As painful as it is to admit, the business broke, I’m broke, and I had to go back to a job.

I was REALLY depressed. Ever so grateful that I found a wonderful place to work. But I’m still angry about all that went wrong.

If I’m so effin’ brilliant, how did I let this happen?

Let me tell you.

I got bullied. I took on other people’s shit. I got backed into corner after corner and — on a couple of occasions — I got beat up and had my lunch money taken from me.

Most of all, the Itty Bitty Shitty Committee got busy. I adopted that term from my friend Shelley Streit. It’s her endearing reference  for all the negative voices in our heads, the ones who love to remind us of what a f*** up we are. We all have them. Some of us battle louder and meaner voices than others. I will have to introduce you to my Committee one day. They’re a real piece of work.

So in the space of one short week, I went from busy, productive, ass-busting 20-hour days with a promise of payments to make it all worthwhile to… nothing.

I had to immediately take action, get a job, and thank God, it turned out to be the right place for me right now. (At least I think it is… my 90-day probation isn’t up until the end of the month, so I’m hoping it will work out…)

Over the past three months, as the urgency of the situation quieted and I got accustomed to working a regular 8-hour day again, I had time to ask myself — and my maker — what was next for me.

Then after my “message from God” last weekend, I definitely got the hint that I have a lot of pruning to do in my life.

I will keep a few ‘pet projects’, clients that have been with me since my early days, and a couple new clients.

And no more. I want to make my life more about me, and fill my cup first for a change.

It’s not easy. It is still tempting to take on a new project or client. Then they say something like, “we’d like you to donate your time,” or, “we don’t have a budget”, or “perhaps we can do some sort of trade”…

That’s when it gets real easy to say “No. Thank you.”

The bigger challenge is the fact that my full-time job pays me less than what I have to pay my team for them to maintain what we have. The math doesn’t work. That’s something I’ll have to figure out.

In the meantime, I have to turn back people who, with the most wonderful of intentions, are only adding to my stress.

There are some dear, dear people reading this now who still insistently refer prospective clients to me.

To you I want to say this, which is essentially what God has said to me:

“I love you. Now please stop.”

If I had just had triple-bypass surgery, would you be sending work to me? No, you’d want me to rest, recouperate. Put my needs first, look after myself.

You would want me to heal.

So why do you send me work when my heart is too broken to make the work meaningful? When all I want to do is figure out how to live this new life so it has more life in it? When my body is too tired to take on one…. more… task?

I know you’ve told me you don’t want to lose me, but in pushing me to continue this 20-hour-a-day pace, that is exactly what you will have. Only on a much more permanent scale.

You say I’m too talented to not keep doing this. That this is my ‘genius’. Maybe so.

But the bank does not care. The government does not care. The creditors do not care. My kids need to eat. The lights need to stay on. The bills have to be paid.

And my ‘genius’ has not been paying for any of that.

I don’t know why. But it’s not working for me, and it’s not working for my family.

And when the worst happens (because we all have to check out some time), someone else will come along and replace me.

You really don’t need me. Not to the extent that you would have me believe.

I know this for sure. Because I’ve already been ‘replaced’ several times already. Some graciously, some not. A couple actually had the spine to tell me honestly and professionally, and I respect them for that.

Unfortunately, most have actually been complete chicken shits and just replaced me without giving me an indication there was anything wrong, or the chance to make things right, or even explain WHY.

The world loses absolutely nothing by me not designing any more. Designers now are literally a dime a dozen. You can crowd-source a logo and have a choice of 50 designs inside a week and pay the winner 20 bucks for it, and keep 49 in reserve for a ‘refreshed look’ when you get bored with what you got.

So I love you, thank you for speaking so highly of me.

But I really just want to putter in my garden, clear out all the crap from my former office, organize the garage, finish quilts and scrapbooks and try new recipes, spend time with my daughter and patch up my relationship with my son.

And get on with what remains of my life.

Maybe I’ll do a little painting here and there, maybe pick up drawing again, and work off the rust. But it will be for me, on my time, when I feel like it.

It sounds mean but I don’t intend it to be so. It’s simply time for me to call the shots in this life. It’s been 48 years. I’ve earned that much.

