Update...

Update...

Catch up on what I've been working on these past five years...

http://thehomeplaceseries.blogspot.com/

Dr. Bill  ;-)

Giveaway Posting

For my long time readers that may have missed the latest Giveaway Posting:


http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/2011/09/treasure-chest-thursday-my-memories.html

Planning for 2010

Planning for 2010

This blog has been inactive for a few months as I built a following on two other blogs and recorded our early retirement activity on another. My genealogy blog now is approaching 100 followers and my book blog is approaching 50 followers.

I am also nearing publication of my first fiction book, which has a family oriented, farm based, family succession and alternative revenue sources set of themes, among others. In an attempt to focus my whole body of work, this blog, as noted in the revised mission statement above, will henceforth focus on:

1. Family succession planning, especially for farms and ranches, and

2. Alternative revenue sources for farms and ranches.

Now, recognize that most other business related topics can be related to the above two priorities, so, the work continues.

I am getting this first blog post on the records so that a few of you will pick up my priorities on a Google Alert or search and perhaps leave me a note.

I would be especially interested to hear from you if you are within 100 or so of the Branson, MO, area in SW MO (that would be SE Kansas, NE OK, and northern Arkansas as well as SW and Central MO. I hope to, perhaps, be available to put on workshops or seminars starting in the summer, for clubs or organizations. In addition to my professor background in business, my work with the Kansas Flint Hills Tourism Coalition over the past five years and more are very applicable. These will all be spelled out in more detail here over the next few months.

Please leave comments. One other thing - who do you know that is out and about doing good work in this area in this region? I'll be learning this, myself, but your referrals would be most useful. Neil Harl, at Iowa State University, was our guru in Western Iowa in the 1970s and 1980s... who is yours, now? I'm the new guy... but I love to work with the experts!

What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear from you!

Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)

Where do I get a loan in times like these?

Many small business owners in need of loans feel they have been left out of the various government stimulus programs during this recession. The hard truth, of course, is that loans to small business are difficult to obtain in the best of times. Lenders are even more cautious and conservative during downturns.

Here are a couple of things to think about, however. First, a 2009 study by the Kauffman Foundation found that more than half of the Fortune 500 companies were launched during downturns. Perhaps that should be obvious… half during downturns and half during good times? The point, of course, is that good business concepts with good planning and good execution will find the financing needed, regardless of the economic environment.

Fortune Small Business magazine, September 2009, p.25, reports that this year’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act added $50 million in loans to the SBA’s $21.4 million microloan program (for loans up to $35,000), as well as $24 million in technical assistance for these loans. Further, the senior vice president for commercial lending at the American Bankers Association reported, “Small businesses that go to small banks have higher loan-approval ratings.” Small, local, conservative banks are still generating funds that need to be placed in loans to approved businesses with demonstrated needs. That is the business they are in.

You are still going to have to demonstrate that you have the assets to use as collateral if you default on the loan. Also, you must demonstrate that you will have the cash flow to service the loan. This is standard practice. It just seems more onerous in “these times.” It is not. It is what commercial lending should be in order for financial institutions to be as successful as we each want to be.

Is your business prepared to meet these standards? If so, there is likely a financing source available for your business.

What are your thoughts? I'd really like to hear from you!

Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)

Most overrated businesses... a new list

The Yahoo Small Business Answers Center sponsored by Bank of America has a recent article by Kelly K. Spors and Kevin Salwen titled: The 7 Most Overrated Businesses
It is a good update of what my business and university business school teaching has suggested to me, with some updates. What do you think?

In an earlier post, I mentioned that recessions can be a great time to start a business... but it must be a right business for you, and where you are. They mention this circumstance, as well. Here are their 7:

1. Restaurants - has always been my first, as well, along with bars. They quoted "60% of restaurants close in the first three years" (2003 study at Ohio State University) vs. roughly half of all start-ups in five years - the classic small business statistic.
2. Direct Sales - hasn't everybody tried this, at one time or another?
3. Online Retail - one of the "new" ones - by the way, there are millions of them...
4. High-End Retail - SBA notes they fail at much higher rate than non-specialty stores.
5. Independent Consulting - their quote: "A successful consulting firm needs people to find the work, grind out the work and mind the work. Unless you know you can do all three yourself, you potentially expose your business to great risk." I concur, from personal experience.
6. Franchise Ownership - a 1995 study by a researcher at Wayne State University found that 62% of franchises were open for business after four years, they note, and franchises were also found to be less profitable in those early years. I've been there, done that. True!
7. Traffic-Driven Web Sites - another new one. To have any chance of success, a $50 million investment is a minimum, one start-up consultant says. Does that, perhaps, eliminate most of us??

