Key Idea #1: Tap A Trend
Teresa Zubizarreta has successfully capitalized on the browning of America. She recognized that corporations would value help targeting the Hispanic market effectively and that this help could only be provided by talented individuals who understood that market.

Topic For Discussion: How can a small business capitalize on the latest trends?

Answer: You have to know those trends and the earlier, the better. eHarmony is a great example of trend targeting. This company recognized that more and more people were becoming comfortable surfing the Web and coupled that knowledge with changing social demographics including increased divorce rates and a correspondingly increasing number of new social relationships. Others may follow with the same business concept, but eHarmony executed early and well.

You think about it: How are changing demographics and social customs affecting your business? Can you capitalize on an opportunity or mitigate a threat?

Key Idea #2: Hire People Who Want to Learn.
Teresa’s interviewer was so impressed with her “I don’t know but I will learn” that he hired her for a position that she didn’t really have the skill set for.

Topic For Discussion: Is it better to hire the person with the right experience or one with less or no experience who is more eager to learn?

Answer: Of course, you’d love to find both in one candidate. But sometimes you have a position you just have to fill and this is the choice you will be faced with. We are tempted to go with experience because the learning curve is shorter, we don’t have to invest as much time in training, and we have the need RIGHT NOW. This is short-sighted. Over the long term, the motivated employee who wants to learn, to succeed, and to advance in our business, will be the better employee.

You think about it: Employees are costly investments. When you are replacing one, think long term and go with the best and the brightest, even if he or she is not the most experienced.

Key Idea #3: Take Time To Understand Yourself. At Zubi Advertising, Teresa has capitalized on the fact that she is a woman and the role of various women in a man’s life. Within the company, she is called Mama Zubi and even some of her customers call her that.

Topic for Discussion: How can you use who you are to build your business?

Answer: A woman owning a business today is not unusal, however, it was with Tere started in business. Rather than play down being a woman, she always played it up. This is a marvelous techique. In this world dominated by the big brands, customers want and welcome a breath of fresh air.

You think about it: What is truly unique about you and product and service you offer?

Key Idea #4: Manage Your Own Children with Your Head Not Your Heart. Family relationships are complicated and business relationships are complicated, too. When you combine them, you’ve got some serious complications! Many small businesses include various family members and even those that don’t now may have legacy issues in the future. There are so many issues that have to be dealt with, everything from keeping home and business separate to managing the sensitivity of unrelated key employees.

Topic for Discussion: What resources are available to a family-owned business to help the owners with their unique challenges?

Answer: Lots! A Google search of "family business" returned 17.7 million hits. That would be a good place to start. There are academic institutes on major college campuses and consulting firms of all sizes that specialize in family owned business issues. Many of them have websites which offer information and free newsletters. There are also publications and books available on a myriad of topics of interest to family-owned businesses. What won’t work here is the ostrich approach. No family-owned business operates "just like any other business." You cannot pretend that it doesn’t matter that your son is the Production Manager. It matters to you and it matters to every employee in the business. There are challenges if he’s qualified for the position and even greater challenges if he’s not. Are family members who are well qualified for their roles today equally qualified for the roles they will assume tomorrow? Unless every one of your employees is a family member, there are particular challenges in attracting and retaining key employees who are not family members. These are difficult issues and they need to be faced dispassionately.

You think about it: Is your business family-owned? If it is, are you taking special care of your unique circumstances?

Key Idea #5: Buy As Much Technology As You Can Afford . Michelle, Teresa’s daughter, is in charge of processes at Zubi Advertising. She hired a technology specialist to bring Zubi’s technology up to par with the competition.

Topic for Discussion: How do small business owners decide how much they need to invest in technology?

Answer: By studying the competition and listening to their customers. In Zubi’s case, the customers actually told them they were behind the curve. Technology is the ultimate enabler. It doesn’t do anything that, given enough time, can’t be done by hand. In today’s fast-paced world, time-to-market is more critical than ever before and your customers will demand that both your ability to communicate and your ability to deliver your goods or services are not hampered by your failure to invest in the appropriate technologies. If you are not making such investments, your customers will know. Rest assured that your competitors are comparing their efficiencies to yours and talking to your customers. Second place is last place here.

You think about it: Do you have the right technology for your business or do you need to invest in that area to meet your customers’ needs?

Key Idea #6: Invest In The Selling Process. When Zubi Advertising decided to go after Ford, they weren’t really qualified to handle the account. Nevertheless, they spent a significant amount of money and time in preparing their presentation. Had they not been successful, this would have resulted in a large and unrecoverable loss to the agency.

