Yes, I finally decided that in order to capitalize on what works and what does not work online I needed to develop a site that I have found to work. Come on over and check out my IBGS Site and see how WEB 2.0 sites should look..

Since I will be changing directions in the New Year and pumping up my consulting operations to meet the demand that was created this year, I was out reading up on points of views on consulting and came across this OLD Blog I found on the Guerrilla Marketing site.

I believe Mike McLaughlin is correct. Not all consultants should blog. Most of the time all they are doing is giving away something of value…their knowledge. Isn’t that what a consultants make their living from..the knowledge and experience they have obtained? Of course it is..

Hope you will stay tuned for upcoming announcement of where you will be able to find me, hire me, talk to me or get to know me. Have a happy holiday season and best wishes for the New Year.

The first thing that is taught in crises management class of business schools is to evaluate the situation. That is a smart move. Gather data to determine the existent of the crises and keep gathering even after you have enough to determine what needs to be managed.

The warning here for those students who are reading…do not fall for the solution to improving revenue shortfalls by increasing sales, increase price and cut costs. That is the answer you will get from most crises management classes that deal with how to overcome business issues related to lost profits.

In over 80-% of the cases studied where businesses are having problems with maintaining profits levels their problem is in their operations set-up. They either have a quality issue or a productivity issue that is causing consumer reactions to the product or service the company is offering.

I see too many times the CEO’s of the world switch on the crises management with the first thing they command is cut the budget. That over-reactive solution to the problem usually leads to the operations budget being cut…payroll cut back, inferior products purchased, travel stopped and all business development (networking and customer relations activities) are stopped.

What that premature action does is shut the business completely down. Now, I have seen situations where shutting the business down was the only solution but that was only because the CEO and upper management refused to listen to their employees’ attempt to tell them there is a problem.

Of course all of this is based on a company that has employees and usually in the manufacturing industries, but the same mistake is made in Small businesses and sole proprietor businesses. They react to cutting the costs and raising pricing as the solution when in fact it is an operations situation that needs to be overhauled. Either the delivery of the service or the product itself is questionable. These are problems Direct Marketers and Multi-Level Marketing companies’ experience. Lack of trust from the consumer.

There are solutions to correcting these situations and all are related to establishing a Standard Operations Procedure…yes the ol SOP. Too many businesses have no idea what one is or how it is made because they spend their efforts looking for a slick CEO instead of a ‘kickass and take name’ COO.

The Bottomline: Set your operations up to standard before you start the business and your crisis management will be simple to manage.

To learn more about what else Mr Duke has to offer go to IBGS site.

I find it real interesting how some people take offense to hearing the truth. If what is said is the truth it should not be offensive. The truth should be what everybody wants to hear.

However, when it comes to business or personal creations like internet web-sites and online businesses, people get really upset when someone points out flaws in their business plan or thought patterns.

Then, you have the generational thing. I will not get off into the cultural differences that have developed since the early 80’s between the Onliners and Offliners. It is sufficed to say the younger generation has a hard time getting over some of the things they felt were hardening during their parents’ attempts to set them on the right track.

Most of the creators of some of the stuff that is launched online today are craftily developed by young men and women in their early 20’s. In most cases their endeavors are outstanding. Most of the tools businesses use online are created by these young business people. With that said, there are some of them who are clearly missing how business operations work online or offline.

Recently, during my surfing of the internet for sites offering marketing services to other businesses I ran across several newly launched sites that have some very creative approaches of doing something someone else already launched. This is truly the way online businesses improve upon themselves by seeing what someone else has done and improve upon it.

What happens is these sites lose touch with what the business purpose is or what the site offers to help businesses meet their goals. They get caught up in producing a slick visually pleasing site which is needed in the move to the WEB 2.0 standards, but once pass their homepage what they offer is voided with seemingly incomplete delivery of the service they say they are providing. There is a fundamental absence of any business operations in some of these sites.

The challenge recently is providing these young startup business creators with positive and constructive advice. They see any attempt to help or provide experience from anyone outside of Silicon Valley as an insult. Comments or suggestions for improvements are considered negatives. Questions on direction of their business plan as not needed.

Some of the developers of these new business ventures feel their advanced educations justifies the way they are going about doing business as the only way to go about doing business. Some even feel their short experience of being part of another startup sets their business plan on solid ground. All of them are attempts to falsely rationalize the fact they do not know what the heck they are doing.

Colleges for the past 25 years are pushing out graduates with degrees full of teaching of business cases full of words but no practical applications to what really goes on in the business world. This rush to keep the schools of higher learning financially sound has built at least two generations of dreamers who were taught how to build businesses on paper, but not on concrete or from experience.

