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The 3/50 Project – Are You On Board?

Cinda Baxter had a good idea. A really good idea. An idea that sprouted wings only seconds after she hit “publish” on her blog.

Pick 3 local retailers you would really miss if they closed. Spend $50 in those stores this month. Repeat.

It’s The 3/50 Project and it all started with a blog post on March 30th, 2009. Now, less than a full year later, The 3/50 Project is an international juggernaut with over 17,000 independent retailers registered at her website, over 53,000 fans on Facebook, and a boatload of resources you can download for FREE to help promote your fellow independents.

Cinda came to Jackson last Wednesday night to talk about the project and how it can help promote local Jackson businesses. She gave us the history behind the idea and a laundry list of great ways to bring this positive message to our community.

Ideas like this cross promotion between retail stores and restaurants…

Spend $50 in any/all of these select retail stores this month, get a $10 gift certificate to any of the following restaurants for next month (and vice versa)


Ideas like this window display…

Write on this card 3 locally owned businesses you would miss if they closed. Sign your name at the bottom. We’ll post your card in the window with all the other cards and you’ll be entered to win one of three $50 gift certificates.

(Think of the impact such a display would cause – the reinforcement to the person who wrote the card of supporting those businesses, plus an easy way to cross promote your customers’ favorite businesses to other customers.)

Ideas like this way to create evangelists for your store…

Attach five $5 gift certificates to a 3/50 Project flier with your customer’s name on the back and give to her with instructions for her to pass 4 of those gift certificates on to her friends. Tell her that for every gift certificate that comes back she’ll get entered in a drawing to win a monthly prize.

(Do you think that would get some new business in your store? Of course it would!)

And many more ideas.

It was a fabulous presentation. Unfortunately only about 15 Jackson business owners were in the paltry audience to hear such a message. But then again, 15 is a start. And we have to start somewhere.

Do you think you could round up 15 local businesses to start some sort of cross promotion in your town? Do you think you could benefit from a campaign that encourages people to think about their favorite local stores? Are you one of the favorites? Will you be in the top 3 on someone’s list? (If not, we need to talk. I might be able to help you.)

Do yourself a favor and go to The 3/50 Project. Read all about it. Sign up. Download the freebies. Promote yourself and your local retailers. To steal a phrase from my fellow blogger Jay H. Heyman, it’s a good idea, it’s a really good idea.

-Phil

PS I got to meet Cinda Baxter after the presentation. We had a wonderful conversation sharing ideas. What incredible energy and passion she has for local retailers. I’m a fan. I’ve added her blog to my must-read list. You should too!

Winning Gold for Your Business, Olympics Style

While watching the Olympics with my wife I came to a startling realization. In the three hours of an NBC telecast there is probably only about 45 minutes of actual sports taking place. The rest is background stories, analysis, and commercials.

Since my wife and I tape it on the DVR, we quickly forward through the commercials (note to you TV advertisers, there is still a way to get my attention even as I fast forward.)

But while I want to get right to the action, my wife loves all the backstories on the different athletes. She eats that stuff like chocolate. Being the dutiful husband, I watch along with her.

The other night we saw a story about the Chinese Freestyle Skiing Aerial Team and their American coach. After the story, I found I was almost rooting for them to do well. The Chinese team? Yeah. The story gave them character and personality, and helped me relate to them.

Time and again, after hearing unique and compelling stories, I found myself rooting for whichever athlete was featured.

There is a business application here. TELL YOUR UNIQUE AND COMPELLING STORY. Tell the world who you are and why you’re here. Let the outside world into your inner thoughts and feelings. Show them the human element behind your corporate business, the faces of the people behind the name on the sign. Give people your backstory, your reason for entering the competition, and they’ll root for you, too.

Here’s an easy way to do it:

  • Get a Flip Camera or some other inexpensive way to shoot videos.
  • Set up a YouTube account (they’re free).
  • Shoot video tours of the store.
  • Shoot short video interviews of the staff (2-3 minutes).
  • Tell as much personal stuff as you’re willing to share.
  • Talk unscripted about why you opened your store or what makes it so much fun to you.
  • Post the unscripted/unedited videos to YouTube and Facebook and your website.
  • Play the videos on a loop in your store.

Do this and you’ll make connections with customers that will turn them into fans rooting for your success. They’ll be cheering you on to get the gold (in many cases, their gold:-).

