Like many of you, I watched the Academy Awards last night. About halfway through I saw something that had me shaking my head in disbelief -- a TV ad from Bank of America claiming to know what it's like to run a small business!
Don't get me wrong -- I've got nothing against BOA and I'm sure the people working there are smart, nice and hardworking. But I'm also willing to bet that the vast majority of the bank's employees have never run a small business. To have the third largest bank in the country – a multi-billion dollar corporation – claim that it understands small business simply because it has us as clients makes about as much sense of my claiming to know what it's like to be a professional actor simply because I've been to a lot of movies.
In any case, the implication was clear for me and my fellow small business owners: Instead of working so hard to look like the big guys in the hope that it makes us appear more professional and more legitimate, realize that the big guys are spending millions of dollars trying to look like us in the hope that it makes them appear more human.
Let's use our natural advantage to its advantage, by showing the real people inside our companies. Sign your name to customer communications, show photos of real staff on your web site and speak in an authentic, human voice in everything you do. It's easy for us and something the big guys can only hope to copy.
Learn more about Michael Katz.
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