As the 16th president of the United States of America, it’s generally accepted that Lincoln’s leadership genius made possible the ultimate resolution of one of the greatest conflicts in human history, the American Civil War. And as harsh, prolonged and contentious as that post-war “Reconstruction” was, it resulted in the successful reassembly of the United States, sans slavery. So when you combine all of this with the blessing that the re-United States became to the world for the past century and a half, it isn’t a leap of logic to recognize Lincoln as one of the top two or three individuals in the history of Western Civilization.
As a leader, Lincoln was a risk-taker. So his story is especially important for a special group of contemporary risk-takers, small business owners. Every day along the ownership continuum, from slots online canada startup to locking up for the last time, Main Street businesses can draw strength and inspiration from the uncomplicated, honest and fierce witness of Lincoln’s character and leadership.
But ironically, as much as Lincoln’s accomplishments put him on a lofty pedestal, it’s his hard times that have also inspired generations of both leaders and followers. Indeed, when you consider just a partial list of painful personal tragedy and loss, plus numerous professional setbacks and failures through which Lincoln persevered, enormous respect and admiration can be the only result. For example:
• He failed in business in 1831 and again in 1833.
• He was defeated for state legislator in 1832.
• His fiancee died in 1835.
• He had a nervous breakdown in 1836.
• He ran for Congress in 1843 and ’48; lost both races.
• He ran for the Senate in 1855 and ’59; lost both races.
• He ran for Vice President in 1856 and lost.
• His wife, Mary Todd, was emotionally unstable.
• He buried two of his four beloved sons.
• He was elected President in 1860 as America’s house divided and dissolved into “a great civil war”.
Reading this list, one is overwhelmed in at least two ways:
1. Sadness - that any one person would experience so many unfortunate things;
2. Admiration - that in the face of such adversity, anyone could recover to accomplish so much.
As 2018 unfolds, if you’re ever tempted to whine because the marketplace licked the red off your candy, go back and reread Lincoln’s failures and setbacks. This time you might feel two other emotions:
1. Shame - that you allowed yourself to lapse into a self-involved pity party;
2. Renewed perseverance – now realizing that, like Lincoln, as long as you’re alive, every new day you show up to work on your business and life could be the day you turn the corner and win the war.
Lincoln taught us that the difference between bold accomplishment and painful setback is often the courage, character, and diligence to persevere.
Write this on a rock … There is no better model of courage, character, and perseverance than Abraham Lincoln. Let his life –the good and the unfortunate – inspire yours. And who knows? It might lead you to inspire others.
]]>Regardless of paternity, such a day was first celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, when members of the CLU took an unpaid day off to demonstrate solidarity and, of course, have picnics. And ever since 1884, when President Grover Cleveland’s signature designated the first Monday in September as Labor Day, it’s been an official federal holiday.
In 1898, Samuel Gompers, then head of the American Federation of Labor, called Labor Day, “the day for which the toilers in past centuries looked forward, when their rights and their wrongs would be discussed … that the workers of our day may not only lay down their tools of labor for a holiday, but upon which they may touch shoulders in marching phalanx and feel the stronger for it.”
Alas, entrepreneurs aren’t organized like our union brethren — probably because we’re too busy making payroll. There is no single Small Business Day officially decreed by the U.S. Government. No Entrepreneur’s Day set aside to honor the few who do so much for so many; a day to picnic and party down in honor of the real heroes of the marketplace, small business owners.
There actually is a small business week when the U.S. Small Business Administration recognizes the “creme de la creme” of entrepreneurs in America. But it’s not an official “Day” and it’s not always the same week each year.
Small businesses represent over 98% of all U.S. businesses and produce over half of the U.S. $17 trillion GDP. Plus, we sign the FRONT of the paychecks of over half (70 million) of all U.S. workers.
Let’s see: Big deal on Labor Day — no Small Business Day. What’s wrong with this picture?
So, what’s the answer? Let’s celebrate Small Business Day in a way no other national holiday has been established: on a Sunday — actually, the second Sunday in August.
Sunday is preferred because that would create the least payroll expense. August is the month-of-choice because that’s when politicians are home on recess. This way they can practice casting their pearls before we small business owners in preparation for eating barbeque and sucking up to unions on Labor Day.
To paraphrase Samuel Gompers, small business owners deserve a day for which these signers-of-the-front-of-paychecks can look forward to when their rights and wrongs would be discussed; that the small employers of our day may not only lay down their challenges for a holiday, but during which they may touch shoulders in marching phalanx and feel the stronger for it.
Write this on a rock … Entrepreneurs unite! It’s time we had a day to honor small business owners.
]]>As the CEO, you’re the futurist of your business, and the product of a futurist’s work is foresight.
Professional futurists are neither inspired by God, clairvoyant, nor have ESP. But they do look at the world differently than the average person. They typically see things before others do, largely because their focus is influenced by the following factors:
Extreme curiosity: This isn’t first by accident. Curiosity is to foresight what oxygen is to life.
Orders of implication: Futurists imagine the impact of multiple possibilities from a single scenario that hasn’t happened yet.
Collaboration: Futurists study the work of other futurists, work together, and welcome peer reviews.
Foresight tools: Some resources are sophisticated, some not so much.
As you can see, there’s nothing supernatural about these. Nothing you don’t already have or can’t acquire, at least at the level of CEO futurist. Let me lower the intimidation factor and make foresight easier with CEO foresight tools. You’ll recognize the first two:
Curiosity: The only person who’s more curious than a futurist is an entrepreneur. Curiosity is your most powerful tool-unleash it.
Watch for implications: When you see something new - a thing, idea or a development - unfocus your eyes and imagine the short and long-term implications. Play the “what if” game with your team.
Read: Professional futurists call it scanning. Read everything you can get your hands on about your universe and your customers’ universes. Start connecting dots.
Pay attention: This is the first cousin of curiosity. You pay attention to your business every day. Now add what’s outside your four walls to your scan.
Experience: Never underestimate the foresight value of past successes and failures, especially to the implications element.
Peer relationships: This includes CEO roundtables, whether formal or informal, but also attending industry events to listen to and compare notes with other CEO futurists.
