Pay attention to the opening speech. You’ll find this same language in business plan templates and the ones you can get for $395. A lot of flowery words backed up by ‘seven red line’ logic.
Author: CBPS
Peter Mehit is co-founder and Managing Partner of Custom Business Planning and Solutions, a business consulting firm that provides problem solving, planning and process help. He has worked from private equity to the Fortune 100 at all stages.
He can be reached at pmehit@wbpllc.com or at 800-741-8444.
I Hate Mandatory Comments | Peter Mehit
I just renewed four domains with GoDaddy. It was a perfectly forgettable transaction, just the way I want all transactions on the internet to be. But a day later, a survey arrived. Begging for just five minutes, I caved in and answered their questions.
The very first question violated my unspoken rule about surveys: Do not make it mandatory to explain why I gave you a rating.
I rated them a 7. I didn’t really want to go into it. A 7 says, “You know, you’re just good enough. But I’d better deal you if something better came along.” I think both GoDaddy and I understand that. Conversation will only make things worse. When I discovered the comment was mandatory, I wrote:
I gave you a rating. Accept it. I hate mandatory comments. They make me dislike the survey company for doing it, and GoDaddy by extension.
There were a few more questions. It was really a three minute survey. I liked them for that. The final question asked me what GoDaddy could do to improve my customer experience. Now if they had followed my rule and not forced me to have a comment, I would have ended the survey the way I end all surveys, with white space. But to not leave a comment after having been forced to leave one, that’s just not symmetrical. So this is what I asked GoDaddy for:
1. Provide winning PowerBall numbers. Any size jackpot will do.
2. Arrange a date with Angelina Jolie. Brad can come.
3. Use ‘No One to Know’ by Path of Least Resistance as your theme song.
4. Get all the idiots in Washington D.C. to remember they’re supposed to be focused on us. You can do it. You lobby.
5. Stop objectifying women in your advertising.
6. Tell people when they rehearse a vine, it defeats the purpose.
7. Magically release all the domain names I really want.
8. Feature my company in your advertising.
9. (It’s Custom Business Planning and Solutions)
10. Get my upstairs neighbor to walk lighter.
I pressed ‘Submit’. I was greeted with thanks from Blake Irving, CEO of GoDaddy:
We’ll see if they are really serious about improving my customer experience.
California’s Manufacturing Industries: Employment and Competitiveness in the 21st Century | LAEDC
Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation’s Institute for Applied Economics has produced a detailed report of where the California manufacturing sector is and where they think it’s headed. A great read for those looking to understand the future of this crucial part of our economy.
RISE of the Criminals | Peter Mehit
If you happened to have had a bad day during the Great Recession, the odds are you’re rebuilding your credit. If your credit score took a major hit, or if you’ve filed bankruptcy, it’s quite possible that you’ll get an offer in the mail from a company that wants to help you on your financial ‘comeback’. The company will tell you they “think a loan should be convenient and on your terms”, and they’ve “changed the way you borrow money”. Rocky Balboa’s face, strong and determined, is prominently displayed in the advertising copy.
You can start your comeback by filling out a simple application for a pre-approved $3,500 loan. This money will be deposited directly to your bank account. The rate may be steep in the beginning, but it will decrease as you show your ability to make payments. After all, there is a risk to providing you credit, but the company wants to help restore you as a respected member of the financial community.
The company dying to help you is RISE, a brand of Think Finance, who packages itself as an ‘emergency non-bank lender’. This is just double speak for a sophisticated form of predatory lending. The APR on their loans range from 36 to over 360%. A recent offer carried an interest rate of 199%. For the privilege of receiving $3,500, you’ll pay back $10,800 in payments of $289 made every two weeks. Instead of Rocky Balboa, their promotional icon should be Tony Soprano.
Hobby Lobby – Win the Battle, Risk Losing the War? | Forbes
Perhaps Hobby Lobby might want to listen to the CEO of Chick-fil-A, which suffered a serious media firestorm when it became public their owners donated money to anti-gay organizations. CEO Cathy decided it was best to “just shut up and go sell chicken.” Business is tough enough, loaded with plenty of battles, without looking for fights that are against trends.
The Homepage Is Dead! Long Live The Homepage! | Fast Company
New media companies have better recognized the changing role of the homepage, which is reflected in what they are choosing to feature–or not feature–on their pages. Medium, for example, the new content site by Twitter cofounder Evan Williams, doesn’t display any of its stories on its homepage. Instead, it uses the space to recruit new writers, many of whom are amateurs. Its homepage is clean and simple. “Your audience awaits. Tell a story on Medium today,” it says, and then offers a green button that says “Start writing.”
Weekly Business Update | LAEDC
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THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES:
- California Home Sales and Median Prices in April
- Events of Interest
- June 3-4, 2014: Discover Europe Business Forum in Downtown
- June 5, 2014: LAEDC International Trade Outlook
Why Nascar Is Putting RFID Sensors On Every Person In The Pit| Fast Company.com
MotionWorks allows race teams the ability to measure every aspect of their crew’s performance, from every angle, without the inconvenience of obstruction–of which there can be quite a bit on pit row. The high-frequency location-based system measures proximity within a 3-D space devoid of line-of-sight limitation
Are We at the End of Email? – WorkIntelligent.ly
You come in, sit down, and log in. Your morning coffee steams while you peruse the dozens of emails that await you. Some are important. Some are even urgent. But most are destined for the trash. You grind through your inbox, replying to some and flagging others for later. And by the time your real work starts, your coffee is cold and you can’t find that one important email your client sent yesterday.
Randi Zuckerberg’s Book About Web Addiction — Daily Intelligencer
Randi Zuckerberg, the karaoke-singing, reality-show-producing sister of Facebook CEO Mark, is coming out with a children’s book that amounts to a passive-aggressive swipe at the obsessive social-media culture her brothers company helped create.
Dispatches From The Front 