Don't be a player of the blame game. Your small business will have problems. Errors will happen by your vendors, customers, suppliers, your staff and you. Don't focus on blame. That is a waste of time and energy. Focus on correcting the issue and moving forward. Stopping the blame game is a great way to empower your small business towards accelerated growth.

It is our human nature to divert blame. We never want to be at fault. Accept that mistakes will happen. Not everything that happens in your small business will be a good thing. You can't be perfect and stop every bad thing from happening. What you can do however, is to not play the blame game.

I remember a story from my consulting years. I was a junior consultant on a large accounting project and I remember one of the managers stating that he wanted to bring in a tape recorder to the meetings to record the client comments. He was certain that he had listened to them and did what they had wanted. The client dissatisfaction with an accounting system, was their fault because they couldn't specifically explain what their requirements where.

The clients might not have been specific enough in their descriptions of their needs, but my manager was really missing the point. Do you appreciate it when people prove you wrong? Does 'proof' that you were wrong help the situation? This is a best case scenario of the blame game. This manager wanted to bring in a tape record to help him document the blame. What a waste of effort.

He could have paraphrased, and asked better questions, and repeated their requirements to encourage more effective communications. Assigning blame is a time waster. Collaboration is productive, and a great asset to help you build your small business.

Work to stop the blame game in your workplace. Stopping the blame game is a great strategy to empower you to grow your small business.

Do you like to find out how to beat the current economic recession with recession proof businesses? If your answer is yes then read this article till the end.

There is no doubt that many global economies are in a downturn at the moment or are facing a serious risk of going into a recession. The degree of this downturn or economic recession varies from country to country, but the fact remains that not all sectors of the economy are facing this plight. Globally there are some sectors of the economy that are thriving right now. This article will show you one of the sectors that is thriving at the moment and where to find information on how to build recession proof businesses and beat the current recession.

If you have been watching the news, apart from the US 2008 presidential election coverage then you must have seen headlines like:

• Oil prices continue to soar,
• Gas prices reach an all time high,
• Food prices reach record highs,
• Up to US 80,000 employees have lost their jobs so far this year alone,
• US bankruptcies up by 50%,

These are all signs of an economic recession, in fact to quote a very prominent US Billionaire Warren Buffett "By a common sense definition, the US economy is already in a recession". We all know that when the US economy is in trouble then the rest of the world Economies will sooner or later follow suit.

The fortunate thing is that not all sectors of the economy are facing an economic recession, one such sector is the eCommerce sector. Indeed online business is booming right now, and there are predictions that this growth will continue till 2012. Here is what some business experts are predicting:

• Epsit.net; "Global e-commerce revenues will reach $115 Billion this year"
• Forrester Research; "each year every household will spend $3,649 spend online"
• Forrester Research; "E-commerce growth is estimated to reach 204 billion US$ in 2008 and to hit 334.7 billion US$ by 2012

As a result online businesses have been rightly termed recession proof businesses.

These are some of the reasons why e-commerce is a recession proof business:

• People who shop online are more likely to be wealthier than the average consumer,
• Online shoppers are people who face far less economic challenges, and they are generally more optimistic about the future,
• There are many reasons why more and more people are shopping on-line now and will continue to do so in the future, these include: Trying to save money on gas, saving time, avoiding crowds, comparing prices, finding any product they want, and being able to buy at any time of day (e-businesses are open 27/7)

With the right knowledge, tools and information, you too can benefit from the booming e-commerce sector. In fact in 2007 thousands of ordinary people with no formal technical training, ecommerce background, or sales experience, set up their own successful businesses and quit their days jobs and are now enjoying a different lifestyle.

Firstly, it is very important to have a Technicoloured coat, because this is what sets you apart from other businesses, so if you don't have one already, this is something that you need to work on before moving to the next step. Secondly, you can only have one Technicoloured coat, in metaphorical terms, anything else is a T Shirt that goes underneath. Your TC is the ONE thing that differentiates you, you can have other points of difference, but they are not as strong or as important.

Here are a few guidelines on choosing your Technicoloured coat (TC).

If you are a lawyer or a gardener, a real estate agent or a florist, I realise that there are a lot of others in the same market, so your technicoloured coat is not going to be that you are a florist. But what about the fact that you may specialize in roses for weddings, or that you are the only florist in Southport, or that you are the only florist with 20 years of experience in making gift baskets. This is not the only thing that you or the only advantage or selling point that you have, but this is the major one that stands you out from other businesses.

Let us look at some areas that can stand you apart from the rest.