Intuition: This is the love child of experience and curiosity. You have intuition, plus experts say you can grow it. Intuition is educated by experience and employed by curiosity.
These CEO foresight tools will help you track trends for opportunities and disruptions in areas such as: demographics, customer behavior, society, production/supply, politics, technology, and global events impacting large customers.
With tomorrow, next year and the next decade in mind, use questions like these to include your stakeholders in the foresight process: What will my industry look like? What will my market look like? What will happen to my existing customers? What will my new customer profile look like? What will be their expectations? What kinds of products and services should we sell? How will we capitalize growth? What kind of technology will I need? What will be the greatest opportunities? What will be the greatest disruptions?
Use the tools, ask the questions, uncover and prepare for the possibilities that will allow you to take advantage of opportunities and minimize disruptions. Leading change as the CEO means applying the foresight tools of a futurist in order to avoid surprises. All surprises.
Even if a surprise turns out okay, you still shouldn’t celebrate. In fact, you should be just as frightened as if it turned out badly. Because it got through your foresight filters unnoticed until it manifested in front of you. That means a bad surprise could do the same thing.
Remember Blasingame’s Law of Surprises: Surprises are for birthdays — this is business.
Write this on a rock … “The future doesn’t fit in the container of the past.” Rishad Tobaccolwala
]]>A maxim is a generally accepted truth and this is one because of two realities:
1. There are hundreds – if not thousands – of things that can cause a fully qualified prospect to not complete a transaction, at least not on your time parameters.
2. Regardless of how many bumps you encounter on the path to a signed contract, it’s still your job to produce enough gross profit from sales revenue to stay in business.
Enter the sales pipeline: a planning concept that helps managers and salespeople forecast sales for any given period – week, month, quarter or year. Think of your sales pipeline as overhead plumbing with faucets positioned at the time intervals your operation requires. And from these faucets you draw the mother’s milk of any business – sales revenue.
But there’s one pesky thing about sales pipeline faucets: they all come with screens that only allow sales from qualified prospects pass through, while poorly developed prospects are blocked. So if you’re counting on revenue pouring out of a faucet when you turn the handle on the day you need sales, you must load only qualified prospects into your pipeline to begin with.
A qualified prospect has answered enough questions – directly or through research – to allow you to determine that they will likely purchase what you sell from someone in the forecastable future. Before you place a qualified prospect in the pipeline, you must know at a minimum:
· What’s left to do for them – demonstration, trial, proposal, final close, etc.;
· Anything else that has to be done to move them to customer status.
Your appraisal of all of this information will help you forecast which faucet you should expect a particular sale to pour out of this Friday, next week, next month, next quarter. Once in the pipeline, a prospect is either on track to become a sale, a lost sale, or a forecasting mistake to be removed.
Alas, in the absence of professional sales management, poorly trained salespeople will try to forecast low-quality prospects. And any company that counts on such practices is headed for a cash flow crisis and ultimate business failure. Not because the product wasn’t good, or the price was too high, or because of Amazon. But because the sales team didn’t load the sales pipeline with enough qualified prospects.
At this point, let’s refer to The Bard. In Act I, Scene III, of Hamlet, arguably Shakespeare’s most important work, Polonius famously says to his son, Laertes, “This above all, to thine own self be true.” If your sales team is honest with each other and management about a prospect’s qualified progress to faucet-conformity, you’re setting yourself up for success. If not, well, you know.
Sales has been and always will be a numbers game. But in the Age of the Customer, it’s increasingly becoming more of a quality prospecting game. Consequently, how much revenue you draw from your sales pipeline depends on the two elements of the 21st century sales success calculus: quantity x QUALITY = your ultimate sales performance.
Here’s Blasingame’s Law of Sales Pipeline Success: Load the pipeline with enough (quantity) qualified prospects (quality) to flow through the faucets of your sales pipeline whenever you need them (success).
Write this on a rock … Load your sales pipeline with quantity and quality, and to thine own self be true.
]]>Like a yoke of oxen, our bilateral brain hemispheres are hitched side-by-side, meeting the world head-on. But also like the bovine, they don’t always pull together.
In addition to their names, oxen are also identified by their position in the yoke: the animal most favored by the driver is the nigh ox, always on the left, while the off ox is always on the right. The nigh ox is usually the senior animal and takes the lead in pulling the load.
Brain hemispheres also have names - left and right. For most of us, one or the other is our nigh hemisphere as it seems to be the most dominant in our behavior, but we favor it more because of who we are than its location. So for effect and for fun, I’ll be referring to our brain hemispheres as our nigh ox, and our off ox.
According to experts, when we think more logically, rationally, and analytically, like an engineer, the left hemisphere is the dominant, nigh ox. For someone who’s more creative, intuitive, subjective, and emotive, the right hemisphere is pulling the hardest as our nigh ox. Gender also seems to play a role in our nigh/off predisposition. But I’m leaving that angle alone today as a tangent potentially fraught with peril - for me.
All of this brain stuff might be unremarkable to small business owners if it weren’t for two things: 1) As leaders, we’re called upon to perform and respond to issues that are closer to our off ox than our nigh ox; 2) regardless of our nigh ox, we have to work with those whose behavior favors the other side of the brain yoke. Let’s take a look at examples of how these two realities manifest in the marketplace and in our small businesses.
As a small business owner, you likely won’t have the luxury of favoring one ox over the other for very long. Regardless of which brain hemisphere is your nigh ox, any given day is filled with demands on both, and often simultaneously. For example, developing a marketing campaign causes the right brain to take the lead with creativity. But your left brain will be pressed into service by the cold, hard analysis of media buys, demographic strategy, and ultimately, operational fulfillment of the business your plan generated.
The good news is that as your business grows, you can look forward to delegating your off ox work to an employee whose oxen are opposite yours. But as the leader, the small business reality is that you must be able to successfully work and do business with people whose nigh ox is your off ox. For example:
If your nigh ox is right-brain creativity, you still have to employ, manage, and work with left-brain accountants and engineers.