Topic for Discussion: Does it make sense for a business to make this kind of an investment in a prospective customer relationship where there is no certainty of a successful outcome.

Answer: Only if you really want to get it. Remember, this was Ford. When was the last time you approached a potential customer and were not asked who your current customers were? If your prospect is serious about doing business with you, you will almost always be asked this question. Flagship customers are invaluable to any business and can really jumpstart a new business. And flagships just don’t come cheap. You need to impress them with yourself and with your "stuff." If you are not prepared to risk that investment, better to lower your own expectations and target smaller accounts until you are.

You think about it: Are you ready to go after that really big customer?

Key Idea #8: Do Research To Gain Mindshare. Large companies spend vast sums with research corporations like Forrester and Gartner. We small businesses frequently do our own research. At Zubi Advertising, they conducted their own focus groups in Los Angeles and San Antonio. This helped them decide what would work with the market they were targeting.

Topic for Discussion: How does a small business do market research?

Answer: Research corporations do surveys and conduct focus groups. You can do both of these things yourself! What do you want to know from your customer base? Write it up in the form of a questionnaire (multiple choice questions always get a higher rate of response) and give or mail it to your customers for a response. The more responses you get, the more valid is the consensus, so offer some kind of incentive, like a discount coupon, to respondents. Even if you don’t get the response rate you would hope for, you’ll get some goodwill for just sending the survey, particularly if you present it as a "customer satisfaction survey." When’s the last time you were insulted because someone asked your opinion? Never, right? That’s because we all feel flattered when our opinion is sought. That’s what focus groups do, they provide opinions in response to open-ended questions, such as “What’s the most important factor to you in selecting your office supply vendor?” and “If you could only keep one software in your business, what would it be?” Spend some time selecting the right participants and compensate them for their time, you will gather some valuable intelligence form the group.

You think about it: How can you conduct your own market research? What process, what questions, addressed in what manner?

Key Idea #9: Keep Employees Happy With Fascinating Work. We'll concede that there is more creativity in advertising than in most businesses. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t create a work environment where every day is an adventure and your employees remain challenged and gratified.

Topic for Discussion: We saw the animation in Zubi’s employees, how do we create that kind of enthusiasm in our businesses?

Answer: You might be surprised at how much you can do to mentally invigorate your employees. The payback is huge, both in productivity and morale.

First, and most importantly, you must set the tone at the top. The small business owner must welcome innovation, shun the "that’s the way we’ve always done it here" attitude, and publicly acknowledge better ideas. Creating an atmosphere that encourages new ideas will result in new ideas and some of them will be great!

Secondly, cross-train. This has two benefits. No employee can be satisfied by doing the same thing all day, every day, day after day. Industrial psychologists assure us that productivity drops in this situation. Additionally, this puts the business less at risk in the event of employee turnover.

Third, establish career paths within your business. Sometimes we make the mistake of not promoting someone or increasing a worker’s responsibilities because he or she is just so good in the current role. Instead, we just keep increasing their compensation level for the same job. This is a big mistake. Money is not the only motivation our employees respond to. If you have a good employee who is bored and well-compensated, you can be sure he or she is looking for an interesting position somewhere else at the same level of compensation…perhaps, even less.

You think about it: What kind of an environment have you created in the workplace? Would you want to work for you?

Key Idea #10: Be the Source Not the Supplier. A supplier responds to a specific request for goods or services. A source is a true partner, committed to the customer’s success and innovatively pro-active in bringing value to the customer. Teresa feels very strongly about this distinction.

Topic for Discussion: How can we be a source to our customers?

Answer: If you listen to your customers, they’ll probably provide you with opportunities to be a source. Sources are problem solvers, not providers of goods or services. We all talk about our problems with little encouragement, for surely our problems are among the most significant in the world. Try this: Call your top customer, and say “I really appreciate your business and I’d like to take you to lunch, what day next week would be convenient? After you are seated at lunch, say “So, how’s business?” Then listen, really listen, to what your customer says. Congratulate your customer on the positives and be empathetic on the negatives. Look for synergies, areas where you had the same problem and share any solution you found. If you have a suggestion, make it. Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to make a sale during this lunch. You are building a relationship, becoming closer to your customer, and empowering yourself to be that source you want to be. When you get back to the office, call your second best customer and repeat the process. Be sure to stay on top of the local and national economy issues that affect your customers’ industries. You can’t be a good partner if you have nothing to offer but your goods and services. Read, go to Chamber of Commerce meetings and talk to your own sources about trends they see. Savvy sources are the best sources.

