Business Coaching

Wal-Mart might be raising the low prices it's known for.

When people think of Wal-Mart, they think a lot of things, not all of them good. But one of the first associations people have with Wal-Mart is low prices.

Since its inception, Wal-Mart has been the ultimate discount business. They’ve leveraged their huge size and corporate power into low prices that they’ve passed on to customers, often at the expense of local businesses.

But it seems that Wal-Mart’s model is quietly, but quickly, changing. This summer, over just the last six weeks, Wal-Mart has raised its prices an average of 6%. Some of that can be attributed to the increase in the price of raw materials and oil, but the increase in prices seems to go farther than overhead costs.

Inflation may play a factor as the items that Wal-Mart is best known for, food and low-priced goods may be in an inflationary pocket, while bigger ticket items like electronics and furniture are in a deflationary mode.

Again, this may have led to the price increase to a certain extent, but a bigger factor may be a shift in Wal-Mart’s leadership. Over the last few months some in leadership positions, including the Chief Merchant for Wal-Mart’s U.S. Division, have stepped down.

Since the new guard has taken over, prices have gone up, while prices at virtually all of Wal-Mart’s competitors have stayed the same or, in some cases, even gone down.

Despite the price shift, Wal-Mart is still far more cost-effective than most supermarkets for consumers. But that advantage is fading. In June Wal-Mart was about 16% cheaper than the average supermarket, while today Wal-Mart is just over 10% cheaper.

This should be good news for small businesses that compete with Wal-Mart for customers. Like with any discount business, once Wal-Mart’s prices are no longer cheaper, they’ve lost their advantage.

Why do people shop at Wal-Mart? It isn’t convenience or customer service, it’s the price.

What can your business do to alleviate that price advantage and win customers back from Wal-Mart?

Yes...that's a beer in a squirrel. A dead squirrel.

Next time you find roadkill, you’ll be looking at a marketing idea from a Scottish craft brewery.

Scottish craft brewery BrewDog produced a beer with 55 percent alcohol called “The End of History.” But that’s not its highest selling point, according to BrewDog —  this beer comes packaged inside a taxidermic rodent. At £500/$760 per beer, and from Photos of the product, at least it’s not just roadkill wrapped around a cheap beer.

What BrewDog did was take an “out there” idea, and combined it with an in-demand product — a beer with a high alcoholic percentage. Combining two otherwise completely separate businesses and products might not normally work — such as beer and taxidermy — unless it’s very well-thought out and marketed well.

Oh, and in case you were wondering: the first batch of the beer served in dead rodents sold out on its first day on the market.

Can you think of any other small business that has combined a highly unusual product with its own to test and measure how that effects sales? Why do you think this idea was so successful?

India's Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal displays the low-cost tablet at its launch in New Delhi.

Do you want an iPad?

Many business owners see the benefit to owning one, but with the price starting at $499 and a lot of people tightening their belts around their finances, now might not be the best time for them to splurge.

But what if you could get something similar to an iPad for about $35?

That is what developers in India are hoping as they recently unveiled a tablet PC similar to the iPad.

The Indian tablet PC was developed through a sponsorship by the Indian government in response to a project completed at MIT a few years back.

At MIT, Nicholas Negroponte built a $100 laptop computer intended for underdeveloped countries or poor people all over the world.

After the prototype was released in 2005, the Indian government decided it could do better. They went about developing an even cheaper computer that could be used by students in India.

Now that affordable computer is developed and ready to be produced, once a manufacturer has been chosen for the project.

The Indian computer uses the Android operating system and will come in three screen sizes from five to nine inches. It will be equipped with 2 GB of RAM, Wi-Fi connectivity, and a 2-watt power supply. A solar power option will also be available for an additional charge.

The computer will be equipped with many open-sourced applications. Standard on the tablet will be a web browser, the OpenOffice office productivity suite, a PDF reader, video conferencing capability, a Media player, content viewer, and remote device management capability.

So why is the new Indian tablet PC so much cheaper than the iPad?

The main reason is the fact that it doesn’t use a hard drive like the iPad, but instead uses a memory card similar to the ones used in cell phones, giving it less power to handle certain tasks.

Another reason for the low price is simple business. The iPad was made by Apple to specifically drive profits while the Indian tablet PC has been developed by the Indian government to help that nation’s students learn and build a better standard of living.

The $35 tablet PC is part of an ambitious government-sponsored technology initiative that aims to bring all 25,000 colleges and 504 universities in India online with broadband connectivity and make course material available via the Internet. The government may even subsidize the computer, lowering the price to about $20 for students.

What do you think of this cheap alternative to the iPad? Would you be interested to own one? Could it help your business? What about the Indian government’s commitment to innovation? Would government commitment to innovation work where you live?

Playboy.com is trying a new nudity-free venture.

For years, some men have been saying that they read Playboy just for the articles. Now those men will have their chance to prove it!

Looking for ways to grow their brand and revive themselves from an economic slump, Playboy has debuted a new website that will not feature nudity called TheSmokingJacket.com.

Playboy has struggled with its online presence for years as they straddled the line between pornography and pop culture. Their newest foray into the online world is an attempt to increase their web presence during normal work hours.

