Meet the ‘BLIsman’

A reenactment. Photo by Jacque Haag.

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” — Mother Teresa

As you know from Brian’s blog post, we’ve been reading “The One Minute Manager” as a company. After “One Minute Goals,” the next step in being a One Minute Manager is to give One Minute Praises. This is when you praise someone in your organization by telling them exactly what they did right, encouraging them and shaking hands or touching their shoulder — something to show them your support.

We have decided to take this a step farther.  In addition to the verbal praise, we now have a traveling trophy called the BLIsman (rhymes with Heisman). Monica, a BLI Customer Service Rep, became the first recipient of the BLIsman on Tuesday.

I passed the trophy to her when she did something for me. “Monica, thank you for breaking into your schedule to scan and attach my documents.  You are the greatest!”

To Monica’s credit, the trophy was on her desk less than five minutes before she had complimented someone else and passed it along.

The trophy works well here because we can set it on our desks, visible to all. How can you use the idea of a traveling trophy within your organization?

Is Rent-to-Own Worth It?

Photo illustration by Jacque Haag.

Many have mentioned the high cost of rent-to-own. I used to think, “Why pay so much for something when you could save for the item instead?” But then I started working for a rent-to-own company. Here’s what I have come to understand:

If you need extra storage space, you can either shell out cash to a self-storage company, or you can rent a shed or barn that can sit on your property. As we’ve said before, the cost of renting from us is about the same per square foot as renting at an off-site storage unit.

To me, the choice to rent space on my property sounds far more appealing. But even more appealing is the idea that at the end of my two-, three- or four-year agreement, I own my building. What do you own after three years at the self-storage across town? Nothing.

And you get what you pay for. You get several payment options, and you get friendly and personal customer service. You get a company willing to work with you on your payments. And you get the freedom to return the building if you can no longer afford it or no longer need it. You can even do an Early Purchase Option and save — big time.

This is exactly why rent-to-own is a valuable option. If you need storage now but can’t afford to pay cash for a building, you’ve only got two options. Only one makes sense. Out of renting space from off-site storage or doing rent-to-own with BLI, which really has the higher cost?

What do you say to customers when they think rent-to-own is an expensive option?

Advertising on Facebook

A recent Pew Research study reported that 41 percent of Americans have a social networking profile (like Facebook or Twitter). I’m sure it’s easy to believe that among those aged 18-29, 75 percent have profiles. But would you be surprised to know that 50 percent of those aged 30-45 and 30 percent of those aged 46-64 also have profiles?

Does your average customer fall into one of these groups? If so, advertising your business on Facebook is probably a good idea. Fortunately, advertising on Facebook is not difficult or expensive.

1. Facebook will walk you through the process of designing your ad. You can upload a (tiny) photo or logo, and you can use a couple sentences to entice customers. You can link the ad to your Facebook profile or your website.

• From the image on the right, you can see most Facebook ads are national ads — very generic. You can see why an ad that mentions a Facebooker’s hometown or state would really catch your eye.
• If your company logo is well-known, it’s a good idea to use it as the ad’s image. It’s also an eye-catcher.
• A catchy ad title is also important. And I like to pose a question:  “Garage Getting Full?” or “Running Out of Space?”
• If you’re already on Facebook, check out other ads to see what might work for your company — and what definitely wouldn’t.
• This is a good place to advertise a special you’ve got going on. “Mention Facebook and get two free features!”

2. Next, you’ll use criteria to narrow down who will see your ad.

• You can advertise to people based on their location, age, gender, education, etc.
• For example, maybe you want people between the age of 46 and 64 who live within 50 miles of Longview, Texas. Facebook gives you estimates: This would reach up to 18,180 people. Expanding the criteria to ages 18-64 will reach approximately 66,560.
• My recommendation is to not limit your criteria by much. Setting a location near you and looking for customers over 18 is a good idea.

3. Then Facebook asks you to name your ad campaign, set a daily budget and choose a schedule for your campaign.

• If you don’t want to spend more than $10 a day, you don’t have to!
• You set your account to be charged per impression (when someone sees your ad on the side of their Facebook pages) or per click (when someone actually clicks your ad to get more information). My recommendation is Pay per Click — you’ll get “impressions” for free.
• I chose to run my first Facebook ad for a month. That turned out to be far too long. But running an ad for about 10-14 days turned out to be just right.

4. All that’s left is to review your ad and place your order. You can click here to start advertising on Facebook or to learn more. Once your ad is running, you can check back to see how your ad is performing. I enjoyed checking it each day to see how many clicks we’d gotten.

