10 Questions to Ask Yourself Everyday

Are you focusing on what’s truly important in your life?  How would you rate the quality of the relationships of the people in your lives?  Do you understand the experiences and emotions that you have each and every day?

Take five minutes everyday (in the shower, working out, waiting in line for your latte, on the way to work, etc) to think of these questions and work on improving your personal, family, professional and in your religious life.  Reflect on these and work on getting yes to be your answer.

Questions:

1. Have I made certain that those I love feel loved?

2. Have I done something today that improved the world?

3. Have I conditioned my body to be more strong flexible and resilient?

4. Have I reviewed and honed my plans for the future?

5. Have I acted in private with the same integrity I exhibit in public?

6. Have I avoided unkind words and deeds?

7. Have I accomplished something worthwhile?

8. Have I helped someone less fortunate?

9. Have I collected some wonderful memories?

10. Have I felt grateful for the incredible gift of being alive?

 

Steps to running a successful social media deal

In just one year, there are dozens if not hundreds of great social buying sites that offer daily deals or short term offers that allows your business to market itself to a large audience and drive significant traffic, increase local business awareness and convert deal users into repeat buyers.

In the past year I have worked with five business owners and redeemed dozens of offers companies such as Groupon.com, LivingSocial.com, Mampedia.com and many more.  As a business owner, this is a fabulous opportunity, but it is important to take the appropriate steps to make your deal a success and turn the deal redeemers into happy repeat customers.

The Steps

Choose a great deal. If you don’t have a great offer, who’s going to want to buy it.  Some ideas for coming up with a great offer are gather publications such as newspapers, emails, periodicals, deals etc of your competitors – what catches your eye.  Many of these companies assign you a sales rep when you contact them.  Utilize your sells rep and ask them to pull successful deals in your area as well as other markets.  See which deals worked and which deals tanked and why.   Most people respond to offers of 50% + off or more.  And remember, your goal is to get customers in the front door, impress them and keep them coming back.

Check and double check – make your deal straightforward. Is your offer for new customers only, for a particular service or with a specific employee?  Make sure to have this information as well as a manageable end date, a limit to the number of deals your customer can purchase and so forth.

If your new at advertising – work with your reps to come up with exceptions or see what your competitors are doing in your industry.  Its extremely important for a deal to not have too many restrictions or load your deal with hidden fees.  You don’t want for your customers to be confused, upset or not be able to use their offers when they arrive at the business.  As a business this is your opportunity to shine and create the best possible experience for the customer so they repeat business.

Update your website. In some markets, deals go out to 100,000+ people.  Several of these people who are unaware of your business, check it out on the internet and see if it’s a place they would like to use.  If you can’t update it, make sure your companies contact information, location and map are easy to find.  It amazes me how many offers I click through and theres no address on the website and I have to google it.  Take some time to check your website for errors, typos, the information is current and that the prices are correct if they’re listed online.

Advertise your deal. If your business advertises on social media sites such as Twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, email, your website, community boards, etc Advertise that that your business is offering a deal this month and on which social media site.

Cap the volume on the deal. This is most important with service providers, stores, services, etc.  If you are an individual offering a service in a large city, it is important to cap the number of offers that you can reasonably handle.  The goal is to create a positive experience and people do have some flexibility with when they can redeem the offer, but most would like to schedule out 1 week, a max at 2 weeks.    To give you a basic guideline, most offers have their clients redeeming 50% of the deals between the first and last month of the offer, 10 – 20% not at all and the rest of the people in the months in between.  So, think about the percentage of sales you can reasonably accommodate on top of your current clients and go from there.

Customer service, customer service & did I say customer service. Many of these social media deals incur a huge surge of business when the deal first hits.  People call businesses to find out more and it is extremely important that your employees are ready to handle this business.

Uninformed employees = unhappy customers = lost revenue

As a business owner, it is your responsibility to work with your employees and inform them how your offer works, educate them about customer service practices with potential clients and what strategies to use to keep them coming back.

Make sure that you have the correct amount of staff on hand.

