Ralph Waldo Emerson suggested, "If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door." At E-Myth Worldwide, we tell clients, less poetically, that "if there's a way to do something, there's a better way to do something." In other words, differentiate or become irrelevant. But differentiation simply for its own sake can be a wasted exercise. Is the new mousetrap really better? That's open to interpretation, and the market -- your customer -- will decide. To remain competitive, you have to create products or provide services that approach, as closely as possible, what the customer considers "ideal." Your opportunity to differentiate yourself from your competition exists in that gap between what your customers ...

As an enlightened business owner, you understand the importance of doing market research on your prospective customers. For example, you want to know where they're located, any common characteristics they may have and, ultimately, as much as possible about how they think - their needs, wishes, and motivations. The goal, of course, is to refine your ability to effectively and efficiently target your message to those with whom you most want to do business. Well, you may be surprised to learn that this wisdom equally applies in seeking prospective employees. In fact, marketing for customers and marketing for employees address the similar four key questions: What is my likely trading area? (Where are my likely employees located)? What ...

Every business, no matter how successful, needs a way to gather information and feedback from key constituents in order to make necessary adjustments and smarter decisions. When business concerns do arise, it's best not to make quick assumptions and then implement the first solution that comes to mind -- nor to address the symptoms of a problem but not the cause. Smart business leaders use every available tool at their disposal to monitor the health of the business, and take corrective action when required. At E-Myth, we believe that the most effective and efficient way to understand what is working, and what's not, is to solicit feedback from our customers, employees, and other key stakeholders and then actively respond to the fi ...

Innovating the Customer Service Process: How can you put more "service" in customer service? In the U.S., "customer service" is one of those phrases that have become almost meaningless from overuse. Almost every retail store these days has a "Customer Service Center," employees who wear nametags that read, "Customer Service Associate," and upbeat company slogans that say something like, "Customer Service is our Most Important Product!" Well, if that's the case, why does the person at the "Customer Service Center" make me wait for a manager's blessing for the simplest transaction? And why can't the Customer Service Associate answer the most basic questions about the product I'm interested in buying, or even simply smile once ...

Dinner among the two-by-fours A local lumber company has been in business for nearly a century. Considering that fewer than half of all businesses survive their first four years, this is a matter of special pride. At their entrance is a huge cross-section of a redwood tree, adorned with tabs marking significant historical events, including: "Birth of George Washington," "Declaration of Independence," "Gold discovered in California," and, approaching the bark: "We opened." Inside the foyer you're again reminded of the company's, uh, roots. Brochures tell their story. The walls display photos of the founders, the original location, and the successive general managers. You see how the company has matured with the community. The ...

I'm a recent subscriber to Netflix-that wildly successful nationwide, online DVD-by-mail rental service. This amazingly simple business model has already captured my attention-and my credit card. I've been happily receiving and returning postage-free movies from them for the last two months. Last week, a much-anticipated movie arrived in the familiar red envelope. When I tore it open, I found the disk was damaged. Not just scratched, but broken in half. Deflated (I'm impatient to a fault), I booted the computer and waited for the Netflix site to load, trying out various excuses I might offer to avoid having to pay for the damage. I immediately went to the "help" menu, where the short index included exactly the heading I wante ...

The manner in which you serve your customers is the foremost way to either support, or negate, your business growth. Effective businesses do more than survive -- they thrive -- by knowing what to say and do for their clients. But, for many business owners, it takes time to learn these things. The first step is to start listening, to try things out, ask the clients what they want, and slowly build a database of responses and actions that show you, through trial and error, how to serve your clients in a way that makes them come back time and time again. As your business grows, it is likely that you have given more thought to how you would like your customer service experience to be. But have you informed your employees about these th ...

The Importance of Understanding Gratification Mode and Purchase Preference Ask a business owner why his or her customers choose to buy their particular product or service, and you might hear a variety of answers: "I have no idea, but I'm lucky they do, and I hope they don't stop!" "I guess it's because they like what I'm selling." "Actually, people aren't buying from me, and I don't understand why not. I think I have a great product, and I use it myself all the time." If those sound like your answers, perhaps you're wishing there was a system you could use that would help you to rely less on guessing and assuming, and more on producing predictable and sustainable sales and revenue results for your business. To create a syst ...

Developing Your Unique Brand The Importance of Perception How is your business perceived by your target market? What unique attributes do customers and prospects associate with your business? Do you know? A brand typically includes two elements: sensory elements - which include your company name, logo, colors, and other graphic or text elements, and intangible expectations - which are the perceptions associated with a product or service that arise and reside in the minds of everyone who comes in contact with your business. In this article, we will focus on the intangible expectation element of a brand. Providing Value You have the ability to define and communicate a brand message that will influence how you and your firm ...

