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Entrepreneurs Are Easy Prey

by Alicia Arenas on September 3, 2010

Entrepreneurs need help. They need to make money, they need referrals, advice and wisdom. They also tend to be very good at what they do and not so good at running a business. If this sounds like you, be careful – you are easy prey.

Your predators won’t hide in the brush around the watering hole. They will come out to meet you with smiles on their faces, offer you a handshake, ask for your business card and offer to “help” you. You’ll take a close look and find them to be intelligent and friendly. But because of your profound needs and naivete, you don’t see the trap they are setting for you.

For example:

I downloaded a free e-book and two weeks later a company rep called me. After introducing himself he said, “Alicia, I took some time to review your website and I have some suggestions to help you optimize it. Would you let me help you?” He did not want to help me. He wanted to sell me his company’s product.

One of my clients was approached by a magazine with an exciting opportunity. The magazine offered to help her get more exposure by writing a column for them. Really? This magazine with whom you’ve had no prior contact wants to offer you a free column? She double-checked and of course, their “help” with the free column meant she would need to purchase ad space.

Another client was given a referral from a friend. My client had an initial consultation and secured a contract. When he called to thank his friend for the referral, the friend’s response was “I’m so glad that worked out for you. My referral fee is 20%.”

Perhaps you’ve hear of or even experienced other horror stories like an entrepreneur whose proprietary ideas were stole because she trusted the wrong person. Or someone’s brand being compromised because he endorsed someone without fully vetting them first.

All of these problems started because someone offered to “help” them.

A Healthy Dose of Skepticism

“Help” means different things to different people. When you offer to help someone, you may have no expectations of getting paid or receiving anything in return. But to assume everyone else thinks that way is unwise. For someone else, helping may mean they give assistance only to those that pay them. You won’t know until you clarify everyone’s expectations.

Questions To Ask When Someone Wants To Help Your Business

1 – Why does this person want to help me?

2 – What do they hope to gain by helping me?

3 – What will I need to do in exchange for their help?

4 – Is their help “free” and without conditions?

5 – In what ways will I be obligated if I accept their help?

There are kind and generous people in this world. But those fabulous people are exceptions, not the rule. Cultivate a healthy dose of skepticism. It might be the very thing that saves you.

Photo courtesy of gcoldiron2003.

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My Blogging Ethical Dilemma

by Alicia Arenas on August 23, 2010

I haven’t written a blog post in three weeks. I’ve tried. I’ve sat in front of my computer screen almost every day and attempted to come up with something meaningful, smart and witty. But it didn’t happen. So I decided to stop trying so I could figure out what was going on and I realized that I was having an ethical dilemma: Where do we draw the line as bloggers?

My husband and I had a rash of crappy customer experiences in July. We went to one of our favorite restaurants and were treated terribly. We bought two new bikes and were treated even worse there. Then my car broke down. Based on how it behaved, we thought it was the transmission. Less than thrilled about spending $3k for a new one, we had it towed to the closest mechanic shop, one we had not used before. Later that day, my husband received a phone call from them and the manager said, “Mr. Arenas, I would love to sell you a new transmission, but I can’t. You need a new alternator.”

Full stop.

An honest mechanic? Isn’t that a contradiction in terms? If they told us it was the transmission, we would have believed them. But they chose to act ethically and treat us honestly which cost them a $3k sale.

On a high from this amazing experience, I wrote a blog post praising this business. I described what happened, gave the name of the business, included links to their site, mentioned the people with whom we spoke and said that they are an example of how making the right decision in the short term leads to long-term success. I was ready to send it out on Twitter and Facebook with recommendations but decided to wait until after we picked up the car.

When we got there, the manager changed his tune. He said that they found something else wrong with car. He said that when they changed some belts for us, they discovered that hoses were not connected to the transmission properly; they were damaged and needed to be replaced. He also said that since the car is a Nissan, the hoses were expensive, had to be special ordered and would take at least 3 days to come in. What he didn’t know is that my automotive-savvy husband had installed the hoses himself and, by the way, he bought the special, expensive hoses from Auto Zone for a few bucks.

Besides being angry, I was really disappointed and I had a decision to make. I had written a post praising the business. Should I now write a post about what they did and warn people to stay away?

