What happened to phone etiquette? Is texting to blame for our apparent lack of interest in voice-on-voice interaction, and our apparent amnesia about how the conversation should flow? I’m blown away every time I call a business and receive an answer of “Hello?” It happens fairly frequently and each time I’m sure the recipient can feel my discomfort when I have to ask, “Am I speaking to XYZ Company?” Usually that’s all it takes for the tone of voice to change and the switch flipped to business mode with a swift and perky, “Um, Yes! This is Carl with XYZ, how may I help you?” On occasion however, you have to go through Round 2, and its excruciatingly poor form.

“Hello?”

“Hi, I’m trying to reach XYZ Company, is this the correct number?”

“Yes.”

“Uhhh… great, can I speak to someone in sales?”

“Yes, hold please.”

[INSERT EXPLITIVE HERE] What in the world is going on? Often it’s easy to tell you’ve reached a business person on their mobile phone. They answer with no mention of the business they represent until they determine that you are in fact, NOT, a frat brother whose name they forgot to save to contacts, or a telemarketer. Guys, if your cell phone is your business line, you have to do better. Answer every unknown number as if you are the receptionist for the President, of your company, hell, of the United States. It’s an oldie, but you truly never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

Now let’s talk about automated systems, and how much I loathe them. I have yet to meet a single person who enjoys talking to a robot (except for maybe Steve Guttenberg.) The messages are getting stupid long before you reach the prompts.

“Thanks for calling XYZ Company, home of the XYZ amazing product/service, where we drink sunshine from the water fountain and sprinkle rainbows on our donuts. Please listen carefully as our menu options have changed.”

LET’S STOP RIGHT HERE. First, don’t squeeze a commercial into your intro, it takes up the caller’s precious time, and they already called you, they probably have an idea what you are good at. Just stop. Next, no, your menu options have not changed. How often do you REALLY change your menu options that we need to take up another precious few seconds of the caller’s day to announce it on every call? Even if they accidentally reach the incorrect extension because they failed to “listen carefully” I’m sure they will find their way eventually. Cut it. It’s obnoxious.

I’d like to see all the automation die, but if that is not an option at least drop to a minimum of three choices, the last one being A LIVE OPERATOR. Sales/Service/Operator… that’s it. Not this:

“Press One for Sales, Press Two for Service, Press Three for Parts, Press Four for the Body Shop, Press Five for Accounts Payable, Press Six for Fleet, Press Seven for Rental, Press Eight for Finance, Press Nine for Car Wash, Press Ten for the Executive Center, Press Eleven for Dial by Name… etc…”

This is not customer-friendly. Invest in an operator, at least while you are open for business, and at best, twenty-four hours a day using an after-hours call center. A well-trained, professional sounding man or woman answering your business line with a warm, friendly, welcoming tone of voice, and politely guiding the caller to the correct person, or department, is the best option. It doesn’t matter how much you spend on advertising, how many witty Facebook posts you have, how many great reviews online, where the rubber meets the road, voice-on-voice interaction, you must DAZZLE. If a shopper calls your business and here’s a lethargic “Hello?” you’re off to a very poor start.

Train your receptionists on the basics of what you do. I’m not naming names, but I recently called an automotive digital marketing company and asked for information on PPC, to which the operator replied, “I don’t know what PPC means.” Ouch. I’m not suggesting that receptionists become product specialists, but they should know the basics of your business. Follow simple tried and true techniques like asking permission to place someone on hold, and answering “My pleasure” instead of you’re welcome. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, the wheels have fallen off and rolled down the road, just put them back on! Back to basics.

If your phone number is not on your website, you fail. If your phone number is not on all your digital assets, you fail. If your phone number is not listed correctly, largely, and conspicuously everywhere a potential customer may go looking for it, you fail. If it takes more than four rings for an answer, if the answer is unprofessional, or if Johnny 5 makes the caller wade through a commercial and eight prompts to reach sales, YOU FAIL.

Take a few minutes each week (yes, every single week for the rest of your life) and walk in the footsteps of a shopper. Go online, see how easy it is to find the phone number for your business. Is it in the search results? Is it on your Google Places page, the CORRECT phone number? Dial it. What do you hear? Would you buy from you? If at any point during your project you feel a strong urge do throw your phone out the window, or jump out the window, guess what? Your customers do to. Fix it.

What happened to phone etiquette? Is texting to blame for our apparent lack of interest in voice-on-voice interaction, and our apparent amnesia about how the conversation should flow? I’m blown away every time I call a business and receive an answer of “Hello?” It happens fairly frequently and each time I’m sure the recipient can feel my discomfort when I have to ask, “Am I speaking to XYZ Company?” Usually that’s all it takes for the tone of voice to change and the switch flipped to business mode with a swift and perky, “Um, Yes! This is Carl with XYZ, how may I help you?” On occasion however, you have to go through Round 2, and its excruciatingly poor form.

“Hello?”

“Hi, I’m trying to reach XYZ Company, is this the correct number?”

