Why Entrepreneurs and Parents Need Big Bank Accounts (But Not the Kind You Think)

Think a big balance in the bank will help you run a successful business and raise a family?

There’s no doubt having a lot of money in the bank can help in both cases. But it’s not a requirement. I’d even argue that depending on your definition of success, you can be very successful in business and especially parenthood with not much money at all.

But I’m not talking about money here. There’s another type of bank account that I think is extremely important to being successful as an entrepreneur and a parent.

An Emotional Bank Account.

Let me explain.

A few years ago I attended a lecture by a prominent child psychologist at a local high school. During the talk he explained how he’s come to think of parenting as having a bank account. He said “Early on you need to make as many deposits as you can because come the teenage years, you’re going to be making a lot of withdrawals.”

That got big laughs from the audience. And while funny, there’s a lot of truth to it.

I have not yet experienced sharing a home with a teenager. My daughters still have a way to go (though I know sure that time will arrive much quicker than I’d like!). However, I remember my teenage years. I can say with a high degree of certainty that they were not the most enjoyable years for my parents to have me living under their roof.

But it could have been a lot worse.

While we clashed from time to time, my parents had made a lot of deposits into the emotional bank account when I was younger. As a results, there was a lot of love, respect, and trust between us. And while there were definitely withdrawals made along the way (on both sides), the balance remained high enough to get all of us through those years in very good shape.

When it comes to your business, you need to build an emotional bank account with your customers. Starting with their very first contact as a prospect, it’s critical to start building that balance by nurturing that relationship.

How?

Be reliable.
Be approachable.
Be trustworthy.
Make them feel special.
Underpromise and overdeliver.
Be honest – always!
Make it About You – your customer.

Why is this so important? Because one day, no matter how hard you try to avoid it, something will go wrong.

A server will crash.
A payment will be mishandled.
A miscommunication will occur.
A deadline will be missed.
A campaign will not go as planned.

If you take the time to build up a big emotional bank account with your customers, chances are good they will remain your customers. The emotional account balance you build will not be drained by an occassional withdrawal.

If you fail to grow that balance early and often, then even a little withdrawal can bankrupt your account. And that can have a very real impact on the balance of your actual bank account!

Do you have an example of how building a big emotional bank account has helped you in business or pareting? Please share it below in the comment section.

3 Things Entrepreneurs Can Learn From a Screaming Baby

It’s 2 A.M. You’re sleeping soundly in bed. All of a sudden the peace and quiet of the early morning is shattered by the head-splitting cries of your little pride and joy. You go try to calm her down but two hours later she’s still screaming as loud as ever.

You’re beyond exhausted. You have a headache. You’re near tears. You’re desperately grasping for anything you can think of to get that baby to stop screaming and go back to sleep.

You’ve tried the usual mix of bouncing, swaying, rocking, coddling, dancing, singing, feeding, and changing diapers.

You’ve resorted to more desperate measures like holding her on the dryer while it’s running and taking a drive in the car, hoping the vibrations will do the trick.

Back at home, rattled to your very core, you head to the bathroom to get a drink of water. Your hand misses the light switch and instead turns on the vent. And then . . . silence! The quiet hum of the fan did the trick!

Relieved, but still a bit frazzled by the ordeal, you put the baby back in her crib and go to sleep. Success!

So what can you learn about marketing from this torture that 1000s of parents of infants go through on a nightly basis?

1. Get it wrong . . . quickly! If you’re rocking that baby and she doesn’t stop crying, you’re not going to keep rocking her for very long. You’re going to move on to something else that will hopefully yield better results – and fast!

The same principle applies to your marketing efforts. If you’ve launched a new marketing campaign and are not getting the results you want – don’t go down with the ship. Bail quickly and move onto something new.

Test out new marketing ideas on a small scale. If it works – build on it. If it doesn’t – try something else. The quicker you go through this process, the quicker you will find the marketing ideas that will fuel your company’s success.

2. Make mistakes. In my little story, the usual tricks didn’t work. It was missing the light switch and turning on the fan instead that was the life saver that rescued our desperate parent.

