Why I’m Going to Dominate 2014

Brief History

If you haven’t figured that out yet, I’m a big advocate of goals. I set them all the time, I achieve them as often as I can, and it brings me clarity to go through the process of setting goals. Just as in life, there is just as much we can take away from the journey to our goals as we can achieving the goal itself.

When making our goals, we have to go through a process instead of haphazardly putting things down for ourselves. If we do that, we might end up chasing vanity metrics in our businesses and waste time pursuing things we don’t actually care about in our personal lives. I hope today’s post in combination with yesterday’s post will give you some insight into how I set goals.

Nuts and Bolts

First, I reflected on a previous portion of my life/work and it just happened to be 2013 as a whole. New Year’s Resolutions are cliche for a reason, it works great to reflect and start a new year fresh after some rest with friends and family. But these are goals, not resolutions.

2014 Goal SettingNext, we need to think about what we want to do next with our lives/work. I suggest this as quite time without technology where you can focus on the future with zero distractions. For me it was an hour walking up and down The Battery with my notebook and my phone turned off. You have to find a place where you are comfortable and have no distractions.

Finally, write down your goals on paper so you can see them and then make them public so you stay accountable. For a more detailed explanation of goal setting and follow through, check out this work from a couple months back.

2014 Goal Setting

Here are a select handful of my personal goals that I want to share with you. I am sharing these for 2 reasons: 1.) I hope you get some very clear examples from how I do these and the planning I’ve already put into them. 2.) I am putting my goals out into the world so that I don’t make myself a liar. When the whole world knows I’m writing a book, they’re going to put the pressure on me to finish it. If you all know my goals, you won’t let me quit, and I won’t let you down.

Here are the reasons why I’m going to crush 2014:

  • Volunteer Once Per Month

    • Date to Completion: Once Per Month
    • Why: I always enjoyed our community service days when I was in college whether it was mentoring, volunteering, or helping with the Special Olympics. I haven’t done much of that in my recent years and I want to start giving back.
    • How: I have my first volunteer day setup on January 25th in Charleston with a friend that gives out clothes and food at the homeless shelter. I’ll find something similar each month and dedicate at least one day to something other than myself.

  • Learn to Speed Read

    • Date to Completion:  3/1/14
    • Why: I’ve always wanted to learn, but never applied myself. Since quitting my job I’ve had to find a lot of things on the internet for myself and I realized how easy it would be to spend a day researching ‘how to’ on the web and YouTube. This also ties into another goal, I’ve become obsessed with reading and I want to do it more but I don’t always have the time.
    • How: I’ll spend a few afternoons/evenings researching and compiling information to go through. I’ll practice as often as I can and test my reading speed from Day 1 (when I do the research) to March 1 (when I want to have this completed). I don’t know how fast I read now, but I’ll test it and set a specific goal to get better once I understand the process.

  • Build a TV Stand

    • Date to Completion:  5/1/14
    • Why: I worked for 6 & 1/2 years in the promotional furniture industry where most furniture was made cheap and looked relatively bland (to me at least). So I have always wanted to scrap the furniture in my living room and completely remake it from hand. I did this with my coffee table already and it was and awesome experience.
    • How: This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but didn’t have the time while I was training for a marathon. And now it’s cold outside… So I’ll wait until Spring. I have sketches of it, but the hard/fun work remains to be done.

  • Write an eBook

    • Date to completion: 6/1/14
    • Why: I need practice before I write MY book, and this is a simple way to start and get some practice. Writing a blog post is a relatively short thought, but a book is more in depth. I’ll be asking for some help, so be on the lookout! This is also practice for monetizing my blog (see below) that I need to work on throughout the year.
    • How: This is much simpler than publishing a book, it can be done on Microsoft Word and saved as a PDF file. When it is complete it will be available through the blog.