“Yes.”

“Uhhh… great, can I speak to someone in sales?”

“Yes, hold please.”

[INSERT EXPLITIVE HERE] What in the world is going on? Often it’s easy to tell you’ve reached a business person on their mobile phone. They answer with no mention of the business they represent until they determine that you are in fact, NOT, a frat brother whose name they forgot to save to contacts, or a telemarketer. Guys, if your cell phone is your business line, you have to do better. Answer every unknown number as if you are the receptionist for the President, of your company, hell, of the United States. It’s an oldie, but you truly never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

Now let’s talk about automated systems, and how much I loathe them. I have yet to meet a single person who enjoys talking to a robot (except for maybe Steve Guttenberg.) The messages are getting stupid long before you reach the prompts.

“Thanks for calling XYZ Company, home of the XYZ amazing product/service, where we drink sunshine from the water fountain and sprinkle rainbows on our donuts. Please listen carefully as our menu options have changed.”

LET’S STOP RIGHT HERE. First, don’t squeeze a commercial into your intro, it takes up the caller’s precious time, and they already called you, they probably have an idea what you are good at. Just stop. Next, no, your menu options have not changed. How often do you REALLY change your menu options that we need to take up another precious few seconds of the caller’s day to announce it on every call? Even if they accidentally reach the incorrect extension because they failed to “listen carefully” I’m sure they will find their way eventually. Cut it. It’s obnoxious.

I’d like to see all the automation die, but if that is not an option at least drop to a minimum of three choices, the last one being A LIVE OPERATOR. Sales/Service/Operator… that’s it. Not this:

“Press One for Sales, Press Two for Service, Press Three for Parts, Press Four for the Body Shop, Press Five for Accounts Payable, Press Six for Fleet, Press Seven for Rental, Press Eight for Finance, Press Nine for Car Wash, Press Ten for the Executive Center, Press Eleven for Dial by Name… etc…”

This is not customer-friendly. Invest in an operator, at least while you are open for business, and at best, twenty-four hours a day using an after-hours call center. A well-trained, professional sounding man or woman answering your business line with a warm, friendly, welcoming tone of voice, and politely guiding the caller to the correct person, or department, is the best option. It doesn’t matter how much you spend on advertising, how many witty Facebook posts you have, how many great reviews online, where the rubber meets the road, voice-on-voice interaction, you must DAZZLE. If a shopper calls your business and here’s a lethargic “Hello?” you’re off to a very poor start.

Train your receptionists on the basics of what you do. I’m not naming names, but I recently called an automotive digital marketing company and asked for information on PPC, to which the operator replied, “I don’t know what PPC means.” Ouch. I’m not suggesting that receptionists become product specialists, but they should know the basics of your business. Follow simple tried and true techniques like asking permission to place someone on hold, and answering “My pleasure” instead of you’re welcome. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, the wheels have fallen off and rolled down the road, just put them back on! Back to basics.

If your phone number is not on your website, you fail. If your phone number is not on all your digital assets, you fail. If your phone number is not listed correctly, largely, and conspicuously everywhere a potential customer may go looking for it, you fail. If it takes more than four rings for an answer, if the answer is unprofessional, or if Johnny 5 makes the caller wade through a commercial and eight prompts to reach sales, YOU FAIL.

Take a few minutes each week (yes, every single week for the rest of your life) and walk in the footsteps of a shopper. Go online, see how easy it is to find the phone number for your business. Is it in the search results? Is it on your Google Places page, the CORRECT phone number? Dial it. What do you hear? Would you buy from you? If at any point during your project you feel a strong urge do throw your phone out the window, or jump out the window, guess what? Your customers do to. Fix it.

Consolidation is happening. We see it in the automotive industry all the time. Large dealer groups are getting larger. Big vendors are getting bigger. This adds a level of simplicity for dealers as they make decisions for operations, marketing, and processes.

The irony is that this is something the industry needed six years ago when the recession was starting to turn the corner and dealers were making choices on their own. In many ways, there were too many choices. Consolidation back then might have been a good thing.

Dealers were forced to fend for themselves and as a result, the "discerning dealers" chose to modernize their procedures and decision-making capabilities. In other words, they started hiring and training to meet the demands of the digital age. They hired new people or trained old ones who understood Schema.org, responsive design, and behavioral targeting. If they didn't know what geofencing was, they researched it. Many dealers today know more about the various products than the vendor salespeople delivering the pitches.

Today, a good chunk of dealers (such as those who read DrivingSales.com regularly) are well-equipped to vet out their vendors and make appropriate decisions. They can see the difference between products or services that are likely to work and the false systems that have nothing but a slick sales presentation behind them. It's funny that right when dealers are best able to make choices, the options are being limited.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against consolidation as a general practice. There will be big vendors and little vendors and both have their strengths. However, as companies broaden their scope through acquisitions, they're homogenizing the products so that the selection process for vendors is reduced to one or two options rather than the diverse range of hungry companies fighting for wallet share.

As consolidation increases, quality decreases.