Deals = an increase in business, are you ready for this?

I think the best way of illustrating this is with an example.  A new salon opened blocks from my houses and then a month later a deal came – I snatched it up, excited to try a new place just around the corner.  I purchased a manicure & pedicure for a friend and myself so we could have a girl’s day out.  We scheduled an appointment three weeks in advance and called to confirm the day before.  When we showed up for our appointment, we found out there was only one employee scheduled to work that morning – but there where appointments for two of us.  Then 30 minutes later, 2 more people arrived to do the exact same thing.  To make s long story short, we left part of the way through the pedicure, and got our money back from the company that issued the deal and so did the people after us.  We called the company, we were told that we where not the first people to call about this business.  After all of that, I would never go back, nor would I recommend it to anyone.  As a business, its less expensive and easier to keep a current customer happy and coming back, then continuing to market and attract new businesses.

Don’t downsize your offer when customers get there. This is a chance to entice your customers with your products, services, an experience, etc.  As a business, you need to put your best foot forward to keep those people to come back, and paying full price.  This is illustrated best from this example –  I purchased a facial that came with a paraffin dip for my hands and a neck rub.  I was super excited to go as this spa got rave reviews from several of my friends.  In addition, the salon owner was also a makeup artist who I was interested in hiring for an upcoming photo shoot.  The owner was extremely pleasant, but as we proceeded through the services, she continued to tell me what they would do during a full price facial, a full priced paraffin dip and how a full neck rub was 20 minutes, not 5.  I came out of the appointment upset that I only got the bargain priced facial and I ended up using a different makeup artist for our photo shoot.  So remember to do your best to make all of your customers happy, not just your full price paying customers.

Budget, budget, budget! As a business owner, it’s important to be prepared for the expense of your deal / offer.  Businesses such as Groupon, Living Social, Mamapedia are pitched to businesses owners as free advertising (not having to pay a fee for advertising up front).

First, the social media companies have back-end expenses such as taking between 20 – 50% of the deal.  The remainder of the money is cut in the form of a check to your business within 60 days.

It is important to think of this money as a loan with monthly payments.   Yes, you receive all the money in one  lump sum, but you need to pay the offer out over a course of months.  It’s extremely important not to spend it all at once and budget out the cost to pay for your product, expenses, employees, etc.  Users have between 3 – 12 months to redeem their certificates / offers.  You don’t want to run in the red in just a few months.

The positive is, with all of these deals are that between 10 – 20% of the purchasers forget to redeem their coupon before the offer expires.  There will be a percentage of the redeemers who up sell, add services or product or spend more than the offer when they get to your business.

You don’t just have to use one company to offer your deal.  As with advertising, you need to think about where is the best place to advertise your business.  Who is your market and is your offer appropriate for your market.  Not one company will work with everyone.  Since the success of Groupon, several competitor companies sprung up overnight with similar daily deals focusing on various markets – families, people who like clothing, restaurants, singles, etc.  In my upcoming post, there will be more information about all of the companies that I am familiar with.  You can utilize this to inexpensively test and arch new markets to find out where your business and which offers work best.  I greatly recommend that you space your offer out to only 1 time a month per advertising media.  This way you can streamline your offers as you go and focus in the markets your business will be successful.

Our next article will be about some of the different daily deal websites and an idea of which types of companies and deals work best on them.  In the mean time, I love comments and any additional information that you have.

Laura Baker is a business strategy specialist for LMG Consulting.  Laura is a marketing guru who works on streamlining business processes & improving sales to make organizations more profitable.  Laura is based out of Southern California and has worked with major fortune 500 companies, boutique firms, non-profit organizations and individuals.  For additional information, questions, visit us at www.LasaraMgmtGroup.com or email Laura at Laura@LasaraMgmtGroup.com.

Google Ad Words offering $100 Credit – must sign up by May 31st

Got an email from Google Adwords for $100 in credit, I hope this can help someone or someone’s client. Let me know if you need any help with Google Adwords, been using them now for four years with clients. Would highly recommend, this is a great deal to check them out!

