Wednesday, November 13, 2002


the basics of building a service business.

The latest from Sitepoint: 5 Steps to Relationship Marketing Success!

Follow these 5 steps:

1. Change your Perspective from "Here's what I do" to "What do you need?"
2. Recognize your Vulnerability
3. Keep in touch
4. Position Yourself as an Expert
5. Grow to Meet Client Needs

To get to the payoff:

The benefits of a relationship marketing approach go both ways. Your client views you as a valuable consultant, rather than a cost center. Your potential for increased revenues and a long-lasting relationship is real.

There's payoff for you, too, including reduced marketing expenses measured in both time and money. If you can retain more clients for longer periods, you'll trim costly space advertising and other marketing costs.

If you ask, you'll get more referrals from your clients. Priceless word-of-mouth endorsements from satisfied customers will result in new business which magically walks in the door.

Read, and apply to all general business endeavors, not just building a web-design company.

[inluminent/weblog]
5:31:44 PM    trackback []     Articulate [] 

on boom and bust.

An excellent series from the Washington Post: BUBBLE: The Roots of the '90s Boom and Bust.

[Abort, Retry, Fail?]
5:14:42 PM    trackback []     Articulate [] 

Legos Rock.

This is a very amusing post from David Johnson:

The Jack Stone Lego incident

Relations between young Alex and Linus today were strained to the breaking point when parental authorities determined that Jack Stone Legos from the smaller Linus collection had become mixed in with the larger Alex collection. To further complicate matters, authorities charged Alex with kidnapping several Lego people from the Linus collection and hiding them around his personal residence.

Parental authorities were unable to determine the ownership of the individual Legos in the combined collection and quickly advised both parties of this dire situation. During the tense negotiations that followed, Linus suggested that the Lego collection be evenly split between the two parties. Alex then protested loudly and suggested that the combined Lego collection be put into storage until such time that both parties could learn to share and play together in peace. Linus countered by suggesting that peace is possible now and that perhaps the Legos should immediately become community property to be shared equally by all members of the household except those to which Legos pose a choking hazard. After further negotiations, a time-sharing arrangement was put into effect and Linus was randomly selected to take ownership of the Lego collection for week one.

Man, I can't wait until my Alex is old enough to play with Legos! I LOVE Legos! Jim took his kids to Legoland a week or so ago and I thought that was soooo cool. (His kids are pretty damn lucky - during the Christening of his daughter Elizabeth in July, he rented a huge bouncy castle. Rockin' ) I would've given my right arm to go to a Legoland when I was a kid. I can't wait for Alex to get to the age where we can go with him.

Later... after chatting online with Jim right now, I just realized I had no idea who Jack Stone was! I'm a little out of the latest and greatest Lego technology. Also, here's a link to Legoland Windsor rides. If you click on the My Town Harbour link you'll see a pic from the Jack Stone Stunt Show... very cool!

-Russ [Russell Beattie Notebook]


10:32:59 AM    trackback []     Articulate []