Advertising isn’t dead, it’s just changed venues.  Small businesses control 83 percent of all local advertising — but that’s only because there are so many of them (15 million businesses in the U.S. ), not because they’re big spenders. The average small business spent just $11,740 on advertising in 2010, about $2,300 of it online. Small businesses are spending less on yellow pages, radio and print and more on-line particularly with their own web sites.

Labels: advertising, economic growth, economy

A Dallas firm may soon replace traditional corporate call center operators with social media agents who handle Facebook, Twitter and more.  By using high-tech web-scanning tools to monitor bloggers, YouTubers and Facebookers, Working Solutions home-based customer engagement agents have the opportunity via text, chat or Tweet, to handle angry callers or bloggers who want to vent. In business since 1996, Working Solutions’ makes your grandmother’s call center a thing of the past!  This Dallas-based corporation provides more than 70,000 home-based customer service agents, trained to be proactive problem-solvers, to corporate clients who want to improve customer contact and reduce their costs. With agents monitoring up to 180 million unique websites and blogs looking for pertinent corporate names or terms, this service is a win-win for clients who also get a guarantee they will achieve an 8-14% increase in ROI while meeting or improving current service levels – or Working Solutions will make up the difference! On an upcoming Small Business Hour Show.

Transformational Leaders overtly change organizations with an implied promise to followers that they also will be transformed in some way. When practiced effectively it enhances the motivation, morale and performance of followers through a variety of mechanisms. In order to create followers a leader has to be very careful in winning genuine trust. Their personal integrity is a critical part of the package that they are selling. The following are some of the ways to practice of transformational leadership:

• Become the chief learner and inspirer
• Listen to understanding rather than respond
• Set the example
• Learn the art of self-reflection
• Share the leadership role

Today business leaders have no choice but to be focused on proactive, income sustaining activities. This is of course critical in a market where demand is short and discretionary spending is compressed. As important as execution I most leaders become hyper fixated on the “process” and the “work.” The result of this may mean that our “people” take a backseat to the processes. People are the element which most distinguishes one product or service from another. While Products are becoming more homogeneous, people and relationships are becoming more integral in producing business results. My advise is to take caution in your relationships both with internal stakeholders (employees, team members, leaders) as well as clients and external partners. Let’s face it there can be no effective process without dedicated, focused people!