This is made worse by the OEMs. They are also limiting choices in the name of compliance and quality control. The funny thing is that they often make decisions based upon solid financial books rather than solid products. They are more concerned about a recommended vendor being profitable than about the recommended products being the best.

The point of my rant is this: don't let consolidation make you complacent. Just because something is bigger doesn't mean it's better. Just because a company is smaller doesn't mean they aren't capable. Look at the products for what they are and be discerning.

Consolidation is happening. We see it in the automotive industry all the time. Large dealer groups are getting larger. Big vendors are getting bigger. This adds a level of simplicity for dealers as they make decisions for operations, marketing, and processes.

The irony is that this is something the industry needed six years ago when the recession was starting to turn the corner and dealers were making choices on their own. In many ways, there were too many choices. Consolidation back then might have been a good thing.

Dealers were forced to fend for themselves and as a result, the "discerning dealers" chose to modernize their procedures and decision-making capabilities. In other words, they started hiring and training to meet the demands of the digital age. They hired new people or trained old ones who understood Schema.org, responsive design, and behavioral targeting. If they didn't know what geofencing was, they researched it. Many dealers today know more about the various products than the vendor salespeople delivering the pitches.

Today, a good chunk of dealers (such as those who read DrivingSales.com regularly) are well-equipped to vet out their vendors and make appropriate decisions. They can see the difference between products or services that are likely to work and the false systems that have nothing but a slick sales presentation behind them. It's funny that right when dealers are best able to make choices, the options are being limited.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against consolidation as a general practice. There will be big vendors and little vendors and both have their strengths. However, as companies broaden their scope through acquisitions, they're homogenizing the products so that the selection process for vendors is reduced to one or two options rather than the diverse range of hungry companies fighting for wallet share.

As consolidation increases, quality decreases.

This is made worse by the OEMs. They are also limiting choices in the name of compliance and quality control. The funny thing is that they often make decisions based upon solid financial books rather than solid products. They are more concerned about a recommended vendor being profitable than about the recommended products being the best.

The point of my rant is this: don't let consolidation make you complacent. Just because something is bigger doesn't mean it's better. Just because a company is smaller doesn't mean they aren't capable. Look at the products for what they are and be discerning.

"I will tell you now, we had come to grips with the fact that Tamarra is dying and we would try to make the most of our time. Now, for the first time in years, we have hope...and for that my friends I cannot thank you enough. God truly works in mysterious ways and I feel blessed beyond measure."

For years, Bryan Armstrong has been an incredible Community Editor for DrivingSales and a top-tier contributor to the automotive industry. He has helped many in and outside of the car business to find both joy and success, perpetually doing the right things for others. Whether it's helping someone new to the industry learn the ropes, guiding a vendor to improve their services for dealers, or adopting children into his family to give them a nurturing home, Bryan is the epitome of living life the right way.

That's the Bryan Armstrong that we know and love, but there's another aspect of his life that has been very private for some time. His wife, Tamarra, has Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome and inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia. Combined, these can be life-threatening and the best option is something that insurance simply doesn't cover. Bryan needs to get her to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona and they need our help.

"Bryan, although boisterous and opinionated, is also very quiet and very humble," said Jessica Richardson of VW SouthTowne. "His family is everything to him and he isn't one to reach out because Bryan is a doer for others and asking for help seems like a weakness. Good news is he is learning it isn't!"

Richardson started a GoFundMe on behalf of the Armstrongs to help Tamarra get the medical attention she requires. "To have this opportunity to put my foot down and reach out for something he holds inside all the time, it is actually an honor."

This is where you guys step in and step up. We are challenging you, both dealers and vendors, to do two things: donate to the cause and help spread the word. There's even a group that has been orchestrated by Christine Robertson to help generate awareness. It's called #CARSTRONG.

"A few weeks ago a gofundme link flashed across my screen and I almost missed it, but I recognized those beautiful children," said Robertson. "Until that day I had no idea Tamarra was ill, and suffering. I was completely unaware that the beautiful bunch I celebrated with when they became a family of five was in danger of losing their sweet Mommy. I thought, if there is a way to heal her, and by God I believe there is, and the only roadblock is money – WE GOT THIS!"

The #CARSTRONG concept is expanding with the first portion being simple yet useful: T-Shirts! A loose but passionate task force is forming to get as many people contributing to the Armstrong's cause as possible and #CARSTRONG T-Shirts are the perfect foundation. Participation will help the Armstrong family and will promote the idea that in our business, we build strength through unity.

One arena where this will play out on is Carbucks, a Facebook group started by Nancy Simmons. Through the group, they plan on promoting #CARSTRONG to help the Armstrongs meet their medical needs as soon as possible.

"When a brother and sister are in need, Auto Family responds!" said Simmons. "We are a social people. We help each other out because it is the right thing to do."

On a personal note, I've known Bryan for many years. I've recruited him to work with me... twice... and I've always respected his desire to be build others up around him. Now that I know about Tamarra's condition, I will be doing what I can to help. The best way to understand the importance of this is to hear from Bryan himself.

