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Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

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Archives for April 2021

Beware The Law Of Small Business Numbers

April 10, 2021 by Jim Blasingame

Over the hill and through the woods, a rabbit was barely staying ahead of a fox that was keen on having the rabbit join him for dinner.

Running for his life, the hare made haste across a small stream and hopped over a turtle. Tucking neatly and safely inside his shell so as not to become collateral damage in the rabbit’s emergency, the turtle inquired about his anxious neighbor’s prospects. “Hey, Mr. Rabbit. You gonna make it?” To which his hurrying, furry friend replied over his shoulder, “I GOTTA make it.”

If you ask small business owners which cast member of this little vignette they’re most likely to identify with, they will invariably relate to the cottontail. And that response would have been the same even …

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Filed Under: Entrepreneurship, Management Fundamentals

If Your Business Was A Tree, How Big Should It Be?

April 1, 2021 by Jim Blasingame

The redwood is arguably America’s greatest and most famous tree.

Two of the three species of this prehistoric survivor – the slightly taller coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and the thicker sequoia redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum) – are so well known they’re often referred to as “The Big Tree.” And for good reason: both can top out at over 300 feet. 

But what about that third one? You know – the diminutive Metasequoia glyptostroboides.  This baby, aka “dawn” redwood, aka “amberglow,” is small enough that you can buy one, plant it in your yard, and watch it shoot up to 10% of the scale of its giant cousins. 

So, how does an amberglow know it isn’t a sequoia – to stop growing at 30 feet? As with every living thing in nature, including humans, it’s in the genes. When that first drop of water wakes up the amberglow seed kernel and break out of the husk, its genetic code is already at work to make you confident that you can plant them about 20 feet apart.

What if entrepreneurs could shop for a genetically pre-sized business? On that rainy, predawn June morning in 1896 Detroit, when a young Edison Illuminating Company engineer steered his “quadricycle” onto Bagley Street for the shakedown drive, Henry had no idea how big Ford Motor Company would become. Because a small business – Enterprisus incrementum indeterminus – doesn’t have a genetic code. And that’s good news and bad. 

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Filed Under: Business Planning, Entrepreneurship

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