I recently purchased a Hybrid SUV for my family to run around in. It’s really quite a neat little car. It’s nothing fancy, but I feel good driving it, especially when it’s getting 30 miles to the gallon. This week I’ll ask you to look at what you’re driving and see if there’s not something better for you. In many instances, it doesn’t make any sense at all to get something different. In fact, a friend of mine said he can buy a lot of gas to fill up his 13-miles-per-gallon Yukon that is paid for instead of buying a new hybrid Yukon for over $50,000! Sometimes it does make sense so just look at the math. Bill and Dawn Pols run a neat little company in New Jersey called Good Earth Pros. They recently traded in their gas guzzlers for two Toyotas. One is the popular Prius and the other is the Scion XB. They report to me they are saving over $500/month in gas alone which basically pays for the cars. Again, look at the math.

I believe there are some exciting breakthroughs to come in the near future with cars and trucks. In fact, it seems like the real breakthrough will come when cars generate more electricity than they consume, which is not as outlandish as it sounds. Hybrid vehicles currently take the kinetic electricity generated by braking and use it to help fuel motion to be stored and sold back to the grid for micropayments. Stay tuned, folks, there are a bunch of opportunities coming. I myself am trying to figure out how I can power my office with a wind farm. It’s a huge dream and I’m probably crazy, but people thought Ben Franklin and Thomas Edison were crazy and look at what people think of them now.

Do some research this week on alternative fuels and energy; you might find a Great Idea that changes your life and that of those around you.

Sometimes I find small business owners are frustrated as to why their team seemingly doesn’t “care” about the tasks at hand. We find ourselves wondering why our people don’t seem excited about their work. There are many potential reasons for this. One of which is that you, as the leader of your group, have not slowed down and taken the time to show your team you “care” about them.

In business, our external customer service will never exceed our internal customer service. What I mean is, plain and simple, don’t expect your team to treat your clients like the valuable asset they are, if you don’t treat them like the valuable asset they are to you. This week, here are 3 ideas for you to use to show your people you care.

1. Call them from your cell phone after hours and leave them a voice mail telling them quickly and specifically how much you appreciate them. It could go something like this,”Hey Dawn, it’s Bill. Just wanted to let you know I appreciate the work you did to get the Schauss account. That will be a wonderful project for us to work on and I appreciate what you did. Talk to you tomorrow.”
2. Take some time this week, and then periodically each month thereafter, to send out a handwritten note to one of your people who has shown some promise. That note might go like this, “Hey Bruce! I’m glad you’ve joined our team and I can tell you are really trying to learn all you can. Our clients like what you’re doing and I’m proud of you. Keep it up.”
3. This week find out everyone’s birthday and put these dates in your calendar, and then on their birthday, do something for them. Bring them lunch, call them and sing happy birthday, or make a sign for them and hang it in the office. It doesn’t take much.

Success in business is a marathon, not a sprint, and if you want your people to get excited about the vision you have, you have to communicate it to them constantly. But before you get too far, show them you care; be a friend; be someone they want to be around and listen to.

I am amazed at what our culture uses e-mail for today. We use it for all types of good things, like keeping in touch in family, following up with clients, and even helping get important information out quickly. However, we also use it to create a lot of problems. This week I want to share my dos and don’ts.

Dos

Keep your e-mail brief and to the point; remember, e-mail was meant to save time, not waste it.

Put a subject in the heading. That will make it easy to find it later as well as give the reader a heads up if it’s urgent or not.

Have your business phone number and website down in your signature line. If you are trying to sell something, make yourself easy to get hold of.

Be careful about what you are saying; remember e-mails can be forwarded quickly and they never go away.

Don’ts

Never use e-mail as a form of discipline or to deliver very tough news. A buddy of mine found out via e-mail a year ago his job was being eliminated; now there’s some classy managing, eh?

Send out e-mails to your whole list with all the recipients’ addresses available so others can see and then get it. The local minor league baseball team sent out an e-mail to every season ticket holder with all the addresses there for us to see. I consequently got a bunch of stuff from others I had no desire in hearing from and my e-mail’s privacy was compromised. Needless to say, I complained.

Hit reply to all if all on the list don’t need to hear your comments. That one really makes me mad. I’m busy, I don’t need an e-mail from someone in a group that says, “Ok” or “thanks.”

Hope these ideas help.

In 1990, shortly after Tom MacLeod took over as President of Iams, the mega-successful pet food company, he was faced with a dilemma–that being the company had a plan for the year that called for growth. However, the economy seemingly wasn’t cooperating and there was a lot of negativity around. He did something to make a point. He produced buttons that said, “Iams is not participating in this recession.” People wore the buttons for a few weeks, chuckled and went to work. It made his point. A point I want to make this week. There is little if anything at all you can do to combat what the media, politicians, and even your Uncle Joe say about the economy. What you can do is get to work like there is no recession, stop making excuses, and lead by example.

When times are tough, we see what true winners are made of. Times might be tough, but nobody ever said success is or was easy. So, this week, print up your own signs that make your pledge not to participate in this recession. Smile, call some clients, send out some marketing, cold call that office by you that might need your services, or do something. When you do nothing, you can expect what? Nothing! Tom MacLeod was right to make the statement he made in 1990…funny how 18 years later, his message is still appropriate.

Oh, yeah, I am not, nor is Grunder Landscaping Co., participating in this recession either. And here’s my sign with some of my team to prove it!