When it comes to creativity around New LifeStyles it begins and ends with our production group.  Today, as is the case every year, they are all dressed up as witches, spreading the spirit of the day.  They supply the Mardi Gras cake and beads, the candy canes and countless other holiday decorations and snacks.  Outside the office, they are equally creative, with such hobbies as metal artwork, macaroni artwork and roller derby (yes, those three do go together).

When you place an ad in one of our publications, our team is available to design your ad at no additional cost.  They can help you pick the right picture (s) from our gallery, create the perfect piece from existing materials and layout the pictures and text in eye-pleasing fashion.  With over 60 years of combined work in the industry, they know what works and know what fails.  I encourage you to take advantage of their expertise.  If you’re nice, they might even let you see their pasta portfolio!

Last night, the Dallas Mavericks beat Miami in a crucial NBA Finals game.  Great, thanks Doug, we read the paper, saw that online or watched Sportscenter, how does that relate to my assisted living community or home care business???

The Mavericks are lead by Dirk Nowitski, he is their best player by far and has carried them through the playoffs.  Unfortunately, Dirk woke up with a fever yesterday and was nowhere near 100% for the game.  As the game went on, Dirk, tiring, was missing shots he normally made with ease and had to spend more time on the bench, downing extra water and covering his head with a towel.  He was a shell of his normal self.  The Mavs were falling behind, about to lose their chance in this game.  But, as hope was fading the rest of the team stepped up, combining with their depleted leader to launch a comeback and win the game in the last few seconds.

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As part of the month long celebration of Older Americans, today is focused on Senior health and fitness.  I cannot commend enough those activity directors and employees that make sure the residents in their communities stay active.  You are doing a great thing that pays benefits to that person, their family and your community.   No matter what your age, staying active contributes to bettering all aspects of your life.  It has been proven that staying physically active improves your mental health.  If your community doesn’t do a good job of promoting activity, get involved!  No matter how minor the exercise, it is better then nothing and for those communities that are feeling the effects of the economy, you can do a lot of fun and healthy activities with very little equipment.

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Surprisingly, I have talked to a few people lately that told me how hard it was to get potential service providers to come to their houses to give them bids or take care of work that was already agreed upon.  Really??  Companies are making it hard to let people use their services and pay them?  Can I have some of their business?  Must be really nice to have luxury to relaxingly respond to potential customers and take care of business at your leisure.  Does that come with daily massages, miniature giraffes and an unlimited supply of gold encrusted cashews?

Unfortunately, this is a fantasy to most of us.  We need to work hard for every customer and sometimes even harder to keep existing ones.  Whether you are a retirement or assisted living community, a nursing, memory care, home care or hospice provider, the one thing you must do is make it easy for customers:

1)       Be visible and have easy to find information on your products/services

2)      Be easy to reach, instant access through e-mail or phone or a response back within 3-4 hours.

3)      Understand their needs and provide well thought out options

4)      Once you have provided information, don’t forget to follow-up in a timely manner, don’t make them have to track you down.

5)      If you get the business, carefully walk them through the post-sale process, documentation needed, deadlines, etc.  Answer questions before they are asked and provide all information in a simple, step-by-step manner that isn’t frustrating or confusing.

6)      Make sure payment terms and method of payment are clear and in writing to avoid confusion between the sale and the invoicing process

7)      After the sale, continue to keep the customer in the loop on upcoming offers or benefits that reinforce their decision.  If they have to renew, make sure they know about any changes or additional value they are receiving.

These are a few ways to make it easy for the customer to choose your company and, as an added bonus, recommend you to others. 

Are there other ways you make things easy on the customer?  What has worked especially well?

Please let us and others know!  Promise we won’t steal your business……….

Today is probably one of the least efficient days in American business.  Millions of people, most of which have not watched very much college basketball this season are filling out their brackets for the big tournament.  I filled out three brackets in a grand total of seven minutes and 28 seconds.  I could do hours of research and think that I am now an expert, but the experts usually get it wrong anyway.

Here are some of my picks, if you need advice:

Villanova over George Mason – a whole team against one guy? 

Washington over Georgia – a husky can outrun a bulldog any day!

Butler over Old Dominion – just so we can hear them say, “The Butler did it”.

