These Guys Should Be

Every time I talk to those guys I feel like I need a shower,” whispers a friend last week.

Lunchtime, and he’d just managed to shoo the guys from the next building out of his office, after twenty excruciating minutes. “He talked on and on and I still have no idea and don’t care.” What’s my friend’s problem with the owners next door?

I guess the real estate thing didn’t work out. They don’t even have a sign anymore. This week it’s, ‘We’re doing an Internet thing now. And we do dry cleaning pickup. And we’re doing some custom framing, too.’ I almost asked, house framing or pictures?, but then I was afraid he’d answer. If he stayed one more minute I know he would have told me there’s a free set of Ginsu knives with every order.”

Can you hang a sign?

I’ve heard about them before but I don’t know any details. The thing that struck me is, how could they have a sign up? If they don’t have a focused Vision of what they do, what would they tell their designer to put on the sign?

You may have heard advice about having a different business card for each business you are involved in, or each situation you run into. Maybe these guys have heard it, too. They just come to talk to my friend, not to sell, but perhaps they have their pockets coded for sales situations (left front is real estate, right is Internet-thing, back left is dry cleaning, back right is framing…).

Three little words:

This is BAD.

You have lots of interests. You’re a Renaissance person extraordinaire. Great. You can’t do it all for a living.

Nope, sorry. You can’t.

How did my friend open that conversation? “Every time I talk to those guys I feel like I need a shower.” They make him feel slimy. They’re fly-by-night. They’re experts in nothing at all. If I gave them real-estate-thing dollars two months ago, and they’re picking up dry cleaning today, what happened to my dough? If I give them framing money today, but they’re feeling more like dry-cleaning-drivers, how high will the quality of their work for me be? Who would ever buy anything from these guys? Please, believe me: You can’t do it all for a living.

If you can’t fit it on a sign, forget it. You don’t have to have a sign (if you work from home you probably won’t, but if you’re not at home for heaven’s sake do get one designed now! Don’t hide your business from the world).

You have to get yourself out of the coded-pockets thinking, if you ever want to be taken seriously. One sign. One business card. ONE business.

No more commitment phobia

It’s time to walk down the aisle. Just you, and that special business. The one that you want to shout to the world: “I’m ready to spend more than just the next couple of weeks with this one!” You’ve flirted, you’ve courted, you’ve considered others, but you and I know that you’ve found The One, because you took these steps:

Find your thrill. Research, then focus like a laser. You’ve looked into it thoroughly. Maybe you’ve had help with this stage. (Need help?) You’ve found a real Pain Point that real people have, and that they have the money to fix. You provide their Ideal Solution.

Yes, knowing your Ideal Customer this well takes research. Do it before you throw your time and money out the window! If your business description involves the word “thing” (“real estate thing,” “Internet thing”), you are not done. Get outside Perspective.

Know what you love so well that no one else knows as much as you, within your target market. If you’re replaceable, you’ll be replaced sooner or later. Be the go-to expert.

Love what you do so much that you couldn’t possibly switch to some different business tomorrow if skies are cloudy. When you are committed, you’ll work it out. You’ll find a creative way to bring what you know and love (that Ideal Solution) to your Ideal Customer, because love (of your work) means doing whatever it takes. You have to be your number one brand Propheteer. Nobody should sing the praises of your business in quite the devoted tones that you do.

Haven’t taken those steps yet?

Are you still clinging to your commitment phobia? The aisle’s short and sweet, and there’s far more business on the other end. Take one little step at a time and your business will make more money:

I will find my thrill.

I will know what I love, and become The expert at it.

I do love what I do.

That didn’t hurt at all. You’re committed now, or re-committed if you’re an established business owner who’s gotten a little off track. I’ll see you around as your business grows, and I’ll be sure to throw some rice.

What would your sign say? Are you committed?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

Can You Plan for Customer Joy?

I sat at lunch finishing a proposal today. I’m at my favorite bagel shop* where, if I weren’t so busy, I’d notice that I’m having a lousy time. The diet Coke, my caffeinated lifeline, is watery, and the Italian Chicken Panini, which I indulge in only when I can afford the kcals, is gummy with cheese and nearly devoid of chicken.

I eat half (no kcal worries at least), give up, and go back to writing. On the face of it this is not a plan for customer joy.

