All the time, you hear business owners lamenting the fact that it has become so difficult to attract new customers and keep the current ones yet so many fail to do simple things to gain and maintain customers.

How a Small Gesture Earned Our Business

My wife and I stopped in a Pakistani restaurant looking for something on the menu that struck our fancy. We don’t know much about Pakistani food so were were quizzing the hostess, who turned out to be one of the owners, on different menu items and how spicy each dish was.

The owners, a husband and wife team, let us know that they would adjust the spiciness of the dishes to suit our tastes. They asked us what kinds of dishes we like so that they could recommend something that we would enjoy.

Their true desire to share Pakistani cuisine with their guests and to make sure that their guests had good experience was obvious. At first impression, nothing stood out and made us say, “I want to eat here” until the owners showed genuine interest in us.

The restaurant itself was on the plain side. Nothing gave us much feel as to what the food or the dining experience would be like. If we had been treated with pleasant indifference - which is standard in most restaurants - we would have gone to look for another restaurant.

A small gesture on their part earned two new customers. We spoke with them for two minutes at the most and from the two minutes spent talking with us they earned a $26.00 sale that they wouldn’t have made otherwise.

After talking with the owners, we were expecting a good meal and they really delivered. It’s everything we could have hoped for. On the way home, we were already planning when we would return. The true value of our brief conversation comes in the future as we make repeated visits.

Never underestimate the value of a small gesture because small gestures really do earn customers.Smal

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Be part of the conversation. Meet new people. Make new business contacts. Market your product, service, self, or ideas. Social media does it all.

Social media is a demanding master and I fail my master regularly. Why doesn’t social media accept that I have a life outside of social media? That my family wants to have a conversation without a computer between us? That I might have work to do? Or maybe, I would just like to see the sun?

Social media requires talking. Sometimes, I have nothing to say. But, what will my people think if I don’t say anything? How will I explain the gaps in my social media timeline? Where was I? What was I doing? Why wasn’t I being part of the conversation?

Don’t my followers need me? Don’t they depend on my pithy comments, sharp wit and sage advice?

I’m no social media hater but I hate that social media makes me feel guilty. When did social media become my master?

Share the Guilt

That said. Why don’t you follow me on Twitter so that we can share the guilt.

Photo credit: gudlyf on Flickr

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To see how I got to this point in The Challenge read:

1.    The back of the Napkin Challenge - This is Where It All Starts
2.   The Back of the Napkin Challenge Update One - Working the Methodology
3.   The Back of the Napkin Challenge Update Two - New Twists

Starting a Business

As I mentioned in the previous challenge update, I will be helping a friend launch a new business.

I’ll let him explain how a cricket playing Australian in Mexico, who is on his way to Vietnam, met a softball playing American who will help him develop a new business.

Introducing Dane, a Drummer, Cricket Player, and Fledgling Entrepreneur

Hi, my name’s Dane. I’m an Australian living in Mexico. Over the years I have had various jobs, some interesting, some not, but two things have stayed with me throughout the many changes in my life.

The first of those is drumming. Drumming has been a passion of mine ever since I was lucky enough to get a few informal lessons from a flatmate. Since then, I have played in numerous bands incorporating various styles. I also teach.

The second thing? Writing. I love writing. It has been a skill that has always come easily to me. I consistently received top marks for my essays throughout school, contrasting nicely with the appalling marks I received for most other subjects. After high school, there was little opportunity to utilise my writing skills until a friend, who worked in community radio, was in desperate need for someone to write copy. This was not a paid position but it gave me valuable experience in turning a few lines of raw facts into a presentable 30 second radio script.

I wrote copy for a couple of years and only stopped in order to focus my attention on another goal. I wanted to go to university. As a mature age student, I could have applied under a prior learning scheme but given the fact that the last actual essay I’d written was when Reagan was still in office, I thought I’d try adult education first, just to see if it would work for me.

So I did.

Year 11 was first and, to my surprise, my marks were good and I was enjoying using my brain again. Year 12 followed and despite thinking I’d completely eviscerated my end of year English exam, the marks showed that not only had I passed, I came within the top 1% of students in my state. This was very encouraging because it meant that I could apply for a university course purely on the basis of results and not some mature age scheme. My first choice was an Arts degree at Melbourne University, majoring in Political Science.

They said yes.

Three years of blood, sweat and tears later, I was the proud owner of a Political Science degree. The rigours of university honed my writing skills to a fine point, expanding my ideas and the many ways to apply them. The only problem I had was what to do next? After five years in academia land, I was ready for a break but had no idea as to what to do. Then an opportunity arose. My partner, a high school and elementary music teacher was offered a job.