Do I completely pack in my business, or find a way to get it back on the rails… some day?

I ended with a plea to the Prince of Peace:

Make up my mind for me.

Be careful what you wish for.

Last Sunday my daughter’s friend was celebrating her First Communion, and we were invited to join the family for the service. The night before the service, I did a quick Angel Card reading, and the message was, “Expect a miracle”. I experienced it the very next day, because I managed to get in and out of the Catholic Church without bursting into flame.

In all seriousness, I had put the question out to God, asking for some sort of clue about what to do with this situation. And wouldn’t you know it, as I sat in the world’s most uncomfortable pews in a church I SO-O-O-O don’t belong in, I got my first wack upside the head.

During the homily, the priest (I think he was a priest, I dunno, there were at least four white-robed men on stage…) spoke about how God prunes the vine, taking away the dead and barren branches to be burned, so that the branches that remain can be more fruitful. (I found the reference, John 15:5, if you care to look it up.)

He went on to talk about how in his late 40′s (like me), he was experiencing extreme burn-out and stress (again, like me… my ears perk up a bit more…), felt exhausted (yeah…) and lacked passion for just about everything in his life (uh-huh…) and even suffered clinical depression.

Bingo. Here was my message from God.

My first time in a House of the Lord in how long, and He’s letting me have it.

The guy in the vanilla tunic went on to say that in clearing away all that no longer served him, he soon recognized a change in his outlook and energy. He went on to say that we all need to make self-care a priority, and prune away those activities that do not allow us to bear more fruit (do our ‘good work’).

Well, there was my answer. Can’t say I was surprised.

But just to be sure, God threw in an exclamation point.

I got a call from a colleague on Monday morning, asking me if I’d be interested in writing a marketing plan.

Crap. Here we go again.

My gut was telling me ‘NO’, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I just said “I need more information before I decide,” and went to work.

I might want to shake off those slaps to the cranium. But Universe is persistent.

I settled in at my desk, and the onslaught of feverish crises that I’d left on Friday were waiting for me. It was going to be another busy, mentally draining day.

And then, Jesus worked his miracle.

Within an HOUR of that phone call asking me if I wanted to do a marketing plan, in “they” walked through the door:

The person that fired me moments before I applied for the job I have today.

One of the several reasons I had to go get this job.

The project they got from me before cutting me loose? A marketing plan.

I don’t know how, but I got through the rest of the day without completely loosing my shit. I held it together until I got home, cried on my hubby’s shoulder for a few minutes, and acknowledged the message.

It’s over.

There is no way you can get a clearer message unless it were made of glass.

So here I am, two months into this new job. It’s going well. I found the perfect place for me to land after falling off my high-speed motorcycle ride through hell and back.

Crash and burn. My spirit took a helluva beating, and my ego has a nasty case of road rash.

As for the business, I still have a few projects on the go. And I reassured some long-time customers — the ones who have been with me from the get-go — that I would continue to help them whenever and wherever I could, even if only on nights and weekends. They know I have kids to feed, clothe and house. And they understand and support my desire to find my ‘balance’ again.

I went to the Real Growth Retreat and it rocked – Shelley’s already 25% full for next year, and I’m so happy for her. I did my speaking gig, but it wasn’t my best performance. I was still too shaken, too rattled from my trip through the grist mill. I tried for the whole month of March to find a way to get out of doing it, but Shelley wouldn’t let me.

And once again, Universe put me in the right place, and the right time, with the right people.

And sent another message.

This time, I paid attention.

On the Saturday during lunch, we passed around a bowl with some one-word cards in it. You were to pull a card, and determine what that card meant for you.

The word I pulled was “Decision”.

I have to make a decision about what to do with this business.

The very last event on the RGR Sunday was a ’round table’, of sorts, during which we had to describe a situation we were facing, and then ask the group for support, resources, help, guidance… and (something that’s a stretch for Little Miss I-Can-Do-It-Myself here) RECEIVE the help offered.

I simply explained how my word was ‘Decision’ and that I had some tough decisions to make about my business. On the second turn around the table, it was my turn to ask for help.

I debated passing. But no, I go and open my friggin’ mouth.

