I almost titled this post, Everything I Know About Relationships, I learned from Seven Pounds, but it was a little too long and it would’ve been a lie. The thing is I finally got around to seeing the film Seven Pounds with Will Smith. It’s the story of a man’s post-accident life, and how he goes about making up for what he did during that accident. One of the few films showing the stress and the emotional impact of a man after a terrifying and life-taking car-wreck. 

I am going to try my best to write this post without giving away any spoilers so here we go:

We under-value our relationships. We always have and we always will. Whether you’re looking at this relationship from a work point of view, or a dating/marriage point of view, pure human natural tendency is to undervalue your relationship. It’s natural for a person to be closed when they disagree with something or to ignore the facts when it comes to making the best of what needs to happen.

Everyone however, can always tell when something is going downhill in a relationship, being strong and standing for what you want and what you need should really be a priority. Now even though, you could be talking about a b2b or a b2 relationship but holding your principles and evaluating what has to be done for the improvement of your mental, physical, accounting (or whatever else’s), health taking a stand and using the best of your abilities is the best way to establish these relationships. I think a great example of this can be seen in Love Actually where the Prime Minister stands up to the President. Watch it here on YouTube

Within these relationships there should always be a matter of trust and communication. I’m not saying go out into what you’re trying to get done and be 110% transparent about your needs or wants; however, to simply let the facts be known, let the truth be there without walls, without barriers, and definitely without the BS. When you need something from a client or a partner, let the facts be known, understand each other, establishing the priorities and the trust for a fruitful relationship.

But don’t just take it from me, check out Chris Brogan’s Trust Agents and watch Seven Pounds you won’t regret it. 

If you have any comments or objections let me know in the comments!

Image by Jim Boud

Firstly,

Square; Jack Dorsey’s project. I believe will have an economic impact on especially small businesses because it’s one of the “simplest” and convenient add-ons for somone offering a good (I don’t think this will have as much effect on service based companies).

As TechCrunch puts it:

Think paypal, but anyone can now accept physical credit card payments, too. With no contracts or monthly fees. People are sent receipts by text and email.

With such a huge market share of the mobile world running on the iPhone now, the simple dongle will add usability and ease to transactions.

Though I do agree with Read Write Web:

A regular coffee shop can get a payment terminal for free and only pays about $20 in fees per month (plus a percentage of every transaction).

The Square will cater to brand new businesses who cannot afford the merchant costs and to “mom & pop” stores who are selling more home-made like goods at low prices where the merchant costs become overbearable. In the end this will lead to better management of small business expenses. Therefore causing a better stimulus on the small business market.

Secondly,

Trust. I commented on this yesterday with my video, but to expand on that fact.

Small businesses need trust more than any other large corporation. These small manufacturers, service providers, and sellers need to build their trust database more than anyone else. Because their not fully well known and have a more volatile client base they need to:

1. Keep a consistent returning client base
2. Have an increasing trent of new clients

Other larger companies don’t have as much volatility in this case, so the small marketing techniques need to be based more on CRM and a quality product or service for their size (prefferably even competing with the big dogs!). By building thier trust these small businesses will see a huge increase in their word-of-mouth marketing and their returning client base moreso than their new clients!

Check out Chris Brogan & Julien Smith’s Trust Agents, and understand your clients’ needs!

What do you think the impact on small businesses is?

Image by emdot

Posted via web from Greg’s posterous