Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

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Jim Blasingame

Inside the head of a small business owner – during a pandemic

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Here is a running conversation millions of Main Street business owners have every day – mostly with themselves – while operating on the edge of existence during a global pandemic.

Eep … Eep … Eep … Eep …

5:15am: A small business owner touches the snooze button on his phone alarm
“Man, I gotta change that obnoxious alarm tone. Big day – should hear from the bank about qualifying for the next round of PPP. We really need it – can’t cut any deeper and stay open.”

6:47am: Rolling. On a call (hands-free, of course) with his remote-working accountant
“Listen, if the PPP money doesn’t happen, and the bank won’t make a gap loan, how tight will cash get next month? Mmmm! Worse than I thought. Okay, we should get a decision on ACME today. If they accept our proposal, that should get us past next month, right? Well, get on those aging receivables. Lemme go. Gotta take this call from James (warehouse manager). It can’t be good at this hour.”

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In Defense Of The Misunderstood Scrooge

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This is Jim’s traditional Christmas column.

Some say I’m a scrooge. They might be right.

The following exhibits (excuses) are placed into evidence in my defense of this indictment:

A.  The early part of my career was spent in retail. Retailers know what that job does to your holiday spirit. There’s a survivor syndrome for everything else, why not one for retail survivors? Let’s call it RPTHSS: Retail Post-Traumatic Holiday Shock Syndrome.

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Prepare for 2021: Five Critical Questions for Business Startups and Veterans

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Let’s play “What’s wrong with this picture?”

DATELINE: New York – December 11, 2020: Millions of small businesses hanging on by a thread after being shut down by state and local politicians reacting to the coronavirus pandemic.

DATELINE: Chicago – December 11, 2020: Thousands of small businesses closing for good after being shut down by state and local politicians reacting to the coronavirus pandemic.

DATELINE: Washington – December 11, 2020: “There’s a business startup boom. The third quarter of 2020 records the highest new business applications we’ve ever seen.” (U.S. Census Bureau).

That was a softball, wasn’t it? Next time I’ll throw you a real curve.

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Five Ways To Fast-Start 2021 – Even During A Pandemic

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Whether it’s a year when our reality was something we once knew as “normal,” or an unprecedented and unimaginable year of a global pandemic, the abiding management question for all small business owners is always the same: “What’s the best use of my time – right now?” And at no other time in any year are we more time-management challenged than in December.

The twelfth calendar month is the only one where two powerful imperatives converge against a hard stop, each demanding a full measure of your time, attention, and resources:

  • The perennial push to close out sales performance as strong as possible;
  • Simultaneously setting up the business for a fast and clean start when the New Year dawns.

Pardon the football metaphor, but in the marketplace game your business plays all year, December is the final goal-line stand of your two-minute drill. And in this tight transition period, now further compressed by a pandemic, that fierce competition for precious time and resources requires discipline and devotion to fundamentals.

Of course, focusing on sales is a year-end intuitive. Focusing on next year? Not so much. Consequently, let’s spend some time on the latter.

Our grandmothers practiced the fundamental of spring cleaning every year when the weather broke warm. In the marketplace, in order to kick off the New Year right, your spring cleaning should be done by January 1. Here are a few ideas to get you started with your December cleaning and preparation for 2021 performance and profitability.

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Reconciling Blasingame’s 2020 Crystal Ball Predictions

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Since 2000, I’ve offered prognostications on what was coming at small businesses in the New Year. Then, at the end of each year, I’ve reconciled my predictions against what actually happened and gave myself a score.

Through the 20 editions prior to 2020, my accuracy record was 73%. That might not impress you, but in the Major Leagues, batting .730 would get you into Cooperstown on the first ballot. Just saying … 

As the third decade of the 21st century dawned, my 21st set of predictions, published on January 5, were heavily influenced by three-years of Main Street optimism about the momentum of the U.S. economy. But then, in less than 90 days, everything changed. An organic invader turned our reality from halcyon to horrific in a way that only Chinese President Xi Jinping could have anticipated.

In our history, never have American business owners had to simultaneously fear that a deadly disease would attack their families and the political response to that pathogen might kill their businesses.

Because of the unprecedented weirdness of this year, scoring my 2020 predictions as I have in the past isn’t possible. Reading the list will either produce a wry smile, a cringe, or an expletive. Consequently, this year I’ll follow each prediction with appropriate commentary without a score – even when I was right. Some of my predictions have been omitted from the original list because the pandemic either made them irrelevant or moved them forward. Buckle up for a bumpy ride.

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When Cause and Effect Converged with Humanity

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This is a story about how cause and effect merged parallel universes and one person made a difference that changed the course of human history.

As the 17th Century dawned on the New World, a manchild was born to the Patuxet tribe. His father named him Tisquantum. They were part of a confederation of tribes known as the Wampanoag (“eastern people”) inhabiting much of what became known as New England.

In time, Tisquantum would become a very important individual to the future of America, but not before his life would change in ways not to be imagined by any 17th-century Earthling.

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