-Phil

PS Two reminders on videos…

Make them short (2-3 minutes tops) so they load quickly. Nothing worse than waiting 20 minutes for a ten-minute video to load. For some, that will be deterrent enough to never watch.

Make them unscripted and unedited. This way they show off the real you, not some phony poser that everyone will see right through. The real you is good enough if you have the confidence to be that person openly. The real you is who we want to root for, not some corporate image of you.

I’m Sharing My Biggest Secrets

But not right here… (at least not yet:-)

Thursday, Feb. 25 from 8:30am to 11:30am I am doing a 3-hour workshop with the Greater Jackson Chamber of Commerce to share the biggest secret behind the incredible success of Toy House and Baby Too.

(Success? Besides growing and remaining profitable while in a shrinking industry and shrinking population, Toy House and Baby Too was recently named one of The 25 Best Independent Stores in America in the book Retail Superstars by George Whalin.)

The class is:

“Accelerated Branding: Taking Your Advertising and Your Business to a New Level”.

All the best stuff I learned from two incredible people; Roy H. Williams, aka The Wizard of Ads and David Freeman, the best screenwriting master you’ve never heard of.

In three short hours you will learn more about how advertising works (and doesn’t work) than most marketing professionals. And you’ll be able to harness that knowledge to accelerate your business no matter what the economy is doing.

I’m going to show you how to make your advertising work better (without spending a penny more) so that you attract more customers, get them to spend more, make them more loyal, and empower them to bring you even more business.

The cool thing is that there are no gimmicks, no radical changing of the way you currently run your business, no unethical or impractical practices. I’m just going to show you how to unlock the potential that already exists in your business and teach you how to harness that energy so that it works for you.

It will be a hands-on workshop in which you’ll create a simple blueprint that will guide all of your advertising (and business) decisions along with a number of examples how to put your plan into action.

  • It will be fun. (Hey, I play with toys for a living – If I’m doing a workshop, it’s gotta be fun)
  • It will be eye-opening (The downside is that you won’t ever look at advertisements the same after this class.)
  • It will be well worth your time (3 hours? $25? I’m kinda surprised the Chamber is giving away this program so cheaply – I paid many thousands for this same info and charge many hundreds to give it out individually as a consultant.)

Contact Mary at the Chamber (517) 782-8221 to enroll. But be warned. There is pre-class and post-class homework (not to mention in-class work, too). If you’re not willing to do the work, don’t bother calling. We’ll give your seat to someone who wants to grow their business leaps and bounds.

See you Thursday!

-Phil

PS If you’re one of my out-of-town followers, you’re welcome, too. The price is $40 for non-Chamber, non-Midtown, non-Jackson Local First members. That, and a little travel will be some of the best money you spend all year. If it isn’t, I’ll pay you back the $40 fee and take you to the best lunch you’ve ever had right after the class.

The Oscars of Advertising

To the general public, tonight’s Super Bowl broadcast is the Oscars of Advertising. Like you, I get as much enjoyment out of those multi-million dollar blips on the screen as I do the actual game.

And Monday morning, I’ll be talking about my favorite ads at the water cooler, too. But my criteria might be a little different from everyone else.

What I’m looking for is ads that have the power to move the needle. Entertainment? Yeah, it gets my interest. Humor? Yeah, I like to laugh. But the real power in an ad is not how entertaining, funny or heart-warming, but how persuasive it is. Does it move me closer to the product or company? At the end of the day, if the ad doesn’t bring you more business, it doesn’t matter what the critics think. Your ads have to persuade people to remember you, use you, believe in you. Anything else is just fluff.

As every year, the beer ads are the heavy favorites, and although entertaining, there has only been one beer ad that ever moved my needle… (See it here)

It isn’t very funny or heart-warming, so-so on the entertaining side, but they make one powerfully compelling point at the end (which they back up with the kind of hard evidence that would make Tom Wanek happy) that sent me running to the local grocer. It’s now my favorite light beer.

I’m curious to know which ads you saw during the Super Bowl that had the power to move your needle. What ads drew you closer to the company or product? I’d be willing to wager that your list and my list will be different from most of the critics’ lists.

Let the game begin!

I’ll post my thoughts later in the week.

-Phil

More Than One Way to Say It

I wrote two articles for a local organization’s newsletter about Shopping Local. The first was soundly rejected. The second was roundly praised. Funny thing is, both said pretty much the same thing. The difference is that one said it powerfully, one not as strong.

