How to Turn Down Time Into New Business Opportunities
What could your Restaurant do with down time?
Could you:
Invite a mothers’ group
veterans’ group
book club
seniors group
to meet?
Could you blindfold yourself to smell your space, and listen to your space, for fifteen minutes?
Could you send staff out to local businesses where staff will really need a stretch in a couple of hours:
lawyers
realtors
insurance agents
financial services
with bite-sized samples?
What could your Office do with down time?
Could you:
Get a list together, and start sending birthday cards to past and present clients
or their spouses
or their dogs?
Could you watch your Mom navigate your website, looking for spots that trip her up, and ask her what’s missing from the Experience?
(No? Could you gather together the team and the information you need, to finally create that website you’ve been meaning to do?)
Could you email four trusted advisors:
your lawyer
your real estate agent
your insurance agent
your accountant
with a story or a bit of news to benefit them, just because you have this down time and you’re thinking of them?
What could your Store do with down time?
Could you:
use a wheelchair for an hour
come with a toddler
do a walkthrough not as the Ideal Customer, but the tired spouse of the Ideal Customer
to really understand how the Customer Experience could be improved?
Could you ask every guest who comes in today, “How Did You Find Us?”
Could you arrange to be a guest speaker at a monthly meeting for
lawyers
realtors
small business owners
women business owners
with information that will make them more successful, and also touches on your specialty?
What if your business is mainly Online (or in a zillion categories I didn’t mention)? See where this is going?
Could you:
get out on foot and get in touch
get inspired by a new Perspective
be of service to other professionals?
Do something fresh with an hour of down time this week. Maybe you’ll shake your head (“wish I’d known that before”); maybe your hands will shake, if the new activity is scary enough. Maybe you’ll make a new habit, maybe you’ll make new friends. Maybe you’ll turn your marketing on its ear and discover whole new ways to grow your business. Try it this week. Then maybe next week, it’ll be harder to find an hour of down time!
What happens when you step outside your comfort zone during down time? Is it better to rock the boat, or twiddle your thumbs? Tell us what you think!
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
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2 April 2008, 11:56 pm
I’ve always been a boat rocker. I’ll have periods where I just ride along smooth like. Bam I get bored! Time to rock the boat!Can you feel it start to wiggle?
3 April 2008, 12:45 am
The “me too” culture of relication can only result in homogeneity and saturation (let’s face it, anybody can copy), but differentiation is a completely different animal. It requires a different outlook and a different set of talents, however the result may be an edge. My business is set up a certain way, and I’ve introduced things that my competitors just can’t copy (their size and strucure would make it too problematic for them). This is a real challenge – is there anything about you or your business, or the way you operate, that allows you to offer things that are difficult to replicate?
shaun
3 April 2008, 6:48 am
Mark,
I agree with you. My comfort zone is a very fine place, until that moment when it isn’t. Right now I’m really rocking the boat for the MCE Blog (stay tuned for details, probably this weekend I’ll tell a bit about it), because though I love how it’s going, I really wanted to step outside my comfort zone. A little of each for me, too.
Shaun,
I agree. Differentiation, your USP, or what I call knowing what Ideal Solution you offer to the Ideal Customer’s problem—that is a huge challenge. A willingness to get out and grab the Ideal Customer in some way, rather than waiting passively for business to come to you, can be integral to that Ideal Solution, don’t you think? These days, with so many companies sitting on their corporate duffs, getting personal can even be part of your uniqueness.
Regards,
Kelly
3 April 2008, 6:08 pm
Down time? What’s that? Ha~!
Great brainstorming on the bricks+mortar businesses Kelly; but information workers also have occasional down time.
One trick for wise use is to have a list of “push-aheads” that you can quickly accomplish in any surprise (or random) short bit of down time. (Push-aheads is my term for actions that move the hero closer to her goal.)
Today’s example: a phoner got reskedded and I have 15 minutes free after sneaking in some stretches (or twitter or whatever); so my list of those clients I’d like to tickle gets a nice non-mass-like email (I like MyEmma.com) of an immediately useful article, resource, deadline reminder, etc. that’s found with one google on a few keywords that apply. Boom: I’ve provided 10 nice folks something they needed and, more importantly, let them feel attended to with no strings attached.
Today’s resource was a post on researching locations that I just found and loved over at Men With Pens.
Use your down time for your own R+R, for some P+Q, but also for your K+H (kiss & hugs) of your clientele and it will work for you as UP time~
[Thanks for posting over on the piquant ittyBiz - I'd never have found you/subbed otherwise.]
3 April 2008, 9:20 pm
GirlPie,
One thing I learned a while ago in writing a blog article is to stop filling in all the blanks. It’s hard because I’m a veteran thesis-writer, but I never get to hear other people’s cool ideas if I give all the answers!
Thanks for commenting. Your idea for an email “ping” to clients is great—for information workers or any workers.
I’m everywhere, within reason. You would have found me at MWP if not over at Naomi’s place. (Piquant, indeed!) MWP is one of my five or six “second homes.” Their writing is top-notch.
Regards,
Kelly