My Birf'day

It was my birf’day last week.


Thanks for asking – I was 2 years old.

And, yes, I did get some presents. In fact, Richard said that me human Renee made more of a fuss about my birthday than she did of his... and quite right, too.

He got a bit shirty about the whole thing; a client came in and Renee proudly announced that I was now a big boy, being 2 years old. ‘Really’, said the bemused looking client, ‘What are you doing to celebrate?’

At which point Richard pipes up, ‘Oh, we’re going out for a meal later and then take in the theatre before going on to a club!’

Hmmm... none of which actually materialised, even though I was up for it.

We did, though, go to Hector’s bar in Stockbridge, which is one of those enlightened places in Edinburgh that lets in woofers. There we met some of Renee’s BNI buddies, one of whom, Keith Scotland, knew that it was my birthday.

I know he knew it was my birthday because his daughter bought me a present... a number of presents, in fact; including toys, sweets and biscuits.

Brilliant.

I love that girl.

I’ve never met her, but I love her!

But enough about my birthday (have I mentioned that it was my birthday last week?) and to business.

You see, that girl’s kindness really got me thinking about doing business locally. It really is all about relationships and getting to know people, doing little extra things that you don’t expect or want to be paid for but mean a lot to your customers... and will keep you in the forefront of their mind.

Now, some people think of this as being ‘above and beyond’ the call of duty. But not so... not in this current economic climate.

You see, there are a million people out there who do what you do... plumbing, decorating, accounts, mortgages.

But nobody does it, the way you do it. With those little extra touches, that little extra bit of customer service, the ‘value add’, as I’ve heard it called.

There’s a bloke, Brad Burton, the founder of 4Networking, who says that there’s a cycle to doing business with people: Meet – Like – Know – Trust.

He says that each phase is vital if you are going to do business with someone and that it’s unlikely that you do business with someone unless you build the relationship in this way.

Unless you send me presents on my Birthday like Keith Scotland’s daughter. The sequence goes like this:

Trust – Like – Know – Meet.

Works for me!

A slap in the face with a wet tail

I was walking my human last night (she needs a fair amount of exercise) when I met a Heinz dog.

I.E. A dog with at least 57 different varieties in there somewhere.  He was a big chap, with the body of a greyhound, the face of one of those wee terriers (I'd have liked to seen that coupling) and the tail of a large labrador.

And it was the tail that was the problem.

Let me explain a bit more.

This was the friendliest woofer (other than meself) I have ever come across.  His face was one big smile, he bounced rather than walked and he even went straight to my human when she didn't have any biscuits.  More fool him, if you ask me.

'Hullo' I says to meself, 'here's a fellow I can be friends with'.  So I went to give him my usual  handshake - that is to shove me nose towards his bottom, whilst he did the same to me.

And that's where the problems started.  I couldn't get anywhere near it.  While he was being generally very freindly and saying 'hello' to me all I got was SWISH - THWACK.

That powerful tail swiped me a good 'un across the nose.  I tried again: SWISH - THWACK.  Right across me bows again!

So I gave up, turned tail and wee'd on a bush instead.

We walked on a bit with me human looking quizically at me.  'You could have made a good friend there,' she said.  And she was probably right.

I wonder, in business, how many opportunities to do business, make and receive referrals and generally get a wider reputation in the market place, are missed because we limit our marketing activities to only those businesses which are exactly like us... in my case, a wonderfully handsome, if somewhat curly, labradoodle?

It could be that even a slight expansion of your business circle to include people and businesses who are 'different' could do wonders for your business.

I've certainly resolved to be more resilient when I meet other woofers... although I have to admit, that tail was a right nasty piece of work.

If someone barks at you, bark back...

I was down the pub the other night having a cold and refreshing beer.


Well, if I’m entirely honest, my human was having a refreshing beer and I was having a slightly muddy, warm and refreshing bowl of water.

Bit unfair if you ask me, but there you are; it’s not his fault if he has to drink that muck.

It was about eight o’clock and we were sitting in the beer garden because they wouldn’t let me go inside (again unfair) and three likely lads came walking down the path. One of them thought it would be hilarious to bark at me.

Well, what could I do?

I let rip with the manliest bark I could muster and, although I say so meself, it was pretty impressive. In fact, I would go so far to say that it was booming. It was so impressive that the bloke looked as though he was about to sh... well, let’s just say he looked pretty scared. A fact confirmed by his mate when th. likely lads came over to talk to us later.

(One of them stood a bit further back than the others, it has to be said!)

So what? What’s this got to do with business?

Me other human thought it had a direct relevance. Sometimes when you do things, it has unexpected consequences. When Richard asked her what the hell she was running on about on a Saturday night and did she want another glass of wine she went on to explain...

If you do things without really thinking them through, sometimes other things you didn’t expect happen as a direct result. For example, says she, how about the time when Richard had been trying to for weeks to sell to that customer and he got fed up with them constantly stalling. He called them and asked, all blunt like, ‘Do you want to go ahead, or what?’

Guess what.

Nope you’re quite wrong.

They said ‘yes’ and they’d been meaning to call for a few days!

Ah!

Of course, it was good news, but Richard, the fool, had been expecting a ‘no’ and hadn’t been planning to deliver this piece of work. He had to do a bit of scrambling (all behind the scenes) to actually deliver what he had promised.

And the moral of the story?

It could be about planning what you’re actually going to say or do as far as possible so you can remain in control of your business... but it’s not.

It’s: never bark at me in a pub garden, ‘cos I’m gonna bark back!