16% — Negative cash flow
0% – Getting a business loan
54% — Need more customers
5% — Impact of Obamacare
25% — Taxes and/or regulations
As you may remember, in our online poll last week we asked about the most pressing issues in your business today, and gave you five options: Negative cash flow, getting a business loan, need more customers, impact of Obamacare, or taxes and/or regulations. Here’s what we learned.
Any business that has survived since 2008 has figured out how to be successful in an extended and languishing recovery. One of the markers of that success has been deleveraging, and one of the markers of deleverage is improved cash flow. Consequently, the first 
two responses play off of each other: Cash flow registered only a 16% response due to deleveraging, and low–in this case zero–loan demand.
Tracking cash flow and loan demand have provided a very interesting study in business fundamentals as we’ve polled our small business audience since 2009. As loan demand continues to be almost non-existent, cash positions seem to continue to improve.
The reason Obamacare barely moving the worry meter at 5% is because the issue is kind of dormant right now.But it will resurface in 2014 as small business owners begin to learn what the employer mandate is going to do to them beginning in 2015.
The two big responses, more customers at 54% and taxes/regulations at 25%, can be taken two ways: No business owner ever admits to having enough business and no one likes taxes and regs. But based on the economic indicators of the first half of 2014, recent tax increases, and out-of-control growth in new regulations, my instinct is that these are not gratuitous responses and are the two top concerns of most small business owners.
Thanks again for participating in our polls. Please respond to our new poll below, and keep up the good work. I’m proud of you.
The Question
What is your greatest challenge right now for your business?
58% - It’s simple: we need more sales.
8% - We’re growing but can’t find qualified people to hire.
24% - High taxes and onerous regulations.
8% - Obamacare has really complicated our benefits strategy.
3% - We need a business loan from a bank.
My Comments:
As you can see, the usual suspects showed up as the top challenges of small businesses. I’m going to have more to say about all of these responses in my Feature Article next week, as I break down the meaning of each one. Stay tuned and thanks for participating.
It’s difficult to imagine a more succulent image than a bowl of cherries.
Indeed, if you had to choose one flavor for all things, wouldn’t you choose the sweet red berry?
And every parent knows that the active ingredient of bad-tasting medicine has more chance of getting inside a child if delivered with the motivating ingredient of cherry flavor. Even the most earnest plea known, “Pretty please?” can still be raised one more notch on the pleading scale by adding, “… with a cherry on top?”
But there is something about this vermillion varietal that begs a closer look, because everything about it is not sublime. Alas, the cherry’s single blemish is its pit – that tiny little seed that you can’t, or at least shouldn’t, eat. This dense little kernel is so potentially dangerous that some restaurants no longer sell cherry pies because if just one seed is not removed, teeth can get broken and a lawsuit could ensue.
So with that much potential danger to be found in a whole bowl of cherries, if such an offer were made to you, why would you still smile with sweet anticipation? Why wouldn’t you think first of the pits? Aren’t you afraid of them?
Well, the answer is yes; you are wary of cherry pits. But the fruit is so sweet you think of that first, which helps you overcome pit-o-phobia. Plus, you’ve learned that if you take the time to remove the pits properly, a wonderful and safe experience will result.
What if you saw the fruit of an opportunity first, instead of the potentially dangerous seed of a problem? What would happen if you thought of challenges in your small business like you do cherries: a sweet opportunity to be had if you can first remove the potential danger? How would your world change if you could learn how to do this? Perhaps the Chinese said this first because their word for crisis is spelled with the two characters that mean danger and opportunity.
The Blasingame Cherry Principle (BCP) proposes that finding opportunities among the many small business challenges you face on a regular basis should be done with the same logic required when 
eating cherries: Step one – remove pits; Step two – eat fruit.
Remember, there’s no crying in baseball and no whining in small business. So before you allow a challenge to cause your lower lip to protrude, remember that our most creative work is often forged in the crucible of tough times.
When dealing with a challenge, stay focused on the potential sweet fruit, not the pit.
Small business owners always have more than their share of alligators chomping on them. If you don’t like the alligator metaphor, how about “ubiquitous stress companion”? Don’t worry; we’ll use USC for short.
