Meadow Creek - Helping Businesses Grow

Speaking of funding, as George Harrison said,\"you know it don\'t come easy.\"  There\'s as much competition for venture capital dollars as you\'ll see in the Super Bowl this weekend.  You make your play and get the chance to go on to the next level or go home empty handed.

Here are some interesting tips from Guy Kawasaki:

10 Slides

20 Minutes

20 Point Font

The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint

I just ran into this list of local VCs and angel investors at http://www.vocationvillage.com/seattle-venture-capital/

If you\'re looking for funding, here are some local investors you should contact.

According to the paper industry, Americans consumed an estimated 23 billion paper coffee cups in 2010.\"

That is 23,000,000,000.  In one country.  In one year.

Many of these cups are made from recycled materials, however, most recycled paper products only contain 10% post consumer materials.  That still leaves us with nearly 21 billion cups made from new material. 

During his Ted Talk in 2008, Chris Jordan gave some staggering numbers regarding the paper cup consumption in...

PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association released their fourth quarter Money-Tree report on venture capital financing.  Dow Jones Venture-Source also released their report on fourth quarter activity and both studies revealed similar results.

Venture capital funding fell in the fourth quarter from the third quarter and from the fourth quarter 2010.  Both studies also report that VC activity was up in 2011 over 2010.

Local activity showed the same dip in the fou...

If you were going on vacation, you would think through the following:

You wouldn\'t go away without as...

Promotion is where the vast majority of change has taken place. The change in promotion is at least equal to the change brought on by the advent of printing, mail, radio and television. While some very entertaining videos would have us believe it is bigger than all of those combined, when adjusted for changes in GNP, population and whatever else, we believe it is as revolutionary as any of these events on the world of marketing.

 Forrester Research and Shopping.org

With the change in pl...

Place has most certainly changed and extraordinarily so. Marketing strategy decisions regarding Type/Location of Stores must now include a company website with e-commerce capability. There was once the dominance of the brick and mortar store and perhaps a call center for catalog sales. Service providers, both B2C and B2B, were call-in businesses. Find the number on your Rolodex or phone book and call in your request or order. Now a growing number of businesses have a web presence as shown in the...

This Mastermind is for serious entrepreneurs, professionals and managers/owners of small businesses. This Mastermind will meet monthly and start with a brief meet and greet. We will then talk about a specific business issue and then share with each other our own exprerience or current issues relating to the topic.

Successful entrepreneurs are skilled at surrounding themselves with people vital to the success of their business. Come to the Meadow Creek Mastermind and surround yourself with a gro...

Other than the obvious change in cost structure in some web-based distribution models, pricing fundamentals too, have not changed. Price is set to maximize profitability in concert with corporate strategy regarding:

• Cost leadership
• Differentiation
• Niche focus

Corporate strategy regarding its selection of differentiation, cost leadership or focus plays a key role in pricing of course, but what has changed is the influence of changes in distribution on pricing flexibility. Compared to bric...

Product

Corporate strategy would typically define in some reasonably broad parameter product and place. Unless you’re in a web based business or a web substitute (more on that later) there has not been an appreciable change in product since Al Gore invented the internet. Yes, many products have become web enabled, but that’s a matter of product differentiation, not typically corporate strategy. There are also a plethora of products that would not exist if not for the web.

Pity poor Blockbu...

Fundamentals of Company Strategy The foundation of any marketing strategy has got to be a company strategy that defines the parameters of the business that you’re in. Among other things, it defines the scope of the product or service offering, target market, sales and distribution strategy. This is all based on a strategic analysis and strategic plan as depicted below in Michael Porter’s Wheel of Competitive Strategy.

 Strategy has always shared a lot more sex appeal in corporate man...

Do not forget to visit our events page!  January is filled with great events at Meadow Creek and the eastside.

Get 2012 off to a screaming start and participate in our regular events.

Business and Bagels

Tenant Talks

Meadow Creek Connects

Meadow Creek Mastermind

Meadow Creek Strategy

The internet has not changed the fundamentals of marketing. The internet has not created a new “silver bullet” of marketing, but introduced many new considerations and an enormous number of new tools to be employed. All too often people are confusing internet savvy, website design and SEO skills with marketing and it’s not. These skills are important parts of online promotion techniques and campaigns and important elements of most marketers’ tool kits. Marketing, however, needs to be app...

Small businesses rank their Marketing and Innovation lowest in a recent survey of the components of their competitive health. This is not surprising given the confusion generated by the proliferation of new online marketing tools. So called and self-proclaimed “marketing gurus” confuse knowledge of a couple of internet tricks with marketing.

Small businesses are disappointed with their marketing effectiveness as a result of having lost sight of the bigger picture while chasing inapprop...

