griffin.

Amazing how quickly things can go wrong and how everyone can know about it.  Ask Tony Hayward, CEO of BP, how fast his head was spinning from news of the broken pipe a mile down in the Gulf of Mexico.  Being the top dog means you have to lead the pack.  Did he step up and bark out good orders?  Nope.  He wasn’t, and isn’t prepared.

How does this relate to your business?  You don’t drill for oil or have a major international brand.  It is just you in your store working as hard as you can to pay the bills and grow your business.  Change “oil spill” for “customer made sick” or “product injury” and you can see where things along your own pipeline from vendor to your shelf to the customer can get quickly out of hand.

Are you ready for disaster?

When you think about all the things that can go wrong, do you think you are ready to handle them or are you hoping that bad things avoid your business?  Countless owners live in fear of something bad happening, but never do anything about it.  If you, for some unknown reason to me, do not have business interruption insurance, get it.

Just like BP, you know that something is going to happen.  Something that makes you sweat, stay up at night, and worry that you won’t have an income.  Or, even worse, you have to pay large sums of money just to stay in business. Bulldog Rule # 6 - Failing to plan for your day, week, month, and year is unacceptable  is one heck of a rule to follow when everyone around you is looking at clear skies and ignoring the bad weather approaching.

Where do you start?  How about at the front door?  Or better yet, start with your lease.  Does it provide for floods, damage to the building, or any number of calamities that can happen to keep your front door from being opened?  Even if you are already in a lease and it doesn’t come up for renewal for years, ask for a rider to the lease that gives you a break on the rent until you are back open.  If the landlord won’t help, then you know you either have to move when the lease ends or add more insurance to what you already have.

Inside the store, train your team to be ready for anything bad.  Robbery, fire, customer accidents, and many other things can happen depending on your business.  If your employees are not trained well in what to do, things can go from bad to worse in the blink of an eye.  I have been in far too many stores that have been robbed at gunpoint.  Since I personally trained the team working, the robber left with money and no one was hurt.  You can earn more money.  You can’t replace a life.

Everyone has a job to do in a crisis.  The counter person calls the police, ambulance, or fire department.  The customers are cared for and kept calm.  They will need to stay in the store until the police arrive.  You can’t keep them in the store against their will.  If they want to leave, ask for their name and phone number. Once everything is settled down, the need employees write down what they saw and heard.  The Manager needs to be a calm voice.  If you do not have a “Drama Free” Manager, start looking for one.  Anxiety can lead to bad decision and a reactionary Manager will already be a point of crisis in the business.

Plan and then train.  Simple?  It is.  If BP had planned better for broken pipes a mile underwater, they would not have had much coverage by the media.  Their stock wouldn’t have lost a third of it’s value and they would be pumping oil instead of hiding from the media.

Be ready for whatever can happen and rest well knowing you can handle any crisis.

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29. April 2009 by The Original Bulldog - Bob Griffin.

Very often when there is a shift in the economy there is a desire for people to jump into business ownership. I know that is appealing, but it is not for everyone. Bulldog Rule #9 states, “You may not be the right person for the job.” As much as I can help a person be a good owner, they just may not fit the mold of being a good business person.

The world economy flipping upside down does not surprise me. There is a “righting” of the financial world every decade (sometimes a little longer) and the people who have been sailing through not paying attention to their business get knocked on their butt because the market changed. I want to point out that this has happened to countless big public companies in the last year and the formula for failure is the same.

Many people get into business for the wrong reasons. I have a friend that I worked as a consultant for who wanted to be a restaurateur. His plan was to work in the business with his wife. She was better at the back-office paperwork and he was better coordinating the operations. It sounded good, but as soon as his wife got tired of smelling like a french fry she moved on and then he lost interest. The business failed. There simply has to be a reason bigger than a dream that makes you an owner. Lost interest is why big businesses fail too. How many Boards of Directors but short term goals in front of a CEO and then wonder why the business failed in the long term. The CEO’s interest is in meeting the goal and looking good to the Directors and the stockholders. After the short term goal is met you see a lot of CEO’s jumping ship and a lot of employees scrambling to fix the mess in order not to lose their jobs. Interest in the entire business and the industry is critical to making a strong business and keeping customer share.

Business is all about change. The vendors change products, customers move, or even a news story that affects the entire industry could be the reason to be ready to move to meet the new demands. I worked in the ice cream industry for a few years and when the Mad Cow scare took hold it was a daily PR effort to get customers to the stores. No one got sick from ice cream, but customer perception of all dairy products was strong. Change happens and you are going to have to be face it. Most people hate change. If you can’t handle that kind of stress do not be a business owner.

