Creating a Referral Program for Your Business

If you’re looking to create a referral program for your business, here are guidelines that will help you be successful at getting more referrals.

1)  Use what is going on in the news, media, and in the minds of everyone.  For example, holiday events are a great time to mention referral marketing as you incorporate the holidays into the event.  Football playoffs, basketball tournaments...these types of things are the things that people talk about.

A referral leadership board can be a great way to get more referrals.

2)  Reward people for referrals. We believe that you should reward people even if a referral does not turn into business.  The goal is to reward effort.  Of course you need to educate people on who makes a good referral for your business.

3)  Make your referral program fun.  Leader boards, contests, promotions, giveaways, drawings...these won’t appeal to everyone, but it doesn’t matter.  If a referral program is fun, interesting, and can be a game for people, you will have much better participation.

By implementing these three referral guidelines for your referral program, you will have good success.

With 24+ years of executive experience in corporate growth and turnaround management, Howard Bienstock founded OneDegreeConnected.com (ODC) out of a practical need to easily share with others the efficiencies of highly leveraged relationship development. A proprietary, membership-driven, permission-based global online multiple-referral tool, ODC serves individuals across various levels of sales, management and professional occupations.

Howard also serves as a mentor and executive consultant in his role as President & COO of ROI Consulting II LLC.

Dealing with a Disaster - Keeping Your Business Afloat

Catastrophes happen on a daily basis, and all companies must have a plan in place to stay in business. You might be a new company, with just a few months under your belt, and having invested your life savings to pursue your entrepreneurial dream. Or possibly you are a well-established, extremely successful business owner. Either of these scenarios - and all those in between - could be at risk of survival if your business is destroyed. Often the destruction happens in seconds. A fire, earthquake, tornado or other disaster can and does happen. 

Are you prepared? The Institute for Business and Home Safety states that when disasters force businesses to shut down, 25% will never reopen. So how do you keep your business afloat if you become a victim of a disaster?

A business continuity plan is essential. The Houston Area Research Center cites these statistics in support of the investment of time and money into creating a plan:

• 35–40 percent of businesses without a continuity plan never reopen when disrupted by a disaster
• Every dollar spent on disaster preparedness saves $7 in recovering disaster related economic losses.

Your ability to reopen quickly is imperative. The sooner you are back in business, the less you'll suffer from lost revenues. Customers will be retained because they are aware you're down time will be minimal. And, extremely important, is how this will impact your employees. As a business owner, you'll want to get them all back to work so they don't experience a financial hardship on their families.

When creating your business continuity plan, there are many questions to ask and then answer. Here are my top 10:

1.    What disasters could we face (natural and man-made)?

2.    What operations are critical to open quickly?

3.    Do we have a data backup in place to be able to access our records from any location?

4.    Who are our key resources (utilities, insurance agent, CPA, etc.)?

5.    Who are our key suppliers and do they have a business continuity plan?

6.    Do we have a relationship established to ensure we will be one of the first served if we experience a wide-spread disaster (tornado or flood vs. one-building fire)?

7.    Where can we set up a temporary location, and who will direct the process?

8.    What supplies, inventory and equipment will be needed immediately?

9.    Is our employee call chain up to date, and does each employee know what their role is in our disaster plan?

10. Do we have an inventory of all of our assets so we can complete an insurance claim quickly and thoroughly, and maximize the claim for proper financial recovery?

Though this is just the tip of the iceberg in business continuity planning, it is a good start to begin the necessary steps for preparedness. Without a plan, the odds are far greater that you will not re-open if you're forced to close. It can be a time-consuming process to complete a thorough business continuity plan. Investing in a firm to create it for you will ensure it is finalized quickly and professionally. 

Cindy Hartman is President of Hartman Inventory, a woman-owned business that provides business and home inventory services. She and her husband Mike also own Hartman Inventory Systems, a complete turnkey home inventory business package for those who want to establish their own inventory company. She is also an owner of Business Continuity Planning Specialists, which was created with the small business owners' needs and budgets in mind. 