If your nigh ox is the by-the-numbers, detailed analysis-loving left brain, you’ll have to suffer gladly the seemingly non-linear expressions of those whose nigh ox pulls from the right side of the yoke. Indeed, a critical counter-balancing trait your nigh ox desperately requires.
But all of that is inside the organization. Outside your four walls, you have to be able to quickly assess which ox any particular prospect or customer favors. For example you no doubt sell stuff desired by customers of both ox yoke configuration. Even though the two groups buy the same product or service, they likely lead their purchasing process with the side of the brain that’s nigh to them. Consequently, regardless of which ox is nigh to you, you’ll need selling skills to help you lead with the other.
Although in the minority, there are whole-brain individuals whose brain hemispheres pull together, like having two nigh oxen. Members of this group are naturally well-suited for small business. But whether by protoplasm or by practice, more than any corporate CEO, a small business CEO has to perform like a whole-brainer to deal with the bi-polar demands of the workplace and the marketplace.
Write this on a rock … Small business owners are required to behave as if they have two nigh oxen.
]]>Once, during a conversation with a mentor about partnerships, he made this declaration: “Partners are only good for two things: sex and dancing.”
My mentor’s personal experience led him to make that indictment. My experience has led me to be more thoughtful, but I still advise anyone planning a business partnership to consider his rude but worldly comment as a handy caution to purge their plans of naivete.
A business partnership should be entered into with a healthy dose of reality about the human element involved. My friend, David Gage brings sunlight to this reality in his book, The Partnership Charter, wherein he writes, “Business people are experts in what they do, but they’re not in how to be partners.” Boy, howdy, is that true!
If you’re considering a partnership structure for your business, Gage recommends asking yourself, and your potential partner, the three questions below, which are followed by my thoughts.
1. Why do I want a partner?
Having a partner means you can share the work and the risk. But it also means you have to share the decisions and the rewards.
For a partnership to work, all parties must place a higher value on the advantages of shared work and risk than on the efficiency of making unilateral decisions and keeping all the loot.
2. Are there better alternatives to taking on a partner?
Just like in a marriage or any other relationship, both parties have to bring something of value to the table. Examples could range from experience, to skills, to contacts, to capital.
The advantages of each partner to the endeavor should be identified, quantified and valued. Then each partner must determine if other alternatives to acquiring these benefits - and there are always alternatives - are more or less valuable than those of a partnership.
3. Is my prospective partner the best candidate?
If, after thoughtful and analytical evaluation, you determine that you prefer the partnership option, remember, that decision isn’t the same as who should be your partner.
When President Lincoln said at Gettysburg that “…all men are created equal,” he wasn’t talking about business partners. The person you’re considering may not be suitable for your, or any other partnership.
Now here are three of my quick partnership questions.
4. Work ethic: Are we compatible?
All small businesses have more work to be done than people to do it. Don’t take a partner unless you know he or she understands and accepts this commitment.
5. Vision: Is ours compatible?
Your views on the development, growth and ultimate dissolution of the business don’t have to be identical, but they must be compatible.
6. Values: Do ours align?
If you had to rank all the considerations for forming a partnership, most of the factors could be moved around, depending on the circumstances. But the issue of shared values is always going to be the numero uno, default, go/no-go factor. No exceptions. Immutable. Non-negotiable.
If your values are misaligned, all the money and success in the world won’t result in a successful partnership. Believe me - I’ve seen more than one misaligned-values train wreck. It’s as ugly as ugly gets.
Value factors to consider include, but are not limited to: devotion to ethical behavior; how to treat employees; is regard for customers transactional or relational; intellectual honesty and sense of fair play.
Last two points: Don’t begin your partnership without a plan - in writing - of how it will be dissolved. If you read my recent column about neurotics and character disorder, never go into a partnership with someone who has the latter. Every problem will always be your fault.
Write this on a rock … Do the same due diligence on acquiring a partner as you would a business.
]]>Of the many motivations that would cause someone to have a business-owner dream, allow me to introduce four that are common to all of us. And just below each one, I’m including a counter-balancing reality following a quote from a popular movie. In “The Karate Kid,” reluctant sensei, Mr. Miyagi, imparted the following broken-English wisdom to his protégé, “Daniel-san,” when he said: “Evry’ting not always as seem.”
Reason 1: Achieve financial independence, if not wealth
Good for you! Who could have a problem with this business-ownership motivation? The pursuit of financial independence is a primordial motivator, and business ownership is an excellent and high percentage way to achieve it.
“Evry’ting not always as seem”
Do you know how much most small business owners take home in a year? Most make less than they could earn as an employee. And even though you could hit that financial homerun, there’s a much greater chance you’ll just make a living. But if you truly love being a business owner, that’ll be OK.
Reason 2: To have more control of your life
This is an absolute possibility. As a business owner you can focus your energy and time in the direction you want your life to go, rather than hitching your wagon to someone else’s star. Plus, you should be able to get away to attend your children’s school events. That was a big deal for me.
“Evry’ting not always as seem”
Even though business owners don’t punch a clock, most work harder than they ever did as an employee. A thousand things - including customers and even employees - will combine to demand more of you than any former boss. But here’s the good news: You can work half days whenever you want, and you get to choose which 12 hours. Being responsible for everything your business does, or fails to do, will fight you for control.
Reason 3: Status
It’s true, owning your own business provides, as Frasier Crane would say, a certain je ne sais quoi - a difficult-to-describe feeling that you’ve arrived. You’re at the top of the heap. It may be a small heap, but it’s your heap.
“Evry’ting not always as seem”
Congratulations on the first thing you’ll be in your own company - the president. But before you get too full of yourself, you’ll also be the first salesperson, receptionist, accountant, janitor - you get the picture. Status is mercurial. If you ever achieve it, remember this: The status god giveth and the status god taketh away.
Reason 4: Ego
In the chemistry of entrepreneurship, one of the active ingredients is ego. It’s like ambition, except more about you than your goals. In its positive form, ego manifests as perseverance and determination, two things you definitely need to succeed in business. Indeed, many of the great innovations from which we benefit today were born of ego.
