But what does a small business do when there are no funds for advertising? How will their message be heard?

In the absence of a significant advertising budget, networking is the next best solution. No matter what your vocation, there are associations, clubs, and social groups that have the same target market as your company, but are offering different products. Even though you all are competing for the same dollars, many times there are groups of professionals who like to share successes and discuss difficulties as they move through their business cycle.

When choosing these associations, be imaginative, think of businesses your target groups may frequent and learn as much as you can about your customer’s habits within their business. For example, if your target market is “Soccer Moms”, then it may not be a bad idea to attend a meeting of the local orthopedic injury association.

One of the benefits of networking is there is no limit to the number of organizations you can join or meetings you attend and most are free. Moreover, many of the meetings you attend will lead to others…I belong to four formal organizations and attend meetings and social gatherings with an additional three. Through these associations, I have received leads, referrals, and business contacts that would have taken months to generate on my own.

Before you run out and join ten organizations there are a few thing you need to consider:

1. Make sure the organization will lead to business or those who can refer your business
2. Perfect a five minute description of what your company does (elevator pitch).
3. Take a sharpie and make notes on the back of the business cards of those who have promise
4. Send a thank you email to all of those whom you collected a business card and ask for a meeting within 7 days to determine if further communication is warranted

The key to effective networking is to not only meet as many people as possible, but to move in circles that encompass your target audiences or provide you with greater opportunities for growth. Many of the people you meet know more than you, so always be ready to listen and if you really find someone you feel will be beneficial invite them to meet with you within two days of your conversation to further discuss your or their ideas. If you are a reserved person who has trouble in large groups, take it slow by attending but not talking to anyone, then set a goal of meeting one person per meeting, then two, then three – you get the idea.

When I was a child we lived in an apartment complex in SE Washington, DC, where we were one of the first Black families on the block. The grounds were beautiful and there were playgrounds and many park-like areas for picnics or games of football.

By the time I was in junior high school, the neighborhood was mostly Black and you knew everybody in your section of the neighborhood and were familiar with the surrounding blocks. In fact, we had a special whistle if there was someone in the neighborhood we didn’t know which meant everyone would keep an eye out to make sure nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Most of the families had both parents and if a Dad lost his job, the other Dads would find them employment. During that transition all the families chipped in to make sure the affected family had food and gas and it was not uncommon for us to give clothing as well. No one gave the kids a hard time for wearing “hand me downs” because we all went through it at one time or another.

As a neighborhood we celebrated good fortunes of others from kids graduating school to people getting promotions. I remember when the Food Giant in our neighborhood hired a Black General Manager. Everyone went to the store to meet him and welcome he and his family into the neighborhood, even though they did not live in our complex.

The local Boys & Girls Club was run by the police, and we went there everyday after school to learn everything from boxing to playing chess. When a police car road up in our neighborhood, everyone ran to it instead of away from it. The officers knew us by name and our parents, so during times when we were misbehaving, they would call us by name or call our parents if we were really out of line.

Most problems were resolved through relationships, which sometimes led to physical altercations, but at the end of the day everyone went home.

When I became old enough to ride the bus to other parts of town, I used to get out and walk around to see how different the people and surroundings were, but I found the same level of warm welcoming people as I did in my own neighborhood.

Sure, there was the occasional group of boys who wanted to know who I was and why I was walking through their neighborhood, but it was usually resolved though conversations of sports or music. And when It went wrong, a lot of running, but again at the end of the day everyone went home alive.

Looking at our country today, every city that I know of personally and have watched and read about in the news is being plagued with record levels of violence. Especially among youths from 12-19. I firmly believe this is a symptom of a loss of the value of human life. We forgot to teach these children the true meaning of life past the material gains of money and fame.

This lack of perspective causes people to cling to everything they value and will use deadly force to protect it. Not considering the other person as anything more than someone who is challenging their possessions, pride, or way of life and need to be dealt with once and for all.

