First of all, I apologize to everyone who got a double dose of the last blog post on “How mug shots matter.” I forgot that I had our email blaster on auto-pilot after I had already sent it out via on-demand last week.

It’s been a hectic week. I put the finishing touches on a 50-plus page marketing directive for one of my global consulting clients, worked hard on transitioning Oddpodz into a more social and user-friendly Website, and took my mom to Chicago for two days to see Oprah.

Early next week, I’ll blog about my trip to Chicago and the Oprah experience.

This week I’m focusing on an important aspect of entrepreneurship, or what I call “the high cost/high return of learning curves.” My goal is to share some lessons that hopefully will help you turn your learning curve experiences into meaningful milestones too.

Most of you know, the Oddpodz team has been at this community-building thing for a few years now. The founders had strong marketing and business backgrounds, however, none had technology expertise. But, we are a Web-based business so naturally the Oddpodz business model is reliant on technology.

Sound like a crazy path to take? And a bit risky? It was. But if you look at successful businesses throughout history, it’s not what they didn’t know that really mattered, it’s how they managed their weaknesses and leveraged their strengths.

Our company’s lack of in-house technology has definitely been one of our most challenging obstacles. This was evident from our first major Web site build in 2006. We hired the wrong Web development firm, expended over $400,000; lost 18 months in time-to-market, then realized our site was total crap and had to rebuild it just to meet basic functionality standards. During that time, we also needed to manage our content changes and hosting fees in a cost-effective manner, which brings us to today; we have our interim site up and running but with a whole new slew of flaws.

These could have killed us. But they didn’t. They made us stronger.

Fortunately, in 2007, when it came time to re-build and launch our second site, we connected with a Web development company that worked in .php open source (versus .net- or Microsoft-based), and also needed branding services, which I could provide. So we bartered about $40,000 in fees and kept our shaky train on the track. The good news, this technology time around, was that our leadership team was starting to gain a little ground on the IT learning curve. The new site was built with a much more user-friendly content management back-end called Joomla; we could make more updates ourselves. However, we were still very dependent on a fee-based, external team for support and many site changes.

Our second site was light years better than our first one, and it functioned. But soon after its launch, the honeymoon was over. Oddpodz was not generating revenues, our funding was gone, and the amount of cash we had to invest with our Web development company was not significant enough to get any timely service. This is one of the challenges of being small. Read more.

This put us in a very tough situation. Social media sites are continuously evolving. The industry is learning what users want from a Web site and community experience, new tools are becoming available; but without in-house technology expertise at the time, we were unable to move forward.

We needed to find a new Web service provider. Unfortunately, moving from one Web developer to another, or even finding an independent programmer can be risky, time-consuming, and potentially costly.

Even in a perfect world, a switch in developers can open up a can of worms. Custom programming and issues with workaround applications are discovered and then a blame game starts between the old and new resources.

For us, it all boiled down to Oddpodz having to choose its pain: stay and suffer, or switch and suffer.

I started researching alternate Web developers that knew Joomla. Through a Joomla training company, I was referred to several resources.

I soon found a company that I was comfortable with and they seemed to welcome small businesses accounts. I provided the contact with our back-end access so he could carefully look at our site before we made the move. He assured me his firm could help us and their fees and hosting costs would be substantially lower than what we had been paying. He also mentioned that our site was built in Joomla 1.0, which is no longer supported. He stressed the importance of upgrading of our site to Joomla 1.5 soon, or our site could experience all sorts of problems with no easy answers. We discussed upgrade costs and he said most conversions cost between $3,000-$4,000.

All of that sounded great to me; significantly reduce our hosting fees, upgrade our back end, and have a firm that seemed like it was truly interested in helping us with affordable services.

During this time of trying to source a new Web service provider, our current Web Company was beginning to generate more frustration. Our site programmer unexpectedly left and no one who remained seemed to have a clue what he had been doing for us. I felt like a change had to be made quickly.

So I pulled the trigger with the new company. This “simple move,” as sold to me, was not. This was due to both parties; the old company not being responsive to what the new company needed and the new company had not really looked under our hood while they were pitching us on the smooth hosting transition.

Yes, our site was moved to new servers. And we were saving some money. But at this point, lots of site functionality was lost for a host of reasons, including certain applications tied to old IP addresses. Others were just not available at all. Bottom line, we incurred $500.00 in troubleshooting fees just to get the site to function at 90 percent. Among the ten percent not functioning was our member sign up. So, if you came to our site, you could read content, but you couldn’t socialize or sign up as a new member.

This was not acceptable.