"Tamarra is one of the strongest people I know both mentally and emotionally. She not only cares for me and our four kids, but does so in spite of pain, insecurities and physical infirmity," he said. "She inspires me daily with her strength and makes me want to be a better person."

Show your support. Challenge your dealerships to contribute. Get your vendors involved - so many have already. It's time to put the strength of our industry to work to help one of our own. We are #CarStrong.

"I will tell you now, we had come to grips with the fact that Tamarra is dying and we would try to make the most of our time. Now, for the first time in years, we have hope...and for that my friends I cannot thank you enough. God truly works in mysterious ways and I feel blessed beyond measure."

For years, Bryan Armstrong has been an incredible Community Editor for DrivingSales and a top-tier contributor to the automotive industry. He has helped many in and outside of the car business to find both joy and success, perpetually doing the right things for others. Whether it's helping someone new to the industry learn the ropes, guiding a vendor to improve their services for dealers, or adopting children into his family to give them a nurturing home, Bryan is the epitome of living life the right way.

That's the Bryan Armstrong that we know and love, but there's another aspect of his life that has been very private for some time. His wife, Tamarra, has Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome and inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia. Combined, these can be life-threatening and the best option is something that insurance simply doesn't cover. Bryan needs to get her to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona and they need our help.

"Bryan, although boisterous and opinionated, is also very quiet and very humble," said Jessica Richardson of VW SouthTowne. "His family is everything to him and he isn't one to reach out because Bryan is a doer for others and asking for help seems like a weakness. Good news is he is learning it isn't!"

Richardson started a GoFundMe on behalf of the Armstrongs to help Tamarra get the medical attention she requires. "To have this opportunity to put my foot down and reach out for something he holds inside all the time, it is actually an honor."

This is where you guys step in and step up. We are challenging you, both dealers and vendors, to do two things: donate to the cause and help spread the word. There's even a group that has been orchestrated by Christine Robertson to help generate awareness. It's called #CARSTRONG.

"A few weeks ago a gofundme link flashed across my screen and I almost missed it, but I recognized those beautiful children," said Robertson. "Until that day I had no idea Tamarra was ill, and suffering. I was completely unaware that the beautiful bunch I celebrated with when they became a family of five was in danger of losing their sweet Mommy. I thought, if there is a way to heal her, and by God I believe there is, and the only roadblock is money – WE GOT THIS!"

The #CARSTRONG concept is expanding with the first portion being simple yet useful: T-Shirts! A loose but passionate task force is forming to get as many people contributing to the Armstrong's cause as possible and #CARSTRONG T-Shirts are the perfect foundation. Participation will help the Armstrong family and will promote the idea that in our business, we build strength through unity.

One arena where this will play out on is Carbucks, a Facebook group started by Nancy Simmons. Through the group, they plan on promoting #CARSTRONG to help the Armstrongs meet their medical needs as soon as possible.

"When a brother and sister are in need, Auto Family responds!" said Simmons. "We are a social people. We help each other out because it is the right thing to do."

On a personal note, I've known Bryan for many years. I've recruited him to work with me... twice... and I've always respected his desire to be build others up around him. Now that I know about Tamarra's condition, I will be doing what I can to help. The best way to understand the importance of this is to hear from Bryan himself.

"Tamarra is one of the strongest people I know both mentally and emotionally. She not only cares for me and our four kids, but does so in spite of pain, insecurities and physical infirmity," he said. "She inspires me daily with her strength and makes me want to be a better person."

Show your support. Challenge your dealerships to contribute. Get your vendors involved - so many have already. It's time to put the strength of our industry to work to help one of our own. We are #CarStrong.

Most articles like these start off with phrases like, "looking back, it's hard to believe..." or "there have been ups and downs, but we never lost sight of..." - I'm not going to start this article that way. Instead, I'll say this: "It's been pretty easy, so easy in fact that I'm actually a little worried that I did something wrong without knowing it."

One year ago last week, I officially launched our website and started looking for people who wanted to go on an adventure. The official documentation, bank accounts, tax forms, and other such things wouldn't happen for a month, but on this date in 2013, we had a website and were ready to take on clients.

There's something incredibly cool about hitting the one-year mark. We can now say that we've been around for "a little over a year", which I'm hoping will reduce skeptical coughs when prospects talk to us. We have a full year's worth of data to plug into reports. We can get a bigger line of credit. Otherwise, very little has actually changed. Unlike the birthdays of young people that are filled with excitement, ours is more of a sigh of relief. We made it through the period of time when doomed startups are most likely to find failure.

I would be remiss if I didn't offer observations to those who care and advice for those who are considering going down the same path. After thinking about it all day, I came up with seven lessons I've learned that some might find entertaining, others might find infuriating, and hopefully a few will find helpful.

