It was a day to remember.
On Friday, May 20, the Small Business Matters Conference took place at the City Springs Conference Center in Sandy Springs, Georgia. The theme for this year’s event was Celebrating Small Business, and it was quite a celebration with over 200 registered guests, 10 great speakers, and a surprise visit from one of our country’s forefathers, Ben Franklin.
The cause for the celebration was twofold: First, the Small Business Administration recognized May as National Small Business Month, and second, it was our first opportunity to meet and gather at a large in-person event in over two years.
Speaker presentations touched on several key areas for small business leaders including customer-centricity, understanding your brand, and leadership in uncertain times. Here is just a sampling of key takeaways from the speakers:
“Both product-centric and customer-centric organizations deliver on customer service and customer experience. The difference is that in a customer-centric business model, the levels of customer service and experience are higher and more consistent than in a product-centric model.”
Mary Ritz
Leadership, Teams, and Customer Management Expert
“Your best competitive advantage in business is you – be your authentic self.”
Kelli Stewart
Co-founder/Executive Director, L.E.A.D., Inc. | L.E.A.D. Center For Youth
“What you expect is often what you get simply because you expect it.”
Edward Miller
Managing Director, Cindy Miller Communications
“In the past, marketing was mostly advertising. But today, marketing is everything you do; and what you do either adds to the brand experience or takes away.”
Taylor Fulton
Director of Marketing, Small Business Matters
“Inconsistent excellence earns the same amount of trust as consistent failure.”
Scott Wozniak
CEO, Swoz Consulting
“People don’t simply buy products/services, but rather they hire them to do a certain job. First, determine your product’s or services’ “job to be done” and then market it accordingly.”
Rick Mayo
President, Alloy Personal Training
“At my organization, we work very hard and very intentionally to create a work culture that reflects our strong commitment to recovery principles, and it works! To be able to discuss this topic in front of the SBM22 Conference was very validating and encouraging.”
Neil Campbell
Executive Director, Georgia Council on Substance Abuse
“Every CEO has to be personally involved in recruiting. Get recruiting right and most other things will work. Don’t get recruiting right, nothing works.”
Shawn Bradley
Vistage Chair
For all of those who attended the conference, my heartfelt thanks for showing up and joining me in celebrating small business. For those who were not able to attend, we look forward to seeing you next year. In the meantime, let’s all remember how much small business means to everyone.