Finding Wilbur Wright’s Why (The Why of My Business, Pt 3)

As I indicated in the last installment of The Why of My Business, my plan now to identify my Why is to run with this concept: look backward to past experiences when I was inspired — a purpose, a passion, and a mission were present — and find the commonality across those experiences. This commonality would guide me to articulate my Why. Just to be on the safe side, though, I also wanted to have a guide for constructing this mini-biography of inspirations. I would look at the examples that Simon Sinek gave of Why’s and find the person or company that seemed closest to me and my business. Then, I would look at that person or company in a little more depth to identify the telltales to their Why across time.

With this benchmark I would have a sense of how to construct my mini-biography with the right kind of stories or examples to include.

So, here were the examples of Why’s that Sinek gives us in “Start with Why”:

Early Apple (Steve Wozniak, with Steve Jobs): Why = Give the computer to the common man (personal computer can level the odds between corporations and the “little people”) 

Apple (over the years): WHY = Work a different way/Defy the status quo; HOW = Beautiful, simple, and user-friendly; WHAT = Computers

Martin Luther King: WHY = Realize the Dream of Social Justice

Wright Brothers (I would have guessed manned flight as their WHY); according to Sinek, their WHY was because:
A) It would change the world
B) They imagined the benefits to everyone else if they were successful
 

More about this later

Why’s related to customers:

Nike (Early phase): WHY = Championing the cause of serious runners

Bridgeport Financial (collection agency): WHY = treat our customers with respect

Harley Davidson: WHY = Provide a lifestyle for our customers

AOL (Early in their history): WHY: Get people online

Starbucks: WHY = Provide the “third space” – between home and the office – for our customers

Toyota: WHY = Be known by our customers for our efficiency, affordability

Why’s related to employees:

Continental Airlines: WHY = (for the employees) Win for yourselves

Costco: WHY = We believe in looking after our employees first

Honore Construction: WHY =We honor the Work-life balance

Simon Sinek himself: WHY = Inspiring people to find what inspires them

I’ll add in the three individuals in the Power Circle that I mentioned earlier who shared their version of The Why of their business:

Barbara Hook felt that her almost obsessive need to help family members has been transformed into her current WHY: providing unparalleled customer service (to her insurance clients). 

Jan Worman’s abrupt brush with heart symptoms was a life-changing event that has led to her WHY: a cause-like approach to health (and the healthy drink business she promotes).

Yet another person pointed to his surviving a lengthy coma as the reason he is able to provide so well for the needs of his customers — he feels he is still alive for a purpose and his WHY: to guide his clients on their journey (financial) and he is driven to fulfill it. 

Almost all of the WHY’s of these example were motivated by external social factors or experiences. 

Their inspiration comes from achieving something for someone else: for customers, for employees, Martin Luther King’s social equality for the people, Sinek for business owners. Of these examples, the only one that came close to matching my underlying inspiration in business was the Wright Brothers, as I understood them in my previous readings (prior to Sinek’s book) where the pursuit of manned flight, in and of itself, was the overarching drive for them.

Sinek’s notion of external drives motivating the Wright Brothers, namely, “it would change the world” and “they imagined the benefits to everyone else if they were successful,” seemed suspect to me. Again, a closer reading was the prescription, this time three biographies of the Wrights and a book of their letters (with my focus especially on Wilbur, who these days would have been considered the CEO of their operation).

My examination of the Wrights, especially Wilbur, confirmed my previous judgment. Wilbur was motivated by the drive to achieve manned flight which he described in one his letters in 1900 as “a disease.” The desire to solve that problem, that “disease,” was the primary force causing him to expend extraordinary effort and catalyze his brother and others around him to join his quest. Other factors were of interest to him (he made sure that others didn’t take credit for the invention), but its future impact and the benefit for mankind were never mentioned to any degree in their letters and do not seem to figure in the motivating force behind their effort. They had the engineer’s/scientist’s desire to solve a problem. Wilbur regarded his trips to Kitty Hawk for testing their gliders and airplanes as vacations. There was an innate joy and play involved for Wilbur in the attempt to solve the problem of manned flight. As to the benefits for others, that was secondary, in the problem-solving periods, and, in fact, Wilbur stated in 1902, “to tell the truth, the building of machines for other men to risk their necks on is not a task I particularly relish.” 

