Law Firm Marketing by Mark Merenda | Smart Blog

The Man In The Parking Lot

At Smart Marketing, we have been lucky. (Touch wood.)

Our business, which is national and not local, has been strong. (Throw salt over left shoulder.)

We have continued to grow. (Turn around three times and spit.)

But for many of our friends and neighbors, things are very tough. The local economy is based on the real estate industry and tourism. Both are in the tank, real estate grievously so. The trickle-down effect is enormous. If you work in real estate sales, or you work in construction, or you work in a lamp store, a furniture store, a linen store; if you are an architect or interior designer, or own a lunch truck...right now, in Southwest Florida, you are getting clobbered. Or you are going out of business. Or you are declaring bankruptcy and moving to another state.

Perhaps you saw President Obama’s visit to Fort Myers, the next city over from us in Naples. Or maybe you read this article in The New York Times, about another of our neighboring cities, Lehigh Acres.

The father of my son’s best friend was an $80,000 a year construction supervisor. He told me on Monday that he has been sleeping in his car and is down to his last $25.

Tuesday night I had dinner in Fort Myers. I couldn’t finish my meal and asked to take the rest home in a “doggy bag” (in reality, a Styrofoam box). As I left the restaurant, something happened that had never happened to me before. A man approached me in the parking lot and asked if he could have the food. I handed him the box, got in my car, and drove home, feeling fortunate, guilty, and pensive.

The man hadn’t looked like a beggar or a drug addict or a bum.

He looked a lot like you and me.

Broken Windows Theory Gets A Boost

I have written before about the importance, in marketing, of visual impressions. Now comes more evidence, this time from the field of law enforcement. This article in the Boston Globe, entitled Breakthrough on 'broken windows' says that the way a neighborhood looks will have more effect on the crime rate than increased police presence, social services, or any other factor. 

"Researchers, working with police, identified 34 crime hot spots. In half of them, authorities set to work - clearing trash from the sidewalks, fixing street lights, and sending loiterers scurrying. Abandoned buildings were secured, businesses forced to meet code, and more arrests made for misdemeanors. Mental health services and homeless aid referrals expanded...

"The results, just now circulating in law enforcement circles, are striking: A 20 percent plunge in calls to police from the parts of town that received extra attention. It is seen as strong scientific evidence that the long-debated "broken windows" theory really works — that disorderly conditions breed bad behavior, and that fixing them can help prevent crime..."

The bottom line, according to the article? 

"Cleaning up the physical environment was very effective; misdemeanor arrests less so, and boosting social services had no apparent impact."

More CPAs To Move Into Financial Planning?

Yours truly was quoted extensively in an article in WebCPA.com by the estimable Roger Russell. In the article Russell examines the question of whether the current volatile economy presents an opportunity to CPAs and accountants to move into the area of financial planning.