An Open Letter to Stephen Tebo

Dear Mr Tebo,

I wanted to thank you for your inspiration to young entrepreneurs and your contributions to the Boulder business community. I have heard your story told at so many functions from Boulder Chamber events, to award functions where you were being honored for a philanthropic effort or a general Boulder stimulus recognition. As a young professional looking forward to a career of growth and achievement your example has been one to study.

My question to you is concerning the current state of the Boulder business climate. In attending networking events and conversing with a variety of local Boulder business owners I have seen a disturbing number of people talk about how close to the line they are riding, even when producing a consistent and significant revenue stream. That the cost of their space is such an inordinately high percentage of their overhead they they are often barely breaking even. Many times they are not, evidenced by the more and more "Tebo Space for Lease" signs that we all see appearing around Boulder. I am wondering what your plans are to help with this situation? How many businesses need to close their doors for you to notice? After so much attention for your work in stimulating the Boulder economy, why not reduce your rates? Why not give some of the other businesses an opportunity to flourish as you have?

You have been honored and awarded for your work. You have accumulated an incredible amount of the commercial property in Boulder. When do you think you will have enough? When can the prices be made reasonable again so that small businesses trying to start with a new idea, or existing businesses that produce regular revenue are actually able to show a profit instead of closing their doors because of high rent. I plan to open a store, but will be looking in Louisville or Lafayette because the space in Boulder is just too costly to even consider. How many other businesses are driven away from Boulder because of this?

You have the power and the responsibility to help. Please do so. Thank you.

Unique presentation makes for memorable business

As if I needed one more reason to state that Southwest Airlines knows how to do business the video below is making the rounds on YouTube. I know it's just a silly video, and that rapping won't necessarily work for you in your office, just like the idea of throwing your office equipment wouldn't actually make for a fun environment in say, a Mikasa crystal store. But the tenant of bringing FUN into your space, in whatever way DOES work for you, is something that more companies should strive for. How do YOU have fun at your work? Tell me, I want to know.

Google Gives to Non-Profits

If you are Non-Profit, Not-For-Profit, or my favorite, For Impact, then I've got something cool to share with you today.

Google is giving you stuff for free.

Yes Free. They have created a specific Google Grants process for AdWords to give For Impact organizations the opportunity to reach more people. If you are a recipient of this benefit, then you also receive a number of other benefits and tools to increase your visibility and to take donations directly online through Google's tools.

There are great video's explaining how the ad ranking works, and a number of other tools to help with web design, tracking and donor communication.

Take a look at the video below which tells the story better than I.

Getting Sticky With It...

Why would people remember you? Really.

Are you one more well dressed business person at the networking event? Do you have a lovely card for people to lose amongst the rest of their cards? Is there anything about you, your business, or your presentation that separates you from every other Consultant, IT professional, Sales Rep, and Marketing specialist out there? What is it?

If you don't have that, you might have an easy answer to why you aren't getting as many calls as you would like. You've figured out how to fit in, not figure out how to stand out.
Be memorable and make a lasting impression.

When I bring my balloons to networking events I attract more attention than anything else I have tried. It does not matter that doing balloon art for events is not my main business. It is different and unique and people spend time talking with me about it, and how it evolved into the training I now do. We discuss environmental justice and diversity and how they all relate to balloons, and fun, and training.

Seth Godin, author of The Purple Cow, relates some absolutely amazing ideas on how to make your business STICK in the mind of your prospective clients.
Give him a read. You won't regret it.

"My target market is... Anyone." Yeah, Right.

Read just about any writing on marketing and promotion and they will tell you that finding your specific target market is paramount to crafting a successful marketing plan. You have to know specifically WHO it is you want to reach. Not "Anyone" or "Everyone." I have heard this repeated at networking education seminars, marketing blitzes, and even at my local Chamber of Commerce.

For some reason, this does not seem to prevent people I meet, who I know from these very same events, from repeatedly saying things like, "A good referral for me is...anyone." We are so afraid that we might lose a random client who is not even our ideal, that we don't give people any real information to actually help them think of a potential client.

We used to offer "training & consulting services for any program", we wanted to reach "anyone who did training in their office, or organization." That is a LOT of people, and thus we received very few referrals or direct leads. Once we focused our vision, things changed. We now offer "customized diversity & inclusion programs for non-profit organizations." Do we still offer other programs, of course, but we do not try to sell them. If people are interested in what our primary passion is, and they like it enough to ask if we do more, then we tell them. This shift has exponentially increased our leads and clients.

In our last program, "Planning to Fail: 100% of everything you will ever possibly need to know to see your business fail." We received a mixture of results. About half the people LOVED the funny, experiential, alternative approach to finding the barriers in their businesses. About 1/4 thought it was OK, and the other quarter were just confused, or said it wasn't their style.

Not everyone wants what we offer. For some people we are just too weird, risky, different, or odd. That's fine, we probably would be good business partners. But for those people interested in programs that push the envelope, make people uncomfortable and help them break through to a new level of understanding regarding their teammates and clients, we're the people to see.

So, quit trying to get your service and product into "everyone's" hands, and get it into the hands of the people who really want it. Those people will find you more business.