The Board of Directors of The Greater Issaquah Chamber of Commerce has elected Richard Gabel to be the Treaurer of the Chamber this coming year.  As Treasurer he will be a member of the Executive Committee of the Board.  Gabel is serving his second 3-year term as a Director.  He has also served previously as the Chairman of the Government Affairs Committee and Co-Chair of the Membership Committee.

We encourage all of you to join your local Chambers of Commerce.  If you are interested in joi...

I recently published an article, \"Facebook and Twitter are Stupid\", with the intent of drawing out people\'s concerns regarding the use of social media as a serious tool in marketing.  I recognized that the article would also draw the ire of social media addicts that would do anything to insure their next Twitter fix and to suck the next naive and willing spirit into their unholy social media haze of sensory deprivation where all problems, particularly marketing, can be remedied by just o...

In a recent Business and Bagels, one of our tenants was discussing his business and his products.  After a round table discussion, andother tenant exclaimed enthusiastically, \"If you were on Facebook, I\'d like you!\"

This line got a great deal of laughter around the table, but the words really rang true.  There is little doubt that in the business world today, Facebook is the way to connect not only with your clients, but also your potential clients.  It is a great way to commu...

Check out the events page for our next Tenant Talks event for Meadow Creek clients on our events page.  Alesha Struthers, Attorney, will be presenting:

\"How to Hire Employees\"

RSVP today!

If you\'re reading this blog, chances are this is old news to you, but Meadow Creek Business Center has a new website.  The site was built by the good people at Binary Anvil.  John Kraft, founder at Binary Anvil, is a client at Meadow Creek.  If you like what you see and want Binary Anvil to build your new site, I\'d be happy to put you in touch with John.  You can also just call (425) 557-3649.

We would appreciate you feedback on the site.  Tell us what you think, what...

Issaquah, Washington based American Mobile Power Systems (AMPS) is expanding its staff and has named Richard Gabel as Director of Marketing.  At the same time AMPS also named Stephen Meldrum Director of Sales and Licensing.  Gabel and Meldrum will be working closely together in establishing AMPS international position in the green energy market.

AMPS is a systems integrator of custom mobile power delivery systems for commercial applications.  AMPS provides the battery chemistry a...

Meadow Creek is now sporting a new and faster than greased lightening internet service. Friday evening with the help of Meadow Creek's IT consultant, Loren Campbell, owner of BCCNW, we made the final cut-over to Comcast service. New internet download speeds of 100 mbps will be a big improvement. Our two 15 mbps ADSL lines from SpeakEasy were great until the train wreck that occurred when they were acquired by MegaPath. Thanks to everyone for their patience as we suffered through the ...

Audrey Slade gave a great presentation on networking/connecting and social media today at Meadow Creek's Tenant Talks brown bag lunch session.  There was a great discussion on connecting with people, the importance of connecting to growing your business and using social media to extend and communicate with your connections.

Nine people attended.  Check our events calendar for the next Tenant Talks.

Wednesday\'s Tenants Talk brown bag lunch was a huge success.  Susan Gilbert, Chief Strategist at Online Promotion Success, conducted a question and answer session on email marketing, SEO, public relations and social media.  Thank you Susan for sharing your insights with us.

Tenants Talk is a monthly event open to all Meadow Creek clients.  If you would like to be a presenter, please let us know.

A fellow came through to tour our facility last week.  I was showing him an office and trying to get a read on where he wanted to be on price for his office.  To make sure he had a feel for all the options available to him, I suggested we look at an interior office.  He stopped me and said he wasn\'t concerned about the cost of the office, he knew he\'d make it up in personal productivity.  At the last minute I decided not to drop to my knees and thank him for understand...

If it\'s so darn important for the state to have a monopoly on retail liquor sales to protect our children, why is it that any stoner can open up a \"medical marijuana dispensary?\"  The gumbas running this state need a reality check.

It doesn\'t need to cost a fortune.  This is a guerrilla marketing tactic, not a way to go broke.  Pick up a flip camera for under $150 and you are in business.  Video is easy to edit on free programs like Microsof...

The PricewaterhouseCoopers & National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree TM Report for the second quarter was good news for startups looking for money.  $7.5 billion was invested in 966 deals in the second quarter, the highest levels since the second quarter of 2008.  Deals and dollars were up 19% from the first quarter.  First half investments were up 12% over the first half 2010.

Software, biotechnology, medical devices and equipment, IT services and media and enter...

Many entrepreneurs and small business owners have discovered a new way of doing business.  Tired of meeting in coffee shops and feeling they need to present a more professional presense to their clientel, they are using shared office space.  While it can take many forms, shared space at Meadow Creek Business Center is a furnished office with phone and internet service available for hourly and daily rental.  If you are going to meet with a client or just want a place to work withou...