(I sucked up WAY too much time in the discussion that ensued. More guilt…)

One lovely lady suggested I re-build the business part-time while I’m working at the job. She had a friend who transitioned like that and 10 years later she’s in her business full-time and doing very well.

That’s nice.

Bless her heart for wanting to find a solution. If I was 15 or 20 years younger, it might be an option. But it’s not.

I don’t have 10 years.

As a designer, I have ALWAYS freelanced on the side. For 25 years I’ve worked AT LEAST two jobs to make ends meet. For a time I worked three – full-time, moonlighting part-time and some freelance gigs as I got them. Four if you include being a new mom during this period of my life.

And I’m tired.

This was my last attempt at a business. I’d tried the full-time business a couple times before, and got much the same result, financially bound to go back to a job because I lost my shirt flying solo. Now, all my life savings are gone… probably over $50,000 sunk into trying to make this work, trying to please those who will not be pleased unless I pull my intestines out through my nostrils – plus and additional $60,000 of debt that will take me almost all of those 10 years to pay off.

I’m 48 years old. In 10 years, I will have a kid in university, another probably looking at marriage and/or kids of his own, and a husband preparing to retire — whether we have enough money put away or not, he’s packing it in at age 60 and it will be up to me to ensure the heat and lights stay on until we’re both toes up and six feet under.

I’m. So. Friggin’. Tired.

I find I can no longer work all day at a rapid-fire paced job as I have now, and then work 4 or 6 hours MORE every night on the business projects, and still function efficiently the next day.

That won’t help me find my balance. It would be no different than what I had before the wheels fell off. There would be no point to ‘stopping me’ from working myself to death, if I just end up working myself to death anyway, but with a paycheck.

After my second visit to Pegasus Ranch, I thought, “I’ll get back to my painting. That will satisfy my creative urges, and I won’t die from exhaustion working all the time.”

Yet every time I try to make a decision one way, I get pulled in another. When I think about ditching the business and just doing art for fun again, along comes more business. But when I work until 1 am 3 nights a week to get deadlines met, I feel drained and don’t want to do it anymore and long to just paint again.

So do I find a way to ‘make it work’ on a salary equivalent to what I made over 15 years ago? Do I restrict my creative outlets to scrapbooking and oil painting on the weekends? Do I abandon all those ‘big picture visions’ I held onto for so long, and try to find some joy in this “ordinary” life?

Or do I figure out a way to beat this dead horse back to life?

Allow me to tell you this: When my mother moved out of her house into her condo last year, two paintings found their way back to me. I’d created them at the age of 19, a first year college student, with no real experience in oil painting. Looking at them 30 years hence, and remembering that I was little more than I child at the time, I was surprised at how much better they were than I recalled. Turns out, I might have had some talent. Who knew.

Then my brother came by the house with a painter’s easel. Yeah. Painting. I’ll get back to painting.

Three days later, more knocks on the door of my website.

Jesus.

Make up my mind for me.

Back in August, I had a nasty bout of vertigo. If I sat up, I threw up.

It’s the most awful feeling and I can’t even describe it. Imagine feeling sea sick lying in your bed in the middle of land-locked Alberta. Bizarre.

Not to mention, scary. Especially when I had NOT been drinking. That kind of room spinning I know. This was hellish.

I had no idea what caused it, where it came from or how to get over it. My husband wanted me to go to the hospital and I said, “HOW? I can’t get across the room without falling down!”

After three days I got my legs back, and I was back to ‘normal’ about a week to 10 days later. I chalked it up to a nasty flu. But my intuition told me the truth:

My life was out of balance.

All I was doing was working. 16 hours a day, 6 days a week. I would throw an extra 6 hours in on Sunday just to prepare for the next week. My summer was half gone, and I’d barely been out in my garden, or to my camper. As I lay there trying to keep my eyes fixed straight ahead (because a simple glance to the side would send the room reeling), I vowed that I would “cut back” on my hours and make the most of what remained of the summer with my family.

Bullshit.

As soon as I was up and going, I was right back at it. The emails had poured in while I was out flat. “Where’s my project?” “What’s the delay?” “When can I expect this?”

And then more NEW work came in. Projects with huge potential… I couldn’t turn them away.

