Carolyn Bradfield, CEO

The conventional wisdom in America has been that bigger is usually better. Go into any fast food restaurant and you will be asked to “super size” your meal. Businesses consistently tout that they are the largest in their industry, that they are the number one provider, that they are BIG. But, does that really make them better?

Take the fast food industry. We are living in a nation of fat people. I know that is not a politically correct or popular statement, but the % of Americans that are obese or grossly obese is alarming. Super sizing a fast food entrée, getting a massive amount of food in your order, and having it served on a platter motivates the consumer to eat way more than they need to.

Let’s take the case of General Motors, the largest car company in the world. 2 years ago, they outgrew their ability to understand and manage their organization. They had redundant brands and operations, did not take advantage of the economies of scale and did not recognize that the consumer wanted quality and were willing to go elsewhere to get it. They teetered on the edge of bankruptcy and were only spared when the US government bailed them out and took a stake in their company. Remember the statement “too big to fail”. Today, they are smaller, have less brands, and are coming to the realization that they need to shed the “big guy” mentality.

In the business world, I think we are beginning to recognize that size isn’t what it used to be and that “bigger” comes with its set of disadvantages. In the technology arena, most of the small guys (and Copper is one of them) can create partnerships with bigger players to accumulate a suite of technology services it can offer to its customers. We’ve long gone past the notion that we have to “build it here”.

In the rental car business, Avis, who always played second fiddle to the giant sized Hertz had a genius advertising slogan “We try harder”. I think that is true about the small guy vs. the big guy. As a smaller company, a smaller technology provider like Copper, you have to distinguish yourself in other ways so the customer has an advantage in working with you vs. the giant organization that has many more people to throw at your account.

Smaller guys tend to be more responsive. They tend to be more personalized in the way they service an account. It’s like being in a small town where you know everyone’s name. There are certain advantages to picking up the phone and being able to reach a live person who knows you are and appreciates your business.

Remember that when you are the big guy, the one on the top of the mountain, the only direction you can generally move is down. If you look at the Fortune 50 over the last 100 years, many of those companies don’t exist, went out of business or fell on really hard times. That’s because they get fat, complacent, unresponsive, unmotivated and lose their drive and creativity.

The next time when you are evaluating who to do business with, think about whether in today’s marketplace, size really still counts in the same way it did in years past. In the conferencing industry, I can tell you that the answer is a resounding no. The largest conferencing company in the world is still InterCall. They are also the most reviled by their customers. They are known for their poor customer service, for their lack of response, and for piling on additional fees to cover for the customer base that walks out the door in disgust. They have been sued by their own customers who have questioned the ethics of adding fees that they didn’t agree to. (By the way, they lose most of these battles)

Copper Conferencing has no aspirations to be as big and it never loses sight that we have to earn our customer’s respect and trust every day. We never take that for granted. We’re the little guy and damned proud of it.

About Copper Conferencing
Headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, Copper Conferencing provides audio conferencing and web conferencing services to businesses in all industries. Copper’s Conference Coaches™ provide expert guidance in audio and web conferencing services and online account management. From On Demand reservationless audio conference calls to highly interactive webinars and special event calls, Copper Conferencing helps businesses save time and money while improving productivity. Copper’s audio and web conferencing services are backed by fully managed, carrier-class platforms to power communication for thousands of customers. For more information about Copper Conferencing, visit www.copperconferencing.com or call a Conference Coach at 866-903-7521.

Carolyn Bradfield

In the last blog, we explored how major web conferencing providers have made web conference calls easier to attend, easier to deliver and more affordable. Yet, the word webinar often strikes fear in the heart of many sales, marketing and training professionals. Webinars, unlike web conferences, generally involve larger audiences and are used to attract participants outside of the company. If the call itself has gotten easier, why are webinars still so difficult?

Conducting a webinar is like conducting an orchestra. Delivering a webinar requires planning, promotion, management and delivery so your audience can appreciate your “music”. Those that have to make webinars happen are often afraid. They are afraid that they can’t attract an audience. They are afraid that they don’t have the experience and resources to manage the details. They are afraid that people won’t remember to show up.

That’s even before the call is delivered. They are afraid of how they will coordinate the audio and the web services. They are afraid of their speakers – will they be prepared? Will they be nervous? Can they manage the technology?