While I’m lost in my own head, a half an hour passes. The Manager offers to clear my table (why I love this place—a clear table to spread out my work! I’m always there at an off hours, not taking room from a needy eater, and they make a peaceful haven for me to think). I look up for just enough time to say Oh, sure, and dive back into the work.

Maybe he notices my food is half-eaten, maybe it’s just his routine, but he pauses a moment in silence. I look up again.

How was everything today?

I consider the work I’m trying to do right now, then the work of Maximum Customer Experience that I do every day, and though it’s unlikely to make it up the corporate chain I stop, and decide to very politely tell him that one of his most loyal customers who will not hold it against him permanently had a terrible time, now that you mention it.

He asks questions. He probes deeper. Was the flavor right, even though the proportions were off? Yes. He has a look of genuine concern on his face. He makes me feel that he will look right into it. Though I’m not into being known at the place, I suspect that I am regular enough that he knows me a little. I ask for no resolution and he doesn’t offer anything.

(Now that I think of it, that’s almost odd—managers seem to comp things as a knee-jerk reaction these days. I think he just actually cared, and was really listening. Hmm.)

Cynical me says: I don’t think corporate drilled this into him, and I think the conversation was entirely dependent on the individual standing in front of me.

Experience Designer me says: Does that mean that corporate can’t engineer this? No.

Get right on it, Einstein’s (and you readers, too). Engineer your human interactions. Plan this part of the Experience. That doesn’t mean scripting behavior: It means scripting outcomes. It’s not the words your employees use, but the delight they are able to give to customers and prospects, that counts. Make sure every member of your team is empowered to make the customer’s day better than when they walked in the door (or clicked on your site, or called you…).

Did he look right into the great Panini debacle? It (almost) doesn’t matter. I know it was probably just a fluke. He made me feel he would, and that’s what left this customer feeling good after eating subpar food. Writing again, about my favorite bagel shop.

Whether you’re a one-(wo)man band, or managing hundreds, what does your company do to encourage awesome (human) Interactive Experience? How do you plan for delighted customers?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

*Einstein Bros., Marsh Road north of Wilmington, Delaware

Customer Experience in the Land of the Blue LilyPad

Part One: CommentLuv

Several weeks ago, a great new feature started popping up on blogs all over the Internet. The feature (aka plug-in, aka widget) is called CommentLuv, and I instantly wanted it, badly, for this very blog. I expected to see massive growth in comments on blogs that use it, and I wanted to be one of those. Creating a community here, sharing Experience Design stories, tips, and tricks is a big part of the big picture.

CommentLuv, to explain it briefly, encourages bloggers to comment by finding their own latest post and writing its title as a linked (clickable) footnote to their comment. You can see it in action (where I first did) here; it’s also in use here, and here.

Why is this bound to cause explosive growth? One, a bit of vanity (like everyone else, blog writers like to see themselves in the mirror). Far more importantly, publicity. If you are a blog frequenter this may shock you but many people do not know that clicking on a commenter’s’ name will take you to their website if they have one. Linking back to yourself within a comment, too often or too blatantly, is considered rather bad form. (I do it, but discretely, if I think it helps a conversation.) This plug-in promotes you without making it look gaudy, so that experienced and inexperienced readers will know not just that you have something to say elsewhere, but also that your latest post may have interest for them. Classic advertising: Attention, Interest; if the Desire is created by your post title, the clickable Action is right in front of the reader. Simple and glorious.

At the first place I saw it in action, I stopped and asked the author, David Airey, what that snazzy new feature was and where I could get it. He told me, and I sent an email off to the plug-in’s creator, drooling. This is when I found out it can’t be had for TypePad right now. The programming to work with TypePad was not of the kind he normally does, and he couldn’t get any useful help, so he’d decided against it.

I was not deterred. I asked a couple of programmers I know if they could help him out, but none of them had the specialized knowledge necessary.

I was not deterred. I opened a ticket and asked TypePad, since I couldn’t find anything on their Knowledge Base (FAQs) about how to contact them re: Rockin’ New Widgets They’ve Got to Make Available to Attract Customers With Cutting-Edge Features.

This is what I wrote:

Dear TypePad,

I am writing because there is a relatively new plug-in out there that I really believe you would like to know about. I found out about it a few days ago, wrote to the blogger whose site I saw it on, and then wrote to the plug-in’s creator….

