Why getting naked at work is the best policy.

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Life is just full of surprises – you’ve heard of working at home in your pajamas, but no one really talks about doing it in the nude. That’s just weird.

A small business isn’t just about the business.

Why do people get so passionate about small business?

Why do people call large CEOs greedy, and small business owners honest and hard-working?

I can tell you that now: transparency.

It’s easy to think of a big CEO as a faceless entity only looking to squeeze out as much money as they can (regardless of how honest they may or may not be) because they’re an enigma. Their personality typically doesn’t shine through in all aspects of the company. They’ve become a king in their kingdom, and a tyrant in the minds of many.

With a small business, there’s a good chance you’ll meet the owner any given day just by dropping by. You can have a conversation with them face to face and get to know them.

That’s why some people swear by local shops and refuse to go to chains. They want to support the people who went out on a limb and take the time to really get to know their customers and run an honest, friendly store.

Get naked for your customers.

I hope that it’s become obvious that I’m not talking about literally stripping for your customers. You’ll likely get arrested for that.

What I really mean is to get real with your customers. Inject your personality into the way that you run your business.

Find something about your business that makes you passionate and really put your effort into it.

Your employees will see it and be inspired by it.

Your customers will see it and become addicted to it.

But getting naked is scary!

Really integrating your personality into your small business is a scary thing. I know it first hand, because I recently launched a video channel on YouTube to go with this blog and it’s truly terrifying to put myself out there like that.

People are going to see my face, hear my voice, see my cheesiness and really start to get to know me through video.

I worry that people will think I’m too young-looking to have any authority.

I worry that people will think my voice is annoying.

I worry that people will not like my sense of humor.

I worry that I’ll ramble on for too long and be boring.

I worry that I can’t deliver a message speaking as well as I can writing.

But guess what? I’m doing it anyways.

I feel really passionate about making sure I’m connecting with my readers and making sure that I’m addressing people’s needs as much as I can – and I believe that video is a huge gap I was missing.

So I’m baring it all even though it’s scary. I’m giving my blog a face and a voice.

How can you bare it all for your business?

What can you do to inject your personality into your business?

Maybe you start a video channel like I did to start sharing whatever message you have with your customers.

Maybe you need to start smaller and actually start a blog for your business. Even a short post once a week would be a great start.

Maybe you invite your customers to connect with your personal account with you, the owner, on Facebook or Twitter. Just make sure that your personal account is professionally conducted – your customers don’t want to know that you just spent an hour in the bathroom.

Maybe you give a personal phone call to your best customers thanking them for their continued business.

What will you do to get naked for your customers?

Credit: Banana