Time for a change

For some time we have known that the name Rustic Creek has run it's course.  A new name is in the works, it is harder than you think!

The Domain Name, Corporate name and trademark logo are officially up for sale.  e-mail your bid to ap@rusticcreek.com if you are interested.

The blog will remain on blogger, however the future writing will be at blog.scottbourquin.com and www.beachstreetnews.com

RusticCreek.com was sold and we have been holding it.  The buyer again has asked us to sell it as their needs have changed.

Build Good Rules for a Good Business.

He has an Aim Point, Do You?

An updated version of this is now at

Http://blog.scottbourquin.com

Aren’t successful businesses built with good rules?  I mean pilots use rules to fly, the big burger chains use rules to make burgers and the government is loaded with rules.  Last I heard Pilots were doing a pretty good job getting people where they wanted to go, the burger chains were making good money and the government, ok I’ll skip that one.

As a commercial rated pilot for over a quarter of a century, it is pretty rare that I go flying without a purpose, reason or direction.  Even as a student I had a plan and followed the rules.  All the while I considered my flying career a success.  When I fly, there is always someplace to go, something to see, or something to do in the airplane.  Isn’t that a lot like business? When a pilot starts out, he has a destination or an aim point, a plan to get there and a few thoughts in case the plan doesn’t work out.

Huntington Beach Wins the Title in 2011

The kids in my neighborhood made me proud today.  They won the little league world series.  This is no easy task.  7000 teams start the 45 day journey to stardom.  The road to the trophy is littered with broken dreams and battered hearts.

When a team makes it to the series it is a huge accomplishment.  These kids are everything that is missing in most people's lives.  I can't help but laugh when I hear that these kids are "lucky",  "different" or have "tiger parents".  What these kids have is simple.  They have what Napoleon Hill called a "definite chief aim".  That is it. 

Facebook Marketing - Is There a Right Way?

Marketing a small business today is very different than it a decade ago, and really even a year ago.  There is a pretty good book out there called “Changing the Channel” by Micheal Masterson and Mary Ellen Tribby.  After reading “Changing the Channel” you would think that you need to spend a million dollars a year to market anything.  The Authors of “Changing the Channel” talked about so many different ways to market and advertise that it was mind boggling.

One of the great advantages to small business today is how easy it is to gather information on each of the different channels.  The easiest thing to do is to put a different phone number on every channel, and every ad for that matter, during testing to see which ad and which channel offer the most bang for the buck.  More importantly you can determine which channels aren’t making you any money.

If you are a little confused by the term channels, think of it this way.  Google Ads is a channel, Facebook advertising is a channel, Facebook itself is a channel, Television is a channel, Direct Mail Postcards are a channel. 

What Is Your Aim Point?

Lately I have been working with a couple of people and realized a big problem in small business.  The owners don’t have an “Aim Point”.  In my book, So Now What?, I talked about the scene in Alice in Wonderland where Alice asks the Cheshire cat which way to go.  It seems with the new economic problems more and more people are losing their direction.  Maybe they were going in the wrong direction in the first place.  Do you know where you are going?

One of the things I included in my book, which you can now get on the kindle for just $2.99 by the way, was worksheets.  I put the worksheets in there to get people thinking about their direction in life.  Since the book came out I have had the opportunity to talk with several people  in person who read the book.  Many didn’t even do the worksheets, and guess what?  They didn’t make any headway in finding a direction.

Sunset Tow Lead by a KC-10

As a competitive marksman in the military I was always shooting targets.  Some big, some small, some close and some far.  One of the tricks is to not look at the target, but to focus on the front site of the weapon.  This made the target a little blurry, but it also got the shot much closer to the center. 

When I became a pilot in the military we had targets too.  We called them “aim points”.   When I planned a mission to fly from Northern California to some runway half way around the world, I couldn’t yet see the aim point, but I had a direction to go.  Only when I could see the destination did the aim point become clear.   In order to put 100,000 pounds of metal moving over 120 miles per hour safely on the ground you had to pick an aim point on the runway.  While you don’t always land on the aim point, you can get quite close. 

If you want to get gas from a Tanker moving at 250 miles per hour, you really needed an aim point.

What Are You Saying Online?

In a world where there are over a million new websites every month vying for your customer’s attention, how can anyone sell anything online? There are 100,000 pages a week created just to phish people’s information online.  How can your business rise above all of this?