Location

Are you the only Pilates Physio in Ellerslie, are you the only Mens Barber in Bethlehem? The only business to specialize in offering something in a certain region. A location based Technicoloured Coat is something that will make you stand out from people within that region, for example if you are the only school uniform suppliers in Whangarei, then great for those in Whangarei but people in Sydney don't care about that. This is quite fine if you are only selling to people in Whangarei, but don't make your Technicoloured coat location based if you are trying to sell outside of that region. There is one case though where you can break this rule, when the location is something beneficial in itself eg. The only Hawkes Bay Pinot Gris grown on the slopes of Te Mata Peak and is sold all around the world, the fact that it is NZ made is appealing to foreign buyers and Hawkes Bay has other certain attributes in the wine industry.

Experience

Have you been a painter for 30 year or have you travelled to 10 different countries researching the residential architecture? Are you the only nutritionist to have written a thesis on the continued affects of childhood obesity? The only specialist in tropical fish to have worked in a famous aquarium before starting your own business. Experience is a strong Technicoloured coat to have as it is very hard to replicate by the competition eg. you cannot get 30years experience over night. Make sure that your experience is relevant though, if you have 30years experience in signwriting, then great, especially if you could say we have been in business for 30years and still have clients since day one. This all shows that you must offer great service and know what you are doing as you wouldnt be in business otherwise. It is when a business shows that they have 30years experience in painting and yet they are pitching for my car signage that I wonder about their credentials. So make it relevant or dont make experience your technicoloured coat.

Specialty

Is there an area that you specialize in? Specalise in residential property sales over 1million dollars or specialize in selling Mountain bikes and equipment. This TC is one of the easiest to control, but everything you do needs to be focused around your specialty to build up the reputation. If the Mountain Bike shop also stocked kids bikes and some road bikes and some touring cruisers, then they are muddying the waters of their specialty. Be careful not to specialize too narrowly eg. Selling only Downhill Mountain bikes. This can narrow your market too greatly, the upside of it is that the Downhillers see you as a specialist store. My word of warning here is to ensure that you have enough people within your market to specialize that narrowly, if yes, then fantastic you have found yourself a Technicoloured Coat.

Price

I do warn you that price is a dangerous one, because it is easy to be undercut on price and you are then left with little differentiation. Price can help back up your specialist area, but it shouldn't be your only point of difference. A cheap price can often undo the perception of your expertise or specialty, so do be careful here. Price can be your under-shirt as in you are a specialist Running Shoe store, and you have some of the best prices in town. It is not your Technicoloured coat though, that is being the specialist in Running Shoes.

Package

It could be that you are the only business to package together Roofing, Plumbing and Electrical. Packages can often be easily replicated unless it is your experience and knowledge that is your point of difference. Packages can be a great way of becoming a one-stop-shop for consumers so therefore you are selling the convenience, if I could go to one place to get my hair, nails and facial done, it saves going to three different places, if a real estate agent, lawyer and mortgage broker all combined forces, it could make the house buying process a lot easier. So what is a way in which you could package your own products or services or combine with others to create a package that stands you out from the rest.

A Guarantee or Warranty

This can be a Technicoloured coat, if you are the only Plumber to guarantee no leaks in your shower installations, or a business coach who guarantees a 20% increase in a customers bottom line. Maybe you are the only nutritionist to guarantee that if you dont lose 10kg you will get your money back. Be careful though that you can follow through with the guarantee and that it isnt going to make you bankrupt. If you are not willing to put your money where your mouth is in terms of your warranty to back it up, then it could do your business a lot of harm in the future.

Brands and Range

You may have exclusivity on a certain brand for a certain area, this does fall into Location too, stocking certain brands can make you stand out. So too can having the widest range or an exclusive range. Some brands can back up a Specialist Technicoloured Coat too, if that is a sort after brand or range of brands for that specialist area. With a service it could be one person's brand that stands them out from the rest, this is generally based on experience or speciality. So choose the strongest of the three for that to become the Technicoloured Coat.

So, do you now have a Technicoloured coat? To be able to use this Technicoloured coat it needs to be in a strong sentence.

This becomes your mantra in terms of letting the world know how you are different. For example:

- We are the only Plumbers with a 10year no leak guarantee.

- We are the only qualified physiotherapist, pilates business in the central Auckland region.

- We specialize in cost effective marketing for small businesses

- We specialize in high end NZ and Italian furniture.

This statement becomes your internal Marketing Mantra. When you are putting together an ad, an editorial or your website, you need to ask yourself, am I conveying my Technicoloured coat. In hindsight you could even create your brand name around this statement. It must become the basis from which you promote your business, product or service because this is the thing that stands you out from the crowd.

Why, promote yourself as being the same as everyone else? If everyone was selling banana cakes made from the same recipe at the same school fair, it is going to be pretty hard to stand out, but if you were the only one with chocolate cake you have a point of difference, so that point of difference is what you would promote on the sign on the table. We have to get this right, and from the beginning otherwise we are merging in with the competition rather than standing out and having an advantage.