When I contacted our new Web developers, I was told that Oddpodz must upgrade to Joomla 1.5. But with this new information, the cost would not be $3,000-$4,000, but rather more like $16,000, and more for our testing time and involvement.

This totally sucked.

We would have been better off overpaying and getting under-serviced from the old company… at least the community worked.

Hence, my quandary: I believe Oddpodz can start generating revenues by offering tools and content for a fee. There are many successful sites that do this every day and one of our company’s strengths is creating solid content. But can we earn $16,000 in a few months to cover this investment? With our current team and resources, I don’t think so.

So what were our other options?

Using our in-house expertise, rebuild in Wordpress, add an ecommerce section and focus on our strengths in content development? This would cost under $5,000.

Upgrade the site to Joomla 1.5, but scale back functionality? This would cost around $8,000?

Throw in the towel and just focus on my other businesses.

After much deliberation, I concluded we would rebuild in Wordpress with our core team of contractors. We will leverage as many free tools as possible, build it slowly, and build it right.

This journey I just walked you through has been a big expensive pain. A lot of it was due to my and my partners’ lack of knowledge in Web technology, and not knowing what questions to ask the service providers when we engaged them.

Today, everyone is a lot smarter. And the company is still swimming toward success without water in its lungs.

The happy ending to these chapters of learning curves is, every one of these experiences taught us valuable lessons in technology and managing service providers. Even though these lessons are in hindsight, this entire learning curve has been a meaningful milestone.

1. Don’t let your fear of not knowing something stop your dream from launching.

2. Don’t let the fact that you don’t now beans about some part of the business stop you either. Life is a learning journey. Just know that it may get bumpy.

3. Don’t beat yourself up when you make mistakes. Stay focused on what you need to do to keep moving forward.

4. No matter how excited you are about building something, when you are making a big investment in your company, ask questions of yourself and your vendors about worst-case scenarios.

5. Don’t delegate a major project to a lone team member who does not have expertise in that area. As the leader of the company, don’t micro-manage, but do stay engaged with that person until you are enjoying smooth sailing.

6. If you have at least $100,000 to invest in technology, consider hiring someone (a programmer) who just works for you, not a company.

7. Beyond the time anyone says it takes to build a Website, add 10 percent for testing, and 10 percent for unforeseen changes.

8. Don’t build anything in a version of software that will soon be outdated, just to get something up, unless you are certain of the cost for the upgrade.

9. When a company is giving you a bid on a technology build project, if they have not thoroughly looked under your hood, be prepared for a higher cost.

10. Journal all your learning curves. At least once a year, pull them out and remind yourself of the progress you made because of them.

I am fortunate that in addition to Oddpodz, I operate a successful consulting practice. I can continue to fund and contribute to this company until we really start rocking and making some money.

Within the next 30 days you will see a new and improved site and community. It will still be a work in progress, but it will be another important milestone toward our success.

About the author: Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva® is an international authority on branding, marketing, and entrepreneurial matters. She has been featured as a business expert in print publications; on TV, radio, and on Web channels. Karen authored the best-selling book Brain Tattoos Creating Unique Brands That Stick in your Customers’ Minds and she is co-founder and CEO of Oddpodz.com.

Hope everyone had good Labor Day, whether you were relaxing or keeping your entrepreneurial pedal to the metal.

My weekend was very productive and enjoyable. I got some serious thinking and writing completed. I played solid tennis and watched the US Open too.

Holidays on Mondays always seem to throw my calendar off a bit. I thought it was Monday all day.

It likely didn’t help matters that I spent half the day grueling over two fraud charges on one of my credit cards.

A lesson about fraud for everyone with a credit card.

Six months ago, I noticed two charges on one of my credit cards. The first flag: it was a card I never use; the second: it was paid to Web hosting company with whom I have not done business.

I immediately called American Express. They opened an investigation and removed the charges. I never thought about it again, until this morning when I received two letters from a collections agency about these two charges, demanding payment and informing me that my credit score was at risk.

Again, I called American Express immediately. They were very nice and helpful, but explained that once something goes to a collection agency, they are out of the loop and the responsibility is back on the card owner. They said I needed to call the collections agency. Boy that was a treat. Even though they tell you that the calls will be monitored, the service and level of kindness was a minus 15 on a 1-5 scale.

This took one and one-half hours. I got disconnected twice and rerouted three times. When I finally had a live person on the phone, she scolded me for assuming the credit card company had handled the matter and informed me I needed to call the company who registered the charge. Here we go again.

