Tag Archive for 'Small Business Advocate'

The power of entrepreneurship and liberty

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on August 14, 2012
in Entrepreneurship and Inspirational and Motivational
. 0 Comments

Speaking of America’s founding in The Fortune of the Republic, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “We began with freedom.”

Indeed. But that freedom didn’t become useful until the Founders converted it into liberty and lasts only as long as the stewards of each generation protect and maintain it.

Freedom is a state of mind anyone can assume. But liberty is a contract we bestow upon and expect from each other. And from that contract, American entrepreneurship was born as the child of liberty.

Liberty and entrepreneurship have an interesting symbiotic relationship: You can have liberty without entrepreneurship, but you can’t have entrepreneurship without at least tacit liberty. But while liberty as a human ideal is more primordial than entrepreneurship, the latter has a political advantage that comes in handy in some places on planet Earth.

In China, for example, to pursue liberty as a foundation to entrepreneurship might be difficult – even dangerous. But since it is not typically seen as a political statement, engaging in entrepreneurship, even as a veiled precursor to liberty, is more practical and safer.

IEEW's 2012 Peace Through Business graduating class from Afghanistan

IEEW's 2012 Peace Through Business graduating class from Afghanistan

Consequently, outside of America it is possible – sometimes necessary – for the child, entrepreneurship, to precede and flourish ahead of the parent, liberty. Such is the case in Afghanistan, but only for women.

Recently, at IEEW’s “Peace through Business” conference, in Washington, D.C., I met and interviewed an Afghan woman who is a wife and mother of three small children, and an entrepreneur. Freshta Hazeq founded the only woman-owned printing company in the capital city of Kabul. In America, Freshta would be celebrated; in Afghanistan, her business has been sabotaged and her life threatened because she competes against men.

The entrepreneurial desire to create a business that could provide a living for a family actually promotes liberty without a political declaration. Over time, in countries like Afghanistan, as the ideals and values of entrepreneurship acquire critical mass, it will be discovered that liberty has flourished on the foundation of entrepreneurship.

In America we began with freedom and forged it into liberty, which gave birth to entrepreneurship. In Afghanistan, especially if you’re a woman, entrepreneurship will give birth to liberty. But, like America’s revolution, it comes at a high price.

Why is Freshta willing to pay this price? Because she has a daughter.

Liberty and entrepreneurship - powerful and symbiotic.

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Click on one of the links below to hear Freshta Hazeq’s touching and inspirational story of the unique challenges she faces as the owner of Royal Advertising and Printing Press in Kabul, Afghanistan and what she is doing to improve as a professional business owner.

How Peace Through Business works in Afghanistan

Breaking the mold for women in Afghanistan

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Small Business Advocate Poll: No poor man every gave me a job

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on July 27, 2012
in Government and Politics
. 3 Comments

The Question:
How do you feel about the fact that presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, is very wealthy?

22% - I’m concerned his wealth prevents him from connecting with average Americans.

78% - His wealth came from business experience, something America needs right now.

0% - Undecided

My Commentary:
Of course, it’s not shocking to learn that the two presidential candidates are resorting to negative ads against their opponents. It’s not for nothing that politics, it has been said, “ain’t bean bag,” or is a “blood sport.”

Of course, notwithstanding the 1804 duel in which VP Aaron Burr killed Secretary of Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, that last reference has been metaphorical.

Another thing we’ve learned about negative ads is that they seem to work. What does that say about us? Merely an electoral proclivity, or an indictment of our society?

One of the negative strategies the Obama campaign has been using is to take shots at Mitt Romney’s wealth. The angle of attack is that such a wealthy person cannot connect with the workaday lives of the majority of Americans.

We wanted to know how our audience felt about Mitt Romney’s financial situation, so last week we asked this question: “How do you feel about the fact that presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, is very wealthy?” Here’s what you told us.

Just more than one-fifth of our sample said, “I’m concerned his wealth prevents him from connecting with average Americans. All the rest, 78%, allowed that Mitt Romney’s wealth, ” … came from business experience, something America needs right now.” Perhaps the most telling response was that no one was “Undecided.”

Of course, in America, especially in 2012, a campaign strategy attacking financial success might not have the desired response by the middle class and lower economic strata. This year, perhaps more than any in recent memory, that proverbial remark by a working class stiff, “No poor man ever gave me a job,” might be what more of us are thinking, rather than “he doesn’t connect with me”

Based on our poll, this seems to be true of small business owners.

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

Take this week’s poll HERE!

A day in the life of a small business owner

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on July 25, 2012
in Entrepreneurship and Miscellaneous
. 0 Comments

Eep … Eep … Eep … Eep …

5:15am: A small business owner hits the snooze button.
“Man, I shoulda checked the buzzer out before I bought that clock. Big day – should hear about my loan and the ACME proposal. What if the bank turns me down? Chamber board meeting at 7:30 this morning. Susie’s game is 7:30 tonight.”

