The world wants you to be a faceless, replaceable cog in the vast machinery of production–but if you choose, and you work at it, you can become the sort of person we really need, an indispensable linchpin, a person who matters. The marketplace needs and embraces artists, creatives, initiators, challengers and movers. You have that skill, the challenge is unearthing it. - Seth Godin

American entrepreneurs really are a whole different breed. They don’t expect anyone to give them a break or a pat on the butt. They get their satisfaction from scoring, not praise. They take pride in doing something better than mankind ever did it before, not just their competitors. They pay their taxes to the local, state and federal governments without resentment, and then they pay for useless but mandatory insurance of all different varieties, interest on borrowed capital necessary to grow and merchant charges for credit card sales that scoop off a clean 2 – 4 percent right from the point of sale. For the credit card companies this is like a private tax that they get first, at the time of the sale, before anyone else gets a chance to cannibalize the entrepreneur’s “gross sales”.

Question: How many congressional Representatives and Senators can you buy with 2% of America’s retail gross sales? Answer: Just about all of them. Credit card companies ARE the BANKS. If you think banks make money lending money you are falling for the image of them THEY want you to have. Banks lend money, sure they do but it’s the credit card income that keeps them floating in a sea of money coming in everyday – NOT the interest they earn off your line of credit or your mortgage. They can shut down those sources of income instantly and still make gigantic profits. It USED to be that banks made money serving your capital needs, but times have changed.

So when the banks caved in to the federal government and made real estate loans that went sour because they never should have been approved in the first place, they didn’t need to go begging to Congress for a handout, because they’d already bought the Congressional Representatives and Senators they needed to patch things up with special legislation for them and billions of dollars of quick money to solve the problem. That’s how the biggest bailout in the history of man happened, which became a stimulus package so gargantuan that it staggered everyone in the world who read about it, and numbed even those Americans who repeated the words, “785 Billion” as though it was just another big number. But the money’s gone now, with no apparent impact on the economy as seen by the American entrepreneur, the progenitor of global prosperity.

American entrepreneurs brush it off, but now with a great deal of resentment. What will their strategy be for 2010 and beyond assuming the federal government aims to feed off them and piles on the fees and taxes and increased costs of staying in business? Will they organize politically? Will they re-organize their companies to be more efficient? Will they sharpen their focus on ROI? Or all of the above? I believe they’ll figure out how to make more money, pour themselves a scotch at 5 p.m. as usual and reinvent the world economy again.

“The Customer is King”, this quote is listed from an “unknown” source – meaning that we can’t offer proper credit to any one individual for this timeless description. However, we can probably assume that they were a business person who truly had a realistic grasp on how to achieve success.

“Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.” Walt Disney is credited for this quote. I think it is safe to say that he was keenly aware of the importance of creating and maintaining customer and brand loyalty. The success of the Disney Corporation is nothing short of phenomenal. People visit their parks, view their films and buy their brands consistently – time and time again! Another business icon – Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, Inc., offered this quote concerning customer service “The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary.” There is probably a Walmart within several miles of most of us. Mr. Disney and Mr. Walton achieved success by exemplifying the quote from the unknown source. In essence – treat your customers like royalty and they will be loyal.

Obviously the first step toward such success is recognizing who your customers are and performing at a level of excellence that will bring them back to your products and services. True brand and customer loyalty is what separates successful companies like Disney and Walmart from the legions who compete with them. The best way to test your customer service and your client’s loyalty is by examining repeat buying patterns. Given the two examples offered – we can say that most of us have been to a Disney movie or park more than once and most of us visit our local Walmart on a very regular basis. The point is that by rewarding your patrons with excellent service and products – you will retain them and they will recommend you to others.

The purpose of my blog is not to review these success stories – but to offer praise and appreciation to the thousands of repeat clients who patronize Harvard Business Services, Inc. and who refer others to our services. As we begin this new decade – we want to say “Thank You!” to all of you. Our statistics show that repeat clients accounted for more than fifty percent of our business in 2009! Stop and consider that one out of every two clients who used our services either came back and used them again or referred another client to us. That says a lot about our fine family of patrons – they are loyal and they deserve the “royal” treatment. It also says a lot about our company and the level attentiveness paid to each of the “kings” that we serve. A thank you must also be offered to everyone at Harvard Business Services, Inc. who apply customer service at such a high level and inspire such a following. Being a sales executive; I often think of another quote “Nothing happens until someone sells something.”

Although this may give some undue credit for customer satisfaction to a respective sales team or representative – one must also consider the adverse – What if nothing happened after something was sold? Harvard truly exemplifies a team effort when it comes to customer service. Everyone plays a very important role and deserves ample credit. The excellence achieved by all demonstrates our royal approach to our service. Again – to all of our fine patrons we offer thanks and we look forward to serving all of you in the coming years!

In closing – I will offer one more timeless quote which was also offered by another Unknown source – “If we don’t take care of our customers, someone else will.”