Family Ties

 When it comes to small business, nepotism is alive and well. After all, one of the benefits to owning a small business is that my husband can work from home – which means he needs someone to dot the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s for him. If he needs some extra help on occasion, why shouldn’t he call on his dad if he knows the man can do the job? But as you cross the line between home and work, there are a few things to be careful of.  The first involves bringing work home. Although as a small business owner, work may well <i>be</i> home, you still need to place a boundry between your separate lives. Plenty of divorces occur when corporate (and noncorporate) spouses fail to give their family the attention needed. Although as your own boss, you may feel the need to work harder than you ever did when you were employed elsewhere, make sure you take some time to stop working. Granted, being a small business owner means hard work. Being your own boss means you know exactly when you are slacking off. And being in the early stages of your business may mean you really <i>do</i> have to put in the hours to succeed. But draw the line where it needs to be drawn. If you make commitments with your family, follow through. If your wife/secretary/CFO and you have an argument about how something is handled at work, don’t bring that conversation to the dinner table. And when you are at home, or your kids’ soccer game, make sure you give the most important people in your life the attention they need.  Next comes money. Small business owners struggle, and sometimes have to ask for help when they need it. That might come in the form of borrowing money, or it might come in the form of borrowing labor. My in-laws worked for my husband’s uncle many years ago and brought home only enough to pay their bills. Then they cashed out their retirement to keep their brother/brother-in-law’s store afloat. The effort failed, the store crashed, and the money has never been repaid. Some people have forgotten, others have forgiven, but a third can’t stand to be around said borrowee. Since this is a close-knit family that meets together once a month, the relationship strain is severe. Money and family relationships don’t always mix well.  Furthermore, if your spouse is part of your business – and even if they are not – make sure you communicate spending plans well. Remember that the number one cause of divorce is money fights and money problems. Keep your spouse informed, and they will never feel betrayed. Better yet, in a company where your spouse has vested interest, discuss things. Come to an agreement. Learn to compromise.  These are only a few of the things to look out for when your family is involved in your company, or, more specifically, when your spouse is involved. Although, as small business owners, we often feel the responsibility for ensuring our business survives and functions, it is important to keep our coworkers involved and informed, particularly when we have to sleep with them. And remember that your marriage will always be worth far more than your business.

One of the many things Jay Levinson lists as aguerrilla marketing tool is the name of your business. When I read this, I thought, how can a name be a marketing tool? The more I thought about it, however, the more this made sense to me. In most advertising, the name takes up the most space. We don’t want readers, viewers, or listeners to forget who we are. If they listen to our advertising message, decide they really need to become our customers, and then can’t remember who they wanted to order their must-have specialty widgets (or service) from, they’ll buy it from someone else. We will have provided someone else with free advertising, simply because of the function of our name. But what if our advertising works in reverse? Suppose all the reader/listener/viewer remembers is our name. If they can’t remember what they wanted to purchase, then they will shrug us off and forget us. So many times, we aim to create a memorable name that really doesn’t describe what we do. And if folks passing by on the street don’t know what our business is for, the odds are good that they won’t stop in to see how we can help them. While I drove throughKitty Hawk, North Carolinaon our ‘vacation’, I made a note of some great names. In all cases, I won’t need to tell you what the business was. The two most well known, of course, are Subway and Dollar Tree.Subwayis a clever play on a restaurant to purchase…subs! And atDollar Tree, everything is a dollar. I also passed ‘Beach Memories Scrapbook Store’. Remember, this was on the beach. I thought this was a fantastic name. Not only does it let you know what it is – a scrapbook store – but it also acts as advertising. What scrapbooker, wanting to save memories from their fabulous vacation, could resist a store named ‘Beach Memories’? This even has the chance to appeal to the occasional scrapbooking tourist. Another restaurant I saw whose name made me giggle was ‘Jimmy’s Seafood Buffet’. Now, spelled out on paper, this doesn’t seem remarkable. However, the words "Jimmy" (without the ‘s) and "Buffet" were slightly larger than the rest of the words, thus making the phrase "Jimmy Buffet" stand out. A clever play on words that proves itself memorable – I didn’t even have to look at my notes. If we hadn’t been just driving by, I would have taken a picture of the sign. The image off the website will have to do, instead. The last place wasn’t so clear as to what they did, but you would never forget where they were. "Mile Post 6 Plaza" is located directly beside…mile post six! This seemed to be more of a strip mall, with several businesses located inside, but I found it quite interesting. The name here is functional, works for the several companies inside, and makes sure you don’t forget where you are! Many years ago,Romeo asked Juliet, "What’s in a name?" A good small business owner should know that, while a rose by any other name may smell as sweet, it wouldn’t sell as good. No, wait, ‘rose’ isn’t a good name for a business….but you get the idea!

Bad Press or No Press?

It seems thatAscot Realty in Buford is having more than a little bad luck. First, a Buford family reports in the Gwinnett Daily Online thatthe company destroyed their landscaped yard on July 20th. Two days later, the same paper reports that the frame of a housefell after a violent rain storm. I came across the second story in a news feed on myMerchant Circle web site. Further investigation turned up the story of the fallen home. Per the Gwinnett Daily Online, this picture originally ran on ABC affiliate WSB TV Channel 2 Action News Atlanta. I did the same thing I always do when someone forwards me an email about a dying child collecting greeting cards or a pair of hunters whose dog sank their truck on the ice - I looked around online. (For emails I tend to check outSnopes.com orUrbanLegend.com, something I wish everyone would do.) What I found was quite interesting. I found - nothing. I found nothing on any other site, including Ascot Realty's. One of the pictures from theGwinnett Daily Online - a news source I confess to knowing nothing about - claimed to come from the localABC affiliate WSB TV Channel 2 Action News Atlanta. Now, I'm not accusing anyone of making anything up. But with only a single source making the claim - and one that, interestingly, showed up "just minutes following the incident ", per their own words - I'm not taking anything at face value. What I am accusing Ascot Realty of is laxness. After I wrote a previous blog entry on anindividual's online credibility, I suppose I should have followed it with a company warning (I'm sure Ascot Realty is a big reader of my blog). As business owners, we have to monitor what is said about our business, especially on the internet, where information can reach millions and keep reaching them for months on end. What should Ascot have done? I would recommend creating a page off of their home page that explains their view. I can understand not wanting a prospective buyer to stumble in and change their minds.  However, they could create a single stand-alone page that would come up in response to the controversy. They could create a blog that would, among other things, allow them to resond to these accusations. They could take some form of action to respond to the negative publicity other than ducking and hoping it all goes away. This picture, also from Gwinnett Daily Online, is of a yard destroyed by bulldozer. The yard was professionally landscaped. Guess they aren't worried about the watering ban now! Personally, I am interested in hearing what the deal is with Ascot. Although we are out of town right now, I intend to give them a call post-vacation and find out what their version of the truth is. Or perhaps they will beat me to the punch. Perhaps someone from their community will respond to my blog - after all, it is going out on the 'net and will soon become searchable. I invite them to give their version of the truth here, as well as asking anyone with more information to discuss the subject. One caveat - I am out of town, so please forgive me if it takes a little more time to respond. But believe me when I say that I am quite interested in hearing other points of view.