Balihoo

I was raised by very traditional parents who insisted that life was moving too fast and that it was best to hold onto the good ole days for as long as possible.  They raised my brother, sister, and me without cable television, they refused to buy us a Nintendo system, and I don’t remember them ever coming home with a movie rated anything higher than PG.  When we took road trips (which we did quite often) we didn’t have Gameboys to keep us entertained, we stopped at nearly every roadside historical sign, and we always stopped for lunch or dinner at a local ma & pa’s diner.  My father was adamant that we wouldn’t eat at a restaurant chain or franchise fast food joint.  He said he wanted us to experience the true tastes of our country's unique regions and wanted us to support the local communities.  He made me feel as though patronizing a national chain was equivalent to handing my five dollar bill to a table of stuffy board members in New York City.

This mentality stuck with me for years.  It wasn’t until I got to college and traveled with our college rodeo team that I learned to really appreciate restaurant chains and fast food.  Sure, there is a time and a place for the ma & pa diners of the country, but there’s also something to be said for the dependability and speed of the big name restaurants.  I have to admit, though, that the tinge of guilt never really left me when my friends and I stopped at the Sonic, Texas Roadhouse, or Applebee’s on a highway bypassing the downtown of a small community where the old establishments struggled everyday to gain back their customers who had moved on to a faster and more convenient lifestyle.  I knew I was only fueling the fire that was threatening to smoke out their traditional way of life with daily specials, pie displays, and familar faces.

The perspective I was lacking throughout all the years was that of the franchise owners.  The image of board members sitting around a table never quite left me and I never took the time to consider the real people who were actually managing the chain restaurants.  My eyes were recently opened a couple of months ago when the Balihoo product became the franchise marketing software of choice for the national sandwich chain, Quiznos.  After only a few phone calls with their franchise owners, I realized my perspective had been unfairly skewed against the big dogs of the restaurant world for too long.  The Quiznos owners I now speak with on a daily basis are hardworking and passionate people.  They strive everyday to make their restaurants successful operations and they face many of the same business challenges that independent restaurant owners do.  Sure, they receive lots of support from their corporate team, but the day-to-day managerial tasks are the same.  And it takes the same grit, determination, and heart to make their restaurants a customer favorite. 

I have been truly inspired by the Quiznos owners.  They work hard to connect with their customer base and they want to  deliver the personalized touch that sets them apart from other quick service restaurants.  I love to see the posters and flyers customized in our ad builder software with the names of local high schools, colleges, and community events.  Just the other day, one of the owners was looking to create a poster featuring the Italian Melt sandwich because he said it was a local favorite and he wanted to acknowledge the community spirit of his customers.  I’ve also been very impressed with the number of Quiznos owners that have ordered material for local fundraising events.

I no longer have any qualms about eating at a chain restaurant.  I realize now that the people behind the counter or serving my table are just as local and just as deserving of a paycheck as the people working in the independent restaurants down the street.  I also know that the people in the back offices care deeply for their communities, work hard to provide for their families, and are no different than my parents, who themselves are small business owners.  I might not be able to change my dad’s eating habits on the road, but I have succeeded in opening his eyes to the fact that franchisees have feelings too.

In an effort to distract from the gloom of winter, Valerie and I started walking to the local flower shop on Mondays and picking up a flower for our desks to brighten up our work area. Many of our coworkers complimented them, so I bought a bunch and put them in bud vases for people to put on their desks. The flower fairy is a new tradition and will continue on a weekly basis!

This MSNBC.com headline caught my eye this morning:  Weak economy means it’s a freebie nation.

At a time when almost everyone seems to be tightening their purse strings, giving past and potential customers a product or service for free is a great solution for a business with local store marketing needs. What's more, with the adoption and immediacy that social networking tools provide, the cost of getting your 'freebie' message out to your local audience doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg! In fact, you could utilize facebook or twitter and have your message out to past, current and potential customers within seconds for absolutely zero out-of-pocket cost!

While many big franchises are on the freebie fad bandwagon - Starbucks (Free music downloads), Denny's (free grand slam breakfast), Auntie Anne's (free pretzels), Amazon (free ebook downloads) - don't think that you have to have a big brand budget to offer a worthwhile freebie that yields a big ROI.

