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As a business owner, you know what it’s like to lie awake at 2 a.m. Maybe it has happened when you are excited and full of new ideas for your business. More often, it’s because you are worried about issues you will face the next day. Sometimes, it’s because you just woke up with the solution to a problem. I’ve experienced all those emotions about my businesses over the years. Awake at 2 o’clock? is where I share them with you, and hopefully help with answers that will let you sleep.
John F. Dini, CExP, CEPA
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Small business owners are the Hunters of the 21st century. We are 3% of the US population, and yet we create over half of all American jobs. As Hunters, we may not be inclined to manage by the numbers or stick to systems. Are you a Hunter or a Farmer?
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How prepared are you to exit your company?
The Assessment breaks down the four major categories of exit readiness; Finance, Planning, Operations and Revenue/Profit.
Tag Archives: marketing
Is Uber Really Disruptive Technology?
I attended a technology awards event a few nights ago. The speaker extolled technology as the engine of change and economic development, while attendees posted pictures of each other for the Pinterest feed on the screens to either side of … Continue reading
2 Responses to Is Uber Really Disruptive Technology?
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Reputations are Sticky
“We have a great reputation in our industry.” In thousands of hours of coaching and facilitating I’ve never heard a business owner say “We have a lousy reputation.” The myopia of working hard to deliver a product or service leads … Continue reading
One Response to Reputations are Sticky
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Great topic. This is a continuing problem with most businesses. They have blinders for their own reputations or they don’t really want to know the answer to the question from former customers or people who’ve never bought. Asking the really hard questions is never comfortable.
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Google, SEO and the Yellow Pages Game
When the Yellow Pages were a primary source of advertising for small businesses, they had a nifty sales technique. If an advertiser was doubtful about the value of an ad, their sales rep would offer a special telephone number to track how much business … Continue reading
2 Responses to Google, SEO and the Yellow Pages Game
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Perceptive & so true
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Well done sir. Thank you for looking out for small business. Every dollar counts for us. We don’t have the luxury of throwing good money down the drain.
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The Tyranny of The Bad Customer
“The customer is always right,” or at least that’s what most business owners profess to their employees. We post it for all to see. “Customer satisfaction is job one.” “Our boss is the customer.” The most important person in our … Continue reading
One Response to The Tyranny of The Bad Customer
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This is a great article and absolutely accurate! I represent a number of small to medium business owners and have owned businesses for many years and I find the credibility associated with online ratings to be quite shocking. As the owner of a law firm I continually stress about having a client get angry about a result in court one day and write a nasty online review the next, especially on a site that doesn’t allow users to delete reviews.
I have one client in particular that has had to reinvent and re-brand his business a few times because of online reviews and another client that was the victim of a consumer complaint site and is spending thousands of dollars trying to resolve the claims, most of which are wholly unfounded. Yet another client had the ex-husband of a girl he went on a few dates with post that he was a pedophile and claim that his business utilized fraudulent practices and was being investigated. Sadly, those posts will probably never come down because no one wants to spend thousands of dollars suing someone who will fight a silly fight and declare bankruptcy at the end of it all. Unfortunately for one of my client’s ex-employees, he is willing to spend any amount of money to get her to remove comments she made online after he fired her.
I would be surprised if employees or employers have analyzed the potential liability associated with posts and responses, or really any content they put online about another person. It is my opinion that most businesses should have new-employee trainings about this topic so as to avoid future problems.
Business owners certainly do not often consider the impact online reviews can have on the sale of their businesses. Buyers can decrease the purchase price substantially if they have to fight bad reviews because getting enough good reviews to offset one bad review is time consuming and costly. Whether or not the review actually impacts the business is irrelevant in negotiations because a seller can’t really prove otherwise.
Something new that is happening in the law is the use of reps and warranties associated with goodwill and how future reviews impact present covenants. We will be seeing a lot of litigation in the future over poorly written or understood reps and warranties in purchase agreements.
Great article John!
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Who Owns the Portal?
We are 30 years into the computer revolution, which I am arbitrarily marking as beginning in the mid-1980’s, when Apple II and IBM compatible (286) computers began to show up on the desks of people who weren’t in the “computer room.” … Continue reading
I am generally in agreement with Awake at 2 O’clock articles, but respectfully disagree with this one. What Uber has done is clearly disruptive to the traditional taxi industry. Previously the only phone number that would connect someone who wants a ride with someone who could provide one, was to a taxi company. Taxi company are a silo or vertical business model. Uber, and the other ride-share companies, have made it much more horizontal. The barrier to becoming part of a ride-share fleet is very low.
John correctly identifies that as a serious issue that will need to be dealt with. The barrier is very low and government is largely out of the dynamic (which is both good news and bad news). Of course one could argue that it is a classic case of a consumer accepting increased risk in return for decreased cost. The industry will have to evolve to deal with the issues, but it has pretty clearly been a disruptive shift in a long’standing business model.
Thanks David, but I still don’t see how Uber inherently does more than a taxi company (match people wanting a ride with affiliated drivers who are willing to do so for pay.) Some folks read my article as an argument against Uber. Not at all. I’ve used the service, will again, and think it is terrific. The artificial market constraints of medallions that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in return for a middle-class wage should be removed. Uber is shaking up the industry, and I applaud them. Like you, I worry about the impact of claiming a right to work outside the public safety system. Working outside other regulations that exists merely to stifle competition? Go for it!