When I completed my tour of duty at my corporate cubicle farm a few years ago, I was going to take a totally different direction…escape the rat race and buy or start my own small business.

Despite that conviction, I will admit that I fell for one of the more pervasive myths that are out there – the astoundingly high percentage of business failures!  I think part of the reason that people easily believe the idea that 80+% of businesses fail in the first couple of years is that you feel like you can support it anecdotally by just driving around.  I remember a wrap sandwich place that opened up about the time I started considering a change.  It had a great location – the product was different and interesting, the price was reasonable and the service was good. 

They didn’t make it 6 months.

I still feel bad for the owner – I didn’t even know his name, but I’m sure this wasn’t the outcome he was planning for.

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We had our ‘regular’ poker game a few nights ago (regular in this case meaning the first one in about 4 months) and had a really good time.  This is not a big money game – for this particular group it’s way more about the competition and just catching up and having a good time.

Generally we play dealer’s choice, which includes the standards like Texas Hold-em, several variations of Seven Card stud and the occasional gimmicky game like 7 – 27, Dimestore or Pass the Trash.

However we’ve found that the favorite game of the night for most of us is a variation of Liar’s Dice.

The game we play is pretty close to the ‘Individual Hand’ rules that’s listed under Liar’s Dice in the wikipedia.

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I ran across a couple of totally unrelated stories today (via the wonderful world of the Internet and the enjoyable blog of Bill Harris – Dubious Quality) that got me to thinking about the importance of friends.  There are lots of studies that relate the value of being connected from a personal standpoint.  A lot of those same benefits are also true in the business world  where the friends and family equivalent is your  business network.

In some cases, your friends and family are your business network but usually there are people that you wouldn’t necessarily classify as a friend but they are a valuable part of your network – and if you want it to stay that way, you better be a valuable part of their network.

The first story I ran across was this impossibly cute tidbit from the Daily Mail:  Abandoned Monkey finds friend in Pigeon complete with this over the top picture!

It seems that this monkey was abandoned as a baby and was befriended by this pigeon, giving him a ‘new lease on life’.

The second story (no cute picture on this one) is about a really unusual spider web that was found in Texas that was over 200 yards long!  You can read the details of the story here but after extensive research they determined that there was a bunch of spiders working together to form this Meta-Web (my term).  Even though spiders like these normally are competitors, the unusual concentration of food prompted them to work together for the benefit of all.

Granted it’s a bit of a stretch, but here’s what this got me to thinking about in terms of a small business owner.

Are you actively building a network?  Not just a network of prospective clients, but a network of potential partners, support vendors or just people that you know, like and trust that you can use as a sounding board.

Are you having conversations with people you know to see how or if you could be of mutual benefit to each other?  Could you build a Meta-Web – even if you overlap in your business in some way?

Are you finding people that are drifting a bit, maybe they need some help or guidance, and doing what you can for them?  The essence of a network is value that you add (without specifically seeking anything in return).  Have you met anyone that you could help out today that would build up your network?

If you’re not doing these things, you should be!

Building (and keeping) a network can be really hard.  It’s easy to fall into the trap of focusing on your day to day problems or to just spend time with your immediate circle, but the value of a strong, diverse network is immeasurable – both professionally and personally.

Here’s a suggestion – make a weekly activity on your calendar to help out at least 1 person in your professional network.  It could be as simple as sending them a link to an article, website or resource that pertains to what they do.  You could make an introduction to a potential prospect or partner (potentially helping 2 people at once…!).  Or you could just setup some time to meet with them and see how things are going.  Give them some support and some time and let them know you’re interested.

Let me know any ways that you build or keep your network.  I’d love to hear from you.

Shawn Kinkade  www.aspirekc.com

I always look forward to fall, mostly because I really enjoy the cooling temperatures, that crisp feeling in the air and the beautiful turning leaves.  The other big reason is because I really enjoy the Plaza Art Fair, which is held every year towards the end of September (down on the Country Club Plaza – obviously).

The Plaza Art Fair runs from Friday, September 21st through Sunday and features 230 artists from all over the country.  It’s consistently rated one of the top 5 Art Fair events in the country. 

Not only are the artists always interesting, but you’ve got lots of great restaurants with outside booths, live music and all of the people watching you could ever want to do.  And it’s all on the Plaza, which is always just a great place to walk around.

If you’ve got some time this weekend, do yourself a favor and make it down to the Art Fair, maybe I’ll see you down there.

Shawn Kinkade www.aspirekc.com

I ran across this quote from Scott Adams (Dilbert Creator) and got a chuckle from it:

“If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions?”

Scott Adams

Of course as teachers down through the ages have suggested, the only stupid question is the one you didn’t ask (although having been in a number of corporate all hands meetings, I’m not sure I agree with that…).

So if the stupid question is one you didn’t ask, what stupid questions regarding your business are you guilty of?

Have you asked your customers what they want from you?  Lately?

Have you asked where the growth in your business is really coming from?

Have you asked how you should best spend your marketing money – primarily on existing customers or on new acquisitions?

Although it doesn’t seem like it, this is leading to something. (no really…)  These are hard questions – and not likely ones that you’re currently asking, but I believe that you should be asking them.

As an example, take a look at this Blog entry from the Inc. website:  Do you focus on your Existing Customers?

Although it’s a short post, they make some great points about the criticality of Customer Service:

1. It’s substantially cheaper and easier to get existing customers to buy from you than to get new customers to buy from you.
2. Most businesses focus their efforts on acquisition rather than expanding sales within their base.
3. This particular example indicates over 75% of revenue comes from repeat customers.

It’s not explicitly mentioned here, but generally new sales come with reduced margins and are generally less profitable.

This ties in really well to an ongoing conversation I’ve been having with a Sales and Marketing Analysis company here in Kansas City.  The crux of it is that it’s pretty common for 80% + of revenue to come from the top 15% of your Customers and that your best bet to grow your company is to get your existing customers to buy more of your products (rather than getting new customers in the fold).

Obviously you don’t want to take this to extremes, but allocating your marketing budget at least partially towards your existing customer base will likely go a long way towards increasing your bottom line.  It’s not the traditional line of thinking, but there’s a lot of common sense to it.

And building your bottom line is never stupid…!

What Stupid Questions are you not asking about your business?  How do you treat your customer  base today?  Please share your thoughts here.

Shawn Kinkade  www.aspirekc.com