Act now: Sign-up tips and $100 in free advertising (expires 05/31/2010)
Dear AdWords customer,

We want to remind you that our new AdWords sign-up tips will make it fast and easy for you to get your business on Google and drive more quality traffic to your website.

These proven, easy to follow tips will make it simple for you to:
- Get your ads up and running in just minutes — we’ll guide you through step by step
- Help interested visitors find your website — we’ll help you choose the right search terms to do it
- Take full advantage of Google’s reach — our tools will help you find relevant search terms that people frequently search for
- Learn 4 simple ways to write compelling ad texts that capture the attention of potential customers
- Control every dollar you spend — we’ll show you how to choose the right budget settings to minimize costs and maximize potential customer traffic to your business
- We’re so confident that advertising with us will help you get new customers that we’re giving you $100 in free advertising to try it out risk free today – no strings attached.

We want to remind you that there are only a couple of days left before your coupon expires! Redeem it now: Simply login to your AdWords account and enter this coupon code 4YFU-ZL3Y-KBXA-CF5K-ZT4 when entering billing information to start your free trial.

4YFU-ZL3Y-KBXA-CF5K-ZT4
Expires 05/31/2010
http://adwords.google.com/

Sincerely,

Your Google AdWords Team

PS: Act now: Coupon offer expires on May 31, 2010.

*One promotional credit per customer. Promotional credit valid only for new Google AdWords customers with self-managed signup accounts. Advertisers will be charged for advertising that exceeds the promotional credit. Advertisers will need to suspend their ads if they do not wish to receive additional charges beyond the free credit amount. Offer subject to ad approval, valid registration and acceptance of the Google AdWords Program standard terms and conditions. The promotional credit is non-transferable and may not be sold or bartered. Offer may be revoked at any time for any reason by Google Inc. Advertisers with self-managed signup accounts are subject to a $5 (CAD$10) activation fee. Advertisers who choose prepay billing are subject to a $10 (CAD$20) minimum prepayment fee before their account is activated. Any such prepay amount will be credited to Advertiser’s account once account is activated. Offer valid only for sign ups through the URL provided for the promotion by customers with billing address in the US or Canada. Offer void where prohibited by law. Expires May 31, 2010.

© 2010 Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043

All rights reserved. Google, the Google logo, and AdWords are trademarks of Google Inc.

Email Preferences: You received this email because you indicated that you’d like to receive AdWords account performance suggestions. If you don’t want to receive such emails, you can change your settings at your account’s Notification Preferences page (https://adwords.google.com/select/EditCommunicationsPreferences – AdWords sign-in required). To do so, select “No” in the “Email” column beside “Customised help and performance suggestions”

Is Your Business Attracting Your Ideal Customer?

Is your business attracting your ideal customer?   In the upcoming week, economic reports are due from major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Macys, Nordstrom, Kohl’s and Home Depot.  The economy is getting better and other changes are taking place.  Retailers are beginning to see more people who are making purchases again in a timely manor.  This time around though, consumers are more price conscious than in a robust buying mood as they’ve been in the past.  In addition, consumers are expecting more from the businesses that they’re doing business with.

Business owners have been going through a rough time for the past four years and now are looking into what they can do to move ahead of the curve.  Some of the first questions that I ask clients are:

• Who is your customer?
• What is their demographic?
• What is your average sale?
• What is your average sales volume per square foot?
• What is the average sales volume per square foot for similar stores or business in similar locations and similar size?
• Is your business doing everything it can to create their ideal shopping experience for your customer?

A business is a lot like a home that you own – the best way to foster future growth is to invest in a long-term strategy for 5 to 10 years into the future.

A business needs to stay well maintained by regular upkeep and keeping your businesses in line with your target demographic and the “feel” of the neighborhood or local area.  If your competitors or other businesses in the are remodeling like repaving their parking lots, adding a drive through, painting, making isles wider, investing in new shopping carts, or remodeling the bathrooms – than you really need to keep your businesses aesthetics in line with the other businesses in the area.

