Credibility

How do you gain credibility - what makes you credible?

The best way to gain credibility is through long experience with a person. Over time, you come to trust that she will carry out what she is supposed to do, and you are willing to trust them with important items.

But if you are a startup - none of your clients or early customers have any experience with you. So how to create credibility in that situation?

Let's use an analogy: a job interview. How do you know that the person you are interviewing knows the job? How do you decide on the credibility of a candidate? If the candidate seems to know the industry, ask useful questions, can explain how things are done - in this and a myriad of ways, she demonstrates competence in the role.

Likewise, you gain credibility in your prospective customer's eye, by doing the same: asking good questions, show understanding of the industry - pay attention to the issues they are interested in. These are ways you can bank 'knowledge' credibility (credibility based on what you know).

Another way to base credibility is in 'who you know'. If Jones always trusts you to do the job, and I trust Jones, then there is a transitive relationship. This 'transitive' credibility is harder to build, since presumably there are not other customers you can refer to. But there are people who know the industry and are interested in your work. Be sure they can help you.

I will leave you to work out how you can lose credibility - but suffice to say, both lack of knowledge and lack of transitiveness cause it.

As you build your business: are you building credibility?

Use a 3x5 card

A great tip from Bill Gosnell of the Pawnee Chamber of Commerce -

"Grab a 3x5 card and one topic, such as the front entry of your business. Now list not more than 3 affordable items that would improve the appearance or functionality of what most customers deal with first...carry the card with you until all 3 items are accomplished."

Concentrating solely on overwhelming issues to handle at work often leads to paralysis. By tackling a few smaller items, you can gain momentum on the big issues. Start small. Fix the simple items.

When you are done with a card - tear it up and start another.

Lunchtime Tech Talk series

Our Business and Industry Computer training services group is offering a series of lunch programs for small business on computer issues. As we leave summer behind and start into the fall - why not take the time to upgrade your computer skills?

Lunchtime Tech Talk: The Good, the Bad, and the “Oh My” Web Sites

Bring an appetite for learning technology tips that will make today’s computer technology work for you!

The Lunchtime Tech Talk series will meet from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the Center for Business Development building room 104N on the Meridian Technology Center’s campus the first Friday each month:
Sept. 03 - The Good, the Bad and the “Oh My” Web Sites
Oct. 01 - Excel 2007 Tips & Techniques
Nov. 05 - Media Integration in PowerPoint 2007
Dec. 03 - Be on the Edge of 2010

You pick and choose the luncheons you want to attend. The price for each luncheon is only $10 and includes a box lunch.

Our first presentation in this lunch hour series will highlight the common mistakes made in Web site design as well as recommended planning guidelines.
Computer Training Services is providing this lunch hour training series.

The deadline to register is 5 p.m. on Tuesday, August 31.

For more information call Kim Strom at (405) 377-3333 X265; or to enroll, visit www.meridian-technology.com or call (405) 377-3333 or toll-free at (888) 607-2509.

Location: Meridian Technology Center, Center for Business Development room 104N.


Oftentimes it is easy to forget your local technology center offers a wide variety of computer and training courses. The class instructors are always well trained and the courses are usually very inexpensive. Rather than the training class booklet that came in your mail unbidden, remember your Technology Center!

10 Customers

I have been seeking a simple question I can ask prospective business owners to judge how far along they are in their business - and whether they understand where they need to be to come into the incubator or get a bank loan.

Jason Cohen on his "A Smart Bear" blog states what he looks for: 10 customers. 10 people willing to give you money for your product/service (even if it is not ready).

It is a useful question. If the prospective business owner can't show anyone is interested in paying for his product - then why go forward?

Since I am not dealing only with software startups, I might be able to weaken the requirement a bit, but the principle ("Who is buying your product?") is so critical to success that it could function as a single question to get started.

So - who is buying your product?

Judging Business Incubators

If you are considering using a business incubator for your startup - how do you know they are any good?

Are they benign, but unhelpful? Are they going to push your business in directions you don't want to go? What experience do they have to bring to the table?

There is a good posting on Finding A Quality Business Incubator which I would recommend to you. It covers a number of areas to review.

