… there’s no shortage of predictions and opinions, that’s for sure. But as it pertains user intent, nothing is changing. Consumers still have a need - they’re still searching for local business information. They still use Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc. They still go to the IYPs, the city guides, the local directories. But now we’re seeing them turn to different devices and different sites than ever before. Consumers are using their mobile devices to call free 411 services, or use free text messaging services. They’re using their mobile browser, or mobile application. Consumers are starting to find local business information from stranger places too, like Facebook, YouTube, even twitter. How about that! As if this local search thing wasn’t fragmented enough, it seems to be fragmenting even more. Yet the consumer isn’t really looking for anything different, are they?

Videos may be more prevalent, more available, more accessible. But are consumers specifically searching for local business videos? Unlikely. Local business profiles, and the websites they’re on, may be optimized for a mobile device, but the user doesn’t necessarily care about clever bells and whistles. Local search apps may have really fancy user interfaces that take advantage of the wow-factor on say, the iPhone, but the user’s intention is still very much the same. They’re looking for the same information as always and they’re still performing recovery or discovery searches.

read more…

Today was a very difficult day for me, as founder and as CEO of CitySquares. In fact, today was one of the hardest days I’ve ever had at CitySquares because it was the culmination of some very hard decisions, decisions that affected everyone, yet that also protected everyone. These decisions challenged me in the roles of CEO and founder. Wow, how different they really are. Recently I’ve been wrestling with this for the first time. I never saw it coming.

You might suggest that the CEO says, “I look out for the bottom line” and the founder says, “I look out for the company.” The two are not the same!

As founder, I have a big vision, a huge amount of passion for this, and I’m insanely optimistic. These things can blind me. And as someone reminded me today, “that’s really your job, Ben. No one else can do it” These things are essential.

As a CEO I have to execute on the vision, harness the passion, funnel the optimism. These things, too, are essential.

Today I found myself caught in a limbo between Founder and CEO. The founder in me wants to protect everyone, make them believe that the world is a good place, that everything is going to be just fine, and shelter them from the debris and the noise and the dust being kicked up all around us. The CEO in me wants to tell it like it is and let them face these decisions on their own, and test their commitment to the company, test their will, and test the guts and passion that we asked for when we hired them.

And therein lies the point: when the going gets tough who are you? Who are you really concerned about? Who do you look out for? Do you take one for the team or do you just move forward with your own agenda.

I posted a tweet earlier this evening about today, and I was totally taken aback by the responses I got from folks. People near and far wrote me privately either through twitter or through facebook to ask if I wanted to talk about it, just to talk, founder-to-founder, or as friends. I have to say, that, in itself, meant so much to me. It reminded me how being a founder is lonely. But it’s times like these that your tested, yet again.

Choices are easy, decisions are hard. I know I made the right decisions, and doing so resulted in more choices for others. That’s a pretty powerful thing. Now you just have to hope that it all works out.

CitySquares has a tribe member who’s been with us for about a year now. She’s a rock star in so many ways. She also really enjoys her job and is proud to work at CitySquares. This is partly what makes her a true member of the tribe.

For the last year she has filled some big shoes, and performed in a job that was not well defined for her. She kicked ass at it, like I never thought possible. And over the course of time she’s naturally filled a role within the company that not only has been a bit of a vacancy within the organization, but is something she’s simply really good at.

No one asked her to do these things, no one pointed her in that direction. Instead, she saw a need in the company, and then filled that need. She’s done so with poise, enthusiasm, with total ease. Today, she was formally moved into that role.

What she did over the course of time, perhaps unknowingly, is what she’s good at, and what she enjoys - voluntarily - on her own. She did so because she has a natural expertise with it, and because she has a passion for it. You just can’t buy that.  The result, and hopefully the result of good observation by management, is a permanent move into that role. This will result in even better performance in this role, it addresses a need within the company, in a happier, more efficient, effective successful company, it results in happier customers and better retention rates, and best of all - a member of the tribe who’s even happier and more successful.

There are countless books on leadership. I’ve read a few, from Jack Welch to Rudy Guiliani, to Seth Godin. In this entrepreneurial age we’re living in, leadership has taken on a new meaning. Leadership is a bit more scientific too, than say entrepreneurship. Yet leadership can also be as enigmatic as entrepreneurship.

I’ve been thinking about these things lately, thinking about the essence of leadership in an entrepreneurial setting.