But if other businesses on the block dated, then most likely undergoing a remodel would not be positive return on your investment, unless something like a major shopping center is scheduled to go in or there is going to be a major revamp in the area in the next three to five years.

As with any investment, the longer your time frame, the lower the risk.  Don’t take on a big project if your not being in business for less than 3 to five years.  The chances are that the money that you put in, aside from the necessary repairs or superficial cosmetic work, could be lost while the market hasn’t completely rebounded.

Customers realize when a business is not well maintained and regularly choose to shop in other places.

Major retailers such as Target and Nordstrom, restaurants such as TGI Fridays, Wendy’s and Arby’s are going through remodeling to boost growth in same-store sales by changing layouts (Nordstrom) and introducing new items such as grocery sections in their stores (Target).

Laura Baker is a business specialist consultant for LMG Consulting.  Laura has worked with major fortune 500 companies, boutique firms, non-profit organizations and individuals from the food, insurance, financial, medical and service industries.  For additional information, questions and or comments about your business or organization to Laura@LasaraMgmtGroup.com.

You don’t make money in business after everyone else has jumped in

Recently there have been a lot of studies about how people purchase things based on emotion and not rationality.  People purchase houses because they like things such as the charm of wood molding or the color of the walls reminds them of their childhood homes.  Creating emotion is great for people in sells, but feel that it led to a lot of the current housing issues and use of “lying” mortgages…but let’s talk more about how emotion leads to business.

Personally, I know a lot of people who have quit their job, maxed out their credit cards, took a Home Equity Line of Credit out on their house, emptied their 401 K for a feeling that they could start a business, that they could do it too.  They saw someone making money and decided to start a business to make money because their buddy is making money or the guy down the street bought a new boat or 5^th wheel and he’s doing it.

Personally, I even have thought of going against my moral judgment and opening a medical marijuana dispensary even though I have never used drugs after meeting three different people who are doing extremely well running one.

To be successful in business, I believe that your idea or business idea should be emotional (you should love doing what you do), but your business plan and model needs to be based in rationality.  Running a business is one of the hardest things that you will ever do.  Having a business is a lot like being a parent – it takes a lot of money, dedication, time and you have to do the right thing for your business.

Almost every day of my life I talk to new business owners who tell me about some great idea they just had.  I’ve heard thousands of them – ranging from services for the family pet to how to how to improve space travel for a family.

This article is not to kill innovation in uncertain or un-prosperous times but to think rationally on how to make money and hopefully a lot of it in the long run.  I want you to think outside of the box.  There is money to be made out there and now more than ever is the time to do it.  In the last two weeks I’ve had discussions with three friends and colleges telling me that they have money in the bank, but they don’t know what to invest in.

So if you have an idea, this is the time to see if your idea is feasible.  According the Wall Street Journal, big companies are back on the prowl for start-ups and the IPO market has come back to life.  It’s not easily spread though what companies are purchasing; a majority of companies are searching for information technology companies, followed by health care, consumer services and business and financial services.

Now, more than ever there are great programs for business start-ups.  People can utilize services such as the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), SCORE counseling and local business incubator programs to name a few.

So if you have an idea, take the leap now and not when everyone else is doing it.  Spend time reading great resources like The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Money, etc and look into what you can do with your idea to make it successful.

In addition, look into resources in your area such as the SBDC and schedule an appointment to talk to professionals who have been through the gauntlet and know what it takes to be successful or have failed miserably and can tell you what not to do.

For more information on business incubator programs, visit an earlier post at

http://laurabaker.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/business-incubators/

Laura Baker is a business specialist consultant for LMG Consulting.  Laura has worked with major fortune 500 companies, boutique firms, non-profit organizations and individuals from the food, insurance, financial, medical and service industries.  For additional information, questions and or comments about your business or organization to Laura@LasaraMgmtGroup.com.

Business Incubators

According to Wikipedia.  Business incubators are programs designed to accelerate the successful development of entrepreneurial support resources and services, developed and orchestrated by incubator management and offered both in the incubator and through its network of contacts.

