The whole scenario for the show is that the kids, with the parent's permission and tacet encouragement and self indulgence, are living on junk food, no exercise. The parents are killing the kids, literally!

It got me thinking ... are many small businesses any better?

What's the junk food of your business?

Costs vs Value Focus

Anyone can go broke offering their product or services at a cheaper price than anyone else.

If you are price focused you can't deliver value. It really is that simple.

Value is a win/win scenario.

If a client wants support, assistance or a caring approach then they must reward you to be able to deliver it. If you are to provide a truly rewarding, caring, assistance focused service then you need to be rewarded.

It really is that simple.

What are you focusing on?

Sell not Help

I worked for a dot com business for short period. (Note the short period.) I got the sack. Yes I was told to leave. Actually we both agreed my focus wasn't theirs and we parted company.

The problem was that what began as a support and relationship development role changed to an approach which was articulated by my superior with the words ... "just sell, nothing else matters."

He wasn't interested in relationships, client needs, end user requirements ...just sell!

Have you observed yourself lately? Do you like being sold?

What is your business doing ... helping or selling?

What are you focusing on?

Key Word Focus:

For many businesses there is a real focus when building their web site, on getting their key words in the top ranks so their site is better ranked. At the same time forgetting that people read web sites not robots. People buy not search engines.

The reality is something like

• Top ten key words are 17.3% of traffic
• Remainder of the keywords are 82.7% of traffic.

What are you focusing on?

Self focus not customer focus

As proud as you may be of your business and your product or service, most customers only care about how well you can help them meet their wants and needs. If you want more of them to buy, your focus has to be on your customer, not on yourself.

How do you communicate that to them? With the words you use in all your client conversations, are you talking mostly about them and their needs or are you talking mostly about yourself?

What are you focusing on?

The instant gratification or the longevity of your business.