Gangs and other groups take these impressionable minds and mold them into their way of Modern Darwinism and not to be concerned with the method if the goals are achieved. This has led to record incarceration levels, lower graduation levels, and generations of people who have lost hope.

Fortunately, there are many organizations and individuals who strive everyday to change these perspectives and help people improve their lives every day, but the movement needs to grow.

We need to have a collective sense of pride as a country and bring back the same amount of unity and brotherhood we saw in America in the months following September 11, 2001. That was the last time I can remember people having a sincere concern for the well being of neighbors and an appreciation of the value of life.

For me “together we stand” is a battle cry for the willingness to make tough decisions to get our country back on track. To understand that our system of government is broken and the “democratic republic” we began is dying on the vine. We know it will have to change into another system in the next decade, but we must begin those hard conversations now.

How do we reverse the loss of hope and possibility that fuels the violence among our youth? How do we reposition our educational system to address nontraditional employment options such as gig work and social media? How do we get business owners to view employees as tools for growth and not just an expense on the P&L statement? How do we address the basic needs of food, housing, and medical care for those who have fallen through the cracks?

These are just a few questions of the many that must be resolved for us to be able to stand as a nation. But no solutions will work if we don’t go back to being “human”. To vewing every individual as worthwhile and of value. We must understand that we are our brother’s keeper, and it does matter if your neighbor is struggling.

It is undoubtedly an uphill battle and may not have significant change in my lifetime, but we are a resilient nation who has lost our will to fight. We have challenges from global adversaries as well as modern culture, but we the people have risen from everything from the Great Depression to a Global Pandemic and are still here. Now is not the time to run to our respective corners and only worry about “me and mine”. Instead, we must view every life as one that can contribute to the solution, embrace our differences, argue our points of view, and build a stronger nation.

While working a fulltime job as a retail manager, I was playing tennis and tore my patella tendon. Back then major knee surgery required eight to ten months of rehab and as you can imagine, I was not able to work a retail floor. During that time, I taught myself how to create websites using a program called FrontPage and began creating pages for friends and family for enough funds to keep myself afloat during my recovery.

After I made a full recovery, I went back to work, but still did websites on the side and even built a new website for my employer at the time. As I entered the early 2000s, I added building retail business plans and marketing strategies to my services, which eventually landed me a job in marketing with one of the nation’s largest mall owners. During my tenure with that company, I went back and finished my undergraduate degree in Business Management and an MBA in Marketing, which gave me a much wider level of expertise in a consultative capacity.

As a Marketing Director, I had a large budget and access to many tools that would form the basis for the strategies I used to help entrepreneurs build better businesses. In fact, my employer used to use me to help tenants who were experiencing declining sales get back on track and our leasing department used to promise consultation time as a closing tool.

By 2011, I decided it was time to “jump of the cliff” and turn my side gig into a fulltime business, so I started an event management company called Diversified Event Productions (DEP). DEP’s purpose was to help small businesses reach into different market segments using events as an attractor. For example, we were working with a national bank that wanted to increase their market share in the Hispanic community, so we held a Latin Festival that attracted more than 800 Hispanic attendees.  However, we soon realized our clients didn’t know what to do with the new leads once we brought them into their organizations, so in 2012, I started re-View Business Strategies (RBS) to help business build strategies for what to do after they gain new customers.

It did not take long before RBS was the primary revenue driver, so we officially closed DEP in 2014 and have been operating RBS as our sole source of revenue to this very day. However, the transition had its challenges and I did go back to working fulltime from 2013 – 2015 for another large mall owner, but by the end of 2015, I was ready to step back into entrepreneurship fulltime and have not looked back since.

Being self-employed is not for the “faint of heart”. It is difficult most of the time and impossible the rest of the time, but for those of us who have been bitten with the entrepreneurial bug there is no other life. I guess it’s the thrill of being one decision away from the best or worst life possible, that is so attractive and even if I have to go back to fulltime employment at some point, it has truly been worth the trip.

