The legendary Ruth Reichl recently wrote a great post entitled “The Meaning of Ludo’s” in which she talks about her experience with the sought-after LudoBites, which transcends the typical excitement associated with a new dining opportunity as it has no fixed location. As the theater and romance of restaurants has always intrigued me and working with clients in the foodservice industry has long been a love of mine, this entirely different perspective on what makes a restaurant a “go-to” has a new level of intrigue.

The success of LudoBites shows that it is often not just about the decor, the setting, the food, table linens, service–as this restaurant picks new locations and on the night Reichl visited it was inhabiting what she described as “a little sandwich shop in a grungy part of town – it is the ultimate statement about the supremacy of food over ambiance.” Read more here:

Check out the words deemed worthy of being banned for 2010 by the wordsmiths at Lake Superior State University, who released their 35th annual (deep breath) List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. (By way of a punctuation disclaimer, the punctuation of those words is theirs and not the way I would recommend it, which would be Misuse and Overuse.)

BTW, I just heard an otherwise erudite and gracious-sounding guest on an NPR program today use “Teachable Moment” more than three times in five minutes, and one of the very first callers after she spoke almost growled at the use. So, perhaps this list will help minimize growls for all of us!

The complete 2010 list:

1. Shovel-ready
2. Transparent/Transparency
3. Czar
4. Tweet
5. App
6. Sexting
7. Friend as a verb
8. Teachable Moment
9. In These Economic Times …
10. Stimulus
11. Toxic Assets
12. Too Big to Fail
13. Bromance
14. Chillaxin’
15. Obama as a prefix

This is a bit of an extended musing on why the end of the year is so full of potential for businesses to revisit and refresh…

The holidays are abuzz with activity, much of it focused around commercial enterprise while it still is regarded by many as the one time each year they relax their boundaries a bit and reach out to others a bit more… Or, perhaps they contact someone who they feel a connection with from a business or personal contact yet it’s started to fade away a bit. Some might call a little contact under such circumstances as sort of a “ping” or follow-up—a gentle prompt. Regardless, it’s a grand time to reconnect by refreshing and renewing as networking with others is where many of us find satisfaction, knowledge, and sometimes even new business. With that in mind, perhaps the close of the year is a perfect time to take a look at how our businesses communicate… not just the means or media, but the quality of the message. Are the messages getting stale? If you truly do a “challenge review” of your brochures, Web content, prospecting letters, collateral materials, and advertising can you truly say that it would intrigue you if you were your own prospect? We usually remember to put up the lights, take down the lights, send out a greeting card. We sometimes forget to look closely at how our businesses are communicating to our prospects and existing clients and whether it really is in harmony with our business plans (which we should also be revisiting and updating often!).

The Geography Issue—Is it Clear Where You Are?

If your business has a product or service that would appeal to a more-extended area either because you can ship it or deliver it via the Web, are you sure that your materials are written in such a way that they would make sense to someone from outside the area and that you’ve provided enough information for them to contact you if they happen to see it while just visiting the area? This might be as simple as putting the city name in your ads. Even in the burgeoning Boise Metro area, where advertising may cover not only Boise but go to Meridian, Eagle, Kuna, Star, Nampa, Caldwell, Middleton, and beyond—it’s important to not assume that everyone knows where your street is especially if you have a brick-and-mortar storefront they’ll need to visit. Even in an ad just limited to Boise, merely having your street name and address often isn’t enough. Just giving the name of the office or retail complex isn’t enough, such as Black Eagle Center. Most of us are creatures of habit and prowl our own neighborhoods and the pathways we’ve established to go to the places that we already know–yet, as new business develop, often on the outskirts or farther out than the original five-mile or so radius from which many businesses draw, you may need to help your prospective client find you. Have a map on your Website, add information such as “on the northeast corner of XX and XXX.” If you’re going to refer to your location as next to another business, make sure 1) it’s a business that will reflect well on yours and 2) that you get their name right! Sounds simple, but it’s amazing how often it seems one business butchers the name of their neighbor’s business. At the end of the day, it doesn’t end up reflecting well on either of you!