Early in my career as a consultant I thought I could make anyone a great business owner. It is just following a basic formula that makes a business good. There is so much more to small business. Now my first statement to anyone thinking buying or starting a business is “Are you qualified?” It is a shocking question to someone who is new to business, but I am probably the only person around them to ask that question. No one is ready for business since you can not tell what the day will bring. The right person for the business may not be you and that is OK. It isn’t like love. It is most definitely better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, but to be a business owner and have lost is a pain that can hurt more than just you.

I want to finish with a saying that I heard many years ago. “The path to happiness is yours to walk down. It may not be the same one you thought you would be on, but it is the only one that will lead you to happiness.” Not once in that statement does it mention being a business owner. Find your own path to happiness wherever it leads you.

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29. April 2009 by Noel Guilford.

It matters now more than ever for small business owners to explore the options of using local talent to streamline business costs. Far too often cutting payroll seems an easy and immediate fix to rising costs and declining sales. Issues of controlling labor cost should be left in the hands of the management - at least for now. Given the cost of hiring new employees, outfitting them with uniforms if necessary, and the time needed to train them properly, this is not as cost efficient as some may believe. Not to worry, there are still other options that actually are more impactful to your business annually. If you use Bulldog Rule #8 – “Re-examine your business often”, then you’ll find that you are easily able to pinpoint your areas of opportunity. Here are a few ways you can go local.

Marketing

Look for opportunities to spread brand awareness at minimal costs. One of the more common and successful tactics is a business co-op. Form a working partnership with other local businesses and use incentives to increase customer counts for you and your partnered businesses. Get creative and remember all businesses involved must handle these shared customers with the greatest of care.

Another source of low cost marketing is supporting a charity. Keep in mind that just as the community is there to support its businesses, those same businesses are there to support the community it operates in. If customers believe they can contribute to the community through your business you have gained their loyalty.

Products and Services

Now is a good time to consider how your products are presented to your customer and how to better meet their needs.  The name of the game in this arena is Convenience, Cost, and Consistency. It should be easier to get the same quality of products and services for a better cost. Keep an eye open, it might just be easier to purchase the same products from a struggling retailer than a struggling distributor.

Distribution and Shipping

That big time distributor might not be as convenient and cost efficient as he use to be. Don’t hesitate to change distributors or explore your options locally to meet your customer’s needs. In the event that the cost to ship goods from a central location becomes unfavorable, search for local distributors that can provide the same quality product and form a working relationship.  Remember the objective is to make sure that your customer receives their product faster for a good price.

Customer Interaction

Even though I like to speak to a person when purchasing products or services, there are many who would rather not. Options include online purchasing, or using some form of automated service to interact with your customers on their schedule. The time and resources saved on errors, miscommunication, and labor more than make up for this type of premium upgrade to your business.
Overall the market is still very full of opportunity; you just have to: Assess the Situation, Plan the change, and Act on it to fight your way through the storm. Or as the timeless saying goes, when the world gives you lemons, make lemonade!

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7. April 2009 by Noel Guilford.

 Any one that has gone into business is surely doing so in hopes that it will be extremely profitable at some point. At the end of the day a business is an investment and investments get sold every day.  Unfortunately for many business owners this becomes reality at the worst of times. Now businesses are sold for various reasons and I’m sure that everyone can name the worst of them. The truth is that sometimes a better opportunity presents itself and it comes right down to what is best for business. Either way, when the day comes the objective is to get as much return on your investment as possible, plain and simple. 

That’s right, for most business owners there is the reality that the business will one day come to an end. How that day goes will depend on how many of these three things can be brought to the bargaining table. With the right preparation this can be an easy thing to accomplish, saving time and energy for everyone involved. 

Growth (Past) 

Giving records of sustained growth is simply not enough. All instances of documented growth should include the factors that contributed to that growth. This not only lends credibility to those fine financial statements but also reinforces the viability of the business model.  

Consistency (Present) 

Every business will experience some ups and downs. However it is important to show out how profitable the business can be when the right factors are in harmony. For some it might be a combination of Leadership, marketing, and operations. Whatever the factors might be, providing detailed records of the business functioning at an optimal level and having it currently doing so, will showcase your businesses muscle. 

Potential (Future) 

This will require you use Bulldog Rule for Business #12 Be aware of your entire business. Having an intimate knowledge of your customer base and the opportunities there to include proposed actions to tap those opportunities is potential.  

 Yes your accountant can provide evidence enough, but they can’t sell your business for you. Financial statements give an overview of the life of the business, but thorough records provide all the details potential buyers are looking for. Invest in a Business Consultant to assist with creating a system and finding the tools needed to properly document the performance of your business. When the time comes to move on be prepared, and make a difficult process into one that mutually benefits both parties. 

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