1. Set a Direction with a REAL Goal in Mind

If you're going to do as I did, leaving a lucrative and cozy job to follow a dream, make sure you do so with real goals. "Making more money" or "spending more time with the family" are not real goals, at least not the kind that I'm describing. They are side effects of success that stem from building and running your startup properly. "Build and sell the company for $X billion" is not a real goal, either, because it's a result of your efforts rather than being something that you can realistically achieve.

A real goal should be something that guides the direction of your company, your employees, and yourself. It's okay if it's intangible or subjective as well. Those can actually be the best types. The real goal is something deeper than the obvious financial or lifestyle goals that we have so that achieving it makes all of the other goals come true.

My goal was to build a company that delivered unquestionable results. This translated to building a search product that was so powerful that a stranger could look at analytics and point to the moment that we started. It translated into a social product that makes multiple dealers exclaim, "I never knew you could actually sell cars on social media until now."

Will I make more money than I did before? Yes, 2015 appears to be heading in that direction. Am I spending more time with my family? Absolutely. In fact, my first family vacation in years is next week. These weren't my goals, but they're happening because we're achieving the real goal for the company.

2. Be Fearless without Being Stupid

When we were first getting started, we approached an OEM about their social media. They liked what we had to say and asked us for some examples of their dealers that were on the program. The good news: we had just signed one of their dealers up a couple of weeks earlier. The bad news: it was our first dealer for their brand.

We were fearless. We were also stupid. We had a great product and a great idea of how to apply it at the OEM level but we couldn't get beyond the second meeting because we jumped in before we had anything to back us up.

People often misunderstand the practical meaning of the word, "fearless." It's defined as being without fear, but we are human. We have fears. Those who tell you otherwise are either misguided or trying to sell you something. The practical use of being fearless is to do the right things despite our fears. Fearlessness in business and in life is about not allowing our fears to prevent us from doing what our hearts and minds know is best.

It's not about bungee jumping. That's what we did when we met with an OEM prematurely. It's about believing that the opportunities put in our path are there for a reason and the terrifying obstacles placed in front of us are there for us to conquer and become stronger as a result.

3. Pivot Early

So many startups over the last decade have pivoted. The majority of them did not last very long after the pivot. Unfortunately, unless you have something that is rock-solid with very little chance of needing major adjustments, you need to be ready to pivot.

The earlier you can pivot, the better. Even the best business plans and the most experience in similar situations can prove to be incorrect in the real world.

There's a reason that most pivots fail. They're almost always done too late. MySpace performed a textbook pivot right before they were sold. It was the right direction for the company. It was also about a year and a half too late.

Think about your company's pivot. Expect that it will be necessary. Build your assets with a potential pivot in mind. If it never becomes necessary, then count yourself as one of the enlightened (or lucky) ones. When it does become necessary, don't hesitate.

We've gone through a handful of very minor pivots, but the first major one is coming soon. Thankfully, ours is not one that will waste anything that we've built so far, so it's like having the best of both worlds - a great plan to start and a better plan to grow.

4. People Build a Business

The most important part of any business is the people behind it. This is commonly known to the point that it has become cliche. It's also the one that seems to evade so many startups.

One of the guiding principles we've used is to hire talent and find the right fit for them rather than to hire to fill a specific need. This is a point that most business people would happily debate me on and in the court of public opinion they would probably win the debate, but I stand by it.

We had our eyes on a person who showed all of the aptitude and seemed to possess the exact vision we wanted. One day, we noticed that she was suddenly available thanks to an honest and serendipitous Facebook update. We couldn't afford her and we didn't have a place for her, but the potential and talent forced us to pursue her. Thankfully, we obeyed lesson #2 (be fearless) and grabbed her while she was available. We scrambled to grab a handful of clients to pay for her and we haven't looked back ever since.

The saying goes that you should put your customers first. I disagree. If you put the members of your team first, the customers will be served properly as a result. Find the right people. Go out on a limb to get them. If they're right for your company, the role isn't really as important. They have to fit the company before they can fit a role.

If you hire the wrong people, even the best plans can go awry. If you hire the right people, there's very little you can do to make a mess that they can't help you correct very quickly.

5. Establish Personal, Unbreakable Covenants

In the movie Top Gun, Maverick learns early in the movie that he should never leave his wingman. In the final fight scene, he takes it to the extreme and puts himself in danger to make absolutely certain he doesn't break that covenant. It works, of course, and he gets to share an awkward hug with Val Kilmer as a result.

If you're going to leave the security of a paycheck and take a chance to build a startup, you should do the things yourself and with your company that you always wished you could do before. Just think back. There were times when you've said to yourself, "If I ever have my own company with my own rules, then I would definitely..."

For us, we set several covenants. We won't make our employees work on weekends, for example. I still regret the time when a client really wanted one of our team members to be at a Saturday event and I let him go. He was fully willing to help and performed his duties exceptionally, but I still regret it. That was a mistake and I don't plan on letting it happen again.

