Here’s a situation that happens to business owners everyday:  You are in your business and you have a new idea to bring more customers in your doors.  You feel reasonably certain that your idea would work, but you would like to bounce the idea off someone else, to get their perspective before you proceed.

Your first inclination will be to ask those immediately around you in your business, like your employees.  There’s nothing wrong with getting feedback from your team, but understand that their experience and perspective will not be the same as yours.  For one, remember they don’t have the vision for your business that you do, so don’t expect them to be as enthused about your idea as you are.  You’ve probably spent hours thinking about your idea (some of them in the middle of the night, as you’re worrying about how to solve your other business problems.)  Count on employees not being able to see the full picture of where your idea is meant to take the business.  Plus, if your idea means more work for them, expect some push-back.

Your second inclination is to ask your partner, your spouse, or someone who’s emotionally close to you.  While it’s a great to seek counsel from those you trust with other aspects of your life, unless that person has a full understanding of your business, don’t expect a revelation coming from them.  I’ve seen many people who you’d trust with your life not give good advice at all when it comes to business.  I remember one husband who always told his wife whenever she had a business problem that she should go ahead with her solution.  Unfortunately, for this owner, a “Yes Man” was not what she needed, and despite her husband’s best intentions to support his wife, his perspective was often faulty when it came to business tactics.

Another inclination might be to ask another business owner in your same industry.  Some owners have access to an association website or a group list serv, where owners with the same type of business can ask others for advice.  A word of caution here though:  If your idea is really revolutionary, do you really want to be giving your brainstorm of an idea to hundreds of other owners who can copy it?  And if your idea is so unusual and out-of-the-box that no one has ever thought of it, don’t expect a lot of creativity from this group of like businesses.  It’s more common for owners in the same industry to recycle the same ideas again and again (causing the consumer to grow more and more immune to them).

A fourth thought might be to walk next door and ask a business owner who’s nearby what he or she thinks of your idea.  If you plan to do this, take my advice on this one:  Avoid those owners who have all the time in the day to talk about your business, but who rarely put into practice anything new in their business.  Another owner-type to avoid are the negative ones.  For many owners, the opportunity to interact means they’ve been given another time to complain about everything that’s wrong in the world.  Count on these owners to offer very little helpful advice, while generally making you more depressed and less-focused on the positive action you are planning to undertake.

So who do I think is the best person to offer you valuable perspective?  Here are my favorites:

A Mentor:  Do you know someone you trust, you value their advice and you admire the business that they’ve built?  Try to get their perspective on your idea.  The one problem with these people is that they are generally busy, and you might have to schedule time to get in front of them.  Successful people aren’t likely to be sitting in their office just waiting for your call, but if you can get some time with them, in a short, focused session, explaining your idea to them might lead to an entirely new perspective.  Just remember that after getting their advice, though, that you look for opportunities to reciprocate and share something valuable with them in the future.

A Mastermind group:  You might have never heard this term but a Mastermind group is a collection of like-minded individuals who share confidential ideas about their business successes and failures in a small group setting.  Most of the time, these groups operate somewhat under the radar, and usually, you have to be invited to a group to become part of it.  If you are ever invited into one, evaluate the members in the group, and understand that their sometimes harsh, brutally honest perspective doled out on a regular basis can be just the ticket to improving your business, but you better have a thick skin.

A group of experienced owners outside of your industry:  I’ve found that this can be one of the best resources, if you can find a group of owners who don’t have the same type of business as yours, who are likewise successful, who are wiling to share ideas and offer their perspective.  We see this positive effect at every one of our Destination BootCamps:  business owners who have different businesses from different parts of the world, who seem to have nothing in common sharing their ideas across different industries becoming great resources for one another.  (One other hint here: next month, our new Destination University program will be forming an owner group that will be available to all of you where owners can share information online and from their smartphones, while also interacting with authors and business experts.  Click here if you’d like to learn more about this when it launches).

A Business Coach:  Sure, you saw this coming, considering I consult with business owners myself on how to make their businesses and communities a Destination.  But forget about the fact that I do this as part of my consulting business.  Regardless of whether you ever hire me or use any of my services, there are great coaches out there in the world who can help owners with specific business problems that they’ve seen before with other clients.  It makes no sense not using a coach’s experience to avoid the same mistakes as others, and to draw on their years of consulting with other businesses.  Just make sure you get a list of references before you begin any relationship with a coach, so you can check out what successes they’ve had for other clients, and be wary of the coach who has answers to everything.  When interviewing for a business coach, ask them to tell you what they don’t know and in what areas can’t they help you.  There are a lot of areas in the business world on which I’ll readily admit I am not the person to be giving advice.