The first step to recovery, they say, is admitting you have a problem.

So it was right back on (or should I say, “off”) the wagon. Work work work some more. I had never worked so much or so hard in my life.

And when it all went for shit in February, I was devastated. Depressed. My world had ended.

I snapped at my kids over EVERY little thing. My husband… forget it. I stopped all my social media. I stopped pretty much everything. I just wanted to disappear into nothing.

At that time, I happened to be working on some materials for Sherry from Pegasus Ranch, and she invited me to come for a Reiki treatment and coaching session, to alleviate the heavy darkness that consumed me.

Following that treatment, she told me that I was indeed in rough shape. “It’s like all your internal organs were beginning to shut down,” I recall her saying.

I chalked it up to the depression. I felt like I was dying inside, with all the crap that had just happened, so it didn’t surprise me at all.

But that wasn’t it.

The end of March approached. A month had passed. The clouds had lifted a bit, and I know having suffered from depression so many times before that I simply could not live the rest of my life feeling as I did. I wanted my head screwed back on straight. So I attended Sherry’s Soul Path Retreat to give some time to ME, to hopefully find some answers and start to heal.

On the first night there, Sherry did another Reiki session with me. Before we started, I said to her: “All I want to know is why did this happen (referring to my business debacle), and what the HELL do I do now?”

The answer that I got at the end was the one that surprised me.

“They had to stop you,” Sherry said, referring to her angel guides.

“You were working yourself to death.”

An image of my father came to mind. I really am his little girl.

I remembered the vertigo. I remembered knowing it was a message to put things back in balance.

I thought about the friends I’d not spent time with, letters and cards not written, moments with the kids not savoured.

God was sending me messages all along… affecting my health, my relationships, my happiness.

I had ignored all the signs, the yellow flashing lights warning me, and put the pedal to the metal anyway.

The big guy upstairs knew the only way to get me to REALLY stop was to hit me where I would feel it most.

He hit me in the pocketbook.

THAT got my attention.

THAT got me to IMMEDIATELY change my direction. Veer off course. Slam on the brakes.

Before I plummeted off a cliff into the dark abyss.

The only answer that was not made plain as day was to the second question…

“What the hell do I do now?”

(…part 3 to be continued)

Well, not literally, anyway.

A couple of months ago, I took a kick in the teeth (metaphorically speaking) in my business. And then another. And another. All in the space of a week.

Nothing is ever simpler than beating a girl when she’s down.

In one week, four months of work came to a crashing halt – and I received hardly a red cent for any of it.

In one week, over $10,000 of anticipated revenue went ‘poof’ and disappeared.

In one week, I went from screaming busy to panicked and broke.

In one week, I saw my business crumble to the ground.

In one week – the last week of February, my birthday week – I felt as though I died.

And my numerology friends nod and say, “yes, we told you, you are in a year 7 now, a year of reflection and self-discovery.”

Up until that week, I would say, “yeah yeah, that’s nice, I don’t have time to meditate… I have to get this business on the fast track and start making some money…”

I shoulda known…

I see the bills stacked up on my desk. I hear the phone ringing — people looking for payments.

F***. Here we go again. 

As always, the Universe provides. Having just been fired, again, I showed a client to the door, returned to my computer and dug up my resume. I updated it, grabbed the local paper, and applied for the only job I felt I had even a sniff of a possibility of getting.

In under 48 hours I emailed in my resume, had an interview, and received (and accepted) an offer.

I am now a full-time receptionist.

Four years of college. A national design award. Another 2 years of part-time certificate studies. 25 years of experience.

All to become a receptionist.

And I make more money doing that, than I do designing.

*sigh*

I am blessed.

The job was right there. It could’ve taken months to find something, but it didn’t, and the bills are (slowly) getting paid again. And the place where I’m working is really nice, a great (and ever-so-patient!) group of people, in a supportive environment. Exactly what I needed, when I needed it.

Like I said, Universe supplied.

Even so, I miss my business.

I miss easing into my day with a coffee and my Skype chats with my team as we review projects and deadlines.

I miss my team.

I miss having the option of working in my pj’s.

I miss creating cool shit.

I miss setting my own hours, and being home when the kids come through the door after school.