They don't have to be so tangible, either. One covenant we set was that we would never let reporting or customer relations get in the way of results. My partner and I had worked for companies that were great at talking to customers but had a challenge delivering the goods. Every customer service call was laden with excuses. We've unfortunately taken it to the extreme on some occasions, delivering incredible results but forgetting to toot our own horns to our clients. Thankfully, the results usually speak for themselves once we show them.

6. Make Friends AND Enemies

If nobody hates you, then you're not trying hard enough. Part of being a startup in the uber-competitive world of automotive digital marketing means that if we're doing our job, there will be those who view us as a threat.

Of course, there will also be those who can view you as a potential ally. Sometimes, those allies can come at the strangest times and from the strangest places.

We have had our share of both along the way. Even the enemies that we've made have mostly come as a result of doing things that they could not. There are those who can do things that we cannot do, and we've done what we can to become allies with many of them.

In the game of friends and enemies, it's a matter of having sharp eyes. You have to be able to see when there are potential allies to approach while looking towards the horizon (or even behind you) for the enemies that are waiting for you to slip up.

7. Enjoy the Ride

There's a certain level of stress that comes with running a startup. Stress is fine. It's part of life. The tribulations we go through make us stronger and test our mettle. There's another level, though, that is not beneficial. When stress becomes anxiety, it can have the opposite effect. It can be debilitating.

There will be regrets, setbacks, doubts, and trials, but if you're not enjoying the moments as they happen and having fun with the lifestyle that you're building, it may be time to swallow pride and check the job boards.

You must love what you do. There's no way around that. You should never build a startup that you do not thoroughly, passionately love.

I have been thoroughly blessed this whole year. I've found (or been found by) the right people. The good decisions we've made have proven to be fruitful and the bad decisions we've made have not been catastrophic. Year two begins now. It's time to double down and make it better than the first.

Most articles like these start off with phrases like, "looking back, it's hard to believe..." or "there have been ups and downs, but we never lost sight of..." - I'm not going to start this article that way. Instead, I'll say this: "It's been pretty easy, so easy in fact that I'm actually a little worried that I did something wrong without knowing it."

One year ago last week, I officially launched our website and started looking for people who wanted to go on an adventure. The official documentation, bank accounts, tax forms, and other such things wouldn't happen for a month, but on this date in 2013, we had a website and were ready to take on clients.

There's something incredibly cool about hitting the one-year mark. We can now say that we've been around for "a little over a year", which I'm hoping will reduce skeptical coughs when prospects talk to us. We have a full year's worth of data to plug into reports. We can get a bigger line of credit. Otherwise, very little has actually changed. Unlike the birthdays of young people that are filled with excitement, ours is more of a sigh of relief. We made it through the period of time when doomed startups are most likely to find failure.

I would be remiss if I didn't offer observations to those who care and advice for those who are considering going down the same path. After thinking about it all day, I came up with seven lessons I've learned that some might find entertaining, others might find infuriating, and hopefully a few will find helpful.

1. Set a Direction with a REAL Goal in Mind

If you're going to do as I did, leaving a lucrative and cozy job to follow a dream, make sure you do so with real goals. "Making more money" or "spending more time with the family" are not real goals, at least not the kind that I'm describing. They are side effects of success that stem from building and running your startup properly. "Build and sell the company for $X billion" is not a real goal, either, because it's a result of your efforts rather than being something that you can realistically achieve.

A real goal should be something that guides the direction of your company, your employees, and yourself. It's okay if it's intangible or subjective as well. Those can actually be the best types. The real goal is something deeper than the obvious financial or lifestyle goals that we have so that achieving it makes all of the other goals come true.

My goal was to build a company that delivered unquestionable results. This translated to building a search product that was so powerful that a stranger could look at analytics and point to the moment that we started. It translated into a social product that makes multiple dealers exclaim, "I never knew you could actually sell cars on social media until now."

Will I make more money than I did before? Yes, 2015 appears to be heading in that direction. Am I spending more time with my family? Absolutely. In fact, my first family vacation in years is next week. These weren't my goals, but they're happening because we're achieving the real goal for the company.

2. Be Fearless without Being Stupid

When we were first getting started, we approached an OEM about their social media. They liked what we had to say and asked us for some examples of their dealers that were on the program. The good news: we had just signed one of their dealers up a couple of weeks earlier. The bad news: it was our first dealer for their brand.

We were fearless. We were also stupid. We had a great product and a great idea of how to apply it at the OEM level but we couldn't get beyond the second meeting because we jumped in before we had anything to back us up.

People often misunderstand the practical meaning of the word, "fearless." It's defined as being without fear, but we are human. We have fears. Those who tell you otherwise are either misguided or trying to sell you something. The practical use of being fearless is to do the right things despite our fears. Fearlessness in business and in life is about not allowing our fears to prevent us from doing what our hearts and minds know is best.

It's not about bungee jumping. That's what we did when we met with an OEM prematurely. It's about believing that the opportunities put in our path are there for a reason and the terrifying obstacles placed in front of us are there for us to conquer and become stronger as a result.

