Leading In Uncertain Times: 10 Ways To Help Employees Cope With The Pandemic

by Quint Studer, author of “The Busy Leader’s Handbook: How To Lead People and Places That Thrive“

As the COVID-19 pandemic takes hold, we’re all being impacted in various ways, many of them pretty dramatic. Everyone is feeling more than a little fear and anxiety about the future. If you’re a business leader, lots of people are looking to you for guidance — and you have a responsibility to help those around you cope with the uncertainty.

As human beings and as citizens, we are in this boat together, and we’re all struggling with the same emotions. But we’re also leaders, and that means we can’t just think of ourselves and our immediate families. We have employees, coworkers, and customers to consider as well. They’re our family, too — and right now, more than ever, they need us to truly lead.”

As leaders we actually can have a positive impact on the employees who count on us. This is both a human responsibility and a privilege.

So, what should leaders do? First and foremost, we need to get focused and intentional about how we respond to this pandemic. What you do and how you behave over the next few weeks (or possibly months) will stay with your employees for a long time to come.

Here are some tips:

1. Create a plan for your business.

There’s no specific advice here, as different sectors (retail, manufacturing, travel & tourism, etc.) are being hit in different ways. So are different types of employees: Some can work from home; others can’t. Think through your plan and manage your response carefully. Give it some serious attention. Don’t make rash decisions — but also don’t leave things to chance.

Even if you risk a misstep, I find life usually rewards action. You may have to modify your plan as events unfold and that’s okay.

2. Communicate often and well.

Bring everyone together by video chat or phone and communicate the plan. Hold a daily meeting if necessary. When employees hear nothing, they expect the worst. They’d rather hear the truth, even if it’s bad news, than live in uncertainty. Keep the lines of communication open and make it clear you are always available to talk.

3. Read up on what’s going on.

Make sure you have a good grasp on the virus, your customers, your industry, and the economy in general. You don’t have to be an authority, but you do need to know enough to help give perspective.

This could be a full-time job in itself. There is so much information out there that having a few trusted resources to turn to is key. I suggest taking advantage of membership in groups like the Chamber of Commerce and relevant trade associations. These institutions are great clearing houses of information, and can effectively and efficiently keep us connected.

4. Be honest about what you know, but don’t pile on.

Embrace the “facts, not fear” mantra you’ve probably seen all over the media. Discourage others from awfulizing. There is too much speculating, myth-spreading, and general negativity swirling around without leaders adding to it. Be the voice of calm rationality.

5. Encourage people to know the facts, but not overload on the news.

Explain that constant exposure to bad news affects our psyche. It keeps us distracted and unable to concentrate. It feeds anxiety and fear. This is not good for job performance, but even worse, it feels bad. It keeps us from enjoying our life.

6. Equip frontline supervisors with answers to FAQs from employees.

This is likely where employees will feel most comfortable talking.

7. Relieve anxiety where you can, even if it’s not work-related.

This pandemic has far-reaching implications. It doesn’t just impact people’s work life; it impacts their health, personal finances, and family. As much as you can, know what each employee’s “what” is, meaning what they care about more than anything else. This will help you calm them in a way that truly resonates.

8. Build up your emotional bank account.

What you do to make people’s lives easier really counts right now. Some employees may have trouble with kids as schools shut down. Others may need to care for elderly parents who get sick or who just need extra help with shopping and chores because they’re staying at home. Be sensitive to individual needs and accommodate where you can. It’s a good time to build relationships.

9. Think about what your company already does that could help those impacted by the virus…

For example, some pharmacies are waiving home delivery fees for prescriptions for the elderly and others at high risk. Some cable companies are offering free access to Wi-Fi for 60 days to certain students who need to move to online learning, and one moving truck company is offering to store students’ belongings for free (as they rush to vacate dorms). Some restaurants are delivering meals to high-risk people.

Helping at a time when people really need it builds goodwill. It also helps employees feel better… and it’s just the right thing to do.

10. … or find other ways your team can serve.

