American Onslaught
The Nickel and the Dime
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So it has been a bit, be let me catch you up on something that many of you out there in virtual world might appreciate. I am talking about giving something away for free to get something better back. Easy right, well maybe not.
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Recently, I traveled. Let me tell you, that is something that has become distasteful. Not because of any line, or boarding procedure, but rather because of the business practices executed within the hopitality industry. However, they are not the only industry guilty of this practice. I am of course talking about the services sold in conjunction with modern day travel.
So you start by buying a ticket or renting a car. But of course you cannot just pay money for the service these days. There are the extras. If your flying its extra to check your bag and even, in the case of my recent trip, the soda while your 3,000 feet above the ground. I mean come one, I’m trying not to think about the fact that I am in a 50 ton vehicle that by all logic should not stay in the air but does, and I’m getting asked for $2 for the can of coke that should cost me $0.60.
But Airlines are not the only ones in on this new game in travel. Hotels are right on board, asking their guests to pay $12.95 for two days worth of internet access on top of the couple hundred spent on a several night stay. I mean its the Boston Park Plaza Hotel and Towers for crying out loud.
This nickel and diming is happening everywhere in America these days, and it is bad for business.
Some reading this may be thinking, “Well I cannot give it away for free,” or ”I have to get paid.” Well if this is your attitude you might want to take a few hours and come up with another way to develop a strong reputation, strong brand, and loyal customer base.
Far too many businesses now a days are putting out their hands for more and more money, without ever having to earn it. It comes in all forms too. Some beg the government while others pick the pocked of consumers. The idea and feeling people are let with are the same either way.
Now, I am not saying you should give something huge away for free, but help your customers without the all mighty dollar being the focus of every action. Do this and people will want to help you, which means spending their money. And they know this. It is not lost on anyone that businesses is valuable and the more of it there is the stronger a company will be.
What I am taking about can be done in a variety of ways. Here let me explain.
In the instance of small business owner with a website, here is a tip teach the basics. Don’t actually teach your customers some of the basics of your service, but offer them a way to learn via your business’s website.
So if you are a pool man, post a video about how to properly clean a pool or maybe how to change a filter. If are a bakery, then show the backing process in the morning or . This kind of content on your website does to things.
First, by offering people away to learn for themselves on your website, people will go to your website to learn. They will tell other people to go to your website and learn. It’s pretty straight forward and logical is this action reaction chain.
Second, they will be indeared to you and your company. If I find out how to clean my pool on this website, where do you think I am going to go to find someone who can fix my water pump. So instead of hassling the customer to make sure you got the $100 for cleaning the pool, you have made sure to get the $1,000 for fixing the pump.
So in the case of my trip, if the hotel had just given me Internet access I might have enjoyed my stay better and wanted to say there in the future. Now, I wont. Same is true for the airline, though it is trickier because they all charge for checked baggage far as I know. But if I find one that doesn’t I will make sure to fly on them, even if my tick is a few dollars more sometimes.
So business owners an operators, don’t be afraid to give something away for free. In fact, when it is something small it is a good business practice to do just that.
Porn and the Bailout
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I don’t know how many of you have caught this, but for those of you who do not know two of America’s top pornography companies (I like the term the big two) are calling for a bailout. Now I know what you are going to say, or at least think.
Sure one can say what business do they have asking the US Taxpayer for money, and I’m sure there are plenty of jokes we all can think of. But step back for a minute. This is serious and we as Americans should take heed to what Larry Flynt and Joe Francis are getting at.
Certainly they do not intent this to be a serious thing. They themselves have almost hinted at the fact this is just another stab at the ridiculous nature of the US Treasury and the US economic policy when it comes to bailouts.
“The take here is that everyone and their mother want to be bailed out from the banks to the big three,” said Owen Moogan, spokesman for Larry Flynt. “The porn industry has been hurt by the downturn like everyone else and they are going to ask for the $5 billion. Is it the most serious thing in the world? Is it going to make the lives of Americans better if it happens? It is not for them to determine.”
Never the less they are asking for $5 billion dollars. Still, the point is take. When you start down this road of bailing out everyone, you cannot say no.
That said, everyone knows or should know the legislature and the treasury will say no. But what message does that send. Only companies and industries with political clout and a mobster-style union to back can get billions in public, taxpayer money.
Now I am not an advocate of bailouts, and never have been. I have been opposed to these bailouts when they were first suggested. To me, the free market only works if it is free. Free to prosper, free to fail. When you start handing out blank checks to a company, an industry, where does it stop.
We as the American people, the American taxpayers, will not foot the bill for the poor business decisions of companies. That is what makes industries lean, mean, and profitable. Companies come, and companies go. Those that fail get swallowed up while at the same time making room for the newest and the latest.
In the banking industry before our elected representatives (all of whom regardless of party affiliation bear responsablity) signed over $350 billion with nsa, things were working. The FDIC was facilitating bank takeovers of those failing, the industry was getting consolidated by mergers, and things were getting on the road to recover. It was working without the money. And it would have continued to work.
History, with respects to government intervention, has show us that this course tends to only make things worse. Or at the very least, prolonged. We may never know for sure. But we cannot be scared of the way free markets work, they are cyclical. After all, we never waver when they make profit rain down from the sky.
Larry Flynt should be applauded for making the point, in his own mischievous way. But he shouldn’t be given the $5 billion even still.
