Bruce Jones

The small book of big lessons learned

from 25 years of building and running a

successful business.

Smile

and Other

Lessons fro

m

25 Years in

Business

Bruce Jones Design Inc

Small Business Guides

Being self-employed, gives one the opportunity to learn, explore

and try many new and different strategies to achieve success and

fulfillment. Having control over one’s destiny is satisfying and fun.

After 25 years of building and running a successful business, this

entrepreneur has found a number of actions and ideas that have

always created positive results and have led to many successes.

Smile

and Other

Lessons from

25 Years in

Business

The Short List of Big Lessons

1. Smile

2. Be On Time

3. Personal Relationships Are the Key

4. Do What You Say You Are Going to Do

5. Answer the Phone

6. Be Grateful and Say Thank You

7. Persistence

8. The Smallest Jobs are as Important as the Big Ones

9. Look Behind the Person You Are Dealing With

10. Make Money

11. Be a Resource

12. Remember Your Vendors

13. Put Your Contact Info on Everything

14. No Surprises

15. Have Fun

Smile

My number one lesson is to smile and be nice. People like to do
business with those who treat them with respect. Often in the
everyday work world people just aren’t all that nice to each other.
As an outside consultant, vendor or just a regular employee, one can
really stand out with a smile and pleasant demeanor. Answer the
phone with a cheery tone even if you are having a bad day. Be the
happy person.

1

Be On Time

Be on time for appointments. Remember, people are busy. They
plan their schedules and presume that you will be punctual. Make
sure to arrive fifteen minutes early as opposed to a minute late.
Be on time with the project. Do whatever is necessary to deliver
your promised product or service on time.

2

It is All Personal

Business activities are personal. We all want to work with people
we like and those who treat us well. From the clerk at the coffee
shop to the CEO who is managing large deals, personal relationships
are one of the most important factors in achieving success.

Cost, Quality and Delivery are all important, to be sure. But one
must build personal relationships with those they serve. One may
work with someone once for the sake of the transaction, but not
twice because of the abrasive personality. Keep a long-term focus
and be willing to be friendly and pleasant.

3

Do What You Say You Are Going to Do

If one makes a promise one must keep it. The best results come
when you deliver beyond the commitment. Make your client look
good to their organization. Give them what they need to do their
job successfully. Success in serving your client gets passed on to
others in the organization. Your client is the gatekeeper to their
company and more assignments in the future. Once they know
you can be depended upon, you will become a treasured vendor.

4

Answer the Phone

Answering the phone should almost be the number one lesson of
business. Every effort should be made to have a live person answer
the telephone. Personal relationships are built with person-to-
person communication. Automated phone systems are customer
avoidance mechanisms. While the company will be happy to take a
recorded order they cannot be bothered to speak to you.

We can also learn much from talking to our customers. They give
us feedback on the pluses and minuses of the products and services
offered. This feedback has measurable value. Customers are living
our product and service research; one needs only to listen to
them. Clients and potential clients want easily accessible and timely
assistance. A company can really stand out from the competition by
just picking up the phone.

This rule also applies to our web site and promotional material.
Give them easy access to communicate with you and they will.

5

Be Grateful and Say Thank You

Be grateful. Thank customers for the business. Building the personal
relationship will help in many areas. Errors and mistakes will occur.
One can work through debacles if there is a good personal relation-
ship. A regular expression of gratitude by means of a sincere thank
you will help keep a strong personal relationship in good order.

6

Persistence

Much of business success is about out lasting the other guy. Woody
Allen was famous for saying “99 percent of success is just showing
up.” For independent consultants and small businesses, being
available is often half the battle. If there isn’t work, do things that
relate to your business: develop marketing materials; learn new skills;
work on the next product; and get in contact with your customers.
Remember, when one is in their own business and a one-person
shop there are myriad duties. Along with doing the work, there is
answering calls, being the IT department, emptying the trash, figuring
out how to get more business, and solving any and all problems. The
secret to success is often just putting one foot in front of the other.
Just keep going. Be persistent.

7

The Smallest Jobs are Just as

Important as the Big Ones

Treat all projects as if they are the most important. How one treats
the small jobs serves as an indicator to clients about how the larger
assignments will be addressed. We are always being tested.

8

Look Behind the Person

You Are Dealing With

The person you are dealing with almost always reports to someone
else. They are often controlled or directed by someone else and the
concepts or projects you deliver are presented or given to another.
Make sure that the projects you deliver make your client look good.
It is your job to enhance your client both at their level and to the
people to whom they report.