While offering 'freebies' has routinely popped up during economic slumps, never before did businesses with local advertising needs  have such a variety of affordable tools to get their message out. Not convinced that offering a freebie could help your bottom line? - What's more, Promotional Products Association recently found that consumers were far more likely to make a purchase after receiving an item for free than after simply viewing an ad or commercial for the product or service.

I've experienced this personally several times over the past several months. One of my (now) local favorite coffee shops gave me a free coffee mug a couple of months ago - at the time I didn't feel overly connected to that particular shop or brand and was surprised to receive the free mug....Looking back now, it is interesting to consider that I went from visiting their location once or twice a week to going nearly every day (seriously, if you come by my desk, 9 times out of 10 times there will be a Tully's coffee cup there). Come to think of it,  I haven't consumed "office coffee" in weeks (perhaps even months!) Nice job with the freebie Tully's - see you on Monday!

The Twilight saga continues! It's true fellow Twihard admirers; the new teaser trailer of the third book, "Eclipse" was released to the public yesterday.  The vampire series continues to captivate and totally annoy the nation. The one-minute-and-thirty-second clip that arrived online dabbles into the not too surprising events about what we'll see in the upcoming movie.

Watch the trailer below and let's break it down, shall we? When the music begins instant goose-bumps occur and Edward’s hypnotizing voice mesmerizes all enthusiasts. We all know that Bella and Edward love each other but for all you Jacob fans we believe that Bella should choose the irresistible Jacob (sorry Team Edward I’m loyal to Team Jacob). “The Vulturi do not give second chances” and Bella has to change from a human to a vampire but Edward is hesitant with the consequences to follow. Jacob will fight for Bella (shirtless) until “her heart stops beating” showing off his hunky, muscular figure. A new Victoria, with her firey red hair, is back to obtain her vengeance.  Rest assured I will be standing in line alongside the die-hard fans to purchase my ticket for the midnight opening showing.

After reading the very popular Stephenie Meyer books, people of all ages (yes not just girl teeny boppers) eagerly search for the new trailer and click on whatever sight pops up first. Local businesses are utilizing the effective and affordable local internet marketing by posting these clips to generate demand to their sites. Local store marketing is taking advantage of the hype utilizing POS materials to drive sales of the last video which will release the 20th, even Volvo saw significant lift in their sales when the movie was released!  By using co-op advertising and local marketing ideas, stores are placing Twilight posters, wall hangers, and selling fan gear to effectively drive brand awareness. This movie has spent significant marketing dollars developing and nurturing their name which has proven successful. Twilight set the opening-day box office record taking in $72.7 million on the first day and grossed $258.8 million! New Moon pulled in $26.3 million just on the midnight showings and broke the record for the most pre-sales for any movie! Let's see what Eclipse has in store for us.


 

Dental practices are small businesses by nature. At the end of the day, they are trying to bring patients(customers) in the door and get them to accept treatment plans(buy products) to ultimately drive revenue all while working to keep overhead low and thus yield a profit. Sounds like a business to me.

Where dental practices veer off the path that many small businesses drive down is when it comes time to selling the practice (business). While there are many variables that impact the valuation of a business, I’m going to attempt to keep this simple because I do believe the underlying difference remains. A starting point for business valuation is often derived from an Owner Benefit number. The formula for such number is:

Pre-Tax Profit + Owner’s Salary + Additional Owner Perks + Interest + Depreciation less Allocation for Capital Expenditures

The “Rule of Thumb” is that businesses tend to sell for a one-to three-times multiple of the sum of that equation. That holds generally true, EXCEPT for dental practices. In many cases, a profitable dental practice can actually, and often times do, sell for LESS than the Owner Benefit valuation. Why you might ask? Simple. Practices rarely follow the principles of ‘Branding’. What ends up happening, is that by default, a practice coincidently becomes branded as Dr. John Doe instead of High Plains Cosmetic Dentistry.

So for the sake of this example, we can assume that when High Plains Cosmetic Dentistry is up for sale, it is because Dr. John Doe has decided to pursue a retirement filled with golf, tennis and travel. That single clinician practice may have had an Owner Benefit of $1mm but the practice is lucky to get $400,000 in the sale. This is because more often than not, patients leave when Dr. Doe leaves. The new owner may be just as talented and even keep the name High Plains Cosmetic Dentistry but it is now Dr. Tom Jones instead of Dr. John Doe. All of a sudden, customers (err… I mean patients) are confused and look for alternative options. All of a sudden the practice is not worth the $1mm that the valuation might have initially lead us to believe.