I’m sure it seems odd to all of you to have the CEO of Copper Conferencing give all of the reasons that people shy away from webinars. After all, webinars are one of the key services that a conferencing company offers. Yet, as I have pointed out before every conferencing company, including the large ones like PGI and InterCall who started life as an audio conferencing company, have a very small percentage of customers that generate webinars. If we don’t acknowledge what our customers are afraid of and determine how to address those fears, this trend is destined to continue.

Webinars are designed to educate, inspire, inform and motivate the audience to action. They require thought, coordination and planning, a process that seems to intimidate the individuals who desperately want to use them but are afraid to fail. Our commitment at Copper is to unlock the keys to success, make the process easier and make webinars much more affordable. We want to make the user confident so they can get the job done without an army of people holding their hand.

In order to reduce “webinar phobia”, the “conductor” must address the following questions:
• Who is the audience I want to attract and how do I get them interested?
• How do I deliver the information needed to join the webinar and make sure they remember to show up?
• What web conferencing service meets my needs and what will it cost?
• How do I choose the right audio conferencing services to complement the web call and what will that cost?
• How do I structure and deliver a webinar that will hold the audience’s attention?
• What do I do after the webinar is over?

Webinars are one of the most effective promotional, sales, and educational tools that a company has at their disposal. On June 15th, Copper Conferencing is going to help eliminate the fear and anxiety surrounding webinars. We’re going to answer the questions that we have posed about the webinar process and deliver a plan and process to make planning, promoting, managing and delivering webinars easy.

About Copper Conferencing
Headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, Copper Conferencing provides audio conferencing and web conferencing services to businesses in all industries. Copper’s Conference Coaches™ provide expert guidance in audio and web conferencing services and online account management. From On Demand reservationless audio conference calls to highly interactive webinars and special event calls, Copper Conferencing helps businesses save time and money while improving productivity. Copper’s audio and web conferencing services are backed by fully managed, carrier-class platforms to power communication for thousands of customers. For more information about Copper Conferencing, visit www.copperconferencing.com or call a Conference Coach at 866-903-7521.

Carolyn Bradfield

In April, I celebrated 20 years in the conferencing industry. When I co-founded InterCall in 1991, AT&T owned 95% of the marketplace and conferencing was not a widely used technology. Today, most of us just dial in, enter a code and the call starts, but back then conferencing was pretty hard.

In 1991, an AT&T call began with a reservation and every call had the operator dial out to each participant. Before the call, you had to give AT&T the name of each person and one or more phone numbers to reach them. Even for small calls, the set up time was lengthy. The operator had to call each person and then try and recall them if they didn’t answer. If the call ran long, AT&T would drop all of the connections so the next call could start. No wonder that many people found conferencing too hard.

Although conferencing has gotten way easier, there are certain aspects of how it functions that are still too hard. Let’s start with audio conferencing. Not all calls are reservationless. Sometimes, you need an operator to capture the name of each individual, formally open the call, introduce the speaker and perform other duties.

Even though operators aren’t dialing out to participants, getting them into the call can still be difficult. Participants still have to wait for an operator to answer and take their name, entering each person one at a time. Because most calls happen on the hour, the wait times can be lengthy and participants can get frustrated.

There is an easier way to conduct an operator assisted call, removing the frustration and manual intervention needed to enter a participant but still capturing key information. This new process reduces set up time, minimizes waiting and is many times more accurate than having the operator take the person’s name and other key information. Here is how it works:
• Participants dial in to the conference call and enter a conference ID as they would for an automated call.
• Each participant then enters a unique PIN code that is matched to that individual.
• When the post-conference report is delivered, the participant name and other key information about that person appears on the report.
• The operator opens the call as usual and manages their other responsibilities.

Here is why this is so much better:
• Participants don’t have to wait.
• The information about that participant is accurate
• The call is easier to produce, requires less people and is much less expensive.

Managing a call this way combines all of the advantages of an automated call with the benefits of having an operator to moderator and direct the call. Now I’m sure everyone is thinking about managing the logistics of delivering a unique PIN to each and every participant on a large conference call. A PIN entry operator call seems easy, but the management of the PINs must be considered.

On June 15th, Copper brings the advantages of automating an operator assisted call to the marketplace by offering a new service to register participants and automatically deliver their dial in information, including the personalized PIN. It’s easy, straightforward and a much less expensive way to produce a high quality operator assisted call.

No conference call needs to be too hard and Copper is ready to demonstrate that there is always room for improvement.
hings in life. I love chocolate, but hate the calories. I love shopping for shoes, but hate the credit card bill.. You get the picture.

