Bought something other than a Motorola phone

I broke my heart this week.  Bought a cell phone other than a Motorola.  For 25 years, in good times and bad, I always bought Motorola.   As I reminded my son,  the Motorola phones put him through college etc.

But there was nothing to buy at either Verizon or AT&T.  A sad state of affairs for the company and people who really helped make it happen.  I remember in 1984, walking around with a portable.   While I thought people would be amazed, for the most part they were ambivalent.  Didn’t see why anyone would want a portable cell phone.

Anyhow, it’s a different world now.  I need to move on.  But, it’s a sad world when “What you never thought possible” is gone.

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Having Fun at Work

This is more a Titter type posting, than a blog posting.  But some one actually clicked on the 3 Tips on having fun at work.  I guess there is one person among the viewers of the SCORE blog that wants to know about having fun.

No Interest in How to Have Fun

One of the nice things about writing a blog is that you can see what subjects resonate with your audience.  I wrote this piece below  about two weeks ago.  Did my usual promotion on Twitter.  Picked up the usual volume of visitors from our SCORE Chicago web site.   Almost any posting gets traffic.  Some get more, some get less.  This posting got no traffic.

Now, I have a pretty diverse set of followers on Twitter.  Thought for sure that I’d get some traffic.  But, I guess that people aren’t too interested in fun.   Curious, during the glory days of Motorola, there was in the HR world a view that we should at least try to create some fun.  Maybe that is one of the reasons that Motorola is not what it used to be… but I think not.

Probably when you are trying to survive, fun seem to not be a priority.  Too bad

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3 Tips on Having Fun at Work

In today’s times, sometimes it is difficult to have fun at work.  Here are 3 tips to help out.

1. Recognize accomplishment.  When something good happens, you get an order, or solve a problem, announce it and celebrate it.  When I worked in the cell phone business,  when someone, either us or a competitor found a creative way to improve a product, that accomplishment was celebrated.  Then in a competitive situation, we challenged ourselves to do better.  Caution, don’t let someone else’s accomplishment, turn into accusation.

2. Enjoy being in your working group.  Create a regular process of getting together and having a good time.  The most successful collaborative efforts create events to enjoy just working together.  I worked on a project with a customer, internal people, and suppliers.  Every month, we’d get together in another location do a business review and have a nice dinner.  One of my colleagues stated that “you can’t be too upset with someone you eat with”.  Caution: don’t let the celebration become dominated by one person or group. You don’t want to turn it into a coronation.

3.  Announce that one of the goals of the group is to have fun.  Just saying it gets you half way there.  Caution: if you say it, you need to do it.  See points 1 & 2.

3 Tips on having fun at work

In today’s times, sometimes it is difficult to have fun at work.  Here are 3 tips to help out.

1.  Recognize accomplishment.  When something good happens, you get an order, or solve a problem, announce it and celebrate it.  When I worked in the cell phone business,  when someone, either us or a competitor found a creative way to improve a product, that accomplishment was celebrated.  Then in a competitive situation, we challenged ourselves to do better.  Caution, don’t let someone else’s accomplishment, turn into accusation.

2. Enjoy being in your working group.  Create a regular process of getting together and having a good time.  The most successful collaborative efforts create events to enjoy just working together.  I worked on a project with a customer, internal people, and suppliers.  Every month, we’d get together in another location do a business review and have a nice dinner.  One of my colleagues stated that “you can’t be too upset with someone you eat with”.  Caution: don’t let the celebration become dominated by one person or group. You don’t want to turn it into a coronation.

3.  Announce that one of the goals of the group is to have fun.  Just saying it gets you half way there.  Caution: if you say it, you need to do it.  See points 1 & 2.

Own your own name as a brand?

You have a brand that your carry through out your life.  It is on your driver’s license, your passport, and you are universally known by it.  It’s your name.  So consider owning your name as a url.

I just purchased  www.markegoodman.com .  Five years ago, when I was working for Motorola,  I would have never have thought about it.   I felt that I was a subset of the Motorola brand.  But with job changes and the fact that search has become the yellow and white pages of the 21^st century, how can I insure that I can be found.   Not only be found, but insure the continuity and integrity of your brand.

Granted, social media sites like LinkedIn,  Facebook, and Twitter can help give you presence.  However, they can come and go.  Who remembers Prodigy?   These sites often require membership from the searcher.  In addition, for the most part, they control the routing.

Think about it.  What is more important than your own brand?  When it comes to building your image and furthering your career, who is more important than you?

4 Considerations when you are creating a Marketing Plan

I am doing the  Monthly Marketing and Sales Workshop for SCORE Chicago tomorrow, August 6th.    Here are a few highlights.  Information about the workshop is at: http://bit.ly/MarketingSelling

Marketing is key to your success

• Keep it simple
• Know what business you are in

No one perfect marketing plan

• Understand your key metrics
• Set goals consistent with those metrics
• Revisit on a regular basis

Don’t fall in love with a business idea too soon

• Do your research
• Understand your competition
• Reach out to a set of advisors who can provide feedback
• Listen to the sales not made as much as the customers you land

You’re not ready to start a business until you can do a credible Year One monthly sales and profit forecast

• Your numbers are another way of expressing you plan
• Ask youself realistically  “Can we really do that”
• Come up with a “Slow Day” – “Average Day” – “Busy Day” … Understand the impact if every day is a  “Slow Day”