Leverage Knowledge for Radical Profits
What can be more valuable than taking what we have learned during our past and invest those lessons into our future? We have either already paid the price of learning from our own mistakes or reading about the successes of others. The word 'radical' comes from the Latin for getting back to the roots. Take a regular radical step and examine your roots by asking the question: "what business am I in?" With the stresses of the current economic environment, now may be a good time to test some assumptions. Inertia is an extremely powerful force and can be a negative one if you are static. For our second foreign word today is 'risk' which comes from the Italian riscare which means to dare which implies a choice and not a fate. We make overarching strategic choices rarely and tactical choices almost every hour. When is the last time you reviewed or updated your business plan? Are the choices you are making or the risks you are taking in concert with achieving the goals set forth by your strategic plans? If things aren't going the way you like them to, wake up!
There are at least four responses to dealing with risk: You can avoid it, reduce it, transfer it or accept it. But you need to manage it by your awareness and the choices you make. Has the marketplace around you changed? Are clients requiring different products, services or technology? Maybe you need to go with the flow and reorganize your resources to delivery according to the current demands of your clients instead of trying to do business by your traditional methods and practices.
For example, as I attract new prospective clients, I have recently found that many are not ready for prime time manufacturing. Most are starting their businesses with some innovative ideas or creative improvements on products currently available in the marketplace. With all these new ideas coming my way I have signed more Non Disclosure Agreements in the past six months than I have in the last ten years. It amazes me how many people want to get started in some form of the apparel business. My challenge has been that I could not charge for my services in the traditional method of manufacturing products and marking up on the costs. The start-ups simply and rightfully do not commence with large enough volumes of merchandise to defray the costs of doing business.
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Tools of the Trade: Part 2 – Email Marketing, Subject Lines…...
In December, UniformMarket News began a multi-part series entitled "Tools of the Trade," focusing on the various communication instruments used to attract and retain customers. Part 1 covered the basics of email marketing – what it is and why you should use it. In case you missed it, click here to read the article.
This month, we delve a bit deeper, exploring ways to make your emails more relevant, and thus, more likely to be opened. Getting to a person's inbox in one thing; having your message read and, hopefully, converted into a sale, is an entirely separate matter.
A word to last month's readers: if you recall reading that Part 2 would appear exclusively in Made to Measure, you are correct, that is indeed what we said. But since the subject is so important, and there is so much to say, email marketing will now span three parts of the series, with Part 3 appearing in Made to Measure this February.
Still Relevant, But One of Many
For years, marketers have used email to reach customers and prospects, citing its ease, quickness and effectiveness as a channel of communication. Never meant to replace other efforts, it is used as a marketing adjunct, a way to reach customers in an ever changing and hi-tech world.
And now that world is changing again. The advent of social networking, Twitter, Facebook and other sharing sites, have caused some to suggest that email is on the way out; articles on the topic appear frequently, including one oft-mentioned Wall Street Journal piece.
Yet news of its demise is premature. Online communication patterns are shifting, with customer preferences changing at rapid-fire pace, but email still plays a pivotal role, and is still the form most used to share information. "To say that email marketing is dead is to say the telephone or direct marketing is dead," says Dan Mendelson, president of Unitex Direct, a Michigan distributor specializing in security and law enforcement wear. "Marketing always reaches a new level of sophistication, but the old forms don't go away completely." You just need to offer the channel that best suits an individual's needs and preferences, and in the uniform industry, at least for now, that vehicle is email marketing.
No Upset
For a number of years now I have had the good fortune and opportunity to be contributing to UniformMarket News and I want to thank my readership for its attention. I am pleasantly surprised when I speak with someone I haven't known and they comment favorably on the writing. Those who don't like the articles don't really speak with me. Writing regularly has given me the opportunity to focus my thinking on some topic about which I wanted or needed to learn more. And I am able to share with you some bit of wisdom gleaned from various sources that I expect will be of some value.As noted last month, I have been enrolled in an educational experience offered by Landmark Education. The courses are not expensive but offer quite a remarkable experience by teaching methods of reflecting on regular activities and how they may affect emotions and future achievements. Many of the lessons I have encountered have supported my continued personal growth and provided practical methods of dealing with common challenges. What I want to become, have and do, and when I want these possibilities to occur, is mine to determine.
Last week I paid particular attention when I was informed that one of the lessons of the seminar was to learn how never to be upset again. "You've got to be joking," my skeptical inner voice responded. I am in the apparel business and of Italian descent. Being upset, while not healthy or productive, has been a natural part of my being. There's an old adage that when you point a finger at someone, you've got one finger pointing at the person, three pointing back at you and your thumb is up toward the heavens. The essence of this message is that none of the reasons that appear to be instinctively obvious really has anything to do with the upset. And here's why.
Consider when you get upset that there are really ever only three things at play. First, there is a thwarted intention. You have been stopped in relation to something you are trying to do. No one likes to be stifled especially when there is a constant burden of pressure and your "to do" list is lengthy. How often do you fully accomplish what you've reasonably expected and have not been sidetracked by the urgencies or emergencies that shock us daily?
U.S. Trade Association Warns Government of Protectionist Perils
