Apparently, encouraging customers to bring their own reusable bags to the store was not enough. They didn’t listen. So they are being punished for their recalcitrance.

Seattle has tried this before. In 2008 they slapped these thoughtless consumers with a 20-cent fine for using a plastic bag. That got repealed.

Seattle encouraged recycling, but only 13 percent of the nearly 300 million bags made it back. Punishment was due. Seattle also used 68 million paper bags (or enough to raise $3.4 million in nickel fines – and that number will go up without the plastic alternative.)

But, there is good news if you are “low income”. You don’t have to pay the nickel for a paper bag. Maybe it is considered luggage. But, who wants to go through the low-income qualification in the checkout line. Isn’t there enough humiliation in Seattle now?

Where does this nonsense stop?

To learn more about this and similar topics, check out the list of Related Posts listed below.

Make the move from Small Business Owner to Entrepreneur. Order your copy of Entrepreneurial Insanity (200+ pages from EnSanity Press) by CLICKING HERE.

Comments Welcome! Do you have what you believe to be  ‘senseless’ laws and rules in your town? How does the rule or law affect your business? To share, simply look below to locate the Reply box. Type in your comments and then click Submit.

And, invite your industry friends to www.ensanity.biz.

Roger McManus (magazine publisher, speaker, author and consultant) has for over 30 years has coached, funded, counseled and published for entrepreneurs and small business owners. He has had the rare opportunity to see inside businesses resulting in the conclusion that many call themselves entrepreneurs, but few truly achieve the levels of freedom that the title should imply. Roger and his wife, Patsy, work together to counsel business owners in the exploration and development of the Freedom that actually gives the business a greater tangible value. You may reach Roger by email (Roger@EnSanityPress.com).

PDCA (plan–do–check–act) is an iterative four-step management method used in business for the control and continuous improvement of processes and products.  A fundamental principle of the PDCA method is repetition—once a hypothesis is confirmed (or negated), administering the cycle again will extend the knowledge further.

Each complete cycle indicates an increase in your knowledge of the system or numbers you are studying. This approach is based on the belief that your knowledge and skills are limited, but improving (especially at the introduction of a product or service into your business). For instance, you may not know key information about said product or service. Yet, utilizing the PDCA process provides feedback to justify your guesses (hypotheses) and increase your knowledge. Rather than enter analysis paralysis to get it perfect the first time, it is better to be approximately right than exactly wrong. With the improved knowledge, you may choose to refine or alter the product or service. Certainly, the PDCA approach can bring you closer to whatever goal you choose.

PCDA Definitions
Plan: Recognize an opportunity and plan a change. Obtain baseline numbers and gather information.

Do: Observe and analyze the current process, design an improved process, test the change.

Check: Review the change, monitor and evaluate the results. (What’s working? What have you learned?)

Adjust: Modify and make improvements as needed. If the change didn’t work, begin the cycle again.

The four step process furnishes a basic arrangement to carry out change. It is so much more: it is a cycle that doesn’t end. Instead, the cycle charts a course for follow-through and allows for continuous improvement as work and processes develop to meet your constantly changing needs and expectations of your customers.

PDCA encourages you to constantly strive for the perfect process, product or service, with the understanding that as your customers change, so, too do their needs change. And, so by constantly checking, and adjusting, you can keep pace with your customers’ needs and provide products and services that are of value to them.

To learn more about this and similar small business topics, check out the list of Related Posts listed below.

Make the move from Small Business Owner to Entrepreneur.  Order your copy of Entrepreneurial Insanity (200+ pages from EnSanity Press) by CLICKING HERE.

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Patsy McManus (Publisher of EnSanity Press) has twenty five years of experience in systems design and management. She has dedicated 10 of those years specifically to small business systems development and implementation. Patsy works hand-in-hand with her husband and author, Roger McManus, to counsel business owners in the exploration and development of the Freedom that actually gives the business a greater tangible value. You may reach Patsy by email (Patsy@EnSanityPress.com).