I miss coming up with solutions for my clients’ marketing needs.

I miss envisioning “the big picture” of how my business would grow and flourish.

I won’t lie. I was miserable and VERY depressed. I felt defeated. Broken. Humiliated. Ashamed. You name it.

I still do. I’m just processing it a little differently now. A couple months, a couple revelations, and, well,… I just get up and go through the motions, day in, day out.

And look forward to the end of the month when I get paid for all my effort and time. I’m grateful to be feeling productive again.

And appreciated.

That’s probably the best medicine for me right now.

Because, as I found out in March, I have a lot of healing to do.

(Continued in “Pay Attention. The signs are there.”)

Point of fact: This doesn’t have to apply just to loving customers. Or business at all.

It applies to life.

I wondered what the fine print said, so I zoomed in and picked up bits and pieces of what I could. Turns out they are quotes from the Bible. I thought I would list them here for anyone who just HAD to know…

Hey. It’s Sunday. I’m cool with it.

1. “…but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” – Proverbs 18:24
2. “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry…” – James 1:19
3. “…but the righteous give without sparing.” – Proverbs 21:26
4. “…we have not stopped praying for you…” – Colossians 1:9
5. “Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife.” – Proverbs 17:1
6. “…we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” – Ephesians 4:15
7. “Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure,…” – Philippians 2:14
8. “It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” – I Corinthians 13:7
9. “Bear with each other and forgive one another…” – Colossians 3:13
10. “From the fruit of their lips people are filled with good things…” – Proverbs 12:14

1. Smile. Even when you’re on the phone. Even when you’re tired. Even when you  don’t feel like it. It’s an immediate shift in your energy and it’s the easiest place to start.
2. Follow-up. This is where we can find our fortune. 96% of businesses that attend trade shows and networking events, go to the effort of collecting business cards only to do NOTHING with them. Opportunities missed. Customers alienated. Don’t do that.
3. Check your attitude. You just had Round 8 with your son about his report card, or had your head snapped off by an employee before they quit and stormed out. You’re in a funk now. Don’t take it out on the next customer that happens to call or walk in.
4. Breathe. Sounds like a silly one. But we really don’t breathe properly anymore, largely due to our hectic lifestyles and the stress it causes. Taking a slow deep cleansing breath is like refilling your tank so you can move forward with your conversation and focus on the task at hand.
5. Challenge yourself. There is always some new way to grow in your business, and it often feels uncomfortable at first. Do it anyway. Your customers will admire your moxie.
6. Dare to be remarkable. I have this on a plaque in my office. Being remarkable doesn’t have to mean being centre stage – it can be as simple as delivering some little ‘added value’ that’s meaningful to the customer and makes your service more memorable. The cherry on the sundae, so to speak.
7. Walk your talk. Your actions speak to the content of your character in volumes that drown out any words that part your lips. Don’t say one thing and do the opposite. No one trusts a hypocrite.
8. Stay educated. Keep up to date with the latest technologies and trends. Customers appreciate you keeping your skills and knowledge honed so you have better products and services to help them.
9. Forgive. Talk about challenge, this one is a biggy. Forgive yourself when you screw up. Forgive your staff when they miss a deadline. Forgive your customer for losing patience. Think about how blissful the world would be if we could practice this more…
10. Go the extra mile. I love the phrase “There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.” This ties to being remarkable. Do a few extras that make you stand out from the other cookie-cutter providers in the world.
11. Practice 100% Honesty. If you lie to cover up your shortcomings, you are fooling no one but yourself. The truth always comes to light eventually, and liars suffer the consequences of their actions. In this case, they lose business.
12. Make your business a No-Gossip Zone. I hate gossip and have no respect for gossipers. People who malign the character of others, make unfounded accusations and spread vicious hurtful rumors radiate with negative energy. That’s bad energy for your business and bad karma for your brand. Get rid of them.
13. No Excuses. Everyone knows shit happens. But it shouldn’t be happening on  regular, on-going basis. If you made a mistake, own it and apologize. Then practice point #6: Do something remarkable and make up for it.
14. Trust your gut. Your intuition is a great resource when it comes to figuring out what your customers desire from you. It will also tell you when a customer needs some extra attention. Listen to that inner voice and go for it.
15. Make it fun. Your customers will keep coming back if they enjoy the experience of working with you. That’s a no-brainer.
16. Keep in touch. It’s so easy to keep everyone up to speed and informed with direct mail systems and email marketing programs – both of which Grassroots can help you get going…
17. Take care of yourself. I am told this all the time, yet I rarely practice it. If you go down, who will look after your customers? Eat right, take breaks, get your rest… Caring for yourself is actually the first step to being able to care for your customers, with better quality and for a longer time.
18. Practice patience. You may be patient with customers (or maybe not!). Perhaps the impatience is with yourself or with your marketing for not manifesting instant results. In either case, refer back to point #4.
19. Be consistent. I love riding roller coasters, but not in my business. I don’t like being a rock star one minute and a screw-up the next. Not good for my bi-polar disorder. Plus it tends to piss off customers. So to get more consistency, we need to do the following step…
20. Get systems set up. This was my challenge coming into 2012 and every week, we get closer to having systems working just a bit better. With systems in place, you have a way to follow-up, generate new leads and keep the work moving forward.