“Evry’ting not always as seem”
As a small business owner, you’ll snatch crumbs of ego food where you can find it. On the same day your beautiful new website is launched, your best customer will change vendors. When sales are down, expenses are up, and your banker’s on the phone about an overdraft, your ego will feel more like a beagle than a lion. I have it on good authority that Mr. Murphy (as in Murphy’s Law) was a small business owner. Out here on Main Street, ego is a mercurial emotion.
As you consider starting a business, or taking the next step in the one you have, remember Mr. Miyagi’s wisdom and seek out the “Evry’ting not always as seem” factors. You may need help from those who’ve been there/done that. And if someone does help you, listen closely - they’re likely giving you advice they learned from a lesson they’re still be making payments on.
Write this on a rock … Dream about your business with eyes wide open so it won’t turn into a nightmare.
Peck wrote, “Neurotics are easy to work with in psychotherapy, because they assume responsibility.” He went on to say, “Those with character disorders are difficult, if not impossible, to work with, because they never see themselves as any part of the problem.” Thus missing the invaluable opportunity for self-examination.
Contemplating Dr. Peck’s declaration was a true watershed moment, helping me better understand why people-including me-behave as we do. Both types of Peck’s patients sought his help because they were experiencing difficulties in life. But if we’re honest, we don’t have to be dysfunctional to realize that each of us falls on one side or the other of this behavior coin. It’s an either/or default circumstance, where we’re either more likely to take responsibility for what happens in our life, or we aren’t.
How you would respond to these business scenarios.
Challenge: Amazon and Google are becoming more aggressive on Main Street; meanwhile, a new Big Box company just opened.
Character Disorder reaction: “I hate those companies. How can I compete with their prices and free delivery? Why does the city allow them to come in here and destroy my business?”
Neurotic reaction: “Well, it’s on me to survive or not. No one made me open this business, and those Big Boxes and Amazon can’t take my business from me unless I roll over and give it to them.”
Challenge: Sales are off, profits are down, and cash is tight.
Character Disorder reaction: “How can I be expected to succeed in this economy? My expenses are going through the roof. The bank won’t give me a working capital loan. Why is everything against me?”
Neurotic reaction: “Being a business owner is harder than I thought it was going to be. Obviously, there’s something I’m not doing right. I have to find what that is and fix it myself, because no one else will.”
If you’re on the neurotic side of the coin, the challenge is to focus on taking responsibility in a constructive, solutions-oriented way. Take responsibility without beating yourself up. If you’re on the character disorder side, resist spending precious time and resources focusing on how the world has let you down. Instead, reverse your outward focus - no one else is going to solve your problems. And the world isn’t even listening.
Personal self-analysis may be the most valuable skill we can employ to become a better person and CEO. In a small business, organizational self-analysis - and acceptance of what we find - is essential to sustained success in the marketplace. To demonstrate that I practice what I preach, here’s my bold statement that recommend you claim for yourself - especially any time you find yourself planning a pity party.
Blasingame’s Small Business Success Attitude
I accept that my small business will face challenges every day. As I begin my day, I will assume the attitude that, regardless of the number of challenges, the degree of difficulty, or who caused them, if my business is to survive, I must face each one. Therefore, I know that the only thing in question today is how well I will respond to challenges, and the future of my business may well depend on the answer to that question.
Remember these three important keys to success in business and in life: Take responsibility, practice self-analysis, and seek excellence, not perfection.
Write this on a rock … Remember what Scott Peck said: Neurotics can be fixed, but those with character disorders, not so much.
]]>Contested over 23 days, with the 21 stages averaging more than 110 miles each, there are only two days rest in the middle. These super-athletes from all over the world navigate diverse road conditions, rain, wind, heat and legendary mountain ranges - no less than the Alps and Pyrenees - that God surely made for us to ski down, not pedal up.
If the sun’s coming up on Main Street, millions of small business owners also mount one of the most grueling competitions in the business world merely by opening up. Against all odds, they start, run and grow their operations in conditions few corporate America CEOs would be willing to face. But unlike the Tour de France, small business owners run their race every day of the year.
Combining my admiration for both of these types of super-humans, I’ve identified four required elements to be successful competing in the Tour de France or in the marketplace.
1. Teamwork
Tour participants are part of a couple dozen sponsored teams of about 25 members, each have individual roles to play. Some members are supportive non-riders and some are riders whose primary role is to protect and push their leader. But all work together to meet team performance goals, including getting their leader on the podium at the end of the day or the end of the race. Sounds a lot like a small business, doesn’t it?
Since every day in a small business can be like a mountain stage on the Tour-grueling assaults on impossible peaks and dangerous descents into the valleys-success requires the ability to motivate your team to work together effectively. And a smart leader knows that sustaining successful teamwork requires sharing the recognition, so the team doesn’t mind if you’re the one on the podium.
2. Communication
Competing in the Tour is like running 21 marathons in 23 days while simultaneously playing a 3D chess match. Effective communication between team members is critical so each can deliver their unique contribution to the overall strategy at the appropriate time.
Even the best small business strategy in the world must be communicated to the team in ways that inform, coordinate, motivate, foster engagement and result in success. And the customers and competition combine to create the 3D degree of difficulty.
3. Preparation
All you have to do is watch a Tour de France cyclist in an “above category” mountain stage to see successful preparation. These guys have turned their bodies into human spring steel as they become one with their bikes.
The small business equivalent is to operate your business at the highest professional level possible, at all times. One major differentiator of professional organizations is their commitment to investing time and resources - this means budgeting both - for education, training and practice for all team members.
4. Technology
Tour de France teams leverage technology at every point of the competition, including high-tech bikes, customized chase vehicles, on-course communication tools, etc.
In the 21st century, every small business has to apply technology at essentially every level of its operation. The good news is the barrier to entry has never been lower to extremely powerful technology in the incremental portions small businesses can use, and affordable prices they can afford. Small business Luddites become Troglodytes.
Out here on Main Street, if you don’t develop a high-functioning team, communicate well, achieve a high level of preparation and maximize technology, you will be irrelevant.
Or, as they say on the Tour, you’ll be “off the back.”
Write this on a rock … Customers will tell you about their changing expectations - let them.
