The holiday is over and it's back to work. Does that excite you or depress you? Remember the days when you were fired up and couldn't wait to get back into it? Imagine if you had a tool to put you back in that frame of mind. Something you could turn to after a crappy day to re-energise you and put you back in the zone.

Misty Singer from Misty’s Diner shares this simple but amazingly effective tip…

"When I’ve have a tough day, I’ll read through my customer reviews on WOMO. They remind me why I got into business in the first place. I’m passionate about what I do, but sometimes that can get lost in the hustle and bustle of every day. The reviews gives me confidence in my business, and are a little reminder of all the things I’ve been doing right. Sometimes they'll even bring a tear to my eye!"

Obviously, some businesses aren’t fortunate enough to able to read through 400+ reviews like Misty to bring back that motivation.

But think about it for a moment… why are you in business?

• Money? No! Businesses that exist purely for profits don’t tend to survive very long because your lack of love soon becomes blatantly obvious to customers. Why? When you try to maximise profits, this inherently means minimising value (why pay for 3 operators if 1 will do 95% of the roles just as well?).
• Lifestyle? Freedom? No! Although that may have been part of the dream, the reality is usually vastly different. You should pursue this though as overworking tends to suck the spark from even the most motivated entrepreneur.
• It's passion!  Your vision for helping people, providing value, and building something important! Yes, you deserve to be rewarded for it, and yes, you deserve flexibility, but remember your dream when you started this thing. Get back to basics and get in touch with the people you're affecting on a day-to-day basis.

Misty says, “All my family and friends knew one day I’d be cooking up a storm in my own restaurant. I wanted to start a place where people could get a taste of real American food, with a slight retro-twist. A place where you’re surrounded by people making sounds of pure enjoyment as they bite into a real authentic American hamburger; or chewing on some ribs fresh off the grill, or catching up with friends over a basket of chili fries or some homemade pumpkin pie. I just wanted to give people a finger-licking experience every time they popped in.”

 When it boils down to it, most businesses exist to help people. Keeping your vision front-of-mind will give your business direction and, more importantly, will keep the fire in your belly burning. So how do you do that in practise? Like Misty says, one great way is feedback, feedback, feedback! I know what you're thinking… doesn't this just create more work and unearth problems you don't want to know about? No, and the reasons are that when you seek customer feedback;

• You come across as a business that actually cares. (Customers will be more satisfied, just because you asked if they're satisfied!)
• You learn how to improve.
• Knowing you've got happy customers will increase your motivation.
• With more motivation, you'll provide more value (and have even happier customers)

…and so the magic feedback cycle continues! That's right, this simple, but powerful tool can motivate owners and staff to provide customers with more value. And what does more value lead to? More money? Yes, but not only that, it builds better, lasting relationships. If you can provide your customers with more value, they are more than likely to come back. Research shows that it costs businesses three times as much to get a new customer than it does to keep one. So if you offer your customers more value, not only will you get more clients, but you’ll keep most of them too! And if you encourage customer feedback in a public forum (like WOMO), you'll get lots of new customers too.

It’s important for all businesses to remember their underlying motivation for being in business. Misty has a fantastic method. What do you do?