Incubators vary in the way they deliver their services, in their organizational structure, and in the types of clients they serve. Successful completion of a business incubation program increases the likelihood that a start-up company will stay in business for the long term: Historically, 87% of incubator graduates stay in business.

Incubators differ from research and technology parks in their dedication to start-up and early-stage companies. Research and technology parks, on the other hand, tend to be large-scale projects that house everything from corporate, government or university labs to very small companies. Most research and technology parks do not offer business assistance services, which are the hallmark of a business incubation program. However, many research and technology parks house incubation programs.

Incubators also differ from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Development Centers (and similar business support programs) in that they serve only selected clients. SBDCs are required by law to offer general business assistance to any company that contacts them for help. In addition, SBDCs do not target start-up and early-stage companies; they work with any small business at any stage of development. Many business incubation programs partner with their local SBDC to create a “one-stop shop” for entrepreneurial support.

In 2005 alone, North American incubation programs assisted more than 27,000 companies that provided employment for more than 100,000 workers and generated annual revenues of $17 billion.^[2]

Business incubator programs increasing steadily among a demand for resources, services and counseling designed to help launch entrepreneurial ventures for little or no costs.

The programs are for a broad mix of industries and are commonly funded by economic development groups, government entities and academic institutions.

Most incubators offer start up businesses commercial space below market lease rates, free counseling and administrative support ranging in areas such as human resources, IT, financing, and marketing support.

http://www.nbia.org/

Laura Baker is a business specialist consultant for LMG Consulting.  Laura has worked with major fortune 500 companies, boutique firms, non-profit organizations and individuals from the food, insurance, financial, medical and service industries.  For additional information, questions and or comments about your business or organization to Laura@LasaraMgmtGroup.com.

5 Steps to Having a Successful Promotional Event

Recently I worked with an insurance agency, the local fire department and the local school district to put on a Fire Rally to teach Fire Prevention to elementary aged kids. The community, the school district, parents, businesses, the local media – in short everyone was invited; it was a large promotional event. Events like these are great because the insurance company did something really great for the community and the schools, but on the other hand when you invest a lot of time, energy and money, there should be a payoff for your organization as well. The insurance organization spent thousands of dollars and got a limited amount of return on her investment in the way of sales and advertising. Below are ways of getting started to having a successful return on time and energy.

1. Plan the Logistics in advance
If you are planning a promotion and you have never done one before take some time to talk to others who’ve run a similar promotional event in your community. Check local newspapers, community bulletins, your local government, the internet, etc. and see who’s done something like what you’ve done before. Email, call, talk, take them out for a cup of coffee and listen to what was successful and what where their road blocks along the way. Promotions are a lot of work and to be successful, planning is the key. Make a list of everything that you think that you will need – equipment, personnel, signage, promotional material, vendors, advertising and so on.
I always tell people to draw a work flow of their promotion. Most people are surprised to what they don’t think of until they actually look at it in the form of a picture.

2. Make a budget, then spend the money
This is one of the most important parts to any event. Any promotional event whether it’s for a non-profit organization to a large corporation needs some sort of return on their investment. Whether it’s for positive public relations, positive advertising exposure, building awareness, collecting information on your customers, throw support for a politician, or to increase sales – it’s important to have a solid cost associated with achieving those goals.

Next, after you come up with a number and then you’ve figured out the logistics to make your promotion occur, associate each aspect of your promotion with a price. Figure out the cost of equipment, personnel, advertising, promotional materials, outside vendors and so on.
Use a system to track each aspect of promotion so that you don’t go over budget as well. Personally I’m a believer in using tools such as Microsoft Project, Microsoft Excel and accounting software like QuickBooks. Each organization uses their own tools, but it’s really important to write everything down and continue to recalculate as you make purchases and returns along the way. 50% of events or promotions go over budget due to the person not properly monitoring or tracking purchases. Doing this can what you believe a successful promotion into a full fledge nightmare in a matter of seconds.

3. Use the right staff to get the right result
I see this frequently in most retail businesses, I show up at one of my customer’s sales events and instead of their top sales associates on the floor, they have high school students “working” their event or people who are not customer or sales focused.