In Mexico.

We had both always wanted to travel…. but Mexico? This was literally the other side of the world and neither of us had even been out of Australia before. After much deliberation, we decided to go for it. My partner is now the music teacher at the American School of Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco, Mexico.

I teach private drum kit lessons to elementary kids in the after school programme. We have now been in Mexico for nearly two and a half years and have loved every minute of it. Well, mostly. However, it’s now time to move on and see some more of the world.

Next stop? Vietnam.

My partner has accepted a position at the International School of Ho Chi Minh City and so Vietnam will be our home for the next two years.

So what has all this got to do with writing? One of the benefits of travelling is that you get to meet all sorts of people. People with diverse backgrounds and even more diverse ideas and outlooks on life. Thanks to a mutual love of team sport, I met Doug. We play softball together. Doug and I were having a chat and he told me about a new project he was thinking of developing. A project to help people start a business.

Doug wanted this to be an online project and that was going to require a lot of copywriting to express both the vision and the process. I offered to help with that process. Doug had already enlisted the services of a copywriter but was happy to get as many opinions as possible, so over various meetings, Doug’s vision began to take shape.

Curious Business was born.

The website was up and running and now Doug wanted to focus on a practical step-by-step process to help those wanting to start their own business. Dan Roam’s book ‘The Back of the Napkin’ offered a template for which to do that. But Doug needed a test case, someone who wanted to start a business but needed help to do it.

Doug thought of me.

Now, I’ve never considered myself a businessman. That was always something other people did. Throughout my time in Mexico, I have toyed with the idea of starting an online business using my writing skills. I want to keep traveling and an online business seems to be a perfect solution to achieve a regular income no matter where I happen to be at the time.

But where to start? There must be thousands of online copywriters out there. How do I stand out from the pack? What do I call my business? How will I get paid? How much do I charge? How do I deal with difficult clients? How do I produce work that will enable me to get more work?

How do I this? These are the questions that Doug’s Curious Business is hoping to answer. Over the following weeks, at least some of these questions will all be answered and each step of the process will be detailed on Doug’s site.

Over the years, there has never been a shortage of people asking me why I am doing what I am doing. Why are you in a band? There’s no money in that. Why are you going back to school? Why do want to move to Mexico? Why do you want to start a business? My answer to all of these questions is simple:

Why not?

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My Favorite Sushi Place

On a visit our favorite takeout sushi place we received some crushing news - the shop would close in two days. Tears welled up in my eyes. I am not saying this for dramatic effect. Tears were nearly spilled. I was shaken. I felt like a good friend just passed away.

We wanted to know why he was closing such a popular place. The owner told us due to the Peso devaluation, his main ingredients which were imported from Japan, had nearly doubled in price. He said that it no longer made sense to keep the doors open. You can’t argue with his logic but it still didn’t console me.

The Strong Bond of a Great Business

I got to thinking. Why did I feel the closure of a business so deeply? It was only a takeout sushi joint. We can always find another. Right? No really…Right?

A great business creates a bond. It becomes part of you. You don’t think of as just place trying to separate you from your money. It is a constant in your world. A friend. And a comfort.

Yamada the Owner

Yamada, the owner of my sushi place, took pride in his business and deeply cared about his customers. We never really talked much but he always had a question for me and on my next visit he would ask a follow up question. He kept track of what happening in his customer’s lives and enjoyed being a part of them.

I will miss the food but what I will miss more is the way the restaurant made me feel - alive, accepted and part of something.

How deep is the bond between you and your favorite business?

Read more about customer relationships: Business Rule #1 - Care for People

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Great Reading for Independent Business Thinkers

Need some business inspiration? Life inspiration? Just want to kill some time reading something interesting? I have compiled an interesting mix of voices speaking about small business, life, and a little travel.

Independent Business Voices

1. The Art of Non-Conformity - Unconventional strategies for life work and travel - by Chris Guillebeau - My favorite site about building a life and a business. You must include it in your reading list.

2. IttyBiz - Sharp tongued advice on how to start an online business and not f**k it up. Naomi is much better at swearing in print than I am. Her skills make me jealous.

3. Trendwatching -  An independent and opinionated consumer trends firm. Trendwatching publishes one in-depth consumer trend article per month. Very much worth a look.

4. Monday Morning Memo - Provocative series of well-crafted thoughts about the life of business and the business of life. I look forward to each post which arrives in my inbox just as you would guess - on Monday morning.

5. Small Biz Survival - The rural and small town business resource. Focused on the special challenges of small town businesses. How to be a hometown hero.