You think about it: Are you a source or a supplier to your customers?

Key Idea #11 The Lightbulb: Trust Your Intuition.

Topic for Discussion: Why is intuition a powerful tool?

Answer: Because business is about relationships and your intution can lead you to the right customers and away from the wrong ones. With Tere, it’s the firmness of the handshake and the directness of the eye contact. If she doesn’t feel the connection, she walks away. Teresa nurtures her customers, and you can’t nurture someone, at least, not honestly, unless you feel a connection with that person. This doesn’t mean that we go out and look for customers that are like us. We celebrate our differences everyday. Some of us are gregarious, others more reserved. We all have different interests and favorite activities. The commonality we must have with our customers is our value system. But how can you tell? Not all of us have Teresa’s sixth sense and can read people as well as she can. This has contributed to her success, there is no doubt. For some of us, it will take a little longer. We need to be sensitive to our customers, and aware of opportunities that come along that demonstrate their value system, who they really are. How do they treat our receptionist? How do they react when we are occasionally and unavoidably late with a delivery? Do they constantly haggle over price, take discounts they are not entitled to, tell us the check is in the mail when it is not?

If you lie down with dogs, you will eventually get fleas. Don’t be afraid to walk away from bad customers, they aren’t worth the revenue.

You think about it: What bad customer should you fire? What employee do you have now that your intuition told you not to hire?

Key Idea #12: Keep Family First. Teresa Zubizarreta was married to Zubi Advertising and her husband divorced her rather than be part of the triangle. Sadly, this is not uncommon. What is uncommon is that, after three years, they remarried.

Topic for Discussion: Can you have it all?

Answer: Sometimes not. But you can increase the probability of success by doing two things:

Communicate. Make your business the family business even if no one is involved in it but you. Share your successes and your failures. Keep your family excited about what you are doing and how successful you intend to be. Let them know the sacrificial timetable and what they should expect in the way of results.

Set aside family time. It might just be Sunday afternoon, that may be all you can afford as you start your business, but at least it’s a time that everyone can count on. Family time is sacred time and the set aside must be inviolable. This won’t always be easy but it is necessary. No one hangs around if you keep ignoring them. There’s an old adage that nobody ever put "I wish I had worked harder" on their tombstone. Live a little.

You think about it: What can you do to improve upon your family relations?

Key Idea #13: Pay A Bonus Even When There's No Profit. Zubi Advertising pays bonuses even when the company loses money. Mama Zubi’s attitude is that her employees have worked hard and she’s already "in the red" anyway so why not reward them for their work well done?

Topic for Discussion: Should a business pay bonuses even in years when there are no profits.

Answer: It depends. Advertising is a fickle business with highs and lows. Other businesses have more constant revenue streams and, therefore, earnings streams. What Mama Zubi recognizes is that family expenses for home, transportation, education, vacation, etc., are relatively constant, even though they work in an industry which has big ups and downs over the years. She would be creating a hardship for her employees if she gave no bonuses some years and large bonuses others because it would be difficult for the families to budget the household finances. The important thing is to establish a connection between bonus compensation and performance. Bonuses should be incentives, not entitlements. In an established business with a steady growth pattern, it makes sense to commit to a certain percentage of bottom line profits as the bonus pool. At the end of the year, that amount will be distributed on a discretionary basis based on the owner’s judgment of each individual’s contribution to the profit or under a more mathematical model, such as pro-rata based on salary.

You think about it: Do you give bonuses in your business? Under what circumstances? To whom? Does everyone know your criteria so they are incentized to benefit from the bonus?

Key Idea #14: Give To Those Who Need It . We’ve all given and received the requisite fruit baskets and poinsettias over the holidays. What a neat idea to donate to a particular charity in our customer’s name!

Topic for Discussion: How do you decide what charities to donate to?

Answer: There’s nothing wrong with being selfish here. You can pick your own charity. You could make a $1,000 contribution and send notices to 10 of your customers saying you had given a $100 gift in their honor. Often the charity is happy and able to send the notices directly. Another inexpensive but meaningful gift is one that advertises your customer. Bricks on donor walls or plaques on the back of refurbished theater seats are very popular. Also, environmental gifts (A tree has been planted…) are very popular.The holidays are a time of giving and what better way to give than to honor your customer and fill a need at the same time.

You think about it: What kinds of gift giving do you do now? What can you do to make it more meaningful and useful?

We invite your comments, suggestions and questions.

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