The NEW Build and Balance Newsletter
Welcome to the new format for Build & Balance, the newsletter for The Growth Coach. I decided not to wait until January 1, 2016. And that's a coaching tip for you: NEVER wait to do something good.

This new format will now feature short items that I come across while reading multiple magazines, blogs, other newsletters, newspapers and the like along with my thoughts. I'll also share info on events that look ideal for business owners to learn or network plus promos for my own stuff (of course!).

Let me know how you like it! My goal is to issue two newsletters per month. If you find it to be too much or unhelpful you can always unsubscribe with one click. 
Differentiate Yourself
In a crowded field you need to find ways to get people talking about your brand. What can you do to separateyourself? Here's what one hotel in San Francisco is doing: Offering every room to one party for Super Bowl 50. The Inn at Union Square has 30 rooms and they'd like one bigwig to pay $75,000 to $100,000 per night with a 4-night minimum. This idea landed them a story in the October 30th print edition of the San Francisco Business Times and a place on their website, too. That's nice coverage for such a small property. Here's the piece online. What can you do that's unique to get press like that?
Google Drive Tips
If you're a Google fan like me, then you might like this list of tips to master Google Drive from the folks at Process Street. For example, you can search Drive right from within Gmail. Now that's PRODUCTIVE (if you use Gmail. ;-). The article has 24 more tips.
Vision 2020 Coming to SF
I like the looks of this business event coming on December 3rd in SF. It's a one-day event being produced by Inc. Magazine & Capital One. It will feature Chris Sacca, one of the most successful tech investors in the world. He invested in Twitter, Instagram, and Uber. Sandy Lerner will also be speaking. She's kind of a big deal. She co-founded Cisco Systems, and founded Urban Decay cosmetics. Lastly, you can also see Randy Komisar, a founding director of TiVo and a lecturer on Entrepreneurship at Stanford. You can spend the day with these people and about 300 others thinking and talking about where your business will be in 5 years. Cool topic, don't you think? Learn more here.  
Time to Consider Holiday Gifts
It's hard to believe, but we're less than 7 weeks from Christmas. If you like to give gifts to clients this would be a good time to start figuring it out. I received a catalog from Popcornopolis and am thinking that their gift crates look pretty nifty. I'm pretty fond of popcorn so I ordered one to check it out. What do you think? Would you like gourmet popcorn as a client gift? Let me know! By the way, a study was done on gift giving and it determined that when you tie the gift to your own characteristics the recipient is likely to appreciate it more. Here's the study.
Should Your Small Business Get a Line of Credit?
I've been banking with Bank of the West since I started the business back in 2008. They've been a solid bank to deal with. I called up Mandana, the manager of the San Mateo branch recently to ask her about a line of credit for my business. I'm thinking of making some additional investments in to the business in 2016 and feel this would be a good time to set up access to funds. This is a great time to request a line because banks are eager to loan money to established borrowers with good credit.

Mandana told me it helps that I've been with them for a long time and own a home. My rate would be 4.5%. How's that? Of course, should the Fed raise interest rates the rate on the line will increase accordingly within 60 days. If you tap in to the line you'll only need to make interest payments, but Mandana said the bank would be looking to see me making principal payments at least in part within 6 months of tapping the line. I bet that shows good faith and solvency. If you're solid you can set up a line in just 3 or 4 days with very little paperwork.
Book Recommendation
Each newsletter I'll recommend a book I've read and can heartily recommend. This time it's A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink. The essence of it is that we are entering in to an age where left-brained people are no longer going to dominate society. While the MBA used to be the advanced degree to get (left-brain), now it's an MFA (Master of Fine Arts - right-brain) that's the one to have. It talks about 6 key traits of right-brained thinkers: Empathy, Play, Symphony, Design, Story, and Meaning. To get a sense of how important it is to understand the edge that these what Dan calls Senses can do for you, consider this statement from an executive at Sony. "Our competitors' products have the same features as our products. What differentiates our products is Design." I highly recommend reading and digesting this book. It will serve you well. Learn more and buy it here.
5 Tips to Write Sales Emails that Get Results
This LinkedIn post was written by Judy Frank and shared with me by a good friend, Dave Leighton with WITI. A really terrific organization. Anyway, writing a sales email isn't easy. Judy shares 5 ideas to help you write better ones:
  1. Get to the point
  2. Keep it simple
  3. Be personal
  4. Have only 1 call to action
  5. Help...don't sell
I TOTALLY agree. You can see the whole post here.
That's it for this edition!
Again, totally different format. Let me know what you think as I plan to go this route for the foreseeable future. Gotta change things up once in a while, right? Your next issue will be out on the 14th.

Michael Neuendorff | The Growth Coach | 650.373.2022