Have you advertised on Facebook? If so, what advice do you have? If not, what concerns do you have?

Dealer Surveys

As you know, we value open communication with our Dealers, and we always appreciate when you speak candidly and honestly with us about ways we can better serve you. We have created a short, 6- to 8-minute survey so you can submit feedback to us. We will e-mail links and mail hard copies to you, and you can submit them ANONYMOUSLY if you so choose. We want you to evaluate how we’re doing so we can do the best job possible!

We also would like feedback from as many people on your staff as possible. If you wish, please forward the e-mail survey or send copies to all who have correspondence with us here.

Please watch for the surveys, as you should receive them very soon. Thank you!

One Minute Goals

Former sportscaster and NFL player Charlie Jones used to say, “Five years from today you will be the same person you are today, except for the books you read and the people you meet.” What does that mean to you? It tells me how important it is to constantly be reading books and to never stop learning.

We’ve taken that to heart and started a company-wide book study. Our vision is to take a book and spend a few weeks reading and discussing it together, with a goal to grow and develop ourselves personally and hopefully as a company. By discussing it together, we each get the benefit of hearing someone else’s point of view. I know you may be thinking, “I don’t have time for that” or “I don’t need another meeting,” but by meeting once a week over our lunch hour we can eat and learn at the same time.

We have started off with “The One Minute Manager” by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. Many of you may have already read it. I am surprised at how basic and simple the principles are to understand, but rather the hard part is implementing them in your daily life. The story reveals three practical secrets to becoming a One Minute Manager, and we spent yesterday discussing the first: “One Minute Goals.” One question was, “What should goals look like?” One of the first comments from the group was that goals should be attainable or achievable.

This image pretty much sums it up. Our goals must be realistic and something we can achieve. If we feel like we can’t accomplish the goal, we might give up before we even start. While goals must be easy enough to reach, they also must be challenging enough to stretch us. Michelangelo said, ”The greatest danger for most of us is not that we aim too high and we miss it, but we aim too low and reach it.”

Other thoughts we had were that goals should:

• Be straight forward and to the point.
• Be practical.
• Be clear and concise.
• Let everyone know what is expected – no surprises.
• Create accountability.

What goals do you have in business? Or for your family? Are they written down? Do you review them often to track progress? What do you think goals should look like?

Are You Fulfilling Your Vision?

Just a quick thought today:

This afternoon, Scott, Brian, Terry and I were in a meeting about our current and future dealers. We talked a lot about how we want to conduct ourselves in business.

“Everything we do, we have to run through the filter of what our vision [for the company] is,” Brian said. “If it doesn’t fulfill it, then it’s not worth it.”

This really struck me. I thought a lot about BLI’s vision. And I thought about my own vision. (1 Corinthians 10:31 came to mind: “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”)

What is the vision of your life? How important is it to run your daily activities through a “filter”?

How Apollo 11 Applies to Daily Life

This morning I realized that today is the 41st anniversary of Apollo 11′s launch — the beginning of an amazing journey that put man on the moon. I wasn’t around in 1969, but I have long been fascinated with the Apollo missions and history in general.

I took a moment to read a little about the mission, remembering things I’d read before and learning a few new things. And I found I was making some mental comparisons between the Apollo 11 mission and big projects in general.

• When beginning a project, setting goals — specific ones — is important. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy had said, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”
• After the goals are set, we must do some strategic planning. I’d say NASA’s years of planning, experiments, testing and (retesting), and back-to-the-drawing-board moments certainly qualify as “planning.” The Apollo 11 crew members went through intensive training. I’d wager none of us have planned so extensively for an eight-day “trip.”
• When working toward a big goal, a “Plan B” is important. In the event the team or any of its members were unable to go on the mission, there was a backup team waiting.
• Training helps us know what to expect and how to handle situations, and the crew spent lots of time in the simulator to prepare for its mission.
• The importance of teamwork and support came to mind; Apollo 11 had a support crew, flight directors, the entire NASA program, and I imagine many Americans all helping and supporting this mission.
• With any project there are obstacles, and Apollo 11 had unexpected alarms go off, computer and equipment malfunctions and even improper training causing them to stumble a little on their way to the moon.
• Then there’s the execution of the project, whether it’s successful or not. I read that Apollo 11′s launch went off less than one second off-schedule (which was obviously a credit to planning, teamwork and overcoming obstacles).
• Whenever we carry out a project, we hopefully take time for reflection afterward. Maybe we even find some things were easier to do than we thought they’d be. Neil Armstrong later said moving around in the moon’s gravity was “even perhaps easier than the simulations … It’s absolutely no trouble to walk around.”

