Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

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Are you prepared for the inevitable business disruption?

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This week marks an ignominious anniversary. On August 13, 2003, a single outage in the electric grid cascaded across eight northeastern states, putting 55 million people in the dark for days, and thousands of businesses out of business. The Great Blackout of ’03 was a catastrophic reminder that we’re all one nosy squirrel in a transformer away from an instantaneous, put-you-out-of-business event.

Fifteen years later, the evidence isn’t in favor of less exposure for the next 15. Consider this report from CNBC: “The FBI warned Russian computer hackers had compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers.” And this one from the Department of Homeland Security: “Russian government cyber actors have been targeting U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including energy, nuclear and commercial facilities, since at least March 2016.”

In 2003, most businesses surveyed reported they weren’t unaware of a potential business disruption, but incredibly, they also admitted they weren’t prepared for one. Thankfully, that response is different these days, as one of our recent online polls indicated.

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There’s nothing small about small business trade

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By now, most people aren’t surprised to learn that small business in America is actually quite big.

You’ve heard the stats from the U.S. Small Business Administration that there are over 27 million small firms representing 99.7% of all U.S. employers. And I love reminding that these little powerhouses sign the front of half of all private sector paychecks and produce about the same percentage of our nation’s GDP. Pretty impressive.

But here’s a 21st century stat that begs the next question: With 94% of the world’s customers outside of our borders, what’s the impact of trade on small business? You might be surprised to learn that, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, small businesses represent 98% of all U.S. exporters, producing about one-third of total export value. However, considering that all U.S. exporters number less than 300,000, it’s easy math to see that small exporters are a fraction of the total Main Street machine.

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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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