Regardless of which you prefer, the fact remains that we have them in spades: They eat away at our performance and create impediments to achieving balance in our lives. Best-selling author, Marc Allen, offers a way to deal with allig … er … USCs. He says whenever he has to tackle a difficult challenge, he repeats the following affirmation: “I will deal with this (cash flow problem, difficult employee, life decision, etc.) in an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way.”
It’s also a helpful affirmation to start the day, and it fits right into a prayer. Clear your mind of other issues except the USC at hand. Then close your eyes, breathe deeply and repeat Marc’s affirmation with emphasis on the key words: easy, relaxed, healthy and positive. Saying it out loud seems to improve focus. Perhaps when your ears actually hear the words it helps them sink in.
If you’re going to survive in small business, let alone succeed, you have to learn how to manage USCs for the following two important reasons:
1. Your business
You are where the proverbial buck stops — the Alpha Member of your business. If you don’t make it, nobody in your organization makes it. And even if you’re worried that you might not make it, you still have to convince your Beta Members that you’ve got your corn flakes together.
Your business depends on the ability to keep your head, as Rudyard Kipling once proposed, when all about you are losing theirs. To put a fine point on it, it’s your job to manage USCs.
2. Yourself
Specifically, we’re talking about your spirit — the force that drives your protoplasm around. You know, the only thing that’s different about identical twins. Everybody has a spirit; and, like navels,
they’re all different. (Not sure about identical twins’ navels.) Anyway, you probably take care of your protoplasm: healthy diet, exercise, all that. But are you feeding your spirit?
This part is very important because USCs love an undernourished spirit. It’s their favorite food, and they’re voracious eaters. If you feel stressed-out and spiritually undernourished, check your USCs. You’ll probably find they’re fat, healthy and ready to go best-two-falls-out-of-three with your spirit.
One of the best ways to nourish your spirit is to learn how to define success in terms other than money and stuff — like family, friends, (your idea here). Definitely not just stuff. The good news is feeding your spirit starves your USCs.
You can’t kill all the alligators, but you don’t have to feed them. Remember: easy . . . relaxed . . . healthy . . . positive.
It’s difficult to imagine a more succulent image than a bowl of cherries. Indeed, if you had to choose one flavor that all things had to taste like, wouldn’t you choose the sweet cherry?
And every parent knows that the active ingredient of bad-tasting medicine has more chance of getting inside a child if it’s delivered with the motivating ingredient of cherry flavor.
Even the most earnest plea known, “Pretty please?” can still be raised one more notch on the pleading scale by adding, “…with a cherry on top?”
But there is something about this vermilion varietal that begs a closer look because everything about it is not sublime. Alas, the cherry’s single blemish is its pit - that tiny little seed that you can’t, or at least shouldn’t, eat.
This dense little kernel is so potentially dangerous that some restaurants no longer sell cherry pies because if just one seed is not removed, teeth can get broken and a lawsuit could ensue.
So with that much potential danger to be found in a whole bowl of cherries, if such an offer were made to you, why would you still smile with sweet anticipation? Why wouldn’t you think first of the pits? Aren’t you afraid of them?
Well, the answer is yes; you are wary of cherry pits. But the fruit is so sweet you think of that first, which helps you overcome pit-o-phobia. Plus, you’ve learned that if you take the time to remove the pits properly, a wonderful and safe experience will result.
What would happen if you thought of challenges in your small business like you do cherries: a sweet opportunity to be had if you can first remove the potential danger? Perhaps the Chinese said this first because their word for crisis is spelled with two characters that mean danger and opportunity.
What if you saw the fruit of an opportunity first, instead of the potentially dangerous seed of a problem? How would your world change if you could learn how to do this?
The Blasingame Cherry Principle (BCP) proposes that finding opportunities among small business challenges is like eating cherries: Step one - remove pits; Step two - eat fruit. But how does the BCP reconcile with the worst recession since the Great Depression? Actually, in at least two ways:
1. While there are plenty of ugly things about the economy actually in evidence, one could argue that the really bad stuff is found more between our ears than in front of our noses.
2. Experience teaches that the crucible of tough times often produces the most creative work. Don’t waste this crisis!
No one wants this recession, but we have it. Look past the pits and seize whatever sweet opportunity is possible.
Write this on a rock… When dealing with a crisis, focus on the cherry, not the pit.
Recently I talked about the BCP on my small business radio program, The Small Business Advocate Show. Take a few minutes to listen; and, of course, it’s always great if when you leave a comment.
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