CONCENTRATIONS by Ramon Gil

An Orwellian Christmas Carol

Sung to the tune of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town".

You'd better log out. Don't download that byte.
You'd better turn off your iPhone at night.
The internet is running our town!

It's making a list and checking it twice
of every computer and smart phone device.
The internet is running our town!

They say resistance's futile.
That you cannot avoid a life that's full of tablets,
laptops, Blackberries and droids.

So watch what you write and watch what you say.
Once posted online, It forever will stay.
The internet is running our town!

It knows what you are typing to all your facebook peers.
It tracks your spending habits at the Gap, eBay and Sears.

So you'd better not click on any websites
for lingerie sales or sexual advice.
The internet is running our town!

You should also erase all personal files -
your diary and psychiatric profiles.
The internet is running our town!

It's setting up dictators like Zuckerman and Gates.
It sent Steve Jobs to heaven so it could also run that place.

Don't bother to vote for the left or the right.
It doesn't care if you're black or you're white.
The internet is running our town!

No need to freak out. It's too late to fight.
We're stuck in the Matrix. No Neo in sight.
The internet is running our town!

Now don't you think it's creepy. We're in a virtual void.
I'm not exaggerating and I'm not just paranoid.

No need to deny. No need to debate.
Our future is doomed to a digital fate.
The internet is running our town!

So be like Sarah Connor and train for judgement day.
The Terminator's coming and he sure ain't on a sleigh!

You'd better drop out. Live off of the grid.
Escape from the net. That's what Santa Claus did.
The internet is running our town (Oh no!)
The internet is running out town (Get out!)
The IN-TER-NET is running our TOWWWNNN!!!!!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

(The kids and I also came up with "The 12 Snacks of Christmas" but it didn't have quite the same bite :)

How to Market Your Business on Facebook

This may be a heretical thing to say but I don't believe Facebook marketing works. Okay, just so I don't draw the ire of social media experts everywhere, I will qualify that statement. I don't believe Facebook marketing works the way most people think. Let me s'plain.

Unless you've got a huge fan following like Hall & Oates (Did I just date myself?), most business-related status updates don't really get that much attention. Like paid ads, we've learned to ignore them. UNLESS the post is entertaining, provocative or useful to the reader. I see lots of experts post updates on Facebook about their latest speaking engagements or any PR that they scored. But does anyone really read them? I rarely do and I suspect most people are the same. 

So can Facebook be used for business marketing at all? Well yes and no. While it probably doesn't hurt to talk a little bit about your business on FB, I think there's a better use for it in relation to marketing. I call it "Facebook Networking."

I've said it time and time again, business is all about relationships, so why not use Facebook to cultivate them? I am a Social Media Butterfly. As long as I remember meeting you, I will confirm your FB friend request. (And sometimes even if I don't remember someone, but their picture is incredibly hot, I will be their friend anyway.) Why do I do this? Because I want to get to know people and I want them to get to know me. In my last blog post, I talked about the "Power of Options." Well this is sort of an extension of that. The more people I know on FB, the more relationships I can cultivate. And the bigger my network and potential pool of business and resources.

Building and cultivating relationships is all about keeping in touch, getting to know each other better and finding commonalities. In the old days, you had to do it in person or on the phone. But now, you can do it virtually! How cool is it that you can now get to know a person's family, hobbies, activities and (most embarassing of all) musical preferences, all online? Is it an invasion of privacy? Not if they're uploading things on the World Wide Web! And let's face it - if your FB friends are posting pictures and status updates, then they obviously want you to see them. They want you to get to know them, connect with them and reaffirm them. It's human nature!

The flip side of this is that people get to know you as well. And that's the secret ingredient. People don't want to do business with "companies." They want to do business with PEOPLE. People they like. And the only way they will have the opportunity to like you is if they get to know YOU personally.

Now I'm not advocating that everyone "fake" being friendly to people on FB. You can limit yourself to friending people you genuinely like (which makes for stronger relationships anyway). Luckily for me, I'm a natural extrovert and love learning more about folks. And I just love being able to post witty comments on people's walls.

Another good thing to do is be helpful and giving if people need recommendations, advise, or just a little empathy. We all could use a little of that. Especially New Yorkers.

So yes! Have a seperate FB page for your business (so that people who are curious can see what you do). But also focus on leveraging your personality and be a friend who keeps in touch, is helpful and wants to grow the relationship.