Yesterday, I found a phone directory on my doorstep and wondered why it is still produced. If I need a phone number, I go online to find it. Needless to say, online activities supersede many things that simply used to be.

I no longer have a land line phone. Skype and cell fulfills my need to chat with friends, family and clients. My online content consumption as done away with my need for a newspaper. However, I still subscribe just in case there are coupons…Maybe not for long due to increasing mobile marketing.

Lately, I’ve noticed a swing in one explicit aspect of my online activity, one that I believe will have an expanding meaning for small business owners, and it is in the area of search. At one time, I was performing dozens, sometimes even upward of 100, of searches using Google. (I’ve been around the block a few times and there was a time when a tool called Ask Jeeves ruled.)

My search engine use is gradually being changed to the use of apps that offer information pertinent to my needs and those of my business. I would go so far as to say that you haven’t noticed that even your searches are dwindling and seeking answers is increasing.

This trend says that as marketers, we need to go further than SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay per click) and shift even deeper into the social networking world, mobile marketing and app based local marketplaces.

Think about how the world of online searches will change if and when Apps are providing answers that are personalized for you without thousands of search results. Consider that you and I may abandon search engines completely for pure research.

To learn more about this and similar topics, check out the list of related posts listed below.

Make the move from Small Business Owner to Entrepreneur.  Order your copy of Entrepreneurial Insanity (200+ pages from EnSanity Press) by CLICKING HERE.

Comments Welcome! Consequently, what does this mean for your business? What does this trend suggest for you in 2012? To share, simply look below to locate the Reply box. Type in your comments and then click Submit.

To receive the Weekly eMail Update, simply fill in the form to the right of this page in the sidebar.

And, invite your industry friends to www.ensanity.biz!

Patsy McManus (Publisher of EnSanity Press) has twenty five years of experience in systems design and management. She has dedicated 10 of those years specifically to small business systems development and implementation. Patsy works hand-in-hand with her husband and author, Roger McManus, to counsel business owners in the exploration and development of the Freedom that actually gives the business a greater tangible value. You may reach Patsy by email (Patsy@EnSanityPress).

Small Business Owners, there is more!  I had no sooner finished my last post about the $5,000 chicken that I opened an email from Seth Goden who was waxing poetic about lousy tomatoes.  His words were so in sync with what I had just written, I had to borrow them and share them with you here.

Without his permission, but with full credit to the author, please let me share what he said:

Lousy tomatoes and the rare search for wonder

My local supermarket stocks waxy, tasteless tomatoes from Chile and Mexico and Florida. They even do this in early September, when local tomatoes are delicious, plentiful and ought to be a bargain.

Are they clueless, evil or incompetent?

Perhaps none of these. This supermarket, like most supermarkets, is a checklist institution, one that is in the business of providing good enough, in quantity, at a price that’s both cheap and profitable. You need a staple, they have it. They have flour and salt and eggs and macaroni and cheese. They’ve trained their customers to see them as an invisible vendor, as an organization that satisfies demand. It’s too much work, too demanding and too risky to do the alternative…

They could program the store instead.

Program it the way a great theater programs the stage. No one goes to the theatre two or three times a week, expecting a good enough show. No, we only go when we hear there’s something magical or terrific happening.

Over time, as institutions create habits and earn subscribers, they often switch, gradually making the move from magical (worth a trip, worth a conversation) to good (there when you need it). Most TV is just good. Magazines, too. When was the last time People magazine did something that made you sit up and say, “wow”? Of course, you could argue that they’re not in the wow business, and you might be right.

One of the disrupting forces of the new media is that it makes harder and harder to succeed without wow. Since you have to earn the conversation regularly, phone it in too often and in fact, attention disappears.

What Seth is referring to, of course, is systems.  Systems allow the ordinary to become regularly extraordinary.  It starts with the business owners.  Execution is only following systems.

To learn more about this and similar topics, check out the list of Related Posts listed below.

Make the move from Small Business Owner to Entrepreneur.  Order your copy of Entrepreneurial Insanity (200+ pages from EnSanity Press) by CLICKING HERE.

