Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

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Archives for July 2018

What is your small business exit strategy?

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In the United States, it’s very easy to start a small business. Maybe too easy.

If you remember those early startup days, then you’ll also remember that very soon the easy part ended. Indeed, from the moment you transitioned from your initial capital to needing to generate the Holy Grail of capital – profit from sales to customers – things started getting really hard. And over the next few years, maybe decades, if running and growing your business ever got a little easier, it was only because you figured out how to do it without killing yourself.

Then, one year you started tinkering with the idea of, you know, actually leaving your baby. Tossing the keys to someone else and riding off into the sunset. You know – retiring. And the more serious you got about the idea, the more you realized you were entering another phase of business ownership that’s also really hard – selling a business.

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Does your company need a vacation from you this year?

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Could you use a vacation? 

I know. Silly question. And not just for the rest and relaxation. Most of us realize time away gives any leader a better perspective upon returning. But polls show not much more than half of small business owners are likely to take off an entire week for vacation.

Perhaps this is a better question: Could your business use a vacation from YOU?

Of course, it could. Your absence will reveal organizational weaknesses that need attention, as well as strengths you may have overlooked.

Regardless of your motivations, here are four ideas to help you consider taking more time off. 

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Blasingame’s 3 Laws of Small Business Capital

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The first sentence in the job description of every CEO should be, “Secure and manage the capital your company needs.” 

Webster defines business capital as, “any asset, tangible or intangible, including cash and hard assets held by the company.” Capital blended with operating cash flow becomes the financial fuel your company’s engine uses to operate with and fund growth.

A small business has three primary sources of capital:

•  Investment Capital — money or assets from you or someone else

•  Retained Earnings — profit you created and had the discipline to leave in the business

•  Borrowed Funds — for most small businesses, from a bank loan

Every once and future small business CEO must be able to deal with capitalization issues, including the three prime capital fundamentals.

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Business owner: Can you answer these HR questions?

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What will answers to these three human resource (HR) questions reveal about your business?

1. What is your business’ annual training budget?

While you’re chewing on that, let me point out one of the HR practices that Big Businesses are known for, and which small businesses should emulate: a legendary commitment to training. Alas, too many small firms conduct training after a fashion, if at all, and likely with no budget.

Historically, big businesses have had an advantage in this area because they have the resources to pay for structured training programs, and the staff redundancy to give their people time away from their assignments to acquire training. But thanks to the Internet, and thousands of companies that develop and distribute convenient and affordable online training programs, small businesses can acquire training in a wide range of disciplines without breaking the budget and with a minimum of lost production.

So how’re you coming on that training budget answer?  If you’re having trouble, perhaps we’ve found a good place to focus your attention. Let me provide a low-hanging-fruit place to start: Train ALL employees to say to customers: “You’re welcome” or “My pleasure” instead of “No problem.” “No problem” is a big problem.

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America celebrates liberty and the world is the beneficiary

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Seven score and fifteen years ago, Abraham Lincoln’s inspired speech at the Gettysburg Cemetery dedication included these immortal words: “…our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

Four score and seven years earlier, one of those fathers, an inspired Thomas Jefferson (with suggestions from no less able an editor than Ben Franklin), authored what is arguably the most important secular document in history. The second paragraph of America’s Declaration of Independence begins with this passionate passage:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

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