BYU over Wofford – if I don’t know where the school is, how can I pick them?

OK, it’s pretty obvious that I have a bad system for picking college basketball games.  But, the experts, who spend days analyzing the teams, statistics, game location, etc., often do worse than the person who makes their choice based on uniform color.  When it comes to you community or business, make sure you don’t blindly follow the “experts”.   Take their advice and apply it to what you are seeing every day.  There will be nuggets that you see will help you, but there are unique circumstances with your community that override general expertise.

What it comes down to is knowing your business better than anyone.  Take the time to know where you are getting your leads and calls.  Have your staff trained to record this data into some type of tracking system, than make sure to calculate your return on investment.

Now, after you finish your bracket, go out there and make sure you are the EXPERT on your community or business!

A constant debate has always seemed to rage in the business world:  How many meetings should a company have?  Of course, that is too broad of a question, since company-wide meetings are few and far between, while units and teams involved in specific projects might meet daily or even multiple times during the day when a deadline is near.

There are many facets to the pro and con debate about meetings:

-          Meetings are expensive.  People will point to all of the resources that are tied up in a meeting when they could be performing their regular duties.  True, but not as extreme as a literal view of tying the hours to 100% lost productivity.  In many companies, those involved in the meetings will get the same amount of work done, just stretching the day to meet deadlines and catch up.

-          If you meet too often, people tune you out.  This is one reason I tend to fall on the side of meeting less.  You always want to have fresh things to discuss, new topics and some experiences since last meeting  to fuel new thoughts.  If a regular meeting is held too often, de ja vu kicks in and the audience will be unfocused.

-          Don’t involve too many people, unless it is a brief informative meeting.  Smaller groups encourage better back and forth and sharing of ideas. 

-          Meetings are a breeding ground for ideas.  With many people working at home, in other locations and generally being on the go, getting the team together at the proper interval can turn into a great opportunity to learn from each other. 

-          Meetings are communication.  Other forms of communication work very well, but in a meeting you can get a better sense of acceptance and understanding.

-          If you are communicating important, detailed plans in meetings, make sure you provide this detail in written format.  Listening skills can be great, but an hour later things can get lost and a week later, you might find the same meeting happening again.

Just a few thoughts on meetings.  Overall, be flexible, don’t feel like meetings need to occur on a scheduled/regular basis.  If there is nothing to discuss, don’t meet.  Also, don’t be a slave to the clock.  If you end the meeting in 20 minutes, great, if it goes an hour, it was needed.  Keep meetings under an hour and a half, or take a break.  One more important thing – supplying good food helps most meetings succeed!  

What are your thoughts on meetings?  How often do you find yourself in a bad meeting.  Are the meetings interactive?  What steps do you take to encourage the sharing of ideas?  Appreciate your feedback, thanks, Doug

As most of you hopefully know by now, New LifeStyles recently underwent some small renovations.  We’ve added Media Solutions to our name to represent all of the marketing options we now offer, tweaked our guide and site logo and honed our tagline.  There will be other small changes as we go forward, but we all make a vast array of changes as our businesses progress and morph over time.

Our tagline had been “The Source for Seniors”, which we felt was too broad for our offerings.  It has since been changed to “The Source for Senior Living”, which encompasses the range of senior living options, from retirement/independent living to home and hospice care.  We chose a tagline that defines our business, which is only one of the many options when choosing a tagline.  Our partners use many different forms of taglines.  It is a tough decision for companies, one that should be thought out carefully, taking into account the culture and mission of the company, as well as the industry segment (s) in which they hope to prosper.  Below are a few categories of taglines to use when looking to adopt a tagline or change the one you have:

-          Defining your business or market segment

-          Promoting your expertise

-          Appealing to the emotions of your demographic

-          Comforting or creating assurance for your audience

-          Affirming the user’s decision

-          An extension of your mission statement

-          Appeal to the sensible side of the reader

-          Promoting the “lifestyle” you offer

These are just a few options.  Another option is not having a tagline, which we see often and don’t see as a detriment.   How did you choose your tagline?  Which category did you use?  Have you ever been with a company that made a mistake with their tagline and had to change it?  Share your experience, it can be a tough process and your advice can really help others.  Thanks!  Doug

Its January, the time of year where the fitness centers are packed, the workload is heavy and the weather is cold (for a lot of us).  We try to start the year on the right foot, getting in shape from both a physical and professional perspective.  Unfortunately, it’s often a challenge to make the two co-exist.  But, making it work will pay dividends in all areas of your life.  It just takes commitment and the staying power to get through those first few weeks of establishing the discipline.  Here are some tips to get you started:

1)      Look at your schedule and commitments.  Where can you fit in your workout?  You may need to get up earlier if your day tends to spiral out of control once it gets started.  If you aren’t a morning person, you will soon find that the gains in energy will offset the reduced sleep.