“A lot of our audience logs on (to Playboy.com) after work and we saw that we were missing a golden opportunity to reach guys when they’re online the most: when they’re sitting at their desk, not working, sending e-mails to their friends,” said Jimmy Jellinek, Playboy’s editorial director.

Of course, this move comes at a time when Playboy is struggling. Stock prices have plummeted to about $5 per share, down from $15 per share just a few years ago.

As the company continues to flounder, Playboy Founder Hugh Hefner is trying to cement his legacy.  He can probably best do this by ensuring that Playboy isn’t swallowed up by one its competitors, as Penthouse recently tried to do. It is the company’s hope that the new site will be the impetus the brand needs to make gains in a field it started nearly 50 years ago.

What do you think of Playboy’s new online venture? Would you read Playboy without the nudity?

There may be some truth to Michael Scott's mug. Keyword: some.

If you’re a television watching American, you’ve heard of The Office, an American spin-off of the British sitcom starring Steve Carrell. The show portrays Carrell as a poor manager… but is he?

In the British original, the boss, David Brent, played by Ricky Gervais, is an egomaniacal moron, unable to look past his own needs. In the American spinoff, Steve Carell’s Michael Scott began the same way, but over the show’s seven seasons, he has become something different.

He looks at his business as more than just the bottom line. He shows he cares about his employees and he believes in himself and the team he has assembled, for better or worse. He has become, in some ways, an effective manager who gets the most out of his team.

For example, he is constantly involved in his team’s lives. From taking an active role in Jim and Pam’s relationship to trying to find love for his employees in the last Valentine’s Day episode, the employees at Dunder Mifflin Scranton know he cares.

According to recent studies, one of the biggest problems employees encounter in the workplace is management that doesn’t care. Nobody wants to feel like they are easily replaceable or underappreciated. This is something Scott makes sure to not do.

Of course, on the show Scott does some ridiculous things, but his management style makes a relevant point for small businesses to take note of.

The personal touch that Scott exhibits on The Office is one that could be used to help businesses of all kinds, so long as it’s balanced with a strong team and business structure.

While nobody believes Scott is the role model to emulate when it comes to business management, following a few of the “strategies” that he uses certainly make sense for company’s looking for an edge. Do any Office fans- or non-fans- agree?

Customer polling done by Sam’s Club revealed that nearly 15% had been turned down for business loans recently. Since the bulk of Sam’s Club’s clientele are small businesses looking to save money, Sam’s Club knew that it could be just a matter of time until they saw their profits dwindling.

How could they change the downward trending? WalMart Inc., Sam’s Club’s parent company, decided that the best way to deal with this problem was to come to a common solution, one that could help both Sam’s Club and its customers, while creating a new level of customer loyalty. That solution is loaning capital to customers.

Sam’s Club will focus its loans on small businesses owned primarily by women, minorities and veterans. They will make loans of anywhere from $5000 to $25,000 to those small businesses. The term of the loans will be 10 years and there will be no penalty for early payment. The loans will be made through an outside lender and Sam’s Club will actually make $50 per loan.

Aside from the small stipend made on each loan, the benefits to Sam’s Club could be enormous. Creating renewed loyalty throughout its customer base while also improving its own bottom line are just two benefits for them, but your small business could benefit as well.

For businesses in need of capital or struggling to close the cash gap this could be a huge advance because of the dearth of traditional lending these days. If you already have a Sam’s Club account, you will probably be much more likely to be able to get a loan in their system because they already know you and your business.

For many years small businesses have struggled to compete against big business.  Today thanks to a more enlightened view of business, major corporations are looking for ways to help small businesses.

Sam’s Club has come up with a vision that they hope will ensure their customers today become customers for life. Think this strategy will work?

SEO rankings can be finicky, unless you are consistent with what you do.

If you have been reading this blog, you know that search engine optimization (SEO) is a key part of business marketing these days. Every business wants to be sure that they can be found when someone uses a search engine to find them.

But sometimes, your SEO ranking can drop because of factors you may not have considered. Among those factors are age of the site, your site’s content, the keyword density of your articles and the links that connect your site to other sites. There are solutions for these problems that can take your SEO back to the top of the search.

If your company’s site is old, that’s a good thing because it should be easy to find and stable. The problem can be if the content on your site is old and static, or never updated. The easiest way to ensure you’ll always have fresh content is by blogging: just write a regular blog an post it on your site.

Another revelation as to why your SEO ranking might be low is a lack of content. Many search engines won’t even list a site unless it has at least 10 pages on it. Keyword density also plays a big role in SEO ranking. Be sure to pepper the key words you believe people will search when looking for your business in articles or blogs throughout your site. The most places you use key words the better. Finally, you always want to have reciprocal links on your site with other businesses so people that view their sites will naturally navigate to yours.

So what can you do to ensure your SEO ranking stays high? First off, if you aren’t computer savvy, hire someone who is. Second, use multiple websites for your business. The more places you can be found on the Internet, the better your chances that customers will be able to find you. Finally, be sure to constantly update your site to be sure you have fresh content and enough pages to be properly searched.