Three days later, a heated discussion was happening on one of my favorite HR blogs, Rehaul by Lance Haun. Because someone posted some controversial tweets during a conference presentation, Lance asked the very question I was grappling with – “What Do We Say? When Do We Hold Back?” (You can find the discussion here; be sure to read the comments.)

Where do we draw the line? When do we write about poor experiences? When do we call people out? How detailed do we get? Is it socially responsible to share the negative things that happen to us? Do we veil our written contempt for a business by giving them suggestions on how to improve? (Suggestions they will probably never see?) Do we only give names and places when the experience is positive? Does the idea of never saying anything in public you wouldn’t say to someone face to face always apply?

These are important questions that we need to answer, that I needed to answer. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

What we choose to write affects how other people see us. So we need to decide how much others’ perceptions matter to us and our brands, what risks we are willing to take and prepare for the consequences. For me that means I need to decide which battles I want to fight publicly on this blog.

Franny Oxford had this to say in Lance’s discussion and I thought it was brilliant “…generally we don’t know our own strength or how big our audience might be. There aren’t any good answers – the internet is made up of humans, and we get it wrong all the time. Certainly, I do. But I also think that cutting each other some slack and treating people how we’d like to be treated can go a long way. Even on twitter.” She’s right in everything she said, especially that most people don’t understand the influence they have in social media. “To whom much is given, much shall be required.” Luke 12: 48

For now, I’ve decided not to call out the mechanic on my blog. But I’m still grappling with the bigger questions. I’d love to know what you think.

PS – I think I’m out of my blogging rut and I’m looking forward to bringing more regular posts to you.

There aren’t any good answers – the internet is made up of humans, and we get it wrong all the time. Certainly, I do. But I also think that cutting each other some slack and treating people how we’d like to be treated can go a long way. Even on twitter.

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Why Your Business Is Not Changing

by Alicia Arenas on July 27, 2010

Have you read John Maxwell’s book Thinking For A Change?

In it, Maxwell asks a provocative question: “Do you know what most people’s number one challenge is when it comes to making positive personal changes?”

Several answers came to mind:

A positive support system is missing.
Limited finances.
Lack of knowledge.

Here is Maxwell’s answer: “It’s their feelings. They want to change, but don’t know how to get past their emotions.”

Feelings? Really?

I thought about this from the perspective of small business owners. In the clients I coach, 1-3 come up regularly.

“My family doesn’t believe in me.”
“We’re broke.”
“I’m good at _____, but I don’t know how to run a business.”

Yet there are entrepreneurs who have all those things in place and are still not reaching their goals. Why aren’t they? Why aren’t you?

Maxwell proposes that the only way to make positive change is to change the way we think. He suggests that our actions/decisions come from our feelings and our feelings come from our thoughts. He believes that if we control our thoughts, we will control our feelings which will in turn, cause us to make good decisions.

Thoughts →Feelings→Actions.

Our Beliefs Determine Our Success

I agree with Maxwell and I’d like to take this idea a bit further. It is my humble opinion that every action we take, every decision we make stems from not just what we think, but what we believe about ourselves (internal beliefs) and what we believe about the world around us (external beliefs). This is an important distinction because at times, our core beliefs are different from what we logically know. And often, we are led more by our core beliefs than by the objective data we hold in our minds. Our core beliefs are at the root of our behaviors.

Haven’t you seen this in yourself or others:

I’m not as smart as _______. = Declining invitations to work on projects.

I’m not good at sales. = A low closing percentage.

God doesn’t want me to be successful = Consciously or subconsciously, this person sabotages their own success.

I must be perfect = Not taking risks.

If an employee believes nothing he/she does will impact the company, this person becomes complacent.

Conversely,

If you believe each “failure” brings you one step closer to success, you will keep trying.

If you believe you are fully able to overcome challenges, no mountain will ever be too big to climb.

If you believe in the greater purpose of what you do, you will have a well-spring of energy and enthusiasm.

Beliefs→Thoughts →Feelings→Actions→Success.

Our beliefs drive our thinking. Our thoughts impact our feelings. How we feel determines our actions. Our actions determine our success.

The First Step To Correcting Your Course

Assuming our success comes from our beliefs, it becomes even more important to evaluate our core beliefs – particularly those that are false and limiting. This is the first step to change our actions and increase our success.

If I may, that is my challenge for you this week: Identify the core beliefs that are holding you back.You may be able to name them immediately or you may need to dig a little bit. In either case, knowing what they are will bring you closer to changing them (which I’ll address in upcoming posts.)

