Six Signs Your Business Needs A Spring Cleaning.

Open the windows and let all that stale air go whoosh. There’s a lot of creepy, cruddy build-up crowding our attitudes, beliefs, behaviors — and probably our bottom lines as well, courtesy of sitting inside and stewing all winter. We’re living with a year’s worth of sludge that rates a serious scraping.

When it comes to your business, it may be time to start fresh. And for some, it may be time to scrub it completely.

Here are the Six Signs Your Business Needs A Spring Cleaning:

Your business is in a ‘soiled’ category.
Many businesses were built on the assumption that our world economy would be forever in 20th century growth mode. Starbucks is a vivid example of this mis-guess. Dubai, in fact, is looking like another one. Then there are the products smudged by environmental, cultural or humanistic factors, from Hummers to plastic bags to fur coats. Is yours a service business based on ‘guilt-inducing’ services people can no longer afford or have cut back on? Does your product dwell in a consumer-unfriendly category? Could you, should you, make it greener?

Clean-up: The chain Massage Envy is cleaning up in this stress-packed environment versus pricey (empty) spas by offering low-price massages ($49-59), memberships, convenient hours and locations. Former poster-children for luxury fashion, the style mavens at UrbanDarling created a Purge, Merge and Splurge program that promises not only to help you spend your clothes dollars more wisely but also simplify your life. Smartly, this new ‘invest in you’ positioning taps into the two key trends of simplicity and frugality. Plus, this show of empathy assures reluctant clients ‘we get it.’

You’re stuck. (Under thick layers of cloudy thinking).
You know who you are, that guy with the cobwebs covering his ears. You’re convinced that if you just ‘wait it out’ maybe ‘things will go back to normal.’ But even the most optimistic of experts, from economists to psychologists (we’re leaving the politicos out of this equation) believe that many of the consumer changes in progress may well be permanent. Yes, there is a certain amount of pent-up demand but increasingly today is the ‘new normal.’

Clean-up: Now is the time to power-listen to your customers. Survey, interview, chat, do whatever it takes to connect with your regulars and then listen hard. If yours is a face-to-face business, take your best customers out for lunch, invite them to a town-square type meeting and ask for opinions. Follow the conversation about your industry or product category already in full swing online via Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and relevant niche sites. You need to get a realistic sense of what’s happening. Resistance is futile, dude.

Call in the Merry Maids.
Yup, we’re lone wolves, mavericks, solopreneurs and renegades. But perhaps some of the crud is coming from the sweat and swagger of always going it alone. It may be time to switch from me to we. You may know best when business is booming but times like this call for additional brainpower.

Clean-up: The solution? How about a Board of Advisors? If you don’t have one already, tap into the wellspring of genius around you and for god’s sakes, pick their brains. Make sure you have assembled a balanced group with a combination of backgrounds, specialties and personalities. The secret to an effective Board is to choose experts rather than networkers. You don’t need schmoozers. You need supporters who will speak their truth.

Buzz is fogging up your brain.
In a world where breakthrough tools like HARO, pitchengine and Twitter make buzz-generation easier and more fun than ever, it’s possible to spend hours everyday pursuing reporters and social media mavens. Often these efforts are successful — at least in terms of seeing your name and words in black-and-white. And occasionally, you’ll land the right mention in the right media and voila! your business is booming overnight. (This is also known as The Oprah Effect.)

But here’s the caution: Make sure your buzz-generation efforts actually result in real business. Like customers. Sales. Products. All those non-buzzy words. I don’t mean trying to calculate ROI, which has eluded most traditional and neo-PR pros these days. But with all the do-it-yourself PR tools today, it’s all too easy to spend too much time chasing buzz and thinking it’s always relevant to your bottom line.

Clean-Up:Allocate a certain percentage of your day to buzz. Peter Shankman sends HARO twice a day, so plan on at least skimming it for potential. Update your social networking sites, follow up on blog comments. Be very strict with your time.

Your brand identity looks dingy.
If you haven’t re-evaluated the look and feel of your brand’s identity for years — business cards to collateral materials to website to your business profile photo — it might be time to reassess. What may have been perfect when first created may either feel dated or be inadequate for your communication needs today.

Clean-up: Optimizing Social Media sites with professional photographs makes a big difference in impact. And I don’t mean those stiff, fold-your-arms-across-your-chest business pictures that Colbert so brilliantly lampoons. Find a photographer like the Bay Area’s talented Monica Michelle, who specializes in bringing out what’s naturally fascinating about you. And don’t neglect the power of pimping your Twitter Profile: an interesting and polished Twitter background (@hughbriss) will immediately increase your Follows the right way.

Your MyFax Messy Office Contest Facebook Page has 31,218 Fans.
The first step is admitting you are powerless over the contents of your messy office. If you can’t do it yourself, call in one of those de-cluttering experts or maybe one of those portable pods hauls the whole thing away.

Clean-up: Pine Sol. White vinegar. Lemon oil. Baking soda. These are all your friends. So are the spring-fresh new non-VOC paints. So is getting out of the office altogether and working in your favorite cafe, on the train to Timbuktu or at the beach.

Guru’s Note: The Guru has just launched a rollicking Spring Cleaning by ripping up the office carpet with a handy boxcutter and throwing it out the window. Next step: a ‘greener’ office via natural cork floors, which will make me feel squeaky clean and freshly virtuous.

Sympvertising Alert: Jones NY Promotes Closet Surfing for Style.