]]>As we know, change has been the one constant of existence on planet Earth. Each generation gives way to the next, so that over time fire became electricity and the wheel morphed into a computer.
For most of the history of the marketplace, change progressed at a pace slow enough to allow the creator of a model - a product, strategy, skill, etc. — to make a living with it for a lifetime, possibly even passing that model on to his children. But within the past century this paradigm began to shift.
During the second half of the 20th century, the life expectancy of a typical model generation was compressed into a calendar year. So while you were delivering the current year’s model to customers, you had to simultaneously create and prepare next year’s model to be ready to launch January 1.
That was a nice trip down memory lane, wasn’t it? Buckle up.
Since 1993 (the year the Internet became available to the public), an unprecedented confluence of innovations has further compressed the time between model generations. This compression produced high anxiety and frustration for any business that was in love with its model. Indeed, the life expectancy of a model that not so long ago would have been a calendar year was now measured in terms of an Internet year, which is 90 days — or less.
The headwaters of this increased velocity of marketplace change is innovations that are driving new customer expectations. And these innovations have become so seductively elegant and seamless in our lives that customers often don’t even realize their expectations are changing at all, let alone how fast.
But what about your business’s anxiety and frustration? Well, even if customers know, they don’t care. Because they worship at the throne of WIIFM. What’s In It For Me?
I have good news! You can avoid anxiety, frustration — and failure — if you know what your customers’ evolving expectations are, which you can determine by asking them these five questions - every day:
1. What do you want?
2. How do you want me to tell you about it?
3. When do you want it?
4. How will you use it?
5. How do you want it delivered?
Comparing the answer to these questions with what customers told you yesterday will provide all the information you need about current and future products, service and technology, including — especially — your social media and mobile strategy.
Let me put all of this in one sentence: If you want to know what your business should be doing tomorrow, next month and next year, ask your customers. They already know. And if you do what they tell you, you’ll be able to sing these new lyrics without any blood, sweat or tears:
“And when our model dies, and when it’s gone, we’ll produce a new model in this world to carry on, to carry on.”
Write this on a rock … Customers will tell you about their changing expectations - let them.
]]>His intelligence only exceeded by his ambition, 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, and their enhancement with the Magna Carta in 1215, 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 when freedom is converted into the liberty to pursue and accrue success are those risks acceptable. Thank you, Henry II.
Research shows 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 liberty was made manifest. We began with freedom and entrepreneurship was born. We began with freedom and capitalism flourished.
Write this on a rock … America began with freedom and the world is the better for it. Happy Independence Day.
]]>“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
Perhaps you recognize the opening paragraph from A Tale of Two Cities by the immortal Charles Dickens. He was providing analysis of the disruptive state of affairs in 18th century England, as well as across the Channel, in France. If you know about the disruptive state of affairs in the 21st-century marketplace, perhaps you’ll appreciate the allegorical reference of these phrases for small businesses almost two and a half centuries later.
It was the best of times: “The more high tech we have, the more high touch we will want.” The reason John Naisbitt’s 1982 words will always be prophesy is because humans will always be analog beings. There’s never been a time when the high touch leverage of a small business has been more powerful against the high tech of big competitors.
It was the worst of times: Tech behemoths like Amazon, Google and Facebook are increasing digital leverage to create new customer experiences and expectations. This trend is deadly for those hidebound small businesses that won’t infuse their sublime high touch with incremental high-tech to produce irresistible, Main Street special sauce.
It was the age of wisdom: Unlike the 20th century, today there are few hidden rules or proprietary tools employed by big businesses that aren’t available in some form to small firms. Digital leverage and data are increasingly available in incremental and affordable forms, but you’ll have to risk what you know for what you might learn.
It was the age of foolishness: In the most transparent era of management fundamentals, the keys to sustained success are lower than low-hanging fruit – they’re on the ground. And yet, innumerable small businesses are following Sears and Macy’s into the realm of irrelevance rather than adapting to new customer expectations with high-touch intangibles, relevant 21st-century practices, and affordable – many free – new tools.
It was the epoch of belief: In many ways, the path to entrepreneurship has never been easier. A sweet byproduct of democratized digital leverage is a lower capital barrier to entry. Plus, the expansion of the universe of niches (read: niches of niches) is creating unprecedented small business opportunities.
It was the epoch of incredulity: It’s still easy to start a new business, but it’s never been more challenging to sustain one. New and evolving customer expectations must be served with fresh data and effort – every day. And competitive disruptions are emanating from improbable market sectors.
It was the season of light: The illumination and availability of customer data for small firms is unprecedented. Extensive information about business prospects is opening doors to the now-illusive, face-to-face appointment. And response behavior of retail prospects is available to help design and deliver a high tech/high touch marketing strategy.
It was the season of darkness: At the same time, qualifying a suspect into a prospect into a customer has been disrupted by a more informed prospect base. As the selling cycle lengthens for those who fail to recognize this shift, diminishing gross profit erodes equity, burns available credit, and then – well, you know.
It was the spring of hope: One of the most amazing forces in the marketplace is the pathological optimism of American entrepreneurs. Against all odds, they navigate their dreams around the wreckage of peers that were sunk by the reef of disruption.
It was the winter of despair: I never thought I’d see conditions that would so restrict the entrepreneurial energy of America. The past decade saw anti-business political policies, unprecedented demographic shifts and behaviors, distressed economic conditions, and restricted capital and disruptive pressures combine to set back entrepreneurship in America for the first time in generations (Kauffman Index Startup Activity).
The human experience is pregnant with paradoxes, and no sector more so than the marketplace. Digital leverage is at once creating the paradox of exciting opportunities and unprecedented disruptions.
You would be correct to point out that humans have lamented change for millennia, but this really is different. Not change itself, but the velocity – the compression of time between changes.
Past changes have occurred at the velocity of analog – the speed of sound (761 miles per hour). Today’s change is powered by digital – at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second).
Are you adapting to new expectations with your high touch/high tech special sauce? Or are you being disrupted on the way to – well, you know?
Write this on a rock … The best of times or the worst of times? The choice is yours.
]]>As the father of an adult daughter and son, plus the grandfather of four knucklehead boys (Hurricane, Tornado, Crash and Train Wreck), I’ve learned some things about love.