  • Complete a Sprint Triathlon

    • Date to Completion: Summer Time
    • Why: I finished a marathon last year and that was an awesome experience that pushed me to my limits physically and mentally. I want a new challenge and for anyone that worked with me at the GPLA, you know swimming was a challenge in and of itself.
    • How: I don’t have a date yet because I have 3 other immediate goals ahead of this one and I’m not going to jump into any water until it’s warmer out. As long as I give myself 4+/- weeks of training I’ll do just fine. I have a bike, I can run anywhere, and there are multiple bodies of water here in Charleston to choose from including an Olympic sized pool 2 blocks from my residence.

  • Monetize my Blog

    • Date to Completion: 10/5/14
    • Why: Why not? I love to write, some of you think I’m half-way decent at it (although I want to improve drastically), and it’s fun for me. So why not try to make some money from it?
    • How: I’m not sure yet, but my decisions will be public when they happen. For example, if I choose to use affiliate products (where I post a link to a product and if any of my readers make a purchase, I get a commission) I will notify you before I post that link. I have always been transparent and I will not compromise that.

  • Read 40 Books

    • Date to Completion: 12/31/14
    • Why: Because I love reading. It strengthens our minds, it opens us up to new worlds, and it gives us time to think, process, and come up with new ideas. Not all great readers are leaders, but all great leaders are readers.
    • How: I am currently reading 2 paperback books and I just finished my first book of the year from Audible.com (yes, I count a ‘listened to’ book as ‘read’). I need to finish approximately 3 per month, I’m already 1 down and well on my way with the other 2 for this month. I spend anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours reading depending on the day and my schedule. Please send me suggestions!

This may seem like a lot, but when it’s all broken down these are spread out evenly across the year. Notice that I don’t have as much at the end of the year due to holiday travels. Some of these tie together to form common these as well, this is very helpful for me. Also notice that these are varied experiences from physical accomplishments to creative projects and philanthropic work. Do the same with your goals, make them varied so you don’t burn yourself out!

Do me a favor and ask me about these when you see me. You don’t have to put me through 21 Questions, although I wouldn’t mind that. I want to accomplish all of these things and more this year and I need your help to do so. It doesn’t have to be the one I’m currently ‘working on’ in the sequence I’ve laid out, just ask me. And yep you guessed it, I’ll be talking about these goals and what I accomplish all year long.

Good luck in 2014, make it the best year yet!

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What are some of your goals for 2014? Leave them below and I promise I’ll help keep YOU accountable as well! Leave a comment below or chat with me on social media, I’d love to hear from you.

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How 2013 Kicked Me in the Teeth

As we have wrapped up 2013 and we’re now being thrust into the first full work-week of 2014 we’re all hearing lots of chatter about goals and resolutions (same thing) for the coming year. I’m all for setting goals, but most resolutions rarely make it because people don’t write them down, and they usually have arbitrary goals for themselves that aren’t specific. No more! Over the next two days I’ll share some very personal goals of mine so you can learn exactly how I set them and why. However, as I wrote about last week, we need to know where we’ve come from before we know where we’re going next.

Reviewing our accomplished goals is huge for us in our goal setting. If we completed our goals we need to see how we did that so we can push ourselves further next time. If we didn’t, we need to reflect on why and learn from those lessons. And most importantly, if we did accomplish our goals, we need to let ourselves relish in that achievement! We set it because it was important to us, and when we can check it off our list we build confidence in ourselves for the next goal we set!

WARNING: The rest of this post is all about me and my 2013 year in review. If you don’t care that much, I’ll save you the time, you don’t have to read it. If you are that intrigued, I want to thank you for finding me interesting!

Low Points

ABG – The lowest point came to me in July when I quit Atlantic Bedding and Furniture after dedicating my heart and soul to the company for 6 & 1/2 years. Although I’m the one that left, I don’t feel like it when I look back on the events that transpired. I’ve never quit anything in my life and it was a scary thing for me to do. I didn’t know what was going to come next and I didn’t have any real plan. I’ve grown tremendously since then and I know everything happens for a reason. It was rough for a while, and still can be when I reflect on it, but I’m happier now for having left.