If you went into business for yourself, there was probably some driving force behind it.  Not just the opportunity to make a lot of money, but an idea for a product or service that others would value.  This product or service would have a positive impact that would directly or indirectly bring a sense of satisfaction to you as well.  That is where the root of entrepreneurial passion lies.  It is what in the deepest sense motivates entrepreneurs and small business owners to co...

The sad state of the economy hasn\'t made it easy for the entrepreneur or small business owner to grow over the last couple of years. The winners in this environment are the ones that don\'t give up and keep giving it all they\'ve got. The problem is how to give all you\'ve got. It\'s not an issue of finding more hours in the day, it\'s how to make yourself more productive.

Productivity is about focusing your efforts on the things that matter most, working on the things that only you can do, mi...

Mobile computing is the new growth engine for computing devices and is the hottest thing in online promotion.  If you aren\'t prepared to leverage this phenomonon, it\'s time to get started.  Smart phones and tablets are taking over the world.  Smart phone unit sales have exceeded those of cell phones, gaming devices and notebooks in there first 5 years from introduction.  Tablets are on track to exceed smart phones.

Mobile computing is all about content consumption.&nb...

Remember to check our Events page.  We\'ll be updating our calendar this week.

You\'re a solopreneur, experienced entrepreneur or a owner/manager of a small business.  You want your business to take off like a rocket and not fizzle like a sparkler.  There are a couple of key considerations to keep in mind if you want to meet your expectations.  Nothing is worse than failure to launch when trying to jump start a new business venture or put an existing business on a aggressive growth trajectory.  Here are some considerations that should be part of every c...

Launching a marketing campaign can create an exciting burst of creativity, excitement and enthusiasm.  Every new campaign holds with it an anticipation of phenomenal business growth.  The instinctive action is to pour your heart and soul into and make sure it’s done right.  The old adage of “you have to spend money to make money” rings in your ears as you spare no expense to pull it off in style.

I hate to be a kill joy, but stop right there.  You just can’t get away...

In my corporate days, there was a hackneyed phrase about not working harder, but working smarter.  This was a brilliant comment thrown out to a group of business heads when corporate or we had collectively decided that headcount needed to be cut in the face of a deteriorating economic climate.  It was usually made by the controller that didn't want to spend the time to allocate reductions based on where a business was relative to plan and simply wanted everyone to take out 10% o...

Let\'s face it, not too many people go into business for the pleasure of finding clients and customers.  People go into business because they have a unique idea for a product or service that they feel there\'s a need for.  Their pleasure is in delivering the product or service and seeing the results.  Developing market awareness, drawing prospects into a store or website, delivering the call to action and closing the sale, not so much.

Same thing for small businesses.  The f...

I’ve seen a lot ways in which people have priced products and services.  Some are incredibly well thought out and others leave something to be desired.  Here’s a short list of pricing techniques commonly employed today:

Price to market

Price to closest competitor

Price to achieve a specific margin

Price to achieve a certain personal or corporate net income

Price at an X% premium or discount to market

Price at the same level as last year and where that price came from, who kno...

Ask most small business owners these days about marketing and you’ll hear a litany of comments about their website, blog and social media.  The remainder will say they don’t need marketing; they get all their business through referrals, but they would like more.  Marketing for small business means nothing more than promotion these days, promotion being exclusively web-based.

This is very unfortunate for small businesses struggling in our great recession economy.  The time, en...

Anyone that has been in sales and marketing or played a support role in the process has probably gone through a few awkward moments and a couple of really, really bad experiences in the process.  Most of these experiences age well and you can actually laugh about them with the passage of time.  Others, we keep locked up in the dark recesses of our minds, only rearing their ugly heads when we wake-up at 3:00 in the morning with night terrors. 

Enough time has passed that any pers...

Small businesses make some common mistakes when it comes to marketing often leading to sluggish sales or leaving money on the table. A couple of quick fixes can energize revenue and pump up the bottom line. It doesn’t take an expert or a lot of work to make it happen. Just apply some common sense to the fundamentals and you’ll be on your way to marketing stardom.

Each one of these points I have run into repeatedly and it’s frustrating to think of the opportunity lost. Here they are in no ...

Entrepreneurs and small business owners often miss huge opportunities to make serious returns on their investment of time and money. All too often they have not set their goals and expectations high enough. If you don’t expect to get there, you’re probably not going to.  Shoot for the stars and you might make it to the moon.

There are three levels of entrepreneurship that I identify with goal setting:

• Timid - Replace my prior income as an employee by being self-employed
• Confid...

