The Captain’s Blog : Archive for the 'Building Relationships' Category

Going out in the snow or in any treturous weather can be daunting for anyone. As a result I believe that a lot of people tend to stay home on such days, or at the very least they limit their travel. Limiting travel means less customers walking in your front door. That’s a little depressing I’m sure, but it doesn’t have to be.

Do you remember when you were a kid and a snow day was something to celebrate? Consider having a standing promotion that kicks in whenever it snows. Your special promotion will motivate customers to visit you and brand your business as a fun place to give their patronage to. You can make snow days a celebration again.

I saw a great example of this when lived in south west Idaho. There the temperatures would plumit as low as -30º F. No one wanted to go outside. But, a local Subway Sandwich shop made going out in the low temperatures exciting. For every degree below 0º F the Subway shop would discount that many cents off the purchase of any sandwich. When the temperature reached -30º F people could buy one sandwich at a discounted price and get another one for free.

This concept can be applied to any type of weather or business. Business can do promotions for any reason, but tying promotions to real events that everyone can relate to, like types of weather, makes the promotion feel more ligament in consumers eyes. This goes doubly for online businesses. Doing such a promotion helps to connect a website to the real world. So rain or shine you can take what seems like sour weather and make it into something sweet and profitable.

Yeah! It snowed today!

Brandon Jeppson

The business world can be pretty cut throat. When working in a competitive environment it’s easy to get in the “king of the mountain” mind set where you don’t help others up, so that you can stay on top. You might even push them down to keep yourself there. But that kind of competition is just part of capitalism, right? It’s easy to think that way, especially when the pressure is on, I know I have. However, many successful people know that helping others reach success leads you to greater success. It’s a principle know as synergy, working together we are more powerful than we are alone. You see, in business no matter what the industry, it’s all about networking. And yes, that means being friends with those that seem to be on the opposing team. You never know they just might provide you with the help you need to succeed.

On a personal note, we have received referrals from several of our competitors and have partnered with them on some significant projects. The “Synergy” mentality has proven to be more than a buzz word for us.

Brandon Jeppson

Often with the passing of time change may be needed because your target audience gets bored with your logo, website design or your brand in general. Reality check! You’re really the one who is bored. Your audience doesn’t want change! They want your brand to be like an old friend that they can rely on.

Welcome to the often boring realm of brand management where continued success comes when things stay the same. Of course a little make over after a few years is often appropriate. However, you wouldn’t give your sweet mother a punk make over with a mohawk, so don’t do that to your brand. The make over or refresh of a strong and successful brand should be something comfortable and not dramatic. You want your loyal audience to still recognize their old friend that they love and trust.

Brandon Jeppson

They say clothes make the man. What about a business? Well, being clothed is important. Plus many places won’t serve customers that don’t have a shirt or shoes. But I digress, the clothes of a business is the space it operates in.

Your space is more than a roof over your head. It’s part of who you are! When you walk into a business’ space with great lighting, high ceilings, beautiful wood floors, attractive furniture, tasteful art and nicely painted walls; you think, these guys are successful and must really know what they’re doing.

It’s all about “setting the mood through” your surroundings. We all know setting the mood makes the difference between a romantic night and sitting in front of the TV watching reruns. The same holds true for your business. If you want a business that customers are passionate about and love to visit, bite the bullet and hire an interior designer to help you out. At the very least watch HGTV and take a walk through Target or IKEA to get some ideas on how to improve the mood of your space.

Businesses that operate in an attractive interior space invite the confidence of their customers and anyone else that stops in for a visit. And visit they will.

Brandon Jeppson

The business guru Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart knew the importance of giving back. He talked about how success in business only comes when we give back through charity to others. Many other than Mr. Walton have known this principle.

Brent Crane founder of The Food and Care Coalition, an organization that gives people in need a little extra help, provides a great opportunity for you to practice this important principle and give back to our community. One of the ways he makes this possible is Team Grub. Team Grub is made of business people who serve meals to the patrons of The Food and Care Coalition. Team Grub members are also encourage to donate funds to assist in building a new facility that will be better equipped to help patrons to get the hand up that they need.

As you give service and donations to The Food and Care Coalition whether your bottom line improves or not your community will, and that’s good for everyone’s business. Plus, you can’t beat the feeling that comes when you give meaningful service to someone in need.