Not having systems in place was my greatest challenge in my customer service, because I never anticipated the sudden burst of growth in my business and I was SO not prepared for it. Balls got dropped everywhere last year and my team and I have spent the first six weeks of this year picking them up and putting things right. As we move forward things will improve to the point where everything clicks along effortlessly, and we’ll all be feelin’ the love again.

Out of 50 I managed to get to 20… c’mon even Paul didn’t ACTUALLY list off 50 ways to leave your lover in the song. Plus, I want you to jump into the conversation.

What are some other ways you know to show your customers you care? Leave your comments below.

I don’t like all the pink in the stores. I don’t like all the mushy crap and fakey-flakey romance bullsh*t. I don’t like having to face another onslaught of chocolate temptation when I walk into WalMart, luring me to reunite them with their predecessors who’ve made a permanent home on my ever-spreading ass.

Don’t judge me. I’m the girl who liked to play football, go fishing, climb trees and catch frogs. I had no interest in Barbie as a kid. To me she was a phony ditzy blonde who’s greatest ambition in life was to marry some rich old geezer and live like royalty off the life insurance payout. I had that one figured out by the ripe old age of 10.

(No offense to the many MANY amazing, brilliant blondes out there. Barbie’s just given you a bad rep.)

I mean, I know Valentine’s Day is a day to dedicate to your special someone, carve out some time for them, buy them something nice, go on a date… ya da ya da ya da…

What I don’t ‘get’ is why our North American culture makes it a big fuss ONLY ONE DAY out of the entire year.

I mean, if you really love someone, you should be showing them appreciation every day, even if it’s a simple, “Thanks for vacuuming the house this weekend for me, kids. You are so thoughtful to do that for your tired, hard-working mother.”

AHEM! I SAID… oh, forget it…

What have you done for me lately?

You don’t have to pile on lavish gifts, or buy expensive meals, or indulge in excess of something that will sooner or later kill you.

Every day acts of kindness. THAT I get. Just be kind and loving to the special people in your life. Every. Single. Day.

Then, of course, I thought of business. (It always comes back to business for me…)

I thought about Customer Appreciation Days. Same thing. Why only one day? What do you do the rest of the year? How are you treating your customers when they call or walk in just as you’re about to lock up for the weekend? If you’re lousy at the customer service end of things, all the beef-on-a-bun in the world won’t make up for bad experiences.

I’m not perfect at this either. SOOOO far from it. And that really bothers me.

I want to be a rock star. I have moments when I am… I impress and dazzle and clients fall in love… but I want to be like that consistently. I’m figuring things out, my team and I put new things in place every week, and sweat bullets and pull long days to make things right. We’re almost there. It’s a work in progress.

So with the intent that we should show some love to our clients and customers more than one set day of the year, I decided that – in the spirit of dropping my rebellious nature toward all-things-Valentine’s – February would be “Love Your Customer Month”. 

Over the course of the month, I want to look at various aspect of customer service, how it affects our brand and our reputation, how marketing factors in, what we can do easily and what requires more planning and effort. Most of all, I want to generate lots of discussion on how we can love our customers all year long.

