Are Your Scales Bright And Shiny?

As a little fish in the pond of big businesses, there are many small details that need to be taken care with the few fins you have. Although you can delegate some, if not most of the details to professionals in specific fields, you can't delegate "yourself" as a project, as you would bookkeeping.

Taking the responsibility of keeping yourself well groomed, well dressed, well rested and well fed will have you swimming circles around the competition. Not only will you be healthy and have lots energy as a result, your customers will perceive your company as also being healthy, professional and successful.

Analogy
When you go to a pet store or aquarium to look for the new addition to your fish tank, you'd never dream of choosing a fish that looked unhealthy to bring home. Instead you look for one with bright and shiny scales!

A strong fish will give you the longevity you'd expect from the investment you've just made and won't negatively affect the health of your existing fish and tank.

Keep Swimming Little Fish!

Are You Too Quiet For Your Own Good?

As a little fish in the pond of big businesses, you might find that you spend most of your time developing your product or service and not enough time telling others about what you do because you don't want to draw attention to yourself.

The secret to a successful business is not to attract attention to yourself, but instead to draw attention to the problem that your product or service solves for the prospective customer.

When you spend the time talking about the features and benefits of your business offerings and topics related to your industry, you educate your listeners, prime them as future prospects and as a result position yourself as the industry expert.

This approach is passionate, authentic, infectious and profitable.

Don't be shy. Look for opportunities this week to dialogue about the business you're passionate about!

Keep Swimming Little Fish!

Are You Waiting Until It's Too Late To Survey Your Customers?

Although you think your product or service offering may be unique and in high demand, have you taken the time to consider how your customer may feel about it?

Most conscientious business owners survey their customers, but unfortunately most of those same business owners do so after the fact, at a time when it's too late to do anything about the negative experience their customer may have had.

Conducting ongoing dialogue with your customer during the entire course of a project or business transaction will keep you informed every step of the way of how your customer feels about doing business with you and your company. This ongoing communication will provide you with the necessary information needed to change, correct or enhance your customer's experience before it's too late.

Analogy

Consider a marriage. If a couple doesn't openly communicate regularly in efforts to continuously improve their relationship, it's likely that they will end up in divorce without knowing how they got there in the first place.

This "continuous" style of surveying shows your customer that you greatly value their business and that you want to continue the relationship.

Keep Swimming Little Fish!

Little Fish Have A Huge Impact

As a little fish in the pond of big businesses, it's sometimes hard to recognize the impact you have on your industry and our economy. According to Statistics Canada, 2008:

• 1997-2007 - Small firms accounted for 37% of all jobs created

• 2007 - 48% of the total labor force worked for small enterprises

• 30% of all Canadians either run or work for a small business

• 2006 - Small businesses accounted for approximately 23% of Canada's GDP (almost double compared to two decades ago)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says,

"Small businesses are, in fact, the backbone of the Canadian economy, accounting for 98% of all businesses in Canada."

Be proud to be small. Next time someone says that your business is too small; tell them that you at least have backbone.

Keep swimming Little Fish!

Are You Striking Out?

As a little fish in the pond of big businesses, it's easy to get excited about every opportunity that comes your way. Carefully analyzing your options to be sure they line up with your business model and planning, will have you making better decisions for a more profitable future.

Just because you're being offered a new product or service, it doesn't mean it's the right answer for your business and it certainly doesn't mean you have to subscribe to it.

Analogy

You've finally been invited to play in the big league and you can't wait to get up to bat. Before you can blink a few times, the pitcher is throwing balls at you and you start swinging away. Some of them are a bit beyond your reach, but you're so grateful to be playing their game, that you swing at every baseball that comes your way and strike out on the third pitch.

Know your plan and how you want to play your game and before you know it, you'll be winning.

Keep Swimming Little Fish!

Do Your Customers Come Back For Seconds?

As a little fish in the pond of big businesses, it's not enough to rely on passion alone for what you do, to keep bringing in customers. You need to have a plan with processes in place, so that when a client decides to give you a break and try your company, you're able to deliver on your brand's promise of quality, value, service, results and integrity. You may not get a second chance to impress them.

Analogy

A turkey that smells good, looks good and tastes good is exactly what your guests expect, but the problem is that you've never cooked a turkey before. You're don't know how long to thaw it for if you've bought a frozen bird, you don't have any stuffing recipes, you don't know if you should season it with sage or sugar, you're not sure at what temperature to cook it at, and you don't know for how long to cook the turkey. All you know is that you've sent out the most welcoming and mouth watering invitation for a turkey dinner, that all who received it, accepted it with great excitement.

When Thanksgiving day finally came, you thought you could just go ahead and start cooking with no preparation. Your guests sat in anticipation while their tummies rumbled, but when they cut into their turkey, it was pink. Not only did they not eat what was on their plates, they clearly didn't ask for seconds and gracefully declined next year's invitation to turkey dinner.

Keep Swimming Little Fish!

Should You Continue Growing Your Business Once You've Reached Your Goal?

As a little fish, you start out with a vision of what you want your business to look like in a few years. You work diligently at mastering your trade and developing your client base and before you know it, your business is full. However, once it's full, you stop, and switch your vision from growth, over to preservation.

Have you considered what would happen if you stopped growing your business?

Analogy

One drop at a time, you've filled your cup to the brim. You hold and balance your cup, so that nothing spills out from it and don't dare add to it, because your cup may overflow.

If you don't add fresh water to you cup:

1 Your water will get stale and smelly and no one will want to come near it

2 Your water will evaporate, leaving you with less and less every day

Continually growing in knowledge, adding improved methodologies and developing your expertise, means you're ultimately adding clients and positioning your company for longevity!

Keep Swimming Little Fish!