Weekly Hot Takes: You Are Who You Hire

This week, I have three things I want to tackle. The first is the importance of having and cultivating a good, welcoming company culture. The second is the topic of why every business, no matter your size, should have a website or some kind of bare minimum digital presence. Last, but not least, when is it to early to start working on your back-to-school marketing?

You Are Who You Hire
What's the culture of your company? Do you know, could you describe it? Company culture is important not only to the day-to-day operations of your business, but also in terms of who you attract as far as employees are concerned. I've always thought that company culture was important. But what is company culture?

Company culture, to put it simply and to use my own words, is who your company is. what you value, your mission, it's the people working there from the top level, all the way to the bottom. Does your company encourage collaboration, initiative and innovation, or are employees expected to just do whatever they're told to the letter? Are your employees allowed to express themselves without reprecussion, or are they worried about being caught by management? Do you tend to have a high turnoever rate where you find that you're almost always looking for new staff to replace the ones that have left for greener pastures?

If any of that sounds like your business, or even in the same ballpark, it might be time to give your company culture a deeper look. After all, it can only help you improve.

Nothing But a Number?
So, you run a business. It's not huge, maybe just an office and you don't have a website. Not only do you not have a website, you don't use any social media for your business -- not even Facebook. You haven't claimed your business on Yelp and the only way people can reach you is by calling or physically visiting. That's a huge mistake, and here's why:

We are in a digital age. Most people have smartphones, carry tablets, and/or spend a lot of time on laptops. Especially the younger generations who are soon to rise up as the big spenders. This means, at the very least, you should have a website. You should have somewhere that is managed by you or an employee where you are telling your company's story, explaining how you came to be where you are, who is running things behind the scenes and detailing whatever services or goods you offer. If not, you're just a bare bones Google search and people who may be looking for services such as yours will have nothing to look at but reviews on Yelp. And we all know that sometimes -- okay, so most of the time -- reviews on Yelp don't show a lot of businesses in a glowing light. If you had your business claimed on Yelp, you could be replying to reviews to apologize or in some way rectify the situation.  

Not having anything at all may give your potential customers the impression that you don't care.

Back to School
Yes, July 4th was only a few days ago.

Yes, it's only been a couple weeks, if that, since school ended. 

I also happen to think it's the perfect time to at least start to plan your back-to-school marketing plans. If parents today are anything like my mom was back when I was attending elementary and junior high school, they'll be ready to hit the likes of Walmart, Target, etc. by the first week of August and stock up on everything from pens, pencils and notebooks to picking out outfits for that first day and the rest of the year. 

Starting a marketing plan early has the chance to help you catch the early shoppers and prepare to also catch those parental figures who go shoping the week before school starts. Two birds with one stone and all that.

What did you notice or have thoughts on this week? Comment below.