The old adage “Actions Speak Louder Than Words” goes especially well in the entrepreneurial environment.  You have to do something if you expect something to happen, it’s not going to happen by itself.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m big on strategy and planning.  I think anyone that hasn’t done an adequate job of planning their business and developing their business model is a fool.  That’s a necessary element of a rational person moving forward with a business idea, movin...

For over thirty years now I’ve made my career in the private sector.  Working both for a large corporation and owning my own business.  I’ve been through more economic cycles than I care to think about and have been given marching orders to cut cost with each one.  Following my corporate career, I was quite convinced I knew the routine and understood the decision making process to effectively manage a business while reducing cost.  I have, however, come to doubt my expert...

I\'ve been working with Receivable Consultants International for over six-months now and the\'re unlike any credit and collections company I\'ve ever worked with.  In the past, turning an account over to collections was like writing it off.  They\'d make one call and if the other party didn\'t respond, that was the end of that.  I understand the accounts I was working with weren\'t that large, but they were certainly worth a couple of calls. My business is small and a $10,000 unco...

I\'ve heard Microsoft is going to be leaving its Issaquah office in a consolidation move.  If this is correct, that\'s bad news for Issaquah.  My understanding was that this was primarilly an incubator for software developers working on third party applications.

If anyone knows more about this, please leave a comment.

What has your office business center done for you lately?  Other than provide you office space, internet service and a phone?  Probably not much, particularly if you're in a corporately owned facility.  You'll get what you pay for and you'll pay for every last thing you get.  That's not what I had in mind when I created the Meadow Creek Business Center in Issaquah, Washington.

I've never really been in the real estate business and never had the urge...

Selecting office space can get as emotional as buying a car.  The trick is to start by separating what you need from what you want.  This doesn’t have to be extreme, for instance we could all get by with a Yugo, but that doesn’t mean our legitimate needs might go further than that.  How much time do you spend in your car, do you carry passengers often or is your passion music and you require a top of the line sound system.  You might say the last is not really ...

As a provider of office space, I’m often asked “why would I want to pay for office space when I have a home office?”  The first thing that comes to my mind is that I have a home office too and why don’t I just work at home.  My home office is actually quite nice.  It’s just off the front hall and has a great view of our front gardens and a little farther down a growth of pine trees along a ridge frequently visited by bald eagles in the area.  ...

No matter if you are an entrepreneur, small business owner or an executive of a large corporation, you should be a member of your local chamber of commerce.  Chambers of commerce are advocates for business in a community, they partner with local and state government to promote economic growth and job creation and they create opportunities for businesses to network, learn and benefit from being a member of a larger group of individuals with common interests and needs.

All businesses need to...

The scenes from the state house in Madison, Wisconsin look eerily like those from Cairo and Tripoli.  Are they both representative of the common man rising up against dictatorial leaders?  I don\'t think so.  In Madison, or as we called it when I lived in Wisconsin, the People\'s Republic of Madison, I see a bunch of public employees trying to use the power of the mob to protect their own wallets and pocketbooks at the expense of the common people.  Public employees have...

Home based business owners, entrepreneurs and small businesses lacking meeting space often do without because of the perceived high price of quality meeting rooms.  Their experience is probably based on contacting the local hotel and asking for a quote.  Room rental charges, audio/visual equipment and support charges, food service and other charges can really add up.  A two-hour staff meeting, training session or customer presentation can easilly be a $500 investment.

For b...

Yeah you, one of the two hundred thousand home based businesses in the Puget Sound area.  I know, you’re a serious entrepreneur.  You’re going to be a big success someday.  You’re going to go viral, be discovered and the world will beat a path to your door.  After the IPO you’ll be worth a bazillion and start chillin with Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.

In the mean time you’re working out of that spare bedroom with the desk made from cinder blocks and plywood yo...

We were doing our quarterly review of area business centers’ office space, virtual office and meeting room pricing.  Rental rates are down from their highs of 2008, but not for setup fees, non-refundable deposits and hidden extras.  I’ve often wondered why corporations with high expectations on their rates of return were in the executive suite business in the first place.  Now I know!

Here’s a list of things we ran into:

• Setup fee – this is pretty standard, b...

As plain as the nose on your face.  What does that mean?  It means something that is obvious.  It\'s right up there with; plain as day, is the Pope Catholic, is a pig pork and does a bear sh#t in the woods?

We all look in a mirror many times a day.  What do we see?  We see what we are looking for.  Is my hair combed?  Did I remember to shave?  Are my teeth clean?  We confirm what we most likely already know and get on with life.

I suppose ...

It seems every town, school and entrepreneur is taken with the idea of a business incubator. Each party is hoping to make money off of the deal while serving a noble cause by providing a variety of different elements to promote entrepreneurial growth. I have not yet seen an example of a business incubator with sustained results. 

