Photo by Fdecomite 

A lot of people I’ve talked to lately have been feeling like there’s not enough time in the day.

Maybe because it’s February (the longest month of the year in my book), maybe because there’s been a lot of gray, drizzly days, or maybe…and I’m just spitballin’ here, it’s because they simply don’t have enough time in the day.

The reality is that most people are trying to get dozens of things done every single day, and if you’re a small business owner you can probably multiply that by a factor of 2 (parents – especially mothers get to multiply it by another factor of at least 2).

So the best answer to this dilemma, obviously is to create more time.

Yeah – I’m not sure how to do that either.

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I got into a conversation this morning with a friend of mine about online multiplayer games – he’s a big fan of Halo 3, we both liked Call of Duty 4, but he had never played Team Fortress 2!  (currently the best 1st person multiplayer game out there in my opinion).

So that got me to thinking what Team Fortress 2 could teach us about running a small business.  If you’re not familiar with the game, here’s a quick overview from the publisher’s website:

Unlike other “class-based” games that offer a variety of combat classes only, Team Fortress 2 packs a wild variety of classes which provide a broad range of tactical abilities and personalities, and lend themselves to a variety of player skills.

Play as the flame-throwing Pyro, the room clearing Heavy, or the Spy, a master of disguises. Other classes include: Scout, Sniper, Medic, Engineer, Demoman, or Soldier.

Basically you play several variations of Capture the Flag types of games online with friends and strangers potentially anywhere in the world.

Here are a few key lessons that I came up with:

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photo by Tub Gurnard 

I came across three different blog entries today that loosely (alright…very loosely) fell under a convenient category of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD – which according to Wikipedia here was first coined by Gene Amdahl after leaving IBM to describe the Big Blue sales approach.)

Anyway, as someone that’s observed a lot of Fear, Uncertainty or Doubt in the last 6 months (both from myself and from clients and other small business owners) it’s a topic that’s never far from my mind.

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photo by PixelFixer

What if you owned a retail operation that depended on foot traffic and visibility for a large part of your business?

You’ve got great products, your prices are attractive and you have quality staff people running your store.

Now imagine that your store is located in a dark back alley in a rough part of town.

How’s that working out for you?

Is your store a success?  Are you going to be able hang on for the long run?

Are you really mad at the commercial real estate agent that got you the space?

You might be able to make this situation work, if you have a highly loyal customer base and a product or experience that really hard to find anywhere else.  Certainly there are restaurants and bars that can make that kind of ‘ambiance’ work for them, but in general it’s very difficult to succeed in the long run when you’re not where your customers are.

The amazing thing is that everyday business owners are choosing every day to stay out of the main street and away from their customers.

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Photo by Laffy4k 

Note: this is the first in a series about supercharging your marketing message by leveraging some of the ideas in Jump Start Your Business Brain by Doug Hall.   This is an excellent book with some really practical strategies and ideas for enhancing your marketing message.

I’m also doing a workshop on this material in a couple of weeks, you can find more information here – I’d love to have you join me.

The Message is King!

3M did a study quite a while ago that stated that the average person is impacted with over 3000 advertisements every single day!  If anything, that number has only gone up.

Now think about your ad – it could be a Google ad, it could be a newspaper ad, maybe something on the radio or a sign on your storefront.  How is that ad going to stand out in a crowd of over 3000 other ads your prospect is going to see that day?

You’ve only got seconds to get their attention, so what can you do? Read More…