An effective website is one of the most critical parts of landing customers for business. To accomplish that, we often invest substantial amounts of money and time using someone’s creative efforts and adding beautiful artwork. Granted, our website should not be ugly; however, beauty is not the most critical factor.

Orbit Media Studios published a survey in which respondents said that 76% of the time, ease in finding the information they wanted was most critical. We need to think through how customers see our site when they first investigate us. Information about where to go next may be obvious to us, but it might be very confusing to our customers.

A guest was checking out my vegetable garden and noted that my potato patch was growing extremely well. “Adam” commented that his potato plants were wilted and appeared to be dying. I mentioned a few things I did to keep my potatoes healthy and suggested how Adam might treat his sick plants. Immediately Adam took issue with my ideas. I quickly backed off because I didn't want to get into an argument. However, I was thinking how I wasn’t the one with sick potatoes. I believe part of the issue was that Adam didn't see me as an expert in gardening.

I've noticed that people have a tendency to argue with expert advice. I've had business clients argue with me intensely when they believe their business decision is correct and they don't want to make alterations. Inflexibility makes going forward in a different direction very difficult. In those moments I think to myself, I'm not the one with the failing business.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau issued a very insightful report demonstrating the major shift into targeted Internet and social media advertising. Internet advertising significantly outpaces television advertising, and the trend is for significant increased growth. The full report is here: https://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/IAB-2017-Full-Year-Internet-Advertising-Revenue-Report.REV2_.pdf

In the past advertisers paid to reach individuals who were not the target audience. The newspaper may reach thousands of readers in an effort to find a few who may be interested in purchasing a swing set this weekend. 

Frequently we present information about our product and service that we believe is important and valuable to customers. A better way to decide what to share with customers is to ask specifically, what does our customer value?

Most of us want to leave a good legacy behind. Demonstrating the power of Christ in your life is the best legacy we can leave. In addition, we may have other stories and accomplishments others may find interesting that we should pass on.

A few years ago I stumbled on some notes my uncle had written regarding my grandfather. I found an interesting story that occurred in 1910 when he left a small farming town in Aylmer, Ontario, to take a bank manager's job in Calgary.  In 1910, Calgary was still a part of what we would call the Wild West. My uncle’s notes told how my grandfather would sleep in the bank office with a .38 caliber pistol under his pillow to make sure nobody broke in to rob the safe. Years later after he moved to Detroit, he used the same pistol when he collected rent in a real estate business.