About Copper Conferencing
Headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, Copper Conferencing provides audio conferencing and web conferencing services to businesses in all industries. Copper’s Conference Coaches™ provide expert guidance in audio and web conferencing services and online account management. From On Demand reservationless audio conference calls to highly interactive webinars and special event calls, Copper Conferencing helps businesses save time and money while improving productivity. Copper’s audio and web conferencing services are backed by fully managed, carrier-class platforms to power communication for thousands of customers. For more information about Copper Conferencing, visit www.copperconferencing.com or call a Conference Coach at 866-903-7521.

Carolyn Bradfield

I’ve always believed that eating a balanced diet is the healthy way to go.  Load up with McDonald’s cheeseburgers and you can count on saturating your arteries with a nice thick paste of plaque.  Leave out milk, cheese and broccoli and your bones thin out.  Most of you get the picture and have been taught this simple rule going way back to health class in elementary school.

I think the same is true in business.  Years ago, I ran sales and marketing for Raindance Communications, a conferencing company in Denver that has long been absorbed into another conferencing empire.  We executed the balanced diet approach to revenue generation, fielding a strong marketing effort, a direct sales force to focus on audio conferencing and one to focus on web conferencing, and a channel department.  When one group underperformed, the other group came on strong and kept our revenue growing.  That group was the channel.

I’m a little confused by other conferencing companies who had a balanced diet by investing in a channel sales strategy and then decided to go the way of McDonald’s, cutting back their balanced approach and leaving the channel behind.  You see this to be true at most of the major channel events where agents gather to learn about vendors and their technology.  InterCall, the largest conferencing provider, often doesn’t have a booth and sends one or two people just to walk the exhibit floor.  They’ve cancelled agent contracts, pulled back resources and focused on their direct organization, only to achieve flat revenues.

Copper Conferencing still believes in a balanced diet, and revenue for us doesn’t grow unless we have a strong channel to help feed us accounts from the relationships that these independent agents have worked really hard to build.  In fact, we intend to invest more in our channel.

Enter Jace Harris, a stand out Copper employee for the last three years.  He excelled in our customer care position, was promoted to account management and has lead his team in managing customer relationships and expanding our presence in accounts.  Jace joins the channel as a dedicated support professional to work directly with agents, manage their accounts AND grow revenue through expanded relationships.

When we come to the Channel Partners Show in Las Vegas this March, be prepared to be impressed.  We’ve moved beyond conferencing and are launching a comprehensive marketing suite designed to be a one-stop shop to promote, organize, manage and deliver marketing campaigns.   Our direct accounts will use this for webinar programs; however our channel group can use this technology to promote any product or service that they sell, whether it includes conferencing or not.

A single agent can access the Copper Marketing Suite, create a campaign, manage a targeted list and engineer an email and lead capture campaign without any special training or additional technology.

I think Copper Conferencing and its channel partners need to learn to work smarter and use the tools we are delivering to market more aggressively and more often.  We’re investing in the channel by adding personnel in advance of anticipated demand as our channel partners ramp up for 2011.

Go ahead InterCall …… eat those cheeseburgers served up to you by your direct sales force at unhealthy margins and with poor relationships.  I’m betting on our channel partners to deliver long-lasting productive account relationships.  We’re investing at Copper, not holding back.  You’ll see that in our personnel, products and our presence dedicated to the channel.

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a provider of easy-to-use audio conferencing and web conferencing communication tools. You can try the Copper Marketing Suite — FREE!  Just contact Darren Suders at dsuders@copperconferencing.com or call 303-951-4175.

Carolyn Bradfield

Being kidnapped and held against your will has got to be the most frightening and demoralizing event in a lifetime.  All of us have seen the three hikers captured in Iran with false accusations of crossing the border, held there indefinitely until there is some political capital to be gained from their release.

In Colombia, the guerilla groups that oppose the government use hostage taking as a means to extort money from the government or private groups.  They are willing to keep people chained to trees in the middle of the jungle for years until their demands are met.  We often forget just how important freedom is until it is snatched away.

Although these are high-profile events, many of us can become hostages in our daily lives without being a victim of a kidnapping.  There are countless women who suffer in abusive relationships, too afraid of the consequences if they leave.  What about people who are trapped in jobs because they have to pay the rent and support their family?  In effect, these people may suffer some of the same effects of hostages with their freedom and choices being greatly compromised.