All the hours logged as Dad and Poppy have often caused me to contemplate how different are the roles of mother and father, especially in the overt demonstration of parental love. It’s fascinating how the manifestation of this love differs between mother and father - biologically, emotionally and experientially.
A mother’s love, at once sweet and fierce, is observed in almost all animals, not just humans. No doubt you’ve heard this metaphor: “… as sweet as a mother’s love,” and this warning: “Don’t get between a momma bear and her cub.” I have been the recipient of this kind of love and have witnessed it, and there truly is no other force in nature like it.
A human father’s love, on the other hand, is more often associated with words that are unfortunate, like “tough” and “discipline.” Here’s a warning no one has ever heard: “Just wait ’till your mother gets home!” As a teenager, my dad once apologized to me when he thought his demonstration of tough love might seem “hard-boiled.” It did.
Consequently, it has troubled me that there are no corresponding sweet references to a father’s love. Could this be why Father’s Day is not quite as big a deal as Mother’s Day? Just saying …
Mothers occupy the pinnacle of parental love - with justification. And not to take anything away from them, but let’s be honest: Since a mother’s sweet love is as primal as the miracle of birth, they don’t have to work too hard to deliver it. But there is a uniqueness about a father’s love that deserves a better rap. Here are two reasons:
No one is more keenly aware of the distinction between the application of these two demonstrations of love than a single parent (especially a single mom), where both kinds are required of the same person, perhaps within minutes.
Mothers, please forgive any paternal bias you may detect, but here is my conclusion about parental love: The only force in the universe that comes close to a mother’s sweet love is a father’s tough love. But the latter is the harder job, and the return on investment almost always takes longer.
Write this on a rock … Happy Father’s Day, Dads. You’ve earned it.
]]>1. Earned income: salary and bonuses reported on a W2 each year.
2. Unearned (investment) income: distribution of profits from the operation and/or sale of the business.
But there are other small business ownership advantages that I call “stealth benefits,” because they’re not as evident as operating opportunities. Arguably the most dramatic stealth benefit, which often has the most wealth creation potential, is for the business owner to also personally own the real estate in which that business operates.
Here’s the classic scenario: Every business is a tenant of some landlord, likely under the terms of a commercial lease. There are many financial and strategic reasons for a small business to lease property from an unrelated landlord. But that arrangement offers the business tenant only tax deductions of the lease payment and associated disbursements, and essentially no financial benefits for the owner of the tenant business.
Now let’s consider the stealth benefit mentioned earlier. As long as the business you own is legally structured as a tax reporting entity, like an S Corp or LLC, you can accrue stealth benefits by personally owning the real estate your business operates in and leases from you. For example: Smith Enterprises, Inc. (SEI), a small manufacturer, has one shareholder, Tom Smith. SEI enters into a long-term, formal lease of the improved real estate it operates in, and the landlord, the individual who owns that property, is the same Tom Smith. Several of the stealth benefits these two entities accrue from this legal arrangement include, but are not limited to:
In my long career, I’ve seen many family businesses that Mom and Pop founded and operated for decades. But at the end of their business careers, it turns out that the business itself had little or no value to a prospective buyer, and the founders just locked up the business one last time.
However, concurrent with operating their business, Mom and Pop also went about acquiring the property their business operated in, and leased it back to the company. Over those same decades, that corner of an intersection, in a once-sleepy section of town, became a valuable piece of commercial property.
In the end, Mom and Pop made a good living from operating their business, which ultimately was worth essentially nothing. But they retired well by selling the real estate they’d bought for thousands, for millions. Oh, and they actually have one other option that might be preferable: Just continue to lease the property to the next business.
And almost all of this, including years of rent distributions, was taking place under the marketplace radar, as a stealth benefit.
Write this on a rock … Take advantage of the stealth benefit of owning the real estate your business operates in.
]]>Packaged in small bags almost anyone can carry, Sakrete is an aggregation of Portland cement, sand and different size gravel. Just stir in water, apply it to your small construction project, wait a little while and, badabing badaboom, you’ve got real concrete supporting your project.
So, what does a small business have to do with a sack of rocks? Two things.
1. Chemistry.
When the components of Sakrete come in contact with water, a productive reaction occurs that, in a short time, manifests as a handy and enduring result. In the marketplace, productive chemistry between people and organizations is has long been known to be critical for sustaining successful performance. Whether Sakrete or your small business, the right chemistry is critical.
2. Aggregation.
Sakrete doesn’t just aggregate the correct combination of stuff, but also different sizes of masonry material. The larger pieces provide critical mass and structure, while the smaller ones bind everything together and nimbly fill in the gaps to eliminate weak spots. But unlike chemistry, aggregation is not as much of a natural law and requires more maintenance. Which is why there are no Blasingame Laws of Chemistry, but three Blasingame Laws of Aggregation.
Blasingame’s 1st Law of Aggregation
Find your success in aggregating the success of employees.
Simply put, this is servant leadership, a term Robert Greenleaf coined in his book titled, you guessed it: Servant Leadership. But the concept goes back thousands of years to the ancient Chinese wisdom of I Ching, “The highest type of ruler is one of whose existence the people are barely aware.” And in his gospel, Mark quotes Jesus, “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant.”
Leaders who sustain success, year after year, are those who subordinate their ego by helping their people to be successful professionals, and then aggregate those success stories for the benefit of the company. They celebrate others first.
Blasingame’s 2nd Law of Aggregation
Aggregation prevents aggravation.
In business, aggregation is also known as strategic alliances, which small businesses must build with other organizations, especially larger ones.
It’s aggravating at least, and dangerous at worst, to manage threats and take advantage of opportunities without strategic resources. Compare the merits of forming a strategic alliance with an organization that already has what you need before you risk the expense and possible delay of capitalizing the ownership of that resource. And if you prefer, you can call it strategic aggregation.
Blasingame’s 3rd Law of Aggregation
Associate your brands with those that are more established.