So there you have it.  My four worst people to seek advice from, and the four best.  This should help keep your better ideas from getting shot down before they have a chance to shine, your worst ideas from becoming a major mistake, and help your best ideas to be even better.

Angie Morelock, the Downtown Director for Downtown Fremont, Inc. in Fremont, Ohio, has wanted to bring a group of business owners to my 2 ½ day Destination Business BootCamp for years. She’s applied for grants to help fund the trip, but the grants never materialized.

But towards the end of last year, Michelle McGovern, the Marketing Director for the Croghan Colonial Bank called me, and we talked about the value of bringing a group of business owners to the BootCamp. Michelle’s bank office is located in downtown Fremont, and she was considering using part of her bank’s marketing funds to sponsor a group of business owners to attend my 2010 Destination BootCamp. I told her about cities that had sent groups of business owners, like Hanford, California (that sent their first group in 2009); Rockwall, Texas (that had sent 2 groups), and Lafayette, Indiana (which has sent 3 groups of businesses over the years). We’ve had groups attend from small cities, like Arkansas City, Kansas; Skowhegan, Maine; and Worland, Wyoming, and from large cities like Seattle, Washington.

You might wonder why communities keep sponsoring and paying for independent business owners to attend a workshop that will improve their businesses? It is because when those businesses improve, their improvements impact the entire marketplace where they reside. Plus, when a group of business owners return from over 20-hours of learning, they share their ideas with their neighbors and help them improve. Financially, it’s a great deal for a community because they receive extra services that we don’t otherwise provide for small business owners, including a free workshop in the sponsoring community and onsite visits with all the businesses that attended the BootCamp. When I go and speak in the city, more business owners are educated, and some communities end up turning that small group of six owners into a group of hundreds of owners, learning together, changing all of their businesses using what they learned at the BootCamp.

You might know where this story is going. Michelle went to Angie and decided to pay for the costs to send a group to our March BootCamp. When I asked Michelle what convinced her to take some of her bank’s marketing dollars towards this cause, here’s what she told me:

“The Croghan Colonial Bank is a recognized leader in community banking throughout Northwest Ohio. Their business model is based on the understanding that when the company’s clients, employees and communities are financially strong, the company is too.

As the Marketing Director for a small regional bank, I have the responsibility to make sure everything we do measures up to the mission of the bank. That includes how we spend our marketing dollars. In that regard, our mission is to support the financial well-being of the clients and communities we serve.

It costs $11,563 to run one ad in all our market papers telling people how much we support our local community. It costs $10,500 to send 6 businesses through Jon’s COMMUNITY REINVENTION PROGRAM. So, do we run an ad telling people how much we build our local communities or do we actually build one? I think the choice is clear on which is actually more aligned with my company’s mission. So, I created the “Croghan Colonial Bank Small Business Reinvention Scholarship”. In this tough economy, is there really any better way to grow my company than to help others grow theirs?”    Michelle R. McGovern, Marketing Director, Croghan Colonial Bank

To read what the local papers are saying about Croghan Colonial Bank’s small business scholarship program, click here to read the Toledo Blade.

You can also read the excerpt from the North Coast Business Journal by going to this address: http://ncbj.net and clicking on page 23 of the article.

Now, let me put my “Marketing Hat” on:  Not only has the Croghan Colonial Bank done a great thing for the business owners there and the Main Street Program, what do you think will happen when business owners start associating the Bank with its pro-small business stance?  Let’s not forget that written articles are also seen by readers as being 12 times more believable than advertising.  The sponsorship of these business owners will have more collective marketing power than any ad, while also doing more good.  That’s a true Win-Win scenario for the Bank and the community.

If you’d like to bring a group to our next Destination BootCamp from your community, but don’t know where to start, either call our offices at 303-774-6522 or download our application information by clicking here.

