Your biggest competitive advantage for repeated business could be that you are likeable and pleasant to work with.
Yesterday, I passed by my old home. When I saw that the door was open, I asked the builders if I could have a peak. I thought it would be fun to see what they did with the place. I left sad not because of what the new owner did to my previous home. I left sad because of the complaints of the construction workers.
Before we start, I wish you all the best for 2014. I also hoped that you had fun celebrating the New Year. I did!
Have you set your New Year goals, yet? I’m still working on putting mine in words. Last year, I selected five areas for my year plan. In retrospective, 5 areas are too much which is why I will try this year the 3-word system of Chris Brogan. Selecting three words (nouns or verbs) seems more focused and easier to follow for a year.
Watching La Grande Virée (not online anymore), a Web series produced by Infopresse in collaboration with Cogeco, made me think of how we could recycle the concept to explore new ways to work on projects.
To give you a little bit of background, La Grande Virée is an experiment where 14 advertising professionals — originally split into two teams — had to create and produce a new campaign for a non-profit organization. They have 2 days to do, from start to finish. The campaign will then be published on the various media platforms of Cogeco.
As I started watching the 6 currently available episodes of La Grande Virée, my initial thought was that a business could reproduce the concept of this Web series to explain what they do their clients and prospects. A business could use it to demonstrate their expertise. Seeing in action how your team members execute a mandate could educate your prospective clients and will reveal more about your culture and skills than reading your Web site.
I finished reading the latest business book written by Bruce Nussbaum this weekend. Bruce Nussbaum is a former assistant managing editor for Business Week. He is now Professor of Innovation and Design at Parsons The New School of Design.
The first thing that is worth mentioning is that it is a book about being creative every day in the corporate world. Secondly, the book was written by a thinker, not a doer, nor an entrepreneur. This is what caused the weaknesses of this book, in my opinion. Nonetheless, I enjoyed reading Creative Intelligence. The chapters about the Makers and the Indie Capitalism were the most inspiring for me because they reaffirmed that I chose the right path when I repositioned my career earlier this year.
I could talk for hours about why I think that Grand Designs is the best home design show on the planet. I have been a long-time fan. The first time that I mentioned the magazine in a post was in 2005. I did it again in 2007 and 2010. Thanks to BBC Canada, I was able to watch the series for a few years.
This post is not about my passion for modern architecture. Instead, I want to talk about what you can learn, as an entrepreneur, from the structure of the TV show and from the homeowners featured in that show. When you consider what is involved emotionally and economically when you are building a uniquely designed house, you will see that these homeowners face the same challenges that startups have.
For me, making people’s life simpler, knowing when to think outside of the box, finding a solution that delights the customers while being profitable are at the heart of everything a business should do. This is why I love design. As an entrepreneur, design plays a big role in the toolbox I use everyday to tackle challenges, discover opportunities and solve problems.
Although more and more companies are starting to understand that, we still need to educate executives and business owners about the value of investing in design. This is why I applauded the making of this video by the Design Council in UK. The video explained, in plain language, how adding design to their process can lead to more revenues for small businesses.
It is no secret that conversion rate is a main concern for any retailers. Still, I found that many online sites fail at being pro-active when it comes to answering the most frequent questions of buyers. To illustrate what I mean, let me share the online purchase that I made this morning.
I can’t use my KitchenAid food processor anymore because the security element that is inside the main bowl handle is broken. This prevents the motor from starting. Since we couldn’t fix it, I decided a buy a new bowl. I prefer to order it online instead of driving through traffic to get it.
Like everybody else, I sometimes get stuck on a problem. It is nothing huge but this particular problem bothers me. I updated my job title on LinkedIn several times over the last few months. It is not that I can’t focus. I can. And it has nothing to do with the fact that, as many owners of a new business, I wear many hats.
My problem is that what I do is unique. No matter how many times I looked for inspiration at job descriptions in job search sites, how many times I talked to people about what I do, how many times I sat down to write it down, I can’t find the right job title to describe what I do.
