Small Business Talk with MDzyn

Whether you’re selling widgets or services (like me), customers vary widely in their wants, needs and budgets. Your offerings should accomodate as many options as possible so that whatever their scenario, you have something to fit or can offer a customized solution that fits. 


To that point, some customers are simply not willing to pay the asking price for your product or service, or are more interested in pricing than in quality. You can avoid losing sales to many of these customers by offering a smaller or stripped down version of your product or service at a lower price. Or, like mentioned earlier, bend your product or service lines to fit their need with a customized solution.

For the customers that do “get it”, meaning they do understand the value of the product or service you provide, or for those looking for quality and are willing to pay for it, offer a “premium version”.

Take this advice and apply it to your particular business model. For MDzyn Solutions, the answer is that nothing is cookie cutter these days, but for those small businesses concerned with start-up or small budgets, we simply work closely with them to define a win-win situation.

In my mind, a small job is better than no job at all. The egos of 2007 and 2008 should be tossed aside to discover, rebuild and/or sustain valuable customer relationships.

Big businesses usually have big budgets. They spend a lot of it on advertising campaigns. It takes consistent and long-term advertising campaigns to create name recognition and drive sales. Advertising to the volume that is necessary is very expensive.

A small business can’t afford to do that. Small businesses can do things that are more cost effective to produce quicker results. Instead of print advertising, try a consistent e-marketing campaign and include offers to your customer or prospects that encourage a quick call-to-action. A free or discounted one-time product or service is good way to grab attention. Also, make sure your content contains information valuable to the reader. Industry specific news is usually read and appreciated. A good strategy is to design a campaign specific to your existing customer base and one that targets a prospective list of customers. This provides the opportunity to “say” say different things to each group, yet keep your brand and tone consistent. Another positive attribute of e-marketing versus print or other forms of advertising, is that you have metrics. You may not know who read that ad or saw that billboard, but you will know who received and/or opened your e-message, as well as who clicked through to your website, etc. This helps tremendously as you continue to scrub your customer and prospect lists and craft your content to the interests of your target audiences to ensure the best results on the next e-message you send.

The keys are simple:

• Good design to support your brand identity
• Interesting and valuable content
• Include an offer and/or a strong call to action
• Send consistently, i.e. monthly, quarterly

MDzyn Solutions can help you define, design and execute a solid e-marketing campaign to drive traffic to your website and ultimately sales for your business.

This recession – said by many to be ending, and said by some to be preparing itself for an ugly return – is positioning many small businesses for a very positive result. The law of “natural selection” means basically that the strong survive and the weak demise. The same happens in the world of business as in nature, and small businesses are even more susceptible.

Right now, the excesses of greed and stupidity are being cleansed. And many savvy small businesses are benefiting from this cleansing. During good times, inadequacies and a lack of ethics and/or good judgement is easier to hide. But, in a struggling economy, these shortcomings are much harder to camouflage and eventually dig a deep enough hole that cannot be scaled by those shops, restaurants and stores that should probably have never been started in the first place.

What’s left, are the smart small businesses that have lived through this challenging time. They will have learned how important it is to reduce prices and/or add value to their products and services.

As an entrepreneur and small business owner myself, I can vouch for the struggles I’ve faced this year, and can also proudly claim myself as a survivor. My company – MDzyn Solutions – helps small businesses define, design and promote their identities. My intention with the brighter future staring at us, is to implement the lessons learned by offering even greater value to my clients, and making sure that they know how much I appreciate their business.

Let the fun begin!

A fine artist may paint a picture with sheer creativity and no expectations, and really no strategy or plan. They just move the paint brush to fit their mood and ideas. Building and promoting a company brand is a bit different. It’s not based on creativity and color, but rather a collection of experiences and associations connected with a service, a person or entity. A brand is more than a logo, or the colors you choose to use on a brochure. Those things may be part of your “brand identity”, but they are not your brand.

Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business. An effective brand strategy gives you an edge in a competitive market — it differentiates you from your competitors. Your brand is your promise to your customers and conveys what they can expect from your products and/or services.

When you think about defining your brand, think about who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be. It’s a lot of work and can be a time consuming process, but in the end, it’s one of the most important things you can do for your business.

So, go ahead and start the process of defining your brand, then be true to that brand and build everything around it.

Is customer service a lost art, or have the expectations of what it really means changed due to technology and culture? Before the technology boom of email, and recent social media tools, people used to meet face to face, use paper, take notes, and walk away with a shared understanding of goals and deliverables. Then, if the work was delivered on time, on budget, with a smile and achieved the defined goals, it was considered good customer service.

Today, a service provider may consider themselves customer service-oriented if they attend their online meetings, let their customers know what’s going on via email, Linked-In or Twitter, and deliver metrics and reports to prove that their solution was successful – at least from a numbers perspective.

Personally, my goal is to utilize the incredible technology and tools of today, while maintaining a strong relationship with my clients by doing the little things the old fashioned way – meeting in person, doing lunch, sharing current challenges and opportunities, etc.

It really doesn’t have to be one way or the other, does it?

A tough economy is NOT the time for businesses to discontinue their marketing efforts. Just the opposite is true. When your customers and prospects have tightened their purse strings is when you need to stay in front of them even more consistently then when they are spending money. The strategy is that when the economic scenario improves, you will be the partner, vendor, service provider or widget seller that will be “top of mind”. When they are “ready to buy”, they’ll think of you and not your competitor that stayed under the rock and saved a few bucks during the downturn. Think about it! Call MDzyn and we can help you push the rock off your back and get back in the game and in front of your customers and prospects!

Hi. Welcome to my new blog.

In this down economy, I’ve had time to redesign and launch a fresh website for MDzyn Solutions. I decided to include this blog as a way to communicate and share my business-related, and maybe sometimes personal views. And, I consider it an honor to hear your views as well.

In the five years I’ve had my own business, I have been fortunate to have a constant flow of work. I don’t chalk this up to luck however. From my first client in 2004, I have worked extremely hard to deliver quality work and make every client feel like they are my only client. Because of this, referrals have taken care of keeping me and a several associates busy. That’s not the case now. I have to admit that I’m a bit concerned. Should I reinvent myself? No, because I love what I do. Should I  network more? I’m not sure if that will help as I have a great network already, and the problem of small companies not spending money right now won’t be helped by meeting new small companies that are not spending money.

So, here’s my strategy: stay positive; continue to improve my offerings, knowledge and partnerships; and keep communicating with my established network of clients, who at some point, will once again have the funds to partner with MDzyn Solutions.

What do you think?