Epic Day – Don’t jump to conclusions here, I had great experiences with Epic Day (see below), but we didn’t turn it into a business. Our goal when we set forth with Epic Day was to make money and up until the point when Travis and I parted ways in December, we hadn’t done so. Travis & I will both be accomplished entrepreneurs one day, but we didn’t make it happen in 2013.

IT Band – As I was training for the marathon I had terrible pain in my IT Band. This hindered my training and was a true hurdle for me to overcome the last 4 months of the year. It caused me physical pain and made me question whether or not I could actually complete the marathon. It was only a hurdle and I got over it, but it caused me a lot of distress and I’ve learned to take care of myself better because of it.

2013 year in reviewHighlights

Katie – I met an awesome girl almost 1 year ago that has been more loving & supportive than I could ever have asked for. She’s stuck with me through thick and thin and helped me through some tough times. She’s also pushed me to do some great things and never let me compromise. Thank you KB! She’s been a huge bright spot on my year, literally with her blonde hair and figuratively with her spirit.

Epic Day – See, it’s not all bad! I worked with one of my best friends for 4 months, I learned a ton about WordPress websites and social media, I learned how to record a podcast, I learned about remote work, and most importantly I learned how hard it is to start a business. Epic Day was a fantastic experience, my only regret is that we couldn’t monetize it in the short period of time we had to make it work.

Blog – The blog has been an incredible stress reliever and a great sandbox for me to toy around with ideas. For everyone that follows my work, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I received encouragement early and it’s those kind words that have kept me pushing on with this. I’ll be expounding on more ideas for the blog in tomorrow’s post!

Accomplishments

Marathon – I ran 26.2 miles in 4:07… Do I need to say anything else?

Devotionals – If you’ve ever met my Mom, you’ll know that she is constantly preaching for us all to have well-rounded lives. I have been missing something for a while and I’m trying to get it back. I set a goal to spend more time in my spirituality, I would do this through a daily devotional on my phone. It feels weird now if I don’t do it, like my day isn’t complete. I’m glad I’ve started doing this and Mom would be proud to know it. (cue text from Mom in t-minus 3 minutes)

Books – I finished a small handful of books and really got myself on track to read more. It’s become a daily habit of mine and I have set some serious goals for 2014 because of my commitment to it in 2013. Just as with my devotionals, I set a big goal to ‘Read More’ in 2013. The details of that goal were to read every day for at least 10 minutes, I do well more than that now and I’m addicted to books.

Overall 2013 was a very up and down year for me, but it’s made me a better man. I’m glad that it’s over because 2014 is going to trump it! Now that I’m able to reflect on 2013, I am ready to take on 2014 and set my goals for the coming year. Lots of people ask about goal setting, and it has been one of my most popular posts, this review of goals is an important part of goal setting. I know what success looks like, and I will define it for the coming year in tomorrow’s post.

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Leave a comment below or chat with me on Twitter with your highlights or accomplished goals in 2013, you deserve the praise for them!

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Have a great week!

Act and React: Watch Me Predict What You’ll Do Next

An Explanation

Everything we do is a reaction to our previous experiences. When I wrote four long posts about social media, I turned around and wrote a short post about counterbalancing. Sometimes when we win an athletic contest we know how sweet victory tastes and we work hard to duplicate that. And other times when we have a great day at work, we tend to get lazy on the next, it’s hard to be our best every day.

We take into consideration our previous experiences and we move forward with a better understanding of what to do next. In other words; when we learn, we grow. If we never learned, we’ve never grow. The key part of that statement being, we must learn before we grow. 

A Quote

This requires us to consciously look at what we’re doing and asses what has just happened to us. Many of us have been known to keep our heads down and only look forward, but as George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” You are reading my own reaction to the failure to be conscious of my experiences.

I used to do a weekly email to my team at the furniture company recounting the previous week and giving advice about the upcoming one. That wasn’t nearly enough for a growing company, but it was a start. I highly suggest some sort of documentation or timeline of events be written down for growing companies, it will help you remember where you’ve come from and how you got to where you are today. That sort of stuff is much harder to remember once it’s over and done with.

