I ended up staying up way too late last night writing this Jerry Maguire-esque “mission statement,” but it was important to me. Over the last few weeks, I’ve witnessed a lot of poor conduct in the small business community and I’m just shocked to see what people are willing to do to earn a buck. Not to say that we should all forget about making money and start running charities; for most of us, profits aren’t optional and our families depend on our businesses just as they would depend on our employers if we were regular old corporate guys and gals.

But that being said, can anyone give me a legitimate reason NOT to conduct yourself in an ethical manner? Is it so tough to make money AND do the right thing? I am not perfect (far from it) but I do make an effort every day to run my business in a way I can be proud of. The truth is that, no matter what business you’re in, running it with high moral standards is not only easy and emotionally rewarding, but also a point of differentiation in a marketplace that seems — increasingly, in my opinion — less than concerned about doing right by their clients. And if that’s not enough reason to pay attention, I also believe that being a good business citizen is also profitable. After all, long-term customer relationships are built on trust and if your customers can trust and respect you, they are likely to keep you around longer.

Every business is different, but I definitely suggest that all business owners take the time to define the elements key to ethical conduct in their businesses. Seeing what I’ve seen recently, I’ve taken my own advice and started writing down the most important guidelines in ethics and fair dealing that we’ve incorporated into the business here at Zero-G. A lot of these have been part of the business since day one; some were learned later, “the hard way.” Below are the top 10, in no particular order:

1. Help the client make the best possible decision for them — even if that means NOT hiring us: Bottom line, if you are not a good fit for us, we need to stop trying to sell you something that you’re not going to want and instead shift gears and try to help you get what you need someplace else.

2. Don’t “nickel and dime” the client: If we quote a project and the scope/expectations don’t change, the price shouldn’t either.

3. Focus on core competencies: It seems that every day we’re approached by someone new who wants to share a fantastic reseller or affiliate opportunity that’s going to make us “tons” of money every month. While Zero-G does resell some services like web hosting and printing, we do so primarily because sourcing these items is a convenience to our clients and improves our efficiency in completing projects which saves time and ultimately money; a savings which can be passed back to our clients. We will not sell products or services though that do not help make us a better agency, that compromise our neutrality and that may potentially create conflicts of interest as we serve our clients.

4. Don’t cut corners: This one is easy… If we can’t be proud of what we can accomplish given the tools, budget and people we have available and in the time given, we should pass on the opportunity. Doing otherwise is not fair to anyone.

5. Believe in the client: If — for any reason — we are not comfortable with a client’s business model, we will pass on the opportunity to work with them. In our business, we’ve been offered a variety of “interesting” projects and if they challenge us ethically, create conflicts of interest, or we simply can’t get behind them 200%, we decline.

6. Treat the client’s business like it’s our own: This is a variation on a phrase that my CEO at my last corporate job used frequently — and I still believe in it. To me, this means being honest, making responsible decisions with the client’s time and money and doing whatever it takes (within legal and practical limits of course) to influence their success. Sometimes that means telling your client something that they don’t want to hear and sometimes it means leaving potential revenue opportunities for us on the table to better serve the client’s interests.

7. Contribute positively to the community: For me, this is twofold. I think it’s important to contribute positively to the community as a whole by engaging in charitable/philanthropic activities (Zero-G donated about $10K in time to a local charity last year and we have plans to do something similar this year) — but it’s also important to impact your small business community. I think it’s wonderful when small business owners can be generous with their time and lend their experience to a fellow entrepreneur who could use a little helpful advice. I do this as much as I can. And as much as I enjoy helping small business owners in general, I have a special place in my heart for people getting started in the design and web business. I’ve done a lot of coaching for graphics folks and programmers trying to establish themselves and that has been very gratifying.

8. Never use ignorance as a sales tool: Many small business owners haven’t done a lot of marketing; they don’t always know what they need and may not have the right experience/tools to make a good hiring choice. Pushing the sale without providing some level of education beforehand is irresponsible. If they don’t know HOW to make a good decision on how to move forward with a particular initiative, I need to provide that information before they invest in me. Having all the facts may lead them in a different direction or possibly even cement my firm as the front-runner. Either way is fine. As long as I can provide a client with a great experience in the meantime I never feel as if my time is being wasted.