Cities are hooked on the idea of business incubators as a way to foster economic growth. Quite often this is done in cooperation with a local ...

It seems every town, school and entrepreneur is taken with the idea of a business incubator. Each party is hoping to make money off of the deal while serving a noble cause by providing a variety of different elements to promote entrepreneurial growth. I have not yet seen an example of a business incubator with sustained results. 

Cities are hooked on the idea of business incubators as a way to foster economic growth. Quite often this is done in cooperation with a local ...

I am a big strategy fan, mostly because I have restructured so many companies that did not have one.  Others had one that had not changed in years despite significant changes in the market environment.  A Strategic Plan must be a living document that reflects the realities of the world around you.  Your strategy must reflect the way the world works, not the way you would like it to work.  Truly innovative strategies in fact change the way the world works, which does not happe...

I am always amazed at the number of people that do not have a proper business plan.  I am equally amazed at those who feel that their fill in the blank plan will make them successful beyond their wildest expectations.  What amazes me even more are those entrepreneurs and small business owners with or without plans that do not have a strategy or strategic plan.

All the detailed planning in the world isn\'t worth a darn without strategy.  A well thought out strategy is an analysis ...

If you’ve survived the recession, you are probably eager to start growing your business again.  Hopefully, you’ve taken the opportunity to get you marketing side of the business in order so that when the business begins to flow you’re positioned to take a larger share.  If not, it’s not too late to make it happen.

Small business owners generally spend 16 hours per week on the “administration” of their business and less than half that amount of time growing their business.&...

Once you’ve decided to go into business, there are certain administrative steps you need to take in order to get started on the right foot.  Missteps here can cost you a lot of time and money later on.  Do it right from the start and your entrepreneurial journey will be much easier.  There is nothing more self-destructive than having to unwind a big administrative mess when you should be out growing your business.

All this assumes you have a business plan that has been ...

Back in August of 2009, I wrote \"Let the Recovery Begin\".  The recession now having been declared over in July 2009, makes my declaration of recovery off by a month.  While I qualified my forecast for a strong recovery as being another jobless recovery and tempered by state and local budget crises, I did think that the duration of the recession would create a greater bounce.  Pent-up consumer demand, I thought would lead to a more vibrant recovery.  At the time, an old...

I was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on a business trip for a staff meeting.  I watched as the second plane hit the tower on a TV in the lobby of the Embassy Suites.  We started our staff meeting and the Group President came to the conference room and told us we should leave, there was a plane somewhere in the area that had been hijacked.  My boss continued the meeting for a while and then we made plans to get home. 

We tried to return rental cars at the airport and the...

Yesterday afternoon my mail was dropped off at my desk.  I just got around to opening it.  The first thing that fell out of the large padded envelope was a box of matches.  Next a tubed Romeo Y Julieta Verona\'s Court cigar.  Thank you God, I\'ll enjoy myself tonight.  Next, I fished out a gold colored hard envelope holding an invitation printed on lexan.  Wow!  Someone is really trying to buy me, in  style of course.  There was the invitiation, I was...

Entrepreneurs, small business owners and remote employees of large corporations all have something in common.  They all have a need to work effectively and present themselves as being professional.  If your office is your home, car or suitcase, chances are you struggle with this.

Taking calls on your cell while running through the airport trying to catch your flight, explaining your value proposition to a client in your car attempting to navigate through traffic or resolve a cus...

A good friend of mine in Finland had taken on a global powerhouse in their own backyard and won a market share battle.  For a startup to have the audacity to take on the preeminent global leader was heroic enough, but to do it in a product with huge barriers to entry was even more inspiring.  As is the custom in Finland, we were rotating between the sauna and cooling off with ice-cold vodka after a long day of work.  I asked him what his greatest business challenge was.

I have invested a considerable amount of time in social media.  I’m not an expert by any means, but I have written dozens of articles made countless posts attended and hosted events.  I’ve even hosted workshops on how to use social media to your advantage, specifically to drive traffic to your website.

At the same time, I refer to social media as the narcotic of the masses.  Not the masses of people from pre-teens to octogenarians “talking” to their friends on Fac...

What has The Man done for you lately?  If you\'re Too Big to Fail, you picked up some TARP money and paid yourself a big fat bonus.  Pretty much hush money for not telling the world whose idea it was to have Fannie and Freddie go into the sub-prime loan business.  If you\'re out of work, you’re getting an endless series of unemployment benefit extensions.  Not particularly good for you or the country, but sure to get your vote.  If you\'re an entrepreneur trying to rid...