First and foremost it is important to always hire the correct person to work for your business, but at an event where you are spending more money than average to increase your sales, then you need to schedule the correct staff to do so.

In addition, most really great sales members have a list of their preferred customers who they constantly keep in contact and will try to lure their customers to your organizations event and increase the bottom line.

4. Take a dose of reality
I have done some truly amazing things in my lifetime. I have fed 500 customers in the middle of the desert when the vendors failed to show for clients, I have convinced major news media to cover smaller nonprofit organizations and I have gotten large organization to get on the band wagon to make a promotion successful. But there are times that you really need to look at what you’re doing and check to see if it’s really possible. How realistic is it to achieve your targeted results? I’m not saying that you shouldn’t go out there and try to raise the bar and make something amazing happen, but on the other hand, have you justly broken down the numbers to if this is feasible?
Think about this, how many customers, vendors, members of the community, etc. are needed to come to your promotional event and if it’s a sales event, how much do they need to spend or how many certain items do they need to purchase to make this pay off.

Last year I worked with a large farming equipment manufacturer who were flying farmers from all over the world to Las Vegas to attend an agriculture expo for 10 days with the goal of them purchasing large equipment valued from $380,000 – $890,000.

I was in charge of the group of Australian, New Zealand and other Asian Rimmed Communities and brought 60 members to Las Vegas, NV. My goal was to entertain them, have them attend the expo, have them spend time with the sales associates, make sure that they had a wonderful time while visiting the US and ultimately have 10% or 6 of those guys purchase machinery.

So we did all the steps above – Plan the logistics, set a budget, use the right staff, and then step back and see if what we were spending was realistic and made adjustments to spend more money in certain places and less in others.

It’s not bad if you look at what you’re doing and see that it’s really unrealistic and make changes to make it profitable. In fact if you don’t do it then you will never improve.

5. Advertise, Market, Brand, Brand, Brand!
If you and your staff are the only ones that know about this promotion, it’s not a promotion, its turns into you spending unnecessary money on your business.
There are several inexpensive ways to promote your business – get a press release out over the wire, put it out on your Facebook Fan Page, Twitter About it, Put it on your MySpace Page, use external promoters, email or text people, put up signs, ask your neighboring businesses if you can put up signs, tell your neighboring businesses and ask them to tell people and refer them money for every customer they send your way, have your staff call the customers, etc. If it’s an event that costs money, offer money or an incentive to purchasing tickets in advance.

In addition, I really recommend spending a little bit of money into creating special advertising or promo materials for your event before and at the event. Last week a grocery store was offering free Earth Day Reusable Grocery Bags before Earth Day and a $5 off discount if you shopped at their store on Earth day with their reusable bag. I was amazed at how busy the grocery store was on earth day and how many bags I have seen around in the community since then giving the store free advertising.

Laura Baker is a business specialist consultant for LMG Consulting.  Laura has worked with major fortune 500 companies, boutique firms, non-profit organizations and individuals from the food, insurance, financial, medical and service industries.  For additional information, questions and or comments about your business or organization to Laura@LasaraMgmtGroup.com.

Keller Elementary School Fire Rally 2010

LB Fire Department at the Keller Fire Rally with Laura Baker

How to protect Your Business During a Robbery

Recently I’ve been working to help put on a fire safety rally for my son’s school and it got me to think about emergency personnel.  Then, unfortunately a client got robbed; someone ran into their business and stole their tip jar after a long and busy day.  I began searching and talking to local police about what you should you do if you or your business is involved in a robbery.

The number one priority is to protect yourself, your staff and your customers.  You can always replace something that is stolen, but you can’t bring back a life.  Here are some things that you can do though to make sure increase the chance of the perpetrator being caught.

Important Steps for a Robbery

1. Remain Calm – I know this is probably the hardest thing to do especially if someone is threating you with a weapon, but during a robbery, the robber is most likely as equally nervous as you are.  You should avoid any sudden movements or gestures.

