I’m in the middle of a great book, Predictably Irrational (amazon affiliate link). The author, Dan Ariely, gives specific examples of irrational behavior rules our behavior.

In the chapter on revenge and how we desire to punish folks who treat us unfairly, Ariely details a mind-blowing experiment.

The Revenge Experiment…

The experiment, setup to test whether or not feeling mistreated can be mitigated, basically started with the same scenario:

A test giver approached people at a coffee shop and offered them $5 to take a quick test. After each participant agreed, the scenarios diverged into three distinct paths:

1. The test giver would explain the test without any interruptions.
2. The test giver would take a two-minute long phone call in the midst of explaining the test. He made no apologies.
3. The test giver would take a two-minute long phone call in the midst of explaining the test. He would later apologize.

Then he would pay the test takers the money. In all cases, he “miscounted” and included a few bucks extra. The results blew me away. Here they are:

1. A majority of people told the test taker he had given them extra money. They didn’t pocket the extra money.
2. A majority of people kept the extra money.
3. A majority of people told the test taker he had given them extra money. In other words…

…saying “I’m Sorry” wiped the slate clean.

This is so true in any business. I remember when I started dealing with upset customers. At first, I found it hard not to take customers’ criticisms personally.

No matter how you design software, there are some folks for whom it just won’t work. When that happens, people aren’t particularly articulate. They immediately recall every bad experience they’ve had with software and you get lumped into that group.

A few months into dealing with upset customers though, I realized that it wasn’t about me or my feelings. We hadn’t lived up to their expectations. That’s when I started saying “I’m sorry” to those customers. That’s what I started any email to an upset customer.

Will “I’m Sorry” Help Mend Everyone’s Upset?

The thing is, about 80% of the folks who you say some variation of “I’m sorry we let you down” will be thrilled. They will be willing to give you another shot. 20% of people are just embittered and no amount of “I’m sorry” will do anything.

Saving 80% of folks who would write a negative Yelp review? That’s a pretty good rate of return. Additionally, it costs you absolutely nothing to apologize.

How To Implement It Today…

Find folks on your Yelp! page who gave you one-star. Then using your Yelp biz login, contact them privately. Tell them you’re sorry and is there anything you can do to make it right? See what happens.

It won’t cost you a dime and it might just turn around negative reviews!!

Lights off. Doors locked. This is how I found of my favorite lunch spots today.

I’m not sure if this is a case of someone being sick or if it’s a sign that this restaurant is closing for good. I get tired of seeing businesses offering great products or services close.

What’s worse they usually close because they’re either unaware or afraid of marketing. This is not the time to be timid. Market the s**t out of your products or services. If you’re offering something of value, then people should know about it.

The incredible blog Mixology.com has just released a great interview with leading Internet entrepreneur, Gary Kremen. So worth your time!

Check it out here.

On or around 2003, the Austin Independent Business Alliance came up with a masterstroke of marketing. Frustrated with the encroachment of corporate chains into Austin, they started creating free bumper stickers with three little words on it…

“Keep Austin Weird”

Their goal was to keep as many of the original small businesses that made Austin, TX such a unique city around for as long as possible. The slogan caught on like wildfire and Austin is now even more diverse and unique.

What can you do to make your business “weird”? How can you make it stand out?

This is going to offend my Korean readers but I really don’t like Kimchi. It’s fermented cabbage and it’s bitter, vinegary, spicy and sour. Every time I try it I scratch my head why people like it. The thing is…

…millions of kimchi fans disagree with me, vehemently.

South Korea is obsessed with it. It’s kind of like their national dish. Millions of people here in the US and around the world love it. But there’s also a lot of folks who hate it. It’s not the kind of thing you can be wishy-washy about.

How does this relate to your business?

As Seth Godin wisely states and I’ll paraphrase here, average products for average people no longer sell.

If you’re going to survive this recession, you need to have products or services that people really love and really hate. There are very products or services that everyone loves. How many movies can you name that everyone loves? Maybe The Shawshank Redemption? How many songs does everyone love? Don’t Stop Believing by Journey maybe?

The point is: go after an audience that will adore you. The rest of the people probably won’t get it.

The awesome pig-shaped food truck in the above photo is Maximum Minimus, a unique dining experience in Seattle, Washington. The truck parks at different places throughout the week and customers find them, looking for their legendary pulled pork sandwiches.

Maximum Minimus isn’t the only amazing food truck serving great, gourmet food at discount prices. There’s a whole mess of them in Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, San Francisco, New York and many other cities.

Out of nowhere, food trucks have come to bring the latest, most exciting foods at very low overhead to city dwellers. The great thing about food carts is how they can specialize into really niche things. Want real Belgian waffles? Want PB &  J creme brulees? Want Czech food?

To paraphrase Apple, there’s a cart for that. There are so many things exciting about this trend but for me, the most exciting is the low cost these these food lovers can pay to get a business going. You get your exacting food obsession to the people and you don’t have to rent commercial space. The costs are so low that you can turn whatever bat**** crazy idea you have into a real business.

And it’s this trend that I think will tell us where the next businesses are going to be coming from. Successful new businesses most likely won’t need commercial real estate like previous generations have. With credit being tight, there’s no reason entrepreneurs show risk a whole bunch of capital to get started.