If you don’t have a product or service needed by those who are struggling, you and your employees can help in other ways. You could deliver food or care packages to those who are quarantined. Or your team could help out nonprofits that are experiencing volunteer shortages because their usual volunteers (often seniors) are staying home. This may dramatically boost morale. We all feel better when we can give back.

Finally, one of the best things a leader can do is to remind people that the coronavirus won’t last forever. Things will get better. Helping people put this moment in time in perspective may help more than we realize.

Tough times make great leaders. People have long memories. Reputations are often built during times like these. Once this pandemic has passed and life returns to normal, employees, coworkers, and partners will remember how you behaved. They’ll remember whether you held things together and led them through the hurricane… or whether you made a bad situation worse.

We’re all making choices right now that build our reputation and impact our company’s brand. We owe it to ourselves and to those we lead to choose wisely.

 

Quint Studer is author of “The Busy Leader’s Handbook: How To Lead People and Places That Thrive” and founder of Pensacola’s Studer Community Institute, a nonprofit organization focused on improving the community’s quality of life and moving Escambia and Santa Rosa counties forward. He is a businessman, a visionary, an entrepreneur, and a mentor to many. He currently serves as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the University of West Florida.

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How To Use Staff Scheduling Software To Increase Your Productivity

Advancements in technology have made virtually every aspect of our lives easier. In both our work and personal lives, we wield smartphones to do things faster and more efficiently, from ordering shopping to scheduling appointments, paying bills and creating invoices. It’s become so easy to manage our affairs in the digital realm that we rarely stop to appreciate just how easy it is.

Smart scheduling software for employees is a terrific example of modern tech that refines and upgrades a traditional workplace process – in this case, staff rostering. While large organizations tend to embrace such software, a surprising number of small- and medium-sized businesses continue to manually manage their rostering on programs like Microsoft Excel, creating a substantial time and cost burden.

It doesn’t have to be this way: much of the hassle of organizing staff rotas can be eliminated by deploying dedicated software such as Deputy. By overhauling your existing staff scheduling process, you can empower your employees, reactively respond to staff shortages and bring about a world of improvements. Here are just a few features, using Deputy as an example, that promise to increase your productivity.

Skill-Based Scheduling.

Just as a football manager picks the best team to win the game, an employer must pick the best employees for the shift. With staff scheduling software, there’s no guesswork involved: employees can be rostered according to their qualifications, skills and experience, and it’s easy to get an overview of exactly who’s on shift and when.

Simplified Shift Swaps and Leave Requests.

Excel has no facility for employees to swap shifts. In fact, oftentimes only a line manager will retain edit privileges on the Excel document in question. Deputy allows staffers to arrange shift swaps with an appropriate colleague, saving managers the trouble of organizing cover. Managers, meanwhile, can opt to activate “management approval” over all swap requests, so there’s no surprises on the day.

The same principle applies for leave requests: employees can use the interface to block-book days or weeks as leave, with the manager then able to review leave requests at a glance and make a call on whether the requests should be approved.

Access Anywhere.

With Deputy, you can build AI-optimized staff rotas in a matter of minutes, then share them with team members via desktop, tablet and mobile. And if you’re worried that staff members might not see the updates in time, you can request a read confirmation to make sure. Doesn’t that sound a lot better than sharing an Excel doc by email?

Compliance Made Easy.

There’s beauty in organization. Which is why, as an employer, it’s nice to know who is taking their break and when. With scheduling software in place, managers can schedule employee breaks and create an ongoing record, thereby meeting their compliance obligations. Custom break enforcement can also ensure that employees only take breaks when eligible, and don’t commence work early or skip breaks to which they are entitled.

With a greater emphasis on mental health these days, employers can also use Deputy to avoid employee fatigue by capping how many hours they can work within a certain timeframe. The schedules of part-timers can be tailored to avoid unnecessary overtime, too.

Customized Pay Rates.

Any employer familiar with Excel will know just how much of a headache it can be to calculate overtime and salaries, particularly when members of the workforce have different rates of pay. Staff scheduling software does the legwork for you, calculating overtime, bonuses and salaries according to your specifications.

