Tag Archive for 'small business expert'

Celebrating our 15th anniversary

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on November 16, 2012
in Entrepreneurship and Inspirational and Motivational
. 2 Comments

If you will permit me, today I would like to talk about a couple of milestones of which we’re kind of proud.

On November 17, 1997, I began broadcasting The Small Business Advocate Show for two hours Monday through Friday, and ever since that first day the program has been nationally syndicated. This week we will celebrate our 15th anniversary and the beginning of our 16th year on the air.

In January 1998, we began simulcasting our show on the Internet, which makes us one of the pioneers of Internet streaming. Since 1999, we’ve offered multiple on-demand streaming options and in 2007 added the ability to podcast all current and archived interviews.

Next Monday will be my 3,901st live broadcast since we began - including all the holidays (next week I’ll broadcast my 16th consecutive live Thanksgiving Day show). Since that first broadcast, I’ve conducted over 15,500 live interviews with small business experts and entrepreneurs. When you hear me talking about making sure that you’re passionate about the business you start, if you didn’t already, now you know I practice what I preach.

From the beginning, my primary programming goal was to focus on the fundamentals that are important to successfully starting, operating and growing a small business, and to make all of the things we do available to you for free. On that last note - the free one - I must say thanks to our outstanding corporate partners, without whom the free part would not be possible, especially our Presenting Sponsor, Insperity.

Over the years I have received a number of national awards from organizations such as: the U.S. Small Business Administration, FORTUNE Small Business magazine, TALKERS magazine, the American Chamber of Commerce Executives, the American Small Business Development Centers, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, and New York Enterprise Report. Plus, for many years now, Google has ranked me as the #1 small business expert.

Also this week, we’re celebrating the 13th anniversary of our e-zine, The Small Business Advocate NEWSLETTER. This week’s edition, Volume XIII, Issue 52, represents 676 consecutive weekly issues since 1999. Thanks for being a loyal subscriber.

In 2012 we added a number of new small business resources, including our mobile site. If you haven’t tried it yet, just go to SmallBusinessAdvocate.com on your smart phone and the mobile version will appear automatically. We’re also very excited about the video library we’re building with our Three Minutes To Success series. Please take advantage of this resource, which as the title says, are each only about 3 minutes long. And like all of our other resources, these are free, too. Thanks again, sponsors.

Finally, thank you for your support, comments, many words of encouragement and especially the honor and privilege of being your Advocate. I’m already looking forward to the rest of our journey together. More than anything else, I want you to know how proud I am of you as a small business owner and what you have accomplished.

Nothing I do as The Small Business Advocate is about me - it’s all about you, my heroes, small business owners, regardless of where you live on planet Earth.

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This week I talked more about this milestone for my show and how you should also celebrate the important milestones of your small business. Click here to download or listen.

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

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Redefining the title “Military Veteran”

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on November 12, 2012
in Inspirational and Motivational
. 0 Comments

America’s first military, the “Minutemen” militia, were shopkeepers, craftsmen, farmers, etc. Today we call them small business owners, but they were our first veterans.

Defining a veteran today is more complicated because there are multiple uses of the term. The Veterans Administration understandably has a strict, technical definition because it’s responsible for dispersing VA benefits. The classic definition is someone who has served on active duty for more than six months. But what about the volunteer service of the National Guard and Reserves?

For decades, National Guard members and Reservists have been comprised of two groups – those who deploy for an extended period and those who prepared themselves for a deployment. And since the Minutemen, America’s small business owners have been included in these ranks. But the past 20 years have required an extra degree of commitment from them because of the increased likelihood that they may have to leave their businesses for a deployment, possibly more than once.

Since 1990, two developments have created new expectations for America’s Guard and Reserves: 1) Three Middle East conflicts – Desert Storm, the Iraq War and the Afghan War – have combined for 20 years of deployments, so far; and 2) The increasing deployment expectations of Guard and Reserve units to augment declining regular armed forces numbers.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, the Guard and Reserves have accounted for one-third of U.S. forces, and a comparable percentage of casualties. Many of these patriots have been deployed two, three or more times. The Rand Corporation reports, “Use of the Guard and Reserve has steadily increased since the first Gulf War and this trend is likely to continue.” Indeed, you can expect the efficiency of Guard and Reserve assets to figure even more heavily in America’s national security plans in the face of impending budget cuts.

So on this Veterans Day let’s honor all who have proudly volunteered to wear the uniform. This includes members of the Guard and Reserves who have deployed alongside the regular military, as well as those volunteers who weren’t deployed, but who trained and made themselves available to be deployed for years as their country needed them.

In the modern age of American national defense, if you wore the uniform of any of the armed forces you deserve to be called a veteran and receive the gratitude and recognition of a grateful nation.

It’s time to expand our definition of a veteran.

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Today on The Small Business Advocate Show I talked more about the role of National Guard and Reservists in preserving and protecting America’s liberty. Click here to download or listen.

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

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Leaders don’t make excuses – they lead

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on October 16, 2012
in Leadership and Management Fundamentals
. 0 Comments

In October 1066 AD William I, Duke of Normandy, was about to lay claim to England on the field of battle against King Harold II.

As William led his men ashore in southeast England on their way to what was to become the historic Battle of Hastings, legend has it that this man-who-would-be-king rather ignominiously stumbled and fell face-first into the mud.