The other day, I was on the bus and someone whom I had met only twice before sat down next to me but we knew (sort of) what was basically going on with each other's lives (through Facebook). How's that for virtually strengthening the friendship? 

People ask me all the time, if I've gotten any business from Facebook. And my answer is "No, I haven't gotten any business from FB. But I have built friendships on Facebook and they've given me business." See the difference?

So feel free to "Facebook friend" me at http://www.facebook.com/ramonsgil. Just please don't hold the whole "Hall & Oates" thing against me.

The Power of Options

Way way back in college, one of my design instructors asked us "Who has more power in a negotiation? The client or the vendor?" Most of us said "the client." Then the instructor gave us the answer which has stayed with me ever since. "The person with the most power, is the one who has the most options." Wow!

As if a follow-up to that, my Dad always liked to say "The more options, the better." (I had a girlfriend who also liked saying that, and now I understand why, but I'm not sure if that's relevant to this discussion.) ANYWAY...let's examine how this works in the real world.

In Career Paths
Most people go through life content to work their 9-5 jobs. But when for some reason, they lose it, they are forced to find and take another one based on what limited jobs are available or offered to them (maybe one or two) . But the person who scans the job listings every week has several options open to them on a regular basis. Every week, they have the choice of staying or doing something else - EVERY WEEK. But if you only look for a job AFTER you get laid, off, well, a bunch of other opportunities could have already passed you by. In fact, your dream job might be out there somewhere, but if you're not CONSTANTLY looking out for it, you could miss it!

In Networking

In business and in careers, it's all about relationships. A manager bringing his loyal employees with him to his next post or the business owner who has cultivated deep personal ties with his best customers. Well, when you need a new employer or a new client, the person who has built up a huge network of friends and acquaintances to call on has the advantage. If you need to send out an email asking asking people if they know of a position or a prospective client, wouldn't having 300 people on your list be better than having only 20? Wouldn't a thousand just rock?! It may be what you know that gets you the job, but who you know can get you to the front of the line. And knowing more people, means getting to the front of more lines. (Why do you think you keep getting these emails from me?)

In Business

They say the best time to look for new (and bigger) clients is when business is good. Here's why: When business is good, you can go after new business and if the match isn't good, you can actually AFFORD to turn it down. A company that doesn't have enough business will have a hard time turning down anything! Which can lead to bad clients, unprofitable projects and low morale. A company that is flushed with work has the option to be choosy. So when you have more clients, that's when you should be selling more. Not when you have less. No matter how busy you get, always make the time to go after new business.

In Creativity

They say that it takes a thousand shots to get one good photograph. This is true for many things. A designer or entrepreneur who has come up with a hundred or a thousand ideas has more to choose from than the ones that only came up with five or ten. Albert Einstein had hundreds of ideas in order to get that one theory that changed the world. You could even say that brilliance is simply a matter of quantity. So brainstorm, brainstorm and brainstorm some more! Don't stop at five or ten!

"The more options the better." You can apply this same principle to many things. Shopping, dining, finding a place to live, selling, even dating. EXCEPT maybe girlfriends and especially NOT spouses. 

 

 

Do What You Love

As some of you may know, the family and I recently spent a month in the Philippines partly as vacation, but also partly to explore the possibility of opening up an operations office there or find new talent or at the very least look for any excuse to call this trip a "business expense." 

Aside from the capital city, we spent a lot of time on the lush tropical island my parents retired to, eating truly fresh and organic fruits, fish and vegetables and spending time in their beach house. (Yes, it is amazing what you can deduct as a business expense when you're an entrepreneur.)

Then one day, we headed off to some nearby mountains and I couldn't resist jumping into the bottom of a waterfall. Turned out the water was frigid and later that night I felt something amiss with my heart. After an ambulance trip to the nearest city with a modern hospital, it turned out I had atrial fibrillation. My heartbeat became irregular. Not that serious but scary nonetheless. Especially when you're on a tropical island that, despite its lushness, had only one modern hospital. 

I came through it okay and recovered after a 3-day hospital stay. But it made me really think about what was truly important in my life. And what I came up with was this: my family, my health and getting lots of attention from young nursing students who live on a lush tropical island. 

But seriously, I realized that what I truly want is to be passionate about what I do for a living. And for me, that's helping business owners, especially new ones, achieve their potential, grow their businesses and themselves, grow as business and community leaders. 