I called the Web service provider and experienced the same dreadful phone tree, excessive hold time, disconnect, and redirect for around an hour more. Eventually, I heard “Customer service and billing how can I help you?”
I explained my story again, now for the third time to the 11th person, and he said, “Ma’am, just because American Express removed the charge from your card, does not mean you don’t owe us this money. It is your responsibility to contact our fraud department if, in fact, you think its fraud. Would you like me to connect you?”

In a calm, yet hostile voice I said, “Please!”

Wouldn’t you know it—the fraud department voice mailbox was full. I had to leave a message and I got a double shot of tequila.

About an hour later a gentleman phoned me back. “I’m Josh from fraud services at company XYZ returning your call.” I explained my situation again; I don’t know this company, never bought anything from them, etc. He put me on hold and said, “Let me look into something.”

After grilling me with bunch of questions, there was a pause. “Ms. Post, I see a series of missing information in this record. That means I believe you are telling the truth and concur that this is fraud charge. I will remove the charge of $39.00 from your account and you are free to get back to your life.” OK, I made up that last part.

Here’s the point. A small charge like this one for $39.00 can screw up your credit for a long time and cause you to waste a boat load full of precious time along the way.

If something appears on your credit card that is not yours, you must file a claim with the provider, and monitor it until it is resolved. Filing a claim with your credit card is not enough!

In the midst of this bloody mess, while on hold, via one of my great interns, I did discover two very cool, FREE tools to help monitor your competition and your online footprint success. Check these out.

Find out what your site is worth

$timator.com is a calculator that ranks a site’s worth based on SEO, content, back links, traffic, and more and provides you a snapshot of your online effectiveness. Happy to report, Oddpodz earned a “very good” on overall site evaluation and a valuation of just under $600,000. You can run your site along with any of your competitors.

Find out how your site is ranking with social media, buzz, and other marketing channels

Dataopedia.com provides a lot of diverse data concerning the Web; gathering data from more than 50 sources. Datopedia.com is an aggregation web service that lets users find out all the valuable facts about any website, such as traffic, online buzz, contact information, popularity in social bookmarking services…in short, all the essential facts about every website you can come across on the Internet.

This tool is one-stop resource for finding website facts, and the service can be accessed via the website, the mobile site, embeddable widgets for your website, and browser add-ons.

About the author: Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva® is an international authority on branding, marketing, and entrepreneurial matters. She has been featured as a business expert in print publications; on TV, radio, and on Web channels. Karen authored the best-selling book Brain Tattoos Creating Unique Brands That Stick in your Customers’ Minds and she is co-founder and CEO of Oddpodz.com.

Whoever said “No pain, no gain,” obviously had a few start-ups and small businesses under his or her belt.

The past few months for Oddpodz have been a period of growth and transformation. We are happy to report, we are still moving forward, however, we’ve also had a good share of “OUCHES!”

We have struggled through a frozen economy.

We have danced with investors and fundraising gurus in “not-much-action-for-pre-revenue-deals” funding market.

We have squeezed 18 hours of productivity out of 8-hour work days with a limited team.

And we have kept smiles on our faces, when inside we were often scared and freaked out.

If being an entrepreneur—starting and leading a small business—is in your life path, put your thick skin on and embrace the ability to let challenges not defeat you, but drive you forward.

Progress and change are essential for business success. But when you are a young and small enterprise they also bring several suitcases of uncomfortable side effects.

For almost a year, Oddpodz knew our Web development company was not the right fit. They were not a bad company, but our needs and budget and their needs and budgets were miles apart. We didn’t make a change because the interruption and anticipated new expenses outweighed the acceptance of sluggish service, spending more than we needed to for hosting, etc., so we just carried on.

For nearly eight months, Oddpodz has been operating with a half-tank of gas too. Running a community, marketing, producing content, managing a site, and still earning a living to fund a pre-revenue producing company requires a full tank of dedicated resources.

No matter how creative and passionate we were, this combination was not going to take us to the Promised Land. In fact, it was likely moving us closer to the end.

No matter how painful it was going to be, change had to happen.

We needed a new, responsive, affordable Web partner.

We cut our ties with our old dev firm and found a new resource. They are 3by400. They are Joomla specialists, (Oddpodz is build in Joomla), they have a track record of social media and ecommerce successes, and most of their clients are our size; small, but with potential to scale up quickly. Today we had our first strategic planning meeting with Brent, Kim, and Beth. We heard about many new applications and solutions and are looking forward to enhancing our community platform and site with their expertise.

We needed an additional dedicated, strategic partner, and contributor.

