RE3EL STANCE

There are good traditions and bad traditions…fun traditions and boring traditions…and unique traditions and…well…traditional traditions. But, every holiday that comes around is a chance to create new traditions. As this holiday continues to heat up to a fever pitch, I’m reminded that every day of the year offers a great opportunity to create new and unique traditions that will create a bond within your company and within your family. So, put down your fruit cake for a second and give some thought to how to spruce up your traditions in 2008.

If you’re an entrepreneur fighting against big, more powerful, more wealthy companies, you have no choice but to create unique traditions at your company. You can’t afford to have a big boring holiday party at a big boring venue like most companies do. So, why even try to compete with that? We have all been to boring holiday same ol’ - same ol’ holiday parties and the result of the those boring same ol’ - same ol’ parties tends to be the same ol’ - same ol’.

No matter how big or how small your company is it’s important to remember that having company traditions helps to build your brand internally and that helps to build your brand externally. So, put a lot of effort into building your traditions, have fun building them, and remember these few ingredients to tradition building…rebel style:

1. Have a theme: The “annual summer company picnic” is not unique. You can and should be more creative than that.
2. Have a story and use the tradition to continue the story: What do you want people to write about your company and you as an entrepreneur? Remember that story and make it juicy by making your traditions juicy.
3. Be true to your brand: What kind of traditions do you think Richard Branson of Virgin created when his company was young? Well, I don’t know but I do know that they were a lot different than the traditions that his big, stuffy competitors had.
4. Keep the focus on fun: Prety self-explanatory.
5. Don’t do it to just do it: Create traditions from the heart rather than the head.
6. Involve everybody: Have traditions that involve your employees, your customers, your partners, your mail delivery person, your UPS person, your neighbors, etc…
7. Be goofy: Don’t take yourself and your traditions too seriously. Everbody has casual Fridays but does everybody have “Terrible Tie Tuesdays”?
8. Don’t forget to make a difference: Traditions are an opportunity to wear your values on your sleeve so be sure to do little and big things that improve the world a bit.

It’s as simple as that. Sure, this post is timely because it’s in the middle of the holidays. But, traditions aren’t bound to holidays and don’t let them be. After all, Tuesdays in the middle of May can be as exciting and important as any holiday…if you make them so.