The result, the youngsters hit the streets or the internet in this case, with lots of knowledge on the concept of building a business but absolutely no experience in actually how to do business. They feel their MBA’s and Doctorate will be all they need to overcome their business operation needs.

The challenge then becomes how the business consumer will deal with these new online line businesses and their attitude towards the past. How will they develop a trust that the slick looking site will deliver what its homepage is saying it will deliver?

Hopefully, these new sites and businesses developed by the younger generation will some come to realize that people who come from their parent’s generation, or grandparents’ generation, are not out to get them, or run them into the ground, or discipline them for what they are trying to accomplish. They need to get over whatever hang ups they have had in their past that has resulted in them being callous to critique and start viewing the people over 30 as a resource that will save them value time and money.

Telling someone the truth and providing a truthful evaluation should not be taken as offensive. It is what is commonly known in the business arena as Help. Help comes in all ages and challenges can only be met with help.
Let me know how I can help.

I was at a social gathering at my club this evening and I had the pleasure to talk to some of the younger people who just joined. Younger being in their early to mid 30’s.

It was a pretty cool conversation since they were simply blown away that someone from my generation was so internet savvy. This opened a door to finding out more about how they see things on the internet and how things really work on the internet.

The conversation really got into a frenzy when we go to the love hate relationship people have with Facebook and MySpace, which for this group of moderates neither of the groups interested them even though each of them had at least three profiles on each site.

We also talked about how some of the blogs on the internet get so many comments or hits on Digg. Hey told me that most of the comments people were getting were from close drinking buddies of the person blogging or near relatives. They even know some of the Pro-Bloggers who are making a bundle blogging paying people to comment and to create buzz. This group of young business people said they are tiring of how people in SV and SF are running the show for standards set for social groups and blogs.

What interested them the most was what I was talking about as Private Online/Offline Groups of 150 or so. They liked the concept of having a small circle of contacts. They know that the Big Dogs of the internet are members of several private undercover groups that communicate more through IM than through blogging. So they wanted to get my take on how social groups should be formed.

The fact that groups should only grow to a specific size before moving to the next level and that all members get to know each other both online and offline was what peaked their interest. They quickly realizing what this concept would do to SV and SF and it really got them thinking about how to get things going for a group they wanted to start.

I found this gathering one of the most exciting activities I had been to in a long, long time. Then it hit me…wait a minute, this was offline gathering talking about online issues. That is exactly what social and business networking is all about.

Unlike the popular adage business networking groups have today, it is not about gathering up as many names and contacts you can and hope that 10% of them produce a sale…it is about meeting people to find out who they are and what they do.

Yes the age of the mega social groups is coming and like the meteor that hit a zillion years ago that wiped out all of the dinosaurs, the advent of smaller social groups will be that meteor that wipes out all of the dinosaur social groups.

For more insight on this and a ton of other subjects that REALLY matter,. Check out IBGS.

I am finding it harder and harder to believe anyone is getting absolutely any value out of a Fast Networking activity. My question is, what does anyone really get out of talking fast and gathering business cards? Other than this method of networking being of a social benefit for those who use these events as something to due during the fridge months I really cannot see it is worth the time, money or effort.

Online I see videocasts, blogs, podcasts, read articles and offline run into people offline who are going completely crazy trying to book their selves solid with one-on-one meetings at Starbuck. The only people who are making a profit from this method of business networking are the owners of Starbucks. I have studied this process of fast business networking so I can safely say it is a complete waste of time.

My critics will say this method of going around the room in two minute spurts is for people who are really passionate about their business and enjoy meeting as many people as they can. They explain to me that the more people you know the more chance you have of becoming a successful business person. Plus they also will say other ways of networking a person’s business take too much time away from the millisecond timeline business plan to success many business people are setting for their business. In other words, people who chose this method of business networking feel they need to make a million dollars a minute. Give me a friggin break. Is that anyone you want to do business with?

Well, I do not criticize anything unless I can factually report on why it needs criticism. My studies show that over 80% of the people who participate in the business version of the ‘one minute date’ have no idea why they are doing what they are doing. And over 85% of the people who go through the rig-a-ma-roar leave with contacts they cannot use nor have contacts to refer to those people who they just met.

Over 65% of the business people who attend Fast Networking events are with businesses that require them to make hundreds of cold calls a week to attempt to sell services they represent which are part of a very saturated market and nobody really needs.

