Archive for the 'State and Local' Category

Small businesses and the local chamber of commerce

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on August 7, 2010
in Leadership, Management Fundamentals and State and Local
. 1 Comment

One of the most important associations any small business should have is being a member - and one of the owners - of the local chamber of commerce.  I’ve been a member of mine since 1977.  Of course, chambers promote business in the local economy as well as economic development, but they also work on political advocacy issues locally, at the state level and in Washington, D.C.  Chambers also do something no other organization can do: they are able to cut across all of the boundaries between the different stakeholders in a community, like politics, education, arts, sports, etc.  No other organization can do this like your local chamber.

Notice that I used the word “owner” earlier. The chamber is a locally owned, non-profit corporation. It is what its owners make it. That’s you. To paraphrase a great man, ask not what your chamber can do for you - ask what you can do for your chamber.

Being a chamber member is the best investment you’ll make this year. The average annual dues - my estimate - is somewhere in the $250 range. For that kind of money you can’t afford not to be a member.

One of the pilgrimages we make each year is to support the American Chamber of Commerce Executives convention, which is a gathering of professionals who run the day-to-day operations of local chambers for those owners (you) mentioned earlier. For several years now, I’ve been broadcasting my show from this event, as I did this year in Milwaukee. Below are four of those interviews. Take a minute to read what we discussed and listen to the ones that you find interesting. And as always, let me know what you think?

Interview 1. Steve Baas, Government Relations Director for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, and I discuss the importance of local chambers of commerce and what his chamber is doing to support small business. We also talk about some public policy issues, such as the 1099 reporting controversy.  Listen Live! Download, Too!

Interview 2. Steve Millard, President and CEO of Cleveland, Ohio’s Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE), and I talk about what the Cleveland chamber is doing for small businesses, including advocating for revisions of the health care bill that hurt small businesses. Listen Live! Download, Too!

Interview 3. The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce president, Gary Toebben, and I discuss why chambers matter to small business and what his chamber is doing to get ready to host the ACCE’s convention next year. Listen Live! Download, Too!

Interview 4. Allen Hester, President and CEO of the Dyersburg, TN Chamber of Commerce, and I talk about how his chamber worked with federal and local authorities to help small businesses recover from the Tennessee floods of 2010.  Listen Live! Download, Too!

The evolution of small business dreams

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on March 6, 2009
in Cashflow - Credit - Collections, Entrepreneurship, Finance - Accounting - Taxes, Government, Home-based business, Innovation - Creativity, Inspirational and Motivational, Just-In-Time Inventory, Lawsuits, Management Fundamentals, Marketing - Branding - Advertising, Online technologies, Sales - Sales Management, Start-up, State and Local, Trade Secrets, Uncategorized, Universal health care and e-Business
. 0 Comments

The British playwright, William Archer (1856-1924), once remarked to a friend about how a “perfect plot” had played out to him and “evolved” in a dream one night. He saw “the whole thing, from beginning to end,” and when he awoke, put pen to paper.

Small business owners know about this kind of dream. It begins with what I call the founding dream, which is the first time an unconscious entrepreneurial inclination pops upon our consciousness radar screen.

At first a founding dream may be barely perceptible. And when one is remembered for the first time upon waking, the awareness is often more troubling than remarkable: What does this mean? What do I do with this?

But if the mind and the spirit are receptive, a founding dream “evolves” into more than a blip on the radar. Subsequent dreams become less impressionistic and more real. Animated dreams come next. Your nocturnal entrepreneurial visions play out with an actual cast of characters - sometimes in Technicolor.

Now you’re well aware of, and more comfortable with, your small business dreams and you start to do a little day dreaming. Day dreaming is the first step in the due diligence process - the research. You start asking lots of questions: What if….? How do I…? Where does this…? Who can…? When should…?

Ultimately, as the answers to these questions are revealed and accumulate, you begin to make your entrepreneurial dream become reality; you actually start living the dream of owning your own business. At this point the start-up dreams will stop. Since you’re now living your dream, why dream about it, right?!