I enjoyed this update of one of my favorite subjects.

What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear from you!

Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)

Are these words outdated for the office?

A recent article provided by Business Week, by Carolyn Duffy Marsan, suggests there are now:
"12 Words You Can Never Say in the Office" without looking out of date. What do you think?
[Ref: http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/107602/12-words-you-can-never-say-in-the-office.html]

1. Intranet
2. Extranet
3. Web Surfing
4. Push Technology
5. Application Service Provider (ASP)
6. Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)
7. Internet Telephony
8. Weblog
9. Thin Client
10. Rboc
11. Long-Distance Call
12. World Wide Web

What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear from you!

Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)

Getting Down to Business

The students in my online Entrepreneurship class were recently asked the following questions, that I took from the text, noted below:

“Getting Down to Business”
1) Can you handle uncertainty?
2) Are you energetic?
3) Do you believe in yourself and your abilities?
4) Can you handle reversals and failures well?
5) Are you passionate about your goals and vision?
6) Are you good with other people?
7) Are you adaptable?
8) Are you willing to take risks or leaps of faith?

[From page 32-33 of the text: entrepreneurship: A Process Perspective, 2e; by Robert A. Baron and Scott A. Shane; 2008; Thomson*South-Western Publishers; ISBN 0-324-36558-6]

How would you respond to these questions?
Do the answers help you evaluate whether or not you might be good at starting a new business? Why or why not?

What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear from you!

Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)

Entrepreneurship

As I prepare to teach my fall on-line class on Entrepreneurship I cannot help but wonder if the current economic environment will again be a natural incubator for entrepreneurship - or will the severity and indeterminate length of this downturn be more of a deterrent to the formation of new ventures? Only time will tell, of course, but speculation is a worthwhile activity to assist in monitoring the upcoming activities.

My first thought would be that many start-ups have been delayed, but as the recession continues, with the signs of the end we are beginning to see... even though down the road a bit, we will begin to see a sharp upward increase in new ventures. There is built-up desire and need; will there be some particular "event" that will trigger the final decision? Are financial institutions ready to support new business; business expansion? Are customers prepared to "take a chance" on new businesses?

What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear from you!

Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)

The Real Secret to Success

Watching Roger Federer and Tiger Woods compete in their chosen endeavors at the highest level over the weekend reminded me of the great advise I got from an audio tape, nearly fifty years, it seems (paraphrased): "Successful people do what unsuccessful people are either unwilling or unable to do." During the tournament Tiger was competing in, with Anthony Kim at his side on Sunday, the announcers kept referring to "things" that AK had not yet learned - that he would have to if he is to become anywhere near comparable to some of the things Tiger does today. He has the natural talent. It is the, what I call, "work ethic" that is missing. The willingness to do all the practice, to identify and adopt changes, to make most of the activities "second nature" through commitment and adoption. It is the pre-game and post-game routine - relentlessly, without fail. On Sunday, this one day, Tiger could have chosen to watch the end of the Federer-Roddick tennis match, and shorten his pre-game routine. There was never such a thought. When it was time to do what he was supposed to do to be successful, he did it. Did all the others? Good question. I'll bet not a s faithfully - if my theory holds.

The week before, at that golf tournament, David Duvall, a #1 a number of years ago, talked of how he had taken his "talent" for granted. He just assumed that would take him where he wanted to go. Actually, it did - but it was not enough to keep him there, to sustain the success he believed he deserved because of his "talent." He had failed to recognize the many other things that go into "success." He had not yet been willing to do what the "sustained successful" person must do. He is now coming back, trying to do more of those things.

This does not just apply to sports. It applies to everything we do - however you define success. Give it some thought. I'd love to hear your thinking, and your examples.

Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)

Do these phrases kill resumes?

Liz Ryan writing as The Savvy Networker says the following 10 "boilerplate phrases" will kill a resume in today's market. What do you think?