A lot of business owners are afraid of making mistakes. That’s a, well, mistake. Being afraid of making mistakes hampers creativity, makes it difficult to stand out from the competition, and won’t doesn’t lead to any big breakthroughs for your company.

Mistakes have led to some monumental breakthroughs in the course of human history. For more on mistakes, read Scott Ginsberg’s blog post “10 Mistakes That Changed The World.“

Now go make some mistakes of your own!

3. It’s not about you – the business owner, it’s about you – your customer. If you tried some of the things that calm you down (ie. a glass of wine, meditation, deep breaths, spa treatments) on a baby, you wouldn’t be too successful (and depending on which of those you tried, you could end up in jail!).

In business, it doesn’t matter what works for you, what you respond to, what you like. As we talked about the other week, it only matters what your customers want. Give them what they want and they’ll respond by giving you what you want – their business.

Can you think of some other lessons entrepreneurs can learn from a screaming baby? If so, please share them in the comment section below.

And please join me as the “What You Can Learn About Business From a Baby” series continues. Next we’ll explore why in business and parenthood it’s important to have a big bank account. But not the kind you think.

What You Can Learn About Business From a Baby

Remember the “When I Grow Up” Monster.com commercial from a few years back? It featured kids talking about how they want to do things like “work their way up to middle management,” “be a ‘yes’ man,” and “file all day” when they grow up.

It’s a great commercial, though I think the kids in it are too old to be dispensing any sort of career advice. Just listen to them. At 11 or 12 years old the entrepreneurial spirit has already been beaten out of them and they’re content settling for the Dilbert Cube!

If you really want to get some sound lessons in business, you should be looking to the infant and toddler set. Seriously!

I became a father for the first time and started my first business within a 14 month stretch. These are two enormous undertakings by themselves. Taking them on at about the same time was quite an overwhelming task. One thing that helped me however, is that I found I could learn a lot about business by observing and interacting with my daughter. In fact, I think babies can teach you more about the critical skills needed to start and run a successful business than most business courses at prestigious universities.

Now that I’m home for about 6 weeks playing Mr. Mom to our second child, I’ve got baby on the brain again. It seems like the ideal time to share some of the business lessons my kids have taught me (and continue to teach me) because . . . you really can learn a lot about business from a baby.

Join me later this week (baby permitting) to learn the essential business lessons you can learn from trying to get a fussy baby to stop crying.

Do You Make This Mistake in Your Marketing?

“Well I never click on those.“

That’s a fairly common reaction I get when describing Google AdWords to people. (Just an aside for those who aren’t familiar with AdWords. AdWords ads are the “sponsored” results located primarily on the right side of the screen when you perform a search in Google. You can learn more about AdWords here.).

It’s the same reaction people have to direct mail and how they put theirs straight into the circular file.

Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who’s admitted to either opening their “junk mail” or clicking on AdWords ads!

But here’s the thing:

A lot of people do open their “junk” mail and buy the stuff being advertised. Billions of dollars a year of it.

A lot of people do click on AdWords ads. And these clicks are making AdWords advertisers a lot of S.W.I.S.S. Money.

The mistake comes when you make marketing decisions for your business based on your behavior and not your target market’s behavior. Just because you don’t open, click, buy, or care doesn’t mean your prospects and customers don’t.

Remember, it’s not about you – the business owner, it’s About You – your customer.

Keep that in mind, and you’re on your way to building a successful marketing campaign whether it’s online or off.

How To Build a Fortune Online Through Sleep Deprivation

Two ideas that have the potential to make huge amounts of money came to me in the wee hours this morning while unsuccessfully trying to get our 10 week old to sleep.

1. Ambien for Babies. While I have no doubt this would be a huge seller, I’m not entirely comfortable with the idea of drugging my any child (a few more sleepless nights, however, and I may come around).

2. A membership website that teaches parents how to get their babies to sleep through the night.

I thought a lot about the latter between 4:13am and 6:47am this morning and seriously think it could be a goldmine.