A Musical Case Study

I first heard this idea from the Foo Fighters’ front man Dave Grohl in an interview many years ago. He said that every album the Foo Fighters put out was a reaction to the previous one. This stuck with me because I was intrigued that rock stars took this much into consideration throughout the creative process.

He said one album was very rough & sounded like it had been recorded in a garage. They came back in the next album with a handful of acoustic songs to balance it out. The one after that only had 1 acoustic song because their live shows barely included those acoustic songs, it was mostly loud and fast.

Each album they created was made better in some way from their previous one(s). They learned from each album they recorded and reacted with a better one the next go-round.

An Application

The Foo Fighters example is simpler than most of our everyday work experiences, when an album is finished there are no changes that can be made. However, in our work lives it’s not as clear cut. We can’t always see when a project is finished or when something is ready to be shipped.

I like music too, Mike, what’s this got to do with business? Well it has everything to do with business, with competition, with what to expect out of our co-workers and employees, how to address and react to a crisis, the list goes on. When we are cognizant of our experiences and how our organizations intuitively react to things, we can predict what will happen next. 

This may help us to implement company policies or stop a problem before it starts. On a sports team, if we traditionally see our players get lazy after a win, we head that off as a coach by making the next week of practice intense and fun. If we see that the last time we attempted a company function people asked if they could bring spouses but we didn’t allow it, make room for the spouses this time.

It’s about being present and learning from all of our experiences, not just our mistakes, that make us good leaders. As we act and react, take time to look back on what’s happened so we can make better decisions about what to do next.

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Have a great weekend!

How Ice Cold Water Can Teach Us About Company Traditions

Was it Comfortable?

Yesterday, January 1st, 2014, I willingly jumped into the Atlantic Ocean with nothing on but a pair of baggies. The water was 55 degrees and the air was about 4 degrees warmer. Although this sounds like downright stupidity, the Polar Plunge is a fun and exciting way to start the new year!

Everyone gathers early on New Years Day and strips down to their summer swimwear for a brief dip in the ocean. These plunges are held all over the world and are sometimes associated with fundraisers. Many people refer to it as a nice “cleanse” going into a new year, signifying a fresh start… a VERY fresh start.

Although this is not technically something new for me, I am counting this as getting out of my comfort zone. If you’ve ever sat in an ice bath, had to wear a wetsuit while surfing, or done a polar plunge yourself, you know how UNcomfortable 55 degree water is!

Tradition

My Mom has been doing this for 10+ years on and off and she is no doubt the reason I have picked up the tradition as well. Each year on New Year’s Day she sets out (sometimes twice) to plunge into the chilly waters with hundreds of other folks in her community. A few years back she asked my brother and me to do it with her and some of her friends.

company traditions

From Left: Nancy, Linda, Terry, Kendria, Marty, Lyn, Katie, Mike, & Laurie

Now, each year she has anywhere from 4 to 10 people that she has somehow convinced to jump into the ocean with her. It’s become a tradition. It doesn’t matter if the water is 70 or if it’s in the 50’s, she’s showing up to plunge. In December as everyone is making Christmas and New Year’s plans, my Mom is making Polar Plunge plans and gathering the troops for the annual dip.

When everyone gathers we talk about how cold it looks, when it was the coldest, when so-and-so joined us, and what it was like last year. We gather and we bond over an experience, we create memories together. We laugh and smile and put a little Kahlua in our coffee to keep us warm. Nobody gets paid off of this, nobody is forcing anyone to show up, it’s just plain fun and one last excuse to spend time with friends and family before the holiday season is officially finished.

Application

In our businesses, we should have similar company traditions. They don’t necessarily need to involve 50 degree salt water, but they should be events that are held to bring people together. Some companies do a Christmas party, some have a summer picnic, others do an annual retreat. The point is to bring people together around something that is not work focused to encourage fellowship amongst the team.