Yes, it was the more powerful message that was rejected. The fear was that it would be seen as offensive to some. Of course, that was my point. No, not to offend, but to attract.

A message is like a magnet. It’s power to attract is equal to it’s power to repel. The stronger the attraction, the stronger the repulsion.

If you are writing to attract, write powerfully and pull no punches. If you are writing not to offend, don’t be upset if your message doesn’t get through as strong as you would like. Those are the trade-offs in making a memorable message.

I understand the reasoning behind the newsletter’s owners wanting not to offend (otherwise I wouldn’t have written the second article). Some of my original points were directed right at some of their membership which wouldn’t have gone over well. And that’s a fair reason for the rejection.

But there’s a lesson here worth remembering. The most powerful messages will offend as many people as they attract. And that’s okay.

Here are the two articles. You tell me which one was more powerful…

What Does it Mean to Shop Local?

There are differing opinions as to how we define a Local Business. Here is the definition that counts…

A local business is one that is owned and operated by someone actively involved in this community.

If in doubt, ask yourself, “Where does the profit go?” Locally owned businesses invest their profits back into Jackson. Chain stores send their profits back to headquarters (usually to pay for some CEO’s golden parachute). Online stores never let the money spend a moment in town.

Studies continually show that locally owned independents and locally owned franchises give back far more to the community than big box chain stores and online sites. They employ more people per sale, pay them a higher wage, pay more in taxes and give more in charity than the chain stores*. They also do more business with other locals keeping the money flowing through Jackson many times over.

A study in Grand Rapids showed that just a 10% shift in shopping habits from big chains to locals would create hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in economic activity, not by spending more, just by spending it locally.

Your local businesses sponsor local events. They sponsor your son’s Little League teams. They supply most of our local leaders. They don’t run at the first sign of trouble. They are rooted in our community.

Christmas is a time for giving. As you plan your giving, think about the businesses who have given back to Jackson, who have invested their livelihood in Jackson.

You can find a bunch of them at http://www.jxnlocalfirst.com/.

Merry Christmas!

Phil Wrzesinski

*Studies cited at www.jxnlocalfirst.com


Keep Your Dollars in Jackson

They say it takes a whole village to raise a child. It also takes a whole village to raise an economy. But first you have to invest in the village. You have to put your money where your house is. Spend your money in Jackson.

The holidays are a time for increased spending. They are also a time for increased everything else, increased traffic, increased stress, and increased demands on our time.

For some, that’s a compelling reason for shopping online. Sure, you might save a buck or two, but the money you saved was money that left Jackson with no benefit to the local economy. And if you didn’t pay sales tax, that’s a loss of revenue for our schools.

When you shop local – when you stay in Jackson to make your holiday purchases – you are investing in your neighbors. You are employing people in your community. You are adding to the available dollars for charity. You are growing Jackson’s tax base and economy.

Washington, D.C. does not have a silver bullet to kill the recessionary beast. Lansing cannot fix what ails us.

But you can.

Spend your money in Jackson and it will make a difference – a big difference. A study in Grand Rapids showed that just a 10% shift in shopping local would create hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in economic activity, not by spending more, just by spending it locally.

Keep your dollars in Jackson this holiday and you’ll be giving a whole lot more than just presents.

Merry Christmas!

Phil Wrzesinski

See the difference?

Cheers!
-Phil

Are You Saying Something Remarkable? (Would You Like to?)

What do your ads say?

Wait, let me rephrase that.

What do your ads say that is truly worth remembering?

I know what you say about your advertising.

“We’ve tried that and it didn’t work.”
“We don’t have that in our budget.”
“We only believe in word-of-mouth.”
“We only do ‘event-advertising’.”
“We had to cut advertising because of the economy.”

The reason your ads didn’t work is because they weren’t remarkable. No one heard them, let alone remembered them.

A 1978 Yankelovich study showed that the average American received 2,000 advertising messages a day. In a revised study in 2008 that number is now 5,000. Without a remarkable, memorable message, you’ll never stand out in a crowd of 5,000.

Chances are, you have a remarkable, memorable message. You just haven’t been telling it.

You’ve been saying your name over and over under the false belief that just repeating your name thousands of times will give it top-of-mind salience. But what if people don’t know what your name means? Or worse yet, they have a negative association with that name, or an indifferent one?