Calling all dentists! It does NOT have to be this way. Focus on branding your practice and not necessarily yourself. Be on the lead-edge of the shifting paradigm by building brand equity through strategic dental marketing. This is the first step in helping you sell your practice for what it’s worth. Heck, why not even a multiple of what it’s worth like most other successful businesses?

Balihoo is working with those forward-thinking dental practices across the country to focus on communicating the brand to the public via strategic direct-to-consumer dental marketing and local advertising campaigns. Let’s face it, at the end of the day, most of us don’t want to work forever and would sure like to sell our lifetime of hard work for what it’s worth.

Look at it this way: when Phil Knight retired from Nike in 2004, did people stop buying Nike products? Point and case.

Mexican fast food chain Del Taco took its Facebook fan base from roughly 20,000 to nearly 60,000 in just seven weeks after launching their Facebook-based "The Del Taco Super Special Show".   

Del Taco vice president of marketing John Cappasola says that their new, multiplatform marketing approach will hopefully help to broaden their customer base. "Looking at our position in the category, it's important that we find ways to extend our reach as efficiently as possible," Cappasola says. "We knew that integrating what we were doing—a traditional media approach—with social media was going to be really important for us."

The QSR brand is continually monitoring impressions, click-throughs and other metrics and using that information to tweak their placement of online and social media ads for the show, as well as the creative and offers featured.  For example, online ads are now relying on both coupons AND viral tools to encourage current fans to recruit their friends and family to become Del Taco Facebook fans.

Great to see that the Mexican chain is also using Twitter to promote the show and other special offers/coupons. It is great to see how tightly their complete franchise marketing plan seems to be tied together. (They are incorporating shoutouts to their Facebook page (specifically to The Del Taco Super Special Show") in numerous media forms (radio, tv, print, etc.)

While Del Taco is relatively late to the game with Facebook, they are proving that even for for a late-adopter, social networking can greatly impact one's franchise marketing strategy and local internet marketing efforts!

• Greatest Generation: born prior to 1946 (Ages: 65-plus)
• Boomers: 1946-1964 (Ages: 46-64)
• Generation X: 1965-1976 (Ages: 34-45)
• Millennials: 1977-1994 (Ages: 16-33)
  
  With our beloved Boomers struggling, we are turning to the Gen X and Gen Y demos, with their disposable incomes, technology addictions and consumption-happy habits to perk things up.
  
  Anyone with a medium sized family can see at a glance that there are some huge differences between how these three demographics go about consuming media - How do you seek out products or services? What media types do you turn to (or perhaps have attached to you) every day? Now compare your answers to those of your younger cousin, grandmother, nephew, father, etc...... While Boomers are more apt to still rely on their daily newspaper or respond to direct mail flyers, Gen X and Y'ers are far more likely to rely on the internet for both new and entertainment and are more likely to respond positively to email marketing and mobile coupons. 
  
  Been dragging your feet when it comes to looking into local internet marketing? Now is the time to take a step back and consider who your most viable target audience is - there is a good chance that your Yellow Page or radio spot just isn't worth the investment anymore.
  As a small business, how are you planning on getting your local advertising in front of this audience? Perhaps it time to mix up your local store marketing and media planning strategy?

Many moons ago I wrote of an epic Balihoo vs. Wild journey into the depths of the Hells Canyon Wilderness. At the end of that article, I promised our loyal blog roll that I would keep them abreast of Balihoo’s next expedition into the wilderness. At the time, there were quiet murmurs of a First Annual Winter Yurt Trip. I sadly report that such a journey never took place and is still a coming of age tale. Several of our large outdoor apparel/gear sponsors backed out at the last minute due to ‘unexpected market conditions’ leaving us without sufficient financial backing to commence our research-driven exploratory journey. I personally think those sponsors could have weathered the economic storm had they taken advantage of Balihoo’s Local Marketing Automation platform but that’s neither here nor there and is best conveyed in one of my previous blogs titled, Outdoor Adventures in Co-op Advertising.