Let’s share some ideas on ways we can all ‘share the love’. How do you show clients/customers that you appreciate them? What little things do you do to show you care? Are you like me and have stumbled and fallen? How did you get back up? What did you fix and how is it working for you?

Leave your comments for discussion… I’d love to chat with you about ideas for different things we can do to make our customers feel loved, without resorting to the obligatory and cliché candy and flowers.

It’s more of a ‘big deal’ for me because this is my industry and I’m expected to keep up with the buzz. However this year I can honestly say after catching a few of them at YouTube this morning – with only a couple of exceptions – I didn’t miss much. To call the creative on these big budget ads underwhelming would be moot. It was a snooze-fest.

There were the usual funny animal videos of dogs, and the E*Trade baby – he’s always good for a giggle… and typical celebrity appearances with their various schticks (Seinfeld and Leno were winners in that category, I think)… Always with the beer, bellies and boobs… ick…  And way way WAY too many auto makers with *yawn* feeble attempts to either be funny, dramatic, touting features of this that or the other… or just plain antagonistic (Ford is ready to pile drive Chevy this morning.)

This one is the hands-down winner. I’m talking MILES ahead of the others.

I’m not a fan of Chrysler, the fact they took bail-out money, etc. etc… however, this ad literally gave me the shivers. Makes me want to roll up my sleeves and give ‘er.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

On the lighter and more creative side, I have to place some Canadian content in a very close runner-up position. This one actually WAS funny, and very Canadian… and from another automobile company.

Just goes to show that not all great marketing ideas come from over-priced Madison-Avenue-type agencies.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

After attending about 35 hockey tournaments over the years, I have seen many levels of business participation, programs, raffles, and player ‘goodie bags’. For many tournaments, the business community steps up to sponsor these events. Some do it really well, and others…

I can look back on my daughter’s hockey tournament this past weekend and review the missed opportunities that happened OFF the ice, for some sponsoring businesses. Flipping through the program, perusing the door prize table, and checking out the kids’ gift bags provided some incentive for this post.

To help you get the most out of these kinds of promotional opportunities I thought I’d give you a few pointers…

1. Learn from the Boy Scouts and Be Prepared.

If you know that local teams, schools and cultural groups regularly solicit you for sponsorships or contributions, have a game plan in place. Aside from the warm fuzzy feeling you get for being a good community supporter, it’s essential that participating in these events fits into your overall strategy.

The fast food franchises practice this: they have little ‘freebie’ coupons they can throw in to player bags for a small treat or drink. To ensure they are used ONLY at the local franchise and not returned home and redeemed there, they often stamp an expiry date on it, or state that it is good only at the local restaurants. It’s a great concept and although they’ll never get 100% of them coming back in, bringing in one free drink coupon with a family of four that needs to eat lunch brings in business that might otherwise have gone else where.

2. Have a workable Call to Action

Like the fast food chains example above, ask yourself: What would YOU like to get back out of it? Foot traffic into the store? People signing up for a new program? For something like a hockey tournament, I can assure you that most of us don’t have a ton of time to go shopping, it’s game – eat – game – eat – sleep. So what else can a business do to support a local event and still get some ROI from it?

This is an opportunity to tie an online strategy into your offline activity. If you have a retail store with an online e-commerce store, drive traffic to your website. Even if your primary goal is to increase your brand awareness within your local community, find a way to get products or services into the prospective customers’ hands so they can ‘sample’ you and have reason to come in to your business at a later date. The key is to get as many prospects to take some kind of action as you can.

3. Use ad space wisely

This one can go way beyond “business card” ads for community event programs, because most small businesses are not creating effective business cards. But that’s another post for another day…

If you have ad space as part of your sponsorship package, USE IT WELL! Ask yourself once again… “What do I want people to DO when they see my ad?”

I’ll use my business as an example… I put in a QR Code on my ad with a flag that said “FREE GIFT” when you visit grassrootsmarketing.ca. Scanning the code sent the reader to a specific landing page where I gave them a free MP3 recording. Traffic to the site, new prospective customer, new contact on the list. Mission accomplished. If two visitors decided to buy the CD for the rest of the recordings, I got a 200% return on my investment. Plan implemented, target set, results measurable.