We would all agree that any situation that creates a hostage is just not right.  However, in business and in my industry, conferencing, some companies are now resorting to holding customers hostage.  This happens when the company loses care or empathy for the customer, loses their ability to be competitive and the customer decides to go elsewhere.

I witnessed this first-hand when a company decided to move from InterCall to Copper Conferencing.  Over the years, the customer felt that InterCall had become unresponsive, that their customer service had been non-existent and that there were opportunities to improve the level of service they were receiving.  They had signed a service agreement (which I never recommend), but had finished their commitment.

They respectfully notified InterCall that they would be moving their traffic and at that point, InterCall decided to take a hostage.  They had not invoiced this customer yet for the previous 60 days and told them if they left, they were raising their rate for this unbilled period to $.43 per minute for conferencing.  However, if they would sign a new agreement, then they would lower the rate.

Here’s where the hostage part comes in.  This rate increase amounted to about $9,000 in added expense.  $.43 a minute was the rate that InterCall launched in 1991 when it started the company.  It’s so far above and beyond what anyone still charges today, that it boggles the mind.

Don’t be a hostage to InterCall or any other company.  Signing an agreement that holds you to a big commitment is bad enough, but the fine print sometimes allows this type of misconduct and you and your company can be held hostage, even when the company is not meeting your expectations.

You might expect hostage taking in a third-world country or in a guerilla organization, but certainly not in corporate America!

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a provider of easy-to-use audio conferencing and web conferencing communication tools. You can try Copper’s affordable web and audio conferencing services — and get a discount for using our nationwide Local Dial-In network. Just sign up now.

Carolyn Bradfield

The fall version of the Channel Partner’s Show has just wrapped up and although the show was a little smaller than in falls past, it was quite eventful and productive.  Hosted at the Gaylord Center in the National Harbor, this spot provided a fabulous venue for the show.  Situated on the banks of the Potomac, the brand-new complex of hotels, shops and the convention center exuded sophistication and style.  I loved the place and would go back there.

Copper Conferencing, out of hundreds of technology providers, was named as having one of the 50 best channel partner programs in the country.  We’ve earned this honor for three years in row, beating out much larger competitors like InterCall.   Interestingly, this very large provider had no booth, very few people attending, and much less connection to the agents that built their program in years past.

On the other hand, PGI was a strong presence at the show and hosted a fabulous event at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum located near Dulles Airport.  The museum was opened at night just for us and we were treated to a private tour of the many aircraft in our history.  There was the world’s fasted airplane, the world’s smallest jet, the first Boeing jet, bi-planes, Word War II fighters…..on and on.

My favorite part of the exhibit was a fully restored, gleaming B-29 World War II bomber called the Enola Gay.  For those of you who are not history buffs, the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, ending World War II with the surrender of Japan.  It was a massive aircraft that had to be modified to fly the mission.  The bomb itself was about 8,000 pounds, so the airplane had to be lighted so it could take off.  All of the armor, paint, guns and anything creating extra weight were stripped off.

The crew of the Enola Gay, including pilot Paul Tibbets, knew that there was a probability they may not return.  They had one shot to drop the bomb in a plane that was virtually unprotected against any ground flack or enemy aircraft that may come their way.  The more unknown danger was the turbulence that would be created by the shock wave coming their way from the bomb blast.  As history records, the plane made it to the target, the bomb was dropped in the precise spot, and the shock wave did not tear apart the Enola Gay.  It was an unprecedented act of bravery that ended a war that would have killed tens of thousands of young soldiers if it had gone on.

After the fabulous tour of the museum, dinner was served next to the Space Shuttle Enterprise, the test vehicle for the shuttle program.  Shuttles were designed as cargo ships to bring materials as the space station was constructed.  They flew their missions many years past the planned life of the program and are very impressive spacecraft.

The Channel Partners Show ended today, but it left me with great memories of Washington, DC, the National Harbor and the wonderful museum event hosted by PGI.  On to Vegas in March for our next industry event!

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a provider of easy-to-use audio conferencing and web conferencing communication tools. You can try Copper’s affordable web and audio conferencing services — and get a discount for using our nationwide Local Dial-In network. Just sign up now.

Carolyn Bradfield

The study of history has always been a fascination. The History Channel and PBS rank pretty high on my TV list, especially during the summer when all my other mindless TV shows are on hiatus. One of my interests has been with the creation, the rise and the fall of empires throughout the ages.