So while the Yurt Trip never took place, I am pleased to announce that we did manage to recently dawn our sub zero degree down jackets, resembling the fearless infantry of the 10^th Mountain Division circa 1943, and hit the slopes at our favorite alpine skiing venue. To those of you who don’t reside in the Treasure Valley, Bogus Basin may not mean much to you. But for those of us who call this area home, well… we look at Bogus Basin as 'The Matterhorn of the Boise Alps'. A group of eleven Balihoo winter-sport extraordinaires impressed bystanders (Caribou, Wolves, Grizzly Bears and even a Yeti) with a dazzling display of 360 Helicopters, Daffys and Backscratchers. Après Backscratcher, was greeted with delicious nutrient enriched hot toddys at BaseCamp to cure our aching muscles, halt frostbite and reduce the side-effects of our early-stage Pulmonary Edema (a medical condition most commonly developed at high altitudes).

All-in-all, it was another stunning display of the can-do and will-do mindset of Balihoo’s team and an even further testament to what makes this place so unique. Its the people folks. We’ve got great people.

Please stay tuned for the next Balihoo vs. Wild journey coming this Spring. Planning for a record-breaking cross-country bicycle trek are already in the works.
 

This post, Local Franchisee Marketing - 10 Things You Need to Know, was originally written and posted by Shane Vaughan on our old blog on 7/14/09.

Balihoo recently penned an article for one of our favorite sites for franchise news - Blue MauMau.  Article can be seen here, or you can read the full article below!  

Local Franchisee Marketing - 10 Things You Need to Know 

If you’re a franchisee, you’re probably already doing some local marketing — even if it’s just listing your business in the local Yellow Pages.  Think additional advertising will cost too much?  Think you don’t need an online presence?  Or does “online presence” seem to be the opposite of “local media”?

In fact, every company, no matter how large or small, can benefit from using local media effectively.  And it doesn’t have to break your budget!  Here’s a list of the Top Ten things you need to know to make Local Marketing work for you. 

1.  Know Your Target Audience.

First, last, and always:  Pay attention to your target market!  If you’re not focused on your customers, you cannot hope to win their attention — or their business. 

Be specific about who you’re trying to reach.  Men?  Women?  Retirees? Mothers?  Sports Fans? Chinchilla owners?  People with other particular interests?  Other small businesses, such as real-estate firms?  Dental offices? 

Now that you’ve clearly defined your target audience, consider what marketing messages will resonate with them.  What problem does your product or service solve for them?  Think carefully about where you should position your communications so your target audience will see, read — and act on them.

If possible, develop a “profile” of your target customer.  Give them a name to easily refer to them, let’s use “Katie” for an example.  Where does Katie work?  Is she married?  Kids?  What does she do in her free time?  What is Katie’s household income?  The more specific, the better. 

2.  Measure, Measure, Measure. 

There’s an old saying, “Half the money you spend on advertising is wasted, and you don’t know which half.”  Unfortunately, this is true in many cases, but it doesn’t have to be.  Careful planning and – most importantly, measurement, ensures your advertising is working hard for your business.    

It’s all about ROI — Return On Investment.  This may sound complicated, but it’s actually pretty easy to calculate.  Simply take the benefit you receive from an investment, and subtract the cost of that investment.  Divide the result by the cost of that investment.  (Benefit - Cost)/Cost. 

You can apply this to any business investment, including marketing campaigns.  And you should.  ROI tells you if a given effort is providing a net benefit to your bottom line, and if so, the size of the gain.  You’ll want to get the highest ROI possible from your marketing dollars, and you can’t improve what you don’t measure.   

3.  Buy Media; Don’t Be Sold

Strategically buy your media, don’t allow yourself to be “sold.”  Make sure you evaluate all options, across all communications channels, not just whoever happens to knock on your door.  And evaluate them in terms of their effectiveness for your target market, not necessarily in terms of your personal interests!

Also, make sure that any reps who call on you know you’re considering other placement; they will probably sweeten their rates.

4.  Integrate Your Marketing Messages.

Don’t spend all of your marketing dollars on a single medium.  Why not?  Because multi-channel marketing efforts perform better.  In one study, over a few years multi-channel customers spent at least several hundred dollars more in comparison with single-channel customers.  Multiply that difference by your total number of customers, and you can see there’s real value to be had.

As you venture into multi-channel marketing, be sure to integrate your marketing.  You’ll need to convey the same message across all channels.