I also call this the “Forrest Gump Strategy.” As you develop strategic alliances, look for partners with brands and influence that have a higher recognition factor than yours, and arrange for the relationship to include your brand being presented in the marketplace alongside theirs. Brand association is smart aggregation, but you have to step up your game to earn the right to that level of aggregation.
Write this on a rock … If you’re not having the level of success you want, perhaps you should take some lessons from Sakrete.
]]>Reasonable people disagree on the exact origins of what is now called Memorial Day. But most accept that the practice of decorating the graves of Americans who died defending their country began in earnest by women of the South during and following the Civil War.
On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, National Commander of the Army of the Republic, was the first to make Memorial Day official with General Order No. 11, which stated in part that, ” … the 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country …”
Since then, other than Congress making it a national holiday and changing the date to the last Monday in May, America has honored its fallen heroes from all conflicts in pretty much the manner that General Logan anticipated with the language of his order, whereby “… posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit …”
When America issued its first call to arms - before it was a country, before there was a standing professional army - that call went to the militia, which was identified as, “all able-bodied men.” Calling themselves the “Minutemen,” because they could be ready to fight on a minute’s notice, they were primarily shopkeepers, craftsmen, farmers, etc. Today, we call them small business owners.
From as far away as Scotland, America’s Minutemen were impressive. Writing about the colonies’ quest for independence from England in his classic work, The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith predicted America would prevail thanks to its militia which, ” … turns from its primary citizen character into a standing army.”
By the 20th century, state militias had become part of the National Guard. And by 1916, the National Defense Act created another layer of citizen soldiers, the Reserves.
Prior to the war with Spain in 1898, latter-day Minutemen served only on American soil. But ever since, including two World Wars and four major conflicts, America has deployed citizen-soldiers around the world alongside regular forces. Indeed, in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guard and Reserve members accounted for one third of U.S. forces, as well as a comparable percentage of casualties.
Whenever they’ve been called, small business owners and their employees have left the marketplace to demonstrate their courage - and die, if necessary - on the battlefield. So this weekend, as we honor all who paid the ultimate price in service to this country, let’s also remember the long tradition of America’s small business volunteers who’ve answered the call, and served faithfully in harm’s way on behalf of a grateful nation.
Write this on a rock … America owes much to the sacrifice of those heroes who’ve turned from their, “primary citizen character into a standing army.”
]]>Paraphrasing Mark Twain, the difference between making a large consumer purchase and buying a business is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
Every business sale is a totally unique transaction, which is the opposite of buying a commodity, like a car. And besides being the most complicated transaction you’re likely to ever undertake, with all of the components that make up any business, there’s one more, huge factor in buying a small business: it’s someone’s life. Consequently, the education process for such a transaction is quite involved.
To help you get started, consider a few questions to ask a prospective business seller, suggested by my friend and business-buying expert, Russell Brown, each followed by my thoughts. And while I’ve numbered them, you aren’t likely to ask them in this order.
1. Why are you selling?
This isn’t abrupt or inappropriate as long as you work it in at the right time. Regardless of the answer, it’s information that may contribute to your decision about whether to buy, and how to negotiate.
2. May I see the last three years of financials?
You’ll use their numbers as a base from which to “recast” and project your future business, adjusted for how you’ll run it. If the seller refuses, either he doesn’t have any, doesn’t want you to see how bad they are, thinks you aren’t a credible prospect, or you’ve asked for them too soon.
3. What are the industry trends and greatest future challenges?
The answer will inform you, and/or tell you how much the seller understands the current marketplace. In the 21st century, market challenges and competition comes in many forms and from many directions. You’ll need both pieces of the puzzle to determine how much unclaimed opportunity can be realized.
4. How can I increase sales/profits?
You might think if the seller knew he would just do it. But often he knows the answer, but doesn’t having the expertise, capital, or even desire to take that next step. This would be especially true regarding new technologies and 21st century marketing strategies.
5. Will you finance part of the purchase price?
Russ says that 80% of all small business sales in the United States involves seller financing. Even if you don’t need it, ask for it and use it if availble. Any terms from a seller will usually be better than the bank. Plus, it shows how confident the seller is about the business’ viability. Do not be afraid to ask this question.
6. Will you stay with the business for a while?
In most cases, you want the owner to agree to help you make the transition, which could range from a couple of weeks to months. Be cautious of any deal where the seller won’t spend any time with you. The proper amount of time is the day after the seller goes from being helpful to getting in the way.
7. Who knows the business is for sale?
Mishandling the news of any business being for sale can harm its viability, especially with key stakeholders: employees, customers and vendors. The trick is timing the breaking news with closing the deal so that gap doesn’t create problems.
8. Who will I negotiate with, and who will make the decision?
In selling or buying a business you must know who’s the decision maker. Otherwise you can waste a lot of time dancing around with a surrogate who can’t pull the trigger. As a business buyer you need to be talking to the real decision-maker as soon as possible.
9. What’s your timetable?
One of the biggest impediments to putting a deal together is when the buyer and seller are on different time frames. When you ask this question listen for the time AND the reason – they usually travel together.
Notice that most of these questions have a dual purpose: to get specific information and find out how savvy, sophisticated, and motivated the owner is. When buying a business, ask lots of questions and listen for the six interrogatives: who, what, when, where, how and why. In time, you’ll start noticing what isn’t said.
Write this on a rock … This is the equivalent of your first hour of class on the way to acquiring a four-year business-buying degree.
]]>The answer is the same as for why you have an email address even though you have a phone. It’s not either/or, but rather both/and. Because as outstanding and handy as your website may be, there’s one increasingly important capability you need that most websites aren’t good at: community building.
Once customers find you, returning to that beautiful website of yours will be of decreasing interest to them. It’s not that your new stuff - products, how-to information, order status, special offerings, etc. - is no longer of interest to customers. It’s just that they don’t want to have to come back to your website to get it. More and more, customers are saying to businesses, “I like what you offer, but I won’t be returning to your website much, because I’m very busy. Why don’t you follow me home with the new stuff?”
This is what customers and prospects mean when they join your community by giving you permission to connect with them and send them offers and helpful information by email, text messaging, Twitter, Facebook, etc. They just want the new stuff, including updates to your website. Even when they return to buy something on your e-commerce platform, they expect to enter your website through the offer page you sent them, not from your homepage.