Comments Welcome! Are you a clueless business owner? Do your customers say “Wow” on a regular basis?  To share, simply look below to locate the Reply box. Type in your comments and then click Submit.

To receive the Weekly eMail Update, simply fill in the form to the right of this page in the sidebar.

And, invite your industry friends to www.ensanity.biz!

Roger McManus (magazine publisher, speaker, author and consultant) has for over 30 years has coached, funded, counseled and published for entrepreneurs and small business owners. He has had the rare opportunity to see inside businesses resulting in the conclusion that many call themselves entrepreneurs, but few truly achieve the levels of freedom that the title should imply. Roger and his wife, Patsy, work together to counsel business owners in the exploration and development of the Freedom that actually gives the business a greater tangible value. You may reach Roger by email (Roger@EnSanityPress.com).

Facebook is on a virtual roll. With the continual Facebook change comes an enlarging number of companies and brands creating and managing Pages (what was known as ‘Fan Pages’). I’ve even heard from clients and friends of business owners who decided to shut down their websites and only focus on Facebook. Yes, these are extremes.

Where you one of the businesses that jumped on the band wagon, back in the day, to build a website because your competitors had one? Did you build digital brochures that did nothing but get you an “online” presence? Considering trends and phases, so to speak, what if your Facebook Page doesn’t work as well as you think it will? Then what?

First, let me clarify that I believe Facebook Pages are great for building an audience for your blog and expanding your reach. They have also proven to be an excellent traffic producer. However, take into consideration the following five points before you put all of your eggs in the Facebook basket.

Facebook is NOT the greatest communication vehicle. When it comes to communications, Twitter has proven that there is nothing that can compare to its real-time conversation model. End of story.

The owner can change whatever he wants when he wants. The reality of the Facebook situation is that they can make changes that are often times not the best fit for you and your business.

In reality, do you know how it works? You put a lot of work into your Facebook Page and yet, there are few features you don’t understand. Here is my How To list for Facebook:

● Interpret your Facebook Insights
● Optimize content to enhance performance on News Feed
● and, where and how are friends responding to content?

Who Sees Your Updates? Your posts are NOT posted on News Feed automatically. Actually, for some Pages most updates never make it. Surprised?  Did you also know that a high percentage of your ‘likes’ will never return? If they don’t come back, and they can’t see your posts then why are we doing what we are doing for the reasons we are doing it on Facebook?

You Are NOT the Owner. When you don’t own the traffic or host it on your own domain, put your focus where you are the owner. Then you will own the interactions and the relationships.

I’m not a Facebook hater. I am, however, a firm believer in taking advantage of all opportunities available. So, get out there and get busy spreading your eggs around to numerous baskets and not just the Facebook basket.

To learn more about this and similar topics, check out the list of Related Posts listed below.

Make the move from Small Business Owner to Entrepreneur.  Order your copy of Entrepreneurial Insanity (200+ pages from EnSanity Press) by CLICKING HERE.

Comments Welcome! How much time have you spent developing your Facebook presence? What is your ROI?  To share, simply look below to locate the Reply box. Type in your comments and then click Submit.

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Small business owners, I ask for your attention. I cannot count the number of articles I have written or speeches I have given that have included the salient piece of logic that the long-term value of a customer is a big thing and the transaction is a small thing.

Now, in fairness, I live in Las Vegas where there is a con every minute. We have to be wary. But, some situations require logic.

Over the four years since Patsy and I moved to where there were Von’s stores, we have probably spent a couple of thousand dollars in Von’s (or Safeway) stores. We are not exclusive Von’s shoppers, by any means – we read the ads and Wal-Mart is close by, too. But, we certainly have spent a fair share of our grocery dollars in Von’s.

So last weekend, we decided to go “off diet” and buy an 8-piece Von’s Family Fried Chicken Deal for $5.99. It was a football day treat. We even got some “fixin’s”.

As it turns out, the “fixin’s” were great. The chicken was sawdust! Inedible. Awful. If Von’s had a soul, embarrassing.