9. My responsibility to our clients extends beyond my contract: If I sit back and allow my client to spend money with a firm or individual that I know won’t deliver or can’t deliver what they are promising, I am not doing my job. My clients are solicited all the time by phony SEO and social media experts, people selling “too good to be true” advertising schemes and a variety of other marketing industry parasites. Sometimes my clients are already in a dysfunctional relationship with a service provider when I get there. Either way, it’s my responsibility to give them a “heads up” that spending money with certain folks is a bad idea, even though my firm may not have been hired to offer those opinions. The final decision is always in the client’s hands but I can’t withhold valuable information. In my opinion, it’s analogous to witnessing a crime but not calling the police.

10. Do unto others: I spent years as a corporate guy and, as such, played the role of “client” every day. And during that time, I was subjected to more than a few bad vendors. I need to conduct my business in a way that — were I the client — I would not want to fire myself.

I am not a saint and as I said before I am far from perfect. As with all firms, our batting average is less than 1.000 when it comes to delivering complete customer satisfaction. But I am an honest marketer and a fair businessperson who works hard for the benefit of my clients — and I believe strongly that this fact along with guidelines like the ones I’ve detailed here have been a major driver in the success of my company. I am certainly not “unique” in using a moral compass to guide my business principles, but it does feel sometimes that I’m among a dying breed. To me, that’s a real shame.

And by the way, I know I said earlier that my “top 10″ were guidelines in the business. As I’m wrapping up this novella of a blog post though, I now realize that’s not good enough. As of this writing, these 10 principles are now a business mandate and from this day forward I will invite and encourage any client to hold us to them.

If anyone wants to comment, I would really enjoy hearing about how other entrepreneurs have built strong ethics into their businesses. This  is especially important today, in an age where our economy was nearly destroyed by corporate greed and millions suffer as a result. It may be big firms that get all the press, but our country is built on small business; companies with less than 500 employees represent more than 95% of all American firms. We should be setting an example for everyone else, we should be the ones taking the driver’s seat right now and showing the mortgage lenders, the investment banks, the special interest groups and a certain oil company how things should be done. I might be an idealist, but I honestly believe that we can all make a difference.

In just about every industry, specialty or niche there are generally four types of people: outsiders who know nothing, dabblers who have some knowledge, experts who know a lot, and savants whose knowledge and reputation are nothing less than extraordinary.

Social media seems to buck the trend though. The social realm has its share of true savants with names like Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble, Scott Allen and others highlighting the pantheon of superstars. There are plenty of people who don’t know anything — and who will happily admit it. But there are a LOT more “experts” than dabblers. Don’t believe me? A Google search on the subject of “social media expert” will yield over 81 MILLION results.

How did we get so many experts? The short answer is that we don’t actually have a disproportionate number of experts; we have a disproportionate number of dabblers who are confusing practical/tactical knowledge of a subject with strategic expertise. As my colleague Stephanie Frost and I have both said on numerous occasions, social media is, above all else, a communications tool and claiming expertise in social media would be like calling yourself an expert at using a fax machine. It’s nonsense.

A couple of weeks ago I was having a discussion with a couple of other bloggers (who will remain safely anonymous). We were chatting about some recent social media-related conferences and seminars around town and bemoaning that so little good information was exchanged. We wondered if perhaps the social media community was missing a “middle class” — that group of people that know enough to use the tools effectively but little enough that they would still gain benefit from attending a social media conference.

In my opinion, YES, there is a middle class in social media… And virtually all of us are in it. Somehow though, in this Gatsby-like alternate universe we’ve created, people are compelled to artificially elevate themselves into high society; possibly for ego, possibly for financial gain or maybe for both. But what may be most shocking is that the rest of us support this by paying cash money to attend workshops and conferences led by self-proclaimed experts who don’t have a thing to teach us.

