How to Survive Bad Press Like a Pro

19 Jun, 2015 | Tags: , , , , , ,

We are living in the age of the Internet: where all types of communication and attitudes are welcome, bad news actually does travel faster than the speed of light, and everyone waits in the shadows for an opportunity to hop on a good (or bad) story. You know you’ve seen it before; the little business down some street you’ve never heard of is suddenly the talk of the entire Internet. Everyone starts ganging up on the business sharing the story via Facebook and Twitter with posts encouraging everyone to stop being a patron. Then after you’ve seen the story show up in your feed for the third time in an hour, you decide to read the story, and you realize the way the business handled a situation was cringe worthy.

Let’s be honest, in the age of Internet, sometimes you won’t be able to stop some bad press from happening. There’s always going to be the outraged man who’s water wasn’t cold enough who fumed in your Yelp reviews. And don’t be too upset with the woman who keeps tagging your business on Facebook with hate posts, because truth be told, you probably won’t be able to make her happy. If you recall when Facebook would change their layouts, you would think a violent revolution was brewing based on the angry posts on your timeline. The internet makes it easy for people to indulge in anger, but eventually it all blows over. So here are some rules for dealing with bad press, and how to do it like a pro so that you can survive it and come out stronger in the process.

Don’t Bring Fuel To The Fire Fight

One thing you should always remember about the internet: there is always a user somewhere that will “out-insult” you, and wherever you are, once you bring your best fight, that user will come out of the shadows and find you. Bad press happens. As a business owner, NEVER turn to your caps lock or profanity. The only way all caps are acceptable are when driving the point home to never reply to a customer IN ALL CAPS. Keep your cool, which leads us to our second rule.

Pick Your Battles Carefully

While you’re remaining cool, calm, and collected, still choose your battles wisely. The barrage of commenters will likely not back down, even if you are using legitimate arguments for reasons your business is being portrayed in an ugly light. Do spend time if necessary commenting on the situation, but don’t feel like you need to get into a comment battle with every individual with an opinion. Another option in these situations is to hire an outside PR agency to handle communication.

Sometimes It’s Best Not To Say Anything

No one is forcing you to say anything at all, and sometimes you may find the odds are in your favor if you’re silent anyway. Again, the users of the Internet will comment until they’re blue in the face whether or not you’re an active participant. Standing in the shadows quietly until the waters have calmed is never a bad idea.

Your Silence Is A Good Time To Listen

If you do choose silence as a strategy, this is a good time for you to listen to your customers. Don’t try to read every comment on the Internet, but do try to seek out your customers and listen to ways their experience with your business could be made better. At this step, your job is not to try and fix your bad press, or to make the press go away. Your job is to just listen.

Find Opportunities To Grow

After the bad press starts to calm down, you’ve carefully chosen which battles to engage, and you’ve spent time listening to your customers, take this as an opportunity to come on the other side of this bad press as a better business owner. Take everything you learned during your time in front of the bad press spotlight to come back as a stronger business and business owner. Be honest about what took place, how you handled the event, and lastly what you’re doing to be a better business. Your customers will appreciate your honesty, and the Internet commenters will slither back into their shadows and await their next victim.

If you have any stories, experiences you can share, feel free to leave them in the comments!

How To Structure Your Day To Make You More Productive

13 Jun, 2015 | Tags: , , , , ,

Moms always like to say that the best way to start your day is to tidy up your room and make your bed. A clean room is the start to a clean life! However, your mom (like mine) probably left out any ideas on how you should start your workday. Most of us do the same mechanical things when we get to the office desk. Power up the computer, grab coffee, check and respond to emails for the next hour. Sound familiar? But what if this isn’t the BEST way to start our workday? Ron Friedman’s book “The Best Place To Work” has some ideas for how to get the most out of your workday, making you more productive.

Morning Workday

A slightly surprising idea that Friedman makes note of is that when you arrive at work, the first three hours will be the most productive hours during your day. Those hours shouldn’t be spent doing the more mundane tasks you have to complete. Friedman actually suggests that before you do any work, you sit down at your desk and plan out the day’s objectives. What else must you complete today other than responding to emails and listening to voicemails? Any meetings, collaborations, or items that would need a real productive attitude to complete should be done during your first three hours in the office.

Afternoon Workday

We’ve all been there, the 2’oclock workday blues. No matter how much coffee you’ve had to drink, or how hyped you are about clocking out in a few hours, the hump in the afternoon is always one that’s difficult to get over. Friedman acknowledges this hump in the day, but again has a couple of great ideas to make even these slothful hours become productive. His research has shown that while we may not feel incredibly productive, this hump is actually one of our most creative stages in the workday. So instead of spending that time checking Facebook, begin to work on some of your more creative projects. Friedman also suggests using this time of the day to have your collaboration meetings.