There are ways to make your marketing stand out, to make it memorable. And it all starts with the message. Finding your truly remarkable, memorable message is the single most important element of your success in advertising. Yet, it is the most common mistake.

As you worry over demographics, reach, circulation, viewership, listenership; who is hearing or seeing your ad, you neglect to think about what you are telling them. As you worry about cost-per-ad, cost-per-click, cost-per-inch, cost-per-viewer; you neglect the cost of not saying anything worth remembering.

The result? Blah, blah, blah. Don’t you think that with 5,000 ad messages a day we learn to filter out the vast majority of it? If it isn’t interesting, we aren’t paying attention. If it isn’t remarkable, we aren’t remembering.

The message is king. A remarkable, memorable message works well no matter what medium you use to deliver it. A remarkable, memorable message works well no matter how many people hear or see it. A remarkable, memorable message can even buy you that coveted word-of-mouth.

I still have customers talking about our Men’s Bathroom radio ad even though it hasn’t been on the air for over 10 months!

Here’s the hard part. Finding your message means digging deep into the heart of your business, brushing away all the secondary messages until you find the one core thing worth saying. It means uncovering the real you inside your business, the unvarnished and genuine you. And it means having the guts to tell the world about the real you.

Do you have the guts?

Good! Here’s the first step. Go to Freebies on my website and download the ebook Understanding Your Brand. Follow those directions. When you get done, send me your results. I’ll help you find something worth saying.

I know there’s a message in there. Together we can pull it out and make your marketing truly remarkable.

What I Learned in Louisville

The All Baby & Child Spring Conference just wrapped up. It is a conference for stores who sell baby products. Over 3 plus days we had speakers, presentations and a mini trade show. I was asked to be a presenter when the conference was scheduled but got bumped for a presentation on the new CPSIA law and how it affects baby products.

Twenty of the four hundred plus attendees dragged themselves into a room set up for 300 to hear the latest interpretations of this expensively pointless law. But since I wasn’t presenting, I chose to carefully observe the other presenters to see what I could learn. Here are the Do’s and Don’ts from Louisville.

Don’t give a presentation where all you do is read the ample text on your wordy slides. Give me the handout and quit wasting my time. I’m not two any more. I can read. Yes, one presenter put up slides full of text and then read them to us, often poorly because he couldn’t decide whether to read his laptop with reading glasses or turn his back and read the screen without. It’s been a long time since I rated a presentation poor. I pray it will be another long time before I do it again.

Don’t plan a 90 minute presentation when you only have 60 minutes scheduled. As much as I like the information, I also want to get to the next presentation on time.

Don’t start your presentation until you know the audio is working. Twenty minutes into a talk is way too late to find out half the room can’t hear you.

Don’t talk too fast. Yeah it may be your style, but I was out of breath just trying to keep up with you. I haven’t learned shorthand and taking notes was useless.

Don’t promote your book until the end. I’m not interested in buying until I know what you’re selling.

Do something surprising to get my interest. Rick Segel giving away a copy of his book to the first person willing to go against the crowd was a brilliant idea (and I’m not just saying that because he gave the book to me). It got everyone to pay attention and realize that dissenting voices exist and are not always wrong.

Do give me action steps. Paint me a picture of what to do next. Mike Rayburn taught me to say, “What if..?” whenever I am presented with a challenge. It was our buzzword fr the rest of the evening. George Whalin gave me a list of traits of a great manager, things I need to develop in myself or hire & train in my employees. I like concrete stuff that helps me plot a course of action.

Do something unique. The most fascinating presentation was by Mike Rayburn. He’s a guitar virtuoso, a comedian, and a motivational speaker. One of my colleagues asked me after the presentation if he was a musician who did comedy or a speaker who did music, or a comedian who did motivation. I asked what was the point. You see, there are plenty of guitar virtuosos, tons of motivational speakers, and a plethora of comedians. But there is only one Mike Rayburn who can combine all three seamlessly. If there had been a box above Excellent, I would have checked it for his presentation.

Do something fun. Rick Segel told great jokes that made us laugh out loud and helped get his points across. George Whalin put up a slide of a crazy guy in a superhero outfit that got a lot of buzz afterwards. Mike used humor and music, two of my favorites.