What do you think? Or perhaps the better question is what do you believe?

Photo courtesy of Chris Runoff via Flickr

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How To Name Your Business

by Alicia Arenas on July 13, 2010

“How do I choose a name for my business?” It’s an important question.

Run your ideas for a business name through some of these filters and see what you get:

1. Is the url available?

If not, look for something else. The synergy of having your company name match yourcompanyname.com is too important to ignore.

2. Is it naturally optimized for search?

If the name of your company contains what someone would look for on Google, Bing or Yahoo, you’ve just scored major search engine optimization (SEO) points. For example, you are a PR pro in Santa Monica. People looking for PR assistance in Santa Monica will more than likely type “PR Santa Monica” into Google. If the name of your company is santamonicapr.com, Google elevates your ranking.

3. How short is it?

People don’t want to type or thumb something with a lot of letters in it. It sounds petty, but this is the world in which we live.

4. Is the name easy to spell?

You want your target market to find you easily. If misspelling the name of your company will lead your target customer to a blank web page or worse, to one of your competitors’ pages, you’ve got a problem. If, however, you’re married to the difficult name you’ve chosen, consider scooping up the .coms for the misspelled version of your name and have those redirect to your main website.

5. What does the name look like as a url?

(PG-13) Your perfect name may spell something entirely different when pushed together as a url. In the mid-90’s there was a national insurance company named Titan who was working on their new marketing program called Titan Us. They bought the domain name, created billboards, tv and radio commercials. Literally two weeks before the launch, an employee saw the previews and noticed what Titan Us spelled as one word… Titan immediately changed the campaign to Titan Up.

6. Is the trademark available?

Just because you are small now doesn’t mean you’ll be small forever. Imagine this: The brand recognition you’ve worked so hard to develop finally gains regional or even national attention. Your sales are up, your profits are up, you are strategically planning to expand and… you’re served with a lawsuit for trademark violation. The few hundred you spend now to have an attorney do a trademark search will mitigate the thousands you will spend later in a lawsuit. And if you lose, you will spend thousands more on re-branding with a new logo, tag line, website, marketing materials, business cards, etc.

7. Does it transcend time?

This one is a little controversial so we’ll look at both sides of it.

Is the name of your business so specific that if you change directions or expand in the future, the name no longer applies? For example, you might run a small tutoring business called Math Wiz For Kids. If you ever decide to tutor college age students (or even adult students completing their degrees), your name could be detrimental.

On the other hand, if you’ve carefully selected your target market, having that target market in your name can be a useful marketing tool.

Whichever way you choose to go, consider this carefully as there are significant hard costs associated with re-branding (see #3). And the soft costs of re-branding can be even more devastating: people become confused about who you are and what you do and/or you can lose your following.

8. Does it transcend trends?

A great example is using “consultant” or “consulting” in your name. In the 90’s having a business consultant was the thing to do. (Kind of like high-waist jeans.) Companies that had consultants were taken more seriously and anyone who wanted to be someone had one or more consultants. Today, on an emotional level, the word “consultant” is immediately associated with expensive, unpractical advice. That and conducting kum-ba-yah retreats where employees burn their feet. (Consulting is part of what we do at Sanera, but it’s not a part of my company’s name. And we don’t do fire-walking by the way.)

As another example, let’s take a look at “coaching.” Today, having a coach to help you with your business, sales, or health & fitness goals is popular. But what will be associated with the words “coach” or “coaching” in 10 years? Will they conjur up the same negative feeling that consultant carries now?

9. Does it transcend technology?

We all need to be conscious of this. The technology we took for granted 10 years ago barely exists today. Linking your name to a technology could make your business name obsolete. For example, in 10 years, will “social media” be what email is to us today – outdated and a communication platform that is rarely used?

How did you select your business name? What advice can you share?

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What I’ve Learned From Rejection

by Alicia Arenas on July 8, 2010

Have you ever faced rejection? Perhaps your cold calling hit a dead end or your proposals have been rejected?

Some people told me I shouldn’t write this post. Their concern was that I might look bad or I might discredit myself by telling this story. But the truth is that we all face rejection. And the more we talk about it, the more help and understanding everyone gains (which is the purpose of this blog). So the spirit of learning from other peoples’ experience, here is the story I wrote several weeks ago:

————————————————————————————————

Life is funny. My last two posts were about building relationships (here and here). And then today happened.

