towards Barry's cake shop, I tried to impress on Charlie the importance of having an open mind, of seeing the need for change, and of being brave enough to try something new. I don't know why, but it's often the least happy business owners that are the most reluctant to change. Welcome to our first classroom, Charlie, I chirped as we were greeted by Barry. I had spoken to Barry the night before and he was ready with a big smile when we arrived. I could see Charlie starting to breathe a little easier. Barry had sought my advice in a similar way to what Charlie had. I had been a regular customer and he'd gotten to know what I did with my company Action International. One day we started talking about things other than pastries, and it became blatantly apparent that he was caught in the same trap most get tangled in. Brad, the only advertising I do really is a weekly ad in the local paper. I think it helps out but I'd certainly like more customers, he offered lamely the first time we discussed his lead generation strategies. I relayed this to Charlie who was mesmerized by the variety and volume of different cakes, pastries, breads, and cookies on display. The first thing we did with Barry was to immediately begin testing and measuring the effectiveness of his marketing. I specifically wanted to know how much each new customer cost him. This project took a week as Barry asked every new person who came into the bakery where they heard about him from. To Barry's shock the ad, which was costing $300 a week, attracted only 30 new customers each week. And since each customer was only spending an average of $4.50, it was actually costing more to attract customers than they were spending in the shop. His acquisition cost per new customer from the ad was $10.00-more than the average spent and thus totally unacceptable. 38