Friday, June 17, 2022

Nearside Hit in Polo: Video Helps Explain

One of the difficult things for new polo players is the nearside hit. Its not a natural movement. When starting it is difficult to position the arm in such a way that leads to stronger form and more control. The other day I went out and trained a horse and beyond general control there is also my ability to hit the nearside well. Practice makes perfect so I need a lot more practice!

This video really helps understand the nearside hit and how the arm and ball are positioned. 

Friday, June 10, 2022

Persistence is necessary in Small Business Development

You can be smart and you can be rich and that will give you lots of opportunities. Sometimes genius fails and sometimes rich kids find themselves relatively useless to society when they grow up.  While these things can really help or hurt you they won't be the only factors in success. There are other things that can make or break the business professional, college student, skilled worker, or someone engaged in sports. It is persistence of thought and action. 

If you own a small business you will want to be persistent. Escanaba Polo Mallet Co supports small business development and often conducts a review to see how we can improve the small business climate in our home towns and nationally. Share our article link on social media if you like. :)

A few tips on persistence:

1. Know what you want to accomplish. 

2. See yourself doing it.

3. Break it down into actionable steps.

4. Adjust your schedule to fulfill those steps.

5. When things get in the way just get back to it.

6. Learn as much as you can.

7. Find new goals when finished.

Thursday, June 2, 2022

January through May 2022 Donations Escanaba Polo Mallet Company(Doctors, Research, Hospitals and Orphans)

Escanaba Polo Mallet Company is a good works business that seeks to move beyond making businesses to sharing insight into small business development in the U.S. for policy consumption. In addition, as a good works company we donate much of our profits away to worthwhile causes. Approximately 30+% of profits have been donated to the causes below. 

Someday we would hope to donate up to 50% of which could be used to fund an entire orphanage of 30-40 students. Time will tell and we will focus on making great custom mallets with our unique handmade process. Check back, share, and keep up reading what we are doing. 

1. Doctors Without Borders

2. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

3. World Council for Gifted and Talented Children, Inc.

4. Corazon de Vida


Corazon de Vida August 6th, 2022 Fundraising Events

Corazon de Vida will be hosting the most anticipated annual charity event in Orange County, La Noche Blanca!

Join us on August 6th at the Santiago Mansion for delicious food, great music, and an amazing experience!

Get your tickets today by clicking on the link, don't miss out. ✨✅

https://lnkd.in/gd4ZdZm6

Friday, May 6, 2022

Thurby Thursday Derby at Churchill Downs

You may be interested in some of these shots. Always a great time. Firefighters are awesome so I included! Escanaba Polo Mallet Company supports our local first responders; especially firefighters.








Wednesday, April 13, 2022

First Bad Review: What We Do Next?

Bad reviews are going to happen and we at Escanaba Polo Mallet Co don't shy from learning. Updating our Amazon listing I noticed there was a low review (1 out of 5 stars). To my horror I also noticed they posted video!!!! Within that video was a broken shaft right next to the head. The best approach is to tackle the problem by acknowledging there are things that can be done. 

We can learn a little something about customer complaints and what they mean......

We have an upset customer! Something wasn't right and the customer felt a little disappointed with the value. We should keep in mind that customers pay for products and they expect a certain quality when receiving those products. 

You can find the listing and video on our Amazon post HERE. Apparently when he took his first swing it broke. Unless he hit a rock I would suspect the shaft was already compromised in some way. To improve service and quality you have to do a little internal research. 

In our case we had a broken shaft. You can see from the video that it is broken right at the head. We want customers to receive the quality they expect so evaluate our options to tackle the problem. 

1. It could have been defective when we built it.

2. It could have been damaged during shipping.

3. Could have been damaged at customers location.

Since we can't control what happens at the customers location we do have some control over our quality and in some cases our shipping. Focusing on what we have control over makes sense. 

This is what we did.......

1.) adjusted packaging to include additional padding.

2.) quality inspect every mallet before shipping.

