Rants from a Mad Man

Insanity to Stupidity - the path of most Business Owners

Why is it that most business owners believe they are unique?

What is it about running a business that you believe that no one else on this planet is going thru the same mess?

Sadly, I fall into the midst of the stupidity of business owners, mostly in the past but on occasion, recently. I have made the same mistakes on multiple occasions. But one thing that I believe that separates me from not only my competitors in the market place but the rest of the business world is my relentless perseverance.

One thing you will learn about me is that I LOVE the environment but I am not a wacko about it!

Today I was driving to Franklin, a small city about 45 minutes from where I live and happened to get stuck behind this guy (pictured to the right).

He was driving a truck that says “Enviro-Flex Rubberized Coal Tar Sealer”. Now I don’t know about you but I can just hear those tree-huggers screamer. I mean, think about it. Just one of those words are anti-environmentalism but combing them all is just freakin’ crazy.

There is a point at which I think we have missed something as business owners. This truck driver definitely takes the cake. First off, to try to promote the business you are even enviro-flex which implies environment friendly shouldn’t contain the word tar or coal.

How many environment savvy people would hire this guy?

Secondly, in terms of marketing. What kind of impression does this truck scream?

WELL run away. From the mere appearance and the smell just makes you want to go the other direction. Couple that with the fact that I have no clue what this guy does. He really missed the boat.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not picking on this guy but using him as an example. Unfortunately he made himself an easy target.

I just wish more business owners took a few minutes to really think about the message they are sending.

The first thing I find myself asking is what does this guy really do?

Secondly, I ask the question is how can he improve their marketing?

And thirdly, will he find his target audience by driving down the road and if not, perhaps he shouldn’t even market this way.

These are all good questions but I hope you can somehow find a way to relate this to your business.

What do YOU really do as a business?

What can you do to improve your business marketing?

And lastly, are you maximizing all of your business marketing opportunities or are you just creating a bad marketing experience?

I don’t mean a job that you merely hated. But an experience that radically altered your perspective of employment all together.

Recently I had such a job.

I will spare the gritty details to protect the last few fellow coworkers at my past employment so lets call the owner Duke for clarity sake.

In my professional career I have had three ‘job jobs’. Yes, that’s right just three. And into that accounted for just over 18 months of actual job experience. However I have worked nearly every waking hour of my life since I graduated high school back in 2000.

So my experience as an employee is very limited but what I can tell you is that it did give me greater appreciation to become a better boss. In my tenure I have had 64 employees or part-timers working directly for me. I would like to have thought that I was a great boss but sadly like everyone, I made a tremendous amount of mistakes.

As with everything in life, I try to compare myself to the other person’s perspective in hopes of gaining greater insight of my ‘inner self’ so that one day I become the best employer I can be.

What tools do you use to manage your social networks?

What do you do if you have multiple accounts?

If you asked me those questions a few years ago, the answer would be single-handedly, www.ping.fm. Luckily for me, this hasn’t changed much. A few months ago the social network management company, Seesmic, purchased ping.fm. The good news is that ping.fm, though a great company and even a better concept, lacked an ability to procure funding. This left them hanging in the balance close to shutting down.

Then Seesmic stepped in and purchased them and all is better now.

So what does Seesmic Ping do for you?

Insanity to Stupidity – the path of most Business Owners

Why is it that most business owners believe they are unique?

RANT: Environmental Protection or Environmental Mess?

One thing you will learn about me is that I LOVE the environment but I am not a wacko about it!

What is the worst employment experience have you had?

How do you ping all of your social networks at the same time?

What tools do you use to manage your social networks?

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