Think about it with your business. How can you make your business smaller (a la foodcarts)? What can you do to reduce the overhead but increase the individuality of your business?

Thinking about starting a business? How can you create a food truck like business in your niche? High-quality, cheap and very few start up costs.

With marketing budgets for small businesses slashed, it’s understandable that even small purchases must pay for themselves. That said, I think the $200 you’ll spend on the Flip HD Camera (affiliate link) is well worth it.

The Flip HD Camera is the simplest, easiest way to start creating videos for your company. Buy the camera, upload the videos to YouTube and you’ve got the beginnings of a proven, almost no-cost strategy for boosting business.

Some of the most amazing marketing is happening now with YouTube videos. A great example of this is BlendTec, a blender company that increased business by 500% with their awesome “Will It Blend?” campaign. These videos allowed BlendTec to reach a group of people who wouldn’t have considered using their product before.

Here’s an example of a video in this series:

There are some downsides to the Flip HD that you should know going in:

• I’ve found its battery life isn’t completely dependable. One of my 2 Flips shuts off with regularity when shooting long segments of video.
• There is no ability to use an external mic. The sound on the Flip is passable but not as good if you need really professional-level sound.

But even with those issues, I still recommend this camera. It’s super easy to use, is beautiful to look at and a really good quick entryway into video marketing for small business marketers.

Buy It Here (affiliate link)

When I came up with the company name of recessionRebirth, I knew that the logo had to be striking and immediately clear. Getting it created wasn’t going to easy. Here’s the logo I had created and here’s how I created it:

The Logo…

How I Had It Created It…

When I was thinking about what logo would work for my new company I knew that it needed to communicate a few things:

• The Difficult Time That Small Businesses Are Experiencing Now…
• Hope That Things Will Change
• The Basic Premise of “Recession = Rebirth”

These are complex concepts. I had no idea how to communicate that visually. After all, I’m not a designer. I didn’t even know what to sketch for a mockup of what I wanted. But I did know where to look.

Crowdsourcing: The Future Of Creative Work?

For my other company, I’ve used crowdsourcing sites like 99Designs and Crowdspring.com to get everything from logos to websites designed. What is crowdsourcing?

Crowdsourcing is a new way of outsourcing: you post a project and then multiple artists respond with their concept of what you’re looking for. It’s being used every where from logo design to Pay-Per-Click Ad Management. Think of it as a casting call for creative material. You post what you want (logo, website design, pay-per-click ads) and a crowd of participants (designers, wordpress designers, ppc ad consultants) give you a whole bunch of creative options.

When you find the submission you like the best, you award the winning entry to its designer. They get paid and you get something great, hopefully.

My Crowdspring Story

I posted the job on crowdspring with the following description:

I’m launching recessionRebirth.com, a site where people can hire me to help their flagging business. The point of the site is to not only survive the recession but come out stronger and more profitable than before.

I also added under the “What We Need Is:” section:

I need a logo that communications the concept “Recession = Rebirth” I want it to be a combination of images and text. The images should be strong and show the scary nature of the recession and the excitement of rebirth. It should be simple and clear.

I setup the project to be worth $375.00 to the winning designer. After 7 days, I had 2 pages of great, good and not-so-great logos. Part of what’s great about crowdsourcing is that you give public feedback on each entry so that ostensibly, each additional submission comes closer to what you want.

By the time the contest finished, I had narrowed my choices down to three possible logos. I kept viewing them side-by-side and the logo you saw at the beginning of this post was what I went with. It’s probably the best logo I’ve ever used and I got it and the possibility of 97 others for $375.00.

Have you used crowdsourcing? Tell me about it.

A few weeks ago, at my friend’s apartment building, one of the kids in the complex started collecting money to help the oil-slicked birds in the gulf. After her hard work, she posted the above note thanking everyone.

It struck me that this is authenticity without trying. Hand-written, darling and completely clear, this is communication at its best. Perhaps once we get serious and in businesses, we forget how simple and direct communication can be.

Could you resist giving more money to help the birds after this note? It would be hard to, that’s for sure.

Last night, with a few hours to spare before our concert in L.A., my friend and I debated where to eat. Our first search was, of course, on our Yelp! iPhone app.

Yelp’s #11 best restaurant in L.A. was Jitlada Thai Restaurant, an mid-range hole-in-the-wall in a strip mall. From what the 448 reviews said, it was reasonably cheap, authentic and amazing. In other words, exactly what we wanted.

When I arrived though I was amazed at the quality of marketing that was going on in this restaurant. On one wall, an autographed sketch from Matt Groening, the creator of the Simpsons. Next to that, reviews from Food & Wine. Next to that, features in the LA Weekly. Wall to wall accolades. And it didn’t stop there.

When we were seated, we were greeted with this:

Jitlada Thai Restaurants Tabletop

Not only had they covered the walls with confirmation that you were eating at the right place but the tabletops confirmed it as well. On every single table was a review from the LA Weekly and a flyer from the Food Network’s “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” show which had featured Jitlada in one of their episodes.

Bravo, Jitlada, bravo.

P.S. The food is amazing. Try the crab and pumpkin curry.