I have a lot of admiration for these people and what they accomplished, and it’s kind of interesting to see that goals — whether they’re starting a new social media campaign or walking on the moon — have some similarities. Although, the next time I find myself grumbling about how hard a certain project is, I’ll try to bear in mind that at least it’s not rocket science.

Just for fun:

Replenishing Your Bucket

Image courtesy of http://goo.gl/vSwF

The year is half over, so I ask you, how are you doing? “Fine,” you say. No really, how are you doing? Are you tired? Do you have the energy to lead your team or perform your job duties? As leaders and hard-working employees, it is easy to run so hard and work ourselves into burnout. Hopefully it’s because you enjoy your work like I do, but there are times when we all need to stop, slow down, and take some time for ourselves.

Last August during The Leadership Summit, Bill Hybels related a picture of a big bucket — a replenishment bucket. Imagine yourself as a big water bucket, and the water level is your energy level. As you work hard and pour out your energy to others, the water level decreases. We can lead and serve others our best only when our bucket is filled up, but when you’re depleted, everyone’s in trouble. The challenge is to build things into your life that will replenish your bucket.

I have three kids, and at times they can deplete my bucket, but when I wrestle and punch around with my four-and-a-half-year-old boy … that helps fill me up. You must build those kinds of things into your daily activities, and you must do extended activities. I feel blessed to have just returned from a week of vacation with my family where we relaxed on a beautiful lake in Minnesota — what a replenishment.

Hybels said, “When you are leading, the best thing you bring to the table each day is a filled-up bucket and a heart that’s right with God.” So whatever process or routines you have to change to get back in a replenished condition, you have to do it. How full is your replenishment bucket? If it’s full, then awesome. What are you doing to keep it full? If it’s getting close to empty, then what do you need change?

Getting Started in the Blogosphere

Scott Strahm, BLI’s founder, shared an article from a remodeling magazine he recently read. It was titled “Keep ‘Em Coming Back,” and it talked all about how blogging keeps you fresh in your prospects’ minds. He told me he thought the article reaffirmed some of the things we talked about when we started our own blog.

While I know this is a different field than most of us are in, this statistic still seems relevant: an expert estimated that less than 1 percent of home improvement companies are blogging, according to the article. At the same time, 77 percent of active Internet users say they read blogs. (Obviously you do!) I’m sure you see where I’m going with this.

Maybe you’re interested but you’re feeling a little lost? Some of us were too at first — and we’re still learning!

Here are some tips for getting started (some from the article and some from us):

• Post entries regularly — but make sure they’re of substance.
• Have a clear plan for what you want to say, how personal you want to be and what you want to accomplish with your blog.
• Know your audience.
• Write like someone’s reading, even if no one is at first. (Sometimes your first readers are your mom and your brother-in-law!)
• Don’t get frustrated. You have to be patient with yourself AND willing to try something that might be a little outside your comfort zone.
• You don’t have to be an inspirational speaker or an experienced writer to do this. Share about a book you’ve just read, a good quote you heard, a project you’re working on — and expand on that.
• If you don’t have the time (or the ideas) to post several times a week, consider hiring a marketing company to blog for you. If you don’t have the funds (or care to spend them) for that, pick the most Internet-savvy person on your staff and have them blog on behalf of the company.
• It helps to have multiple contributors (like we have with Terry and Brian) or to invite guests (business acquaintances or colleagues) to post as well.

What are some of the pros and cons you can see for having a company blog?

Intelligence vs. Persistence

Photo courtesy of http://www.mlahanas.de/Physics/Bios/AlbertEinstein.html

“It’s not that I’m so smart , it’s just that I stay with problems longer .” — Albert Einstein

I read this quote this morning on Twitter (@GreatestQuotes), and it really resonated with me.

I know sometimes I’d like to think that I’m smart. But regardless of whether I am or not (let’s not go there!), sometimes situations have nothing to do with intelligence. When we face obstacles, outsmarting them is often not an option. Sometimes the intelligent thing to do is to be persistent, to persevere through a problem, to keep trying solutions until we find the right one.

We give Einstein a lot of credit for being one of the smartest men in history. When we admire someone, it’s often because they accomplished something great. Is it because they were smart? Or was it because they never gave up trying to accomplish their goal?

Who do you admire and why?