When we incorporate seemingly ‘silly’ traditions such as this, we are strengthening the fabric of our company culture. When Mom tells everyone she’s doing it and she’d love to have them join, some people grimace and walk-away. That’s fine, it doesn’t bother her. Other people beam and they’d love to join! The ones that will be there smiling are the ones that will tell the naysayers how much fun it was. Many of the naysayers will be at the front of the line next year, nobody wants to miss a good time.

Company traditions can be the same way: some people will hate them, some will love them. But in the end, if we never put them on consistently,we never have the opportunity to build traditions. If we don’t put effort into building events that help shape culture, a culture will take on it’s own form and it may not be what we want. Company culture is something that should be planned out, traditions are one way to help us do this.

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What kind of traditions (company traditions or other) do you have? Where do you have the opportunity to incorporate one? 

Leave a comment below or chat with me on Twitter!

Happy New Year! Make 2014 the best one yet!

What I Learned From Being Spread Too Thin

Fresh Start

When I left Atlantic Bedding back in July, I did not have a clue about what I was going to do. I didn’t need to get a job immediately because I had been smart with my money and I wasn’t living paycheck to paycheck. Nothing was set up for me on the outside world, I just knew it was time to leave.

As soon as I left, I was approached by six people that wanted me to either work for them or start a business with them. I had lots of options, and as soon as I heard them I wanted to start them all. I wanted to dive in and get to work building the next great thing. Each sounded exciting, fun, lucrative, and they all sounded like I would do well in them.

Being Effective

spread too thinI like to be effective and I was used to having a lot on my plate so I knew my limitations and how much I wanted to dedicate myself to something. I looked at what I could do freely, what each would need for investment, and who I would be working with on each. Epic Day Outdoors (Adventures at the time) it was, working alongside my buddy Travis that I’ve always wanted to work with.

I knew this was a new challenge, I knew who I was going to work with, and I knew what sort of resources I was prepared to dedicate to this project and this person. Had I chosen more than one of the other businesses, I would have had to ration out my time amongst multiple partners and businesses. I’m glad I didn’t do that *pats self on the back*

Furniture Daze

In my Atlantic Bedding days, I was almost always spread too thin to really dig in and enjoy what I was doing. Since the company had grown so large of the years, the positions weren’t really built around the strengths of the people and roles weren’t that defined. When a company starts small and grows fast it has to build positions around people. This isn’t a bad thing but since there’s almost always less staff than is needed, people get stuck with jobs they don’t like or can’t do well.

When I had too much on my plate I was never able to focus in on one project and give it my all. There was always a trip to be made or a proverbial fire that needed to be put out, it was a reactionary situation. One thing I liked about the prospect of Epic Day was the idea of planning and looking forward instead of looking back.

Going With My Gut

When I picked Epic Day I was going in the opposite direction of my previous position, I didn’t want to be spread too thin. I picked what I thought I would be the best at and who I would show up every day for because I knew he’d do the same for me. I wasn’t interested in wasting my time, and I haven’t. Epic Day has been quite an adventure (pun intended) and I’ve learned a lot from the experience so far.

When we spread ourselves too thin we don’t put forth our best work. If I had started 3 businesses at once I would never had given any one of them a fair shot, I would have been spread too thin. I wouldn’t have the appropriate time to dedicate to each one of them. And if even one of those was a great idea, it would have folded because I didn’t get it the necessary time to grow and mature.

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Where are you spread too thin? What about your business? What can you do to get focused back in? 

Leave a comment below or chat with me on Twitter!

Have a great day!pickadirection.com

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Facing Challenges Head On

Good Times

I have been fortunate to spend the weekend with friends that I have not seen for a long time. I love it when you are able to pick up the old relationships right where they left off. One of the conversations I had was one of facing challenges and what to do next.

My friend knows what he should do, but its scary. He will receive criticism equal to a public flogging if he chooses to do this. But it’s not for the critics, it’s for his own personal growth. We’re all on a journey and this should be the next step in his. It’s one decision that will affect the rest of his life.

When I talk to him about it, I see what happens, because we have all done the same thing. The decision to go is scary and there are a number of unknown variables that are involved. But those unknown variables are exactly why we need to do these things. We need to face those unknowns to challenge ourselves.