No Steep Learning Curve.

Ordinarily, the introduction of a new process takes time for staff to get accustomed to. That’s not the case with scheduling software such as Deputy: it’s so intuitive, it can be picked up incredibly quickly, meaning there’s no lag between the software being implemented and employees learning how to navigate it.

Staff scheduling software makes life easier for everyone and can even be integrated with PoS and HR systems. The result? A joined-up tech suite that saves time, effort and money. The blueprint for a better business.

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Five Mistakes Not To Make When Holding Online Meetings

by Howard Tiersky, co-author of “Impactful Online Meetings: How to Run Polished Virtual Working Sessions That are Engaging and Effective“

Working from home (or WFH) is quickly becoming “the new normal.” The COVID-19 pandemic kicked the WFH movement into high gear, and many experts believe it will continue long after the crisis has passed. (This article makes a solid case.) But before we can optimize this new way of working, we’re all going to have to get proficient at one of the biggest work-from-home fundamentals: the virtual meeting.

Remote meetings are inherently different from in-person meetings. If you’re not used to running them, you’re going to make tons of mistakes. And those mistakes can have major ramifications in terms of how well people perform once they log off and get back to work.

The good news is that well-run online meetings can be extremely powerful. In fact, according to the Harvard Business Review, online meetings can be even more effective than in-person meetings when done right. But first you need to be aware of what not to do.

Here are five mistakes virtual meeting newbies commonly make:

MISTAKE #1: Neglecting one (or more) of the “big five” success keys of online meetings.

If you are seeking to bring people together to share information, come up with solutions, make decisions, coordinate activities, and/or socialize, you will be successful if you:

1. Have a clear purpose
2. Get participants in the right mindset
3. Get them fully engaged behaviorally
4. Incorporate high-quality content aligned with the purpose
5. Make it easy to participate

If you do all of these correctly, you will have high-impact online meetings. If you don’t, there’s going to be a lot of awkwardness and inefficiency. Worse, bad meetings can lead to bad workplace performance, which is the last thing any of us need right now.

MISTAKE #2: Holding voice calls instead of videoconferences.

When everyone has their cameras on, you can expect a 200 percent-plus improvement in the effectiveness of online meetings. This keeps people engaged because they know that what they’re doing is visible to everyone else. They’re far less likely to multi-task, which is one of the greatest obstacles to audience engagement.

MISTAKE #3: Failing to be strategic about sequencing.

The first item on your meeting agenda should be a restatement of the purpose of the meeting. After that, strategize on the sequence of your activities. For example:

• If there are any “elephant in the room” topics, deal with those early or they will be a distraction.
• If you have some sort of fun or exciting announcement, you may want to hold it for the end, letting the participants know that it is coming but keeping the outcome a surprise to create suspense.
• If an agenda item may be intense or create some heated discussion, put it in the middle — get people warmed up and feeling productive first, then hit them with the challenging topic.

MISTAKE #4: Not giving people an active role.

It’s possible for one person to present content, facilitate questions, ensure the meeting stays on time, and take notes, but why? Seek to distribute the roles of facilitator (responsible for running the agenda), presenter (responsible for sharing specific units of content), timekeeper (watches the clock and alerts facilitators and presenters how to adjust their speed and content), and the notetaker (documents the meeting) among the participants.

When you give participants something to do, you prevent them from being passive listeners or webinar watchers. When people have an active role, they are far, far more attentive and engaged.

MISTAKE #5: Failing to take advantage of breakouts.

In most meetings of more than eight people, usually most of the talking is done by just five to seven participants. This is one reason why during live workshops I often break larger groups into breakout teams, so they can come up with ideas, work on prioritization, action planning — whatever the work is — in smaller groups and then come back to the larger group and report on the work they did. (Several of the major online meeting platforms including Zoom and Google Hangouts now offer breakouts.