Hsieh wrote the book "Delivering Happiness" about Zappos' culture.

Throughout the ’80s and ’90s, Las Vegas was a boomtown. Jobs were plentiful, rent was cheap, taxes were low and thousands of people were moving to Sin City every month. Recently, few places in America have been hit harder by the global recession than Las Vegas. With an unemployment rate hovering around 15%, there haven’t been many business success stories over the last few years but one Las Vegas Company that has found success has been Zappos, which was recently sold to Amazon last year.

Zappos sells shoes on-line and has flourished in recent years. Since the dot-com crash in 2003, Zappos has become one of its industry’s leaders by changing the way they do business. Before the crash, almost 25% of Zappos’ revenues were made through Drop Shipping, the concept of acting as a middle-man between the customer and the manufacturer, while not actually handling any merchandise itself.

Zappos Founder Tony Hsieh decided that he needed to change his business model and focus on the customer service aspect of his business. He understood that while Drop Shipping seems like a terrific business model, it makes customer service virtually impossible because the distributer does not control his own inventory. Now, with control over merchandise and a business concept that makes sense, Zappos is one of the few businesses that have weathered the storm in Las Vegas and is actually flourishing.

So what does Zappos do so differently? It begins and ends with their company culture. While they sell shoes, Zappos is first and foremost a customer service company. Their employees understand that dealing with the customer and making them happy is their first priority. Zappos also knows that a happy employee will improve customer service, enjoy their job and do all they can to be productive.

Among other out of the box concepts, Zappos actually encourage weirdness in their employees, not the worst thing in a town like Las Vegas. But there is a method to the madness as employees are encouraged to think and contribute rather than simply going through the motions. This helps to ensure that employees are not only having fun but are also more engaged at their job.

In his book, Delivering Happiness, Hsieh details his story, while also providing insights that helped make him so successful. Hsieh is a poker player and he has taken some of the lessons he’s learned in the casino and applied them to his business. Among the most important are table selection and bankroll management, concepts easily extrapolated to the business world.

Las Vegas is the very definition of post-modern and has served as a prime example of new, and out of the box thinking in many fields, from business to burlesque, from entertainment to apparel. In this environment, businesses such as Zappos, have expanded on the very notion of Vegas, changing the way business is done and building a strong bottom line at the same time. What do you think of the Zappos concept?

Coaching played a big factor in last night's game.

In the world of coaching, both in business and sports, understanding one’s strengths and weaknesses can be the difference between success and failure. As we reach the end of another basketball season we have one of the best NBA Finals matchups in recent memory. Both teams are led by outstanding head coaches who have followed different paths to get back to the Finals, accentuating their strengths along the way.

The Lakers have a man leading them who is considered one of the greatest coaches in the history of professional sports in Phil Jackson, while the Celtics are led by Glenn “Doc” Rivers, a solid NBA player for years who suffered through a number of poor seasons on the bench before finding the right combination, both on and off the court.

Jackson is unique when it comes to the world of professional sports. His nickname, “The Zen Master” says it all. Jackson is not a hands-on game coach. When other coaches might call a timeout, Jackson will let his team work through problems. He seldom rises from his courtside seat and even his assistant coaches seem to be calmer than most. He does the heavy lifting during practice and treats his players as individuals, going so far as to provide reading materials that have nothing to do with basketball to players as they prepare for the season.

On the other end of the spectrum is the Celtics’ coach. Rivers is an excitable sort and no stranger to running down the court to call a timeout or to get a player’s attention in a particularly stressful moment. He’s open to trying new rotations, sets, and substitution patterns until he finds the right combination. When he was an inexperienced coach he looked lost and the team followed suit but with a group of mature assistant coaches as well as veteran players, Rivers has grown exponentially.

The two fine head coaches in this series epitomize different styles of management but also share traits that have helped make them successful. Their games styles are different and they treat their players differently. But both coaches also share a respect for their players and the game that is their most important quality and use the strengths of their personalities as a means to an end.

BP CEO Tony Hayward is in hot water.

The BP oil spill has dominated the news for quite some time. The disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico had devastating effects, and in these next few weeks and months, all eyes are on BP to see how they’ll handle their massive…well, spill.

So far, proclaiming that you want your life back, like BP CEO Tony Hayward said in a statement last Wednesday, is not a good way to start to save face. He has since apologized for that comment, however.

BP definitely faces an uncertain future due to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. But BP also has two additional challenges to face: before the spill even happened, the company had a reputation for not-so-safe safety practices, and more than any other oil company, BP still wants to operate in the Gulf of Mexico.

Since the ’90s, BP has mainly been invested in deepwater oil strategies that, while risky, amassed some 500 leases in the gulf through US government auctions — more than any other oil company.

How badly will the oil spill effect BP’s already tarnished reputation? If governments in the US stop giving BP leases, the company’s leading position in oil and gas is at risk. And as Bloomberg Businessweek pointed out, what politician wants to be responsible for giving BP a lease?

business coaches: this is a tricky situation, but would you have any ideas on where to start with BP if they were your client? How can they rebuild their reputation?