The plug-in searches for a commenter’s most recent post (on their own blog), and creates an automatic link to it at the bottom of their comment, like a signature. You can see it in use on http://www.logodesignlove.com/ just click on any individual entry that has comments.

You can tell from the email [which was] below that I’m not in any way affiliated with the man who created the plug-in. I have no interest other than thinking that if TypePad could help this guy out with whatever knowledge he lacks to make it happen for TypePad, it could be a real boon to Typepad bloggers. Basically, I wish I could have the thing, because it’s a fantastic way to encourage comments! The two sites I’ve seen using it are getting comments like wildfire, which increases your blog’s standing, and who doesn’t want that!

… I hope you’ll consider helping this guy to get his cool plug-in to work on TypePad….

Regards,

Kelly

They wrote back, saying that Help couldn’t do anything, I should check their parent company’s FAQs.

I was not deterred. I checked said FAQs, discovered they were written in Klingon, and decided since at last I was in the correct place, I would write Six Apart (TypePad’s parent company). Here’s naïve: not only had I expected someone from TypePad Help to take the initiative and run down the hallway to the appropriate person and make this happen, whether it was technically their job or not, I still expected this from Six Apart.

This was their response:

Recently you requested personal assistance from Six Apart Support. Below is a summary of your request and our response.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you….

Hi Kelly,

Thanks for your message, … if you are looking for help for a developer on how he can get his plug-in working with TypePad, you would need to have him join the Six Apart Professional Network. [This is the place where Klingon is spoken.]

Thanks,

TypePad Technical Services
Six Apart, Ltd.

Very personal. Not going to make it happen, and don’t care if he makes it happen, either. Sorry, not seeking money-making, customer-delighting innovations at this time (or any other).

Finally, I was deterred.

You can not see CommentLuv in action on the Maximum Customer Experience Blog.   :(

Part Two: Subscribe to Comments

So it’s Friday. I’m working on two projects at once, and I have four “little” personal (blog) projects planned for my loosely-termed “weekend,” it’s late afternoon, and I’m hungry. Taking five minutes off, I’ll just peek at Men With Pens, I say to myself. I get accidentally (?) involved in a long comment discussion, which I will not repeat here, during which one thing I meant to deal with long ago but never got back to is brought up: allowing commenters here at the MCE Blog to subscribe to comments. No problem, I say, everybody’s got that; before I even respond on MWP I’ll go get that taken care of…

Not.

All I could find in the Knowledge Base was info about getting an RSS feed for comments for your sidebar. Better than nothing, but not what I really want. Even that’s a process. It involves asking permission for TypePad to turn the thing on, so I wrote to them:

Help says, “open a Help Ticket to request that your account be enabled for comment feeds.”

So, please enable my account to have comment feeds. Thank you.

Because the one thing I can say is that the folks at TypePad do respond, they wrote back several hours later.

TypePad Customer Support said:

Hi Kelly,

Thanks for your interest in beta testing new features in TypePad. [Huh? The Knowledge Base did not say this was a “beta feature”?]

At this time, we are able to make the changes to your account that will allow you to see the new features. Please be aware that Advanced Templates and Mixed Media Layouts are not fully supported with these new features, so if you use or switch to either of these, you may experience problems.

If you notice any problems after we switch your account, please update this ticket and let us know as soon as possible.

Please respond to this ticket if you would like these changes to be applied to your account.

Thanks

I can’t make this stuff up. I wrote back:

Yes, I do want to be enabled for comment feeds. That’s what I wrote in the ticket I opened.

I already use Advanced Templates. Does this mean I can’t use comment feeds? What kind of “problems” might I experience?

No offense if you’re a person, but this feels pretty auto-generated since you’re asking me to ask for something I just asked for, and telling me that if I “switch to” Advanced Templates I may experience problems.

Thanks,

Kelly

Their response: *Crickets chirping.* [Granted, it is now the weekend. I expect this annoyance to continue in a day or two.]

It appears that I will be deterred again.

Elsewhere in the blogosphere, I wrote to a person who might know a workaround:

I find it odd that comment-related improvements, which make blog readership jump through the roof, are not #1 priority. Getting email updates about comments is OLD everywhere else. It’s almost a sign that you’re on TypePad if you can’t subscribe. With CommentLuv, I thought they’d be climbing past me to help the author once they saw what it could do for their users/customers.