2)      If you have to work late, take a break for exercise, clearing your head and getting the blood flowing and then get back to the job.

3)      Find something you like to do.  You don’t want to hate your exercise, it won’t work.  There are many options, try them all.

4)      Get others involved.   You won’t sleep in when you know people are waiting for you at the corner or at the racquetball court.

5)      If your day is hectic, use your workout time as an opportunity to get your thoughts together on important projects or upcoming meetings.

6)      Make sure your snacks at the office aren’t just doughnuts and candy.  Once you get your workouts going, you will need to properly fuel for the work day and next workout.

7)      Make changes to your workout program every 3-4 months.  Just as we, as humans, can get in a rut, muscles will respond to changes in routine and fitness can reap new gains when it has new stimuli.

These are just a few tips to get you started or keep you on the right path.  Remember to start slowly and know your physical limitations, if any.  If you have other questions or need more advice, just ask!   Get others in your office involved, start a challenge!  New LifeStyles participates in the Governor’s Fitness program each year and we have over 70% participation, making it fun.

If you have other tips on fitting exercise into a hectic day or week, please share with the group.  We all need the encouragement.  Now, I need a banana.  Cheers!

In today’s edition, we will meet the last of the sales team to be introduced.  We saved them for last for no particular reason that I can think of:

Susan DeVall – Susan is Director of Sales for our Atlanta, Chicago and Kentucky markets.  She is tireless in her pursuit of new clients, so you are much better off just saying yes the first time she calls.  She takes great pride in working hard to help the customer solve their existing needs and even identifying other opportunities.  Susan makes sure she is involved with local organizations, so she can understand the marketplace and bring additional benefits.

On the personal side, Susan lives just across the river from Louisville, Kentucky, raising three children and a husband in Floyds Knob, Indiana.  She has extensive family and roots in the area which helps her relate to the various retirement, assisted living, nursing and dementia care communities in Kentucky.  She stays very involved in the local community.

Jason Gentry – Jason is a New LifeStyles’ veteran, combining his role as Director of Operations with the role of Director of Sales for Orange County/Riverside and Sacramento.  With his knowledge of the publishing, printing and distribution side of the company, he can work with our vast array of customers to provide the perfect solution to their marketing needs.   If you ever have questions regarding these areas of the business or requests for specific distribution locales, he is the man to contact.

Jason is always busy outside the office, spending a great deal of time watching his two boys excel in baseball.  Currently, he is helping his oldest in the always challenging process of selecting a college.  Jason is also very handy around the house and yard, so if he is ever at your community and you need some electrical work or maybe some plumbing fixes, he can help, IF you place some of your advertising dollars with New LifeStyles.

There are many benefits to low turnover – reduced training costs, familiarity with the company and industry, trust built up over the years and many other things.  However, it is a challenge to keep things fresh, keep new ideas being generated and make sure everyone is challenging each other to think outside the comfortable surroundings of your company.  While I often consider myself “strange”, I’m sure people here get tired of hearing from me and “might” have a tendency to tune me out.  Some even wear dark glasses so they can sleep during my oratories.

There are many ways to combat complacency and “group think”.  One I recommend is bringing in an outside expert to brainstorm with different groups within the company, adding outside opinions and ideas to the process.  This person should be someone you have come to respect over time and someone that brings value to the process.  Make sure they have a working knowledge of the way you do business and your objectives, then sit back and let them lead the process.

I think you will find that occasionally having someone with strong industry knowledge and the ability to lead effective brainstorming sessions will lead to fresh ideas for your company and new motivation for individuals. 

What methods does your company use to keep things fresh and generate fresh, new ideas for the future?