The Hardest Partfacing challenges

Steven Pressfield calls it “the resistance.” Seth Godin says it’s caused by our “lizard brains.” I think it’s something deep within us that wants us to stay comfortable. Anytime we are faced with a challenge that we know will push us to our limits (physically, mentally, spiritually, or other) we always ask ourselves “Do I have what it takes?”

That’s a hard question for many of us to answer, especially when we’re faced with the unknown. It can bring on anxiety and cause us to take a good hard look at ourselves. If we’re going into a new adventure, how do we know if we have what it takes since we’re never experienced it? We don’t, but that’s why we are able to grow from these experiences! 

That thing we were so worried about isn’t as scary when we go right up to it and stare it down. We have a tendency to build things up in our minds to make challenges larger than they really are. And when we get through them, we see that it wasn’t so bad. We gain the confidence that will help us go into the next unknown adventure.

FAILURE

Life is a journey and it’s not about always succeeding. Some of the most successful people I know have a lot of scars. They have failed a lot of times, but we never see those from the outside. We only see the successes and that’s what we compare ourselves to.

But when we get to know those successes, we find out that those successes are often spawned from those scars. We cannot let the apprehension for failure, that is not even certain, stop us from trying.

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What challenges are you facing that you need to take on? Leave a comment below or chat with me on Twitter!

Have a great day!

Inspiration is for Losers (Creativity Hacks)

What we Think we Know

When it comes to art, the term inspiration is often found somewhere close in proximity. We hear that artists are inspired by the moon and the waves or a lover that has been lost. We hear that a real artist need inspiration to do great work. What we hear is wrong. If you hear an artist of any kind (writer, musician, painter, interpretive dancer, etc.) say they are waiting for inspiration, they’re fooling themselves.

I recently came to this staunch to the realization that what I’m doing is an art. I didn’t think so at first, but after doing this for 3 months straight I can tell you it is. I am a writer and I am an artist. These words are my art.

Show Up

If we only wrote or sculpted or interpretatively danced (huh?) when we felt inspired we would do it once in a blue moon. Or at best once a week. Or maybe we’d start off strong for 7 days, then fizzle down to once a month. See the common theme? Inspiration isn’t always waiting to be plucked like an upside down tomato from our garden. 

If I would have waited for inspiration to write on this blog I’d have about 1/3 of what I have now. Often times I wake up not knowing what’s going to come out of my brain. But when I show up each day, I know that I must get something on paper. I may revise it, I may not always love it, but I have something out and I practice each day.

When we show up each day, we always have our craft on our brain in some way. It may not be at the forefront of our thoughts, and it doesn’t need to be. But when we are always practicing it, we are always learning about it and always looking for ways to improve it. When it’s always on our mind we can take the afore mentioned ‘inspiration’ from our everyday occurrences. Where do you think yesterday’s post came from, thin air?

Mastering the Craft

When we show up each day we get time in a craft. This is applicable in art as well as business. Who do you think is going to be a better sandwich artist – the guy that makes subs one day a week or the guy that does it 6 days a week? Easy answer when we look at it that way.

When we spend time in our craft we figure out the small lessons that aren’t always apparent on day 1. You’ll notice I started using headlines and bolding my text, I found out this makes it easier to read. I wouldn’t have discovered that if I only wrote 1 day a week. I kept my eyes out for ways to improve my blog after weeks of writing and it’s helped me become more of a master at my craft.

creativity hacksSet a Routine

So how do we master our craft? How do we show up? It is just that easy?

No, it’s not easy. Yes, it is that simple though. Knowing what to do is easy, doing it is the hard part. We improve on our craft through habit and routine. When we make our craft something we work on every day, we become used to doing it. I have to write every day or I feel like I left something out.

If you choose to watch TV for an hour every day, you’re going to know exactly what’s on at what times and on which channels. If you play online poker every day after work you’re probably going to get addicted to it… but hey you’ll know more about the odds and the tricks of the trade than any of us. OR we could choose to spend our time on something that improves our minds.