Only Nixon could go to China and only John Kerry could debunk \"progressive\" economics.  It would take a tax and spend, big government, soak the rich, nanny stater like Sen. Kerry to clear up any misconception on the realities of the economic impact of the progressive agenda.  All of that progressive rhetoric is for getting votes, but when applied to the real world, it just doesn\'t work. 

Senator Kerry just bought himself a new $7 million yacht.  Good for him,...

Not too long ago, a couple starting a restaurant approached me.  They had to have a business plan and they had to have it now.  I asked what the hurry was and they indicated that their future landlord was insisting on it.  I thought good for the landlord.  Eighty percent of restaurants fail in the first two years so it might save everyone involved a whole lot of trouble by insisting that they think through and document what they intended to do. 

From the perspec...

Leadership may seem like an unusual topic for solopreneurs.  An individual working alone may not appear to be a likely candidate for leadership training.  Leadership is, however, a necessary component of an entrepreneur\'s skill set.

First and foremost, they are managing the most difficult employee ever, there self.  What could possibly be harder than inspiring, teaching, correcting and managing a person that knows you inside out, is free to take advantage of your weaknesses and ...

I was recently doing some research for a presentation to a group of entrepreneurs. Since much of my consulting business is to entrepreneurs, this is not the first time I’ve jumped online and to dig up what I could find on what an entrepreneur is and what makes an entrepreneur successful. What I came up with was eye opening and caused me to take pause and examine my own entrepreneurial activities.

Most of the research was sifting through economic census data and reading highly footnot...

Entrepreneurs face self-imposed limits to their growth based on preconceived notions of their own abilities and confidence in others.  These limitations translate into anemic visions of their business potential.  I have observed barriers to business vision based on five stages of business development.  Each stage is a learning process for the would-be entrepreneur.  A different management style accompanies each and stays with the individual throughout their career.  Each...

The recession has created a new wave of entrepreneurs.  Disenchanted corporate executives will often choose to start their own business versus extending their corporate careers.  With close to three-quarters of new businesses failing within 10 years, this is not an easy out to finding another position or without risk. 

Too often new entrepreneurs, even well funded and knowledgeable former executives, will enter their new business adventure with apprehension and not be fully comm...

Having suffered through more than a half-dozen economic traumas in my professional career, I had grown complacent and philosophical about economic cycles.  That of course ended as we entered the latest recession and as one of the self employed I found myself more than inconvenienced, but one of the traumatized.  Instead of focusing solely on the managing through the consequences of economic distress, I found myself in economic distress. 

I still follow my advice to clien...

The recession appears to have reached its nadir or close to it and a recovery is soon to follow.  The current recession has shed 3.7% of GDP since the end of 2007 equaling the 1957-58 recession as the deepest downturn since the Great Depression.  As with most serious financial disruptions, the pessimist and those that wanted TV airtime were prognosticating another depression.  This recession fell far short of that.

The Current Crisis vs. The Great Depression

Social media web sites have provided a non-threatening environment to aspiring entrepreneurs to gain encouragement, education, camaraderie and networking opportunities not previously available.  Forums, events, articles and other online as well as in-person features and functions provide a valuable venue for making the entrepreneurial experience more enjoyable and productive.  To many entrepreneurs, it is an invaluable lifeline of support in the treacherous early years of starting a bu...

One of the most often seen questions on market studies I have worked with over the last 30 years is:

“Is the company easy to do business with?”

To many entrepreneurs, this might seem surprising.  You have been so inundated with the mantra of Unique Selling Propositions (USPs) and Irresistible Offers that this may seem an odd question to ask.  With the objective of an immediate sale based on your USP, what could be easier?

Well, the fact of the matter is that very few purchases o...

If you have been keeping up with my articles and blogs, you already knew the recovery would be under way and this summer would be a welcome relief from the agony of the past year.  If you have not, then the recent economic news and pronouncements of the end being in sight by people in high places may have come as something of a surprise given all of their negative thinking, lowering of expectations and blame gaming we’ve been subjected to for the past year.  Unfortunately, our leader...

My own view is that political correctness has resulted in the dumbing down of America.  We can no longer have intelligent conversation about important issues of the day for fear of offending someone or that “political correctness” will be used against us to prevent otherwise compelling arguments from being made.  This same phenomenon can be self imposed in the business world. 

An old mentor of mine once referred to “killer assumptions” that were engrained in the corporate...

I am always improvising my elevator speech when I go to various events.  When I\'ve had too much coffee or my persona drifts back into the \"corporate\" Dick Gabel, it often takes on an edge that startles some.  That was the case earlier this week when I announced that business is war, entrepreneurs were in a kill or be killed situation, most of them were going to die and if they didn\'t have fire in their belly they ought to find a job.   I then offered my mercenary services...

