There’s no longer any doubt that we all need to shift our behavior to thrive in this brave new economy. From the financial meltdown of 2008 to the recent Washington, D.C., debt ceiling solution effecting the middle and working class, small- to medium-sized businesses today must create a whole new paradigm of thought and behavior if they are to prosper. How can we do this? To answer that, you need to ask yourself: How can my business model benefit other businesses and individuals? In this new financial state of reality, your success should and can mean others’ success—we all win when we do so together.
Look at your customers. Do you know what industry they’re in? What company do they own or work for? Who are their most important customers? Obviously, your customer’s financial health is important to yours, because if they don’t have the money to pay for your product or service, your sales decline.
So strike up a conversation (at least with the ones you like!) about their work, and then think about ways to support their business. It could be direct, maybe they’d make a great vendor, or indirect, can you promote their business or their best clients’ business? Georjana Shames, L.Ac., in Cotati displays a vendor list inside her office door that reads, “Ask me if you need a referral to…,” which lists the professions of many of her clients and vendors.
Choose vendors wisely. Who are you spending your money with? Are they local? According to www.sonomacounty.golocal.coop, for every $1 you spend at a local business $0.45 is reinvested locally. For every $1 spent at a corporate chain store, only $0.15 is reinvested locally. Local businesses are more likely to treat you as a partner, not just a customer. Work with your vendor to improve the bottom line of both your businesses. Can you co-promote your product or service together? Look at sharing advertising expenses, sharing ideas about how to promote yourselves and sharing the time it takes to produce marketing campaigns or materials. I bet you can find effective and fun ways to increase your bottom line together.
Work with environmentally conscious businesses. Can you select materials that are better for the environment? Sally Tomatoes Café in Rohnert Park buys most of its products from local organic farmers. This cuts down on car exhaust, which reduces fuel use and CO2 production. Produce from the supermarket travels up to 92 times farther than produce grown locally.
It’s often a misnomer to assume “green” business practices will increase your direct costs. There are very clever people making fantastic, innovative products and technologies. Plus, the indirect costs are where we’re all paying the highest price in the end. According to the Oregon Environmental Council, “Sustainable businesses tend to reduce costs, enhance profits, attract and retain engaged employees, and have consistently strong bottom lines. Because sustainability and innovation go hand-in-hand, profitable, exportable technologies are developed when business leaders take sustainability to heart.” Who knows, you can actually get some good PR value out of talking to the community about your green efforts.
Create a happy workforce. An empowered workforce is an engaged workforce. The best CEOs know they need feedback from every employee on how to run a more efficient, profitable company, and create a more pleasant place to work. Create an environment where employees are encouraged to share their opinions and ideas in a respectful, safe, organized fashion. Give your employees recognition in a way that they would prefer, taking into consideration different personalities. Take notice of the different skills and passions your employees have, and see how using them can benefit everyone involved. Where can you weave their skills and desires into your product line, service offerings, business procedures or the work environment?
A friend of mine has been a self-employed master craftsman for the past 25 years. He was offered an opportunity to be a manager for one of his favorite vendors. His primary concern, as many an entrepreneur can understand, was that he’d get bored! I asked him what he loves about his business and how he could incorporate his favorite skills and passions into the job in a way that would make his future employer more profitable. For example, with his skillset, the company could offer a service that previously had been seriously lacking in its industry. It could upsell its existing clients with both service and materials, yielding more successful projects. This, in turn, would lead to greater customer loyalty and increased sales. My friend was excited to offer these suggestions for increased revenue, as well as work in a way that would keep him engaged and passionate about being an employee.
We spend 40+ hours per week with our employees and coworkers. That’s often more time than we spend with our loved ones. This can be a time of community, of bringing out the best, most unique aspect of that person, and letting that aspect bring to the business a piece of why it’s so successful.
In ancient mythology, there’s the story of “Indra’s Net.” Imagine a net where, at each junction, there’s a shiny jewel. Each jewel is thought to represent an individual. When one jewel, one person in the net, is “raised,” all the other jewels around are raised. Thus the entire community—the net—benefits from just one person’s good fortune, creating a system where all are mutually raised and benefiting from everyone’s good fortune. So get brainstorming and have some fun. Your creativity will create win-win situations where you and your colleagues will thrive, and so will our economy.
Kelly Hennessy is the owner of Net Effect, a Sonoma County-based accounting consulting firm. She’s been in the industry more than 20 years. Her dedication to community and a new, thriving economy, led her to create the Give-Back program, “Charging for Charities” in which she directs 25 percent of her monthly residuals from credit card merchant accounts to the nonprofit of a business’ choice. You can reach her at (707) 793-9814 or kelly@yourneteffect.net.
