How To Disney-ize Your Small Business

I’ve been reading some of the business practices and values that Disney ascribes to. If you haven’t delved in to how Disney operates, you might find it useful and inspiring for your business. This week I had the opportunity to hear a presentation by Pete Blank, who spent 13 years with Disney in training, which underscored some of the reading I’ve done. While Disney is a huge business, their operating principles and values can be used by small business owners and entrepreneurs, too.

Let’s focus on efficiency. Small business owners will quickly tell you that they have to run lean to be profitable, and that running efficiently is one of their top priorities. But efficiency comes in fourth at Disney. Decisions are made based on 4 criteria, in this order:

1. Is it safe for the visitor?

2. Is it courteous to the visitor?

3. Is it in keeping with the “show” (or, in a small business owner’s case, the brand).

4. Is it efficient?

In other words, Disney would, in theory, make a decision to be less efficient if that led to higher customer safety and courtesy. If a Disney employee must make a decision about a guest request, she will make it according to those four criteria, and in that order. Something to think about!

In today’s business environment, companies are usually run strictly by what actions will give a quick profit and bottom line. Correspondingly, in the past decade or so, we’ve seen both employee and customer satisfaction ratings dip very low. Some studies have said that up to 75% of American workers either dislike, are bored with, or actively hate their jobs. Lack of input and lack of authority to make decisions drive workers into apathy.

Disney says that it makes business decisions based on a “three-legged stool” approach. In other words, each part is given equal weight. The three parts are:

1. Employee input, what will keep employees excellent.

2. Guest satisfaction.

3. Business results (bottom line profits).

When small biz owners are running with limited cash flow they tend to push for the best business result and let employee and customer satisfaction take a back seat. Disney believes that in the end, these two factors impact business results positively.

Although the clients I work with are far smaller than Disney, we can still keep these practices and values in mind, and see how they can apply to make our small businesses stronger. Do you see how you can incorporate and benefit from these values?

What do you think is the best direct marketing solution for your small business? Is it direct mail? Is it telemarketing? Is it door to door marketing? Is it email marketing? Which one is it? If your answer was email marketing, pat yourself on the back. It is the right answer. If your answer was something else, you have got it wrong. Let me tell you why.

If you run a small business, your ultimate goals should be simple, to get a lot of new customers and clients, to retain existing customers, and to improve your business considerably. You should find the most effective way to do it and broaden the scope of your business slowly but surely.

The most effective way to get new clients and customers to your small business, like I already mentioned above, is email marketing. Why is small business email marketing considered the best way of direct marketing? Let us take a look.

The internet has become an incredibly powerful medium lately. At any given point of time, hundreds of millions of people access the internet for various reasons. If you have a strong online presence, the scope of your business will be increased beyond your wildest imagination.

With the help of a good direct marketing solution, you can reach an unbelievably large number of people very easily. Let us now take a look at some of the most important things you should keep in mind about email marketing.

The newsletter you send out should be really attractive. It should contain the right mixture of images and content. But make sure you don’t overdo the images. If you do, it will take a lot of time for the pages to get loaded.

Small business email marketing should always be done on an opt-in basis. You send emails only to people who have opted to receive emails from you. Never ever send promotional emails to people without their explicit permission. This will create a very bad image for your business.

The sales copy is the most important thing about a newsletter. The copy should be interesting, intriguing, and compelling. After reading the copy, the reader should definitely take some action; call you, email you back, or check out your website.

One of the most important reasons why email marketing is considered the best direct marketing solution for small businesses is that it is very simple, yet very effective. When you send out a newsletter to people, you usually include a link to your website.

Now, after reading the newsletter, if someone wants to know more about you and your business, all he needs to do is click on the link. It will take him to your website and he can get a lot of information. In other words, it requires an extremely small effort from the customer, just a click of the mouse will do. So, response rates are usually high.

Sending emails to people is a nice way to remind them about the latest news from your side. You can also send promotional offers, discount coupons, service credits, and other such things to entice customers.

As you can see, running a small business email marketing campaign is really easy once you understand the process completely. So, get started today and get the best results.