The football was too interesting to get back in the car to return it – and wait for them to cook fresh product. We set it aside and had “fixin’s” instead.

On Tuesday, however, I was back in the store and made a comment to the lady in the Deli about my experience.

She handled it perfectly! She said, “Next time you are ready to try our chicken again, let me know and we will replace what you bought and make sure it is fresh for you.” I was totally satisfied and spent another $38 in Von’s that day.

Today, I went for my “make-good” chicken. I started with the exact same lady and asked how recently it had been cooked. Her answer of “20 minutes ago” met my definition of fresh and she was proud to make the guarantee.

Next, she said, “I remember you were in earlier this week about the bad batch you got. Where is your receipt?”

Not thinking I would ever need it, I, of course, did not have a receipt from a week ago. I did have the price tag from the package, however, as a reminder to myself as much as anything else. I offered that to her, thinking she would obviously know there was no way I could have cut this out of the package if I had not actually gotten it out of the store – and, obviously, paid for it.

Not good enough. She was “not authorized” to give away “free chicken” without a receipt. But, I could see a manager about it.

In Entrepreneurial Insanity, I spend a good deal of time talking about empowering employees to make decisions – even if they have dollar limits – so that, A) they have “face” when dealing with customers in their own departments, and B) it saves management time from dealing with minor issues. I think $6.00 worth of chicken is a minor issue!

I walked away in disgust.

I would not have even talked to a manager except a lady with a different color apron approached me and asked if she could be helpful. I figured, why not? I explained my predicament.

She shook her head in apparent amazement and escorted me back to the Deli where she went to speak with the Deli “manager”. She came out to report I would be taken care of. And, left.

Before we could even get into a conversation, the first deli clerk with whom I dealt – who was not party to the conversation with the lady who escorted me back – protested to the Deli “manager” that even she was “not authorized” to do a make-good without a receipt. And, furthermore, the lady who escorted me back to the Deli was not a “real manager” anyway.

At that point, I did leave in disgust. And, angry. Not over $6.00 worth of chicken, of course, but because a multi-million dollar corporation has no systems set up to handle issues that involve less than $10.00 worth of product!

And, here is the upshot! I will bet they actually do! Someone just forgot to tell the self-important, under-trained twit behind the Deli counter!

Systems for making decisions are critical if managers do not want to waste precious time answering questions that can be handled on the front line if people are properly trained and encouraged to be proactive. As Entrepreneurial Insanity suggests, create a budget for allowing employees to make decisions. Record the cost and compare it to the cost of having management make all the decisions.

And, yes, some days employees will get conned. But, with proper training, I will bet, not often.

Not that I am so self-important that I will “show them” by denying them my chicken (and other) business. But, with Albertson’s, Smith’s, Glazier’s, Fresh n’ Easy and Wal-Mart all within the same driving distance, why would I bother? Von’s will not miss my business. Unless my experience multiplies.

Speaking of multiplication, just one such incident a week with customers that spend $1,000 a year for five years makes some interesting math. Those 50 chickens at $6.00, have a total retail value of $300, but, when mishandled, cost the company in the neighborhood of a quarter million dollars in revenues over five years.

And, this does not even start to address the issue of why stale product was sold in the first place!

The point: Teach your employees the value of a customer, not the value of a chicken.

To learn more about this and similar topics, check out the list of Related Posts listed below.

Make the move from Small Business Owner to Entrepreneur. Order your copy of Entrepreneurial Insanity (200+ pages from EnSanity Press) by CLICKING HERE.

Comments Welcome! What did you gain from Roger’s experience? To share, simply look below to locate the Reply box. Type in your comments and then click Submit.

To receive the Weekly eMail Update, simply fill in the form to the right of this page in the sidebar.

And, invite your industry friends to www.ensanity.biz!