The sequence of events in Wilbur’s quest for manned flight appears to have consisted of four elements:

1) He felt manned flight was of sufficient complexity to sufficiently exercise his full powers of creativity, analysis, and tenacity

2) The solution of manned flight became a “disease” for him (albeit a pleasant one)

3) When initial success became realized, Wilbur experienced an exhilaration in flying (again, an internal experience, as opposed to external social rewards)

4) He believed that he and his brother should make their fair share of money from this invention

This view of his WHY — achieving manned flight — resonates with the things that drive me in my business: producing solutions to problems in small business. I think that studying Wilbur Wright has put me on the right track. In addition, Wright’s method of solution, breaking down an overall problem (manned flight) into its subproblems (lift, control, and a motorized engine) is very similar to the way I approach a problem.

At this time I am going to have to break off and leave to the next installment my mini-biography of inspiration. I apologize to the reader for not yet delivering as I promised, but there was more underbrush on the trail than I had imagined. In order to identify the most likely model for my WHY, I had to correct some faulty information (Wilbur was primarily motivated by an internal drive to solve the problem of manned flight, rather than his desire to bring the airplane’s benefits to all of mankind). 

Thus, some additional sleuthing into Wilbur Wright’s background was necessary to clarify the picture, but upon reflection Wilbur Wright is indeed the correct model for me to use as a guidepost.

I appreciate your patience with me.

John Gifford publishes IndySmallBiz, as well as providing consulting and implementation in the areas of strategic planning, writing, brokering strategic relationships, and boutique marketing. His background has included academia, publishing and conference facilitation related to the 55+ market, and sales and marketing for several publications.

Find Your Why by Looking Backward (The Why of My Business, Part 2)

As I indicated in the First Installment, my search for the Why of my business resulted in a first approximation that was more of a What than a Why. This forced me back to the drawing boards with a closer reading of Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why,” and an in-person hearing and questioning of Simon Sinek (albeit before 300 other people).

My closer look at the Sinek book resulted in my distillation and organization of his key material, which I then put into two Models: the Why-based Model (the approach championed by Sinek) and the Why-less Model (that disdained by Sinek).

Here is what I came up with:

The Why Model

1. Excellent companies and individuals act according to a WHY, sometimes even if they don’t articulate it, but why leave that to chance.

2. Most companies instead focus on and act according to WHAT and HOW – the nuts and bolts of their company (their products and services, benefits for customers, and their unique selling proposition). Only when you start with the WHY and then move on to HOW and WHAT is the process optimized.
 

3. As owner of your company, you should intentionally articulate and develop the intended WHY of your company in line with you, your history, and your predisposition.

4. Articulate this WHY in writing and promulgate it through your company and its culture, so that you don’t suffer from Apple’s “Steve-Jobs leaving Syndrome” when you, the charismatic leader may take a leave of absence or be away from the company for some period of time.

5. By embodying your WHY you induce and stimulate trust and inspiration in others (customers, employees, other CEO’s) due to aligned goals of yourself and followers (for instance, customers, who will pay a premium for products and services and endure inconvenience, as opposed to customers who patronize companies because of price or promotions (manipulation)).

6. This trust and inspiration that is generated is due to alignment of goals and aspirations, which are centered in the limbic part of the brain (also the seat of emotion and motivation); this powerful connection is sometimes elusive to discuss, because the limbic lobes evolved prior to the cerebral cortex portion of the brain and therefore are only loosely connected to language centers. When your WHY aligns with another person’s WHY, limbic lobes align, and a deep, powerful connection is made. As will be seen later, there is a way to sneak up on the limbic lobe and articulate your WHY.

