However, often in business we toil away with so many of the tactics that the “if only” strategy is seldom considered. Especially in small business/entrepreneurial situations, we spend all of our energy acting and very little thinking, which reminds me of an anecdotal story that I was recently told:

An astronaut was asked if you only had 10 seconds of oxygen, what would he do do? After thinking for a few moments, the astronaut responded, “I would think for 8 seconds and act for 2.”

So, whether you are the coach of a team, a small business owner, or an employee seeking to make your mark, I ask you to pause and think about your “if only” statement. What series of events if perfectly executed would bring you great success?

I woke up in the middle of the night in cold sweats thinking about this one. I read a Seth Godin post over the weekend, and, as usual, his words struck a chord. This time, however, I could not just post a tweet and go on about my business. I was struck by this one line:

Employees and freelancers that produce more than they cost are worth hiring.

Too often, it seems, that we can hide behind rationalizations for what we do. We paint these pictures with huge self-congratulation, but at the end of the day, are we producing more than we are charging?

At lunch yesterday, the poor waiters were terribly short-staffed. Two tuckered table jockeys were tirelessly running full pace to underwhelm the needs of 12 tables.  As we opened the door to the restaurant, subtle hints of the abysmal service foreshadowed the experience: 5 minutes to be greeted, grunting faces of the patrons, kids hanging from the rafters. But a nice enough wink and nod from the sushi chef led me to believe that we would be taken care of. “Silly man that is hoodwinked by the sushi chef is doomed to a dinner of defeat,” my fortune should have read.

You know the drill. We sat down. Ten minutes pass before our waiter makes it to our table to take drink, dinner, and hell dessert orders, but this waiter wasn’t out back puffing on a stogey or flirting with the hostess–he was genuinely working as hard as physically possible, furiously juggling tables like a carney who just through a flaming chainsaw into the mix. There is no question that he was working hard, but he simply didn’t have time to get drinks on our table or tend to our basic needs.

My wife commented, “we’re not tipping this guy,” and I thought, we are not getting our basic needs met we probably shouldn’t tip this guy–very much at least. I did feel sorry for him, but I was also walking to the bar with crying children hanging from my leg just trying to get a soda and a milk. So, I postulated, “he could have fixed this…with little more than 5 seconds effort.” Had the overworked young man greeted us when we came in and said, “guys, welcome, we have an extremely packed house, and we are two staff short, I would love for you to stay but I want you to know that I am going to do my best to keep up.” Done. My expectations are set: (1) if I stay here, the service is going to suck, but I trust that this guy is going to do his best to take care of me, or (2) I am not in the mood to deal with this today, but I will be back because he took the time to address me. Instead the winking, nodding sushi chef dis-served us and the restaurant. He set the expectation that we will take care of you despite the chaos you see unfolding.

Often we think we want more business, even when we can’t handle it; we communicate our best wishes instead of our realities to our customers; and therefore we set unrealistic expectations in our customer’s minds. Communicate realistic expectations and work like hell to outperform, or you’ll end up working like hell communicate why you didn’t.

Think a hub and spokes concept, with the hub being the Web site and spokes being the various online tools now available.

In addition to offering consulting services, we are working on several sites including Coupon Katie.

Duct tape marketing offers this whitepaper for newbie business twitter users, which is totally worth the read.

And tonight, I ran across David Armano’s post on brand guidelines for Twitter, and I really like his use:

I’ve used Twitter as an extension of my “personal brand”. I share links, talk to people and in general be myself. In return, I’ve built relationships which transcend digital limitations and get insights into human behavior.

As iPhones change the paradigm and all cell phones move into the next generation, SMS sized blogging will become the mainstay, and as Doug has said, a restauranteer is going to have an employee that is just monitoring twitter to see customer feedback (in real time).

I tend to agree with David in that twitter allows me to be authentic and genuine in my feed. I can spew Faulkneresque stream of consciounce to all my follwers. Join me.

That is what is happening right now.  This summer I found out that we are expecting number three, and this week I found out that I am probably starting my own internet / seo / marketing / real estate business. . . Watch this.

FYI – I am looking for a good company name. If you know one, comment it.