A True Story

When I woke up this morning at 5:49 (still can’t figure out why) I knew I had plenty of time to write so I got the laptop fired up and got settled in with some coffee by about 5:57. I began to plan out a blog post but I wasn’t really ‘inspired’ aka I didn’t have a good topic. So I shifted my work at 6:09 and kept moving.

I am working on a book as I’ve said, so I started a new chapter this morning. When I started it, I didn’t know if I would be able to use the words I was writing for the book. They didn’t quite dovetail with the rest of the story when I was 300 words in, and I didn’t care, I just wanted to get some momentum. But after about 30 minutes I hit a breakthrough and I came up with really good material to incorporate to the story.

Moral of the story: If I didn’t show up this morning I wouldn’t have had a blog post or 1,000 new words on paper for my book. Don’t wait to be inspired to start a new work. Start it now and start it small. Don’t bite off huge chunks, bite off little bits at a time and you’ll have a much better chance of success!

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I would love to hear what YOU have to say about inspiration and these creativity hacks. Leave a comment below or chat with me on Twitter!

Have a great day!

Why I’d Rather be Paying Retail Prices

The Community

We all know someone with a handy-man business, someone who sells real estate, and someone that has a landscaping service. We “got a guy for that” in most cases. There is no doubt that we can help others through our businesses as well. Nobody wants to be caught paying retail prices so we use our connections.

This is how business has been done for thousands of years, we know someone (or we ask around) and we go to them for their services. In the days before advertising as we know it, your reputation was your only way of marketing yourself. If you did a good job, people recommended you. If you sucked, they didn’t. Plain and simple, you had to be good at your job to get customers.

Taking Care of Them

We want people to know that we appreciate them when they choose our business, it puts food on our plates at night. When we know someone that does business with us we want to make them feel special, so we ‘hook them up’ when they come to us. 

We may put them at the front of the line to be serviced, we throw something in for free, or we give them a discount. We may even go above and beyond the call of duty because we want them to think highly of us, especially if they are an influencer in the community. These are ways of advertising to me, turning a good customers into a walking microphone for our business. But can’t that be done with anyone?

The Fall

paying retailThere’s nothing wrong with taking care of people we know that are long-term, committed supporters of ours. However, when we begin to sacrifice service to them because they got a better deal than the regular person, we are treading in dangerous waters. When we have acquaintances come to us, we know that they are more patient than the average John Doe. 

Imagine if someone comes to me to get their engine repaired and I made them wait for 2 days because I am going to cut the price for them. Then since we’re rushing on it after my customer calls to ask when it will be done, the job is done poorly and they have to come back a second time for us to fix it. I may not charge them the second time and we’re still as courteous as ever. But deep down, I just ticked that person off and I may not get another chance to earn their business. 

Did I really ‘hook them up’ or did I just take them for granted and cause them to lose faith in me? At that point, most people would have rather paid retail price or something close to avoid all the hassles that I just caused them. Nobody wants to take back-to-back trips to the mechanic, or call to ask when their work will be done, or call to ask why the job was done poorly. 

Avoiding It

Avoiding this is simple. When it comes to service, do not treat any of your customers differently. Everyone gets the same service (which should be great, duh), and if anything the ones you know get treated better. It’s easy to change a price, that’s simple enough. But nobody is put at the back of the line because we know they are more patient than everyone else.

If it is a situation where another co-worker can take care of them, have them do so. Make sure they know all the provisions like discounts or free warranties, but don’t make them last on the delivery schedule because you know they’ll be up that night. It’s easy for us to crack under pressure and to bend the rules because we know someone outside of business transaction, so remove yourself and don’t fall into that trap.

When we take advantage of our personal relationships, it can be detrimental to our business relationships. And when we harm our business relationships, we lose them because people would rather avoid a fight and take their business elsewhere than harm a personal relationship.

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I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! 

I would love to hear what YOU have to say about customer service and doing business with people you know. Leave a comment below or chat with me on Twitter!

Have a great day!