And don’t forget some powerful experiential channels that many small franchises overlook.  Your storefront or office, your signage, your employees, and your product are all sending messages of their own.  Are those experiential messages consistent with your advertising messages?  Are they consistent with the message you want to send?

5.  Relations With Local Media.

The thing to remember about local media is that when your business is down, so is theirs.   Just like you, your local media want long-term repeatable revenue in a down economy.  They want to keep your business!  This means now is the time to renegotiate your contracts.

This is especially true of local print media.  Understand the downward pricing pressure exerted on these media by the power of the internet:  In 2008, print classified ad spend was down to about half what it was in 2000!  Blame Craigslist, Google, and Yahoo — then put this knowledge to work for you.

6. Newspapers Are Still a Valid Option.

Although readership is shrinking, newspapers are still a valid local advertising option. 

Particularly in smaller markets, newspapers carry more weight with the local audience. 

Older readers in particular continue to rely on newspapers, especially for local info.

But make sure you supplement ad placement in the print version with placement on the newspaper’s own on-line presence.  In 2008, newspapers actually accounted for over one-quarter of all local online advertising!

And consider writing up a press release announcing your company’s opening, refurbishment, website, sale, or upcoming special event — anything that could be seen as “news.”  Get it out to your local papers.  They may not take it, but they might if they need to fill a spot in a hurry.   

7.   Digital Works Locally.

You say you don’t think of interactive or online media as being “local”? 

In fact, local online advertising is expected to grow 6% in 2009, to a total spend of $13.3 Billion.  In a broader sense, local digital media includes things like Google Maps, Yahoo Local, and online yellow pages.  These are growing too.

Local search is also a powerful tool, increasingly replacing printed Yellow Pages.  People used to “let their fingers do the walking;” now it’s the mouse!  Local search is when a potential customer uses a search engine to find your kind of business, adding the name of your city or town.  When that happens, you want that customer to see your company’s link — front and center!

8.  Build Your Online Presence — Beyond Your Own Website.

Local search will work more effectively for you if you have your own website — and get it on the first page of search results.

To rise in the search rankings, your site needs to have relevant keywords but not appear “keyword-stuffed” — containing nothing but keywords and no useful knowledge.

A single website is not enough; keywords are not enough.  Search engines also take into account how many websites have links to yours.  This is an indication of how useful and relevant your content is. 

You can build links to your website from your own Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter pages.  This will help you rise in the search rankings.  But it means you need to have a strategic plan for your online presence, and commit resources to implementing it.

9. Build a Relationship.  

Attracting a new customer costs about 5 times as much as keeping an existing one.  To control your customer acquisition costs, therefore, you need to build an emotional connection between your customers and your brand.  (And yes, all companies have a brand, even if they don’t realize it!)

To do this, foster a relationship with your customers outside of the buying interaction. 

Direct mail, email, social media, blogs, and Twitter can all contribute.

10.  Email Marketing Is Your Friend.

Once you build up a solid email list, email marketing is relatively inexpensive and highly targeted.  If done right, you know you are communicating a relevant message to motivated customers who want a relationship with you.  That’s a marketer’s dream!

How do you build your own email list?  Offer a “membership” campaign on your website.  Give something of value exclusively to members (i.e., discount coupon, etc.) in return for their email addresses.  Make sure you respect their privacy and take care in how you use customer contact info — and tell them about your privacy commitment.

• Don’t spam your customers.  Use a “preference center” on your website that will allow customers to tell you how often they want to hear from you, and on what topics.
• Frequency:  Daily; Weekly; Only when there’s a sale? 
• Potential Topics:  Arrival of new merchandise; Monthly newsletter containing tips & how-to advice; When you have an event just for “members;” Only when you’re about to have a sale? 

Then, respect that preference!  Nothing is more annoying to a customer (and therefore destructive of the relationship you’re trying to build) than when they’ve told a company their preferences — and then that company ignores them. 

There you have it:  The Top 10 Things You Need To Know About Local Franchise Marketing.  It isn’t just the Yellow Pages any more!

This post, Bathroom Advertising, was originally posted by Shane Vaughan on our old blog.

In the past decade, in-bathroom advertising has become an important staple in many a marketers arsenal of communication methods.  Marketers love it - a truly captive audience, their attention is directed at the space in front of them for approximately 90 seconds with nothing else to do but read your ad.  It’s also naturally a fantastic method to targeting gender-specific messages with 100% accuracy (I would hope!).  Additionally, the ads reach the audience typically most coveted by marketers, 21-35 year olds in a social setting, which suggests a group with disposable income who like to go out and spend money.
 