Every once in a while a conversation triggers some memories that have stuck with me through the years.  They are usually humorous, ironic or particularly prophetic.  Everything else has been compressed and relegated to external storage and basically irretrievable, just like on my own network.

Today, my daughter was putting together her resume.  She\'s in her senior year of high school and is trying desperately to get a summer job.  She wanted some examples so I went...

My cell phone let\'s me watch TV, view movies, email, surf the internet, take pictures and an untold number of other things I\'m sure I have no use for, but it isn\'t worth a darn for communicating.

For one thing, if we\'re going to be married to a cell phone 24/7 we want it to be unobtrusive, namely small. Small means that once you put the phone to your ear, the end of it doesn\'t reach much past your ear lobe. That puts quite a distance between your mouth and the microphone. Under ide...

While it may be unfair to lay all the blame for the demise of the domestic auto industry at the feet of the United Auto Workers, the union certainly deserves the lion\'s share of the blame.  From a selfish standpoint, its hard to fault their actions, they hold a monopoly on factory labor and they have successfully exacted hard to believe wage, benefit and work rule concessions from the Big Three for decades.  All of this was done without killing them, but slowly wringing the life out o...

The term “too big to fail” screams for a new look at anti-trust legislation.  While original anti-trust legislation looked at the unfair advantage of monopolistic behavior over potential competitors, consumers and later in restricted innovation, the thought that the demise of a single corporation could have a calamitous impact on our country’s economy takes it to another level.  It is inconceivable that we should allow this situation to exist. 

First we need to put some par...

I\'m feeling better about the economy these days.  While I hesitate to read too much into one good week on Wall Street, I do take solace in a couple of encouraging events that suggest there is more good news to come.  First, a couple of takeovers in the pharmaceutical industry.  In addition, Berkshire Hathaway announced that they were resuming takeover analyses adding that opportunities abound. 

Stocks are now selling at pennies on the dollar having given back over a de...

Every recession or economic anomaly is caused by the lack of a greater fool. Hard to believe given that everyone and their brother was involved in this one. From politicians that wanted to keep the populace happy by giving everyone a shot at their own home, other politicians that were happy to let it happen and fuel economic growth, the bankers, mortgage brokers, real estate agents, builders, building material suppliers and everyone else with a finger in the pie, investment bankers, shareholders...

No matter what your political inclination, the election of a new President always brings anticipation of some positive early action that will bring the various political tribes in the country together. After all, whether you voted for him or not, the country has a new President and we should all want him to be successful beyond our wildest dreams.

So far, it has unfortunately been a case of “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” This must be particularly distressing for younger American...

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Faced with disastrous near term prospects, you could join the rest of the herd and cut costs wherever you can, hunker down and wait for good times to return. An alternative I would suggest is to take advantage of your competition while they are hibernating. More than likely, they\'ve cut advertising losing the mind share of existing and potential customers, cut back in other areas costing them in quality and customer service and possibly in sales a...

I have a difficult time with CEO pay.  On one hand I would like to think that it is determined based on market forces and should not be subject to government scrutiny.  On the other hand, it is most certainly influenced by the CEO fraternity of board members and compensation committees.  As a result, I have to defer to my gut feel.

I do not begrudge people like Bill Gates the ability to accumulate as much wealth as they can.  He didn\'t do it through an egregiously high sala...

Current events seem to have raised the bar on stock market volatility. Today, seemingly no news is good for a 5% swing up or down. While a 5% swing in an individual stock may not be out of the ordinary, day-to-day fluctuations of that magnitude for the market as a whole certainly are. Does this mean even in a post recovery market, we can expect to see 10, 15 and 20% movements in individual issue share price be something of the norm? If so, how will that effect corporate governance?

Even today, ...

If you are not somehow preoccupied with the financial crisis, you are probably homeless, out of work and out of your mind.  Virtually everyone has been effected by the worldwide meltdown of the banking system.  It is only human that when faced by crisis, we look to see who to blame.  Given the magnitude of the problem we are fortunate that the government is going to do the work for us.  Nancy Pelosi has instructed Barney Frank to get to the bottom of this sordid mess.&nb...

My own ability to remain philosophical about the stock market ended about 20% of my life savings ago.  I must admit that I have become somewhat cynical in the last month as the market tests new lows on a daily basis.  This has afforded me some enjoyment in the dark humor surrounding the pathetic attempts of the media and financial experts to explain why the market dropped another 5% on the previous day. 

My favorite explanations revolve around addressing known facts as surprises ...

How much a business should be making is not an easy question to answer, although all too many answer it without a lot of thought.  Too often those who put themselves ahead of the business consider the answer to be as much as possible no matter what the circumstances.  This can only be acceptable if more senior management have an equally short-term, self serving and/or simple minded view of life.  A somewhat more thoughtful, but nonetheless equally inane response is to establish th...