It’s truly a privilege to be associate with an organization, like The Food and Care Coalition, that makes our world a better place.

Brandon Jeppson

Have you ever met one of those people that is just so pleasant you can’t help but love them? That is RaDene Hatfield. She is positive, honest and happy. RaDene knows what she is talking about and is very gracious for any help she receives. She values others’ input and is always interested in what they have to say. She has great taste in design. RaDene is open to new ideas. She has a good heart and a good since of humor. She has an energy about her that just makes everyone love to be around her! If you want to meet kindness, sincerity and courage to stand for the truth; meet RaDene Hatfield. She’s running for Utah State Senate this year and we’re sure you’ll agree she’ll do an amazing job.

Brandon Jeppson

Everyone one knows that networking is important. In fact, most of our clients have come by way of referral. The reason for so many of these referrals and relationships is because of a little company called Corporate Alliance—which really isn’t a “little” company anymore. This one little post about Corporate Alliance doesn’t even come close to doing justice to all they have done for Eli Kirk, but at least it is a start. Corporate Alliance and it’s staff are visionaries. They have managed to figure out what truly makes every business successful. And if that weren’t enough, they’ve gone and put it in a format anyone can easily digest and begin to implement for added success. Even more than this, the information is packaged very nicely, and to top it all off, it’s fun.

Now some people might say that Corporate Alliance is just a glorified business club or a chamber of commerce clone, but neither of these teaches you and helps you to build relationships like Corporate Alliance does. Corporate Alliance believes that relationships are such a key to success that their motto is “every opportunity has it’s root in a relationship”. To our delight, this has proven to be very true for all of us at Eli Kirk.

If you ever get a chance to attend a Jump Start, a monthly networking luncheon that Corporate Alliance holds, you will experience something that will put any “Ra Ra” session to shame because it will change the way you do business. Plus, Corporate Alliance looks so amazingly good doing it; no dorky cheers or smoke and lights, just slick presentations that make a lot sense and are surprisingly fun to be part of. If there was ever a magic potion or secret solution to jump start your business, Corporate Alliance is it.

Brandon Jeppson

This past Saturday Eli Kirk had Lagoon day and the whole office went to the amusement park. Several of the roller coaster rides were awesome and others were just lame, they weren’t what I expected. What made the difference? How they met my expectations. The mantra of my boss is “manage expectations”. Manage expectations? What a strange phrase. What does it mean? Well, it means exactly what is says.

A large portion of the excitement and pleasure we have is based on expectations. Think about it. Roller coasters are exciting because of what we expect right after the top of that initial big hill. TV shows and movies’ successes hinge on expectations, will Sandy find out that Greg her lover is really her long lost cousin. Much can be done to build expectations for what might happen. However, the difficulty in managing expectations lies not in the build up but in the delivery. Delivering on promises and going above and beyond to exceed expectations; these are the things that bring pleasure, and in the world of business leave costumers deeply pleased with your product or service.

When we manage expectations we are doing whatever it takes to let customers know that they will be taken care of and have a great experience with us no matter what happens. It might be a crazy ride, but it will be a good one.

Brandon Jeppson

We got some great face time in the Summer 2008 issue of BusinessQ. Check out the images of the articles below! BusinessQ has always been good to seek out experts to help us all learn. We’ve been called on a several times to serve in the roll of expert along with some of our respected competitors. It’s worth your time to make friends and build a relationship with quality publications like BusinessQ so that you can be called on as an expert in your field. It’s not only a great way to get your name out there, it also becomes a valuable opportunity to influence and help the community and your industry. Share the love feel the love!

Brandon Jeppson

Take a journey back to the good ole college days, ah the alma mater. You remember, anytime one of the sports teams brought the victory home it meant that any student or fan was entiled to tell even one how wonderful the school and it’s teams were. Anyone who supported the team in any small way was part of that victory and that gave them bragging rights. You may not be very familiar with bragging rights, but can I help it if my school was better than yours… Anyway it’s fun to boast about something cool that you’re connected to.

So in the spirit of boasting I want to announce an new category on our blog that you are sure to love, especially if you’re one of our clients, the category is called “Bragging Rights.” It’s a place where we can talk about our great clients, their successes and all the cool things they’re doing. Cause we’d like to think we’ve had a little part in their success, and that means we’ve got bragging rights!

Brandon Jeppson