If you have always wondered what it would be like to attend one, I’ve taped a short video showing you what you would learn, and what it would be like to attend.  Just click on the link below.  The video will start on its own in about 30 seconds (you can also see the video by going to www.DestinationBootCamp.com and clicking on the link at the top of the page:

Watch the BootCamp Information Webinar

For 2009, the BootCamp will only be conducted on May 16-18 and September 15-17, and that’s it for 2009.

Here’s a special incentive for attending our May Destination BootCamp:  If you sign up by April 23, you can receive $1,500 of free Destination Training, all at no additional cost to you, included in your 2009 BootCamp registration!

Let me explain:  If you enroll in our May 16-18 BootCamp, you will receive $1,500 of free follow-up Destination Training, in the form of three monthly webinars after you return to your business following the BootCamp.  This is the perfect way to attend the BootCamp and then, share the information you learned with your employees, your spouse, or other people who have an interest in your business.  These webinars will be conducted by me, one each month for three months. 

The Destination Training webinars will be on the following topics:

• Month #1:  Getting Everyone on the Same Page:  What Are We Missing to Become a Destination Business?
• Month #2:  Quick-Start Tips to Accelerate Low-Cost Marketing and Advertising 
• Month #3:  Creating a Quarterly Marketing Plan (could be 3rd or 4th Quarter)Click here to register for our May BootCamp!  

 That’s all!  Hope you take advantage of this special one-time offer!  Still not convinced?  Be sure to go to the BootCamp website (www.DestinationBootCamp.com) and click on the testimonials from over 100 small business owners just like you.

I was watching the evening news the other night when a retailer who sold antiques and cheese in her multi-focus store announced that she was going out of business.  Her store had actually been used as a set for a movie, so this business once had some national publicity attached to it.  The owner was being interviewed about her business that was finally closing and the reporter was clearly looking for one last quote that she could use.  The camera closed in on her face, and the owner said:
 
“There is nothing I have not done to keep this store open.”
 
The camera focused on her for a moment, to let the point sink in with all the viewers.  It was a heartfelt story of an owner who loved her business, who was coming to grips with having to close it.  Everyone watching could feel her pain, including me.  You really felt for this person.
 
But understand this:  In her mind, this owner did everything to keep the store open.
 
In my mind, she did everything she knew how to do, with a business she insisted on keeping the same, with the constraints she allowed to remain in place.
 
Essentially, this owner did everything she knew except reinvent her business.
 
Remember:  Business reinvention is a core, fundamental, dramatic change a business makes in all aspects of its functioning in order to continue growing revenue.
 
Here’s what reinventing a business is NOT: 

• Making small changes to your operations that easily can be copied by your competitors 
• Tweaks to existing systems 
• Trying a new advertising method 
• Adding a new product line to your existing product mix 
• Shutting down one hour earlier to avoid some expenses
• Changing your front window display, painting your interior, or redesigning your business cards are all not reinventions of a business.

Now, for our $360 offer:

When you sign up by this Friday, February 20 for my 2½ day March 22-24 Destination BootCamp in Longmont, Colorado, we will give you four (4) Destination Success Network CD’s of top business experts that walk you through the steps to help you attract the very best customers to your business.  You will receive the following 4 CD’s, valued at $360:

1. John Arnold, Author of Email Marketing for Dummies, on “Advanced Techniques in Email Marketing”
2. David Meerman Scott, Best Selling Author of The New Rules of PR and Marketing, on “Applying the New Rules of Marketing to Your Small Business”
3. Robert Gordman, Author of The Must-Have Customer, on “Capturing Your Very Best Customers” and
4. Marti Barletta, Author of PrimeTime Women, “Marketing to PrimeTime Women”

“We were quite skeptical when we enrolled in Jon’s BootCamp, but that skepticism disappeared from the word go. Jon presented literally hundreds of thought-provoking idea-generating concepts…We started putting them into action the very day we returned from the BootCamp. And we are delighted we did: In 9 months we attained a 64% increase in sales. Contact me personally if you have any doubts about this class at www.adamscountywinery.com.” 

Katherine added: “What would I tell owners who are thinking about attending the BootCamp?  I would tell them that before class, we were wondering how we could ever get our money’s worth.  By noon the first day, we felt we already had!  It’s a wonderful way to get revitalized and excited about your business again.”
 
So there you have it:  $360 of marketing tools if you register for my upcoming Destination Business BootCamp by this Friday, February 20.  Click here to register for this BootCamp now!