We give each team clear instructions for the work they are to do, in writing, and then usually give them a small amount of time to do it, like 20 to 40 minutes. A compressed time frame forces the group to organize quickly; get to work; and focus on progress, not process or perfection. I’ve been amazed over the years that sometimes when clear instructions, a small team, and a tight time frame are combined like that, you get work done in a half hour that might have taken days, weeks, or months if done ‘the usual way.’

These are just a few of the mistakes people regularly make. There are plenty more. The good news is most of these are easy enough to correct once you realize you’re making them.

When done correctly, online meetings are an incredibly powerful method of enabling collaborative work. It’s worth investing a bit of time and effort in learning how to maximize them. Frankly, they have the potential to move the needle for your business, and right now, this is more important than it’s ever been.

 

Howard Tiersky is co-author of “Impactful Online Meetings: How to Run Polished Virtual Working Sessions That are Engaging and Effective“. Howard is the founder of two companies that enable large brands to win in the digital world, FROM: The Digital Transformation Agency and Innovation Loft. He is a successful entrepreneur who has been named by IDG as one of the “10 Digital Transformation Influencers to Follow Today” and by Enterprise Management 360 as “One of the Top 10 Digital Transformation Influencers That Will Change Your World.”

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Great Reasons To Have A Membership Program For Customers

The business arena is fast-paced, which means that many businesses are diving into the industry to offer new products and services. Regardless of how new you think your offerings are, more often than not, several other businesses have already used the same idea to thrive in the market. In fact, most of your competitors might have already dominated the market even before your business existed.

Implementing a membership program for your customers can be a great way to level out the competition and stand out in any business industry. Usually, membership programs are part of a customer retention strategy wherein the business offers rewards to customers who often make purchases from them. This membership program can include free merchandise, coupons, rewards, and advanced released products. Product and service-oriented businesses can easily create and implement a membership program for their customers.

If you’re a neophyte in the business arena or have plans in getting into the industry, listed below are the reasons why you should definitely have a membership program for your customers:

1. You’ll Gather Valuable Data.

One of the biggest mistakes businesses tend to make is to attempt to cater to the demands of every customer in the world. They think that the more people they accommodate, the more profits they can earn over a shorter span of time. This might be true to some extent, but when applied in the business context, achieving this goal can put money down the drain. How can you possibly reach out to every human being in the world? Do you actually know what they want and how your business can satisfy these wants? How are you planning to provide your products and services to them? Do you have enough resources to make every customer in the world happy?

Instead of attempting to serve every customer, it’s better to focus on a specific target market, spend time getting to know them and provide their needs – and the information you can gain from membership programs can help you achieve all of these tasks faster.

Through a free membership database, you can ask important information from your customers before they can sign up for your membership program. Usually, you’ll have to ask for your customers’ full name, address, age, and birthdate. Depending on the products or services your business offers, you can ask for more or less information. Regardless, any information you gain from your existing customers can become a goldmine to help your business progress and improve in the long run.

For example, if you found out that most of your existing customers are women, you can come up with marketing ads that are specifically designed to attract the men’s populace. This information can help you streamline your efforts so you won’t be redundant and ensure that these resources are only spent in areas that actually need improvement. This information will tell you that your business already gained the approval of women, and now it’s time to work on gaining the response of the opposite sex.

If your existing customers are generally composed of young adults, you can easily determine what products and services will best fit their needs because you already know who you are dealing with. Knowing how your customer behaves will also make it very easy for you to formulate marketing and pricing strategies that are appealing to them.

2. You’ll Retain Existing Customers.

In order for a business to earn profits, they have to attract customers to pay for their products and services. This is one of the most obvious reasons why businesses will hire the services of marketing experts and commission intricate marketing ads. Businesses will allocate money for their marketing strategies to educate the public that they exist and to convince the public to do business with them. However, if you want your business to survive in the long run, you shouldn’t only settle once a customer makes a one-time purchase from you; as a business, you should implement strategies that can help your business retain customers.

