(This was sparked from a Seth Godin post called You’re Boring. It was brilliant. I had to write about it.)
You know you a boring business if..
1. You have a tri-fold brochure with little business cards that you hand out to everyone you see… and I do mean EVERYONE.
2. You designed the tri-fold in Publisher.
3. You are using a type-font called Arial, Times New Roman, or Courier for your logo… and you made the logo in Microsoft Word.
4. You decide not to blog because “I just don’t have the time.” Your potential customers don’t have the time to read it anyway.
5. You use your initials for your company name. (This is a give or take depending on your initials)
6. Yellow Pages is the only marketing for your business because you have been doing it for a decade. Why change a good thing? (ha)
7. You attend networking events and take as many business cards as possible but never help another business professional.
8. If your website says “Copyright 2002″ or anytime before 2007.
9. All your collateral material looks different… different colors… old logos… better yet… no logo.
10. You refuse to think outside the box and go out on a limb (marketing or anything else).
11. You get up after 9am.
12. If you photo-copy a flier and hand it out. Spend the extra money and get full color. Better yet, don’t use a flier. Doesn’t everyone?
13. You have an individual answering your phone that sounds like they just woke up from a nap or smoked a bowl.
14. YOU USE AN EMAIL THAT Ends with a phone or cable company: AOL, SBCGLOBAL, or the like.
15. You refuse to act on ideas until they are safe or your competitor does it. Ready, Fire, Aim. Fail.
16. You do not attend networking events because you have “better ways to spend your time.” You will be spending your time closing your business account at the bank.
17. You never have a new idea. You just copy others.
18. Social Media is scary to you. So you do the next best thing… you ignore it.
19. You hard sell EVERYONE. Nobody cares. Put away your product or service. Can I get to know you first? I don’t give a crap if you can save me 20%.
20. You have goals. Wait. Well, you HAD goals but you didn’t write them down so…
21. You look down your nose at everyone who is younger or less experienced. You never pay them but want to share services.
22. You actually cut your marketing budget because sales are down.
23. Your Twitter account has no interaction… just a broadcast message.
24. You send an Auto-DM on Twitter. Period.
25. You cut your business cards yourself and left the tattered edges.
The best things about having a boring business is that you can change. You can turn into the vibrant and growing company that will be the pride and joy of your life. Well, other than your children or significant other. 
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Nice points, and so true of so many companies (or attempts at being a companies I guess).
#11 is an odd addition to this list. Perhaps I do my best work at 8pm vs. 8am, and I'd rather discuss a business prop over a drink than coffee. But according to you, I'm the boring one.
#11 was probably the more sarcastic one out of the entire bunch.
I understand where you are coming from.
Some things to think about. I also personally have been thinking about how I think a business should have "personality" so people remember it. I mean, we should be professinoal but not afraid to have an "identity" either.
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this is hilarious – i know a few people that run companies like this. Boring is bad but unsuccessful is worse…
A lot of points heavy on branding/identity of a company, interesting.
Great points Kyle. I talk about some of these to my husband sometimes and he calls me a marketing snob. LOL
Have you been spying on me?
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You make good points here, but what about making a list of things that businesses SHOULD do, instead of focusing on the negative?
A good follow-up post might be about those next steps to take if you are a boring business…how you can replace tattered-edged biz cards with an active Twitter account, for example.
I agree w/ Anelisa – next steps on How to not be boring would be a good follow on piece.