If the one lone founding partner was to lead and fund the company’s growth, at a pre-revenue stage, we needed another social media- and business savvy entrepreneur to add to the team. Rome or any city of stature was not built by one person. We drafted a very comprehensive position description for an ideal community manager. We placed it on high traffic social and job sites and started the process of finding Oddpodz a new community master. Ultimately the winning candidate came through a Twitter post. His name is Keith Burtis. He is a balance and mix of techno-dude, market maker, and creative wonder. He resides in my old stomping grounds outside Buffalo. Oddpodz is ecstatic about our new relationship. We will share more about Keith soon, but just know that there are lots of exciting and new things around the corner for the company and you.

Yes, all this progress is exciting. But with it comes time-consuming, brain-stretching, and investment-needing stuff too.

Turns out our old site was pretty cobbled together with lots of out of date applications and workarounds from a programming team that was no longer anywhere to be found. In fact, Joomla 1.0 had no support and the hosting and IP change caused many features to not transfer or function.

Yikes! This kind of progress hurts a lot until you start reaping your first season of fruit.

Our new community master is awesome. Smart, thoughtful, and creative. His presence feels like a double shot of B12. And once our immune system gets strong again, we are confident there are no marathons we won’t be able run.

We know many of you fellow entrepreneurs are feeling this stress too. Here are five tips to help you manage through your progress and change too.

1. Stay focused on the big things that matter. Answering every email and looking at vendors’ offers when you don’t have the time or resources to invest in them are a huge waste of time.

2. Amp up your efficiency, in everything you do. Put instructions and expectations in writing, start every meeting with an agenda, and utilize productively tools to maximize the hours in your day. While this takes time, it saves a lot more in the end.

3. Keep your standards high and don’t compromise because you are feeling beat up or frustrated. This will, in the long run, produce better results.

4. Do not worry or obsess about things that you cannot control or are in the past. Channel your unequivocal energy on finding solutions that get you closer to your goals.

5. Make your physical and mental fitness regime a top priority. Exercise daily, stretch, meditate, and take deep breaths often. Eat right and sleep enough.

In this time of change we are doing our best to support and grow our community. What types of things can we do better? What types of features would be valuable to you?

Until next time

Thank you for your continued support, your visits, time, and suggestions.

About the author: Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva® is an international authority on branding, marketing, and entrepreneurial matters. She has been featured as a business expert in print publications; on TV, radio, and on Web channels. Karen authored the best-selling book Brain Tattoos Creating Unique Brands That Stick in your Customers’ Minds and she is co-founder and CEO of Oddpodz.com.

I’m not knocking higher education, or any school for that matter, concerning what it can contribute to anyone’s business success. But it certainly is worth noting that some of this century’s most successful business moguls: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, and even Madonna do not have a college degree.

So what do these entrepreneurs know about starting and running a business that they didn’t learn in college or business school? And what is it that, likely, most institutions don’t spend a lot of time teaching students?

I attended one year of college and then exited early to start my first business at 22. It was an ad agency I led for nearly 20 years. While I love to learn, I never enjoyed school. I always felt impatient and couldn’t understand how so many core classes would ever be relevant to my life. Even without this formal education, I’ve been fortunate to experience a nice sum of success.

I’ve also worked with highly educated professionals; PhDs, MBAs and MDs, and I’ve been amazed by some missing fundamentals in their work styles and business practices.

These items rise to the top from my experiences and from observing other successful entrepreneurs.

1) Risk is a key factor to business breakthroughs.

No risk, no reward. Entrepreneurs must embrace a level of danger, the uncomfortable zone, and unknown elements to move ahead. Most innovations enter the world as unaccepted, anti-logic, even crazy concepts with high degrees of resistance.

2) All business has political and sport aspects in it.

Look around you, everything you touch has political cause and effects imbedded in it. Egos, competitive genes, and strategic game plans direct the majority of business ventures.

3) Emotional toughness separates the winners from the rest.

No doubt, being smart and creative count in business. But equally as important is one’s emotional toughness quotient. Can you recover from the big mistakes you make, quickly? Can you not let the opinions of others impact you? Can you dismiss the voices in your head from your childhood?

4) Intuition is real and should be trusted.

Intuition is a mysterious thing that happens without a lot of fact, logic, or reason. I believe it occurs as a by-product of your sub conscious awareness and everyday life observations. Ignoring and not trusting this power is dangerous.

5) Packaging, charisma, and confidence matter a lot.

Humans make a lot of judgments and get first impressions by what they see. Whether this is right or wrong, it happens every day. Then people translate these visual messages into associations of strengths or weaknesses. Non-tangible and sometimes not-substantiated communications like charisma and confidence are hugely important in business progress. Every businessperson should invest in all of the above for themselves and for their supporting team members.

6) At least every seventh person you meet with disappoint you.

