Hey Big Business,

I know you’ve laid off lot’s of people in the past few months. And as an entrepreneur, I understand the need to control costs. But what if you could control your costs, keep your employees (even strengthen their loyalty to your company), and possibly increase your revenue during this slow down?

How?

Eliminate your advertising budget. Then proclaim to your employees your undying devotion to keeping them on staff. While you’re at it, let every media channel know what you’re doing.

Here’s the benefits:

• Increased employee loyalty: If you were to hold a company wide televised meeting, and tell each and every employee that their job is safe, you will develop a safe culture where your employees will be able to focus on helping your customers, and not on fear.
• Those loyal employees can serve as your evangelists: What’s more powerful? Seeing a splashy Target ad on TV, or having the entire 200 Target employee force, sharing how great the store is to all of their friends? That’s Viral Marketing! Facebook and Twitter not needed.
• Happier American Culture: I blame corporate retail super centers for the decline in American intelligence and morale. If your store were to bank the future of the company on your employees, educate them, and empower them you would be affecting the nation’s people in a positive direction at the same time.
• Image enhancement: Let’s face it. There are a lot of us that revolt from retail corporations (It might have something to do with removing money from local economies – Sorry, I know I’m trying to help here not criticize). Imagine what the benefit would be for your company image? If you declared that 50 jobs in a some town would be spared, the loyalty to your brand would be immensely strengthened.

Who needs ads when you can have a huge sales force?

What would it cost? Well let’s look at the numbers:
Walmart has an advertising budget of Half a Billion Dollars a year.

$500,000,000 (yes, lot’s of zero’s)
Divide that by:
$ 25,000 (salary of someone making $12.50/hr)

=20,000 Employees!!!

That’s 20,000 employees you can save. That’s 20,000 people that won’t be afraid about losing their job. That’s 20,000 people that can be loyal to you and be trained to be a positive sales force for your company!!! BTW, if you want some customer service/selling training done, I’ll make a DVD and hold weekly conference calls for a year for a $100k, I’ll even throw in a T-shirt.

What about advertising agencies you ask? Well… Do you really think there are many businesses that have the balls to try something like this?

…Didn’t think so.

I think the advertising agencies will be alright.

And just a week ago, those intangible forces showed their glowing heads for a visit once again.

Nexus Occurance #1:
I had come to tell my friend Carissa at Flora & Fauna that I would accept her offer of the office space in the back (I know it’s huge news, and it deserves it’s own post), and when I showed up Adrianne Clay from An Affair To Remember Catering. Adrianne is a well respected person in the wedding industry here in Austin, and I have been told many times that I should make contact with her. As it turns out, Carissa is very good friends with her. I gave her one of my marketing booklets and was persuaded by her charm to give her 4 more (I’m running out now – haha). We hit it off, and she liked my work. Yay!!!

Nexus Occurance #2:
As Carissa, Adrianne and I sat out on the patio on a very unusually warm winter day, two guys with video equipment  entertained Carissa’s son next door at House Park BBQ, which is not unusual, he makes friends with everyone. As interest wore off the two guys came over and started talking to us, told us that they were visiting 50 states and filming a documentary on the recession. And thus we were introduced to Austin and Brian Chu from The Recess Ends, and we found ourselves in the middle of a impromptu interview on the recession, how Austin’s local business-centric model has padded the economy here, and how-if-at-all the recession will hit when it does here.

Here are a couple strong points that came out of that interview:

• Austin’s local economy has not been hit as bad as around the nation because of movements like Keep Austin Weird, which encourages shopping at locally run businesses instead of chain superstores.
• Because of that movement, more money stays within the community.
• Nothing exists in a vacuum however and Austin will at some point become susceptible to the recession
• The slow down that we have experienced, is more than likely due to people buying into the national media coverage on the state of the economy.

The Chu brothers have a long road ahead of them until they finish their trip sometime around May, and then there will be an extensive, many months long, editing process to make a movie. I wish them all the best, and hopefully Carissa, Adrianne and I will be in a feature documentary sometime next year!

Only on 12th & Lamar…

Safe travels guys!