Seth Godin struck a very nice note in his comment about being subtle in communicating with your audience. The buzz word now is to communicate, but in reality it’s all marketing. It’s the way you share your message with your audience.

Subtle details demonstrate power. Instead of being in an urgent hurry to yell about every feature or benefit, you demonstrate confidence by taking your time and allowing people to explore. They don’t put huge banners on the Hermes store, announcing how good the silk is and how many famous people shop there…

Being subtle commands a cool, confident tone. It’s the difference between that person you really enjoy being around and working with vs. the one who’s always in your face, too loud, to extreme. Developing client relationships today requires calculated efforts, not just a big bullhorn to get people’s attention. It’s not fishing where you cast out your line, reel in your catch, and then you’re done. Marketing today is like well tendered garden. Calculated preparation, and small, effective tasks done on a daily basis with time being given each step of the way to let each careful step take its full effect. The end result is that homegrown full blossomed customer who will be with you for life and will always be on your side. Does that fish you caught and tossed in your cooler have great feelings about you the fisherman? Now, how about that healthy, productive plant in your garden who has benefited from your daily care?

Ruben Gamez from Bidsketch took time out to share his experience on the free vs. paid model on Softwarebyrob.com. I found his experience really interesting. I use a number of online software services for various different things. With some of them I have a simple free account while with others I gladly dish out the money to pay for the premium account. I think that most users who are looking for a service provider are willing to pay for the extended features if it’s something that they REALLY need to use and there are no alternatives to it.

I’ll use my Pandora account for example. I love Pandora. I don’t however, use Pandora every day, nor do I listen to my Pandora stations for hours at a time. For me, it’s not worth paying for a premium account with its full set of features. If Pandora were to limit the length of time you could listen to your stations per day or limit the number of stations you could create on a free account would that make a big difference to me? No. I’d still keep my free account. However, the user who LIVES with their Pandora station on every day, or the place of business that uses Pandora to stream music at their place of business, they are much more apt to go for the paid account.

In the end, it’s really dependent on what how your users use your service and if there are alternatives for them out there on the Web. If Pandora eliminated their free accounts altogether would I immediately upgrade? No. There are plenty of other service providers out there that offer a similar service for free. Pandora knows that and just finds a way to capitalize on their free accounts. That’s that key. Learn to make money even off of your free account users. The revenue doesn’t even have to pay for the costs of the free accounts, just brining in a little bit is a great start.

Doing more with less is important in business, and even more important when times are tough. Managers, however, need to carefully evaluate every cost cutting decision to ensure that the costs being cut will not have too great of an adverse effect in the organization’s ability to do business, in the morale of its employees, and in leaving its customers and clients feeling cheated. If careful consideration is not made companies will end up spending less and getting less, or spending less but increasing its costs in other areas in order to operate its business.

3 Cost Cutting Traps

1) Focusing cost reduction on areas with highly variable costs. Advertising, training and recruitment are often hit simply because they are easy to switch on and off.

2) Seeking to give all areas of the business an equal share of the pain. For example, all departments may be required to find 20 per cent cost savings regardless of their relative importance.

3) Enabling a political power struggle. Departmental leaders many times use their influence with the CEO to campaign to protect their area, whatever the cost elsewhere.

3 Correct Cost Cutting Principles

1) Identify and protect your key profit generators. A profit generator is a business activity that has a disproportionately large impact on the profit and value of the organization. These business activities should have a focus of ensuring that they maximize their revenue potential for the long run and not just minimizing their costs. Not in check, this creates the cooking the “goose that lays the golden egg” syndrome. You, in your cost cutting efforts, cut back on the necessary resources your main income generator requires.

2) Understand where you are competitively disadvantaged on cost. Don’t just review your own costs to drive profits, you should also critically review and understand your competitors’ costs. If your competitor can cut costs in certain areas, can you do the same? If so, do it. If not, you will need to come up with an alternative area where you can cut costs to offset what your competitor is doing.

3) Determine where you make and lose money. A good starting point for increasing profit is to stop losing money. In most businesses there are areas of high profitability and areas of low returns or losses. Poor-performing businesses cannot be switched off overnight, but focusing your resources and effort where you deliver the greatest returns is likely to raise profits. Each of these areas, however, need to be carefully evaluated as to what the costs, in the end, bring to the company. Some costs can be cut with relatively little effect on the company. Other costs can minimize business potential, decrease morale, or even increase costs in other areas of the business.

Cost cutting initiatives in business are not easy or simple decisions. Managers who face the requirement to cut costs should carefully weight their options, seek for input from those directly related to the areas where costs will be cut. Most often, by involving others and explaining the reality of the situation, managers can seek for insight on areas where costs can be cut. Those employees who work in those specific areas day-to-day often have a wealth of insight into the business and can, many times, offer solutions to make the decision process more informed and better for the business.