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Business Optimization - Think Like Your Customer
Second blog post. Much different go at it this time. Business optimization. My key tenants to optimizing a business are: 1) Customer Attraction, 2) Customer Retention, and 3) Financial leanness. Seems obvious but so many businesses I'm involved with forget these simple things. Either they're too big to care or too young to know.
Customer attraction. They key here is to know what people like and know how people work. People want what they want. It's either a transactional opportunity, in which you must (essentially) interview them to know all the key points to what they're wanting out of the interaction with your business; or they want to be entertained, in which you must design your business around the types of clientele you want to attract. Will kids be involved? Will the elderly be involved? Health-gurus, foodies, jocks, smokers, etc.? Design an environment that is hospitable to those individuals you want. And, remember, the customer is always right. This concept seems to have died at some point where businesses started telling people what is "right" or what they want sometime in the 2010s... but the concept still rings true and the businesses that remember this will win in the long-run.
Customer retention. First, you must have a good product or service... but honestly that's not always going to win-out. You must cater to the individuals while they're there. Be efficient and don't over do it with a single patron, but make sure they know you care they're there. And give them something to leave with, even if not your product or service. A soda. A bag of popcorn. A flyer. A memory. You need to ensure they don't forget you and have a unique and enjoyable experience while they're at your business or speaking with you over the phone. And don't be afraid to be bold. Don't lie, but be confident and direct about what you can do for their lives.
Financial leanness. This is where the accountants come in. Set a dollar sign on everything. Know where the money's at and where the money's going. Don't over do it to where your employees or customers notice the penny items. I once worked at a place where they started removing things because they were too expensive... like straws. What the heck? Half of people want straws. Don't be cheap. Be lean. And don't be afraid to judge everything in your business for what it's money-making potential is. Attach, not only, a dollar sign in it's value, but also a dollar sign in what it's potential value is. Intrinsically and extrinsically.
Anyways. Kind of obvious stuff but it's stuff people forget.
Over and out.
First Blog Post - Be happy. Someone's always watching.
Hello. This is my first published blog post. I have so much to say... but where to start? I've lived such a weird life with so series' of unfortunate events surrounded by a structure of fortitude... or protection... or watchers? It's almost, at this point, seemingly... a Truman Show-type movie script. I say this not out of oddness or trying to catch attention... but literally it's gotten to the point where logic and reason portrays a sense of education or grooming that can't take place without watchful eyes above. Call it God, or Allah, or Jesus, or Shiva... or literally whatever you want. Probably a combination of them all. That's what I've built my way of life and understanding of the universe around at least, at this point. Maybe that's a psychological defense mechanism designed to help me put up with series' of setbacks and subsequent accomplishments, or, overcoming hurdles or challenges in life? Not sure.
I think the basic gist of what I've learned is that life is not a box of chocolates. It's a structure of being and awareness and a meandering through what our senses, inhibitions, and past experiences point us towards. We can't all be whatever we want. I've tried my whole life to be what and whom I want to be. A learner. A good person. A husband. A father. A leader. A follower (of those I look up to, of which, there are many). No matter how hard I try the only things I've truly allowed to be is a learner and, with that, a learner of how to be a good person in a world filled with so much hate and pain. I think that's why I share as much as I do. Because I've learned so much through so much pain and hate that there are ways to still be good. Which brings me to maybe the most important question in the world... what is good?
Good, in my mind, is always trying to do the thing that will bring a cohesive happiness, joy, stability, etc. among others. And i define happiness as a natural (as much as possible) production of the chemicals in our mind that make us want to persist. Serotonin. Dopamine. At times testosterone or estrogen and whatever other chemicals that help us become the person we are, and the person we hope to be. Back to the cohesive happiness part. What does that mean? I always bring everything down to the basics... you'll learn that about me... the simplest path, when all else is chaos (as it usually is to some degree) is the straight line from A to B. For me, in this context, goes back to preschool and the simplest things my mother and father taught me. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Don't lie. Be yourself. If one does that in a group setting, they'll be treated with respect, even if disliked. And dislike isn't a bad thing... its usually temporary anyways as we all have pet peeves and traumas that we harken back to when we experience something we find distasteful. Again, back to the cohesiveness thing. The one thing that is required in that is a group goal. If there's a tribe or a nation or a world or even something as simple as a classroom or family unit... we all need goals. They should be stated and understood... so then even when the distasteful stuff comes up, everyone understands that there is a goal that you, we, or whatever, are all working towards.
What should that goal be? I, having grown up in a mostly American way of life, have always been about pursuing happiness. Especially as it's been so difficult to hold on to for long. That goes back to the chemical bonds that form in our minds and bodies. But don't let chemistry overtake the fact that most of that can be done through real-life things. Healthy foods and drinks. Less-than healthy food and drinks, in moderation. And, most importantly, healthy social bonds that bring smiles to faces for just being around that person. You can't replace a human (or even animal) bond that brings a smile to your face. Assuming it's a productive, non-long-term damaging smile event. :)
Back to the Truman Show. It's a great Jim Carrey movie. One of my favorite actors. An underrated one, to be honest. Anyways, the movie is about a man who's lived his whole life in a bubble of a world, watched on TV by an outside world he only starts to understand and discover as the movie progresses. The script and programmatic coincidences start overwhelming the real-feeling that Jim learned was reality. It touches on god as well. Just assume that his god is the people who watch him. Anyways, eventually Jim breaks out and its a fascinating and sad, but happy at the same time, ending to the movie. I've been through a lot of therapy... and one of the approaches I've taken is to live like Jim in this movie. How would you act if you knew people were watching you? I've tried to be the best person I could be, while also trying to survive in such a psychological setting. And also, I've tried to put logic to why that would be the case. That's been helpful at times. Eventually you become an interesting person. I have at least. But I still harken the things I was taught in grade school. Be yourself. Pursue happiness. So I be silly and satirical and dance and play and work my butt off. I get mad, too. But I've learned so many psychological and therapeutic tools that help me get out of that. Being angry is a very hard way to live. Especially on your own. People die from that.
Anyways. Kind of a weird first blog post. But that's what's on my mind. In the future I'll talk about space, mental health, business, my life, and some of the theories I've put together throughout it. There's loads of them (as my Australian friends would put it).