You’d be serving a huge market. There are over 130 million babies born worldwide every year which means somewhere between 130 million and 260 million desperate, cranky, sleep-deprived parents searching for solutions. Even if the vast majority don’t have internet access, you’re still left with a pool of millions of parents each year on the verge of being literally willing to give up their first born for some sleep. What’s not to love about those demographics (at least from a business standpoint)?

Marketing will be a snap. It’s often said the key to effective marketing is to identify what’s keeping your prospect up at night. Not terribly difficult to do in this case, is it?

I put together a blueprint for developing and marketing such a site that I’m happy to share here:

• The site should be primarily video based. Bleary-eyed parents can’t see straight and will be in no mood to read.
• The videos should demonstrate various techniques and tips on how to get a baby to sleep, how to get them to sleep through the night, and how to get them on a regular sleeping schedule.
• When babies appear in these videos, make sure you only show them sleeping. Two main reasons. One, you’re selling hope. Nothing is going to be more hopeful to parents then to see a sleeping baby (even if it’s not theirs at the moment). Second, hearing the sound of another kid screaming could very well push sleep deprived parents over the edge.
• Include a message board so parents can create support groups and trade additional tips and techniques on how to get their little bundles of joy to sleep at night.

Once you’ve got the content developed, it’s on to marketing. I’m a big fan of Google AdWords (though as an Google AdWords Professional, I’m a bit biased). Running a campaign to sell a product like this should be a snap, but here are a few tips to optimize your AdWords campaign’s performance:

• Use the “Advanced Ad Scheduling” feature in AdWords. This lets you adjust your bid prices depending on the time of day. Be sure to increase your bid prices between midnight and 6AM. While I usually don’t recommend bidding for the top spot in the AdWords rankings, it’s probably not a bad idea in this case. You’re going to want your ads to appear as high up in the rankings as possible so they are the first thing a parent sees when doing a search.
• Keyword research is always, well, key to a successful AdWords campaign. Here are a few keywords to get you started: “How to get a baby to sleep”, “my baby won’t sleep”, “baby sleeping tips”, “baby sleeping problems” and “AAAAHHHHHHH!”.
• Be sure to also use some “turn the corner” keywords. This is a strategy where you find keywords that are likely to have people searching on them who need your product or service, but they just don’t know it yet. In this case, think keywords related to birth control and adoption.

So there you have it – a blueprint to get you started on building and marketing an incredible membership site that will have the SWISS money piling in. If you run with this idea be sure to let me know when you have your site up. I’ll be your first member. In the meantime, PLEASE post whatever tips you have on getting a fussy baby to sleep in the comment section.

P.S. Check back here soon for more on membership sites. While I had some fun with this post, creating a membership site is, I believe, one of the most viable online business models out there. I’ll have more on them in future posts, but first I need a nap.

More About You

Do you have an “About You” page on your website yet?

It’s a concept I introduced back in November and I’m thrilled that it seems to be catching on (at least in some circles).

Here are some great examples of people who have added an About You page to their website/blog:

• Ed Vallorani at Avanti Improvement Solutions, LLC.

• Jeremy Nulik, from St. Louis Small Business Monthly, added one to his new blog, Creative Energy Officer.

• And Gill Wagner, put one (called Your Story) on his new website/concept, Idea Transfusion. (If you live in the St. Louis area, check this site out – it’s a really interesting concept. And I’m not just saying that because I’m on the Idea Transfusion team!)

If you add an About You page to your website, be sure to email it to me so I can share it in future blog posts.

The Creativity Habit

“. . .the more new things we try — the more we step outside our comfort zone — the more inherently creative we become, both in the workplace and in our personal lives.”

This excerpt is from a fascinating article in the New York Times. While on the surface it may not appear the article has much to do with running a successful business online or off, I’d argue habits and creativity have everything to do with it.

Why Free Search Engine Traffic is a Myth

It’s probably the biggest misconception I hear from people looking to promote their site online – “free” traffic from the search engines.

It doesn’t exist. It’s a myth. Forget about it.