7:15am: At the office.
“Good; Bill’s on time. Gotta get the Johnson delivery before it rains – that check has to cover quarterly taxes. Customer at the door and he saw me – can’t make him wait. There goes the Chamber meeting. ‘Come in, sir.’”

8:15am: In the warehouse.
“Why does Bill have the hood up on the truck? Is that smoke from the motor? Whew! It’s his cigarette – he’s just checking the oil. Darn, overhead door stuck again?”

10:15am: On the counter.
“Got to get the light fixed on the sign – don’t notice it so much unless it’s … CLOUDY.”

12:15am: At the post office.
“Lots of bills – no checks. Payroll’s going to be close Friday – hope I get paid. Got to get help with accounts receivable. Come on bank loan! Not a certified letter! I hate those.”

1:15pm: Returning calls.
“ACME called – that’s probably good. Bill called from Johnson’s – that’s probably bad. Loan officer’s on two – that could go either way. Is that rain?”

2:15pm: At the bank
“The bank needs updated financials – no loan this week. Forgot to eat lunch again.”

3:15pm: Back at the office.
“ACME’s on three? Now I REALLY need that deal. May have to cut into my margin – don’t give it away. You’re not desperate – yet.”

4:15pm: Watching it rain.
“Johnson didn’t get delivered before the rain. No Johnson check or loan this week. What’s Plan B for the tax deposit? Maybe receivables will pick up. Better put Larry on the counter so I can focus on collections.”

5:15pm: Closing time.
“Good day on the counter. ACME went for my proposal but had to cut my price. Hope we get add-ons. Turn off the sign. NOW the rain stops.”

6:15pm: Locking up.
“What a roller coaster today! Would I have started this business if I’d known how hard it was going to be? It’s challenging, but I like owning the opportunities. Still, I look forward to not having to struggle – does that ever happen in a small business? Susie’s 7:30 game isn’t rained out. I’m hungry.”

5:15am: Next morning.
Eep … Eep … Eep … Eep …

“Man, I really wish I had checked the buzzer out before I bought that clock.”

Welcome to the world of small business ownership.

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Social media and the Tour de France

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on July 17, 2012
in Marketing - Branding - Advertising and Social Media
. 0 Comments

The 99th Tour de France is underway as the pinnacle of bicycle races. Small businesses can learn a lot from how Tour teams execute their strategy.

Perhaps you’ve seen a Tour competitor “breakaway” and leave behind the peloton (the biggest bunch of riders). Whereupon one of the commentators will say, “Someone better chase him down,” before he gets out of sight and glides across the finish line unchallenged.

But the “chasing down” only happens once it’s clear that the breakaway has the “legs” and isn’t going to fizzle back into the pack. Making a countermove on an ill-advised dash just wastes energy.

Whenever something new comes to the marketplace, our response should be to determine if the shiny new object has legs, or is an ill-fated breakaway. Wise managers don’t chase down fads.

Three years ago, I predicted that while social media might be a craze, it is not a fad. This means when the dust settles on the hype about new rules, we will be left with something more intuitive to a business than the unfortunate term “social media” – productive and powerful new tools.

These tools are powerful because they help small businesses create online customer communities. And they’re productive because anyone can use them without spending a lot of precious capital.

We wanted to know where our small business audience was on keeping social media breakaway leaders in sight, so recently we asked this question:

“How much of a commitment has your business made toward a social media strategy?” Here’s what we learned:

Only 13% of our respondents said, “We have a social media strategy and it’s working.” Almost four of ten said, “We have a social media strategy, but not sure if it’s working,” while 31% said they want a social media strategy, “but can’t seem to make it happen.” And one-fifth of our sample said, “We’re doing nothing with social media on purpose.”

Every day that goes by, qualified prospects will increasingly come from online activity – including communities you build and join – and less from traditional prospecting methods.

The good news is you don’t have to win the social media race, but you do have to participate. And like almost half of our survey respondents, you must keep the leaders in sight.

If, like the other half of our survey, you’re struggling with a social media strategy, hire a 20-something to help you.

You don’t have to win the social media race, but you have to keep the winners in sight.

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Recently on The Small Business Advocate Show I talked more about what small business can learn from the Tour de France about social media.

I also spoke with Dan Burrus, one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and business strategists and Technotrends, about how to integrate social into your media strategy. Click on one of the links below to download or listen to our conversations.

What we can learn about social media from the Tour de France

Social has become much more than media

Make sure your media strategy integrates all the options

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

Small Business Lessons from Jeff Foxworthy

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on July 13, 2012
in Entrepreneurship and Management Fundamentals
. 0 Comments

Have you seen the classic Jeff Foxworthy act?

You know, the one where he says, “If you have more than one car jacked up in your front yard, you might be a redneck.”

Foxworthy got rich with this comedic routine. And you can benefit from this cause-and-effect logic too, if you apply it to your small business.

Let’s use Foxworthy’s shtick to deliver and emphasize a few small business survival punch lines. But in this application, if you resemble too many of these one-liners, not only will you not get rich, your business might not make it.