Roger McManus (magazine publisher, speaker, author and consultant) has for over 30 years has coached, funded, counseled and published for entrepreneurs and small business owners. He has had the rare opportunity to see inside businesses resulting in the conclusion that many call themselves entrepreneurs, but few truly achieve the levels of freedom that the title should imply. Roger and his wife, Patsy, work together to counsel business owners in the exploration and development of the Freedom that actually gives the business a greater tangible value. You may reach Roger by email (Roger@EnSanityPress.com).

Authentic leadership is living on the front lines. It is making hard choices, strategic planning and following through with discontented clients. It is showing the way by taking action through systems and measurement.

According to the Hawthorne Studies in the early 20^th century, the act of measurement influences the outcome of the measurement. Dipping a thermometer into a cup of coffee can change the temperature of the liquid being measured, the act of collecting data, where none has been collected before creates a situation that didn’t exist before, thereby affecting results.

In order to manage by numbers, you must track your numbers and become skilled at keeping score to discover if you are winning or losing. Some small business owners don’t want to keep score. Some think managing by numbers is negative. Would you go to a football, basketball or baseball game and pay big money for your tickets only to find out that both teams decided not to keep score?

To be honest, I don’t think you are in business to utilize your effort, time and resources without expecting to change, where necessary, to win. Business is as excellent or as terrible as you make it in your activity and mind.
The decision to take your business to the next level is one of managing numbers.

Here are a few of the crucial business numbers to follow:

Sales and Revenue
Gross Margin and Profit
Cash Flow
Debt to Equity
New Growth
Lost Customers
Customer Complaints

Depending on the business you are in, there are many other numbers that reflect your company’s current strategy and goals. The above list will get you thinking about ways to look at your business, how to measure your success or failure. Loss is an impermanent situation if you are willing to change and suicide for those who refute reality.

To learn more about this and similar topics, check out the list of Related Posts listed below.

Make the move from Small Business Owner to Entrepreneur.  Order your copy of Entrepreneurial Insanity (200+ pages from EnSanity Press) by CLICKING HERE.

Comments Welcome! First of all, are you tracking your success or failure? If so, what have you learned about your systems and what have you changed? To share, simply look below to locate the Reply box. Type in your comments and then click Submit.

To receive the Weekly eMail Update, simply fill in the form to the right of this page in the sidebar.

You may be captivated by Facebook and Twitter. But, when it comes to converting a lead into a customer, email remains the tool that out performs just about all the tools at your disposal.

If done correctly, using email communication effectively in conjunction with educational content through social media channels turns Twitter followers and Facebook fans into email subscribers.

Integration is what essentially makes email work but here are a few things that you can do to get the most out of your email element of the blend.

Single Focus
Your email delivers your story and makes a case for your offer. It could be an offer for a product or service, or an announcement for a free online seminar. It must be, however, about only one thing.

Sharable with Others
Most service providers allow you to create an online archive version of your newsletter or email. Savvy marketers take advantage of these tools and make it easy for your clients and readers to share your content.

Size Matters
Offer content that you know will be compelling for your readers. Rather than giving them the entire meal, provide snack-size bites with hot links to relevant blog content that you read on a regular basis. Add your personal content to educate and amplify their interest.

Sell to Subscribers
Motivation to subscribe is engendered by selling the value of what you have to offer. Plus, exchanging something like a free eBook or report drives the motivation higher.

Sign Ups Made Easy
One new breed of pop ups makes capturing visitor attention and turning it into email subscribing almost fun.  Pippity (http://pippity.com) observes when you have a new visitor that has not been offered your email subscription and briefly takes over the screen to make an offer. This instrument makes it simple to respect your readers while converting them to clients.

To learn more about this and similar topics, check out the list of Related Posts listed below.

Make the move from Small Business Owner to Entrepreneur.  Order your copy of Entrepreneurial Insanity (200+ pages from EnSanity Press) by CLICKING HERE.

Comments Welcome! How effective is your email newsletter? What is your ROI? To share, simply look below to locate the Reply box. Type in your comments and then click Submit.

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You may recall, I blogged about the US debt crisis back in September when the debt crisis was at an all-time high. At that time, the US credit rating was lowered for the first time in its history, the government was running out of money, and a 12 member bipartisan committee was charged with reducing the federal debt by at least $1.5 trillion to avoid the $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts signed by Obama.

