(Time to read this Blog is about 3.5 minutes)

Before we get to the main topic, here are a few things to get you thinking or smiling:

1. My Biz Quote of the week:
   “For good or for bad, through Social Media, ‘the public’ are your business’s unofficial, but very effective, Brand Managers.  What message are they sending out about your Brand?” 
   …Donald Cooper.
    
2. Quick Biz Tip:
   All businesses sell stuff.  Great businesses are on a mission: 
    
   For several years Dove brand soap and beauty products, a division of Unilever, have been having an important conversation with women around the world about real beauty and self-esteem.  They’re not just selling soap…they’re on a mission.
    
   But here’s the question for you. What ‘mission’ are you on?  How are you making your customer’s lives, or lives in general, better?  What kind of important ‘conversation’ are you and your brand having with your target customers?  What stand are you taking?  How are you coaching, helping and encouraging?  What is it about your business that is excellent caring and human?
    
   It’s a whole lot easier to keep your passion and energy up as a business and engage your Team as a group and as individuals when everyone’s excited about making a difference.  Remember, all businesses sell stuff.  Great businesses are on a mission.  What you do matters.  How could you make it matter a little bit more?
    
3. The changing face of retail and what happens when you’re no longer relevant.  Macy’s, the once thriving US Department store chain, will close a third (150) of its remaining stores in the next 3 years. This is in addition to 125 closures  announced in 2020.
    
   Meanwhile, in Canada, Hudson’s Bay Department Stores, founded in 1670 as Trading Posts in the far north, are struggling.  Earlier this year they had to sell off real estate assets to pay operating expenses.  This is the beginning of the end.  I predict ‘The Bay’ will declare bankruptcy in 3 to 4 years.
    
   This is what happens when a business or particular business model becomes irrelevant.  What are you doing to remain relevant in your market?  What changes need to be made?
    
4. Special Announcement for our fans in the extended GTA. Many of you have asked to be informed when I’ll be doing a Management Program that’s open to the public.   On Friday, Sept 27 I’m delivering just such a half-day ‘Accelerate Your Business’ Super Session for the business owners and managers of Mulmur Township and Dufferin County.  The event is at The Mansfield Ski Club on Airport Road, about an hour north of Toronto.   Admission is just $99.
    
   This half-day transformational Management Program will be followed by lunch and a ‘no-holds-barred’ Q&A and informal coaching for those who wish to stay.  My commitment is to extraordinary outcomes for every attendee!
    
   This event is made possible by the generous sponsorship of one of my amazing Biz Coaching clients, Hill’N Dale Landscaping in Mulmur.  It’s our ‘gift to his community.
    
   For more info and to register, go to www.mulmur.ca scroll down and look for Event link on the right side.  If you sign up, let me know at donald@donaldcooper.com, so that I can look for you on Sept 27.
    
   By the way, if you’d like to organize a similar Event for your community, wherever you’re located in North America, we should chat.
    
5. How to solve the real problems in your business. In every business there are surface, underlying and basic problems. Many businesses tackle the surface problems …but, ultimately that solves nothing.  To download my Biz Tool #A-20, ‘How to Solve the Real Problems in Your Business, Click Here.  

Now, to this week’s important topic:

There’s no experience too small to be extraordinary! 

What could you do to be more extraordinary at every ‘touch-point’ in your business?  Here’s a 4-Step Process to make that happen.

#1.  Sit down with a few of the best minds and hearts in your business and make a list of every point at which your customers ‘touch’ your business, your products & services and your brand in any way. 

#2.  Then, observe and document exactly what experience you currently deliver at each of those ‘touch-points’. 

#3.  Finally, get creative and gutsy and determine what ‘extraordinary’ would look like for each of those ‘touch points’.  What has never been done before?  What would be helpful or kind?  What would be unexpected? What would your competitors not have the courage or heart to even think of?  What would amaze and delight?  

#4.  Decide what you’ll implement at every ‘tough-point’ and, specifically, what will be done, by whom, by when and at what cost to make it happen. Support this transformational process with the necessary resources, follow up, measure performance, reward and celebrate success…and deal quickly but fairly with non-performance.

This is a major undertaking on your part, but it will be insightful and transformational.  I promise.

That’s it for this week…

Stay safe…live brilliantly!       

Donald Cooper 

Donald Cooper speaks and coaches internationally on management, marketing, and profitability.  He can be reached by email at donald@donaldcooper.com in Toronto, Canada.