The questions came to me from a business owner who paid well over ten thousand dollars for a website that looked great.  The problem he wanted to show me was the Google analytics pages and the chart for the visitors to his website.  The chart was a flat zero.  He wanted to know how he could have such a great website and zero traffic.  After all, isn’t there a big software company touting how easy it is to be found on the web when you get a website with them?

Your Business On Facebook

One of the aspects of running a business I talk about often is that the owner and the business in many ways are one in the same.  This doesn’t mean your marketing should be.  You should be marketed separately from your business even if you are the only person in the business.  Someday you might want to grow.

Last night I was talking with the GM of a local business, and his boss created a Facebook page for the business.  The owner had just added the business to her Facebook profile.  She became the business and the business became her on Facebook. 

The people at Facebook recognize this problem as well.  If you have a business, you can post it separately from yourself using he “as page” function.  This lets you create a “Page” instead of a “Profile” for your business.

What is the difference?  There isn’t much, “pages” don’t “friend” people like people do.  It just makes sense this way.  There are some other differences like being able to add an admin.  If you have someone that you work with you can let them manage your business “page”, and not have access to your personal “profile”.  When your receptionist gets bored, just hand her a digital camera and have her update your Facebook “page”.

While a business represents the views, attitudes and outlook of the owners, it is also better most of the time to let the business take on a life of its own.  Separating your information from your businesses on Facebook is a good place to start.

The Business Lessons of Super Bowl XLV

Welcome to Super Bowl XLV and Super Bowl Sunday! This is a great day to take a break and get re-acquainted with friends. Super Bowl Sunday has become a national past time through the excellent marketing efforts of the NFL. Even if you don’t like football, the NFL has built a show that everyone can enjoy. Even the commercials are more entertainment in themselves. A separate competition for the best Super Bowl ad has been spawned from this phenomenon we call the Super Bowl.

I hope you are watching the Super Bowl with the mindset of a manager looking for a better way or business owner looking to expand and grow. If you do this and spend just a little thought on the lessons the NFL has to offer, you might find some nuggets you can use like these three:

1. Specialize – Look at each and every player in the NFL. They all have a unique position. Something they are continuously improving. Look at each team. They are known for some specific part of the game. Joe Montana and the 49’rs of his era were known for a spectacular passing game that didn’t even start until the fourth quarter.

Are You Stopping Your Business?

"When you look in the mirror, you see the biggest troublemaker in your life" - Chinese Proverb

I was walking down the street when I saw a mirror that had this taped to it in a store window.  I don't know why it was there, it just was.  We all know this to be a very true statement and one that we completely ignore.  It is so much easier to say that the car troubles you are having is because the car is poorly made or you need a new car.  And it is easier to blame the traffic for being late to a meeting isn't it?

One of the things that most business owners do wrong is love their business.  The day I realized I was doing this in the home technology business, I knew I had a problem that would only be fixed by closing the doors.  When you love your business, you are building a wall and forcing customers to do the work and climb over it.  I am as guilty as the next owner.  When I finished my first book, I designed the cover, picked the title, ran them both by a couple of "yes" people and published it.  Two years later I met Imal.  She laughed and sent this text one day:

u r in luv w your idea.

NAMM Takes it to 11, And Opens To The Public On Sunday

Unless you are really into music, you probably have no idea what the NAMM show is.   Basically NAMM is like any other industry group.  It offers manufacturers a chance to get together with their dealers to educate them and hopefully sell more products.  NAMM serves the music business.

Visit The Real Rockers At NAMM

There are industry groups like CEDIA for the home electronics business, CES for the consumer electronics business and Infocomm for techies.  The big difference at NAMM is Sunday the public can stop by and join the artists, musicians and engineers to see what the latest and greatest is the music industry has to offer.

A New Years Resolution For You And It Is Free

Welcome to 2011. I don't know if you finish all of your New Year's resolutions yet but I've got one I'd like to add to your list that won't be that hard. In fact if you come back and visit this blog all year all help keep you on track with just a couple hours each month. This resolution has the potential to double your business in the next 12 months. Don't you think that's worth a couple hours a month?

All through 2010, there were two common threads missing from just about every business I talked with. Even those few businesses that we found which were focused on their primary core strength we still found these two threads missing. So I want you to make a resolution for 2011 to fix this for your business. Of the nearly 43,000,000 registered brick-and-mortar businesses in the United States, nearly half don't even have a website. And believe it or not this is not one of those threads. For most of the businesses that don't have a website, they can probably continue to live for years without a regular website if they don't want to.