Less than 5% of the business people who attend these events make a worthwhile business connection. My follow ups show that those business relationships lasted a few minutes after a sale was closed since one of the parties was not interested in keeping a lasting business relationship. These businesses who feed off making as many connections as they can are totally focused only on making a sale with no interest in providing continued customer service.

I could go on and on and I am sure I am going to get the usually feedback that I am out of touch with the way business is done now days and not to critize something that is working for others. Maybe I should and would probably take that advice if it was not for the fact that it is causing a huge negative image of business networking as a whole in the marketplace.

I am running into more and more people who are now concerned with conducting any type of business networking due to them being turned off by attending a fast networking event. Business people who are serious about their business and business’ image are not interested in going to a gathering where you have two minutes to find out what a person does before a loud horn goes off to stop the natural process of building a business relationship. Or at least a business should be concerned with the image they get from being a part of these activities. This method of showmanship networking does not work which pushes professional away from any type of networking due to the fear other methods of networking will be another one of these fast ‘trots around the room’ events.

I find it interesting and also a little disgusting to find golf groups who feel they need to use this method of networking. So far it seems they are using fast networking as a filler activity since their golf season is limited to three to four months a year. Since I know there are alternatives and activities that could be used instead of using a Fast Networking event I am now getting the impression the motivation behind the mission of these golf groups is not the golf, but using golf as the lure to draw in business golfers to hammer them for a sales lead.

Yes, without a doubt golf is the best business networking tool. Golf produces what other methods of business networking cannot. What playing golf with someone will do other business networking will not is building a solid business relationship. Again, yes, other methods of business networking build business relationships, but the difference in a business relationship and a solid business relationship is the solid business relationship is long lasting producing continuous sales. A regular business relationship usually results only in a possible single sale with no returned business.

Which would you rather have, 50 solid profitable business relationship, or, 200 business relationships that hit once resulting in you to having to take the time and spend more money to go to another fast business networking to gather another 200 business relationships?

My decision is to play more business golf.

Great story in the Dallas Morning News on Spam being generated from people who love to Reply To All…

OK, I know it has happened to you at least once. If not then get ready, I am sure it will happen any day now.

What am I talking about?

I am talking about people you have met, done business with, played golf with, gone fishing with, had drinks with or have had any assortment of affiliations with do not return your emails, phone calls, personal letters or RSVP to personal invitations.

This unprofessional behavior is really starting to grow in most industries and unfortunately is starting to kill the business networking economy, not to mention personal and professional relationships. Why is this taking place?

Fortunately, my persistence ion finding out what the deal is has paid off, but not profitably. I have been able to encounter a few people recently who I have been trying to get in touch with them as they as me to by driving by their office to find out why they are not replying to my emails, phone message, text message or any other communications I have made at their request.

50% of these altercations resulted in finding out the reason was that any reply of any of the communications would have provided and the other half produced the same, but only after hearing a multitude of excused on how they got busy and forgot or just did not get around to replying.

What both groups were saying is they really didn’t care enough to take the time to reply or really did not want anything I was offering but was figuring that I would go away if they did not answer my communications. They finally admitted they just did not want to appear to be negative.

Yes, that ‘N’ word that business people are being told to avoid at all cost. And who is telling them to avoid the ‘N’ word or to appear negative? Well there is a group of business coaches out in the world who are coaching people to go out and meet new people but not to waste their time with people that burn up their energy or does not offer them anything that would help them accomplish their professional goals. This is a contradiction in itself, but is what they feel has to be done to be successful.

The main thing these coaches say needs to be the focus is to appear positive at all costs. There should never be a negative word come out of their mouth and all should be said with a smiley face. They even drill them and role-play how to go about staying positive for an entire day.
These misinformed professionals go as far as telling their clients what kind of emails, voice messages and invitations they need to avoid.

Why? Their point of view is that anytime you have to say NO to something you are seen as being negative. So to avoid saying No or appearing to be negative they advise their clients to not respond to message from people who fit the category of a ‘Time Waster”. They even provide them with scripts on what to say if they are encountered by the person who sent them the messages they are ignoring. Something like, “OH, my business has taken such a positive and exciting direction I miss must of overlooked your messages.”

Yep, my response was the same. WTF are they talking about and why do people think ignoring someone is placing them in a positive image.

Well, I encountered one of the coaches recently…I will not use their name or company name to keep from giving them anymore positive imagery, but they feel that there are some businesses that waste other business people’s time.

They also feel that in order for a business to become successful and profitable they need to avoid the negative image of being associated with businesses that waste their time and energy. They tell their clients to focus on keeping their scheduled full of appointments with productive business connections and to avoid any business connection that has the slightest image of not offering anything that would help them in being seen as a positive business to do business with.