I understand the confusion. You probably think if someone clicks a link to your site in the natural search engine rankings (as opposed to the sponsored pay-per-click (PPC) ads) it doesn’t cost you a dime. And you’re right.

However, getting your website ranked high enough in the search engines so that you’ll get a significant number of quality clicks from the natural search results will cost you – usually a lot more than a dime.

Welcome to the world of SEO. For those who are not familiar with the term SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s the process (art? science? magic?) of optimizing your website for certain keywords so that your site will appear high up in the natural search engine rankings.

A few months back, I blogged about the 7 Potential Pitfalls of SEO which explains why SEO is not really free and is not as appealing as you might think. A recent blog post on Search Engine Land titled “SEO is Not Free Traffic” looks at the true costs that are involved in SEO.

Bottom line: While it can be very rewarding, it’s not easy and it’s definitely not free.

The article also talks about a compensation model you should definitely consider if you’re going to hire an SEO firm. Read the full article here.

The One Thing You Must Understand About Doing Business Online

There’s a lot of talk about the internet and the “new” way of doing business or the changing face of business. What easily gets lost in all the excitement of building and running an online business is that the fundamentals of building and running a successful business remain the same.

Before starting an online business or taking your business online, you must understand:

There’s nothing new online, just a new and (usually) more efficient way of doing it.

So remember:

• Blogs are just a way to start a conversation with prospects and customers
• Social networking sites are just a way to meet people and expand your network of contacts (aka “sphere of influence”)
• Wikis are just a way of collaborating with customers
• Websites are just a way of presenting your sales message, company information, products, etc. to prospects and customers
• Google AdWords is just a form of direct mail (on steroids)
• Podcasts, emails, and web feeds are just a way of letting customers subscribe to your message (ie. giving you permission to share information with them)

All these tools provide a more efficient means to accomplish your goals. However, to build a successful online business:

You still have to provide a product or service that people want.
You still have to demonstrate the value of that product or service.
You still have focus on your customers’ needs, not yours.
You still have to provide excellent customer service.
You still have to work hard.
You still have to deliver the goods.
You still have to exceed expectations.
You still have to reach the right audience with the right message at the right time.
You still have to build a loyal following.
You still have to put in the time.

Henry Ford’s assembly line made building cars faster, easier and cheaper than every before. However, if his process had produced a pile of crap and he had given no thought to what his customers wanted, Ford would not have succeeded.

The internet makes it faster, easier, and cheaper to do business, and with a far greater reach, than ever before. But if you get caught up in the technology and forget about the underlying fundamentals, the internet also makes it faster and easier, though not necessarily cheaper, to go out of business than ever before.

Internet Marketing Lessons From the Labor & Delivery Room

My wife and I recently welcomed our second child into the world.

One of the things that struck me about the experience is how once we got to the Labor and Delivery room at the hospital our lives revolved around a monitor that displayed three critical pieces of information:

1. The baby’s heart rate
2. My wife’s contractions (not that she needed a monitor to let her know when she was having those!)
3. How dialated my wife was

It’s unusual to be focused on so few pieces of information. Usually our attention is divided between so many things: email, voice mail, meetings, what to get/make for dinner, news, weather, family, friends, etc. It’s hard to keep your eye on the ball.

It’s different when you’re in that L&D room though. Not that nothing else mattered. But being basically isolated in that small room and knowing the significance of what was about to happen has a way of making you focus on what’s really important.

So we focused – on those 3 critical pieces of information flashing on that monitor.

You’re probably wondering what on earth this has to do with internet marketing.

The lesson is this: Stay focused on your key metrics.

We knew why we were there and stayed focus on the few key pieces of information that told us how close we were getting to that baby coming out.

You have a goal (or a few of them) for your website. It may be generating a mailing list, selling a product or service, or getting people to sign up for your newsletter, whitepaper, or special report.

The key is to know what that goal is and find the few key metrics that will tell you if you’re reaching that goal (or at least headed in the right direction).

While you won’t have anything as wonderful as a baby to show for your efforts, focus on your website’s key metrics and you’ll be well on your way to marketing online successfully. With a lot less screaming involved than in a L&D room.