This number may be a myth. Recently, I’m convinced it’s every fifth person that will disappoint you and is a card-carrying moron. Being a negative skeptic is not the answer. Doing your homework and acknowledging #4 is the secret here.

I’m sure many of you (especially the real entrepreneurs at heart) are thinking these six practices are common sense and natural behaviors. They are, and that’s why they are often overlooked in traditional learning environments.

About the author: Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva® is an international authority on branding, marketing, and entrepreneurial matters. She has been featured as a business expert in print publications; on TV, radio, and on Web channels. Karen authored the best-selling book Brain Tattoos Creating Unique Brands That Stick in your Customers’ Minds and she is co-founder and CEO of Oddpodz.com.

Whoever said “size does matter” was partially correct. In a lot of cases it does. I suppose if you were a small mouse and a fat hairy cat had you in a corner, that could be grim. Or, if you were wrestling a 700-pound sumo and you only weighed 99 pounds with your three-pound Nikes, I wouldn’t want to go there either.

However, in business, being small does not need to be the big curse, if you manage it correctly.

During the past of couple years, with Oddpodz; my young, petite startup, I’ve felt that small-seriously-sucks syndrome, often and with some giant challenges.

• Vendors regularly provide small firms less-than-stellar service because our cash contribution is relatively small and if they lose the business, it is not a big loss to them.

• Potential employees view small companies as a tightrope career track full of risk, limited security, and likely with no insurance.

• Strategic partners believe success happens by big company association
• Client prospects often get delusional and bonus your larger competitor with meritless points because of their grander size and scale.

That sucks no matter how you package it. And the reality is that everyday, worthy small companies get discriminated against and doors slammed on their little toes because of their size.

So do you stop there and say: “Poor me. I’m small. Being broke is in my DNA”?

No, you don’t let those temporary situations get you down, in fact, use them to get stronger. And appreciate that being small has its benefits too.

Here are four ways to turn around feeling small and disadvantaged into being tall and on the road to mammoth success.

1) Select vendors that are sized for your needs. This may take some additional due diligence, but the outcome will be worth it. Interview with high standards and trust the red flags you see or feel early on. Set expectations up front and put them in writing. And no matter how much you like the vendor, think about what happens if they don’t deliver; how will you get out of the deal without scary repercussions? And if they do an awesome job, let them know with a testimonial and refer new business back to them.

2) Recruit like-minded self-starter, risk-takers. If you are a small, entrepreneurial company, you need entrepreneurial team spirit and support. Don’t waste a lot of time on people who need security blankets. Changing a corporate type into an entrepreneur is like finding a frog that can meow; i.e., likely not going to happen. Be honest with recruits and employees, but it is not always wise to share every detail. And be thoughtful on recognition and rewards. Do both and often and remember it does not always include money.

3) Consistent performance supersedes size every time. There are big strategic partners and ideal clients who will give opportunities to small businesses. In some cases it is luck; in most cases it is because the small company earned the opportunity by doing a great job, going the extra mile, and squashing the big partner or clients’ perceived risk associated with small. From your proposal to delivering the goods or services, don’t settle for being average; go for brilliance everyday.

4) Confidence is a powerful weapon. Being small is no cakewalk. However, it is pretty amazing how many small details can make a big difference when you are a small potato. Much of the perception a small business creates is controllable. Confidence is communicated by posture and your handshake (stand tall and leave the wet fish at home), dress (better to overdress any day); and choice of words, written and spoken (don’t feel or think something, believe it and don’t suggest an idea, recommend it).

Be proud of small.

All the giant firms out there—Google, FedEx and Victoria’s Secret—all started small. And staying small can be good too. Big is not best for everyone. No matter what size success you want, or what scale you want your dream to be, taking the above actions will add value and benefits to your business.

About the author: Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva® is an international authority on branding, marketing, and entrepreneurial matters. She has been featured as a business expert in print publications; on TV, radio, and on Web channels. Karen authored the best-selling book Brain Tattoos Creating Unique Brands That Stick in your Customers’ Minds and she is co-founder and CEO of Oddpodz.com.

If you are like many others out there, the current economic conditions might be having an impact on your top and bottom lines. The challenging environment means that we need to find new ways to generate sales, hold on to current customer and attract new ones. I’ve had three interactions with sales and customer service folks that left me shaking my head and wondering aloud, “who told them to say that?” These are NOT winning strategies. Please do not replicate them.