I was at a networking event two weeks ago and met a super-smart woman who moved to San Antonio from out of state. She opened up a brand new business three months ago. After the meeting she expressed an interest in my services. We had a short conversation and I followed up with an email. Normally, I would follow up my email with a phone call. But because I was impressed with her and excited about her new business, I took my own advice and decided to be extraordinary. So I marched myself to the store, bought a card, a gift bag with tissue paper and put a small gift inside it. In the card, I wrote a note congratulating her on her new business and wished her the best.

I dropped by unannounced and she wasn’t at the office. Her assistant told me she would be back in an hour and I told him that I would run some errands and come back.

An hour later, I happily walked into her office with the beautiful gift bag in my hand. Seeing her, I smiled, said hello and shook her hand. I said, “I brought a little something for you,” and handed her the gift.

She looked at the bag like I was handing her a bucket of swine flu. She blurted out, “I’m not going to use your service so you don’t need to give me anything!”

Me: Excuse me?

Her: I don’t plan to use your services right now, so you don’t have to give me a gift.

Me: That’s not why I’m giving you the gift. I bought this for you because I wanted to congratulate you on your new business. If the time isn’t right for you to use my services, that’s okay.

Her: Silence.

I shoved the gift in her hand and for whatever reason, she started to make small talk.

I wish I could tell you that I shook it off, but unfortunately, it got to me – a lot. I drove 40 miles (one way) to see her. I spent $25+ on the gift bag, tissue paper, gift and card. I wanted her to feel special; yet in that moment, she was rude and uncaring and I was deeply hurt by her response. She took my gesture of kindness and pooed all over it. It was a slap in the face.

I began to doubt myself and wondered, “What did I do wrong?” “What did I do to deserve that response?” “Was it something I said?”

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Fast forward to today. Time brings the benefit of a clearer perspective. The questions that I ask myself now are, “Did her assistant tell her a salesperson came by?” “What kind of awful experiences has she had that would cause her to react in that way?” “Was I the recipient of her frustration with things that had nothing to do with me?” I don’t know the answers. But I do know this:

What I’ve Learned From Rejection

1. Giving extraordinary service can sometimes result in extraordinarily negative reactions. Let’s face the facts. Not everyone is ready for innovative, creative and different. It freaks some people out.

2. A past failure is just that – in the past. We don’t have the luxury of wallowing in the aftermath of bad experiences. Just because one person doesn’t care for our brand or approach, doesn’t mean other people will reject us too. Figure out how or what to improve. Then resolve to move on and stay the course.

Do you have any rejection stories? What rejection advice do you have for small business owners?

Photo courtesy of gogoloopie.

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The Slowkey Pokey – How To Turn Yourself Around

June 29, 2010

It happens. Business slows down.
Most people look at slow periods as a bad thing. But not you! You are a super-star! You refuse to think like everyone else around you. So let’s shout a collective, “Bull Feathers!” to being discouraged during slow times. This time is a gift. Use it to do good things for [...]

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What You Need To Know About Your Competition

June 22, 2010

True story: With high expectations, I recently attended a conference held by a nationally renowned company. Surprisingly, the company’s speakers weren’t very good and most of the curriculum was rehashed information I saw in other programs for years. The company was shocked by the lack of enthusiasm from the attendees. And we were shocked to [...]

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3 Reasons Why You Should Be Like Edward Cullen

June 9, 2010

My husband supervises mostly women and after work one day he asked me, “What is it about the Twilight movies?” I immediately thought about Edward in the first movie, desperate to save Bella’s life while struggling to control his thirst. I remembered when he told her she was everything he had searched for in 100 [...]

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Step Away From the Incubator

June 7, 2010

I’ve been thinking a lot about babies. My nephew’s wife is pregnant and so is one of my good friends. I’ve enjoyed seeing their bellies grow and studying sonogram pictures to figure out whose nose the baby has. We don’t have children so it’s fascinating to me.
Several years ago a dear friend of mine was [...]

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What I’ve Learned From Rejection

June 4, 2010

Have you ever faced rejection? Perhaps your cold calling hit a dead end or your proposals have been rejected?
Some people told me I shouldn’t write this post. Their concern was that I might look bad or I might discredit myself by telling this story. But the truth is that we all face rejection. And [...]

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