Fred Wilson, on his blog, said the following the other day:

I’ve heard people say, “If you want to know about a company, all you need to do is look at the leader” and it certainly is true that companies exhibit the traits of their leaders. But it’s also true that companies exhibit the traits of their founders. In fact, I’d argue that founders leave a longer and more indelible imprint on the DNA of companies than the person who is currently running them.

There are a host of reasons for why that is. To start, the business that the company is in is more often than not determined by the founder. And companies can move into different businesses over time, but most stay fairly rooted in the initial business that they started in. It’s also true that the culture of a company is defined early on and it’s hard to change it. Some companies are technology driven, some are product driven, others are marketing driven, and others are sales driven. That most often comes from the founder and it’s hard for a new leader to change that mindset. Another important reason that the founders often have the greatest impact on the DNA of a company is the entire initial management team is most often built by the founder. That initial selection of people is a critical determinant in the way companies evolve and behave and new management will always struggle to change the behaviors a company exhibits.

Founders are entrepreneurs, whether they like it or not. That’s just inherent in founding a company. It’s like giving birth to a child, you are a mother. However, just because you’re a founder, or just because you’re an entrepreneur, doesn’t mean you’re a leader.

I recently read Tribal Leadership, by various others, and Tribes, by Seth Godin. I’m trying to better understand my own style of leadership, the qualities and the characteristics of it. I’m trying to be a better leader, and know where my weaknesses as a leader may lie in order to do so.

What I enjoy most about doing what I do every day here at CitySquares is not closing deals, analyzing Excel workbooks, or conducting board meetings. I don’t particularly enjoy any of those duties and tasks, or many of the countless other responsibilities that come with being the CEO. And none of those things actually make me a leader. What I do enjoy doing is working with the people within CitySquares, as well as the customers and the advisors. I enjoy affecting change, helping the company move forward as a single unit, as a tribe, who actually enjoy their jobs. I enjoy protecting them from the noise outside these walls, and from those who may try to stop them from succeeding. I enjoy achieving our goals, collectively. I enjoy inspiring. I enjoy seeing them smile at our holiday party, as if they’re actually happy to be there because they like the company, they like who they work for, they like who they work with. I enjoy working with my team to find new ways of accomplishing the greater mission of CitySquares. I enjoy inspiring and affecting change then watching them execute, and learn, and get even better at it.

Is this leadership? I don’t know. It’s me, I know that. It’s who I am and it’s what I do best, I think.

So here’s my Sixth Photo Meme! This is a picture of the best game of baseball I’ve ever had the pleasure to attend - October 17, 2004. It was the 2004 American League Championship Series, game 4 at Fenway Park - Boston vs New York. This was the game 4. The one that resulted in the best comeback in sports history, the comeback that ended the Red Sox’s 86 year championship drought. I had the great fortune of attending this pivotal game, this pivotal moment in baseball history. I watched Dave Roberts steal second base - the single moment, the single play that changed it all. This is a picture of Mariano Rivera, perhaps the best closer in baseball history, on the mound in the midst of this game as it unravelled for the Bombers. Anyway, here’s my 6th photo from page 6:

So it’s my turn to pick 6 people to play this game. Here we go:

Ryan Sarver, Sean Coon, Nate Aune, Tara Hunt, Dana Zemack, CitySquares

I just don’t see Google coming into this space, sprinkling it’s Google fairy dust on the marketplace and voila - cracking the code. OK, so maybe Google’s isn’t trying to crack the code, but just penetrate the market a bit more than they’re able. Google should want to penetrate this space, of course they should, but doing it themselves? Gimme a break! And this approach is just silly. I kind of get the sense that this is a desperate move by an increasingly clumsy and goofy corporation that will yield very little. Next step for Google? Snatching up local search players.

Success in the local search market will not come from a giant like Google or Yahoo or Microsoft. It will come from the small startups like, well, like CitySquares.

Here’s Matt McGee’s post on the demise of the program, which gives some more detail. Here’s what Google had to say:

On December 31, 2008, we will end the Google Local Business Referrals program, which was one of many Google Labs initiatives that we had developed as part of our ongoing commitment to experimentation and testing new ways to help businesses establish a presence online.

Many relationships have been built as a result of Google Local Business Referrals, and local connections between representatives and businesses have been forged that we hope will continue. However, the program will conclude at the end of the year as part of our effort to ensure that we prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business.

So, what’s next for Google and their local ambitions?