1. The car service department catastrophe
My car, fortunately, has an extended warranty that lasts for a few years and tens of thousands of miles. I am in year three of ownership of said vehicle and I am still below the milage threshold. I called to make an appointment for one of the scheduled tune-ups. The woman on the other end of the phone barely eeked out a polite “hello-and-how-can-I-help-you?”. I told her that I needed to make an appointment for service. She asked the make, model and year of my car. I supplied the information not a second after I’d finished, she shot back with, “this will be your last complimentary tune up.” I was taken aback for a couple of reasons. 1. It wasn’t correct. 2. If it was correct, why would you inform me like that? Here’s a suggestion, let me enjoy my last complimentary tune up, then tell me that I am off warranty, but that you can help with my future needs.

I was so turned off by her attitude, all I could think was, “great! I’ll start looking for a new mechanic, because I know I don’t want to send any money your way.”

If an organization has a customer in a complimentary/free program and that customer is going to have to start paying for a product or service somewhere, why not retain that customer and transition them into a paying customer? If I’d had a great experience with this car service place, I’d be happy to give them my future business. Don’t alientate your free customers and make them feel like they are the unwashed masses - they are leads you already have. You have a chance to interact with and perform for them and make them realize how much they love you and that they can’t live without you.

2. The HVAC company that blows hot air
My friend’s central air started acting funny during a heat wave we had last week. The unit on their house is on its last legs, but it’s not dead yet. She called the company she uses for servicing the A/C and and made an appointment to have it checked out. The repairman showed up, asked her a few questions, took a BRIEF look at the system and told her the unit was dead. There was NO way to repair it. He started talking in techincal jargon and said that he could have his Sr. Technician come by to double check that the system was, in fact, dead. The “Sr. Technician,” Tommy, was not a repairman. He was the company’s salesman. My friend had not planned on spending hours on this appoinment or on purchasing a big ticket item that day.

Tommy started by telling her that the unit was dead, then started throwing around four and five figure estimates to replace the A/C unit. He had sheets of paper for her to sign and asked if that Friday would be a good day for the new system to be delivered and installed. She was so disgusted by this bait, switch and fib tactic, that she has vowed never to use this company again. Furthermore, she has told all her friends (including me) about their slimy sales tactics. Word of mouth works both ways - good and bad. Unfortunately for this company, studies have shown that BAD word of mouth spreads ten times faster than glowing WOM.

She got a second opinion from a guy who has a small HVAC company. He came highly recommended and got her A/C working for $20. He said that she could call him anytime the system acts up and he’ll fix it until it is unfixable. Although he can’t sell and install a new unit, he offered to help her get fair estimates when the time comes (at no charge!) Guess who she will be using for all her future repairs?

I know times are tough and we have sales quotas, but in this case David’s approach beats Goliath’s. The small business that was honest and met the customer’s needs (she needed the unit repaired, she didn’t need to be sold a new unit) wins. Twenty bucks isn’t a lot, but lots of customers at $20 and a steady stream of happy repair customers is probably a more sustainable business model than one-off sales of big ticket items with 10-12 year life spans.

3. Let me tell you what I CAN’T do for you
There is a vendor that I work with (that will remain nameless) that has some pretty odd customer retention policies. I have been working with them for about three years. During that time, I have upgraded my services with them as needed. However, right now, I just do not need the capacity that I had in the past. I downgraded my services with them in January, then needed to do so again last month. I didn’t need to be paying for something that I wasn’t using. Instead of saying “thanks for your business, we appreciate you as a customer no matter what size you are,” I got a note that said, “I notice[d] that this was the 2nd request to downgrade your account so far this year. Unfortunately we do have a limit of 2 downgrades per year and will be unable to honor any further downgrade requests for the remainder of 2009.” What kind of inflexible policy is that? Next time I need to “downgrade” I might just downgrade myself right off your client list and over to another vendor. And, when my demand for your service picks up, my upgrade will be with the other guy.

Please do not follow that example. I would never want a business to operate at a loss to be accomodating, but seriously, what would it cost them to be flexible and accomodate my needs? If you can help out a customer, do it. It’s likely that they will remember your kindness and stick with you as they grow.

Have you had experiences with any sales tactics that left you thinking “what are they thinking?!?”

Do you have any success stories to share? Leave ‘em in the comments section!

Near death experiences are way under rated. They are needed.

Today, I could have died. Not by choice, but through the disguised benefits of being an asthma chick.

I was on the tread mill, watching Bloomberg and running nowhere. Then, about 17 minutes into it, my breathing was getting very challenging. In fact, I could not get a full breath. Starting to slightly freak, I grabbed my dependable inhaler for a big puff. No relief. So I took another puff. Still no relief. I was officially freaking. Some healthcare professionals call this self induced, elevation of anxiety or a full blown panic attack. So, now I’ve got asthma and anxiety attacking me.

