So! What makes you so special?

Nothing turns me off more than the scramble to the bottom line. No matter how low you go, there is always someone else out there willing to beat you up. The result? Low prices, lousy products and horrible service. One out of three of those characteristics is attractive to customers, but sooner or later, expectations drop so low that customers are no longer interested. Sadly, it’s happening all around us. Ultimately, it is self-defeating.

Viruses! They can spread so rapidly from person to person. I guess ‘recession’ has replaced ‘pandemic’ as the word that dominates our everyday anxieties, but for a while there I thought we were going to drown in a tsunami of antibacterial hand lotion.

Beyond word of mouth (one of the most reliable sources for bringing in new clients) and a Yellow Pages listing in the local phone book (back in the day when the phone book was the gold standard for finding anything), the word ‘marketing’ did little more than cause me to break out in a cold sweat. I can’t begin to count the number of boxes of unused, outdated business cards that ended up in the trash. So much for good intentions.

Now before you start running en masse for the exit signs, just hear me out. You might assume that I am trying to peer through some questionable new age aura lens at hardcore business practices, but really, it’s quite the opposite. No, I don’t come into my office wrapped in a sheet and spend half my day sitting cross-legged trying to meditate customers into my shop.