Dave Schlueter recently wrote "Every day, millions upon millions of people are forced from their homes by a disaster called work. Work they hate." A sad truism but not an inescapable one. While it is possible to learn to love the job you have by taking responsibility for it and making a conscious decision to embrace the challenges it offers, I also believe in finding and getting the job that will give you the satisfaction and happiness you truly want. And if that job doesn't exist or is out of reach, then create it for yourself! That's what entrepreneurship is all about and why I advocate for it so enthusiastically. 

You've all heard the saying "Do what you love and the money will follow" but here's one you may not have heard and one I often use when people ask me how I juggle so many things. "You always have more than enough energy for the things you WANT to do but never enough for the things you HAVE to do."

So do what you truly want. Except maybe jumping into frigid waterfalls. 

The Holy Trinity of Sales

Did you ever wish you could guarantee how much revenue was coming in to your business from one month to the other? Well, there are no guarantees in life and business but we can come pretty close.

While it's true that we can't control how much business we get from our clients, we can often reasonably predict the amount of business we get and do things to help insure that we get what we need. In order to do this you need to know three things. The amount of business in your Sales Pipeline, The average amount you make on a sale (or project), and what your closing ratio is. All of which you should be able to figure out based on past experience.

1. The Sales Pipeline
Make up a chart with columns representing the next 6 months. In each month's column, list the names and dollar amounts for projects you know are coming in based on commitments made by customers. Also list out any sales that regularly come in based on past patterns and experience. If you're not sure about some of them, then make the dollar amount a percentage of how likely you will get the sale (example, if there's a 50% chance that you will land a $3000 project in June then put down $1500). Do the same for any jobs you are currently pitching. Pretty soon, you will have a good picture of which months will have enough income and which months won't.

So say you need $10K a month to meet all your expenses, and in July you notice you're short by $6K, here's what you can do to help make sure you make that extra six thousand.

2. Your Average Sale Amount 
Take all the jobs you've done over the last 3-6 months and average them out. And let's pretend that each project comes out to about $2,000. How many projects will you need to add to June? Three! Now we we're getting closer to knowing how much selling we're going to need to do in the month of May. With me so far?

3. Your Closing Ratio
Again go count all the business pitches you did in the past six months and count how many of them were successful, in other words, how many of them resulted in a sale. Now you should have a your closing ratio. Let's imagine that your closing ratio is 1/3. Now we have all the information you need.

Do The Math
IF you know how much more business you need to raise in June ($6K) and if you know what your average sale is ($2K) then you can figure out how many projects you need to add, right? (3)

And IF you know how many projects you need to add (3) and if you know what your closing ratio is (1/3) then you can figure out how many new business pitches you need to make in May (9). Make sense?

So if you do whatever it takes to make 9 business pitches in May, and indeed you get 3 new projects at an average of $2K each, the you just made your June quota!

Viola!

You can also make your life easier by either increasing the amount of your average sale by raising fees or adding more services, or you can increase your success rate when doing business pitches by learning to be a better closer, or BOTH!

Serving Our Country

Every once in a while I'll hear someone complain about serving on Jury Duty. Now maybe it's because I'm a big Law & Order fan, but I love doing it!

But I think that if other people are willing to risk their lives in the military and go overseas to fight for freedom, the least we can do is serve with a genuine commitment when taking part in our fellow citizens' struggle to get justice and a fair trial. Don't you think? I mean this is what our soldiers are fighting for, right? So why not honor it?

How Steve Jobs & Apple Will Take Over the World

I've been debating for a while now whether or not to go public with this story. It's been sitting as a draft in my blog queue, but I've finally mustered up the courage to let the world know the truth despite the threats from the Men in White from Cupertino. If you NEVER see another blog post from me after this, do not be surprised. (Or pleasantly surprised, for that matter).

Last year, on my way to work, someone had left an Apple Classic SE out on the sidewalk along with all the other trash. Having been an Apple user all my adult life I picked it up in mid-stride and brought it to the office. 

Two weeks ago, I noticed the machine, untouched, underneath the production table and decided to see if it still works. Luckily I still had an old ADB keyboard, power cable, serial/ethernet adapter and mouse from my old Quadra 610 so we hooked everything up, fired up the little machine and that classic chime came out of the little speakers. But on the screen, smack in the middle of the classic OS 7 desktop, we could see a series of 8 digits that seemed to be on a second-by-second countdown. We tried to do the math but all we could come up with was that the countdown would end sometime in the next three years.