I am NOT a social media expert. I am a marketer who has used social media to build my brand and  make valuable connections. In Marketing: Unmasked, the book that Stephanie and I coauthored, the chapter that deals with social media is a high-level overview, meant for novices and outsiders and seeks to explain how social media fits into an overall marketing plan — it’s not a “how to” or a get rich quick scheme designed to make you the next online superstar.

In fact, the only thing that may be more remarkable about my social media resumé than yours is the fact that my weekly radio program has given me personal access to a few of the true experts, savants and thought leaders out there. And, by the way, I won’t call myself expert by association either.

So this is a plea to my colleagues in the Blogosphere, Twitterverse and other imaginary places of which I am apparently a citizen: please remove the words “social media expert” from your bio, profile, business card, t-shirt, etc. If it’s tattooed on your back, start saving for the laser surgery. And if you’re invited to speak on a topic for which you can not offer any real insight, please decline the invitation. Let’s return some semblance of dignity to this medium that we all enjoy using so much.

Yes, social media is revolutionary — yes, it is in fact social media and not email that has grown up to be the “killer app” on the Internet — and yes, we have all gained profit and notoriety by using it well. But let’s give some careful thought before we start throwing the “E” word around… This is all still very new and we are all students of social media. Do we all have to be the teachers too?

This past weekend, I drove from Atlanta to Denver. I had a lot of time on my hands as you can image and I couldn’t help but notice a lot of interesting things as I drove. So what’s the deal with speed limits? The roads themselves don’t change much as you ride the interstate across the country. Some are 2 lanes, some are 6 lanes, some wind and turn a little — but for the most part a highway is a highway. But the rules for driving on them can vary greatly from state to state.

In Missouri, for example, they have two posted speed limits, one for cars and one for trucks, buses and campers; about 10 MPH less than the limit for cars. In Colorado, the speed limit is a whopping 75 MPH.

Speed limits are completely arbitrary and —it would seem — little to do with actual safety. Am I safer driving 65 through Tennessee than I am driving 75 through Colorado? No, it doesn’t appear that way. Consider also that the fastest road in the world, the Autobahn, is also one of the safest.

No, speed limits are about the perception of safety and a means of trying to control the actions of drivers who might not exercise good judgment without the posted limitation. So why do we have them?

I don’t want to entertain an argument here about whether or not speed limits are worthwhile — but my experience driving through seven states in two days got me thinking about the arbitrary limitations I put on my business. Over time, I’ve created subconscious speed limits for myself, lines I don’t cross. Why? I’m not sure anymore. If you’ve set arbitrary speed limits in your business, maybe now’s a good time to evaluate why you put them there and whether they have helped or hindered your progress as an entreprenuer.

I know I will.

I was working at home yesterday. Actually, I was trying to work at home when suddenly my Internet connection dropped. I made a phone call and waited a few minutes but it wasn’t coming back. Me without an Internet connection is sort of like a baseball player stepping into the batters box without a bat — pretty much useless. Frustrated at my luck I grabbed my BlackBerry and do what I always do in times like these: I wrote about it on Twitter.

Then something amazing happened. Just a few minutes later, before I even got a live person on the phone calling into Comcast, I got a reply on Twitter from a Comcast customer service rep. He stayed in touch throughout the mornng and confirmed when service had been restored. Of course by this time I had already moved on to the coffee place around the corner but I really appreciated the attention.

To me, this was a particularly easy way to use social media effectively for business… And proof of why most businesses should really have a presence out there.

Today is Friday the 13th.  Some people are superstitious about this day and believe some bad luck might befall them just because of a number.  Silly, right?  So powerful is the myth of unlucky 13 that it is often missing in places like elevators and airplane seats.  Clearly, enough people believe in “luck”–in this case the bad kind–that it got me thinking about the subject of luck in general especially as it relates to business.