All this, to give readers incentive to comment, to make your Experience more engaging, and frankly to make me happier with TypePad (because successful blogging makes bloggers happier with their service). Their immediate customer is happier, and the customers (readers) of their customer are happier, too. I wish.

I have taken mild flak for staying with TypePad. I can code passingly well, I’m a designer, I’ve tweaked their Advanced Templates mercilessly since day one, so why am I here?

The plug-and-play aspect is a good part of it. I don’t have time to deal with the inner workings of the blog so I’m happy to pay someone else to. Fewer errors, no nitty-gritty. I can be a do-it-yourselfer and not find I’ve made one little boo-boo that takes down the whole function. That leaves me a few minutes for merciless tweaking.

They have been prompt and great about Help Tickets; even though their answer is not always right, they try again with good cheer, and I’ve mostly been able to get issues resolved. (However, the same person does not help you from start to finish of a ticket. Irksome.) Even at my level of coding knowledge I’ve got to be trying trickier stuff than most of their customers, so at the Help Desk their willingness to work on a problem until I’m satisfied is super.

I originally liked that a lot of high profile writers were using the service: if Seth Godin and Keith Ferrazzi and Church of the Customer are all happy, what’s not to like? Yes, cyber-WoM played a role. The little flaws seemed surmountable.

Why Doesn’t TypePad Want Your Comments?

Because I’m not their target customer. I think that’s what it boils down to. It appears that TypePad wants me to move on. I want rich features they don’t want to offer. I’m always trying to find ways into the code to make improvements.

I’m still happy I don’t have to build the mousetrap.

I’m loyal and I want to grow with TypePad, but they don’t want me to grow with them. They don’t want to reward readers for commenting. They don’t want smaller blogs to see explosive growth of community. Smaller, newbie-blogs are their bread-and-butter, and that’s who they’re looking at: undemanding, technologically challenged first-timers, who want up-and-running in a night (I liked that, too!).

The funny thing is, while I may be chafing because I know these improvements are readily available to other bloggers, even newbies’ blogs could benefit from email and RSS Subscribe to Comments, and CommentLuv. Like in any business, seeing measurable growth makes it easier to keep investing (time, energy, money) in the venture. Engaged readers and lively comments are the intangible “profits” of blogging.

Entropy rules, I do have real work to deal with, and sometimes it’s fun to try to create change from the inside, so I don’t know if I’ll be going anywhere just yet. Hey, maybe they’ll hear this. C’mon, TypePad, delight your customers!

Dos and Don’ts for Your Business:

Do provide robust FAQs on your website. For as often as I’ve had to open a ticket, I can’t tell you how many times I haven’t had to. It’s not always as beautifully organized as I’d like and can be hard to understand, but it’s very comprehensive. I’ll bet you don’t have near as many Frequently Asked Questions, so what’s stopping you?

Do make Customer Service prompt. TypePad always gets back to me fast.

Do make Customer Service as satisfaction-guaranteed as Sales. Your current customers find a lot of your new customers for you, if they’re happy, and believe it or not, I’m generally happy with TypePad.

Don’t disregard trends in your industry. You don’t have to jump on every bandwagon, but if the parade passes you by, all but the most loyal customers will follow it.

Don’t ignore growth opportunities your loyal customers attempt to throw in your lap. (This will not happen to you very often, so go for it!) At the very least, if there’s a reason you can’t pursue it, tell the vocal customer why not, with no corporate-speak.

Don’t let your hierarchy become so rigid that staff with great ideas can’t find their way to your Innovation Department. Empower everyone.

Do remember: Your problem is selling your Solution (to increase your revenues). My problem is [growing my business, finding great employees, making my kids/spouse/dog happy, looking sharp in the morning, getting to work on time, finding a new restaurant to impress a client, wanting a good night’s rest away from home, growing my blog readership...] whatever. Solve my problem and you’ll solve your own.

What do you think? Can you miss an opportunity for growth by focusing too closely on what’s worked in the past? Is TypePad losing ground, or just Pinpointing their target market?

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

Is Keeping it Fresh, Mixing You Up?

Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

NOT.

