Geat Time to be in Business

Had a great conversation with the owner of a RV Dealership today. It's so encouraging to be able to sit back and listen to the pain points and desires of business owners and feel 100% confident inside that we can be of help to them without even having to stretch any of my words.

From the folks we have on staff at InteractRV, to the technology we use, to the marketing methodology we apply ... it's always improving, but I don't have to say ... yeah we can do that and then go back and ask our tech or marketing folks 'can we really do that'.

Having quality folks to work with and being able to get real results for our RV dealership clients ... what a great time to be in business.

It's Time to Grow Up

Have you ever started a business? If you have and it has been any length of time you'll understand what I mean when I say that it can be consuming. If you've ever lived with or had a friend that started a business you probably know what I mean.

It's so easy to get consumed because you have to do everything ... sales, product/service development, customer service, accounting, and even empty the trash. Then over time your business grows (hopefully). You earn more clients. You start to hire folks to help with customer service and accounting. You start to take feedback from those around you on what you should do and how you might do it. Without even knowing it you might even start relying too much on those around you. Sounds kinda crazy, but it happens ... it happened to me.

I had forgotten that it was my intuition and vision that had gotten us to where we were. The folks that work at IWI are great folks and all of them dedicated to our success as a company. I care for each and every one of them.

What I was doing wasn't their fault. They were giving feedback that I had asked for. What had happened was my fault. I was taking feedback and then NOT making the decisions that needed to be made. It's not like IWI was on a decline or we had made some terrible decisions or that we were losing clients. Not at all.

The type of decisions that I had made years ago that started the run up to where we are now ... those decisions weren't going to carry us forever. It was time to start making the tough calls again. Sometimes the unpopular calls. Not arrogant or uneducated decisions, just tough ones.

Well, the time has come for me to grow up a bit and grab that bull by the horns once more. The future is looking bright for not just us as a company, but for our clients and their successes.

Oh, by the way I still take out my own trash!

Reading List of the Online Greats

Did you ever sit with or be on the phone someone who you just wondered to yourself ... man, how did they get to know so much?

Because I spend a good part of my week educating and doing research that our marketing, development, and research specialists can use to produce better results for our clients ... it stands to reason that some of my time is spent either reading, talking with, or listening to the 'Greats of the Online World'. Those that have gone before and paved the way ... the folks who have witnessed success!

Well, here is a link to some of the resources that they suggest you consume to get in the know...

It was encouraging to read through and realize that I too have learned from many of the resources on their list. However, it seems for me that the more I learn the more I realize I need to learn.

Until next time...

SEO Crash Diet

Nearly every week we have conversations with RV Dealers around the country that have Search Engine Optimization top of mind and want to get to the top of the rankings like now! Frankly, spending a bunch of time and money all at once on SEO is very similar to a crash diet. Over 90% of the time you might look good for a very short period of time but long term you might look worse than you did when you started.

Getting great results with SEO should be a continual improvement ... let's call it Lifestyle SEO. Just think about the results you can achieve with putting consistent monthly effort into optimization. You can more easily monitor the results and then the improvements you make on your improvements can generate compounded results!

So, stop thinking about getting SEO rich quick and put a plan together to continually make improvements to get where you want to be.

Until next time...

Gauging Business Temp in this Climate

No big suprise that most businesses including our clients, who are Recreational Vehicle Dealerships, are mulling over every penny they are spending. Making sure it's worth it for them. Some are already in survival mode, meaning that no matter the actual value a product/service might provide it's the almighty upfront dollar that matters most.

It's hard to blame these types of dealerships when they contact us. They are looking for a better website marketing solution than what they currently have, but have a really hard time looking at things apples to apples and oranges to oranges. For these folks it's can I get something better than they have, but necessarily do I need the best solution out there. After all it's a matter of being in business 1 month from now or not.

Then there are the dealerships who are looking at positioning themselves strategically going into the selling season for 09. These are the folks that are confident of an upswing in the economy and want to be on top making sure they are getting the most they can when it does turn back around.

So, on one extreme is the temp is really cold and on the other it's pretty warm. Some dealers are really pulling the reigns in and some are using the reigns to guide them where they want to be in the future.

It's an exciting ride and I'm glad to be on it!

What does Web 2.0 really mean?

If you've been around technology at all you've seen the verbage Web 2.0. What does it actually mean and where does it come from? Kamla does a great job in her interview with Tim O'Reilly (psst ... the guy who actually coined the term).

Check out the Web 2.0 Podcast here.

To listen you'll want to click the > button.

Continual Improvement is a Must

It's a long word combination C O N T I N U A L I M P R O V E M E N T and it might seem scary, but ignoring it won't make it go away. However, you may find your business going away if you don't embrace it.

Check out this video from WilsonWeb with two of the best at website marketing...



I can personally attest that this works. Why is it that people tend to think that just putting up a website is good enough and updating it every 3 years or so is sufficient. My guess is that's how they run their business too.

If we ran our business that way we wouldn't be around very long at all.

Here' s to Continual Improvement!