2. Comply with the Robbers Instructions – Do not resist what they are asking of you.  The number one priority is to end the situation quickly and without anyone being harmed.  So please follow the robbers instructions and comply, it is not the time to be heroic.

3. Communicate ALL of Your Movements – If you do not have to make any movements or gestures during the robbery, and then don’t.  If you are having a medical emergency during the attack, then please let the robber know of everything that’s happening.  Do not give them any indication that you are resisting or retaliating during the robbery.

4.  Be Cautious Activating the Alarm – if your business has an alarm with a panic button, ACTIVATE IT ONLY IF YOU CAN DO SO SECRETLY.  If you are doubtful that this can be done safely, don’t do it.

5. Observe Carefully

The police will ask you these questions:

• Male / Female
• Race
• Height
• Weight
• Eye Color
• Hair Color
• Clothes
• What they said
• Disguising marks (scars, tattoos)
• Jewelry

Make a mental note of anything that might stand out and be of use to the police later on. Maybe you saw their vehicle, after they have left and it’s safe to do so, write every detail down that you can remember.

6. Give Robbers Time to Leave – Give the robber time to leave before taking the next steps to alert the owner/police of the robbery.

7. Lock the Door and See All Staff Are Safe – We don’t want them to come back, lock the door and call 911.  If someone has been injured, help the injured.  Give the emergency operator available information about the robbers including where you believe that they went.  You should also call the owner if he hasn’t been alerted from the alarm.

8. Preserve the Crime Scene – Your business is now part of a crime scene and nothing should be touched until the police say it’s ok to do so.  Important clues that could comprehend the robber could have been left behind and you don’t want to destroy this important evidence in your efforts to get back to normal.

9. Ask Witnesses to Remain – If the robbery occurred during business hours, there may be customers on the scene whose first instinct afterwards will be to get as far away as possible! It is important to keep all witnesses on the scene until the police have taken their statements and don’t discuss the robbery with anyone until these statements have been taken.

10. Close the Business – Close the business immediately afterwards until the police say it is okay to reopen. This is important so that the crime scene isn’t contaminated by additional people plus you and your staff is going to need a breather after all that stress.

I really recommend that you review these steps carefully and print them out.  Put them by your employees’ schedules or other important documents.  Review the above points carefully and I recommend you print them out and run over them with your staff today.  The goal is to stop this from happening in the future and to make sure that everyone is safe.

Laura Baker is a business specialist consultant for LMG Consulting.  Laura has worked with major fortune 500 companies, boutique firms, non-profit organizations and individuals from the food, insurance, financial, medical and service industries.  For additional information, questions and or comments about your business or organization to Laura@LasaraMgmtGroup.com.

Secret Socities = More awareness & Increased Sales

I wanted to first apologize for taking so long to get this post up.  Over the past month I have been taking classes and doing a lot of reading to get my Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.  I’ve been spending a lot of time improving my skills on how to remove waste from businesses so there will be a lot of great information about Six Sigma and how you can utilize principals of it to improve your business.       

The Secret Society of Social Media

I’ve been using a computer for almost 30 years now and have been using the internet for eighteen years.  I grew up all across the US and have family and friends from all over the world.  I find social media exciting because now I’m a parent; I use social media as a way of letting everyone know what’s happening in my life and lets me keep in touch with people. 

Maybe social media can’t quite be a secret society, but more of a way of letting me know what’s happening in the world.  Social media is interesting because it seems that people are either on board or have no idea what you’re talking about.  This is a little bit of a jump, but I’m a mom, I’m in my 30s, I try to be fashionable and hip, get advice, gossip and keep up with everything that’s happening in the suburban jungle.  I am constantly getting great little bits of news from my family and friends about upcoming events, discounts and special offers through these outlets.       

I try my hardest to know what’s going on and I believe a majority of people want to be in the know; we want to be in the inner circle. 

For the past few years large corporations such as Jet Blue, United Airlines, etc. have been using social media to pass on amazing limited time, special offers to their fans or followers.  I have found amazing offers from businesses and access to great social events.    