Post Workday

You may think that just because you’ve left the office, you’re not longer working. The truth is, however, that many of us continue to think about work even after we’ve left the office. Friedman says that the best way to deal with post workday thoughts is to plan a workout session. Not only will this give you time to think a little more about certain topics you’re figuring out, but it also gives you time to unwind. Don’t think that you need to be awake at 5am to get a workout session in. Friedman says that in actuality (unless you REALLY enjoy waking up that early), you’re going to make yourself more unproductive by trying (and then probably failing) to keep up with a schedule you won’t enjoy. He also suggests looking into any workout that will be enjoyable to you; don’t feel limited to having to go lift weights in a gym. Dancing, neighborhood walks/jogs, etc. are all great options for your post workday productivity.

Friedman gives great insight and ideas for restructuring your workday to be more productive and get the most from your day.

The three ways you can immediately start restructuring your workday to be more productive are:

  1.  Using the first three hours of your day to be the most productive.
  2.  Switch gears in the afternoon to a more creative mindset.
  3.  Use the end of your workday to engage in a workout to help you wind down and get those last work thoughts out of your head.

Do you find these ideas to be helpful? What are some other ways you structure your day to be productive? Of course, having mundane things like work schedules taken care of by great systems like What Time Do I Work, will go along way to helping you work on the more important stuff. 

3 Books Every Restaurant (and Small Business) Owner Should Read

08 Jun, 2015 | Tags: , , , , , ,

Many of us are looking for successful individuals who have triumphed over failure and risen to success, and then written guidebooks to their success. Learning is a valuable skill business owners and entrepreneurs require to continue moving forward and up. The following are 3 books that have proven to be great reads for business owners.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t 

By Jim Collins:

Jim Collins wrote “Good To Great” in 2001, and in the year 2015 it is still a very well known book among business and restaurant owners, as well as many other individuals in leadership positions. Collins wrote his book by way of many years of research. His book was written in hopes of helping leaders understand why their business grows and then stops, or for businesses that can’t seem to get off the ground. Many leaders talk about how this book changed the way they did business completely. Collins really pushes the reader to change the way they think business should work, and guides you into a new realm of business thinking.

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5 

By Timothy Ferriss:

Ferriss’s book, “The 4-Hour Workweek”, teaches the reader step-by-step how he went from making $40k per year working 80 hours a week to making $40k per month working 4 hours a week. The 4-Hour Workweek was on the number one seller list for 7 consecutive years. Many business owners love the book because of its many tangible daily goals that can be implemented immediately. You can also check out the blog (www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/) that Ferriss began two months before the release of this book, and to this day continues to frequently update.

Setting The Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

By Danny Meyer:

Danny Meyer is CEO of the famous restaurant group, Union Square Hospitality, in New York. Meyer has been highly successful in opening several well-known restaurants in New York City, but his success has not come without some failures. In his book, “Setting The Table”, Meyer explains those failures as well as how he bounced back and what he learned during those times of failure. The approach Danny takes in writing his book is very personal and relatable for the reader. His focus in the book is his recognition of the power of hospitality as it relates to customer satisfaction. “Setting the Table” is a powerful book for any leader, but specifically business owners whose business relies on hospitality. 

Which other books have you found helpful in your time as a business owner? Share how those books changed the way you did every day business or changed your daily goals as an owner.

5 Things To Know Before You Install A Business Sign

29 May, 2015 | Tags: , , , ,

Business signs are the easiest way for your customers to spot you from the street; those bright beauties that help guide them from their car straight to your door. Many signs are recognizable from miles away to millions of individuals around the world. Consider the golden arches of McDonalds, or the bright orange square of Home Depot. Signs are iconic, and a well-planned sign is a strategy not only to bring customers to your door, but also to keep bringing them back when they see your beautiful logo against the sky. But those signs don’t magically appear; there are a lot of steps that go into designing, manufacturing, and installing a business sign. So before you try to design and install a sign on your own, here are a few tips from professionals that you might not consider otherwise:

Difficult to understand

This isn’t to be taken the wrong way, but unless you’ve created business signs before, you probably don’t know where to start in learning about your city codes and permit requirements. Signage professionals know all there is to know about codes and permits. You’ve got a business to run; don’t spend your precious time trying to figure out which permit paper means what. Let a signage pro help your business guide you quickly to the end of an otherwise long journey through paper.

Time consuming:

As a business owner, your most valuable quality is your precious time. Time means money, and every minute you spend learning codes and looking at permits, you unfortunately have to take time away from your business floor…and business profits. The process of business sign installation is extremely time-consuming, especially if you’re doing it for the first time. Choosing to find a professional to help you install your sign will protect your valuable time from being wasted, and make sure your time is being used wisely.