Seek Some Objective Input

If you have a professional associate who does not work with you, consider asking him or her to give you some 100% honest and objective input after looking at your Website or brochures or other materials. It might be a great time to freshen up the message or clarify or even fix typos or inconsistencies and other mechanical issues with the content.

New Year, New Message?

The closing of one year and embarking on another is perhaps a perfect time to reevaluate and revisit with a positive intent for feeling more in alignment with our own messages. Think about the advertising that appeals to you and words that resonate or capture your attention. Consider adding aspects of that to your own materials as appropriate. Hire a professional to help you either write it or at least edit and proof for you letting them know clearly what your intended result is… and perhaps 2008 will bring mo’ betta business and exciting new potential. Happy New Year!

Just a quick note about a concept called “the editorial itch,” as it may be little known but as soon as people hear about it, it resonates for them if they have it or know someone who does. It’s that almost-indescribable reaction some of us have to a typo, a misused word, or–horrors–a malapropism (defined as 1 : the usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase; especially : the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in the context), with the last often turning up when someone is speaking or writing to impress using language that he or she doesn’t fully comprehend. If you have it, you can almost feel the wrong word or punctuation or spelling pulsate at you. What a boon to those of us who love to proofread! For others, a commitment to studying and using great grammar and usage resources can end up being their editorial safety net instead. I believe a sense for such things can be cultivated, though for some it just comes more naturally, as with many other aptitudes. Just to loft a question out there in case it’s of interest to anyone with that editorial itch: How often do you forgo (the preferred spelling!) mentioning what you’ve noticed to someone as you’re not sure the input is welcome? Virtually everyone I’ve talked to who thrives on editing and/or proofreading has shared a tale of things he or she had to not mention out of concern that it would not be well received. That’s it for now… Nancy

Just a bit of a thought contribution on the joys and drawbacks of using and being a freelancer! For clients, having access to one or even a diverse stable of freelance professional talent for an array of projects makes great sense as your workload fluctuates and so does your need for professional (often higher-paid) staff. There are other benefits, though, and one that I firmly believe in is the ability to source new voices and new talents so that your company’s work doesn’t all sound the same with what amounts to, in essence, parroting of words and wording used elsewhere in almost everything else you’ve published. Please don’t misunderstand, though, as it IS critical to have a consistent voice and style to your work–but finding new things to say and new ways to say it while still resonating as “you” keeps your message and products or services fresh. Of course, I may be biased, but there are no drawbacks to using great freelance talent if they know you and understand you and your needs and they LISTEN!

; - )

From the perspective of being a freelancer, there are distinct benefits and potholes in the road… On the benefit side, the ability to work with multiple clients and wear lots of hats is a huge plus (for me, anyway) though there is some inherent financial insecurity compared to someone who has a predictable, 40-hour job. I am fortunate in having had some fabulous clients and would always prefer to have just a few great ones than lots and lots of occasional client connections. With freelance, if the fit or feel isn’t right, you can tweak or make adjustments to find situations and ways to approach them that do work. Sometimes, it’s just a case of finding a new way to connect with an existing client based upon what you’ve learned about them. For me, I love having the ability to work on a broad range of projects with different objectives and voices—but on the downside, I also have an exorbitantly high health-insurance premium to pay particularly as I am based in a state that precludes most professional groups and organizations from writing insurance here—so that makes it extremely expensive… my medical insurance, not even counting my dental insurance, costs MORE THAN MY MORTGAGE! That’s daunting and scary for sure. No one is putting aside profit sharing for you either, so it’s incumbent on us to plan and try to be like the proverbial squirrel and store supplies for the winter (read: future). I commit to working efficiently and with integrity and choose to affiliate with those who do the same. Finding just a few more great clients who do creative, well-considered work who are proud of being ethical in their dealings is about as good as it can get from my view!

Nancy