In a new poll released this morning, Americans across ALL income brackets are just buying the basics. The area that is getting hurt the most: vacations. But surprisingly, the grocery store is being affected as well. More Americans are shopping at discount grocery stores like Wal-Mart. Check out these numbers:

43% are cutting back on groceries
68% are dining out less often

What does this show? According to CNBC’s Senior Economics Reporter Steve Liesman, “a stunning loss of confidence in the economy.” And for the first time, wealthy Americans are starting to pinch pennies with the rest of the country’s population. What are some of the changes seen in the market?

Trading in pricey cuts of steak for cheaper chicken and buying beer instead of hard alcohol. Use of coupons has also reached an all-time high.

73% of Americans are driving less (really? I don’t see this happening – ANYWHERE – especially in Atlanta where traffic is always bumper to bumper)
68% are reducing their travel plans

What caused the issue? Experts point to $4.00 a gallon gas prices. I see that as just an excuse. Economic woes are never due to simply the price of fuel. Sorry, but I’m going to get a little rough here. If the price of fuel was such an issue for Americans, you’d see more bikes being ridden, fewer errands to the “corner store”, more car pooling, better tuned engines, heck, even the proper air pressure in tires being done.

But no, none of that is happening? Why? Because the average American is just too damn lazy and doesn’t want to be a part of the solution, they’d just rather bitch about the problem. Want proof? Tomorrow morning when you drive to work, pay attention to the parking lots at the 2-3 gyms you pass. They’re probably packed, right? Hello?!?!?! You’re going to the gym to work out. How about you JOG or ride your bike there?!?! But you’re going to drive?!?! That makes for a classic line:

“You know, I use to jog five miles a day until I realized I could do it a lot faster in my car.” – Anon

Soon I will write about “entitlement” and how it has ruined the American economy, not the fuel prices, and until that is changed, America will continue to struggle and experts will still be clueless as to why. In the meantime, with the trust and confidence weak, it is up to you to review your offers and promote your services effectively. Even in a down economy you can make your offer irresistible.

I have a teenager and two pre-teens. They all use the computer. Big surprise. And MySpace, FaceBook, and the other social network sites are popular with kids everywhere. Experts state you need to confront your child and demand to see their profiles. That’s not such a good idea. “Catching them” is not your priority. Building the relationship and keeping them safe is.

Here are some tips which will help:

1. Ask your child which networks they are on. Give them a chance to tell you and make sure they know the penalties for lying to you.
2. Tell your child they have 24 Hours to show their profile(s) to you. “I don’t want to see it now, but I want to see it tomorrow. Make sure there isn’t anything on there you wouldn’t want me to see.”
3. The next day when you sit down with your child tell them of the importance of keeping the information on their pages safe, so they aren’t at risk. Even if only their friends have access to their profiles, information could be used against them if the friendship falls apart and that could make things more difficult for them.
4. Write down all the URLs of their profiles. Ask again, “Is this all?” Repeat the punishment for lying.
5. If the computer is in their room, move it to a room where their activities could be monitored.
6. While your child is gone, install PC Tattletale so you know EXACTLY where your child is going online. It is hands down the best internet monitoring software I have tested.

Remember to Trust, but Verify your child’s activities online.

I wrote this piece last year on Father’s Day. The feedback last year was enough to warrant a repost. It’s worth the read.

Originally posted June 18, 2007

Does this sound familiar? Does this come into your head or out of your mouth when you look to get into a market?

Today is Father’s Day, and I was relaxing in the sun having a visit with my dad. The visit was a little one-sided since he past away in 2003. As it often does, inspiration comes at odd times. Let me share with you a story that I was just reminded of . . .

In the early 80s, when I was in high school, a man moved into the house across the street. We didn’t have many move-ins as our neighborhood was very stable. My father made me go with him to welcome our new neighbor to the area. Hey, I was a teenager, I didn’t want to go, but I was fortunate, as it was an introduction that I would long remember. In the conversation, my father asked our new neighbor what he did for a living.

“I sell pianos and I am opening a piano store in the area,” he replied.