One of the classic truths about leaders, including once-and-future kings and small business owners, is that stumbling is virtually ordained. So whether the untimely descent is an honest mistake or unfortunate circumstance, the question is not if we will stumble, but how we behave after the fall. One of the great maxims is that adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it.

Back to our Norman invader: The future king of England demonstrated how leaders often have to think fast in order to snatch victory from potential disaster. Looking up from the mud, seeing “bad omen” written all over the faces of his superstitious men, William stood up, displayed his muddied hands and cried, “By the splendor of God, I have taken possession of my realm; the earth of England is in my two hands.”

So, when you look up from the “mud,” how do you behave? Of course, you could complain about how deep the mud is “How can I grow my business without enough capital?”

Then there’s the ever-handy option of blaming others for the mud, “Yes, ma’am, I know you bought it from us, but that’s a manufacturer’s defect. You’ll have to send it back to them.”

Or you could just blame the mud itself: “How can I possibly compete with the Big Boxes in this economy?”

At least one thing hasn’t changed in a thousand years: There are still plenty of people standing around – employees, customers, etc. – watching us when we stumble. And like William’s men, these latter-day witnesses are also vital to the success of our empires.

The Battle of Hastings arguably changed the course of history. But who knows what the world would look like today if our hero had become known as William the Whiner instead of William the Conqueror?

So, when you fall face-down in the metaphorical mud of your battlefield, your future may well depend upon whether you – like William – stand up, assess the damage, accept the circumstances, claim responsibility, remember that you are a leader on whom many depend, and then drive on to win the day.

It also helps if you can think fast.

Leaders don’t whine, complain or make excuses – they lead.

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I love to talk about leadership on The Small Business Advocate Show with my friend Stephen Baum, former partner with Booz Allen Hamilton, current director of the Point Group Network, and chair of a New York chapter of Vistage International. Stephen was on the show recently to discuss why successful small business CEOs take action, whether to take advantage of opportunities or just to survive. Click here to download or listen.

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

Watch Jim’s videos HERE!

Take this week’s poll HERE!

The new class of small business influencers

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on August 28, 2012
in Marketing - Branding - Advertising and Social Media
. 0 Comments

In The Age of the Seller, three groups mattered to a business for sales growth: suspects, prospects and customers. Let’s talk about these in order of appearance.

A suspect is anybody and everybody; think of the names in the local phone book. Initially, a business has no relationship with a suspect until contact is made in some way. Then, if the qualifying criteria turns them into a prospect, the relationship develops further until they’re converted into a customer, or not. For 10,000 years, of these three, only prospects and customers were influencers of a business.

In the Age of the Customer, which was born of the Internet, businesses have to learn how to operate where influencers are not only evaluating their traditional activity, but their online presence as well. And in the new Age, there are now three influencers: the original two, plus a new one.

The new influencer is users, and their impact is only online.

Like suspects in the original Age, users are people you probably have not yet developed a business relationship with. Unlike suspects, users become influencers of your business in at least five ways, but only if you have an Internet presence:

  1. Users find you online and appraise your offerings, information, and behavior before you know they exist.
  2. Users can influence others by posting their appraisal – good or not so much – on any of the commenting (Yelp) or social media platforms (Facebook). And even if the appraisal is not good, you still get the next three.
  3. The very act of users finding you, especially if they leave a commenting trail, reveals themselves to you.
  4. Some form of contact information (email, handle, cookie, etc.) is left behind.
  5. You can assume that the user has at least a tacit interest in what you do and sell.

Users are suspects on steroids. I have identified them as a new class of prospect, because as they wield their influence, they actually self-qualify themselves without any direct cost or involvement by you. How much could that impact your prospect development plan?

If you’re still unimpressed with the potential of this new group of influencers to your business, remember this: The drivers of value for the big social media platforms are not customers, but hundreds of millions of users. And every small business has the ability to convert a user into a paying customer in a way that makes Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn green with envy.

Develop a strategy to turn users into your new class of prospects.

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I have written and talked extensively on the new influencers and other facets of The Age of the Customer. Click here to listen, read or watch.

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

Watch Jim’s videos HERE!

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The unique ability of entrepreneurs

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on August 16, 2012
in Entrepreneurship and Inspirational and Motivational
. 0 Comments

One of the traits of an entrepreneur is a passionate desire for more - to discover and acquire more information, more efficiency, more productivity, more capability, more speed and yes, sometimes even more money and stuff.

But entrepreneurs don’t own the franchise on this trait. Lots of people WANT more. It’s just that entrepreneurs set themselves apart from others because they actually have the ability to create more. God bless entrepreneurs because, without their vision, courage, energy, and passion to create more, many of the things that enrich our lives would not exist.

It’s important that our world creates the fertile soil in which entrepreneurship can grow. Fertile entrepreneurial soil is where accomplishment is recognized, courage is admired, passion is encouraged, ideas can be openly debated and where truth is valued.

And entrepreneurs are not just found in the traditional marketplace. You can find them in education, in medicine, in research and yes, even in government. All species of entrepreneurs should be allowed to flourish wherever you find them.

But if you are having trouble finding an entrepreneur, the quickest way to solve that problem is to go hang out with small business owners.

Check out more great SBA content HERE!

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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

Check out more great SBA content HERE!