Do give me something to take home. I have a book, a DVD, two CD’s, and three handouts of notes. Reading material for bedtime, listening material for the drive home, and training material for the next staff meeting. It’s the trifecta of a great conference.

If you are doing a presentation, whether for a handful of co-workers in a staff meeting or a crowd of conference attendees, keep these Do’s and Don’ts in mind. And if you’re not doing any public speaking soon, why don’t you come to my talk on Wednesday, May 20th. It’s at 7:30 am at Jackson Coffee Company. The topic is How Ads Work: Understanding Branding and the APE. Not only will you learn some really cool stuff for your business, you’ll get the chance to critique me on the stuff I’ve just posted and tell me how well I did.

See you there.

-Phil

Deep Versus Wide

In just about everything you do, you have a choice. Go Deep or go Wide.

In business that could mean a number of things…

  • Stock a few things Deeply or stock a Wide assortment.
  • Try to create Deep relationships with a few special customers or shallow relationships with as Wide a group as possible.
  • Advertise Deeply in one media or spread yourself thinly across a Wide variety of venues.

Obviously, the best choice is to do both. But it is rare that any independent business has the resources to go Deep and Wide at the same time.

So with limited resources which is better? Deep or Wide?

This is the question that came up last Monday at the Jackson Retail Success Academy. One of our panelists was asked about advertising and what he felt was most effective. He said mixing up the media, doing a little in a lot of areas worked best for him. At which point every head turned towards me.

Two weeks earlier I instructed the same group of students to go Deep with their advertising, not to mix it up too much. Pick one media, I told them, and do it to the best of your budget and ability.

Every eye was now staring at me to see what I had to say.

And here’s what I said…

Nothing.

First, I did not want to discount what a fellow local business person whom I respect had just said. Second, I already had my say on the matter. Third, it wasn’t the time or place since we were supposed to be talking Inventory Management at the time. And finally, none of the students in that group had the kind of advertising budget this retailer had.

But the question still begged to be answered. Is mixing up the media a viable option or is it better to focus on one media done right?

Okay, I cheated. I phrased the question with a serious slant. I used the words, “done right”.

You see, the key to successful advertising is not how much you do or where you do it so much as how well you do it. Do you have a powerful message? Do you craft that message to speak directly to the heart of your audience? Do you pound that message over and over and over until the customers are thinking of nothing else other than you?

When I talk about Deep in advertising, I’m talking connection. How deeply do you connect with your audience? How well do you move their who-gives-a-crap meter? If you can do that in more than one media, good for you. Some businesses don’t have the money. Most don’t know how to craft the right message.

Your customers are your business relationships. The deeper the relationship, the more business you’ll do. And that starts with a deep and long lasting connection through your ads. If you’re dabbling in a little radio here, a little TV there, with a little newsprint on the side, how can you make any lasting impressions? How can you stay with it long enough to move the meter?

With all due respect to my fellow retailer, mixed media is rarely the answer. While he runs a successful business, Roy Williams, who taught me about going Deep, has turned other businesses in his category into rock stars (for those who know, pun intended).

Would you like to learn to go Deep? Join me for an hour on Wednesday, May 20th at 7:30am. I’ll be holding court at Jackson Coffee Company upstairs in their conference room doing a presentation that will change the way you advertise for good (or better).

-Phil

What to Change, What to Keep the Same

Johnny’s Toys, a fixture of the Cincinnati toy market for decades is dropping out of the toy business. Their flagship store in Covington, KY, just across the river from Cinci is converting the sales floor into more space for birthday parties and events that they host in the back of their store, an area called Otterville. They’re keeping their electric train business, but cutting out the toys and baby products.

I had a chance to visit Johnny’s a few years ago. Johnny’s has been one of few remaining giant independents like us carrying a wide variety of toys, hobby & baby products. In the electric train world Johnny’s is legendary. While we have a nice train display, ours is only one fourth the size of theirs. A full 24×8 feet of trains, track, bridges, crossings, landscape and wide-eyed children.

It was awesome!

I just wish the rest of the store had been as exciting.

Talking to a sales rep, together we lamented their getting out of toys. But then he added, “Phil, you’ve been far more proactive in your business, staying current on products, marketing, etc. I’m not really surprised they’re doing this.”

Proactive? Staying Current? Aren’t those minimums for running a business? I mean, we’re not talking advanced retail. Shouldn’t every business be staying current? Unfortunately, it is too easy to fall into the trap of believing that what worked before will work again.