Customer retention is vital to your success as an entrepreneur because this can help you save money on marketing, earn more profit, gain valuable feedback, and enjoy free word-of-mouth advertising. You can always gain new customers, but going through this process over and over again can demand more time, effort, and money from your business. These resources are usually limited when you’re still a startup.

One of the most effective customer retention programs you can have in your business is to implement a membership program for your customers. Once managed and implemented properly, a membership program can become your ticket to keep customers and excite them to continue patronizing your offerings. This is especially true if your membership program includes products and services that are new in the market.

A membership program is meant to reward loyal customers and show how your organization is grateful for customers who continue to patronize your business long-term. A membership program is simply your own way of thanking your customers for helping your business grow while keeping them hooked to continue to do the same in the future.

3. You’ll Build Personal Relationships With Your Customers.

Running your business is not a walk in the park. Before you can achieve business success and experience its financial rewards, you need to make sure that you’re better than your competitors, and you’ve fully understood how the market works. These elements often change, which means that you have to exert time and effort to keep up with the times. Being outdated can become the reason why you’ll lose profits and customers.

You can easily accomplish these tasks (and more) when you choose to implement a membership program for your customers. As mentioned, membership programs can be an effective platform for you to engage with your customers and create an emotional connection with them. Aside from the two points mentioned above, letting your customers sign up for a membership program and giving them additional perks on top of their purchases will make them feel valued. This gesture alone can speak volumes on how your business appreciates loyal customers and how you strive to continue with your efforts so these customers will stay loyal to your business.

4. You’ll Create Brand Advocates.

Marketing is essential in achieving business success. All of your efforts to offer unique products and services will be useless if you don’t have an effective marketing campaign. Who will possibly patronize all of your offerings if no one knows that your business even exists? How will you stand out from the shadows of your competitors if you don’t work on your marketing? How will your target audience choose you if you disregard the importance of marketing? And while there are several marketing platforms and strategies available today, most of these are expensive and ineffective.

As a startup business, you should be careful of the investments you’ll make because one rash decision can become the reason why you will create a negative brand in the market. This can shoo away potential and existing customers. If you don’t want to take chances with your marketing efforts, opt to implement a membership program for your business instead.

Being able to turn your loyal customers into brand advocates is another reason why you should use a membership program for your business. If your existing customers are satisfied with the additional perks they experienced from your business, more often than not, they will tell their own social circle about it. They will talk to their friends, family, and colleagues at work on how satisfied they were on the products and services offered by your business.

For example, if they were able to purchase items at a 50% discount because of a membership card, they will rave to their friends and family on how much money they saved from the purchase. Every customer loves a bargain, and being able to shop more will always be great news to share with other people. Your customers might not know it but by their gesture of sharing positive reviews and feedback about your business, you already turned them into brand advocates. This will allow your business to reach a wider audience without spending more money on marketing.

5. You’ll Attract New Customers.

Although retaining customers is important to every business, this doesn’t mean that you should disregard the need to venture out to new markets and attract new customers. On the contrary, you should work on attracting new customers because this will serve as your touch point to know your customers and eventually create a professional relationship with them. It’ll be very challenging for your business to retain customers if you don’t have any customers in the first place.

For you to continually attract new customers while keeping existing ones, implement a strong and effective membership program in your business. As mentioned, when your existing customers are happy with the products and services they experienced from your business, they will share their positive feedback with their own social circle. This can include people from their neighborhood, place of work, their child’s school, or even in their social media profiles.

The act of sharing this good news with other people can now be considered as word-of-mouth advertising; one of the most effective marketing strategies in the business arena.  Unlike the marketing ads you commission on TV and billboards, word-of-mouth advertising is deemed to be more effective because trust is already involved.

To drive the point home, put yourself on the shoes of a customer. If you know someone who actually vouched for the efficacy of a particular business, you will likely follow their recommendation to buy from this business if you trust that person. If your best friend or colleague from work invited you to try out a new product because they were happy with the results, you will likely give in to their offer. You’ll do this because you have full confidence knowing that this individual was not paid by the business to market their products and services. This is how your business will attract new customers after you’ve successfully implemented a membership program in your business.