A lot of businesses I’ve worked with are procedure-avoidant. Is it a fear of the difficulty of writing processes down? A desire to “mix it up” or “keep it fresh”? Are they worried about the hobgoblin?

You can’t afford the fear of having a procedural manual, graphic and interiors standards, an employee website—whatever your size firm needs to stay utterly consistent. Call it a roadmap, as we do at VisionPoints. You can’t go forward without clear, written processes. Your day-to-day processes may bore you if you do them the same way every day, but to your customers, that is top-of-the-mind gold.

It Is the Little Things That Count

Think back: When was the last time you went to a restaurant where water was on the table, without your requesting it, and refilled when empty or close, without requesting it? For me it’s been over a year since that happened! I don’t go to the “very best” places daily (though I do occasionally). This is something the very medium-est places could do with little expense and provide delight to their customers. These days water on the table at a restaurant without having to ask is so unusual as to be remarkable; so (a) do it and (b) do it always, in the same way. You will be remembered for it.

At the Panorama Motel, there are procedures to make sure they get the pen in just the same place every time on the desk, and the pillows turned the exact same way each time. Some hotels make sure there are chocolates on the pillow; some turn down your sheets at a precise time daily.

How about on the phone? When answering the phone, have a written procedure right in front of your receptionist—no errors, no “umm”s, no worries if someone else has to fill in. So much more professional, memorable, remarkable!

Free to Overpromise and Overdeliver

• Your written procedures

… offer consistency and clarity to your employees, reducing stress and man-hours. If it’s all “so easy a monkey could do it,” then everyone knows what’s expected and can operate with fewer question marks above their heads. Staff is freed to get creative about delivering exceptional Experiences for your customers.

• Your standards manual

… offers visual consistency so decisions about new materials, ads, and additions to your physical space are no-brainers: Do a new, brash ad in a youth magazine? Let’s see if it fits with the plan. Finishes for the new signage? Keep them in line with the overall vision.

Little minds in business fly by the seat of their pants, wasting time and money. That’s the true hobgoblin. Consistency is the Good Witch of progressive thinking in business, freeing staff and management for bigger issues.

Embrace written procedures. Involve your staff, and get started creating yours now, to grow your business and create awareness of your consistently great (Maximum!) Customer Experience.

What procedures could help your firm most? Share your ideas for creating customer loyalty through consistent procedures here!

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

Are You Ready to Be a Visionary?

This is part eleven of 13 in the Experience Design 101 series. For links to all the articles in this series, click here.

Not much happens without a dream.

And for something great to happen,

There must be a great dream.”

—Robert K. Greenleaf, former Director of Management Research for AT&T (from his book Servant Leadership, 1977)

In an affectionate biographical spot on Turner Classic Movies, Gary Cooper’s daughter Maria Cooper Janis says that her father knew what the public expected of his work. “Just make me the hero,” he told writer Niven Busch, “and everything will be fine.” Cooper clearly had the Vision to see the whole arc of his career pretty early on, and it gave his film roles a cohesive feeling that contributed to his stardom. We know what to expect when we think of classic film stars such as Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Cooper. Far from seeing this as typecasting, they saw it as part of maintaining a strong connection with their audience.

Cooper’s Model for Business Development

Call it Cooper’s model for business development. In part five we talked about crafting a Vision statement and finding your Purpose. With your research and planning backing you up, now envision how you want your company’s future to arc. Concentrate on that arc to connect with your audience of customers and prospects. As Stephen Covey wrote, “… [in] business…. the extent to which you begin with the end in mind often determines whether or not you are able to create a successful enterprise.” Write out every aspect of this arc. When you get typecast by the public, you don’t want to be surprised. You want to be able to point to your Vision and know that you’ve been typecast as the leaders in what you provide, because you aimed for it with Pinpoint precision and carefully made it happen.

In your business, this precise aim will guide your actions (Does this activity or offshoot fit with our Vision?) and provide benchmarks (Are we reaching the market we’ve Pinpointed? Are we providing the ideal solution that creates great Customer Experience?). Gary Cooper may have known what he was aiming for, but some of his quirky early roles show it took some time for him to align his strengths and goals, with the road he was on.