Building online customer communities - and getting permission to follow customers home - is how a small business transcends being competitive and achieves the pinnacle position: relevance. As you may know, I define a business social media strategy as building customer communities. But by my definition, social media is much older and more comprehensive than the online platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, etc. Your customer community strategy includes everything you do to build, connect with and serve those communities, including: email marketing, customer loyalty programs, the new social media activity, and, of course, the original social media: face-to-face.
In the old days - way back in 2003 - your customer list was just names on an accounts receivable report or sales forecast. Today, those customers are part of your business’s community, which also includes prospects who’re just becoming interested in you. But unlike the passive customer list of old - and visitors to your website - this community is functioning and dynamic, with fast-evolving expectations you have to meet or they’ll defect to another community.
Another important component of building customer communities is allowing prospects and customers to see your corporate values. Increasingly, prospects will turn into customers, and customers will become loyal, because they’re attracted to what your company stands for, which is evident in the values you demonstrate, including online. For example:
1. Are your brand elements - brand promise and image - all about you and your stuff, or do they sound like something that would benefit your customer community?
2. When delivering information, is it all about you, or does it contribute to the community?
3. What’s the tone of your marketing message? “Tone” is how brand messages are incorporated as you serve the community, from crassly commercial to almost subliminal. You should strike a tone balance between serving the community and making a sale.
Notice all of these demonstrate values that favor relationships more and transactions less.
In a world where everything you sell is a commodity, value - product, price, service - is the threshold of a customer community, but values are the foundation. Value is easy to find these days. But when community members are attracted to your values, they keep coming back and bring their friends.
Write this on a rock … Build and serve customer communities with a website and social media strategy that demonstrates your values.
]]>In addition to filing a return, General Motors Corp, structured as a “C Corp,” the apex legal business entity, is the one that pays federal taxes at the business rate, currently one of the highest in the world. Georgia’s Motors, Inc. was formed as a Subchapter S corporation, aka “S Corp,” one of the pass-through entities established by law to make being incorporated easier for small firms. Any taxable income reported on its return passes through pro rata to the shareholders, to be added to their personal return and taxed at each one’s individual rate. In our story, Georgia Smith is the founder and sole shareholder of Georgia’s Motors, Inc., one of millions of American small businesses.
Lately, the term “pass through entity” has been used more frequently in news reports about the tax reform proposed by the Trump administration. The increased frequency is because a significant reduction in the business tax rate is being proposed which could put GM’s corporate rate below Georgia’s personal rate, unfairly causing her to pay more per dollar of business income than GM.
The good news is the Trump tax reform drafters recognized this inequity to pass-through entities like Georgia’s. As currently proposed, shareholders of Sub S Corps and other pass-throughs, like a Limited Liability Company (LLC), would still accrue the income of their businesses. But what’s new is that business income would be taxed separately, at the newly reduced, single rate paid on all business income, rather than at the personal rate of the shareholders.
These proposed tax reforms are very important for small businesses because of how their taxable income manifests. Let’s say Georgia’s Motors, Inc., produces $100,000 in business income, which passes through and is applied to Georgia’s personal return. Because of how that income is accounted for, it can create a taxable event typically associated with investments, called “phantom income.” This is when the loss of an investment results in taxable income, but produces no cash to pay the associated tax.
When you hear a small business owner tell you they had a very profitable year, but had to borrow money to pay their taxes, they just described what is tantamount to phantom income. But unlike true phantom income, that $100,000 hasn’t been lost. It actually exists, but in the form of inventory, accounts receivable, equity, etc., but maybe not in enough cash to pay the tax bill when due. And it could get worse: That business income added to Georgia’s personal income could push her into the next higher rate bracket.
By allowing small business owners of pass-through entities to pay a lower business tax rate, in a separate calculation from their personal income, they will have more working capital to invest, and be less likely to experience phantom income.
The small business sector is very excited about the prospects of tax reform, both at the personal and business level, as long as pass-through entities are treated the same as big corporations.
Write this on a rock … Unleash the animal spirits of America’s small businesses with tax reform that includes lower rates applied to all business income.
]]>This bold statement works in a song, but for small businesses – not so much. The reason is because of the complicated dynamic between our most limited resource, time, and three of our most important business factors, expenses, sales and cash.
In the marketplace, there are actually three different clocks at work that every business uses: one for operating expenses, one for sales and one for cash. Let’s take a look at how these three clocks impact your small business.
Operating Expense Clock
Every month like clockwork, regardless of sales volume, cash collections or profitability, payroll must be met, rent must be paid, taxes must be remitted, plus phone, utilities, insurance bills, etc., must also be paid. The Operating Expense Clock is hardwired to Greenwich, England for accuracy within a nanosecond per millennium, and nothing stops it short of a global, thermonuclear holocaust coinciding with a direct hit from Haley’s comet.
The only way to influence this clock is through operating efficiencies – you won’t be billed for what you don’t buy.
Sales Clock
This clock is powered by the prospect and customer relationships you’ve created so sales result each month. You project when each sale will occur by qualifying prospects and attributing a clock to each potential transaction so that you can budget future sales volume, which delivers gross profit to pay expenses.
How the Sales Clock operates is completely logical and intuitive, but it only works in your favor when meet all of the expectations and requirements of customers.
Cash Clock
What is not logical or intuitive is the Cash Clock and its relationship with the other two. Think of it like this: Cash is to sales as snow is to cold. You can have cold weather without snow, but you can’t have snow without cold weather. You can have sales without receiving cash, but you can’t receive cash without making sales. And expenses are like weather: you get some every day.
But what hits small business owners hard is that for every glitch in the mainspring of the Sales Clock, there are 1,000 potential sprocket failures that slow or stop the Cash Clock. Consequently, the Cash Clock requires constant maintenance.
Surely, Murphy was a small business owner, because his law lives inside the Cash and Sales Clocks. But the Operating Expense Clock is immune to this insidious law and keeps on rockin’, just like The Rolling Stones.
Write this on a rock … Your success requires a full understanding of the three clocks of small business.