Maybe it\'s the Christmas season, but I\'m beginning to have visions of recovery ahead.  My internal plan is that life will be much brighter this summer.  Many experts say that we\'ll have to wait until at least 2010 for good times, but I don\'t put too much stock in \"experts\" these days.  Even if they are correct, I hope that just as I didn\'t notice we were in recession in the first half of 2008, I may similarly be spared recognizing that we are in recession in the second half...

It was on Good Friday.  My wife informed me that we were not going to be eating meat, but she wanted to stop in and get some fast food while we were out.  I saw a sign for Skipper\'s in South Everett, Washington and pulled in.  I regretted doing so almost as soon as I had done it.  The place looked run down and there weren\'t many cars in the lot, although we were a little early for the lunch time crowd.  As I got out of my car, an older, disheveled looking man was ...

The strategic plan is a vision and roadmap to future success only to the extent that it is:

• Founded upon a rational vision.
• Impediments to the goal are anticipated and dealt with.
• The plan is flexible enough to respond to a changing environment.
• The organization responsible for making it happen knows the plan, believes in the plan and is motivated to make it happen.

The alignment of these fundamental requirements seldom happens. To a very real extent, that is what separates successful c...

If there\'s one thing worse than not having a strategy, it\'s having a strategy with no implementation plan. It\'s all in the execution. no matter how much research goes into the plan, unless somebody does something, it\'s not going to happen. In most small businesses, you have to do something whether you are the only person or leading the way.

What\'s even worse than not having an implementation plan? One that is not realistic. Stretch goals are nice for deciding where your end point is going ...

Deciding what task and decision making you should let go of and pass on to others may be the easiest part of the process.  You have more than likely already made those decision and you remind yourself of those decision every day along with a lot of other people.  What am I talking about you say.  Ask yourself the following questions and you will probably have a really good start to give away pile.

• What things that you haven’t done keep you up at night?
• What do your c...

Defining the process for every day decision making and tasks is both difficult and essential to successful delegation.  Thinking through how you go about doing something is not as easy as it might seem.  Several steps will help get through this and create valuable documentation for your business that is essential not only for delegation, but in establish consistency that will improve the quality of services provided that translate into enhanced customer service and improved business pe...

One of the most common difficulties facing small business managers is dealing with the concept of delegation.  Delegation is a vital element in ensuring the efficient use of scarce resources.  In a small business the most vital resource is the owner or manager.  Unfortunately, the lack of delegation can overwhelm that resource and decrease not only the effectiveness of the owner, but all of the company’s assets.  The effect of this inefficiency is to hold the firm back from...

The question of what to do with the decision making and tasks that you have identified should be far more straight forward and quantifiable than the series of things you’ve done leading up to this point.  The answer can usually be determined by answering several questions.

• Do you have available staff to do the work?
• Do you have staff qualified to do the work?
• Do the responsibilities logically fit with any available qualified staff?
• Is your work load constant or does it vary ...

The question of what to do with the decision making and tasks that you have identified should be far more straight forward and quantifiable than the series of things you’ve done leading up to this point.  The answer can usually be determined by answering several questions.

• Do you have available staff to do the work?
• Do you have staff qualified to do the work?
• Do the responsibilities logically fit with any available qualified staff?
• Is your work load constant or does it vary...

A Business Plan is an essential element of running any business.  Your firm can be a billion dollar multi-national or you and your dog working out of the garage, you need a plan.  A plan’s value is not so much the finished product, but the thought process and decision making that go into building it.  A plan forces you to think through what it is you want to do, where you want to go, how you are going to get there and what problems you might encounter along the...

Plan, Do, Check, Act is a very simple method of keeping yourself grounded to reality.  We all do things for a reason.  When we do something we expect a certain outcome.  Sometimes we do something and we don’t get the result we expected.  We call those mistakes.  We learn from those, some faster than others.  As we learn, we change what we are doing to see if that works and gets us the desired result.  We keep changing until that happens or w...

Over eager shoppers at a Long Island Wal-Mart trampled and killed a Wal-Mart greeter on Black Friday.  This event is a tragedy on its own, but was made even worse in the way it was reported in The New York Times and reprinted in dozens of papers throughout the United States.  The Times described the incident as "a sign of consumer desparation amid a bleak economy". How in the world did they come to that conclusion other than to determine that the death of a Wal-Mart greete...

The business community has long claimed that private enterprise was inherently more efficient in providing goods and services than the government.  The premise being that government was prone to bureaucratic bloat with ever increasing taxation, over regulation and the centralization of authority.  If big government created these practices, big business seems to be making them into an art form.

Anyone that has worked in a large corporate environment outside of a headquarters unde...