Your founding dream now has a name, address, phone number and a tax ID number. It has “evolved” into the “perfect plot” for your small business.

How dear are your small business mistakes?

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on February 10, 2009
in Cashflow - Credit - Collections, Contracts, Delegating, Entrepreneurship, Finance - Accounting - Taxes, Government, Home-based business, Innovation - Creativity, Inspirational and Motivational, Intellectual property, Management Fundamentals, Marketing - Branding - Advertising, Online technologies, Patents, Start-up, State and Local, Trade, Trademarks and Service Marks, Uncategorized, Universal health care and e-Business
. 3 Comments

Mistakes are worth contemplating, and yet we often don’t. The reason, I think, is because it hurts a little to focus on them. It’s not fun to see ourselves that way. Mistakes are definitely not ego food.

But there is something very important to remember about mistakes: Not focusing on them can ultimately be more painful.

Sixteenth century French Renaissance writer, Michel de Montaigne, wrote, “Those things are dearest to us that have cost us the most.” Think he’s talking about mistakes? I do. Do you think of your mistakes as “dear”?

If you don’t contemplate your mistakes and learn from them, you are subjecting yourself to double jeopardy. Because today you will not only make the new mistakes we are all destined to make as we go through life, but you’re also doomed to repeat the old ones you should have learned from yesterday.

Whether your mistakes are valuable or expensive depends on whether you contemplate and learn from them, or deny them and keep on paying for them. I think paying for a mistake once is “dear” enough, don’t you?

2009 is the year for small business “Positive Reality”

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on January 2, 2009
in Cashflow - Credit - Collections, Economy: National and Global, Entrepreneurship, Government, Innovation - Creativity, Inspirational and Motivational, Online technologies, Start-up and State and Local
. 0 Comments

Well, it’s over. You know – that other year that will live in infamy – 2008.

It’s true that, technically speaking, 2008 is over. But alas, as we enter the New Year trying to muster up the primordial feelings of hope humans are known for when contemplating a fresh start, 2008 won’t go quietly into that good night. Indeed, we’ve only just begun to pay for all of the chickens that came home to roost last year.

If you know anything about me, you know what a pathological optimist I am. And while I’m convinced that the sun will come up tomorrow, metaphorically speaking, the facts on the ground demand a realistic assessment of what our marketplace and our businesses are up against in the next 12 months.

The term I’ve coined for this perspective is “Positive Reality.” I’m just as positive as ever about our possibilities for the future, while simultaneously recognizing the reality of the challenges we face in the near-term.

The opposite of Positive Reality is another term I’ve coined lately, “Negative Hysteria.” That’s what happens when we get caught up in the mainstream media’s one-trick-act of “Breaking News! We’re doomed!”

Negative hysteria is often produced by a new term I learned in 2008, availability cascade. Availability cascade is what happens when we hear something in the media so much that we begin to believe it to be true, even if it isn’t, and consequently begin taking actions based on that perceived truth. Sound familiar?

This New Year’s Day, on my small business radio program, with as much positive reality as I could muster, I kicked off 2009 with a segment about the task ahead of us. Take a few minutes to listen, and let me know if you think my 2009 perspective is too hot, too cold or just right.

Small business support in New York City

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on December 10, 2008
in Government, Start-up and State and Local
. 0 Comments

In 2007, I met Rob Walsh, newly appointed Commissioner of the Department of Small Business for New York City. I was impressed with his vision and plans for helping the 200,000 small businesses that are domiciled in the five boroughs of NYC.

One of the projects on Rob’s plate is to make sure that the community is turning out the educated and trained workforce that local businesses need to hire. I like this one because it’s so important to the competitiveness of any country. And we’re seeing more of this kind of coordination between the marketplace and education. Chambers of commerce have made this kind of coordination a major part of their value proposition to their stakeholders.

Recently I talked with Rob Walsh about how things are going in NYC a year later, especially in the wake of so much economic upheaval in his world. Rob is a very impressive individual, and I think you’ll learn something from what he has to say.