3.) send a customer an email thank you message that lets them know we return items they are unhappy with. 

4.) see if we can track back the customer and "make it right" for them. With luck maybe we can have the video removed. Fingers crossed! Will let you know....


Saturday, April 2, 2022

Sales vs. Marketing: Escanaba Polo Mallet Co. Example

Sales and marketing are two different functions of the same organization. They almost seem the same and people often confuse the difference as they interchange them in layman conversation. One way to look at the difference between sales and marketing is by formulating a concept of each. Sales is the activities that lead to a purchase (more micro) while marketing is the aspect of getting people involved (more macro). While it seems like they are splitting hairs it is important to understand how some activities in small business like Escanaba Polo Mallet Co. lead to bigger brand outcomes.

You can see the difference
between sales and brand activities.
(Kotler, et. al. 2006)
In large businesses you will have your own marketing department and in turn specific sales associates that may be calling customers (any other sales activity) to make a sale. In small businesses the process is a little different because marketing and sales might be part of the same activity and employee function. Let us look at small business example.

Small Business Escanaba Polo Mallet Co. Example: Start-up Escanaba Polo Mallet Co. has few staff resources and in turn must manage most of its own marketing functions (Oh great now that I say that every predatory sales company is going to spam my email!!! ðŸ˜¤). The sales of the product often leads to branding. One might be contacting customers and in turn talk about their company as a new product and a way of doing business. Your often building your brand based on your sales and perceptions of the new company (i.e. selling polo mallets as a sales activity but quality and return service as a brand.)

As a Escanaba Polo Mallet Co. grows you will want to be mindful of how your sales and marketing activities leads to a branding your company from its beginning. Consider other activities such as a strong website, solid presentations, return/service policies, clean presentation of your business, quality of products/service, store front, display, etc. to help people formalize a conception of your business. Keep in mind how the first impression and feeling often sticks with customers a long time. Don't destroy the brand over a single sale!

Kotler, P., et. al (July-August 2006). Ending the War Between Sales and Marketing. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2006/07/ending-the-war-between-sales-and-marketing



Thursday, March 31, 2022

The Six Box Organizational Model for Small Business: Escanaba Polo Mallet Co. Example

Businesses thrive when they continuously seek new levels of organizational performance. Learning organizations adapt and those that are dying fail to adapt. Escanaba Polo Mallet Co is a new start up so we have lots of learning to do. Sometimes we can make decisions on the cuff and other times we need a model to help us formalize options. Marvin Weisbord (1976 p431) combines "bits of data, theories, research, and hunches into a working tool that anyone can use.". Below you will find the 6 boxes for formulating a conception of a business and where it can improve. 

1. Purpose: What business are you in? (Mallets and possible future polo gear)

2. Structure: How to divide up roles and responsibilities. (We are small so roles are multifaceted)

3. Rewards: Do activities have incentives. (Incentives are based on performance of the business.)

4. Helpful mechanisms: Are there adequate coordinating technologies (Process of scaling with technologies.)

5. Relationships: How the organization handles conflict. (Easy return policies and active constructive dialogue. Support our products with exceptional customer service)

6. Leadership: Does someone keep the other boxes in balance? (Yes...small business ownership means many hats)

The model does well simplifying/oversimplify) and considering the wider factors in organizational management. It is provides an opportunity to view the organization from different perspectives to highlight potential issues and determine whether a strategy is being effectively executed. Business is a process of consistent improvement and having models such as this can help in formulating a proper review. You can gain some more insight at Guide to Weisbord’s 6 Box Model

As a start-up we are small so many of the roles will be multifaceted. However, as an organization grows and creates specific roles there will be increasing complexity to these boxes. They aren't able to be answered among a few people and will lean more into formal analysis (or at least as formal as possible.) Using this as a guide as we grow helps to ensure we are thinking through the many options and having a balance approach.

"Weisbord, M. R. 1976. Organizational diagnosis: Six places to look for trouble with or without a theory. Group & Organization Studies 1(4):430–47."