Today, the Des Moines Higher Education Collaborative unveiled its newest program - the New Iowa Entrepreneurial Center. This new program will be headquartered in the John and Mary Pappajohn Education Center located at 1200 Grand Avenue in Des Moines. "By providing entrepreneurs with new business development and survival tools we will help encourage their success while elevating the role of entrepreneurship as a key driver of Iowa's economy. The New Iowa Entrepreneurial Center will help to improve Central Iowa's economic competitiveness which is core to the Collaborative mission", said David Maxwell, President of Drake University and the Collaborative Board’s Chair. An essential element of the program is the Embark E-Learning program, ...

The intangible, but highly influential, experiences of free expression, self-sufficiency, and creative control are what drive many people to embark upon the entrepreneurial journey, as it is these factors that provide personal satisfaction to business owners. Obviously, as the business owner and leader, you have a unique stake in the success or failure of the business because it is tied to you as an individual. As such, you are willing to struggle through the tough times while maintaining your excitement as you create a vision for the future. As mentioned in our earlier article, Your Entrepreneurial Vision in Action, creating what we refer to as the "Strategic Objective" is an entrepreneurial exerc ...

Harvard Business School professor and acclaimed author, Clayton M. Christenson, recently detailed in a co-authored article that nearly 90% of new products sent to market fail. This is an astoundingly high number considering the amount of time, money, and energy that goes into researching, designing, and marketing most of these products, and it highlights the fact that no amount of creative advertising or demographic information can ensure the success of a product. From the E-Myth Point of View, this staggering statistic demonstrates a clear failure in understanding the relationship between client fulfillment and marketing strategies. Let’s explore some of the key linkages between these two important disciplines and outline a differe ...

The art of marketing is the never-ending challenge to answer this question: What emotional needs do my customers have that my business could fulfill? To help you find the answer, we suggest that you start by collecting information on your customers through a variety of techniques, including conducting customer surveys and performing demographic research and analysis. “One size fits all” is not a business strategy No business can possibly expect to be all things to all people, and any that tries will likely have portions of their business siphoned off by specialized businesses that can better meet the needs of particular customer segments. “One size fits all” business strategies don&# ...

In February of 2005, I had the privilege to meet Trish and John Kinsella at an E-Myth Leadership Intensive Seminar in Sonoma County, California. Trish is the owner and President of Dauphine Press, a custom letterpress stationery, invitations and announcements printing studio. On day two of the seminar, Trish shared her Strategic Objective for Dauphine Press with our break-out group of business owners, and we were all deeply moved by the eloquent presentation of her company's ambitious goals. In particular, the Strategic Objective was to open several retail stores and to expand their offerings to include superior quality merchandise, such as boxed cards, books, writing instruments, journals, albums, ribbon and fine wrapping paper. ...

When business leaders and managers develop and commit to a Strategic Objective, a vision for what the company will look like in the future, there is an initial surge of excitement: employees and business partners are invigorated by the possibility of creating something much grander than the current reality. Imagine for a moment what would happen if, after much hard work, the milestones of the Strategic Objective were achieved but the business leaders or managers never communicated the news, and never acknowledged the employees who helped make it all happen. The result would be a dramatic loss of motivation and desire to work as hard on the next projects and assignments. What happens at your company when you achieve a milestone, f ...

Successful businesses have one thing in common - single-minded dedication to their customers needs. That means knowing who their customers are, where they are, what their needs and perceptions are, how to communicate with them, and how to attract them. That, in essence, is the foundation of marketing. Information, Insight, and Strategy There is a clear logic to successful marketing. It begins with information about your markets and your customers. But information isn't enough. What you're really after is understanding and insight - understanding about the way your customers and prospective customers think, act, and make decisions, as well as insight into what really motivates them and how best to communicate with them. Only then a ...

We need to begin with an important distinction: Advertising--what E-Myth refers to as "Lead Generation"--is the "magnet" you use to attract the customers you want to your business. Marketing is the process you use to determine who and where those people are, what they buy from you, why they buy from you, and how they think. With that information at your command, then--and only then--can you begin to construct the strategic magnet that irresistibly attracts your ideal customers. In our thirty years of working with business owners, we have discovered that many don't have a clue about what draws customers into their business, and what exactly their "ideal customer" does once he or she gets there! Customers are either coming in or customer ...