When we were children, our parents always told us to be careful who we hung around. Little did they know how right they were. While their intentions were to keep us from spending time with those who could potentially get us into trouble, their warnings had a much greater meaning on a psychological level.

The problem has less to do with the actual people you associate with and more with how our subconscious processes the input. Our subconscious mind runs 95% of what we do every day and is always looking to assimilate information. Unfortunately, our subconscious does not have filters regarding right or wrong it only produces actions based on the information that went in.

Everything from what you watch on television, the music you listen to, or people who gain your attention gets deposited on your subconscious and it responds to every scenario based on the information it must draw from.

If you look at it from the perspective of a professional athlete, they must have a high level of skill, but it’s the coaching that makes the difference when it comes to competing. If the coaching staff prepares them with consistent programming on a variety of scenarios, the players will not have to think through critical decisions but execute the plays that have been deposited in their subconscious.

So, what is the purpose of this article? As entrepreneurs we must constantly feed our subconscious with vision, purpose, and affirmations that cause our every action to move in the direction of our ultimate goals. We must plant our vision and purpose so deep in our subconscious, that we can see the future.

This is also true of those we associate with or have access to our minds. We must surround ourselves with people and activities that move our businesses forward. There is no room for those who tell us what we cannot achieve, how difficult it will be, or offer advice for levels they have never reached. This is not being selfish or self-serving but creating an infallible impression on our subconscious that will allow us to move past internal and external challenges.

The strategy is to have our subconscious fed by input and strategies from a wholistic balance of mind, body, and business development. Use a combination of reading, podcasts, coaches, and mentors to create an environment of continuous improvement and accountability.  Constantly challenge activities that don’t move your business forward and dedicate time everyday for personal and professional growth.

#1 – The success you desire is already there. You do not have to create it, just plan your path to it.

#2 – The only thing keeping you from the success you want is you!

#3 – 90% of everything we do is handled by our subconscious

With those precepts in mind, let’s discuss getting you to the level of success you desire. As we go through life, the experiences we have are moved from the consciousness of when we go through them to a memory in our subconscious. Those memories are used to build beliefs, values, and functions.

For example, as a toddler, taking your first steps happens in your conscious mind. As your parent moves you through the process your mind grabs the new data and stores it in your subconscious, which is why you begin to run soon after you’ve learned to walk. You no longer rely on the previous pattern of thinking through steps but use what you have already learned to try new variations.

In life and business, the same thing is true. When I first began bowling, I understood the concept of rolling the ball down the lane to knock over as many pins as possible. As I practiced more, I noticed subtle variants that affected my ability to accomplish the goal of knocking down pins with the fewest tries. Things like how the floor was oiled, whether my ball was clean, where I stood on the floor, whether the lanes were wood or synthetic, etc. Each variation was stored in my subconscious so that when I became a sanctioned professional bowler and traveled to a new bowling alley, I would instantly recognize which type of “house” we were in and which ball to use, where to stand, etc.

Your success journey is no different. After you have identified and visualized the level of success you want, you plan your journey and take advantage of the many experiences that are designed to move you forward. The key is being aware of what happened when the results were less than desirable and reprogramming your subconscious with the new data.

It is here that we must be aware of the power of “doubt”. If you had an experience that was very painful (emotionally or financially) it can cause you to question your abilities and cast doubt into your subconscious. This doubt can manifest itself in many traits including over analysis, hesitance, fear, and indecisiveness. I’m sure you have heard of the conditions “fear of failure” and “fear of success”. Both can be traced back to an experience that caused doubt or in some cases a lose of self-confidence.

I don’t want to seem as though I am downplaying the seriousness of either condition and I am a huge supporter of mental counseling, but I would like to leave you with a few strategies to help you move towards the success you seek.