This interested my father. Even though he was a school teacher, he loved discussing business. It was a passion of his.

“We just bought a piano,” my father followed. “There are three piano stores in the area already and I visited each one. Each store was empty when I went in and business seemed to be very poor. In fact, we got a great deal on our piano because of it.”

The picture my father was painting was why in the world would this man relocate from out of state to open a piano store in an area that was overly saturated with piano stores? This statement, of course, was according to the observations of my father. The next statement has stuck with me ever since. Our new neighbor replied:

“Just because someone is in the piano business doesn’t mean they KNOW the piano business.”

He went onto explain that he had visited each store my father spoke of, acted like a customer and was shocked by the poor treatment he received and the incorrect information he was given. He knew he could capitalize in the market. And capitalize he did.

One of the first things he did was each piano purchase included delivery, setup, an “in home” lesson and free lessons for life. The competition thought he was crazy. His prices were higher and his store wasn’t the easiest to get to, but he started gaining market share rapidly.

Taking time away from business to travel to a home to give a free piano lesson would seem like “business suicide” to most business owners. However, when the owner is invited into the home of the customer there is a level of trust that is instantly built. The owner is able to answer question directly, give a lesson and spend time with customers, as every owner of a business should. And best of all, it takes place in the customer’s home, where they feel safe.

Was it a waste of time? Hardly.

New customers to his store would often state they were there because of the “crazy story” they heard from their neighbor or friend. Each story was a little different, but usually was:

“My neighbor said that you actually came to their home and gave their daughter a free personal piano lesson? Is that true?”

The owner said to me just before I left for college that any business owner will tell you that a referral from a satisfied customer is the easiest to sell to. “But,” he said, “the customers that walk through my door already have their credit card in hand or check books out. I rarely have to try anymore to sell pianos.” People who bought a piano from him only went to his store, they rarely, if ever, shopped around.

And why did he offer free piano lessons for life? Simple. When you walked into his piano store, there was always a piano being played by a real person, not a salesperson. You could see a “lesson” was being given which set them apart even more. How did he do it? He hired local piano teachers and the amount he paid was a fraction of what he made from the customer trust that was gained.

Take this example to heart. Just because there is a lot of competition doesn’t mean that the competition is doing things right. Look for ways you can improve the market, look for “points of difference” that can set you apart in the mind of the customer.

Do this, and you will dominate as my neighbor did.

Thanks Dad, for taking me across the street when I didn’t want to go. You may have been an English teacher, but I learned one of the most valuable business lessons because of you, and for that, I will be ever so thankful. Happy Father’s Day.

If you have followed me for any amount of time, you know that I don’t recommend very many companies. The same goes for “warnings” too, but I can’t let this one slide.

Do not, under any circumstances, do business with Anindya Banerjee of XWebz.com. I had outsourced to him since 2002. I have found him to be dishonest to me as well as to his team members and underpay contractors. This was a very disturbing find as I thought we had a great working relationship.

What makes matters worse is he doesn’t take responsibility for his actions, he just blames others. Don’t risk your business to someone like this. Avoid this person and his company. He is located in Kolkata, India.

After having Amazon.com go down on Friday with a “Service Unavailable” message, the same is occurring with MySpace.com today. I was informed of the outage by Jeff Greenfield from Product Placement.

According to Greenfield:

“A traceroute performed from different locations finds that the host is ‘unknown’. More interesting is that the domain record appears to have been updated earlier today. While the ip addresses appear to be working – nothing is connected to the domain.

“According to the domain lookup – the domain was was last updated on 8-Jun-2008 08:50:45 EDT.

“Unlike Amazon, where shoppers will return to purchase an item, MySpace having such a large outage will result in significant lost revenue.”

Amazon was hit with a “denial of service” bot attack. MySpace have their own DNS Servers and Greenfield pointed out that the DNS was last updated yesterday. I am wondering if it was just a simple misconfiguration. If so, I don’t think that person will have a job come Monday.

Greenfield also stated both domains are registered through Network Solutions and the issue could very well be a Network Solutions hack.