People who are in entertainment or restaurant industry can let people know about private performances, special food offerings, special events, free offers, etc. 

Nonprofit organizations can use social media to raise awareness about their causes, events, increase donations, etc. 

This happens because people search on key words in social media.  The information gets re-tweeted, forwarded, and or picked up which spreads your brand name.  In addition this helps you build up your brand base so it’s a win-win that can increase sales and lets you connect with your customers. 

So think about this the next time your business is having a special event to let your customers know through social media.

Trends in the hospitality industry in 2010 – Farm to Table

In the upcoming weeks, I’m going to explore the upcoming trends in the hospitality industry in 2010.  I work with several restaurants and food establishments and am constantly being asked, what are the emerging trends? 

The first trend we are going to explore is Farm to Table.  Farm to table isn’t a new trend, but what’s changing is how restaurants and food operations can use Farm to Table to improve their branding in the community, how they advertise and ways of lowering their costs.     

For years restaurants have been searching the far corners of the globe for the best, most unique ingredients and or combinations of ingredients to put in their dishes.  The concept of “Farm to Table”  is simply these establishments going back into their community and surrounding area, maximizing the freshest and finest ingredients available to them.  

“Farm to Table” is wonderful for food and restaurant establishments by helping their local business community, limiting environmental impact and  being environmentally friendly.  

Businesses become environmentally friendly by using less chemicals on the produce to protect it from long distance travel and less fossil fuel consumption, leaving a smaller eco footprint. 

One of the reasons I moved to Los Angeles from North Central Indiana was for the amazing weather.  This weather gives California restaurants access to some of the best and most diverse selection of produce from farms, vineyards and orchards. 

Restaurants can utilize “Farm to Table” and establishing the principles in their business by purchasing from a Farm Co-ops (a collection of farmers) or some partner directly with their farmers to produce their own produce in gardens.  Visiting local farmers markets is a great way to start and get introduced to your local growers.  You can sample product, get an idea about your local harvest schedule and find out if this is a direction you would like to take your business.   

“Farm to Table” gives businesses not only an opportunity to support and keep their business in the local community, it allows them to market this to consumers.  In times of financial difficulty, consumers become more aware of the businesses in their community and that they are doing their part to helping their local get by and prosper in tough times.  Customer feel good that they’re not only helping the restaurant or bakery around the corner, but they’re helping their local produce, dairy and chicken farmers too.    

Growing up in the midwest, I have family who are dairy farmers and let me say that items like fresh milk is fabulous, especially in your morning coffee.  Farm to table isn’t only for restaurants, but the concept can be utilized in restaurants, bars, coffee houses, bakeries, etc.  Wouldn’t you like herbs such as mint to be picked the day of for your mojito or have hand-picked limes to help rim your margarita?  It’s honestly little touches such as these that are cost effective and can be easily introduced into your business.   

In addition, the “Farm to Table” concept can help you promote your business as being environmentally aware, plus in some cases it can save you money by reducing transportation costs.  In 2010 several businesses across the board are becoming green.  Several grocery store chains across the country save money and are environmentally aware by brining in your own bag.  As a business owner, your using less fossil fuels by not having your food brought across the ocean in a boat, then loaded onto a train, next put into a truck, then delivered by van. 

You can also capitalize on your local growers brand to advertise their product being served in your establishment as well as quite a few can provide your business with their customer database to advertise directly to their customers about your business supplying the products that they love.   

Click on the right to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts via email.  Coming up later this week is the second part of our series Trends in the Hospitality Industry in 2010 – capitalize on ”Secret Societies,” and using tools such as social media to create buzz for your business.   

I am Laura Baker, owner of LMG Consulting.  I’ve been involved in the restaurant, catering and hospitality industry for 14 years.  From a server to a Food and Beverage Controller to a small business owner, I have worked with more than a hundred food operators to streamline their costs and run a more profitable business.  I blog bi weekly at laurabaker.wordpress.com with little bits of advice to help you manage your business.  You can contact me anytime at Laura@LasaraMgmtGroup.com. 

Cheers!