Too many ads in the program last weekend were ‘dead air’… a business name, a phone number, maybe an address. No URL. No call to action. No opportunity to ‘sample’ the business. I might be looking for a grad gift this spring… where should I go? Why should I shop in your store versus the other 28 listed here? Wayne Gretzky said, ‘You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.’ So take the shot. Use that space you paid for and score a result for your business.

4. Have the right stuff for printing your ads and posters

I know this one from past experience… business owners often toss a business card to the committee member asking for the donation and ad, and tell them, “Just scan what you need off the card.” UGH!

I’ve already mentioned how odds are that business card is not an effective sales tool anyway… but scanning it to reprint? This drives me up a wall, especially when it’s a red and navy logo on a gold textured paper… ohmygod by the time it gets reprinted it looks like something I pick up on my walks with the dog.

You should ALWAYS have a vector version of your logo ready to email at a moment’s notice. Vector files are those ending in .eps, .ai or .bmp. Even a high resolution JPG or PNG file would be better than scanning a printed image. Just ask where to email it and they’ll get it to the right person. It saves time and gives a better image for your business.

And again, have your call-to-action ready for them to put in place so they’re not guessing what you want on your ad and you end up with ‘dead air’.

5. Do Door Prizes Right

I have to say, Olds has the best damn raffle tables of all the hockey tournaments in Alberta, thanks in large part to the contributions of our local businesses and the go get ‘er work of the parents. We have teams that write back to us after our tournaments to compliment the committee on the fabulous tournament and great raffle. So having seen how well we do here, I’m going to share some successes…

Give products, not coupons. Like I said earlier, we don’t come to shop, we come to play in a tournament. I overheard one person from an away team comment on a $50 gift certificate prize that there was no point in entering that prize draw because they can’t come back to town to use it. Down a few more baskets, and there were actual products from other stores, each probably worth $50 a piece. Better to donate a $50 hoodie or purse than a gift certificate, because now the prospects SEE what you offer, and the winner gets to SAMPLE it for themselves (and of course, fall in love with it).

Here’s the second half of the equation though… with that donated prize, include an online gift certificate they can redeem at a later date when they shop your online store. Have it expire a few months after the event so it’s not floating around forever… but that accomplishes a second objective, to drive SHOPPING traffic to your website! You can have a pile of these discounts printed and have them available for everyone, or put it in your program ad.

One last and VERY important point:

6. Follow through on your sponsorship promise

This one comes from our trip to the Atom Provincials last March in Grande Prairie. We took a bus, and with each player there was at least one parent, and a few other relatives in the area came to watch the girls play. We had 15 girls if I recall, so an estimated head count every time the team wanted to go for dinner was about 45 – 50 people. The tournament ran from a Thursday to Sunday.

One of the MAJOR sponsors was a franchise restaurant. Each team manager was given a coupon from this restaurant, inviting the team to come and eat at one of their two locations. (If I recall it was good for a 20% discount on our tab, quite substantial.) So we picked one evening when we had a large enough time block to allow us to get to the restaurant, eat and get back for our next game. That worked out to be supper at 6 pm on Friday night. I phoned to make the reservation, and here is what I was told:

“I’m sorry, we can’t take reservations for groups that size Friday OR Saturday.”

Excuse me? You’re a major sponsor of a provincial tournament, this discount is ONLY available at these two restaurants, only for provincial tournament teams, and you won’t accept our reservation?

So we asked if we could place an order for take-out and we would eat back at the hotel. Still no… They were too busy to accommodate us.

It’s a nearly 7-hour drive from Olds to Grande Prairie. We were NOT coming back all that way on a week night when it was convenient for them just to eat pizza for 20% off the regular price.

Sponsorship FAIL.

If you are going to make an offer – whether as a sponsor or any other time – you’d better be prepared to follow through with it.

PS – On a personal note, my daughter’s team won their division this weekend after a thrilling final game that came down to a shoot-out… and my girl was the goalie. First year between the pipes and she’s really doing well… 3 tournament shut outs and now this. I think I have to start monitoring my blood pressure after games like that.