Our primal fight-or-flight response - something that’s deeply ingrained in our primal instinct - is tested during times like these, among others. Fight-or-flight theory suggests that

“animals react to threats with a general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system, priming the animal for fighting or fleeing. This response was later recognized as the first stage of a general adaptation syndrome that regulates stress responses among vertebrates and other organisms.” - Wikipedia

Basically it means this - when faced with a challenge that threatens your survival, what do you do? Do you fight? Or do you flee? Either answer could be right. For example: If you are in the forest and face-to-face with a mother-bear in the woods, you’re natural instinct may be to flee - run for your freaking life! And you may be right, but do you take that risk? Or do you just stand still and don’t make a single movement. That’s also the right answer. Or, do you stand tall, wave your hands like a maniac and create the illusion of size, height, strength, fierceness? Either way, what you’ve decided not to do is to fight the bear. Yet if you’re face-to-face with someone who’s invaded your house in the middle of the night, you’re natural instinct is to fight the attacker off with a weapon. That might be the wrong answer. Either way, we’re talking about instinct here - our primal reaction to what challenges our survival.

There are fine lines here too, subtleties. For example, some people face very tough challenges in their lives. Maybe a child lost her parents when she was very young - does that child now stand up on her own and claw her way through life, taking care of her baby brother? Or does she give up, and rock back and forth in a fetal position? Hard to answer, hard to say. How about an adult who loses everything to a gambling habit or to drugs? Do they claw their way back or do they slide into the downward spiral? And when do they decide to start fighting? Hopefully before it’s too late.

OK, you get the point - sorry to be so depressing but these are examples that shape who we are, these are decisions we all face at one time or another, in our respective ways. They define people for the rest of their lives.

This now begs the question - what does a company do when faced with hard times? When an economy is slowing down, when the chips seem to be on the other side of the table, what decisions does the company take? How does it respond? How does its personnel respond? How about its sales people? Management? What about the Board of Directors, or the shareholders? How do all these stakeholders respond? And do they all agree?

I was on a flight the other day thinking about this very subject while flipping through the recent issue of Inc. magazine when at page 28 I came across a little quote from famed management guru Tom Peters. To quote Inc.:

Tom Peters is most associated with managing during bad economic times. His In Search of Excellence was published amid the sharp recession of 1982, and Thriving on Chaos debuted on Black Monday in 1987. On TomPeters.com he recently wrote about running a business in a time of “significant and sustained economic disarray.”

I liken Tom’s quote to this very subject - fight-or-flight. My favorite line, and the same line quoted in Inc., is in bold text below:

While many businesses will fail amidst the current economic crisis through no fault of their own, some will survive in spite of the odds—and a few will surprise by turning a messy situation into economic-competitive advantage. The requisite winner’s attitude is expressed by former Ritz-Carlton chief Horst Schulze, commenting on his decision to launch his new high-end hotel business, Capella, despite the market madness: “I do not accept the explanation of a recession negatively affecting the [new] business. There are still people traveling. We just have to get them to stay in our hotel.” And, indeed, getting an “unfair share” of “what’s left” is near the heart of the matter. Schulze’s remarks also remind us that instant, mindless cutting of R&D or training or salesforce travel in the face of a downturn is often counterproductive—or, rather, downright stupid. Tough times are in fact golden opportunities to get the drop, and the longterm drop at that, on those who respond to bad news by panicky across-the-board slash and burn tactics and moves that de-motivate and alienate the workforce at exactly the wrong moment.

Tough times indeed require tough and unpleasant decisions—but thriving, not just surviving, is an option for those who mix wisdom and boldness of leadership with transparency and maximized employee involvement and engagement. Without suggesting that there is anything humorous about the pain that bad times cause, one can say that “this is when it gets fun” for truly talented and imaginative leaders at all levels and in businesses of every sort and size!

I frequently hear words of doomsday and panic from those I’d expect to hear it from - backseat drivers and people who’ve never really done anything, or who’ve never really  been there and done that. From people who’s claims-to-fame are an MBA, or who rode a wave at a time of great opportunity and when everyone else was riding the same wave. I hear words of fear, reactionary language, strong opinions from those who don’t see beyond their own horizons, from those who lack vision. Yet I hear words of encouragement, of calmness, an almost harmonious philosophy, more proactive and forward thinking language, and open-mindedness from those who have been there, who have done that, who are glass-half-full, those who have vision.

The hard times in life test people - test our instincts, like our will to survive. Hard times test our humanity, shape us into who we are. Hard times make us stronger, but only if we choose to fight.

Companies are no different. We must choose our battles wisely, but we must forge ahead. We assess the battlefield, have a battle plan, fortify our properties, and attack the weak spots of enemy lines. We put the sun to our backs to blind our competition, and we fight! We do not run! We do not hide! We attack in waves, one powerful wave of attacks after another.