1. Read books, listen to podcasts, or watch videos of people who have achieved the level of success you aspire to and take notes. Make sure they share the same values because you can only be you, not them.
2. Begin writing down your plan and start each day with a goal of accomplishment. This is the beginning of replacing the negative experiences in your subconscious with new data on how it can be done more effectively (conscious effort).
3. Give your plan a timeline. Hold yourself accountable to improving and implementing the new data.

To show you how powerful subconscious programming is, I’ll share with you one of my stories. In professional bowling, one of the highest honors is bowling a perfect score (300) during league or tournament play. A 300 game is 12 consecutive strikes. I have missed a 300 during league play by one strike a dozen times. Of that dozen times, 10 happened where I would bowl eight strikes in a row and in the ninth frame leave one pin, then bowl three more strike in the 10^th. What proves it was a subconscious block is the fact it was always the same pin (#10). Knowing what I know now, I should have taken steps to reprogram my mind about the 9^th frame, but that is why I am posting this to help you get pass your block and reach your highest level of success.

Asking the wrong questions in business usually leads to less than desirable outcomes and sometimes painful financial loss, but using the “growth mindset”, they can also be the foundation for asking the right questions.

“In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.” (Dweck, 2015)

Simply stated, the growth mindset looks at every decision we make and experience we have as an opportunity to improve ourselves as human beings and in this context, businesspeople. Following this line of thinking, being wrong on a strategy or other business decisions should lead to a certain level of curiosity. This curiosity will cause you to ask questions about what went wrong. You will also ask yourself what you could have or should have done differently. This openness will usually inspire you to research those who have accomplished what you aspire to, which invariably leads to your growth.

The bottom line is we should always be growing as individuals and that growth spills over into everything we do personally and professionally. The more we seek to expand our knowledge base and ask questions, the greater the opportunities for long-term sustainable success.

I’ll leave you with a quote from one of my favorite authors, “If failure is not an option, then neither is success.” (Seth Godin).

After a discussion and formal interview, Mr. Michele was offered the position in 2015 and has since tripled the sales of Gucci and totally redefined the brand and its target audiences. So, to recap, he had been working for the company for 12 years and went from the Head of Accessories to being responsible for all of Gucci’s collections, product categories and the company’s global brand image. Did the previous CEO not know that level of talent was in the organization?

The purpose of this blog is to point out the importance of engaging your team on a higher level. Instead of just requiring them to perform whatever task you assign them in the supply chain, find out if they have ideas. Create an environment that encourages creativity, innovation, and growth.

For business owners, I have two suggestions: give performance reviews with trajectory in mind and don’t be afraid of the right answer coming from someone other than you.

Giving performance reviews with trajectory in mind is simply asking the team member what their career vision is and really listening to what they say. While most will give responses consistent with what they think they need to say to remain employed, there will also be those who possess qualities you will need to scale your company, evolve your brand, or strengthen processes and systems. Instead of listening for evidence of their value for the position the hold, listen for critical thinking, passion, and a willingness to learn. Don’t just determine whether they checked enough boxes to remain employed or receive a bonus but find out their thoughts on how the company has helped them achieve their personal goals and dreams.

As business owners, many of us feel we must be the pioneers who not only chart the course for our companies but come up with every adjustment and change of direction. While this may be possible in the beginning, it is hardly a strategy for growth.  As we add team members, we should also be adding a diversity of backgrounds, experiences and thought processes. Within that diversity there may be a solution or strategy that leads to your company’s next level development and long-term sustainability.
By sharing your vision and values and actively seeking input from your team, you create an environment of creativity and fearlessness. Make your team members feel there is no retribution for ideas that did not achieve the desired results and you will be surprised at the suggestions they will bring forth. Keeping that in mind, you may be one conversation away from reaching the goals that caused you to start the business in the first place.
​
Finally, before you place the next ad for whatever critical position you are seeking to fill, make sure that person isn’t already working for you. Get to know your team on a deeper level and you may find everything you need is already in house.