Lessons for small business from NBC, Jay Leno & Conan O’Brien

Ever since the whole disaster with NBC-Jay Leno-Conan O’Brien started, I have been thinking about how the situation applies to small business or just business in general. Mistakes a lot of businesses make, but here are just a few of the glaring red flags and something to think about when setting your own business strategy and making decisions.

Five years ago, NBC announced that Conan O’Brien would start hosting The Tonight Show in June 2009. I remember think, “wow that’s odd announcing that 5 years in advance”. I was never clear if Leno had asked to retire or was asked to “retire”, but the timeline seemed really long and why announce it. If Leno was asked to retire, think about the awkward 5 years he and Conan have had. What was the point of putting out that information and signing contracts 5 years ago? This was NBC’s first mistep - it is good to have a strategy and a 5 year plan, but companies need to keep somethings under their belt until they are confident there won’t be a change in strategy. I have made the mistake a few times saying I was coming out with a new product line, then in the end because of budgets and rethinking strategy put it on hold. Not an expensive mistake, but not helping to build my brand and strength of the existing products.

After the announcement 5 years ago, not sure about you, but I kinda forgot when the actual handover would take place, until NBC started promoting when it was all happening and after they announced Jimmy Fallon would take over Late Night. It seemed to be all moving along as planned, players were shifting, then NBC announces that Leno will have a 10pm prime-time show (essentially an earlier Tonight Show). My husband and I were like, that’s dumb, what’s the point? Why would NBC give up all that prime-time space for a show like that (at the time, knowing the network has been floundering, we chalked it up to a cost-saving strategy - Leno’s new show was cheaper than producing 5 dramas or a new Law & Order). This decision by NBC  was a sign that executives were not fully committed to the change of guard (maybe 5 years was too early to make that announcement?). Maybe since they were already going down this path, instead of just changing their minds and keeping Leno on The Tonight Show, they decided to hedge their bets and keep him with the network (just in case) - maybe because they had signed contracts, who knows.  Sometimes hedging too many bets is the downfall for small business owners. Splitting a strategy, can diffuse the impact and confuse your customers (in this case, viewers).

Before the mess began.

NBC invested millions - $50 million alone on the new Tonight Show studio that was used for just 7 months (and then breaking the contracts with Conan cost an additional $45 million). Someone at NBC must of had an inkling that maybe adding a 10pm show with Leno could affect the viewers of  The Tonight Show (in general, people don’t like change, it is uncomfortable, Leno fans may have just shifted to his new show).  I think NBC split their own audience - the purpose of having these two shows was confusing and unclear. It was a muddy strategy, it didn’t seem long term, and in hindsight, it wasn’t.  Fully commit to ideas and people you believe in or you will waste time and money on projects that go nowhere. Really think about the costs (financial, image, relationships, etc.) of going forward with a decision. It may have cost NBC less to have broken the contract with Conan when they decided they wanted to keep Leno.

Even though the whole situation has been visibly uncomfortable for both of the talk show hosts, I think in general they have handled themselves well (Leno a little more biting and smug - but that is just his style. Interested to see his interview tomorrow with Oprah!). You may not like a decision a business or business partner makes, but once the decision is made (or announced!), it is hard to get a take back. A good general policy is to take the high road. Don’t go with a knee-jerk reaction. Especially if your industry is small, burning one bridge can mean burning them all. Conan did his last show and he didn’t completely bash NBC, and did thank the network for the time he had been there (like 20 years). The end result wasn’t nice for him or his staff, but he wasn’t going to become cynical. A good lesson.

A New Year, A New Start for…

It is unbelievable that it is already 2010. I know I think this every year “where did the time go?”. Oh well, I am not going to focus woulda, coulda, shoulda, but on making a new start for this new year. New year, new opportunities. Not going to set resolutions that I can’t keep, like “to stop being a procrastinator” - maybe something more gentle like “to procrastinate just a little less”.

This blog has gone to the dogs. It is neglected, well maybe abandoned is a better word. I am full of ideas, things I want to write and say, but never seem to be at the right place at the right time to complete the actual act of typing my thoughts. Full of ideas, and full of excuses. Right now I am resolving to set some time aside to write my thoughts for let’s say the week, even if they are random. I really need to write for me, it is a great release. Number 1: Stick to a weekly routine, at least on some things. In my daily life this would be sticking to my weekly Body Pump class. For this blog it will mean to write a weekly post. That should be easy enough, right?

You would think, but I have about 5 drafts for posts from the last 6 months. I start them, then don’t finish. Kinda like the way I clean the house ;-). A good friend strongly suggested that I read the book, Driven to Distraction. I told her, I don’t think I really need to read it to know that I am ever so slightly ADD, and I know I would buy it, look at it start, maybe even start reading it, then uh…get distracted, put it down and forget about it. I also have posts that are drafted and were essentially done, but for some reason, I didn’t post. Rethinking what I wrote, wondering if I should add or change it. Then I would not go back to it, and you guessed it…forget about it, until it was too old to bother with! So why do I hesitate to publish? Well to be truly honest, I am worried about what people with think when they read it. What if I come off bitchy, whiny, or worst of all stupid? By writing a blog, I am making myself vulnerable for criticism. And logically I realize that expressing my opinion from the heart, will likely bring other points of view, and that if someone doesn’t like what I write, they can just choose not to read it. Really all the back and forth in my head is redundant and stupid (ya, I said it). My next resolve should be easy too. Number 2: Write from my heart at the moment, from my point of view, and don’t worry about what others think. [And remember that I can always edit or delete later - it is MY blog for goodness sake ;-)]. For my daily life, this number 2 translates slightly different.