In an effort to continue living, I bolted out of the gym and jumped into the elevator. I live on the 7th floor. I was alone and even though I’m not religious, I started to pray. The bell dinged, the door opened I ran like a sprinter to my condo to get on my breathing machine. I grabbed the medicine box, pulled out a vial and damn! I noticed the box I thought had medication in it was all my empty vials. I was in a state of overdrive terror. I asked myself, “do I go to the ER? And risk sooner death, because I don’t even know how to get there? Or do I drive to my doctors office and just bust in?” I chose the latter. I drove like a NASCAR contender, and got there. Then find that there’s no parking. I thought, “do I risk being towed or risk living another day?” Since I value my life than more than my beemer, I pulled right up to the door, put on my emergency lights and ran like a faster sprinter. I encountered another elevator, so I said another prayer. I finally got to the office and beat on the glass window. I barely uttered, “I can’t breathe at all.” I got their attention and was rushed into a small room. Within 45 seconds was on a nebulizer and breathing. I was also crying because I was a mental wreck and just had a near meeting with death once again. This has happened three times before in my life.

Here’s the take away for life and business.

Life-I know how to prevent this experience. Take my meds, don’t accept a cold as a light thing. For asthmatics it’s a time bomb growing and waiting to go off.

Business-The health of your business is the same. Don’t get lame or get light on key business sustaining activities.

Life-I am very grateful I lived to write a blog post this.

Business-Be grateful for things that are keeping your business moving forward, the good, bad and lessons.

Life-I wasted three hours of my day at the doctors. This time is gone forever.

Business-Not being laser focused and serious about healthy business priorities will cost, time money and opportunity.

Life-This was a wake up call. Don’t just beat yourself up for letting them happen, start taking preventative actions now.

Business-Near death experiences in business like: cash dry ups, bad major vendor selections, the wrong people can kill ya or your can gain the experience. Don’t dwell on the past beat yourself up for letting them happen, start taking actions now.

Life and business are not dress rehersals. Give it your best performance!

About the author: Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva® is an international authority on branding, marketing, and entrepreneurial matters. She is has been featured as a business expert in print publications; on TV, radio, and on Web channels. Karen authored the best-selling book Brain Tattoos, Creating Unique Brands That Stick in your Customers’ Minds and she is co-founder and CEO of Oddpodz.com, an idea engine for creative professionals and business. Her work has benefited large and small organizations in the United States and around the world.

That’s right, I’m your good friend, I’m a business partner and I am even your customer, but I’m opting out of you ezine mailing list. Because I get too much stuff, and a lot of what I get is light weight and not adding to my world. In fact, it just stresses me out.

Today I opted out of 50 ezines. I, like many of you, and loads of other subscribers, am feeling ezine overwhelmed.

Lose the guilt, don’t feel bad. You cannot afford the time to read every ezine out there.
Even if you are a close friend to the person sending the email, you have no extra time to be opening useless emails. And you, the companies that are sending them, need to ask yourself, it this really worth 30 seconds of brain time? If not, what can you do to make it right?

Here’s the reality. You buy something, download something free, register to be in community and BINGO you are opted in to someone’s list. OK, that’s the system. But after a few communications from them, if they are not making you feel smarter or happier, dump ‘em and opt-out of database dodge.

If you publish an ezine a newsletter, don’t freak out that you may lose a few subscribers. Be happy that those people who really don’t care about what you are saying are no longer polluting your list and hogging space. Now get going on improving your publication’s content, the subject line and visuals so people can’t get through a day without reading your awesome newsletter from top to bottom.

About the author: Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva® is an international authority on branding, marketing, and entrepreneurial matters. She is has been featured as a business expert in print publications; on TV, radio, and on Web channels. Karen authored the best-selling book Brain Tattoos, Creating Unique Brands That Stick in your Customers’ Minds and she is co-founder and CEO of Oddpodz.com, an idea engine for creative professionals and business. Her work has benefited large and small organizations in the United States and around the world.

by Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva®

In May of ’07, I moved to Savannah, GA. from Tampa, FL. My reasons were all over the board. I needed a personal change, I had been in a toxic relationship that clearly was something I need to get away from. Business-wise, two of Oddpodz largest and most supportive investors lived right outside Savannah, and I’m a lifetime adventurer, free bird and free agent. Because I can be spontaneous, make change, when I want to, I do.

Before I moved to Savannah, My business partner Jocelyn and I toured the town. It was historic, quaint, full of charm and a growing community of creative people from SCAD, The Savannah College of Art and Design, adds to the eclectic mix of diverse arties. One year and a few months later, it is still all those things, but what it was not for me, and my desire to move outweighed the positives of Savannah.

