Although the show itself was so-so, one highlight of Four Christmases is the exchange between Jon Favreau and Katy Mixon while playing Taboo. For couples, business people, or anyone striving to understand others, this is the “gold standard”:
One of our local video stores closed its doors this week.
I’d been a frequenter of it for quite some time – but not recently.
Why?
The owner was nice enough, the prices were good, the staff was friendly and knowledgeable…
…except for one.
This one clerk acted like you were imposing every time you wanted to pay for a video (and we were – after all, she’d much rather continue talking to her friends). She was lazy, had a bad attitude, and was even vulgar (I was once treated to her swearing at a customer).
You likely have similar experiences in your own neighborhood: ‘somewhere’ is a nice place, but there’s one bad apple that spoils the whole experience.
Here’s the catch though:
There was only one of her, yet well over a 1/2-dozen other clerks!
That means (at least for me) one nasty clerk overcame all the benefits: at least six other very nice (don’t forget knowledgeable) clerks, a convenient location, and really good prices.
One person did all that.
One.
This shop can talk about losing out to competitors, and video over the Internet/cable tv/mail taking their business. And it may be partially true. But the fact is, I (and others) would have continued supporting this local place if only the experience wasn’t do darned unpleasant – because of one person.
So if you’re a business owner, ask yourself: do I have a bad apple? Am I ignoring customer complaints? If so, expect to lose business – because if customers get upset enough, they WILL go away.
And once they are gone, how exactly will you get them back?
What is crowdsourcing? It’s getting people together to promote a project, usually involving money. And it is hugely successful.
Take for instance Kickstarter.com, one of the biggest (other biggies include RocketHub, and IndieGoGo.com). You create a project proposal, and the crowd votes on it by donating to your cause. If you make your projected goal, you get the money to start your venture.
In one case, a group that wanted to manufacture an specialty titanium lock for their bicycle got their money – and then some – to produce it. They had an idea, showed everyone the idea, and took in over $100,000 (instead of a hoped-for $37,500) in return for product orders in advance. This gave them the money to start.
Many of the sites are for artists rather than designers: many have projects for books, plays, and recordings. For example, a project might ask for money for producing a record or EP, or to write a book.
Generally, a project has several components:
These sites are well worth a look if you have a project that needs funding. Consider them the next time you say “I’d do this if only I had the money” – because if enough people agree, you WILL have the money!
What is guaranteed to cut your age in half?
Skin cream? Exercise? Dating a 20 year old?
All of these things might help, but a much cheaper, and more fun solution, is at Xenon Project.
I recently was asked to drop by and look around this RC (radio controlled) vehicle website. Well, within five minutes, I was dreaming of taking a radio controlled helicopter for a spin. Imagining what one of those nitro-powered cars would be like revving around a track. And checking out the tanks – yes, they have tanks that not only shoot, but that puff out smoke when they do!
I dare you to take a look at their site and see if you can look at one page, and one page only. I couldn’t – it’s just that addictive.
Of course all the cool toys are great, but what also sets them apart is the pricing. One chopper they had, a mini gyro, was less than half the price than I found at a store in town ($25 for them versus $60 locally). And that’s not including tax, which only California or Delaware residents pay, apparently (yes, I really browsed their website!)
Another feature I liked were the videos. When I’m looking to shop, I want to know more about the product, and XenonProject took care of that too. Each product I checked out had a YouTube video on the page, showing me what it looked like in action. It helped: for instance, the mini gyro looked pretty stable when in the air, and perfect for a newbie to Radio Controlled flying like myself.
Many years ago, we bought a RC Boat for my in-law’s anniversary (we like eclectic anniversary gifts). Not only did they play with it on the water themselves, but they ended up buying an electric car for another family for their anniversary…
…which was a big hit – because after all, who doesn’t feel like a kid when they’re playing with an RC toy?
Check out Xenon Project, and save – and enjoy!
I was reading an article on about.com regarding team communication, and I came across a new thought: teams don’t necessary like to work well together, at least not in the office. After all, incentives, bonuses, evaluations, all are based on the individual, and so it’s a little harder for a member of a team to share with others – especially if his/her idea means someone else gets a fat bonus.
The sad thing is that’s exactly what a company needs: an employee that works for the good of the company rather than himself (or herself). So what can a business do?
I think the answer is transparency. After all, if you could track all emails, responses, inter-departmental memos, and other communication, it wouldn’t take long to figure out the ‘go to’ person in each department – the one that gets the job done, answering questions quickly, providing the extra research, and generally rounding out details for everyone.
But how about better than emails: what if everyone wrote to a company-wide blog or social site, like a Facebook or Twitter, but for company employees only? For example, someone has a question, posts it, and others can answer it. Or someone is organizing a seminar, and people can add questions, vote on topics, and more. And of course, like Facebook, settings can be public or private depending on whether you’re Human Resources emailing a specific employee, or the president sending best wishes to the whole company.
One big benefit of this is better teams: after all, if the urge before was to work to look good, what better way than by posting help to everyone on your team that needs it? No more being overlooked, since all the details are out there for the bosses to see – and reward. Plus, a digital trail for every decision made is much better than the phone call that can be misinterpreted (that is, if the person even returns the call).
It’s a neat idea, and I wish I could take credit for it. However, it was something I saw on a website recently, from a company called Socialcast. They offer business-style business micro blogging software (think Facebook for a single company), and I think it’s a great synergy between the popularity of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, but combined with the business needs for contact and communication. You can go to their features page to see all aspects of enterprise collaboration, but I particularly liked the Socialcast Reach system and how collaboration with it worked, as well as the employee pages, pages that provide much more than just an employee directory.
Check it out. The future of business is going social, and at least one company has figured out how to bring the social network online, yet still within the business. Plus, with an in-house social site, employees will have less excuses to visit those ‘other’ sites!