7. Finding WHY is a process of discovery, not invention. Our archaeology of behavior in past and current business situations tells us about our passion, our deepest values, and what inspires us: in short, our WHY.

8. Particular types of individuals are attracted by your WHY and can be characterized as those innovators and early adopters that are the “left 15%” of the bell curve of individuals and who are particularly influential and willing to pay premium prices for products and services.

9. By knowing your WHY, you are able to better identify the HOW and WHAT for your company.

A. Your products/services will be fined-tuned
B. Employees will have been carefully hired with respect to their strong suits (HOW’s) and (WHAT’s)

10. By articulating your WHY, you will monitor that everyone is acting in accordance with it; if there is drift, you will know how to get back on course.

11. Implications for knowing your WHY, articulating it, and communicating throughout your business are:
A. Loyal customers
B. Higher ROI
C. Loyal employees
D. More innovation
E. Able to sustain success
F. Lead their industries–have disproportionate influence
G. Leaders and followers act for the good of the whole
H. Able to withstand market changes in that they know the WHY of the business (transportation), rather than the WHAT of the business (trains)

The WHY-less Model

1. No WHY.

2. Leader/Manager by title, not by leadership, inspiration.

3. Manipulation (vs. inspiration); rewards and punishers unrelated to inherent WHY.

4 No diffusion – don’t appeal to limbic brain, don’t reach the far left of the diffusion curve (early adopters, connectors).

5. Unclear with WHY; therefore, unclear with HOW and WHAT.

6. Never had WHY—if their business gets off track, no compass to “direct them back home”

7. Implications for their business are unclear: marketing, hiring, product/service, appropriate business model change unclear when business environment changes (they think their business is trains, not transportation).

8. Vulnerable to downturns in the economy and industry changes.

From this summarization of “Start with Why,” two things stood out as key for “Finding my Why”:

1. The Why part of us (goal-direction, purpose) is located in the limbic part of the brain, and therefore it is not easy to articulate our Why, because that part of the brain is poorly connected with the language centers found in the cerebral cortex. In spite of Sinek’s insistence that it’s simple to discover your Why, it isn’t really straightforward, since you have to sneak up on it, rather than capture it directly.

2. Finding our Why comes from looking backward. Sinek’s suggestion means that one way we can discover our Why is by looking backward for a pattern of passions, inspirations, and “peak experiences,” that have occurred over our work history and are the most powerful things that motivate us.

At Sinek’s live presentation for the Columbus (IN) Chamber of Commerce, I was able to question him during the general session. My question took the form, as follows.

I believe your Why (meaning Sinek’s) as described in your book is “inspiring others to do the things that inspire them.” I have two questions. Will your Why ever change? and Do other people’s Why’s change over time. 

His answer was an emphatic No! to each (though I think it was too emphatic — there are circumstances that could modulate your Why). Nevertheless I think his answer contains a lot truth. Almost like one’s personality test results, the WHY doesn’t seem to waver over the adult life of an individual. I took his answer as a guide. Look at consistent patterns that appear in your life where what you were doing was characterized by an overriding sense of purpose, passion, mission — even a sense of a peak experience. Identify those times and why and what you were doing then and you will have hints as to your Why. At those times in our lives we may have been unobservant as to the power that was there and passed those experiences by without learning from them.

Sinek’s in-person answer reinforced some of his “looking backward” suggessions in his book. To sneak up on my Why, my next goal (in Part 3) is to create a mini-biography of those instances in my life when I was inspired — when a purpose, a passion, a mission were present and see how they resonate with the business I am now pursuing and can help me identify what my Why is.

Next: An archaeology of behavior

John Gifford publishes IndySmallBiz.com, as well as providing consulting and implementation in the areas of strategic planning, writing, brokering strategic relationships, and boutique marketing. His background has included academia, publishing and conference facilitation related to the 55+ market, and sales and marketing for several publications.