Tag Archive for 'Jim Blasingame'

Look for your sustainability letter

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on February 7, 2012
in Future thinking, Green public policy and Regulations
. 0 Comments

This article is about three letters to small businesses.

The first letter was born in the 1950s, when the quality ideas of an American, Edwards Deming, reversed “Made in Japan” from a metaphor for cheap to quality. During the 1980s, after American industry had lost competitiveness with Japan, quality processes like ISO and Six Sigma were adopted and “Made in America” returned to prominence.

By 1990, now with their in-house quality act together, big businesses realized they needed similar commitments from integrated vendors. That’s when small businesses started getting letters from customers requesting evidence of their quality process – or no new contracts.

The seed for the second letter was planted by computer programmers in the 1960s. To conserve expensive data storage, program date codes were written with six digits, as in 121565, for December 15, 1965. They didn’t realize they had created the Y2K ticking time bomb.

Around 1995, experts started worrying that when the clock ticked midnight, January 1, 2000, zillions of lines of date-sensitive computer calculations would fail by going back a century – 010100 would be January 1, 1900 – instead of forward to 2000. Consequently, the codes in millions of programs had to be fixed. And by 1998, small businesses started getting letters from their larger customers requesting evidence of their “Y2K compliance” – or no contracts with eight-digit dates.

The third letter was born in the middle of the 20th century, when we started realizing that the solution to pollution was not dilution. Since then, environmental stewardship has evolved from not polluting to sustainability.

Sustainability means doing more with less, including making waste useful – especially water. It’s the right thing to do, but businesses are also learning that sustainability can be profitable and good for public relations.

The sustainability letter hasn’t been sent yet – but it’s coming. Within the next five years, small businesses should expect to hear from big customers about their sustainability plan. And like the quality and Y2K letters, your first motivation will be to keep a customer.

Start thinking about the resources your business uses, including energy, consumables, production waste – especially water. Establish programs for recycling, reusing, conserving, etc., and document your execution. So when you get that first “Sustainability Letter,” you won’t look like a deer in the headlights.

Sustainability is good business, good public relations and good karma.

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

Connecting with global prospects and getting paid

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on January 31, 2012
in Exporting Importing and Globalization
. 0 Comments

This is the second of two articles on small businesses going global.

In the first article, I allowed that it can be exciting for business leaders to imagine a global prospect base of more than seven billion people. But for a small business to imagine an export strategy, it’s at once exciting and intimidating because of the three elemental global business questions, the first of which we focused on last time: Who are my global prospects? Now let’s focuses on the other two: How to connect with them and how to get paid.

The good news is that there are two government agencies standing by to answer both of these questions. Each one provides digital information, human assistance and global networks designed to help a small business maximize its opportunity to create and execute a successful export strategy.

The, “How do I connect with global prospect?” question can be answered by the U.S. Commercial Services, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce. This should be your first stop for educationon finding and converting global prospects into customers.

When you consider all of their resources, the U.S. Commercial Service is a virtual one-stop shop for developing and executing a small business export strategy: a great website (Export.gov); a toll-free number (800-872-872) answered by a real person; over 100 offices around the U.S., plus dozens more around the globe you can walk right into and ask for help; and their book, A Basic Guide to Exporting, includes an excellent tutorial and several case studies.

All of that help is free, with the exception of the book and any direct expenses incurred on your behalf.

Export-Import Bank of the United States (ExIm.gov) can answer the “how do I get paid” question on many levels.

Part of the U.S. government, Ex-Im Bank will assist with the financial elements of your export sale. They will working with the banks on both sides of the transaction to coordinate funds transfers, provide loan guarantees, and even pre-delivery working capital for you and post-delivery financing for your customer.

For generations, big firms have owned the franchise on global business. But shifts in technology and demographics are making the global marketplace more compelling and feasible for small businesses.

Contact these two organizations and let them help you develop a global business strategy.

The global marketplace – and 7 billion prospects – are waiting for you.

I talked more about identifying your global prospects and growing your business through exporting on my radio show this week. Take a few minutes and click on one of the links below to listen or download.

Identifying prospects for your global business strategy

Connecting with global prospects and get paid

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

Identifying your small business global prospects

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on January 24, 2012
in Exporting Importing, Globalization and Trade
. 0 Comments

In case you haven’t heard, the seven billionth Earthling was born recently.

For the global marketplace, seven billion prospects are exciting. But for growing American small businesses, 96% of those folks live outside the U.S.

Once, small business growth meant expanding to the next county. But in the 21st century, shifts in technologies and demographics have made expanding outside America’s four-walls increasingly compelling. But it has also produced three elemental global business questions: Who are my prospects, how do I connect with them and how do I get paid? Let’s focus on the “Who” first, with these global stats from National Geographic” (January 2011), plus my editorializing.

  • Nineteen percent of Earthlings are Chinese, 17% are Indian and 4% are American. By 2030, the first two will invert.
  • By gender, males barely edge out females: 1.01 to 1.0. But my demographic experts report wide swings in median age among countries, which must factor in any export strategy.
  • In a historical shift, just over half of Earthlings are now urbanites. Remember, city folk use different stuff than their country cousins.
  • Here are global workplace profiles: 40% of us work in services, 38% in agriculture and 22% in industry. This means different things to different industries, but it means something to all businesses.
  • English is the international language of business, but is the first language of only 5% of global prospects. When doing business outside the U.S., be culturally sensitive and patient with the translation process.
  • Breaking news: 82% of your global prospects are literate. If you can read and write you can improve your life, which explains the growth of the middle class in emerging markets. A growing global middle class means more affluent consumers.
  • Computers are luxuries for most Earthlings. But cell phone usage is exploding across the globe and billions who never owned a PC, or used the Internet, will soon do both with a smart phone. Two words, Benjamin: global mobile.