• Results-oriented profession
• Cross-functional teams
• More than (x) years of progressively responsible experience
• Superior (or excellent) communication skills
• Strong work ethic
• Met or exceeded expectations
• Proven track record of success
• Works well with all levels of staff
• Team player
• Bottom-line orientation

She says this marks you as uncreative and "vocabulary challenged" to use these "boring corporate-speak phrases - rather than using "language... that people like you and me would actually say." I'm really interested in feedback on this topic.

Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)

Older-Worker (Seasoned Employees) Benefits

In March I shared an article with 10 reasons older-workers may be of benefit to your small business, especially in these tough economic times. Today, I'd like to focus on the fact that older-workers are more likely to understand recessions - such as we currently are experiencing.

Older workers have been through recessions before - specifically the oil crisis of the 1970, the recession of the early 80s and the tech bubble burst of the late 1990s, to mention but a few of the worst. We have seen how businesses bounce back and move forward better than before. We mostly remember our parents and grandparents talk of the Great Depression... even though we did not always act on that information, then. Older-workers bring a steady perspective to a jumpy workplace, and are a good balance to a lot of the younger workers hired in recent years.

Finally for today, older-workers tend to be more reliable and loyal. Contrary to common belief, with careful screening, older-workers are often much less prone to sick leave and time away from work for any reason. The work ethic of the past years still exists... if you look carefully at their past work records. In all things, past performance is still the best predictor of future performance.

Give it some thought. Check it out. I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)

8 Pitfalls when Managing Change

A number of years ago, John Kotter outlined eight mistakes that organizations make when trying to change - are these still valid? What do you think?

1. Allowing too much complacenty.
2. Failing to create a sufficiently powerful guiding coalition.
3. Underestimating the power of vision.
4. Under-communicating the vision by a factor of 10 (or 100 or even 1,000).
5. Permitting obstacles to block the new vision.
6. Failing to create short-term wins.
7. Declaring victory too soon.
8. Neglecting to anchor changes firmly in the corporate culture.

My experience has been that these are timeless. What has been your experience?

Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)

Take Charge!

"Create a Business Plan for improve your career focus and priorities" - this was the lead of an article I published in "Minority Engineer" in the Winter of 1996. The concepts presented then are just as true and useful today - especially in the current business climate. Whether you are currently employed (or unemployed), starting a new business, or thinking of starting a new small business, the idea of using the Business Plan approach is a very good way to get and keep on track for your future.

The following quote was the caption of a photo accompanying the article: "In order to maximize your career plan, you must make each individual decision based on your experience and the best information and research you can gather." This is still true, thirteen years later.

A sidebar provided these elements for Your Business Plan:
Title Page
Executive Summary
Background Description
Market Analysis
Describe Your Services
Marketing Plan
Training and Development Plan
Salary Expectations
Financial Statements and Projections
Balance Between Personal Life and Career

These will all be expanded in future notes. What are your thoughts? Would this work for you?

Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)

When you must close an operation...

We often hear that the best way to reduce the workforce or to close an operation is to: "Go Fast!"
Get it over with, and move on. In the May Issue of Harvard Business Review, Kenneth W. Freeman, based on his experience, and writing in "First Person" suggests a different approach. Check it out!

He says "it pays to go the extra mile for employees, customers, and suppliers. He has the experience, what he calls: "soft hands."

These are his suggestions (read the article to get the full impact, of course!):

1. Treat employees with dignity, fairness, and respect - the way you want to be treated.
2. Treat you customers and suppliers like valued partners during the shutdown process, and they will stick with you.
3. Manage the closure or layoff like a project... (carefully and thoughtfully- my words!)
4. Use judgment and, if necessary, fight back.

What do you think? What has your experience been? I'd love to hear from you!

Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)

Do Teams Work for You?

I have always considered Dr. J. Richard Hackman the academic expert on Teams. He is now at Harvard and was recently interviewed by Diane Coutu. Key elements of the interview are published in the May 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review. Some excerpts are available at the link.

While still extolling the possibilities of working in teams, he also expresses concerns, based on real-life experiences, that unless teams are used correctly with respect to any program or project, they are as likely to be ineffective as to be successful. This has been my experience, over the years, as well. To build a team that works, five elements are required:

1. Teams must be real.
2. Teams need a compelling direction.
3. Teams need enabling structures.
4. Teams need a supportive organization.
5. Teams need expert coaching.