So now I was really curious about what would happen when the countdown ended. we did an experiment and set up an algorithm (I really don't know what that is) that would change the internal clock on the SE every 60 seconds. It would set the date forward one day then restart, then repeat the process over and over again. At about 4:27 pm the next day, the little mac came online to the date January 22, 2014 then, and I kid you not, all hell broke loose.

First the lights in the office dimmed, then all of sudden, the screens on the 5 macs we had in the office (networked to the SE) started flashing a strobe-like pattern that seemed to have no ill effect on most of us, though when I close my eyes even today, I can still see a smiling Steve Jobs.

Next, my iPhone 4 and Kiron's iPhone 3Gs started emitting a piercing high-pitched sound that climaxed with Chris, our art director's Blackberry and our marketing intern's Android exploding in a shower of sparks. We had to douse the intern's hip with water from a vase as he had the device on his belt when it burst into flames.

The one Sony Vaio that sits in the corner that we use for testing websites, which had a copy of iTunes on it, started flashing as well. We could see in between flashes that the Windows operating system was being taken over, pixel by pixel, by the Mac OS X. We could actually smell burning copper wire.

We had another Dell laptop on the conference table that we use as a paperweight which did NOT have iTunes on it. This machine did nothing. But before we knew it, Georgia, the design intern and Kiron, our project manager, who had been listening to their iPods when their screens started flashing, like souless zombies, plodded towards the Dell, siezed it and smashed it to the ground. Kiron was jumping on top of the debris, crushing it beneath her feet while Georgia started eating the smaller bits. We had to forcibly restrain both of them but they seemed to calm down after we had pulled away their iPod earbuds. Neither had any memory of their actions just seconds earlier.

When the smoke finally cleared, every surviving computer monitor was flashing this message in front of an omnipotent-like CGI face of Steve Jobs. It said simply this:

"All computers are equal. But some
are more equal than others."

As we scratched our heads as to the meaning of all this, I suddenly remembered the significance of the January 22, 2014 date. That's exactly 30 years since Superbowl XVIII. The day of the great 1984 Apple Commercial. I get the message now. Apple wasn't the shotputter destroying Big Brother. Apple IS Big Brother!

 

Does "selling" make you feel uncomfortable?

I was teaching a marketing class recently at the Workshop in Business Opportunities and talking about things like prospecting, qualifying a potential customer, identifying their buying motivations and personality types, etc etc. Then one of the students said "isn't all that being really manipulative?"

Though most of the other students smiled or laughed at this comment saying "Welcome to running your own business" I have noticed this stigma surrounding the act of "selling" among a lot of people. As if selling was underhanded, dishonest or simply just beneath them. 

Well there are all types of selling. Some methods may indeed be less than honest. But it doesn't mean you have to be.

This is what I believe in regards to selling - Every product we sell and every service that we offer is a solution to somebody's need or problem. Our job as business owners, is to find those people and help them. If indeed you have a good and honest relationship with your customer, and if indeed you really want to help them, and if indeed you believe you have the best answer to their problem, why wouldn't you want them to buy from you? Hard sell or soft sell, that's your choice. If your product is the best solution for them, then say so. And if isn't...well I would say so too. Getting their trust in the long term is better than getting this one sale in the short term. Make sense?

I've mentioned this alot in my workshops but I thought it was worth repeating here. Plus I really wanted to draw a superhero.

 

 

Grab Them By The Jugular - Better Click Rates for Your eBlasts

It seems that nowadays, everyone who runs a business is sending out a regular e-newsletter or eBlast. But truth be told, how many of them do you actually read? Or turn it around, how many actually read yours? They say a 10% open rate is good. Well, let me show you how to double that!

1. The Subject Heading
This is the first thing people see when they check their inbox and this will determine how many people will actually open your email. Here are some "boring" subject headings. "The Latest News from ACME Consulting," "Weekly Update from the Stonecutters Association" or "Some Great Tips for Marketing Your Business" Now here are some "Not Boring" ones. "How to Avoid Killing Your Web Designer," "Don't Hire Your Friends" and "Here's Your Share of the Stimulus Package - FREE INTERNS!" Get the picture? Make it specific to the content of the eBlast (in these cases my actual blog entries), make it intriguing, fun or provocative and most of all don't make it broad, generic and the same from one eBlast to the other. If they know from the subject line what it's about,  and if it interests them, they will open and read it. If they only see a mundane headline that doesn't tell them anything, they will pass.