Empires such as Rome, Great Britain, Germany seem to have some characteristics in common that make them look powerful and mighty to the outside world, but make them flawed from within, ultimately leading to their downfall. Here are some common themes that I see in the study of the history of empires.

It’s never enough.
Empires always capture territory, conquer lands and dominate the population. They extend their borders across continents and oceans in their quest to be the dominant power in the world. After the glory of their victory has worn off, Empires have to manage, administer and control what they’ve conquered. The larger they get, the more unwieldy the Empire becomes.

It’s my way or the highway.
Empires usually feel the need to rule by fear and intimidation. The conquering empire views the people in their territories as those to be controlled, subjugated and used. After all, conquest was expensive and an empire takes money to run. It’s always up to the minions in the empire to work hard, produce for the empire and expect little for themselves. Suppressed people become unhappy people creating disorder and dysfunction within the empire.

You must be like me.
When Great Britain used its mighty navy to sail around the world and conquer foreign lands such as India and the Far East, they encountered different cultures, religions and languages. Rather than learn from these differences, they were motivated to remove as many of the culture differences as possible leaving the people to wear English coats and top hats, have afternoon tea and worship in the Anglican Church. So much effort was expended in changing what was unique and culturally ingrained that little benefit was derived from the conquest.

History shows us that most empires become unwieldy, difficult to manage, expensive to maintain, hard to control and most of them crumble. Just look at Russia, Rome, Great Britain, Nazi Germany, Alexandria…..on and on. In fact, what empire do you know that has grown by conquest is still in existence?

The study of historical empires has relevance in the corporate world as we look at the big guys who seek to dominate their markets and snap up smaller companies suppressing what was unique and special about them. Corporations can become too large, too unwieldy and too inefficient to manage. Take Bank of America or General Motors as great examples. These billion dollar organizations can breed a culture of dysfunction, treat their employees like minions expecting them to give it all to the corporation and expect little in return. They can treat the customer of the conquered company as a second-class citizen.

The conferencing industry is a great example of where empire building has created bigger companies, not necessarily better companies. At over $1 billion in revenue, InterCall has grown primarily through acquisition, yet it has created a company that has a hard time absorbing its acquisitions, managing its technology, servicing its customers and keeping itself relevant to those customers and employees that may have been much happier in a different cultural environment.

Companies (and empires) rise when they seek to expand beyond their ability to grow organically and they fall when they function like the empires of history. Suppression and intimidation are never sustainable ways to rule an empire. And don’t think for a minute that those who don’t belong to the empire quake in fear when we see you marching through the marketplace, trying to intimidate or conquer. For every Goliath, there is a David. For every Redcoat, there is a Patriot. For every Storm Trooper, there is an Ewok. For every Colonel Quaritch, there is an Avatar.

For customers who are trying to decide if bigger is really better, think about how the company got big. If they did so through conquests (acquisitions), then you have to ask yourself if they are functioning like a company or like an empire. And you have to question if you are valued as a customer or treated like a minion. Or are you better off with someone who is smaller, more flexible, more efficient and more appreciative of your business? After all, empires can rise, but most of them also fall.

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a provider of easy-to-use audio conferencing and web conferencing communication tools. Copper also provides wrap-around services including online account, invoice and recording management. You can try Copper’s great web and audio conferencing services — no obligation. Just sign up now.

Carolyn Bradfield

The older you get, the more nostalgic you get.  Normally, I’m not given to looking back, but sometimes I just can’t help it.  This summer, my small high school in LaGrange, Georgia is holding a multi-year class reunion.  It’s been a while since I’ve been to one of these, but this one is appealing because I get to visit with more people I went to school with.

This is going to tell you how old I am and how much of a small Southern town I come from.  We had one movie theater, one hamburger place and one pizza place.  You couldn’t buy alcohol because the county was dry and our schools weren’t integrated until I was a junior in high school.  The big activities were driving around (gas cost $.25 a gallon), going to the movies once a week, and “parking.”  (Don’t ask me about parking!).

Those were simple times where we had to make our own fun, find things to keep us engaged and navigate through some profound changes in society.  During high school, I saw the end of the Vietnam War, the end of school segregation and the beginning of the drug culture.   Times will never be as simple, as clear and as innocent as they were back then.