6. Your Customers Will Stop Comparing Your Price To Your Competitors.

Most industries are saturated with several business players today. Regardless if you’re going to operate as a product or service-oriented business, expect that you will have to compete with other businesses that have earned a large market share.

Implementing a membership program allows you to stand out from your competitors because this program will encourage your customers to stop comparing your price to your competitors and immediately buy from your business. This works because offering something “more” to your customers will make it very easy for your business to foster a professional and emotional relationship with them. Customers can pay for the same products and services from different businesses, but the value you’ll offer them through your membership program can be their most important deciding factor.

If your business sells women apparel, for example, offering a 30% discount to the customers who signed up for your membership program will entice people to continue patronizing your product and disregard any offers made by your competitors. Sure, other businesses might sell the same sets of apparel at the same price, but because you’re offering something “more” on top of their purchases, your customers will choose to do business with you.

7. Effectivity Is Key.

Now that you know how vital a membership program is, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and make one for your own business. With the number of businesses operating in different parts of the world, you’ll have unlimited sources that can help you create your membership program.

Although benchmarking is an important skill as an entrepreneur, remember that your own membership program should also offer unique rewards and not just “free stuff.” It should also provide rewards with intrinsic value and functions as a platform for you to cultivate customer loyalty. Considering all of these things will make it very easy for you to create an effective membership program for your business!

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Is A Print On Demand Shop The Perfect First Business For You?

A print on demand shop is a business venture that offers different custom-made items, such as t-shirts, hoodies, books, mugs, rugs, key chains, and household items. These personalized items can be effective promotional materials to catch the attention of your target audience within your business niche.

Just like other businesses, a print on demand business would require careful planning and market research. But, is it worth taking on as your first business?  How do you start this business?  Is it profitable?

In this post, you will learn why a print on demand shop can be a perfect first business.

A Print On Demand Shop Is All Year Round.

If you’re mulling over what type of business to put up, a print on demand shop is ought considering. Why not?  All year round, people would look for items that are specially customized to their own needs and preferences. From birthdays, anniversaries, baptisms, graduations, to weddings, personalized invitation cards and souvenirs are sought after.

This business venture is profitable because schools, organizations, businesses, and private individuals need these customized items to make their events even more memorable, leaving a lasting impression in the minds of their guests. This only means that your business will never be out of season.

While you can do the printing on your own, it would be best to hire the services of a screen printer, most especially if you’re planning to put up an online print on demand business. Simply send in your designs and the rest will be taken care of by the screen printer company.

You Can Manage It Alone.

 You can manage your print on demand business by creating and following a business plan, which is your roadmap to running your business.

Here are some other ways to manage your business on your own:

• Tap new technology using project management software.
• Create a business website to establish an illusion that your business is not a one-person startup.
• Outsource other tasks by hiring part-time or contractual home-based contractors for repetitive tasks, including data entry jobs.

You Can Manage Your Business With A Flexible Time Schedule.

One way to have a manageable schedule is breaking down your business goals into a series of small steps and actions. Focusing on smaller tasks keeps you from getting overwhelmed, which, in turn, results in a steady progress.

A print on demand shop allows you to manage your business with a flexible time schedule through the following:

• Printing orders in batches
• First-in, first-out printing
• Designing phase in the morning and printing in the afternoon

Enables You To Create Good Partnerships With Other Businesses.

Because print on demand items are mostly promotional or marketing items, you can create strong ties and partnerships with other businesses in your local area or even abroad. You can supply them with their regular promotional materials, like campaign t-shirts and banners. This means wider business connections, more business opportunities, and higher revenue.

Here are ways you can create good partnerships with other businesses using print on demand items:

• Introduce your business to other companies by sending them free or sample products, such as mugs for cafes and coffee shops.
• Attend trade fairs where budding and seasoned entrepreneurs gather.

How To Start A Print On Demand Business.

1. Choose A Niche: By focusing on a specific niche, you’ll build core customers, who, in turn, can attract more audience.

