Archive for the ‘IPUB FEATURE’ Category
Saying Goodbye to a Client
1 Mar 2010
by James Meyers
Here’s a tough dilemma for any business owner: is there ever a time when should you say goodbye to client?
Never. For the past fifteen years, my first response to that question has been—never voluntarily say goodbye to any client. You work to hard to get clients. You invest a lot of extra hours—beyond your paid compensation—working for those clients. And in economic times like these, clients are even harder to come by. In fact, my philosophy has always been that every client is a good client, one worth sticking with through thick and thin.
However, over the past several years, I’ve come to realize that some clients are simply better than others, and that sometimes there are legitimate reasons why you might want to consider parting ways with a client. Here are a few reasons you might want to consider.
Partnership. There’s nothing better than a true partnership with a client, one where the goals and outcomes are shared and the vision to execute them are mutually agreed upon. But not all clients want or need a partner. Sometimes clients just want a vendor who can deliver high quality service in a timely fashion—and fairly paid basis. And while there’s nothing wrong with a good, solid client-vendor relationship, where both parties benefit from the relationship, sometimes the lack of partnership is too much to overcome.
Respect. Whether your client views you as a vendor or client, no relationship works without mutual respect. Treating and being treated with respect is crucial in any relationship. When it becomes obvious that a client does not respect the amount of time, work and effort that you put into your deliverables, it might be time to say goodbye. And I’m not talking about clients who are demanding. Every client has the right to be demanding, and when coupled with respect and appreciation, these are the clients we like best because they challenge us as well as themselves to reach new levels of achievement.
Constant Price Pressure. When your client relationship starts with price negotiations from day one and cost reductions are the main driver of the relationship, it may be time to rethink the agreement. Constant focus on cost reductions means the client doesn’t value your work or simply isn’t willing to invest in quality. These days no client has money to burn, so being accountable for measurable results is a mandatory part of any business relationship. But great clients don’t mind paying for great results. The best clients are those who even increase their spending once benchmarks are achieved so that they can push the bar even higher.
Redeployment of Resources. In tough economic times, every business needs to closely examine the resources they employ to make sure that they are getting maximum efficiency from them. When it takes two people to work on a $50,000 client with a 25% margin and the same two people could work on a $150,000 client with the same or better margin, you’ve got a financial decision to make. Of course, other factors such as long term potential, loyalty and marquee-value may also be legitimate reasons to stay with a client even if they aren’t the most profitable client. But every client relationship needs to be examined from both a financial and business standpoint to make sure that both parties are benefiting.
Ultimately, the decision to say goodbye to a client is one of the most difficult that any business owner needs to make but sometimes, it can be the right one.
If you’ve faced this dilemma at your business, I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you handled the situation.
2010: It’s A New Year for Business!
4 Jan 2010
by James Meyers
It’s finally here. The first workday of 2010. Like many of you, I’m not sorry to see that 2009 is gone and behind us. It was a year filled with struggle, fear and doubt for all business executives and owners. Growth strategies were thrown out the window and replaced by a hunker-down mentality that froze most businesses in place.
Some good came out our struggles though. We were forced to trim all the excess out of our organizations, processes and budgets. We looked at things we’ve always done and said “why are we doing this, why do we need it, and what return am I getting on my investment?” This not only helped us survive, but it positioned us to be better prepared to take advantage of opportunities us the economy begins to recover.
Now is time to move forward. To rebuild momentum and implement smart business strategies that will propel us into a new era of profitable growth.
Like all business owners, I’m committed to looking forward and not back and I’ve decided to share my thoughts, failures and triumphs on a daily basis through this blog.
As the founder and CEO of a successful custom content agency, I have the opportunity to interact with the key business executives of major corporations and trade associations across the country on a daily basis. Respecting business confidentiality, I’ll share with you the moods and trends that I see emerging as well as the strategies and tactics that I deal with in running my own company.
I hope that by sharing my businesses experiences with all of you that we will connect and find inspiration together so that 2010 can be a year of growth and success for all of us.
Happy New Year!
Imagination Named Best Place to Work
21 Oct 2009
by James Meyers
I have an overwhelming sense of pride in being named one of the top six publishing companies in America to work for by Publishing Executive magazine. When I started Imagination nearly fifteen years ago, my goal was to create a company where people could feel good about coming to each day. A place where they could do great work, enjoy their co-workers, grow, learn and feel free from the limitations of big corporate surroundings. We’ve managed to accomplish our goals together and it touches my heart to have such a great staff around me. Here’s to the Imagineers!
Long Live Magazines!
7 Apr 2009
by James Meyers
Another business trip to the west coast! As I fly through the air at 35,000 feet for four hours without online access, how will I possibly survive?
Good old print magazines. They’re still great at informing, exciting, awakening, thrilling, surprising, uniting and engaging. Just like digital, those attributes can also still be found in print.
When I’m online, I’m usually looking for something. It might be information on a specific topic, or another user with similar interests to mine or a company that interests me. I browse, but I’m usually browsing in an area that interests me. I spend hours every day online usually looking for something or interacting but it’s nice to sit back and passively enjoy the unexpected.
With print, I might be reading a special interest magazine but I also might be browsing a daily newspaper or lifestyle magazine. And I’m reminded of how happy I am to find things I didn’t know I was looking for like an article on museums in the Financial Times, an in-depth look into China in The Economist, an article on leadership in BusinessWeek or the latest in men’s fashion from Esquire.
And I’m not alone. As I look around the first class cabin (I luckily got an upgrade), I see three people reading books (not on Kindles), one reading People, one reading Road & Track, one reading the in-flight magazine, two working on spreadsheets on their computer, two people in conversation and two more sleeping.
It’s my favorite part of flying. The chance to toss four or five magazines into my briefcase and then spread a couple of hours being entertained, enlightened and educated on topics I wasn’t really looking for.
I’m lucky to work in an environment every day where I get to use and experience the best of both print and digital publishing worlds. Both have incredible strengths that our clients use to connect and engage their customers and members. The smartest marketers utilize both print and digital in an integrated strategy to use custom content as a highly effective marketing tactic.
Imagination 2.0
11 Feb 2009
by James Meyers
Welcome to the newest version of the Imagination Publishing website. Although we went through a complete redesign less than a year ago, in today’s web 2.0 world, even six months ago is considered ancient history. While our core capability remains focused on creating original custom content that helps our clients engage their customers, our new site reflects our expanded capabilities to provide agency services in areas such as rich media, social media marketing and community management, brand visibility, SEO and analytics. These tools enhance our original content and insure that our clients receive an extraordinary return on their investment.
With the launch of this site, we intend to have a never-ending stream of content updates and we invite our visitors to participate with their insights on the state of custom publishing today and where they see it going in the future. The recession has given all of us cause for pause and concern but we see our clients continue to invest in custom content as a proven marketing strategy that continues to pay dividends through increased retention, cross-selling and acquisition of new customers.
We invite you to fully explore our site as you’ll find plenty of information, case studies and examples of how Imagination is helping our clients engage their customers and members. You’ll see how we use all media to distribute custom content through the channel that best matches the consumption patterns of your customers. If you work for a trade association, spend some time learning about our recently launched Association Growth Partners (AGP) division which specializes in creating and executing full-service growth strategies.
You’ll also have the chance to learn more about our capabilities and meet some of the outstanding passionate people who make it happen. We call them “Imagineers” and our clients tell us that they are the secret to our success!
Find out more in my next blog about what it takes and what it means to be an Imagineer!
