Small Business Vision: Why Do You Do What You Do?

One of the most important statements you can make as a small business owner is to articulate your business vision and say why you do what you do.  A vision describes the fundamental purpose of your business, why it exists and what it is meant to do.  It is a moral statement that guides the decisions you will make along the way and will remain in place over the long term.   Here are a couple of examples: Amazon Vision Statement:  “Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find …

Is Your Brand More Like Carnival or Royal Caribbean? 5 Ways To Tell.

Recently my family and I took a Caribbean cruise. We’re not new to cruising, in fact this was our seventh. But the first six were with Royal Caribbean so this was our first experience with the Carnival brand. I’ll save you the suspense and tell you that it will also be our last, but what I did find interesting was observing the vastly different strategy that each brand employs from its website, to customer service, to the ships themselves and their excursions. I wasn’t expecting the same standard on Carnival as I had previously experienced with Royal, but I wasn’t …

Branding and Process Lessons

10 Branding and Process Lessons From A Whole Foods Store Opening

This morning at 8:00 a.m. the new Whole Foods Market opened in downtown Miami.  From the crowds you would have thought that there was a rock star in town.  People were lined up around the block and traffic was snarled around the corner.  Despite having stores in Miami Beach and Coral Gables, this opening was a big deal.  I must confess to being a bit of a Whole Foods junkie.  Having spent so much of my career on the road, the first thing I would do when landing in a new city would be to check out the nearest Whole …

the importance of focus in business

The Importance Of Focus When You Run A Business

The importance of focus in business becomes evident when you first start your business. You feel a surge of excitement from your great idea, and a sense of certainty that “this is it”! You have done your homework and you just know that this will work. In a way, it feels like having a child and you put your entire heart and soul into the process. And then, you get your first client, then your second and your third…hurray! You’re thrilled to have your great idea validated by others who are willing to pay you for your product or service. …

The Three Ways Running Helps Me Run My Business

  I am a runner.  But that has not always been a true statement, in fact I used to hate running.  When I was a kid I used to swim but when I ended up in physio for knee problems the doctor told me I should not run until I was 21.  “Woo hoo!”, I thought.  I have an excuse to avoid doing something I can’t stand!  In fact, I carried that excuse through into my 40s when it abruptly ended.  You see my husband had running a marathon on his bucket list and while I stuck to my guns …

ZenChange Receives Women’s Business Enterprise National Certification

ZenChange has received national certification as a Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women’s Business Development Council of Florida, a regional certifying partner of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). “We are proud to count ZenChange as one of the 11,500 certified women business enterprises in the U.S.” said G. Nancy Allen, President and CEO of the Women’s Business Development Council of Florida. WBENC’s national standard of certification provided by the Women’s Business Development Council of Florida Certification Committee is a meticulous process including an in-depth review of the business and a site inspection. The certification process is designed to …

Don’t Got Metrics? Then You Won’t Get Change.

As the old saying goes, “you get what you measure” and trying to make change happen in your organization is no different. I worked with a telecommunications client a few years ago who was trying to transform their collections call center. Customer satisfaction surveys were spotty, agent turnover was high and while the supervisors and managers tried all of the usual call center agent motivation tricks of pizza Fridays and drawings for free movie tickets, the center had a pretty negative view of its customers and behaved accordingly. It should be no surprise to our readers that paying your bill …

Do You Wonder Why Good Clients Suddenly Stop Coming Back?

A new client (we’ll call her Jessica) recently came to me with a concern that she was delivering a service she was so convinced was a market need, yet clients who she expected to be flocking to her in droves were somewhat lukewarm, and other good clients would suddenly stop returning yet seemed happy with her service. We spoke about the importance of identifying her market sweet spot, the full discussion of which will be a topic for another day, but when I walked her through my “Buy It” chart, her eyes lit up with understanding. The Buy It chart …