The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction called it quits a couple of weeks ago, as they were unable to reach any agreement on recommendations for cutting the federal debt. The issues that prevented Congress from agreeing over the summer continue to divide the committee and rendered it unable to reach a consensus on any proposals.

What does this mean? Well, for starters it once again confirms that we have a serious partisan problem on the Hill. Second, the alternative we are now faced with is to allow the $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts that are in place to happen. These cuts take effect on January 1, 2013. So in essence, even if they come up empty next week, they have another year to figure out something before the 1/1/2013 effective date. Is that what this committee is doing? It seems like they just wasted a lot of time and MONEY we don’t have.

One can surely conclude that the committee appears to be taking that approach. In reaction to no action, the stock market fell some 300 points. To add insult to injury, the economic uncertainty in Europe is not easing the matter in any way.

This committee provided a golden opportunity for one of its members to take charge and come out as the next leader for this great country. Another opportunity squandered!

Maybe these leaders are purposely taken the “no-action” approach so they will let the automatic cuts take effect. Then they can’t be blamed by any of their voting constituents for putting in cuts that would hurt them. It’s a shame that our elected officials can’t do their job. Are they simply waiting until the next presidential election is over, so they can assess where they stand and who will be in charge for the next four years?

In a week of US historical small business days, with Thanksgiving Thursday, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, we can add “No Consensus Monday”.

To learn more about this and similar small business topics, check out the list of related posts listed below.

Make the move from Small Business Owner to Entrepreneur. Order your copy of Entrepreneurial Insanity (200+ pages from EnSanity Press) by CLICKING HERE.

Comments Welcome! What is your opinion on the Debt Crisis? How has it affected your business? To share, simply look below to locate the Reply box. Type in your comments and then click Submit.

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Wayne Croswell (President and CEO of WECnology) has thirty-three years of experience in software and technology, and has dealt with virtually all facets of business technology. You may reach him by email (wcroswell@wecnology.com) or visit www.Wecnology.com.

Trade and industry forces are at work today that bully “your town, all towns” in the United States. When grocery shopping, filling up your car or purchasing clothes for your children, your focus is on two questions: Which store or stores have the lowest prices? And, which stores are closest to your home? More often than not, you make up your mind to shop at the super-discount department stores like Wal-Mart. No matter what their desirable qualities may be, these stores inhale money out of your town and systematically put independent business owners out of business.

These are five simple but compelling economic reasons to think, buy and be local.

1. 1.      Put Your Taxes to Better Use: Local businesses require comparatively little infrastructure outlay and make more efficient use of services.
2. 2.      Create More Jobs: Small businesses are the largest employer in your community.
3. 3.      Get Better Service: Local businesses hire people with a better understanding of their products and hence, take more time to get to know the customers.
4. 4.      Buy What You Want, Not What Someone Wants to Sell: A local marketplace of small businesses selects products and services based on their own interests and the needs of their customers.
5. 5.      Encourage Local Prosperity: Entrepreneurs, small business owners and skilled workers are more likely to invest in communities that safeguard their one-of-a-kind businesses and unique characters.

The bottom line is this: If you are going to eat out, choose a locally owned restaurant. If you need fresh vegetables and fruit, check out your local farmers’ market. And, if you’re a business owner, buy your business necessities from local suppliers. The only influence in shaping your local economy lies in the hands of residents and business owners like yourself who vote daily with your wallet. Every time you vote your dollars to a local business, you are voting for the growth of your community.

To learn more about this and similar topics, check out the list of related posts listed below.

Make the move from Small Business Owner to Entrepreneur.  Order your copy of Entrepreneurial Insanity (200+ pages from EnSanity Press) by CLICKING HERE.

Comments Welcome! How does your community support local businesses? At what level do you participate? To share, simply look below to locate the Reply box. Type in your comments and then click Submit.

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And, invite your industry friends to www.ensanity.biz!