3. Pivot Early

So many startups over the last decade have pivoted. The majority of them did not last very long after the pivot. Unfortunately, unless you have something that is rock-solid with very little chance of needing major adjustments, you need to be ready to pivot.

The earlier you can pivot, the better. Even the best business plans and the most experience in similar situations can prove to be incorrect in the real world.

There's a reason that most pivots fail. They're almost always done too late. MySpace performed a textbook pivot right before they were sold. It was the right direction for the company. It was also about a year and a half too late.

Think about your company's pivot. Expect that it will be necessary. Build your assets with a potential pivot in mind. If it never becomes necessary, then count yourself as one of the enlightened (or lucky) ones. When it does become necessary, don't hesitate.

We've gone through a handful of very minor pivots, but the first major one is coming soon. Thankfully, ours is not one that will waste anything that we've built so far, so it's like having the best of both worlds - a great plan to start and a better plan to grow.

4. People Build a Business

The most important part of any business is the people behind it. This is commonly known to the point that it has become cliche. It's also the one that seems to evade so many startups.

One of the guiding principles we've used is to hire talent and find the right fit for them rather than to hire to fill a specific need. This is a point that most business people would happily debate me on and in the court of public opinion they would probably win the debate, but I stand by it.

We had our eyes on a person who showed all of the aptitude and seemed to possess the exact vision we wanted. One day, we noticed that she was suddenly available thanks to an honest and serendipitous Facebook update. We couldn't afford her and we didn't have a place for her, but the potential and talent forced us to pursue her. Thankfully, we obeyed lesson #2 (be fearless) and grabbed her while she was available. We scrambled to grab a handful of clients to pay for her and we haven't looked back ever since.

The saying goes that you should put your customers first. I disagree. If you put the members of your team first, the customers will be served properly as a result. Find the right people. Go out on a limb to get them. If they're right for your company, the role isn't really as important. They have to fit the company before they can fit a role.

If you hire the wrong people, even the best plans can go awry. If you hire the right people, there's very little you can do to make a mess that they can't help you correct very quickly.

5. Establish Personal, Unbreakable Covenants

In the movie Top Gun, Maverick learns early in the movie that he should never leave his wingman. In the final fight scene, he takes it to the extreme and puts himself in danger to make absolutely certain he doesn't break that covenant. It works, of course, and he gets to share an awkward hug with Val Kilmer as a result.

If you're going to leave the security of a paycheck and take a chance to build a startup, you should do the things yourself and with your company that you always wished you could do before. Just think back. There were times when you've said to yourself, "If I ever have my own company with my own rules, then I would definitely..."

For us, we set several covenants. We won't make our employees work on weekends, for example. I still regret the time when a client really wanted one of our team members to be at a Saturday event and I let him go. He was fully willing to help and performed his duties exceptionally, but I still regret it. That was a mistake and I don't plan on letting it happen again.

They don't have to be so tangible, either. One covenant we set was that we would never let reporting or customer relations get in the way of results. My partner and I had worked for companies that were great at talking to customers but had a challenge delivering the goods. Every customer service call was laden with excuses. We've unfortunately taken it to the extreme on some occasions, delivering incredible results but forgetting to toot our own horns to our clients. Thankfully, the results usually speak for themselves once we show them.

6. Make Friends AND Enemies

If nobody hates you, then you're not trying hard enough. Part of being a startup in the uber-competitive world of automotive digital marketing means that if we're doing our job, there will be those who view us as a threat.

Of course, there will also be those who can view you as a potential ally. Sometimes, those allies can come at the strangest times and from the strangest places.

We have had our share of both along the way. Even the enemies that we've made have mostly come as a result of doing things that they could not. There are those who can do things that we cannot do, and we've done what we can to become allies with many of them.

In the game of friends and enemies, it's a matter of having sharp eyes. You have to be able to see when there are potential allies to approach while looking towards the horizon (or even behind you) for the enemies that are waiting for you to slip up.

7. Enjoy the Ride

There's a certain level of stress that comes with running a startup. Stress is fine. It's part of life. The tribulations we go through make us stronger and test our mettle. There's another level, though, that is not beneficial. When stress becomes anxiety, it can have the opposite effect. It can be debilitating.

There will be regrets, setbacks, doubts, and trials, but if you're not enjoying the moments as they happen and having fun with the lifestyle that you're building, it may be time to swallow pride and check the job boards.

You must love what you do. There's no way around that. You should never build a startup that you do not thoroughly, passionately love.

I have been thoroughly blessed this whole year. I've found (or been found by) the right people. The good decisions we've made have proven to be fruitful and the bad decisions we've made have not been catastrophic. Year two begins now. It's time to double down and make it better than the first.

If there's one thing that gets me riled up, it's the types and degrees of education in the automotive industry. The car business has always taken care of me, so I try to always take care of the car business.

On many of the blogs and networks in our industry, there are sections for exclusive content and separate sections for "community posts" or syndicated content. Both serve an important role and I publish profusely in both. Here's why:

Community Content is General

There was a time when I didn't agree with posting the same article to multiple places. It seemed obtuse from a search perspective and annoying from a dealer perspective to see the same content republished over and over again on a wide variety of sites.

