Often business owners will focus on marketing to increase their sales without making sure the rest of their business is ready. I’ve heard it said that good marketing will help a good business get better and will help a bad business get worse. It’s true.

I’ve seen too many businesses that advertise aggressively and then don’t answer the phone when you call them. Or you stop by their location and they’re closed during normal business hours. Or you leave a message and you never get a return call. Or, you walk in their business and it’s still under construction.

Too often we get so busy and focused managing our businesses that we forget life is supposed to be fun. I’m as guilty of this as anyone. Running a business is serious work so we seem justified by keeping our noses to the grindstones. Unfortunately, when we do that we often forget to enjoy our businesses and our work.

Leadership is what every organization needs and so few have in adequate supply. Part of leadership is what the first President Bush called “the vision thing”. It’s the ability to see what does not exist and then gather, mold and shape the resources needed to make it happen.

Part of leadership is passion for the purpose and the mission of the organization. But it needs to be passion with direction and focus. It needs to have strength of character; courage, integrity and fairness or it cannot sustain itself.

“What Do Customers Really Want?”

It’s a question we should always ask and yet we often find so difficult to answer. How an organization handles this question (and the answers) will determine its ultimate success. Because if you consistently offer your customers what they want (at a price they feel is fair) you’ll have all the customers you can handle.

In 2006, I surveyed about 2,000 people on this topic. They came from all over the USA (32 states). I asked them all this question:

I once had a boss who told us to never return phone calls right away. He said if you return a call too quickly, the other person might think you’re not very busy. This same boss also liked to say “always make it hard for the other person to schedule an appointment with you”.

I had a meeting at one of the newer hotel restaurants in my area. It’s a nice 4 star hotel – very well designed and decorated. If I were traveling I wouldn’t hesitate to stay there.

Approaching the hotel, it’s easy to see they spent a lot of money. And it’s an impressive place. As I entered the front door to the restaurant, I noticed a sign on the wall to the left of the door:

We hear a lot about spam (the technology kind, not the food product) but usually it’s in the context of email. Most of us know or have heard of spam filters, spamming rules and anti-spam policies. There are even laws that seek to reduce the amount of spam we have to deal with.

But, we don’t typically think of spam in terms of customer service. We should though because, no matter how it’s being used, spam is dangerous and damaging to businesses that use it.

“Great work is done by people who are not afraid to be great.”

- Fernando Flores

I use to be envious of great people.

By “great”, I mean people who have achieved things so noteworthy they become famous for it.

Some do it early in life, like athletes. Tiger Woods is a great example.

Others take more time reach their success through business. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have both risen to the top with their business achievements.

For the past 30 years, Memorial Day weekend always found me, my brother, my dad, my nephew and several cousins enjoying our annual fishing get-away in Ontario. We’d drive about 8 hours to a beautiful lodge. We would fish for three days, we’d eat a lot and we would share some fellowship that we didn’t often get in the hectic “real-world”.