Yaw, what drug are these people on? This attitude these coaches are instilling into their client’s head is being taking way out of context to a point that more and more business people are thinking it is normal to not return a phone call or email for any reason unless it is going to produce a sale or close a deal. Anything outside that scope of professionalism will lead to wasting time.

So, now that you are aware that there are business coaches out there who feel this way, it could explain why you are not getting emails and voice mail messages returned. I hope these business people who feel they need to book themselves solid are thinking about tomorrow when nobody wants to do business with them because they don’t return emails or phone calls.

Check out the IBGS Blog for more insight on Business Development.

In the news tonight there were a couple of issues I wanted to report on.

Social Networking’s New Direction.

MySpace Moves to Stop SPAM

Social Networking’s New Directions

Business Week reported in Scaling the Social Web, on social networking groups like MySpace and Facebook no longer being the places people are going to network or socialize. I find this rather refreshing since I have a profile on both and really have not found the worthiness of either of them. I am finding the smaller social groups that take control of who is a member or move to needing to be invited to join to be a more viable place to be on the internet.

Recently I was overhearing a late 20 early 30’s young man telling his early 50’s father how he would never allow his kids on MySpace after what he experienced. Seems he was a member when MySpace started and he was much younger and now he sees that the predators are all over the mega social groups hiding behind pictures of George Clooney and Britney Spears or no photo at all.

With the report NetCraft provided on there being 135 Million distinctive different web-sites on the internet with a 5% increase each month there are a lot of places for people to go see and spend time. The urge to see what can be found on the internet is pulling people’s interest away from being a member of a social group.

It is good to hear that things are changing for the better in social networking and that more people are finding the mega groups as not the place to HAVE TO BE.

MySpace Moves to Stop SPAM

Marshall Kirkpatrick over on Read/WriteWeb brought to my attention a change in method the spammers use to bug the crap out of you about being a friend. I agree, it has taken a long time for MySpace to take action, now if they can get rel photo’s maybe MySpace will move back on the radar as a place to go and meet real people.

While I was away I did not stop my pursuit in learning more about how small businesses are doing business or not.  Over the past three months of writing on my next book on the problems in the golf world I took the time to play golf with or just sit and visit with, over 50 business people.  Their occupations range from top attorney’s to truck drivers.  The one thing they all had in common was they had problems with how to manage a business.

I am now finding why there are so many business failures.  Simply put, there are too many people trying to go it alone.  To make things worst, these business people I visited with feel their strengths are what will lead them to success.

Those with very strong marketing and sales skills quickly found that not having any operations background lead them to fail quickly.   Those with operations background and little marketing abilities fair a little better, but without the expertise or confidence in selling they too hit a wall quickly.

I speak on this issue frequently and usually draw a lot of fire from the sales manages and marketing directors who fear for their jobs, but if a business does not have a sound operations set up before they start marketing then the sign on the wall of the office saying ‘This Way Out’ indicates clearly how their business will go. 

It is true a business needs marketing and sound marketing is better.  However, without a sound operation set up before the marketing starts there really is not any thing to market.

I have two examples.  One is for a larger professional firm and the other is a one man show small business.

As was the case with the larger professional firm their marketing was done by word of month, but what they found soon after they started they were limited to the amount of work they could take on due to the time it took to process the client’s paperwork.  What was found to be the problem was the professionals were spending more time filling out redundant forms they felt had to be filled out by a professional in order to validate the legality of the information they were providing.  Once I pointed out they did not have an operation to support their efforts they quickly saw where their problem was.  So they hired an operations manager to set up a central process where all clients’ paperwork was processed before and after the visit with the professional.  This allowed them to take on a 40% increase in case loads for their business.

In the case of the one-man show, he was a truck driver who had a great outgoing personality and could talk up a storm.  This produced more loads for him to haul than he could legally make.  Again, once I pointed out that the paperwork he had to fill out and arrangements to pick-up and drop off the load was taking up a lot of his time he realized that he did not have a sound operations set up for his business.  Once he brought in a third party to handle his paperwork and scheduling of loads he was left to doing what he does well…driving a big rig and talking up a storm.

Here are two very simple explanations of how business people with strength in one area need to rely upon operations to make the business work.   The best bet for any business is to hire someone else to handle the operations.  They will pay for themselves over a short period of time.

Need I say what I recommend every business do before starting a business? If you need to know then you need an operations manager.

Let me know how I can help.

To read more on other subjects check out the IBGS site.