Traditional advertising is a contest; which business can spend the most money to deliver the most messages. It is like trying to see who can climb to the highest mountain and scream the loudest (and longest) in an effort to get people to pay attention to you.

This same week last year, I noticed a posting on Facebook about January 27 being National Chocolate Cake Day (who knew?). That same night we were going to dinner with friends at our favorite local diner. Chocolate cake is their specialty dessert.

They have a newsletter they send to customers. They also post on Facebook, but there was nothing about chocolate cake. What if they were to offer to all those who ate at the restaurant on January 27, a small slice of cake?

People would talk about the restaurant. If you saw something on Facebook or on the news about chocolate cake, you would surely think about this restaurant. 

This is a lot cheaper than spending a lot of money on advertising.

This past week I was visiting with a business coordinator for a national organization. This person gets to see a lot of businesses and shared a common observation with me; businesses that look outdated most frequently are struggling to produce revenue. Let me invite you to read this month's article about a personal experience with remodeling.

Ever borrow money for your business? With the lender, did you sign a one page document or a document that had a lot of pages to it?  All of those extra pages, while written in what seems to be a foreign language, provide the covenants or agreements of how you will operate the business for the length of the loan.

The covenants often require that you provide the lender with copies of your financial statements on a monthly or quarterly basis. The lender is going to analyze your financial statement to determine the strength of your business. One of the calculations most frequently evaluated is the debt to equity ratio. 

Follow the link below to understand how this is calculated. This link will also provide you with the free calculator on our website which will perform the calculation for you so you can see how well your business is performing.

Our house has an occasional young visitor who will find a PostIt pad and leave little notes for us to find. Some notes are on doors, the refrigerator, or any available space on a wall. The notes don't come down; they are just nice reminders of someone who appreciates us.

Then I remembered there is a notebook in my office that is filled with printed emails and note cards that I have received since I first starting writing over 25 years ago. They are uplifting and are definitely a help on a tough day.

The thought/incentive is to ask if you are writing notes of appreciation to your staff.

We want to recognize A Carrot A Day by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, whose book provides the basis for each month's incentive idea.