Also, is the incubator a member of NBIA (National Business Incubator Association)?

Just like when you are hiring a contractor for your house remodeling - the best way to know if they are any good is to ask previous clients. For incubators, the same holds. Get a list of clients. But since those lists tend to be cherry-picked for good referrals - be sure to do some searching on Google, or ask those clients what other businesses were in the incubator when they were resident - then go ask those.

Incubators can be a fantastic way to help your business get off the ground, but as always, a bit of considered evaluation can put you in the right incubator for your business.

Cool your Customers

UPDATE: August 31. Now cashiers can no longer just type in the register for the ice purchases - they have to go get a bag from the ice machine, bring it back, wand the price, then bag it. That will solve people stealing ice, won't it!

In retailing, even the most benign rules you give to your employees can go awry.

On my way home today for lunch, I stopped in our local big box store to pick up a bag of ice. I bought a bag of ice and as I was leaving the store, the greeter called me back inside and asked to see my receipt for the bag of ice. The greeter was an older lady in a motorized chair - she had to drive up to me. So I went back in, showed her a receipt and was able to leave. As I did, the man behind me remarked on the absurdity of this situation and laughed.

I am sure this greeter was told to 'check all receipts' for ice. I suppose that occasionally someone walks out with a $2.14 bag of ice that they did not pay for. I doubt they are in business attire on a Monday morning at 11am. And if I had been wanting to steal the ice, I could have easily outdistanced the greeter on the scooter merely by walking away!

When you give your employees a rule and no exceptions you are likely to get results in ways you probably wouldn't want.

I like to buy ice at the big box store as it is cheaper than the local gas station and not too inconvenient. But if I have to worry about checking out with the greeter if I run in for a bag - I will go somewhere else. So a 5 cent bag and a bit of water are sufficient to stalk people as they leave the building?

Nothing cools the enthusiasm of your customers than rules that make them seem like they are a crook. Be sure to balance your need for stock control with their freedom to shop. You might need to allow a bit of ice leave - melt away so to speak - rather than risk losing future sales.

Retailing: of Chocolate and Frozen Yogurt

My wife and I stopped into a local retail store that sells specialty chocolates. There were many individual chocolates lined up in the display case, much like a doughnut shop. We selected four chocolates in a couple varieties we wanted to buy and after a wait, the employee weighed the chocolates and charged us by weight, not unit. The price was $2.50 per chocolate; our sale totaled $11.49 for four normal sized truffles. We were shocked - it just seemed like that was expensive for chocolate. We probably would not go back, and would be very careful if we did.

A few weeks earlier, we went to a local frozen yogurt shop. You may have seen one of these stores which have 15 soft serve spigots with different flavored yogurt, and then a large selection of toppings. You grab a cardboard bowl and then fill it with yogurt and toppings. The resulting sundae was also weighed and the price set accordingly. The price was a bit higher than we wanted, but we felt like if we returned we would know how much to get.

Two retail stores, both using weight as a method for charging customers.

I would argue the chocolate shop is making a serious error in charging by weight. Since a chocolate is discrete, you wouldn't normally think about it as something whose value is in the weight. Moreover, this particular chocolate is very high quality - but weight is not usually a sign of quality. If your customers are unable to gain a sense of what something will cost going in, they are likely to shy away from the shop. Consider a father with his kids - he certainly does not want to get caught with a large bill for a small amount.

Finally, since there was no signage that the chocolates were going to be weighed, I had no way to know what they would cost. Nor do I have any sense of what a chocolate weighs.

But in the case of the frozen yogurt, I know how big a bowl I eat of ice cream - by going once and creating my sundae, even if it is more expensive than I thought it would be, I can now size future sundaes appropriately. How could I do the same with a single chocolate?

The moral of this is not to go have dessert with me.

Perhaps a more useful moral is that as a retailer, be sure that your pricing model fits with your customer expectations. My example of a doughnut shop above is instructive - we all know that doughnuts are sold per piece. I, as an experienced doughnut eater, also know roughly what a doughnut would cost.

If you are going to break that expectation, you had better make sure right up front that the customer understands what you are doing, and in a way that he can know roughly what it is going to cost him to get out of the store. No matter how good your chocolate.