Entrepreneurs, you’ve arrived at this destination by your own choosing! You cannot control the climate, or the environment, you can only control your reaction to it. Smarten up, stiffen up your spines, and get to work! When the going get tough, the tough get going. Fight! These are opportunities!

Coincidentally, when I arrived my airport terminal I bumped into Geoff Jeff Beard, President of Localeze. We chatted a bit while until it was time to board the plane. I turned, shook his hand, and said “thanks again for the great time last night, really” and his response was “It was our pleasure, and thank you, we really appreciate your business.”

That’s when it hit me - “Thank you” and “we really appreciate your business” - two very simple statements, but so powerful. And sadly enough, as consumers and customers we just don’t hear it enough. Instead, we see a generic sign from the hardware store hanging in a window, or on the back of a cash register, that reads “Thank you, come again!” or “We value your business” but so rarely is it actually spoken.

When I sat on the plane I started to realize something - I’ve heard these statements many times from Localeze. In fact, I’ve heard it from each and every one of them either oh the phone or in person. I found myself rather dumbstruck by this, as simple as it is. All of this translates into something else, something vital in business - loyalty.

Like all companies there are a number of service providers, partners, and vendors that we work with at CitySquares. Nearly all of these relationships have lasted because, well obviously they provide value, but also because they appreciate our business and they make sure I know that. They make us feel like we’re valued. If I don’t feel like they appreciate my business, I’ll continue doing business with them but if someone else comes along and makes me a better offer, I’d give it serious consideration.

CitySquares’ relationships with our customers are our biggest asset. We have a high customer renewal rate because we take care of them, we provide them with value, and we appreciate their business. In fact, every month we have what we call Customer Love Day. Yeah I know, it sounds a little corny but that’s what it is; Customer Appreciation Day sounds so corporate and cliche. The point is that we make a concerted effort to make the time and we go out of our way to check in with our customers, provide them with additional value and to thank them and let them know that we appreciate their business. This is a process that’s simply in CitySquares’ DNA.

In these tough economic times, as businesses struggle in various ways it’s never ever too late to tell your partners and customers that you appreciate their business, to thank them. You can’t build loyalty in one phone call though, it takes time - but you can start today.

Clear a few minutes off your calendar and call just one of your customers today, or one more. Thank them, do something for them, go the extra mile. It only takes a moment and the worst you get out of it is a happy customer.

I made a mistake this weekend - I forgot about balance and paid the price. Actually, it’s not so much that I forgot about it, rather that I neglected to enforce it for myself and I know now that it’s been happening for a while. If there’s one thing that’s certain about these stressful times, with the economy and, for me, with CitySquares being at such an exciting precipice, it’s more important than ever that we all keep a healthy balance in our daily lives. Everyone is a bit more on edge these days than normal. People are inevitably going to be a little short-fused, or edgy. Myself included.

As an entrepreneur, my work tends to take over everything in my life - literally everything. When I hop out of bed in the morning, it’s game time. In fact, I don’t sleep much, because in between sleep phases I’m still gaming. When I sleep, I often dream of work. When I’m in the shower, I’m thinking about CitySquares. My iPhone is only an arm’s length away, always. Throughout the day I’m full-on. When I get home to see my wife, I’m full-on. When I eat dinner, when I watch TV or a movie, when I’m out and about, my mind is spinning about CitySquares. I may fake it well, but I’m constantly working. It takes a lot to bring me back down. Like, horse tranquilizer strength to bring me down.

Now, this is mostly expected from an entrepreneur and founder of a company - it’s actually normal in the world I live in every day. But as it pertains being a human and living out my life, it’s not normal - it’s harmful. It hurts. It hurts my relationships with others, my mental health, emotional and physical health. It’s literally caused me health problems - some I’m watching closely. In very rare circumstances it can affect others, even hurt them.

This weekend I had an eye-opening and very plainly realized that I’m on a path to self-destruction if I don’t correct this right now. I must get back to balance. I have some hobbies that I’ve neglected lately, some friends and family that I’ve neglected, some passions that I’ve ignored. Maybe I need a long weekend away on a beach somewhere. I’m not sure, but I’m going to figure it out fast.

As with everything in life, there must be moderation. And that goes for entrepreneurs too! In this fast-paced, web 2.0, always-connected, get-ahead entrepreneurial way of life it’s so easy to get lost in it all.

I believe it was Buddha who said, “everything in moderation, even moderation.”

‘Nuff said.