2. Make It Valuable
Nobody cares about what your company did, what awards you received, or what new clients you just won. There are lots of radio stations out there but everyone mostly listens to WII FM. "What's-In-It-For-Me." So give them something they can actually use. NOW give them those marketing tips. Tell them about business resources. Invite them to events where they can network. Then at the very end, toot your horn a little - a project, client or award we won. (Yes, I know I said they don't care but hopefully the first two items will make them feel obligated.)

3. Keep it Short and Sweet
Nobody wants to read a dissertation. I like to keep it down to 3 topics with brief synopsis (no more than 2-3 sentences) for each one. The first being the intro to a blog that gives them tips about something. The second is usually a link to a resource they might find useful. And last, some PR for yourself. Basically, you want to keep each item so short that they don't have enough time to decide they're not interested.

4. Subheads Subheads Subheads
Use subheads to not only separate the items on your eBlast but also to give readers a clue as to what they're about. That way, if they're only skimming, they'll get the gist of the topics and will read deeper if it interests them. And again, make the subheads fun and catchy (See #1). This is true not just for eBlasts, but for ALL text-heavy documents.

5. Use Links to Track Response
As in all marketing, you need to measure results. As I mentioned in #2, I link to the blog, I link to the resource and I link to the press release about my company. The reason for this is that the eBlast services (ConstantContact, iContact, Vertical Response, etc)  can track click-rates from those links -  giving you an idea of what your readers are interested in. Wouldn't it be valuable to you to know which 23 of your readers clicked on the link about your latest website redesign project? But no links, no tracking.

6. Clean Layout and a Picture
The simpler the layout the better. Sidebars and boxes, and different sections are too much. The nature of emails is that they are quick. They are sent quickly and read quickly. The more complicated the layout, the harder it is to read fast. I like to keep my emails plain white, one column, topics separated with thin rules and a logo on top. And if you can, use one or two small pictures that relate to your content. If there's one point you need to drive home, make it a caption under the images. Everybody reads captions!

As a caveat, keep in mind that some of these suggestions may not be appropriate for all types of business or organizations. Funeral homes, divorce lawyers and NY State Governors come to mind. You get the picture.

How About a Hug?

In this day and age, it's easy to get lost in our hyper-connected, ultra-technology filled lives. Once in a while, it may be a good idea to reconnect with folks the old-fashioned way...by cellular phone.

I got a phone call day before yesterday. The caller said "Hi Ramon, it's Susan Chan." Now Susan Chan is a Feng Shui consultant whom I had met a few years back at a networking event I had organized. At the time, I thought she was very cool and that we had good chemistry and that I would have enjoyed working with her at some future date. We'd emailed a few times on business matters but never got the chance to go out for coffee as we'd always discussed.

So here she is on the phone and she said "Ramon, I'm calling because I feel that we've all gotten so wrapped up in technology that we've lost that human touch. So I wanted to reach out to people whom I like and just connect." Or something to that effect. "So how are you doing?" She asked and off we went talking about our businesses, our families and what exciting things were going on in our lives.

Needless to say, it was a pleasant break from my work routine plus it gave me a great new topic for my e-newsletter/blog.

Today, we Tweet, we FaceBook and we Link-in. Some of us go so far as to eblast and blog too. We walk around with our faces in our BlackBerries or iPhones or we plug into our iPods. But are we connected? Not to the internet but to our fellow men and women? Our friends and families? Our humanity? Do we spend enough time with our children, nieces and nephews? Do we call our parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts just to shoot the breeze? Are we building and strengthening the relationships we have with our friends or is it just on cruise control via Facebook and MySpace?

I read an article a few months back about a study that found that, not surprisingly, "things" do not make us happier as much as experiences and relationships. In the end, the material things we've accumulated aren't going to matter as much as the memories, feelings and experiences we've shared with our loved ones. Kind of puts a new twist on the definition of "tangible", doesn't it?

Whether in your personal life or your business life, it's not a bad idea to check to see if you're REALLY connected to the folks in your life. And if you're feeling a little empty or something is missing in your life, or even if business is just slow, why not just pick up the phone (and please forgive the cliche) and reach out and touch someone?

Of course, the ironic thing about all this is that Susan called me on my iPhone and now I'm tweeting/blogging about it. Sigh.