Most definitions of the word luck describe it as a “chance happening” or “unpredictable phenomenon.”  I think most people would say that luck—good or bad—is something beyond their control.  That might be true some of the time.  Most of the time, however, I would argue that luck in its purest form is something entirely different.

I don’t normally go around quoting Oprah but awhile back she said something that’s always stuck with me: “Luck is preparation meeting opportunity.”   Think about that for a second.  In other words, being prepared might have something to do with your luck quotient.  Louis Pasteur is credited with a similar quote that I really like: “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

So, if this “unpredictable” or “chance” occurrence called luck can be influenced, it is through hard work and determination rather than just sitting around wishing for it.  Conversely, “bad luck” probably favors those who are not prepared.  The harsh reality of this economy has shown us that over and over again.  The automakers turning out big SUVs were caught off guard by the gas crisis last year.  The newspaper industry is finally facing the fact people get their news in a very different way than they used to.

A lot of the advice we dole out seems so obvious:  “Be prepared.” It sounds simple enough yet many people are so mired in the operations and day-to-day challenges of keeping their business running that they aren’t thinking strategically. Consequently, they aren’t prepared when a great opportunity comes their way.

Spend some time each day (or at least each week) thinking about the what-ifs and how you might respond to them.  Write down your plan.  Communicate that plan to your team.  Then, when that great opportunity does come along, you’ll be the luckiest person in the world.

I will disclaim up front that I am not an environmental expert… My expertise is in marketing and branding and so I won’t comment on the size of anyone’s carbon footprint or attempt to quantify any impact that your organization can make on our environmental crisis (though I do know that every little bit helps). I’ll focus instead on the benefits to your customers.

Every business is different, but I’ve used my  compiled a short list of small “green” changes that we’ve made in the way that we’ve done business that have a positive impact on our position in the marketplace:

We don’t use presentation boards. This is actually a big deal. When I was running a corporate MarComm department for a consumer products company, I had a closet in my office literally FILLED with thick black presentation boards from various outside design firms that we had hired, with exactly one design idea on each one. And then in our production room downstairs I had a whole other closet filled with boards that we had used to present products to retailers. Using boards is expensive and extremely wasteful. By contrast, at Zero-G we present all of our concepts on a computer screen, whether online via conference call or in person. From a marketing perspective it’s a significant cost savings to us which we can pass on directly to our clients, and the use of technology makes us look savvy. And I hope we are, by the way

We send proposals via email. This isn’t original, we’re definitely not the first firm to do this, but it’s important. I’ve received some VERY fancy agency proposals in my time, hand-bound on an expensive paper stock, cut to unconventional “creative” dimensions and delivered wrapped in tissue paper inside a custom box. I never went this far, but I did print and bind multi-page proposals and present them to clients in person early on in my entrepreneurial career. And while I was never as prolific a proposal-maker as some of my big-agency counterparts, it was wasteful and time consuming nonetheless. Our email proposals come on a simple format, easy to read (it’s a true HTML email, not a PDF attached to an email) and easy to create. From a customer benefits standpoint, there are savings in cost and sweat equity, but I think the biggest benefit is that doing business this way has allowed us to turn proposal requests very quickly, showing the client that we’re committed to customer service.

We manage projects online. In my experience as a client, I had lots of meetings and conversations with outside firms that I really didn’t need to have. Managing the process online in a transparent fashion helps eliminate some of that wasted time for us and for the client. As an additional benefit, it makes the project available to the client even when we are not: in the middle of the night, early in the morning or on weekends, for example, when a lot of small business owners are focusing on their marketing initiatives because they didn’t have time during the business day.

We also do a lot of little things, like foregoing a traditional fax in favor of an e-fax, allowing people to work with us remotely, resisting the urge to print emails, maintaining paperless processes wherever possible, etc. But not all of these tie back directly to a significant client benefit so we don’t talk about them as much.