The real skill in retailing is figuring out what to keep the same and what to change. Isn’t that the real skill in all business?

What do you hold fast, what do you let go? What do you never change, what do you constantly change? Where do you stay old-fashioned, where do you modernize? Principle questions being asked by businesses of all shapes and sizes all across the world.

I have an answer to those questions and I think the answer applies to every type of business.

What do you keep the same? Your Core Values! The principles that guided you when you began your business. The traits that define you and your business. David Freeman calls this your Character Diamond. It is the three to five traits that consistently identify you and guide every decision you make. Because these traits are inherent in both you and your business, they never change. In fact, they should be the rock upon which everything else is built.

What do you change? Everything else!

The key is to know what are your Core Values, to know your Character Diamond. Once you identify these traits, change becomes easy. Just ask yourself if the change you are looking to make is consistent with your Character. If yes, make the change. And make changes, you should.

You need to be current on products and trends, changing to meet the needs of your customer base. You need to know marketing and accounting principles and the changes happening in those worlds so that you perform at your best in both categories. You need to be on top of the best hiring and training practices so that your staff regularly exceeds your customers’ changing expectations. Yes, you need to change everything else. But you already know that.

Do you know your Character Diamond? Join me on Wednesday, May 20th at Jackson Coffee Company for the Midtown Morning Breakfast and I’ll help you identify the Core Values that are the foundation of your path to greatness. We’ll get started at 7:30am with a free continental breakfast and some of the most valuable information you’ll learn all year.

And as a bonus, I’ll show you how to use your Character Diamond to attract new customers and new business in ways you never imagined.

It will take a little over an hour of your time, but I promise it will be worth every minute.

-Phil

PS The May 20th event is actually Part 2 of my How Ads Work presentation. I’m doing Part 1 on Wed., April 15th same time same place. Hopefully you’ll join me for both.

Wal-Mart Got it Right

In this dismal economy Wal-Mart keeps racking up sales gains. Many people are quick to point to the slumping economy as the reason Wal-Mart is doing well. Lost your income? Shop at Wal-Mart.

But there’s more to it.

In 2007 the economy was already starting to slide, yet Wal-Mart didn’t fare so well. In 2007 Wal-Mart rolled out their “high fashion – low prices” campaign. In an effort to compete with Target’s “cheap chic”, Wal-Mart tried to upscale their offerings. The result? Abject failure. No traction whatsoever.

Why did something that worked so well for Target fail so miserably for Wal-Mart? Core values.

Target’s core values from day one have been to offer a step-up from the K-Mart/Wal-Mart fare. They have cultivated the image through store design, product selection and advertising. They have built their reputation and core customers on this premise.

At the same time, Wal-Mart’s core values have been to offer really, really cheap stuff. They have cultivated that image and their core customers over many years. Their core customers shop at Wal-Mart for one reason – really, really cheap stuff, not high fashion. So when Wal-Mart deviated from their core values, they alienated their core customers. And at the same time they were unable to shift customers loyal to Target.

But in 2008 they got it right. Wal-Mart went back to their core values and focused on what they do best – really, really cheap stuff. Yes, the economy helped. No, it wasn’t the only reason. How do we know? Because some other stores also did well in this economy, and not by offering really, really cheap stuff.

Independent stores have fared far better in this economy than their chain and department store counterparts. And the best performing independent stores did it by being true to their core values. They didn’t go after the low price market. They offered great customer service, or expert product knowledge, or high-quality merchandise, or all of the above. They made sure that their core customers’ expectations were met or exceeded. They didn’t leave their core for a grab at someone else’s pie. They stayed true to who they were.

Do you know what are your core values? Do you know who are your core customers and why they shop with you? The best stores know this and are constantly working to make sure every part of their business aligns with these values.

Our values are Fun, Helpfulness, Education, and Nostalgia. It isn’t about the products as much as whether those products are consistent with our values. It isn’t about the services, but whether those services are consistent with our values.

When you know who you are, the business model gets easier. When you stay true to your core, you create loyalty. And in this economy, when loyalty is most fragile, you need to hold onto as many customers as you can.

Everyone knows the old adage that it is cheaper to keep a customer than find a customer. Now, more than ever, that statement is showing itself to be true. Keep your core customers by sticking to your core values. Finally, a lesson from Wal-Mart we can all put into practice.

-Phil