2. Come Up With Unique Designs And Set Up A Website: Because a print on demand shop has to do with printing designs on various items, it would be best to equip yourself with the right knowledge and skills in graphic design by taking a short course. Through this, you can craft unique and copyright-free designs. When it comes to creating a website, you can use platforms, such as Shopify, WordPress, or BigCommerce, which provide easy-to-personalize store themes for your print on demand business.

3. Choose A Print Provider: Hiring a print provider is a good idea. It means that all you have to do is to create designs, show and promote them to your target audience, get orders, then, the screen printer will print them for you.

Conclusion.

A print on demand shop can be a perfect first business because you can run it on your own with the help of online tools and screen printer services. Also, with a print on demand business, you have a more flexible time schedule as you basically are in control of your own time, and can establish business partnerships for more business opportunities. Most of all, this business is profitable all year round.

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Ideas For Rebalancing Your Marketing Campaign During This Current Pandemic

by Lonny Kocina, CEO of Media Relations Agency and author of “The CEO’s Guide to Marketing: The Book Every Marketer Should Read Before Their Boss Does“

When an unexpected event of national or global scale dramatically changes the marketing environment, such as what’s happening now with the coronavirus, how should marketers respond? How do you get your best salespeople in front of clients and prospects when events are cancelled, travel is restricted and most people are working from home?

The marketing environment normally changes at a snail’s pace. There’s usually plenty of time for most companies to adapt. But when things happen fast, it’s important that companies respond quickly to rebalance their promotional mix.

The one promotional mix channel most impacted by social distancing is personal selling. You’re not sending teams to expos and events. You can’t even sample consumers in grocery stores. What you lose in personal selling marketing power, you’ll have to make up in marketing power using other promotional mix channels.

Beefing up publicity efforts is a quick way to replace some of the face to face contact that will be lost with the lack of personal selling. That’s one place you can still reach the big groups. Publicity as a sales tool is underutilized by most companies and it is relatively easy to ramp up. Putting your best salespeople in front of reporters and producers who have big audiences is always a win. Plus, unlike expos and trade shows, your competition isn’t right there beside you. I see a lot of trade show money shifting toward publicity and media coverage.

How can you squeeze into the media’s conversations if your product seems unrelated to the headlines? As the coronavirus spreads, there’s going to be a market for stories that take people’s minds off their troubles. Instead of worrying about protecting themselves or when toilet paper will be available again, people will seek out fun, interesting stories as a means of relief. As people get burned out and begin to turn away from the bad news, the media will be looking for ways to change the narrative so they can hang onto their audience share. We’ve arranged tens of thousands of product news stories over the last 30 years so we’ve seen this demand for good news stories to offset the bad ones many times before.

We’re also going to see some of the marketing horsepower absorbed by websites and social media as well. Marketing through the internet is, after all, a great way to maintain social distancing!

When you’ve got to change marketing strategies on the fly, you’d better have the basic marketing concepts down pat so you can make intelligent marketing decisions. Many marketers ride the wave in good times without fully understanding what underpins good marketing.

In my best-seller “The CEO’s Guide to Marketing: The Book Every Marketer Should Read Before Their Boss Does” I’m telling on the industry. Most CEOs would be shocked at how little their marketing teams actually know about marketing concepts and process.

The marketing environment will have long-lasting social implications but economically we will return to normal relatively quickly. As for promoting your company and products in the short term, now is no time to be shooting from the hip. Know your marketing terms and concepts, and how they relate to one another. Understand what’s happening with the marketing environment and how that relates to other concepts such as the marketing mix, where your product is in its life cycle and the innovation adopter curve. Whether it’s in response to this pandemic or the next major event, understanding basic marketing concepts and following a sound marketing process will make your business agile and responsive.

 

Lonny Kocina, CEO of Media Relations Agency is a visionary who is passionate about marketing. He pioneered the concept of Pay Per Interview Publicity® business model which enables clients to purchase publicity by the story. He currently teaches his popular Strategically Aimed Marketing (SAM 6) process, outlined in his best-selling book “The CEO’s Guide to Marketing: The Book Every Marketer Should Read Before Their Boss Does” to business leaders and those working within the marketing industry.