Which brings me to what’s really important to people really matters. It matters in living choices, purchasing products, picking friends and being loyal to brands.

I don’t regret my move to Savannah. I met some really wonderful people, learned a lot about small town cultures that make up our great America and had some very interesting experiences. I lived in two parts of Savannah, the downtown area and then the rural out skirts. I had not really inventoried my values in awhile. This past 16 months clarified a lot for me.

I don’t like rats, mice or gnats.
I really dislike parking meters, parking tickets and parallel parking. I don’t respect people who are over the top religious and equally over the top rude when you don’t share the same beliefs as them. I’m not crazy about having to travel through Atlanta to get most places. Blatant racial divide is so 1960s and out of my zone.

I’m a modern, city girl.
I love safe parking lots near places I want to go and sometimes valet parking. I really love 7 days a week active tennis environments, pro sports, cool shopping and being 13 minutes away form one of the best airports in the US. I like lots of people, for business and personal reasons. I appreciate professional broadcast news. Sophisticated convenience is really important to me. And I prefer bright blue oceans with white sand.

My move back to Tampa feels right. I’ve been here a week and I so appreciate things I had taken for granted. Even the tropical storm this week was OK. Last week, out of the blue, the toxic relationship guy invited me into his Facebook network, of course I ignored him, and was thrilled to learn he no longer trolls the street of Tampa. He’s in NC. Social media is a wonderful thing.

So back to understanding what’s truly important to your buyer and for you as marketer. Demographics are good to know. Gender and age is sometimes key. Buying history can be an important indicator too. But uncovering what really moves them, turns them off and makes them happy is the magic insight.

I have lots of exciting things to share with you about the move back to Tampa, my new work space, my reconnections, the Superbowl and my new furry friends. Till then, listen, ask questions, observe and find out what really matters for you and your customers.

About the author: Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva® is an international authority on branding, marketing, and entrepreneurial matters. She is has been featured as a business expert in print publications; on TV, radio, and on Web channels. Karen authored the best-selling book Brain Tattoos, Creating Unique Brands That Stick in your Customers’ Minds and she is co-founder and CEO of Oddpodz.com, an idea engine for creative professionals and business. Her work has benefited large and small organizations in the United States and around the world.

by Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva®

Appearances can be deceiving.
One vendor does not fit all and size matters.
Here are three critical questions you should ask before you engage a vendor or service provider.

When shopping for creative services, many companies look and sound alike. They show you their history of work with big-name clients, offer a suite of services, initially price themselves in a seemingly fair and simple manner and everyone aims to please. The big ones and small ones all promise to care and assure you they are right for the assignment.

While I don’t think companies who fall short on meeting expectations set out to be malicious, I’m convinced asking these three questions can save you a lot of money and headaches.

1) Do you have good communication/work style chemistry with your daily point person, (not the sales department)?
Sales teams are great at sales, but many times once you contract with a firm, you never see those folks again. Make sure you interview the actual team working on your project. Be up front with your expectations. If you require conference follow-up notes, agendas, and changes in writing, state that up front. If they have requests from you, learn that too. One of the best ways to assess working chemistry is spend an hour with the provider team off property and talk about work and non-work matters. You can learn a lot.

2) Is the vendor’s billing/fee formula aligned to what you can afford at this time?
Most professional service firms operate from 30/30/30 pricing formula: one part staff cost, one part overhead, one part margin.
Dealing with larger firms will generally cost you more, unless they are willing to lose money on you; most are not. The size of the vendor has its trade-offs. A larger firm may have more resources, but depending on the firm, this is no guarantee you will get them. Smaller firms can cost less per project, but often, your project can be at risk from stretched staffing resources. If you are a smaller company and price is an issue, don’t skimp on doing your homework to find out as much as you can about pricing, scheduling, and resource allocation in advance. Sometimes it makes sense to have two resources, just in case one gets goofy on you. I’m not recommending all decisions are made on lowest price, I am suggesting the size of your company and available funding is a reality.

3) What happens when the person working on your project gets hit by a bus? Or leaves the company?
Again, ask hard questions, before you engage, and document your understandings and expectations up front in writing. Be careful when firms request to be paid 100 percent up front, this takes away any leveraging power, should something change in the project with staffing and resources.

About the author: Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva® is an international authority on branding, marketing, and entrepreneurial matters. She is has been featured as a business expert in print publications; on TV, radio, and on Web channels. Karen authored the best-selling book Brain Tattoos, Creating Unique Brands That Stick in your Customers’ Minds and she is co-founder and CEO of Oddpodz.com, an idea engine for creative professionals and business. Her work has benefited large and small organizations in the United States and around the world.