Just a quick thought that walked through my mind today.

Like most of you, I have my circle of people / families that I know well, etc. And while finances are usually not something that is outwardly discussed, it’s pretty easy to discern who is doing well and who isn’t.

Well, I noticed something today - almost all of the families I personally know that are struggling are one-income families.

Now, I’m sure some of them are that way by choice (”we’ll do with less so someone is home w/ the kids”). And that’s fine. But most that I know really aren’t like this. The non-working person would work if the perfect storm of hours / pay / benefits / commute / easy job / etc etc appeared. But that usually doesn’t happen. And the family struggles financially as a result.

I’m not going to criticize such, because this is a touchy area for a lot of people. But let’s just say I don’t understand people who don’t/won’t/can’t work. Really - I just don’t get it. 

Now, just to be clear, I’m not talking about that person who lost their job two months ago and is still looking. I’m talking about that person who could/should go work, and for whatever reasons, never really seems to get it together and just go earn a living. I suspect we all know people like this in our lives.

I apologize for this being a somewhat incomplete thought without a satisfying conclusion, but I just wanted to let it out today.

For anyone hoping that I was going to spill details of a date gone bad, well…. let’s say I never had a date go bad.

Regardless, this little essay does indeed involve dates - calendar dates and similar. It’s mostly directed at websites, but the lesson learned can be applied to almost any business.

In very simple terms, if you are going to “date” anything, you’d better make sure you are dedicated enough to stay on top of it. There is no more certain way to say “I don’t give a @#$%” than having Mother’s Day stuff still up on Father’s Day.

Or still having your “Winter Blowout” on April 9th.

Or having a dated news item on your home page that is six months old.

Or posting the date you updated your blog, and the last update was four months ago.

Seriously - what would you think if you came to my blog, and the last entry was written four months ago? Would you wonder what happened? It may seem trivial, but it’s a big negative.

Because it essentially says you let the little details slip.

The same goes for brick and mortar businesses. How many times have you seen one that keeps sale prices up after a sale is over? Or has the big sign outside advertising last week’s bargain?

In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say that “most” things with dates end up just like what I describe above. They get neglected, then forgotten. Most people and companies are great starters. But there are very few finishers.

Be a finisher. Take the Mother’s Day stuff down the day after Mother’s Day. Post to your blog regularly. Your quarterly newsletter should come out four times a year, not three. And your “recent news” needs to be…. well…. recent.

Neglecting updates is a killer. It really is. No matter how nice a website is, if people see “old” things on the front page, or they see a blog that was last updated last season, it puts a tiny sliver of negativity in their heads. And that’s something no website (or business) wants. This is partially why I don’t recommend that companies put “company news” right on the homepage, because after a short burst of updates, that’s the first thing to get neglected. I’d rather not know any of your news than know that your last noteworthy thing happened at 2008’s Spud Show.

It’s on my whiteboard next to me right now: “12/21 - 1/4 - VACATION (don’t be too lazy, though - change the websites dates.)”

Yes, it really says that (except that I don’t write in italics). If you have dates on your website, put changing them on your planner right now.

I heard a talk recently by some higher up in a marketing company about the loss of communication skills (or skillz) by the younger sect, because they use U instead of “you”, etc. He probably mentioned 10 examples or so.

That would be fine and all if the company’s brochure didn’t have ”B2B” in big letters, right on the first page.

Oops.

I’m a big believer in the power of words (being a writer and all!) This goes both ways, though - words have the power to do good, and words can have a detrimental affect on what you do. And sometimes the damage is very difficult to undo.

Now I’m not talking about saying bad things or sending an angry e-mail and such. I’m talking more about unintentional damage. Damage where the words you used actually undo (or harm) your message or intent.

I’m going to use the phrase Global Warming as an example.

The big mistake the environmentalists made was calling it “Global Warming” to start with. Why was it a big mistake? Because it pigeonholed them. All it takes is a cold day in May for people to say “yea, where’s that global warming I’ve been hearing about?”

In other words, the argument gets completely caught up in being about the word “warming”. “Global Warming” is a definitive name. “Climate Change” (which is what they are now starting to use) is MUCH less restrictive.

See what I mean? “Climate Change” doesn’t have an easy, built-in opposite at the ready.

I came across this example because I am somewhat a believer in the phenomenon. While I’m not sure of a lot of things, I am pretty convinced that we, as a species, have some effect on our environment. But whenever I’m in a discussion about it, the “cold day/week/winter” argument always arises.

Side note: this is just an observation on words - I don’t want you to think I’m some environmentalist nutjob. I’m not (nor am I against such, either… listen, I’ll happily recycle the bottles, but I’m not going to lose my mind over losing a species of insect. Nor am I buying a puny little electric car…)

Truth be told, I think Global Warming is probably inevitable, and will be nature’s way of thinning us out a little… ok, back to the business part of this post. 

Another aspect of this is business names. Naming your business “Bills Bug Killing” prettymuch limits you to killing bugs. Which is fine if that’s all you do. But most guys like this also handle other pests, like rodents. Naming your business “Bills Pest Services” is much better.

There are exceptions to this. But they are usually due to popular conventions. For example, I expect “Joe’s Pizza” to have Calzones (and a guy named “Joe”.)

And speaking of which, it’s time to eat.