A Visionary Leader

“Me? A Visionary leader?” you say. Many owners of smaller businesses are initially uncomfortable in this role. Here’s where your planning pays off: A clearly defined and executed Vision is the hook that gets you, your staff, your customers, and prospective customers excited about and involved in your success. A Pinpointed definition and direction for your firm creates loyal fans, and makes introducing yourself and your business easier. When you take on the responsibility of being a Visionary for your firm, you’ll share your secret instead of “prospecting” or “networking,” knowing that you have a unique offering of value to others.

Your enthusiasm can make Visionaries of others, too: Think of Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos, with their infectious energy and unshakeable belief in helping customers with their offerings. Their devotees preach about Apple and Amazon as fervently as any Gary Cooper fan ever told a friend, “You’ve got to go see Sergeant York. What an experience!”

The Best Customer Experience

Ready? Be a Visionary. It’s an adventure in left-side-of-the-brain planning and right-side creativity. Having that Vision in place is a lot less risky than running a company, gambling your future, without the end in mind. Pinpoint your goals, your strengths, your customers’ needs, and your ability to deliver. Position your firm to align with your Vision across all aspects of customer experience, and get your customers saying, “You’ve got to try this new company. They were so focused on getting me what I needed. They’re the best at what they do, and it’s a great experience dealing with them.”

Quien no se aventura, no pasa la mar.”

—Proverb [“He who has no adventures, cannot cross the sea.”]

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson

Next up in the series: Part Twelve: How to put Experience Design to work, today: 11 Tips

P.S. If you’re enjoying the Maximum Customer Experience Blog, subscribe today (at top left) and get updates delivered by email or RSS. It’s easy and it’s free!

You Can’t Afford to Miss This One

Thriving firms, look out—this post is geared toward brand-new businesses. (Okay, more established businesses may benefit from these ideas also.)

As the owner of a startup company, you may feel like you can’t afford to hire a designer.

Quick plug for the entire design world (you know what we’ll say): Often, you can’t afford not to hire us. Sometimes we can save you money in costly errors; often we can save you time—which gets your party started faster; well-directed money is always more effective at launching your company than scattered efforts. If you can’t hire a designer (naturally, I recommend an Experience Designer) for your entire project, sometimes a very focused consultation can give you insight that guides your efforts and saves you from spinning your wheels.
Ahem, I had to do that. Guild rules or something. Back to the article now.

Now, if you’ve just got to go it alone, how can you best implement just a few elements of Experience Design that will boost your startup now and long-term?

Top Three Musts for Startups

1. Research and write down an Experience Design plan

Vision (Your “destination”)
Budget
Ideal Customer/ Ideal Solution
Goals (Points that help you know when you’ve reached your destination)

2. Start with a great name

As I wrote in Key Concepts, quite simply—your company’s name is the most important ad you’ll ever write.

3. Get some help—see your company the way others will see it

Some advise getting opinions of friends and family (some advise against it!); some suggest an advisory panel of business associates; these days, some suggest Internet help.
Even if it’s the coworkers at the place you moonlight with while you begin, get some in-person (not Internet, they can’t see your place), objective (this may rule out family…) opinions on your name, your basic business concept, your look (I mean your site but if they have opinions on your personal appearance take those opinions gratefully, too), and your plan.

If you’ve gotten this far, you’re in love with your idea—get someone who isn’t, to tell you what works and what definitely doesn’t.

If possible, get this advice from a few people who are similar to your Ideal Customer profile, so they can give an informed opinion, but don’t fret if they have no connection to your field. Very fresh, outsider opinion is also quite valuable, as long as the person can put him- or herself in the shoes of a customer. [If Granny says she doesn’t get it, is it because she’s not your target market and isn’t trying to imagine being in their shoes (not a good advisor), or is it because the idea or execution of the idea stinks (a very good advisor)? Know your Granny to answer that one.]

Bonus “Must”:

Quick impressions are very useful. After all, most potential clients, like potential suitors, are going to make very quick judgments when deciding to accept or reject your company. Periodically clear your mind and do a “quick look” at your brand-new baby business. Whatever you notice first is the area to focus your attention on. Have advisors do this too. If a color glares at them, or clutter or (heaven forbid!) dirt is what they notice, if they drive up and can’t find your signs, if they can’t remember your name or it has bad associations in their mind… these are the things prospects will catch, too.

When I sign these postings, I really mean these last few words. If you are the owner of a fledgling startup, then I wish this for you *double* today:

Grow and be well,

Kelly Erickson