· If the gloom-and-doom you’re hearing in the media has you holed-up inside the four walls of your business instead of getting out into the marketplace where customers are buying, you might not make it. Listen more to customers, and less to the media.

· If your budget cuts included wiping out your marketing plan, you might not make it. Make appropriate adjustments to your marketing plan, but don’t wipe out the budget.

· If you don’t have a website, you might not make it. If you have a phone number, you MUST have a website.

· If you don’t have a mobile website, you might not make it. More prospects want to reach you on their smartphone - make it easy for them with a mobile site.

· If you’re a retail business and you don’t have a local search strategy, you might not make it. Turn over every rock for business by maximizing your mobile search presence.

· If you sell to businesses and are still making cold calls, you might not make it. Business prospects expect you to get to know them, not drop in on them.

· If you’re spending more time worrying about what the competition is doing instead of asking customers what they want, you might not make it. Followers worry about the competition - leaders stay close to customers.

· If you don’t know what your monthly expenses are – every month, you might not make it. Don’t you know how much it takes to run your household every month?

· If you don’t know how much gross profit your operation must produce every month in order to cover expenses, you might not make it. You wouldn’t drive down a dark road without turning on your headlights, would you?

· If you don’t know how much sales revenue it takes to produce that monthly gross profit, you might not make it. This is the difference between working hard and working smart.

· If you don’t manage accounts receivable collections so there is enough cash to cover your current obligations, like payroll, you might not make it. It’s possible to operate without making a profit for a long time, but you can only operate without cash until your next payroll.

· If you haven’t prepared for customers on your accounts receivable list to take longer to pay over the next few months, you might not make it. You have to expect your business customers to have a tight cash picture too - have a Plan B for cash.

· If you haven’t developed a close relationship with a bank that makes loan decisions locally, you might not make it. For long-term survival, every small business must have a relationship with an independent community bank.

· If you aren’t managing cash flow with a 12-month cash flow projection – preferably electronically, like an Excel file – so you know the months you’ll need extra cash before you get there, you might not make it. I don’t know how any small business can operate safely without managing cash with a 12-month projection. It’s my most important management tool.

· It’s okay to fall in love with what you do, but if you fall in love with how you do it, you might not make it. What you sell may never go out of style, but how customers want to buy it, take delivery of it, and sue it is changing all the time.

Who knew Jeff Foxworthy could be so useful?

#####

If you want to hear more about small business lessons from Jeff Foxworthy, click on the links below to download or listen.

What can small businesses learn from Jeff Foxworthy?

More small business lessons from Jeff Foxworthy

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America: Independent & Entrepreneurial

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on July 3, 2012
in Entrepreneurship and Inspirational and Motivational
. 2 Comments

The first Plantagenet king of England, Henry II, is important to contemporary small business owners because he’s considered the founder of a legal system to which entrepreneurs owe their freedom to be.

Ambitious and highly intelligent, Henry’s attempts to consolidate all of the 12th century British Isles under his rule created the need for order. And while the subsequent reforms were intended more for his own political expediency than to empower the people, they actually gave birth to a body of law, now known as English Common Law, which replaced elements of the feudal system that included such enlightened practices as trial by ordeal.

Six centuries after Henry’s death, the legal and cultural tide of personal freedoms and property rights that evolved from his reforms were being established across the Atlantic. In the colonies, a group of malcontents, now called America’s Founders, envisioned, created and fought for a new interpretation of Henry’s legacy. Their plan was different because it was sans kings.

In The Fortune of the Republic, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “We began with freedom. America was opened after the feudal mischief was spent. No inquisitions here, no kings, no dominant church.”

In Origins of the Bill Of Rights, Leonard W. Levy noted that, “Freedom was mainly a product of New World conditions.”

Those conditions, as Thomas Jefferson so artfully wrote in the Declaration of Independence, were, “…life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

These were 18th century words for freedom and embryonic conditions for which the 56 signers of Jefferson’s document put their lives and liberties at risk on July 4, 1776.

But America’s founding documents weren’t perfected until they perpetuated rights that were, as John Dickinson declared a decade earlier in 1766, “…born with us, exists with us and cannot be taken from us by any human power without taking our lives.”

By definition entrepreneurs take risks. But only freedom to enjoy success can make those risks acceptable. Thank you, Henry II.

Research shows that there is a direct connection between the rate of new business start-ups and economic growth. And the American experiment has demonstrated that a healthy entrepreneurial environment fosters national economic well-being. Thank you, Founders.

Without their vision, courage, passion and sacrifice, it’s doubtful that entrepreneurship as we know it would exist today. And if capitalism is the economic lever of democracy, entrepreneurship is the force that renews the strength and reliability of that lever for each new generation.

We began with freedom. Freedom to dream and to try; to succeed and to fail; to own and to enjoy; to accumulate and to pass on to the next generation.

We began with freedom and entrepreneurship was born. We began with freedom and capitalism was made to flourish.

We began with freedom. Happy Independence Day, America.

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