I’ve been in the conferencing industry for 20 years and I have to acknowledge the end of an era for a technology and a company I was very fond of.  A small group of entrepreneurs founded a company in the ‘90’s called Evoke that built the best mousetrap I’ve ever seen in conferencing.  They automated an audio conference call where you never had to worry about making a reservation or that there wouldn’t be space available for your call.  They added a simple web interface to control your call that was a forerunner of the way we all use web conferencing today.

The founders (Paul and Todd) always saw themselves as a web conferencing company, raised millions of dollars in the investment world and launched a competitive strike against the incumbent WebEx.  What they failed to realize is that in reality they had built a better mousetrap for audio conferencing by streamlining how a call was managed and conducted.  Their technology was way ahead of its time and the rest of the industry followed their lead.

WebEx proved to be the giant in the web conferencing industry, and Evoke who became Raindance, never gained enough traction to be huge and make their investors rich.  In 2006, the management team at Raindance finally gave up and sold to their company to industry giant InterCall.

Sometimes, as in this case, the bigger company fails to recognize that what they bought extends beyond the revenue and profits.   Raindance had an incredible corporate culture, young and talented employees, an advanced technology and data system, a well-developed web product, and loyal customers.  InterCall, in their infinite wisdom, decided to dismantle all of it.

On September 1, 2010, the audio conferencing technology that was simple to use, always reliable and so advanced is being turned off.  Because InterCall never recognized its uniqueness, its potential and its possibilities, they ignored it, favoring a system that is more complex with lots of moving parts.  They spent tens of millions of dollars trying to customize a data collection and billing system when the one they purchased had much of the components of what they needed.

There are still a number of customers that use the Raindance platform and they are going to be in for a shock to their system.  Everything about their conferencing experience is going to change and not necessarily for the better.

It’s the end of an era in the conferencing industry and I’m sad about that.  I think the customers are going to find that being given lots of billing choices, more features than they will ever use, and a system that is not nearly as streamlined and elegant is going to be a step down in the way they do business.

Paul and Todd, thank you for what you brought to the industry, to the type of company you created and the culture that you promoted.  Thank you for thinking outside the box and creating a better way to do business.

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a provider of easy-to-use audio conferencing and web conferencing communication tools. Copper also provides wrap-around services including online account, invoice and recording management. You can try Copper’s great web and audio conferencing services — FREE. Just sign up now.

Carolyn Bradfield

Although this may tarnish my CEO image, I still really like the Oprah Winfrey show.  I was having withdrawal symptoms when she announced that my daily fix of advice, information, and emotional moments would end this year.  However, I’m feeling better that she is starting her own network in the fall.

On last Friday’s show, Oprah announced that she was teaming up with Mark Burnett (Survivor and The Apprentice) to hold a nationwide hunt for someone to host a reality TV show on her network.  I’m now in TV heaven.  I love reality shows, watch them all, and have tried to be on both the Amazing Race and Survivor.  I can’t get anyone to partner with me for the Amazing Race and I think I’ve aged out for being competitive on Survivor.  (My video wasn’t interesting enough and I looked too much like Tina Wesson who had won the previous year)  However I think I could host my own reality show.

My bet is that when Oprah and Burnett show up in Atlanta this summer, they are not only going to be looking for talent, but also for a concept.  At the risk of one of my readers taking my concept, I thought I would share it on the blog, then ask for you to respond to it so that I have time to refine it.  (Yes, I am going to the audition in June!)

One of the things I know how to do well is to start a business from scratch, grow it and make it successful.  Success to me means that it performs well financially, gives a great return to investors, has a strong value system, and promotes a positive work climate.  In the last 20 years, I have done this at InterCall, Quorum, InterAct, Phoenix Outdoor and now Copper Conferencing.

Now to the reality show concept.  Think hybrid between The Apprentice and The Shark Tank.  On the Apprentice, two teams execute business tasks, generally for a corporate client, a team winner is declared and the “The Donald” fires someone on the losing team.  Projects range from creating radio ads, to opening a restaurant to designing a corporate apartment.  The Shark Tank had a series of entrepreneurs who would go in front of a panel of celebrity investors who would hear their idea, and then offer them an investment in return for some percentage of the company.  The entrepreneur would have to either accept or reject the offer.  Even though most needed the money, not everyone accepted having someone own a large part of their business.