6. The Global Small Business Blog - The definitive blog for entrepreneurs and small businesses interested in going global.It’s a big world getting smaller every day.

7. Chris Brogan - Well known social media guy. I really like his attitude towards dealing with people, very down-to-earth.

8. Soc Media 101 - For those of you new to social media: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and the hundreds of other options you have to connect. Real world tips and how-to’s for using social media without all of the hype.

9. Entrepreneur’s Breakfast - Marketing over easy. Great ideas for freelance copywriters.

Brain Food

10. Knife Gun Pen - Robert Bruce is one of the most read, linked, loved and reviled poets working on the web. You can’t read business stuff all the time! Try some poetry for a fresh perspective.

11. Writing Roads - The intersection of business and life written by uber-talented online businesswoman, Julie Roads. Here is where I give props to Julie. She helped me launch Curious Business. Thanks!

12. Terry Starbucker - Ramblings from a glass half full.

13. The Lazy Way to Success - Success comes the cleverly avoiding work but still getting the job done. The site hasn’t been updated recently, but you will still find lots of reading to get your mind looking at our notions of work differently.

14. How I Changed the World Today - Changing the world one day at a time.

Inspiring Travel

Travel opens the mind to inspiration. When I can’t travel myself, I read about other people’s amazing travels. Here are some favorites.

15. Everything Everywhere - Gary Arndt sold his business and is now traveling the world until he is finished. One day I will do the same.

16. Trans-Americas - The mother of all road trips. Karen Catchpole (writer) and Eric Mohl (photographer) left their jobs and apartment in New York City and embarked on the Trans-Americas Journey, a three-four-year, 150,000+ mile cross-country and cross-continental drive. They just passed through Puerto Vallarta where I currently live.

17. Soul Travelers 3 - A family of three on an open ended round the world journey.

Doing Some Good in the World

18. Kiva.org - Loans that change lives. Person-to-person micro-loans for entrepreneurs. I lend on Kiva. You can see my lender profile here.

More Great Business Sites

I started with 18 sites but more needed to be added.

19. Mixergy - Events and interviews for web visionaries - Video interviews with successful web entrepreneurs: Neil Patel, Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss, Andrew Warner. Tons of useful insights and inspiration!

If you have any favorite sites to share leave a comment. Thanks! Happy reading!

Photo: Stuart Pilbrow

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This is the second update on my personal challenge to launch a new project, product, or service using the methodology in Dan Roam’s book, The Back of the Napkin - Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures.

To see how I got to this point in The Challenge read:
1.    The back of the Napkin Challenge
2.    The Back of the Napkin Challenge Update One

Problems with Me
I am having a hell of a time trying to Implement Dan Roam’s methodology. Surprisingly, the problem isn’t the methodology. It’s me. My habits are calcified.

I have my own peculiar way of doing things which is very comfortable and successful for me. While trying to work through the process, my brain keeps screaming at me in a really whiny voice, “this isn’t the way we always do things. This is hard! I want to do things the old way.”

Concessions to My Brain
Although, I had every intention of following the book in a linear fashion, I am going to make some concessions to my brain and finish the challenge using Dan’s methodology following a crazy crooked path. My brain will be happy and I will be productive. That’s the plan anyways.

In the end, I will still launch a new project, product, or service using the methodology but I’ll do it by jumping ahead, looping back, zigging then zagging, starting at the end, and finishing at the beginning.

Where is The Challenge at?

After completing the first round of looking, I ended up with 34 note cards with ideas that fit within the quadrant online/business. Obviously, 34 note cards scrawled with potential projects is far too many. Time to narrow down the contenders.

Next step is Seeing. According to Dan, Seeing = Selecting and clumping.

I saw, then I clumped. The cards fell into three basic groupings: Standalone Projects, Project Tasks, and Processes. I kept 11 cards that represented standalone projects and eliminated the rest.

We Have a Challenge Winner

Within the standalone projects the cards fell into four groups. One became the winner.

Group 1 - Further develop Curious Business using the methodology. Going the process of applying the methodology would be beneficial but I don’t feel that there is a enough benefit at this point.

I have clearly mapped out my long term strategies for Curious Business. Revisiting my plans in six months and reviewing them through the methodology will have more benefit. I’m putting this one on the back burner.

Group 2 - Create a video series. I chose not to do the video series mainly because doing video scares me. I mean really scares me! Video is an integral part of my plans for Curious Business but I am going to play chicken in the meantime. Whew!