9

Make Money

The purpose of being in business is to make money. We work for a
lot of reasons but money is often the measuring stick. If the money
stops the projects stop and often the relationships end. Don’t get
confused about why your vendors are so attentive. While the rela-
tionship is personal, it is driven by the opportunity to make money.

The same is happening on the client side of the equation. You have
a skill or service that is helping them make money. Keep that fact
in perspective. Making money for our clients is making money for
ourselves.

Additionally, clients who pay are supremely better than those who
don’t and vendors who get paid work a whole lot harder.

10

Be a Resource

People just need help sometimes. By being helpful to your clients
you start to become the “go to guy.” Encourage customers to call
you with questions. Make an earnest effort to solve their problem.
One should endeavor to be at the top of the customer’s and
potential-customer’s minds. Another benefit is that being a resource
is a great way to learn present and future client needs. Consider the
problem solving efforts as market research. Answering the phone
and talking to people is all about developing relationships. Being a
resource builds positive energy for your company.

11

Remember Your Vendors

Vendors are the backbone of our businesses. We all seem to run
virtual businesses these days with many vendors doing much of our
work. Treating them well will reward you many times over. Vendors
will treat our projects and clients with respect if we are respectful
of them.

12

Put Your Contact Info on Everything

Printed and Electronic

Success in business is about being connected to customers. Make it
easy for them to make contact. Make sure they can find you from
your advertising, your brochure, your web site, from what ever mar-
keting materials you have.

Put contact information on every web page not just on a contact
page. Customers will call from the point where they got stuck on the
web site if you give them a number. No number, no call; they just go
somewhere else. In addition to the contact, you also get feedback
about problems on your site.

Contact information should also be in every e-mail, along with a little
blurb about your business. Add your phone number on your mailing
labels. Very often, when a project is delivered, the only contact info a
customer has about your business is the envelope it came in. Make it
easy for them to get in touch with you.

13

No Surprises

Projects are full of surprises. Often clients are just not focused on
all of the steps that are involved. Keep your clients informed of the
progress and any problems that come up. Your job is to get the
project competed on time even if they aren’t paying attention to it.
We know all the steps that are needed and it sometimes takes a lot
of pushing and pulling to pull it off. It isn’t up to the client. It is up to
us to get it done. Keep the client informed and surprises to
a minimum.

14

Have Fun

Being in business for yourself and being your own boss can be an
immensely satisfying way to live. Having control over your day lets
you have some control over your life. Fun can be going to Disney
World but it can also be exploring your interests and trying new
things. So pick customers you like and projects that mean something
to you and have some fun with it and the world around you.

15

Bruce Jones is a Massachusetts-based business graphic designer, with 25 years
in business. Serving the graphic needs of professional service firms, non-profits
and general corporate clients. Producing newsletters, brochures, promotional
and collateral materials, event invitations and programs, stationery packages,
portable trade show booths and web sites. Also the developer and creator of the
World of Maps and Maps for Design clip art map collections used for business
presentations, illustrations and web sites and the eSchoolmaps clip art collection
for schools. Creator and producer of Acoustic Music TV, developing cable and
web programming on acoustic music.

Bruce Jones

Bruce Jones Design Inc
661 Washington Street

Norwood, MA 02062

781-255-7171

[e-mail]

www.brucejonesdesign.com

www.bjdesign.com

www.mapsfordesign.com

www.eschoolmaps.com

www.acousticmusictv.com

www.coloracrossthelines.com

© Copyright Bruce Jones 2008

1. Smile

2. Be On Time

3. Personal Relationships Are the Key

4. Do What You Say You Are Going to Do

5. Answer the Phone

6. Be Grateful and Say Thank You

7. Persistence

8. The Smallest Jobs are as Important as

the Big Ones

9. Look Behind the Person You Are

Dealing With

10. Make Money

11. Be a Resource

12. Remember Your Vendors

13. Put Your Contact Info on Everything

14. No Surprises

15. Have Fun

Smile

and Oth

er

Lessons fr

om

25 Year

s in

Business

The Short List
of Big Lessons
for Creating
Business Success

The small book of big lessons learned from
25 years of building and running a successful
business. Guidelines that have created positive
results and business successes.

Bruce Jones, Bruce Jones Design Inc.
661 Washington Street, Norwood, MA 02062
781-255-7171 • [e-mail]
www.brucejonesdesign.com