I hope this doesn’t come off as tooting my own horn — the moral of this story isn’t supposed to be how wonderful Zero-G Creative is. Truly, none of these things I’ve mentioned are all that interesting or all that innovative. But hopefully it shows that if you really examine your business and the “standards” in your industry that you might follow “just because it’s the way we’ve always done things,” you may find a few things that are actually worth changing. Inefficiencies or wasteful processes that cost you money, are environmentally irresponsible and have LITTLE OR NO REAL BENEFIT to your customers.

Truly, if you can create a value proposition that either saves or makes your clients money in a down economy and with a significantly reduced environmental impact, you’ll have a great story to tell next time you’re making a sales pitch.

When people get to know me, it usually doesn’t take long for them to discover that I am a baseball fanatic and especially passionate about my hometown New York Yankees.

By now, just about everyone that follows sports (and a great many who don’t) has heard that this will be the last year the Yanks take the field at Yankee Stadium, their home since 1923. In 2009, they will move across the street to a brand new stadium and the “House that Ruth Built” along with its 85 years of history will be torn down.

It seems a terrible waste that such an iconic part of our country’s history should be demolished, especially when the great old old ballpark hasn’t outlived its usefulness. Beyond its historical and sentimental value, Yankee Stadium still has value as a tourist attraction, a minor league ballpark or other sports recreational facility, a museum, a shopping mall or possibly all of the above. And it makes me sad personally that I’ll never be able to go back there and never be able to take my kids there and show them where all those famous things happened.

What does this have to do with small business marketing? Very little. It is clear though that those of us who love Yankee Stadium will need a campagin based on word-of-mouth and grassroots support to ensure that Yankee Stadium is preserved for future generations.

About a month ago, my father wrote an opinion piece in the New York Sun about saving Yankee Stadium and received a terrific response. When my folks came to visit this weekend, we talked about what might still be done to prevent the wrecking balls from doing their job this winter.

And so we created an online petition to gather support to save our country’s most storied sports venue. Please visit our web site (http://www.saveyankeestadium.org) and help us save Yankee Stadium.

My wife has been quick to point out that there are nobler causes in that world than trying to protect a building. But the sentimental and historic value of the place along with the potential economic benefits to my hometown in The Bronx tells me that Yankee Stadium is worth saving.

Please visit the web site and sign our petition!

Let’s talk about Twitter. For those of you that don’t know, Twitter is a “micro-blog” where users blast out short messages (140 characters or less) about what they are doing. Beyond that, the first thing you should know about Twitter is that it is HIGHLY addictive. I’ve been doing this for 3 weeks or so now and I feel constantly compelled to grab my phone and write a message or “tweet”.

But what isn’t immediately clear about Twitter is what makes it useful. This is still a little cloudy for me,  but I’ve found it a neat way to connect with people (friends, stangers and even celebrities) and makes an unconventional sounding board for insights or ideas. It’s sort of like sending an instant message to the world.

Want to follow me on Twitter? Go for it at http://www.twitter.com/erikwolf

I was introduced to QAlias by a fellow by the name of Andy Greider (and in the spirit of demonstrating the service I have linked to his QAlias profile). Essentially, for $10 a month, they will purchase your name in pay-per-click ads on the search engines to ensure that you appear at or near the top if anyone searches for you.

The ads link to your QAlias profile, which is fine, but the template is a little limiting. For example, I can only link to one of my web sites (I chose my blog). Go ahead and Google “Erik Wolf” and you’ll find my profile. You’ll also see that I’m usually competing for paid real estate with Erik Wolf the professional golfer and that QAlias won’t outbid the big sports sites for top billing. But that’s OK

While I’ve been appearing on page 1 on Google organic search for quite some time before QAlias, I do see the value in this as I (like many people out there) have a fairly common name and it’s been difficult to beat out the other prominent Erik Wolfs out there.  If not for this blog and my businesses, I’d likely have trouble maintaining first page placement. So I’d recommend QAlias for anyone with a common name and is having trouble getting ranked well, or anyone that just doesn’t have much web presence period.

The jury’s still out on whether or not I’ll keep my QAlias going long-term but I’ll probably give it another couple of months and see what happens.

Any thoughts on either of these services? Email me, would love to hear ‘em.