Group 3 - Develop domains. I have two websites VallartaBlog and MexicanFoodie which are hobby blogs that could easily be developed into businesses. I also have a number of quality domains registered for specific projects that I plan to launch. Developing the domains is my second choice for this challenge.

Group 4 - Help someone start a business. **The big winner!** Over the weekend, I was telling a friend about how I set up the challenge for myself. As we continued talking, he mentioned some ideas for a business that he’d like to start but he was uncertain about how to go about doing it.

The idea lightbulb flashed on in my head. I could help him launch his business and we’ll do it following the methodology from The Back of the Napkin. I’m a genius.

Fortunately, he feels that I am a genius too. In a few days, I will formally launch the next phase of the challenge. Things are going to get more interesting now. I’ll keep you posted.

Photo: grypso banana prune

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As a customer, I want to do business with someone who values me and enjoys taking care of my needs. Since, I am paying my good money for a product or service, the relationship is about me. 

I bought the privilege.

When you deal with a business, evaluate how the business interacts with its customers. Where is the focus of the relationship?

You will be surprised how much of the relationship is designed to meet the needs of the business not the needs of the customer.

More on relationships and customers: When Your Favorite Business Dies

Photo: 10ch

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This is the first update on my personal challenge to launch a new project, product, or service using the methodology in Dan Roam’s book, The Back of the Napkin - Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures.

To my surprise, the author left a comment on the first challenge post saying that he would be cheering me on. Very cool! Knowing that he is looking over my shoulder makes the project even more fun. I need to knock this one out of the park. I don’t want to disappoint.

My First Baby Steps - Looking

For those of you not familiar with the methodology used in the book, the visual thinking process is divided into four parts: looking, seeing, imagining, showing.

To get the visual thinking process started you first look. There are four rules for better looking:

1. Collect everything you can - I had to get the ideas floating around in my head into a visual form. I did a massive brain dump and wrote everything I could think of onto 3×5 notecards. I wrote a total of 44 cards.

I didn’t worry about filtering the ideas. I knew that many of the ideas weren’t going to be relevant to this project but they might spark some more ideas that would be.

I planned on saving the cards that were culled from the pack to later review and organize the ideas for use in future projects.

2. Lay it out where you can look at it - I laid out all of the cards on my desk without trying to organize them.

The idea is to get everything out there so that you can begin establish the underlying information coordinates in rule 3.

3. Establish fundamental coordinates - I used business vs. personal and online vs. offline as the fundamental coordinates for my ideas. The index card below shows how I visualized the coordinates.

4. Practice visual triage - I removed 6 cards that had ideas that didn’t fall into the business/online cuadrant of my coordinates chart. That leaves me with 34 idea cards to start the next step of the visual thinking process, seeing.

Read about what happens next in the Back of The Napkin Challenge.

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To force myself to really dig into the book and learn the visual thinking methodology, I have laid out a challenge for myself, which I call The Back of the Napkin Challenge.

I’m not sure where this challenge will take me, but, it will be interesting to see what develops. Consider taking the challenge with me.

Back of the Napkin Challenge
Apply the visual thinking methods as taught in the book to successfully launch a new project, product, or service within 30 days. I will document and share my progress and at the end evaluate my results.

Challenge Stages
Stage 1 - Learn the Methodology
Stage 2 - Use the Methodology to define the new project
Stage 3 - Launch or implement the new project
Stage 4 - Evaluate the success

Visual Thinking
I use hand-drawn charts, graphs, and pictures to clarify concepts when I am working on any project. In fact, you can gauge the success of my projects by the volume and elaborateness of sketches and notes I make.

I have always worked with sketches and the way I work serves me well. I have never put much thought into how I define concepts until I read The Back of the Napkin. It became clear that I would create more success working within a better defined framework.

I’m excited to find out if applying the visual thinking methodology presented in the book will bring measurable results. I’ll keep you posted!

The Back of the Napkin Challenge - First Update

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The older I get, the more I seem compelled to give unsolicited advice. Yesterday, my old-man advice, given to a drifting younger person, was actually quite good.

I told him to be the best you that you can be. Nothing more.

Now, I might have lifted the phrase from someone else. Actually, I’m almost certain that I lifted it from someone else, nonetheless, I felt wise dispensing it. If you were the one who inspired my advice, thank you. I’m passing it on in good faith.

Be the best you that you can be.

It’s very attainable. You don’t have to be anyone else or live up to standards imposed on you by others. You have to live up to your own.

One more piece of advice, your standards should be exceedingly high. This is the tough part.

Let me ask you this. Are you being the best you that you can be?

P.S. The younger person got it. Score one for the old guy.

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