Even though India and China are much in the news, American small businesses should consider export opportunities in our own hemisphere first, especially where trade agreements are in place, like Canada, Mexico, Panama, Colombia and Chile.

In the next article we’ll address the other two elemental questions: How to connect with global prospects and how to get paid.

Consider business growth outside of America’s four walls.

I have an extensive library of interviews with many exporting experts on SmallBusinessAdvocate.com. Click here to listen or download any that look interesting.

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

Small Business Advocate Poll: How are you feeling about your business in 2012?

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on January 18, 2012
in Economy: National and Global and Future thinking
. 0 Comments

The Question:
How are you feeling about your business in 2012?

23% - Excited - it already looks like a good year.

50% - Positive - it’s looking better than last year.

27% - Uncertain - we’re still just hanging on.

Jim’s Comments:
For almost two years, we’ve been polling our audiences (radio/Internet/Newsletter) on how you feel about business prospects. Our last poll is probably the seventh time on this topic. In my career I’ve never seen so much consistence in attitude about the economy over such a long period of time. Last week we asked this question: “How are you feeling about your business in 2012?” Here’s what we learned.

A little less than one-fourth of our respondents said they were, “Excited - it already looks like a good year,” and a little more than one-fourth said they were, “Uncertain - we’re still just hanging on.” The group in the middle, who said they were, “Positive - it’s looking better than last year,” made up half of our sample.

As I indicated in my 2012 predictions, there isn’t going to be any attitude changes on Main Street until after we know who the next president is going to be.

Take this week’s poll HERE!

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

Small business success fundamentals for 2012

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on January 16, 2012
in Entrepreneurship and Management Fundamentals
. 0 Comments

Don’t worry – this column isn’t about resolutions; resolutions are optional.

This is about fundamentals that have served businesses since humans decided to trade with each other instead of taking what we wanted by force.

Focusing on these ten fundamentals will help you have the maximum opportunity to find success in 2012.

  1. Cash is still King. Managing the relationship between accounts payable and accounts receivable is as essential to survival for your business as breathing is to you.
  2. Declare war on excess inventory. Don’t let one piece of inventory spend a night under your roof unless it’s turning or paid for.
  3. Convert non-performing assets to cash. What things were worth last year has no bearing on what they’re worth today, and they will be worth less tomorrow. If it’s not being used, cut it loose.
  4. Employees spend most of your cash. Ask them to identify ways to find efficiencies and maximize margins. Install these into the new year’s budget and operation.
  5. Review all operational steps and eliminate, or fix, inefficiencies. My friend, Michael Stallard, recommends the four “Ws,” “What works, what doesn’t, what do we stop and what do we continue.”
  6. Outsourcing is a best practice. Call a planning meeting and ask this question about every task in your operation: “Must this be done in-house?” Everything that does not directly “touch” a customer is a non-core competency and a candidate for outsourcing.
  7. Keep your banker informed about business opportunities AND challenges. The title of the shortest book ever written is “Loan Officer Courage.” An uninformed banker is a scared banker and you’ll never get help from a scared banker.
  8. Success burns cash. Prepare a financial projection that anticipates at least 10% growth in sales this year. See how that impacts your cash requirements due to increases in inventory, A/R, etc., and start thinking about how you will fund this growth (see #7, above).
  9. If you don’t have a banking relationship with an independent community bank, start one this week This is not a banking alternative – it’s a small business financial fundamental.
  10. Every customer and prospect has expectations that are changing faster than ever before. Keep asking what they want and deliver what they say. Remember, you get to decide what you do; customers decide how you do it.

Focus on the fundamentals, plan for success and grow your small business in 2012.

I talked more about these 10 business fundamentals today on my radio show. Take a few minutes to download or listen now.

Six success fundamentals for 2012 with Jim Blasingame

Four more 2012 success fundamentals with Jim Blasingame

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

Small Business Advocate Poll: New Year Resolutions for 2012

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on January 12, 2012
in Future thinking, Inspirational and Motivational and Miscellaneous
. 0 Comments

The Question:
It’s 2012 - a brand new year. Will you make any New Year’s resolutions?

67% - Yes - wish me luck.

33% - No - why bother; they never last.

Jim’s Comments:
The only thing more annoying than people who ask you if you made any New Year Resolutions are people who ask how you’re doing with keeping them.

Since being annoying can sometimes be kinda fun, we asked this question last week: “Will you make any 2012 New Year Resolutions.”

I won’t say my faith in humanity was restored merely by the fact that two-thirds of our respondents said, “Yes, wish me luck.” But it does make one feel better that apparently, hope still springs eternal for most folks. The other third who said, “No, why bother,” represent the pragmatic, or the logical, possibly the fatalistic or, dare I say, dark side of our audience.

However hopeful or resigned you are about the New Year, let’s have a good 2012 together.

I’ve talked about smart small business resolutions for the new year with several experts in the last couple of weeks. Click here to see our library of podcasts on resolutions and small business goals and listen or download the ones you like.

Also, leave us a comment on your business goals for this year.

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

Take this week’s poll HERE!