What is the CCPA and will it affect my business?The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is a bill intend to enhance privacy rights and consumer protection for residents of California. The bill was passed by the California State Legislature and signed into law by then-governor Jerry Brown on June 28, 2018. Officially called AB-375, the law goes into effect on January 1, 2020.
Essentially the intent is to:
Is my website ADA compliant?You might think of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, as pertaining to buildings and structures but it is also expanding into the digital world. So your website is now also going to come under the scrutiny of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
 Here Six Sigma Ranch uses staging and lighting to capture the wonderful essence of the beef and pork raised on their ranch alongside their award-winning wines. Last week we talked about what a difference good photography can make in the telling of your businesses’ story. A big, big component of that is lighting. The difference between a haunted house and one you’ll want to move into might just be the lighting. After all, who doesn’t get creeped-out by a dimly-lit scaaaaaaaary house?
When I used to take the pictures for an RV dealer of the trailers on the lot we used to make sure to have the batteries attached and functioning and I would turn on every light inside the trailer. The difference this made in making the RVs look inviting was incredible. Sometimes we would even take a shop light and light up dimly-lit corners of the RVs.  Using photos is one of the best tools a business has to tell a story. Yet I see a lot of people doing an exceptionally bad job with their photos. And others using photos with great success. With today’s smart phones, there is no excuse for bad pictures.
So why are bad photos such a common thing?  I may be among the bigger dental chickens on the planet. I have a great, gentle and very competent dentist but when she told me that a root canal I had done in my 30s was kaput and had to be redone it overwhelmed my thinking. In fact, for weeks before the appointment, I let the thought of going to the root canal specialist override everything else in my life.
Then I had the root canal procedure. And it was no big deal. In fact, I did it the day before Thanksgiving and still managed to add almost two pounds to my waistline. So what’s the point? Where’s the best ice cream in your town? Where is the most outstanding breakfast place? What would be a hidden gem that you would want someone visiting your area not to miss? Isn’t it fun to help people with these “insider secrets?”
Of course it is. You just earned your master’s degree in networking at a business mixer. Wait. What? What is it, where did it come from?
The internet is in love with the Woman Yelling At A Cat meme; the phenomenon even made its way into a few Halloween costumes. But what is the cat vs. women meme and how did it become so popular? And who are the women - and who is the cat in the meme? As with so many memes on the Internet, this came out of serendipity as the images were each already being used as memes to start with. However, once they got together it became Internet gold. Have you ever watched a landslide? Or seen a sea wall fail? Have you ever seen one of those bridge collapse videos? Why am I being so apocalyptic?
Well I’m currently watching the same thing. But it’s not a physical building or structure, it’s a business. Fortunately I’m watching from the outside but my portal to the inside is very much a direct view. And it’s totally preventable. What's the first thing people think of when your brand is mentioned?What is the first thing someone thinks of when your brand is mentioned? Service? Quality? Burned out light bulbs? What is your brand?
What do you immediately think of when I write Las Vegas? How about New Orleans? How about Los Angeles? What about Disneyland? They each have a very distinct brand and that brand may be different based on your own life experience. You can spend a lifetime of planning and preparation but there are times when your business faces external forces that could severely affect your future. In California we face the constant threat of earthquakes. In the Midwest a tornado can send everything you’ve worked for into spin cycle. And then there is just plain old simple robbery and burglary for that matter.
In fact, businesses are most likely to be affected by employee theft more than natural disaster. From missing a few pencils to someone taking an entire database of customers, this is just one of a number of disasters you should be thinking about. |
Tony BarthelTony Barthel is passionate about great marketing for small businesses Get Free Weekly Marketing TipsCategories
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