Control Versus Do-It-Yourself

I mentioned last week that during a day trip out to the Oregon coast we stopped at Camp 18. Although we missed our scheduled departure of 7am, we did manage to get the kids in the car, and all of us on the road by 8:30am, which was definitely a victory.

However, only 20 minutes from the glorious Pacific Ocean, the kids were having a melt-down. They’d been in the car for over an hour, and they were HUNGRY. When I get hungry I tell Holly, “Hey, I’m hungry.” If it goes on a little too long, I may get a little short-tempered, and then apologize.

3 1/2 year old boys, when their blood sugar level drops, tend to scream and throw things. Not so pleasant in the car.

In the ten plus years we’ve lived in Oregon we’ve been out to the coast plenty, and I’ve passed Camp 18 at least a couple dozen times. Each time I think, “Tourist trap.”

This time I was thinking, “Oasis! Miracle!” We stopped the car. The boys got out, They were captivated by huge relics of the logging industry, including old railroad cars and Paul Bunyan-sized sawmillls.

But it was in the restaurant that I saw what I really wanted to write to you about. It was a really simple thing, but it got me thinking.

When the family ordered breakfast, including coffee, this is what arrived:

They just left the pot of coffee on the table to serve ourselves.

A very small touch and a very good idea. It’s a fairly large dining room, and I think I counted about eight wait staff. Ordinarily eight wait staff = eight coffee pots, plus some extras.

To put a pot on every table means more like… and here I’m wishing my Virgo tendencies had made me count the tables. But even if there were fifty tables I’m guessing you would need seventy pots.

If each stay-hot insulated coffee pot costs $20 That’s $1400 instead of $240. The restaurant owner spent an extra $1200, but gained:

• Customers not having to wait for busy wait staff to just bring a coffee refill.
• A visible reminder of generosity.

The temptation as a business owner on the edge can be to cut corners, scrimp, and keep costs down as low as you can. I advise this attitude, it’s so helpful to not lose all your profit to indiscriminate spending.

Wisdom comes in learning to know when to splurge.

Seventy coffee pots probably seems a bit crazy. What did the staff think to see seventy coffee pots stacked up in the restaurant’s kitchen? What would you think?

In context, $1000 for a restaurant is not a lot of money. And a coffee pot is, I’m guessing, durable goods that lasts a long time. If it means tired, vacationer diners don’t need to wait for their coffee, and your already stacked-to-the-gills wait staff doesn’t have to run around refilling cups, I’m guessing it makes great financial sense.

A thousand dollars may be a lot to you, and you probably don’t need seventy coffee pots. And yet, there may be places in your business that you are afraid to splurge, even though it would help tremendously.

Take a moment right now and look through your business. Where are you:

• Feeling cramped?
• Making clients wait or share?
• Finding yourself moving some tool or object around more than it perhaps needs to?

Is there a wise splurge that will help your business? Share your ideas, what will help make you more efficient and your clients happier?

Please share what you get in the comments.

p.s. Toronto, Ontario workshop in October

Rob Helmer from the InnerGarden.ca in Toronto is hosting me to teach a weekend workshop, Friday evening through Sunday, October 12-14, 2012.

If you’re in Toronto, I hope you’ll join me–I’d love to meet you! This is going to be in-depth, nourishing, practical, nourishing.

Take a look and register: Every Act of Business Can Be An Act of Love

p.p.s. Copywriting Intensive and Mentorship

One of the most challenging places for heart-centered business owners is writing a sales page that works without falling into hype or manipulation. Or avoiding it completely and letting your offers go ignored.

In the last eight years I’ve taught dozens of clients how to write copy from the heart, and, more than that, how to create heart-centered campaigns and launches. Personally, my copywriting has brought in over $2 million to Heart of Business, and has maintained us at five figures a month for several years now.

In September and October I’m going to lead a small group of people in a Heart-Centered Copywriting Intensive, and for an even smaller group I’ll be adding a personal Mentorship. The intention is that you learn, step-by-step, how to build a sales page that works, from the heart, and that you will end up with a sales page by the end, and an entire campaign sequence. Plus you will understand the elements of copywriting so you can do it again for your other offers.

If you’re familiar with our work, you know that what we do will be well-organized, thorough, spiritually-based, and extremely practical. It will work.

I know you’re wondering about price, and I’m still musing on that. The Intensive will be probably around $1500, and the Intensive with the Personal Mentorship is going to be probably a little less than $3000.

I’ll only have six Personal Mentorship spots because of the amount of hands-on I’m going to be doing with them, and one of those is already taken. The Intensive itself will be limited to probably no more than a dozen in addition to the Mentorships.

Details coming. Meanwhile, if you’re seriously interested reply to this email and you’ll be first to hear once I open registration.