City approval and permits:

You’ve probably heard of building permits; a building can’t be built until the city has approved of the structure, the architecture, and the placement of the building. It’s important that you think of your business sign the same as you would a new building—because your city thinks of it very much alike. As is most everything in city approvals, completing your permit is typically not done in a hurried fashion. One of the benefits of working with signage professionals is they know all the right people to talk to. Another thing to know is most cities require a licensed sign contractor to even pull a sign permit. So even as a business owner who is willing to put in the time to install a sign, you may not be able to obtain a city permit as an unlicensed sign contractor.

Landlord approval:

Unless you own your business building, you’ll need to gain the approval of your landlord before you install a business sign. An important aspect of being a business owner is continuing to build respect and understanding with other business owners, and your landlord is definitely a business owner you do not want on your bad side. The overall long-term relationship with your landlord is fundamental to your business. One way you can build lasting rapport with your landlord is by communicating with your them about the sign, gaining their approval, and also letting them see as you bring on professionals to have the installation done “the right way”. A happy landlord makes for a happy tenant!

Finding the right business sign professionals:

If you’ve come to the conclusion that spending weeks learning codes and permits aren’t for you, then the next step is finding the right business sign professionals that will give you a full-service package and install a business sign you can be proud of. Try to find a sign business that will create and install a sign that will make you proud. Some things you will want from the business you choose are: attentiveness, sign design, permit and city code knowledge, manufacturing skills, and installation abilities. Your sign will be a very important aspect of your business, make sure to find and use the company that you feel most comfortable working with. You’ll want a business that does more than just take your order, you’ll want a business that serves as an advisor, guides you through the process, and has open communication about any snags along the way.

Think you’re ready to get that new business sign you’ve been dreaming of? Hopefully you’ve gained some helpful insight with the professional tips above. Good luck with the installation of your new business sign!

Brett Duncan helps companies clarify and simplify their messages, including in the area of building signage and channel letter signs. 

5 Of The Best Business Blogs You Should Be Following

27 May, 2015 | Tags: , , , , ,

You’re a business owner, and as a business owner, you want to keep up with the latest tech trends, social media accounts, ways to succeed as an entrepreneur, gain new customers, and so on. To help you out in keeping up with the fast pace of the 21st century, we’ve found 5 of the best business blogs you should be following.

1. Chris Brogan – ChrisBrogan.com

Brogan’s posts are short and to the point. His portfolio is very impressive, and he has consulted for some very big brands you’re sure to recognize: Google, Coke, Disney, Microsoft, and many others. What we love about Chris Brogan is his direct and informative posts about everything from online business courses to social media content to creating clear business plans. He also offers many options more involved than his blog, if you’re up to learning beyond the blog from the masterful Chris Brogan.

2. Mashable – Mashable.com

The probability is high that you’ve seen a Mashable article pop up in your Facebook feed today. Mashable is a highly relatable blogging site. College students, business owners, and your parents alike can find informative information on Mashable. The amount of practical and fun information you will find on Mashable will make your visit and eventual follow well worth your time.

3. CopyBlogger – CopyBlogger.com

CopyBlogger is a fast growing online blog, and they’ve also got a great podcast. They’re best known for their online marketing advice, but they’ve been listed as one of the best blogs to follow for entrepreneurial business owners as well. For the amount of content they share, they are only run by a few individuals, which makes it fun to learn the individuals behind the computer screen. Expand your knowledge when it comes it SEO, copywriting, page landing, and content marketing with CopyBlogger.

4. The Official LinkedIn Blog – blog.linkedin.com

As one of the largest (and growing) business social media accounts on the Internet, of course LinkedIn would be on the list. Their official LinkedIn blog is full of business related information. While you’re there reading and learning, make sure you take notes on how to keep up your own business feed on LinkedIn.

5. Seth Godin – SethGodin.com

The whole Internet can’t be wrong; Seth Godin’s personal business blog is one of the largest followed business blogs on the Internet. In addition to his online blog, he is the author of several best selling books, including his newest best seller, “What To Do When It’s Your Turn (and it’s always your turn)”. Follow Seth for great advice on growing your blog, while also developing yourself personally. He’s friendly and easy to follow. 

These are just 5 of the many business blogs available, and while there are many options, remember that as Conrad Hall once said, “You are always a student, never a master. You have to keep moving forward.” Learning is moving forward, and blogs are a great way to learn and get advice for growing your business. Do you already follow some of the blogs listed? Do you have other suggestions for business blogs you enjoy?