I would like to take several companies and have a team work with each of them over the course of a season to help them grow and improve their business.  Projects may include revamping their products, improving sales, running their operation better, improving employee morale and creatively pushing the envelope.  At the end, the business that has shown the most improvement, based on the judgment of a panel, would receive a monetary award to invest back in the business.

Each week’s tasks would be focused on something specific:
•    Teams get a budget to help improve employee camaraderie and morale.  Who does the best with a small amount of money?
•    Teams must launch a new product that complements their existing product line.  What is the product and the plan for launch?

Get the picture?  You would have an intimate look in the way a small business runs, the ability to watch the interpersonal dynamics of the management team, then see creative ways they have solved their business problems.

So blog readers, what do you think?  Burnett’s shows have some things in common:  challenges, overcoming personal conflict and personality differences to achieve a goal, and a “jury” or “panel” to decide the winner.  One could start with multiple management teams, whittle down the teams to those that are most deserving, then follow those teams as they compete for those investment dollars.

Weigh in……June is just around the corner.

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a provider of Earth-friendly communication tools – audio and web conferencing. Copper also provides wrap-around services including online account, invoice and recording management. You can try Copper’s great web and audio conferencing services — FREE. Just sign up now.

Carolyn Bradfield

For those of you who live in Atlanta it’s hard not to know about Clark Howard.  He’s the host of a consumer-focused talk show on WSB Radio that is now nationally syndicated.  He also appears on the Headline News Network.  Clark is about the cheapest guy I know and proud of it.  He’s an expert in how to save money and how not to get ripped off by extended warranties, poor service, bad investments and paying too much for anything in general.

Now, this is a man after my own heart.  I wouldn’t describe myself as “cheap”, but I am competitive about finding the best deal out there.  I’ve blogged about Ann Taylor, Kohl’s Department Store and other places where they generally pay me to take their clothes. I never sign up for extended warranties and make sure to stay away from other consumer rip-offs. The other day, I was on my way somewhere and tuned into Clark’s radio show to listen to one of his favorite targets of consumer rip-offs – the cell phone companies.

Clark’s perspective is that cell phone companies put you under a “service agreement” because they are cowards. Pretty strong words from Clark.   In essence, they hook you in with a contract that has lots of penalties and horrible out clauses that keep you hooked in for the rest of your life.  I feel that way about AT&T that my husband tethered me to two years ago when he bought everyone iPhones.  Every time you want to change the smallest thing, they shove another 24-month extension under your nose.  If you break your phone and want another – get ready for another two years.

And by the way, AT&T, your cell phone service sucks!  I drop more calls, get the worst coverage, have the worst customer service experience of any other vendor I use.  And that includes the cable company that I fired over a year ago.  Your customer service is even worse.  The only good thing you have going for you is AT&T UVerse that I am totally addicted to and love.  It rarely goes out and I record everything on TV and play it back from every room in the house.  That service rocks!

I started thinking about the concept of contracts and cowards and I think Clark is on to something.  His basic premise is that service companies hide behind a contract when they are afraid that their service won’t stand on its on merits or there is a potential for customers to be dissatisfied with the lack of care or customer service they receive.  He encourages all of us in Atlanta to ditch the cell phone contracts and sign up with a service like Metro PCS that offers a flat monthly rate for talk, text and email with no contract.  I’m waiting for them to work for the iPhone and I’m definitely going to switch.

By the way, the whole contract thing really applies to the conferencing industry.  Big companies like InterCall force themselves on their customers, asking for service agreements to mask the fact that they intend to add surcharges, extra fees and lock you in to a rate in return for a minimum commitment.  And, if you aren’t happy with the level of service, too bad.  They’ll just expect you to suffer along with them until your minimum is paid out.  After all, they’re large and they’re InterCall and they think you don’t really have other alternatives.  (Shades of AT&T?)

Take Clark Howard’s advice and don’t commit to that contract.  I believe contracts are for cowards.  At Copper Conferencing, we stand behind our service every day — no contract needed.  If you aren’t happy with us or we can’t meet your needs, you should fire us and look for something better.  You’ll get a good rate without having to sign your life away.   Face it, InterCall just makes you a prisoner so they can behave and serve you any way they want to.

Clark, you keep all of us honest.  There’s no need to pay too much, put up with customer “no-service” or give our business to cowards.  I’m with you on this one!

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a provider of Earth-friendly communication tools – audio and web conferencing. Copper also provides wrap-around services including online account, invoice and recording management. You can try Copper’s great web and audio conferencing services — FREE. Just sign up now.