An Open Letter to Washington

As the markets plunge and investors continue to worry and the economy continues to flounder I believe every politician in Washington needs to look in the mirror and ask themselves are they acting for the good of their constituency of are they acting based of their political beliefs and egos. In the past few months it has become increasingly obvious that these people just don't get it! They continue to bicker along party lines and make decisions or non-decisions that are holding the economy and the people of the U.S. hostage. I believe it's time to take politics out of the equation and bring some people together that might actually be able to come up with some ideas to get us out of this mess.

We need to best business minds in the country to come together and develop solutions that can move U.S. business forward and get the economy moving again And I'm not talking about a bunch of corporate CEO's from huge companies, as some of them are the reason we're in this debacle in the first place. I'm talking about those individuals that grow companies small and large alike, thought leaders that through their work, experience and research have first hand experience in growing business. And all options are on the table, it befuddles me how Congress can't seem to get past the fact that as with any business in order to be profitable you not only must cut spending but you also must raise revenue, and that may mean raising taxes but it also means cutting some programs that we simply can't afford anymore. And we need to streamline the process so that decisions are made quickly and implemented with speed to get things going again. And we need to give this group the clout that they need to implement the ideas they come up with. As Congress put together the Group of Six and they came up with ideas they obviously didn't give them any clout because their ideas, which by the way were in many ways pretty good, got swept aside. Again because of partisan politics.

As an entreprenuer and business coach I've worked on and witnessed first hand spectacular business growth and what happens when people focus on a problem and implement a game plan to solve the problems, and I've witnessed this in good economies and bad. We need people that have an idea of what it takes for business success, people that have studied business for years like Tom Peters, innovation leaders like Steve Jobs, investors in successful companies like Warren Buffet and successful entrepreneurs that understand what it takes to grow companies. We need to implement some of the same strategies in our government that we implement in building successful companies. And most important we need to take partisan politics out of the equation. I'm not sure the politicians, I hesitate calling them leaders because that's the farthest thing from what they are doing right now, are going to agree but it's time that they get the hell out of the way and let people who know what they're doing come up with ideas to grow the economy and fix the problem. The quickest fix to the whole mess is growth and I mean significant growth and who better to come up with ideas to do that then those that have already done it in their own businesses!!

It's time Washington realizes that they aren't getting the job done so let someone else help them get it done!

Great Marketing Ideas for 2009

I've been getting a little R&R on the beach in Mexico over the last few days and on my way down I picked up a book in the airport. The book is the New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott.  This book has been a real eye opening experience for me in that I thought I was somewhat tech savvy when it comes to marketing but as I found reading David's book I'm just scratching the surface of what I should be doing to market my business, let alone help my clients market their businesses.  David does a fantastic job of laying out the new rules of marketing and how marketing firms, ad agencies and PR firms have done this in the past and how the world of the web, online marketing, blogs, news releases, podcasting and an assortment of other methods have made the old world of marketing and PR obsolete. I generally don't do book reviews in this blog however I have been so impacted by this book I believe I need to let everyone know that reads my blog that they should be incorporating the ideas in this book into their marketing plans. I spend a lot of time in marketing with my clients however I don't consider myself a marketing consultant rather I work with them to create the plans for their marketing that will help them achieve their business goals.  And one thing that became very evident in reading David's book is that I need to focus more on internet based marketing as I work with clients to help them create their plans. 

Internet marketing has come a long ways since it's early days and with all the tools available our there today if you are not taking advantage of some of these things you are completely missing the boat on opportunities to let people know about who you are and what you do. Any business plan should incorporate many of the tools that David discusses in order to get maximum exposure in the marketplace. The best part of this is it is relatively inexpensive and you don't need webmasters and programmers to do it. In my book "Ultimate Breakthrough Planning" I have an entire chapter on looking at your marketing systems and building a business funnel for them.  By taking some of David's ideas and putting them into your funnel you will improve your marketing dramatically.  The best part is that many of the tools David mentions we have typically thought of for large corporations, yet he gives some great examples such as an auto repairman on how they grew their businesses through some of these tools.  

In building your business funnel you should very definitely read David's book as well as visit his blog.  By the way David's not paying me anything for this in fact I don't know David and he doesn't know me however I believe his ideas should be used by every business to make their marketing efforts more targeted and more effective. 

It's a New Year, Again!

Once again we start a new year and if you're like me you're thinking about all the things you want to accomplish in this new year.  Of course this year is a little different because we all probably have some trepidation about what's going on with the economy and how it will impact our business in the coming year.  As we look at what we want to do in the coming year we typically start setting some goals and then maybe write down some things that we will do to achieve those goals but in most cases that is the extent of our planning for the new year. 

I would encourage you to try a different approach this year!  Rather than focusing on what you want to accomplish this year, try developing an action plan of the things you need to do each and every day in order to achieve those goals you set.  Create a plan that measures those actions, for instance if you need to ramp up your marketing to achieve those goals then determine exactly what you need to do from a marketing perspective; do you need to do more advertising, or more direct marketing or more online marketing and whatever it is measure the specific things you are going to do in order to do that.  In my book "Ultimate Breakthrough Planning" I have a whole section that talks about measuring key milestones and how if you measure and hit your key milestones you will inevitably hit your goals. As I work with my clients I constantly remind them that if you measure your actions and execution of your plan your goals will take care of themselves.  

Obviously we have a challenging environment this year however with challenges come opportunities and in order to capitalize on those opportunities and grow your business in difficult times you must have a laser focused approach to what you are going to do.