A friend and someone who manages one of the sites changed my opinion on this. He pointed out that content of general interest to the majority of dealers are better served when a post is published in multiple places. While the vendors seem to be on all of the networks, he pointed out that most dealers are on one or two regularly. If the content is good for them to read, then it's important to publish that content everywhere so that more dealers have an opportunity to read it.

That's the idea of the Community Posts section on DrivingSales. They know that there will be content duplicated here and elsewhere. They know that the content can be good, so why exclude it? Rather than cut it off completely, the team chose to have two sections (as many networks are doing nowadays) with the prime real estate given to Driving Sales Exclusives and syndicated content still visible but less prominent.

Exclusive Content is Meant for the DrivingSales Community

We have something special here at DrivingSales. I don't work for the company, but I have been a part of the community since the beginning and I've helped Jared and his team on several different projects over the years. I don't own it, but it certainly feels like I have a stake, even if not a financial one.

There are certain pieces of content that could be published elsewhere, but that has a unique resonance with this particular community. For those posts, the website offers a little radio button (pictured above) where industry bloggers can designate that "this piece of content is being publshed here and here alone."

This gives it better positioning and the opportunity to be broadcast through the DrivingSales newsletter (one that I highly recommend). It's for this reason that more and more people are posting duplicate content in the exclusive section. They publish it here and in other places, but then they select the "Exclusive to DrivingSales" radio button because, "hey, who's going to notice, right?"

I notice. The DrivingSales team notices. It doesn't take a genius to copy and paste a paragraph of content into Google to find out if a piece is unique or not.

I understand the desire that many vendors have to promote their businesses using any way at their disposal, but I humbly ask that you honor the "Exclusive" options on this website. That doesn't mean to post it here first and then post it elsewhere later. It doesn't mean to post it on DrivingSales and no other automotive blogs but then to post it on your own blog or an off-industry site. Exclusive is exclusive. If you're going to post it elsewhere, there's a section on this site dedicated to content that is of general interest to other networks or other industries. If the content is great, it doesn't have to be at the top to get attention. Enough people read the whole site, exclusive or not, so that strong content in the community section can still get incredible exposure.

Thank you and sorry for the rant. Carry on.

If there's one thing that gets me riled up, it's the types and degrees of education in the automotive industry. The car business has always taken care of me, so I try to always take care of the car business.

On many of the blogs and networks in our industry, there are sections for exclusive content and separate sections for "community posts" or syndicated content. Both serve an important role and I publish profusely in both. Here's why:

Community Content is General

There was a time when I didn't agree with posting the same article to multiple places. It seemed obtuse from a search perspective and annoying from a dealer perspective to see the same content republished over and over again on a wide variety of sites.

A friend and someone who manages one of the sites changed my opinion on this. He pointed out that content of general interest to the majority of dealers are better served when a post is published in multiple places. While the vendors seem to be on all of the networks, he pointed out that most dealers are on one or two regularly. If the content is good for them to read, then it's important to publish that content everywhere so that more dealers have an opportunity to read it.

That's the idea of the Community Posts section on DrivingSales. They know that there will be content duplicated here and elsewhere. They know that the content can be good, so why exclude it? Rather than cut it off completely, the team chose to have two sections (as many networks are doing nowadays) with the prime real estate given to Driving Sales Exclusives and syndicated content still visible but less prominent.

Exclusive Content is Meant for the DrivingSales Community

We have something special here at DrivingSales. I don't work for the company, but I have been a part of the community since the beginning and I've helped Jared and his team on several different projects over the years. I don't own it, but it certainly feels like I have a stake, even if not a financial one.

There are certain pieces of content that could be published elsewhere, but that has a unique resonance with this particular community. For those posts, the website offers a little radio button (pictured above) where industry bloggers can designate that "this piece of content is being publshed here and here alone."

This gives it better positioning and the opportunity to be broadcast through the DrivingSales newsletter (one that I highly recommend). It's for this reason that more and more people are posting duplicate content in the exclusive section. They publish it here and in other places, but then they select the "Exclusive to DrivingSales" radio button because, "hey, who's going to notice, right?"

I notice. The DrivingSales team notices. It doesn't take a genius to copy and paste a paragraph of content into Google to find out if a piece is unique or not.

I understand the desire that many vendors have to promote their businesses using any way at their disposal, but I humbly ask that you honor the "Exclusive" options on this website. That doesn't mean to post it here first and then post it elsewhere later. It doesn't mean to post it on DrivingSales and no other automotive blogs but then to post it on your own blog or an off-industry site. Exclusive is exclusive. If you're going to post it elsewhere, there's a section on this site dedicated to content that is of general interest to other networks or other industries. If the content is great, it doesn't have to be at the top to get attention. Enough people read the whole site, exclusive or not, so that strong content in the community section can still get incredible exposure.

Thank you and sorry for the rant. Carry on.