After surviving several days worth of the What Not To Wear Marathon , I was particularly psyched to hear about the launch of a new video series from fashion retailer Jones New York called JNY Style Miles. In a unique and timely display of sympvertising, Jones New York is actually encouraging women to shop in their own closets this season — in search of forgotten fashion treasures, style revivals and skirts and shirts with possible second lives.

Come Self-Improvement month (January), they’ll launch a 12-part online video series on jny.com, which aims to aid style-seeking ladies in the daunting task of looking chic on a budget. Hosted by style guru Lloyd Boston (seen on estro-shows such as The View and The Today Show), the webisodes will focus on women and their current wardrobes. Helping shoppers reevaluate the clothing they already own, Boston will teach viewers how to give new life to old pieces, with just a few key supplements from Jones New York. Shoulder pads anyone?

Guru’s Note: Bay area fashionistas can do more than merely surf for style– they can call on the local Style gurus at Urban Darling who love nothing more than roto-routering through your closet and unearthing your buried gems. Chic-Chief Corinne is near legendary in her ability to help up-the-image for that job interview or big date.

The New Potluck Economy: What Will You Bring to the Table?

The old-fashioned, Leave It To Beaver, church-basement concept of the Potluck Supper is back in style.

For those of you who missed this very 50′s ‘harvest gold, Kraft Recipe way of life: a Potluck supper is one in which everybody brings a ‘covered dish’ to the table. Usually this is a family favorite, a specialty of each particular cook. One woman may bring her Sunday best chicken casserole; another brings his homemade wheatberry muffins; yet another bakes up a sumptuous Red Devil’s food cake. And so on and so forth, until the table is rich with the imaginative recipes of each of the chefs.

A potluck gives everyone a chance to shine in their own special way. No one dish is the star; no one cook dons the apron. Which is why, even if you haven’t potlucked in eons, you ought to think about the enduring idea behind it.

In life, we all bring something to the table. Some of us are talented artists, others excel at sports, others are savvy in business. No one quality is necessarily greater than another– no one talent whups another. Sometimes we meet someone and say ‘Wow, look at the way she aced that serve. I can’t do that!’ Or ‘gee, he’s really great at closing a deal. Sure wish I was that good.’ We tunk ourselves because we feel we don’t stack up. Sometimes we let this stop us from trying, from going further, from expressing our own abilities — whatever they are, wherever they may be on the path to excellence.

That’s when we need to remember the concept of Potluck. Each of us, every single human being, brings something unique to the table. Each of us brings something worth sharing. Whether it’s boundless ideas and energy (Adryenn), an eye for making everyone look their photographic best (Monica), the gift of loving support (Allie), creative business savvy (Claire) or style to die for (Corinne) . . . all are making an important contribution. It takes everyone, every flavor, every taste and texture, every dish to make a Potluck.

Today, more and more people are RSVP-ing a resounding YES to the new Potluck Economy. We’re bartering, trading, link-exchanging, Freecycling, donating, giving of ourselves and our stuff in a myriad of imaginative ways. New technology is letting us collaborate, communicate, co-work and co-create. We’re couch surfing, ooffoo-ing and crowdsourcing.  We’re innovating breakthrough ways of working, living and being. It’s definitely not business as usual. Thank God.

This then, is the new Potluck Economy. Welcome to the table. What will you bring?

Guru’s Note:  This is an excerpt from my upcoming book:  Rock Your Future. The New Trends, Tips & Tricks.

Guru’s Update: Here’s a good article on bartering from the Monterey Herald.

It’s the Recession, Stupid: Introducing The New Rules of Recession Etiquette.

First, let’s look at what’s happening out there:

• 44,000+ layoffs in the tech industry alone
• Consumer confidence at an all-time low
• House values down by an average of 17%
• Ed McMahon’s house now owned by Donald Trump
• Mother’s Cookies crumbled.

With these sorry facts in hand, it may be time to foreclose on our existing Rules of Etiquette.  Especially old chestnuts like ‘the one with the most toys wins’ and anything that includes the words ‘disruptors, Tesla, bling, or second-round-of-funding.’

Here are the New Rules of Recession Etiquette:

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Apple Reports $1.14 Billion Profit as Sales Jump 27%

TECHNOLOGY ALERT
from The Wall Street Journal.

Oct. 21, 2008

Apple reported a $1.14 billion profit as sales jumped 27% to $7.9 billion, as demand for the company’s premium products held up amid the souring economy. CEO Steve Jobs said he was unsure “how this economic downturn will affect Apple” and the company gave a wide range of financial targets for the holiday quarter. In the September quarter, unit shipments of Macintosh computers rose 21%, while iPod unit shipments rose 8%. The company also shipped 6.9 million iPhones.

Guru’s Note: My daughter just gave me a luscious new Nano Chromatic in Guru Orange. I think Apple will still shine during the holidays.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, go to: http://online.wsj.com/public/page/news-tech-technology.html?mod=djemalertTECH

Just In: Yahoo Plans to Cut 10% of its Work Force.

TECHNOLOGY ALERT from The Wall Street Journal.

Oct. 21, 2008

Yahoo announced another restructuring effort that seeks to cut annual expenses by $400 million, including plans to cut at least 10% of its work force. The Internet giant reported a 64% drop in quarterly profit and revenue that was flat from a year earlier, as the company continues to struggle with slowing demand for online ads and stiffer competition.

Guru’s Note: Bad news but 1500 employees still better than the scuttlebutt about 3,500 workers being slashed.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, go to: http://online.wsj.com/public/page/news-tech-technology.html?mod=djemalertTECH