I want to use this blog as the place that I talk about the experiences of the passed (particularly with the good, bad, ugly of having a business). I want to focus the rest of my life on living in the present, being in the moment and not focusing on what happened yesterday and what could happen tomorrow. I know I spend far too much time worrying about what might have been or what could be. The last month or so I have been almost fully focusing on the kids, taking a hiatus from worrying (that word again, maybe I should say fretting) about the state of business (something I am not going to delve into now). It has been tremendous to live in the present. Enjoying every giggle (every whine, cry and scream) with the kids. Because of the snow just before Christmas, we had 2 full weeks together. Everyday, all day. And despite the stress of making sure everything was set for Christmas (with Santa coming and all…), it has been a time of living in the moment. So Number 2 is big - focusing on the present, enjoying every moment, and putting the past in perspective (it can’t be changed, but can be learned from).

For now 2 resolutions are all I can handle, of course I will keep my standby of procrastinating less (which Number 1 is really just a product of…).
2010 is a new year, a new start for an abandoned blog, and an opportunity to soak up all the potential of today.

[Can't really find the words I want to express what I mean, but if I ponder too long, I will think and rethink, to the point of futility. Closing my eyes and hitting publish.]

Kicking & Screaming

Unfortunately, I think there is a better late than never theme for me when it comes to the hottest trend. You know you are late to jump on the bandwagon when every magazine is writing about it (I mean magazines have waaaaaaay early deadlines) and ever time you turn the TV on there is a news segment on it.  This has been my experience with Twitter (and well all the other social media or Web 2.0 that came before it for that matter). On February 5th, 2009, I took the plunge and set up my Twitter account (which I had signed up for in December 2008, still not really sure how I did it, but just left it).  For goodness sake, I had just figured out 6 months before how to reconnect with old friends (or people I went to high school with that I don’t remember) on Facebook. I had comfortably lived with ignorance is bliss, but enough was enough. And even though I had to go kicking and screaming, it was time for me to enter another new world.

Keeping my head down, and sometimes ignoring the world around is unfortunately, another theme in my life (I blame that on the fact that I think I am ADD and tend to hyper-focus). Anyway, so the last few years I have had my head comfortably buried in the world of product design and production. An area I had no experience and no friends or family that knew anything about it. It is an absolutely non-tech world but the most crucial part of the business I had decided to start. Funny thing is my former life was in the high tech industry in marketing and communications. I used to know about telecommunications infrastructure, IP routers and networking.  Being out of it for 4 years now, all those terms just sound foreign to me. Considering, I have never taken the time to learn to sew (I know, hard to believe - why on earth would I start a sewn products business?!), I have been able to bring my design drawings to fruition and have built beautiful products (patting myself on the back ;-).

Everything I know about product design, fabric sourcing, pattern making, production, etc. I have learned through trial and error (some of the missteps warrant an entire post or many posts), like finding a good pattern maker is easier said than done and sewing contractors in the US are a dying breed (even if you want to make it in the US and can find decent production most Americans do not want to pay the extra price of what it costs to produce it domestically - a reality that still makes me very sad!). Anyway the point is I learned by doing, asking and making mistakes (that’s how we learn right?).

So here I am again, learning, which is a good thing. I had an objective with tweeting to get followers and well make my business and to eventually benefit from some social media magic. So begrudgingly and with much trepidation (how could these be addictive?) I started following, being followed and tweeting. I felt like the new kid at school trying to get with the cool kids, the in crowd. Gosh I really don’t like the way that feels. The worst part about Twitter is you really can’t get more followers or get involved unless you chime in on other people’s tweets. Chiming in is like butting in on a conversation where you may not be invited. With twitter you can’t see people’s reactions to your tweets. It’s like a comedian trying out a new joke and nothing, just silence. So you may respond to someone, and they don’t actually acknowledge that you said something. Or you tweet something, maybe ask a question and are met with silence. Not a single @reply from ANYONE. But more times than not, someone will respond. Like about a month ago my Outlook crashed, I was devastated and tweeted about it. I got a response and advice from someone who I was not follow and was not following me. The advice he gave me was priceless. I couldn’t have found answers that fast even searching on Google. So I thought, oh I am liking Twitter even more now.

Although my motives were more for business than for personal to delve into social media, I am actually finding the experience, pardon the choice of word - social. Working at home can be lonely at times. Starting a business is hard. I don’t have colleagues to complain to!  And even though I don’t always get an @reply from what I tweet, I still feel like I am talking to someone and I read other tweets (and hear conversations). It is amazing how much personality can actually be felt through 140 characters. And I have started to feel connected to certain tweeps. There are people just by the choice of their avatar/picture or their profile name, who make me smile when I “see” them. Ya, so now I get it, it’s social and a community. Duh.

So as corny as it sounds, I feel the virtual Twitter community. I don’t think I am addicted, but I do look forward to reading tweets. And most of all I no longer feel like I am working alone. And whenever I need to I can start a conversation and be heard.