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How To Turn A Great Idea Into An Action Plan

by Greg DeLine, president and CEO of DeLine Holdings

If you’re serious about becoming an entrepreneur, chances are good that you already have a killer idea in mind. You’ve probably gone further than just a basic concept — whether that means getting product details down or making plans for when you eventually make it a reality. You know your idea is more than just a pipe dream, and you’re ready to put it into action.

The problem is, no matter how much you’ve brainstormed or how many strategies you’ve drawn up, taking something from theory into reality is a whole different ball game.

It can be easy at this point to let fear and doubt take over, to turn your sure thing into something you’re not sure about at all. You may think the time isn’t right or the audience isn’t there. And you may be right. Or it may be that there’s no such thing as bad timing if the idea is right. If you’re ready to truly begin your life as an entrepreneur, the question shouldn’t be when or if — but how.

3 Things You Can Do to Get Your Idea Off the Starting Blocks.

Regardless of where you come from or what your situation is, when you’re trying to figure out how to start a business, two things will always be true: Hard work is a thing that everybody can do, and commitment is a choice anyone can make. A word that’s thrown around a lot is passion, but action is more important. You just need to know how to start.

1. Find a mentor. 

If you were to climb a mountain for the first time, you’d hopefully bring along an experienced guide. Likewise, the best advice for new entrepreneurs I can give is to find someone to help guide you on the rocky path of starting a business.

An experienced mentor can act as an anchor, a sounding board, or even just emotional support. Mentors can offer advice based not just on their successes, but on their failures as well. A mentor offers something you can’t manufacture: experience.

If you’re unconvinced by any of that, don’t forget that a successful businessperson also tends to come with a network of valuable connections, which can also drastically improve your chances.

2. Figure out your niche. 

You might have an amazing idea you’re passionate about, but if there’s no market for it, your excitement won’t be enough to turn it into a successful product. It’s crucial to do your research beforehand in order to find out what niche in society you can fill. Ask yourself what sort of demand you’ll create. Can you fill a void in the market or disrupt what’s already there?

To understand where your idea fits, you need to examine a variety of factors. This includes everything from the economy to the politics of the time to whatever legal requirements you may need to fulfill.

If you’re able, you should also test out your idea on your target demographic. This can be done in a variety of ways. You can set up a temporary landing page advertised to a small group of people, or you can go with a focus group or survey to determine consumer interest.

It’s important to remember this isn’t just about validation; it’s a chance for improvement. The more questions and criticisms you’re willing to entertain at the beginning of the process, the more bulletproof your idea will be when you actually roll it out.

3. Know your limitations.

One of the biggest challenges for many people with high ambitions is being honest with themselves. But the only way you can succeed is to truly understand your assets and liabilities. To borrow a phrase from “Dirty Harry,” a startup has got to know its limitations.

Of course, that can be easier said than done — which is why the SWOT analysis exists. An acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, this exercise is designed to identify external and internal advantages and obstacles that your business has to contend with. This offers a true reckoning of what you do well and what you need to work on, which you can then use to create a business plan that actually works for you.

When I was in third grade, our class built a kiln to fire pottery in art class, and my teacher gave me the position of foreman. I went home to my dad, who has always been my hero, and asked him what being a foreman was. He told me, “That’s the head honcho — the man in charge. You’re made for that.”

That little sentence was a blessing because he gave me something to reach for. And it’s why I can say this to you: Don’t let fear and doubt prevent you from becoming the successful entrepreneur you want to be. After all, you’re made for it.

 

The president and CEO of DeLine Holdings, Greg DeLine is an entrepreneur and philanthropist. Greg has started and owned more than a dozen successful companies. He has a passion for relationships and helping others reach their full potential. In addition to leading various companies, Greg is the president of the board for Phoenix Programs, past president and current board member of Love INC, and a Leadership Circle level sponsor of the Heart of Missouri United Way.

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