Whether you like the concept of advertising in the bathroom or not, it’s hard to argue with the metrics as seen in this Barbour & Monroe survey:

• 84% Recalled seeing specific advertisements in the restrooms
• 92% Were able to name specific advertisers without prompting
• 88% Recalled at least 4 selling points in the ads surveyed
• 98% Reacted positively or neutral to seeing ads in restroom facilities 

  This particular medium is an excellent example of the value the Balihoo provides businesses and brands with local advertising needs. Bathroom advertising companies are typically local, which makes them very difficult for marketers to find and buy their ad inventory.  Working with Balihoo, we can help you find local advertising options (bathrooms if need be) in nearly every market!
   

For 2.5 years now, we at Balihoo have applied, practiced, refined and tweaked agile development concepts to create a highly functioning and well oiled product development process.  Yes, we still have issues - the real world and a constantly changing marketplace will do that to you.  Our process is still evolving to this day and will continue to do so to support the changing face of our company, but in general it is stable and predictable which is a great feat as anyone in software will tell you.

Our chosen path for product development started with a flavor of Agile called Scrum.  You see Agile is not a methodology as some might suggest - it is a mind-set.  At its core it is about

·             Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

·             Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

·             Responding to change over following a plan

I say we started with a flavor of Agile called Scrum.  The thing is  - every company and situation are different.  People who fail with Agile are looking for a cookbook.  Agile, Scrum, XP or any of the other buzzwords thrown around are not cookbooks, and if you try and treat them as such you will end up abandoning the concept as ‘great idea but won’t work here’.  It takes effort, experimentation, and hard work to figure out what works best in any organization, but the payoffs can be great.

One of the key concepts used in Scrum that we have kept, is the concept of a morning stand up or more affectionately known as the morning scrum.   At its core the morning scrum is really a communication tool with an underlying theme of self organization.  It is focused on:

·             shared commitment

·             communicating daily status, progress and plans

·             identifying obstacles so the team can take steps to remove them

·             setting direction and focus

·             building a team

On the surface, it might sound like any other meeting, but it is much more than that.  (You can learn more about how a morning standup/scrum is organized in software development here)  For example, it takes place  every morning, everyone stands, its only 15 minutes, and its organized around 3 basic questions. They are:

·             What did I accomplish yesterday?

·             What do I plan to accomplish today?

·             What roadblocks or issues are standing in my way ?

There is actually a 4th one that could be used at the manager scrum: What other teams will I impact by what I am doing?

As an organization we decided that it might be worth adopting this concept across all teams in the organization separately.  Of course it would need to lose some of the software development nuances, but again - thinking about underlying concepts and purpose we thought it would be an excellent tool for other/all groups to increase the rate of communication without sacrificing time,  drive issue ownership and resolution more quickly, and generally get the day going with a bang.

Now, a few weeks into this experiment we have all teams carrying out a planning exercises (mostly on a calendar month basis), track ’stories’ (goals) on a visual board and communicate status to their teammates with with a standup each morning.  I know that some will say: ‘That wouldn’t work for us because of the work we do’….  We have account management, sales and even our creative development team trying and adapting the concept.

In addition the management team is also doing it as well, which comes with additional challenges due to the typical cross functional nature of the work, the sheer diversity of items worked on, and ensuring that we  do not duplicate items that are already being managed by sub teams.

(Image: Balihoo Mgmt Team Scrum Tracking board)

Everyone is still trying to figure out how to make the concept best work for their teams, but early feedback is already positive.  For example, At the management level, we have dropped our bi-weekly mgmt meetings now, and they only come on the calendar for special topics.  We have had a number of people in the organization say that the morning scrums get everyone energized and focused for the day, and almost universally everyone agrees that the near real time, quick view of what’s going on around, helps keep important information flowing and helps drive issues to resolution much faster.

Only time will tell how things evolve and change, but for now we will continue to iterate and adapt the process to fit our demanding organizational needs.   Many startups call themselves agile as a synonym to chaos, however with simple tools like the morning scrum, it can start to feel a little more organized and maintaining or even increasing the organizations agility.