I will deal with each of these issues in future notes, building on his research and adding my own research and comments based on observation.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear from you. Have teams worked, in your experience?

Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)

Cash Management in Hard Times

Although written with the larger company in mind, the May 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review has an article that can be useful to small businesses as well: "Need Cash? Look Inside Your Company," by Kevin Kaiser and S. David Young. It also is available on-line.

They list six "don'ts" of working-capital management, that, though counter-intuitive, may be very useful in times such as these:

1. Don't manage to the income statement.
2. Don't reward the sales force for growth alone.
3. Don't overemphasize production quality.
4. Don't tie receivables to payables.
5. Don't manage by current and quick ratios.
6. Don't benchmark competitors.

We have been teaching some of these as "standard practice" in business school! What do you think of this different approach. I'd love to hear your thoughts and stories.

Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)

SBANC Newsletter

If you are not already getting it, I heartily recommend the SBANC Newsletter, edited by Don Bradley at the University of Central Arkansas, the Small Business Advancement National Center. It is an electronic newsletter that comes to your email box each week or two, and is filled with dates of events, a feature research article, and useful tips. Check it out!

Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)

Recruiting in Good Times and Bad

One of my purposes in writing this blog is to put in one place the various topics on which I have written in the past and hope to write more about in the future. As you may have noted, sometimes I use an existing magazine or trade journal article to remind me of some of these things.

For this note, my inspiration is the May 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review. For today's article, I am looking at: "The definitive guide to recruiting in good times and bad," by Claudio Fernandez-Araoz, Boris Groysberg, and Nitin Nohria. It is full of good ideas, of course, many common knowledge, but with new ideas based on new research. I'll note the seven steps, today, and come back to them later, with more detail and my own observations:

1. Anticipate the Need
2. Specify the Job
3. Develop the Pool
4. Assess the Candidates
5. Close the Deal
6. Integrate the Newcomer
7. Audit and Review

In the article, page 79 (p. 2, on-line) has a most useful chart, based on the seven steps, listing for each: Poor Practices, Best Practices, and Implementation Challenges. Check them out - the full article is available, on-line.


Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)

Tax day has passed - how long must I keep all these papers?

While more and more records are being kept electronically (a subject for another day!), most of us are still challenged by the boxes and boxes (or paper sacks?!?) of receipts, bank statements and other papers we keep to do our tax returns each year. Records retention is an especially never-ending problem for small business (all business!?!).

Five categories, based on passage of time, can be a very useful approach to both the storage and retention issues to be faced in dealing with the piles and piles of paper (as I noted, we will discuss electronic storage devices and issues at a later date). Care must be taken in assigning individual items to the categories, but these five categories seem to work well, for most people and organizations:

Category 1: Items to tossed in approximately a month or two.
Category 2: Items to retain through the year until tax returns for the period have been prepared.
Category 3: Items to retain for three or four years after tax returns are filed (including extensions).
Category 4: Items to retain for six or seven years after tax returns are filed.
Category 5: Items to retain "forever" - that is, as long as the business exists or owns certain property.

Each of these categories have criteria that should be used in applying a particular item to that category. To a limited extent, some items may shift from category to category, depending on changes in tax laws, for example. We will look at each of these issues in a future post.

Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)

Creditworthiness - is a loan right for you?

Creditworthiness has never been more important than it is today. In December of 1997, I wrote an article in "Dance Teacher Now" magazine, that highlighted the 5 C's - the five areas of concern regarding Creditworthiness - here are the highlights:

Capacity to repay is the most critical of these five factors. Lenders are in business to see that loans are repaid with interest in a timely manner.

Character is actually your payment history on existing credit relationships - both personal and commercial.

Capital is the money you personally have invested in your business, and it is an indication of how much you have a risk should the business fail.

Collateral or guarantees are additional forms of security you can provide the lender. Prospective lenders want to know about your contingent sources of revenue should normal revenues decline, for whatever reason.

Conditions to a loan focus on the intended purpose of the money advanced. Is it for current operations, for expansion, or for a new building or equipment? The lender will need to understand these conditions in order to be able to allocate loan funds to you.

We can look at a lot of other relevant factors, and at these factors in more detail, but an initial focus on these five will give you a quick idea of whether applying for a loan from a financial institution is likely to be successful for you.

Dr. Bill - I love to share. I hope you do to! ;-)