Entrepreneurship

What’s Love Got To Do With You And Your Small Business?

April 18, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

In her second-most-popular song, Tina Turner sang, “What’s love got to do with it?” Out here in the Main Street marketplace, the answer is a lot.

Indeed, love is the reason people start businesses. We love to make and sell things: shoes, tires, hamburgers, cars, soap, computers, bread, air conditioners – you get the picture. You love your business; I love my business. Starting and running a business is a love story.

Yes, I know. Sometimes our businesses are not easy to love. In fact, our business is often like our teenagers: You may not always like it, but you always love it. Which is a good thing, because if you didn’t love your business you wouldn’t come back the day after it gave you the worst day of your life.

But love can also be a problem. Is it possible to love your business too much? As business owners, we know how to fall in love with our businesses, but we usually don’t know how and when to fall out of love with it. Here’s a great American love story that went wrong: [Continue Reading]

Beware The High Price Of Free Information

April 12, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

Stone Age humans had about 2.5 million years to prepare for the Bronze Age, followed by 2,000 years to transition to the Iron Age, which lasted about 800 years. Meanwhile, modern humans, barely in the third decade of the 21st century, are dealing with the 50-something Digital Age transmogrifying into the Information Age at the speed of light, literally in front of our eyes.

No other human generation in history has ever had to make this kind of shift.

A wise person once said that the most powerful force in civilization is information. Well, today, humans are awash in that power in the form of digital records of everything from “Breaking News!” to virtually everything that’s ever been said, written, or happened since Og and Gog invented the wheel in the Stone Age. And the following points represent the two sides of the Information Age Paradox: [Continue Reading]

I Know What I Was Feeling, But What Was I Thinking?

April 5, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

“I know what I was feeling, but what was I thinking?”

This title lyric of a country song by Dierks Bentley is about a boy letting a pretty girl get him into a whole lot of trouble on their first date. Of course, there’s often no accounting for the unintended consequences of affairs of the heart.

But when these words are in the head of a small business owner, it’s due to an ill-advised decision that causes the proverbial winged sack of money to fly away.

“I know what I was feeling, but what was I thinking?” is often the financial post mortem lament of the passionate but too impulsive start-up entrepreneur. Being passionate about starting a business is very important, [Continue Reading]

Should Mamas Let Their Babies Grow Up To Be Entrepreneurs?

March 28, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

“Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.”

Country music fans recognize this title and opening passage from the Ed and Patsy Bruce song made famous by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. If there ever was a honky-tonk anthem, this is it.

Every good anthem has a hook lyric and in this song, it goes like this: “He ain’t wrong, he’s just different, and his pride won’t make him do things to make you think that he’s right.”

Wish I had a nickel for every time someone watched an entrepreneur doing what entrepreneurs do, and asked, “What’s wrong with him?” Well, entrepreneurs are a lot like cowboys — they’re not wrong they’re just different. For example: [Continue Reading]

Buying A Business? Focus On These Four Factors

March 22, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

Continuing my series on buying a business, consider these four critical factors when you’re on a small business acquisition quest.

Old sellers are the best sellers

One of the best opportunities to acquire an existing business is when you can buy one from an owner who wants to retire from a business that’s still viable. Two good reasons are: they’re less likely to change their mind before the transaction is complete, and they’re more likely to finance a larger part of the sale price to get monthly income.

Notice I said, “still viable.” [Continue Reading]

Buying A Business? Consider These Principles First

March 14, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

Recently I offered an article on how to “Buy Your American Dream” by buying a business from someone else. Let’s continue that theme with a few more principles to employ when considering this ownership option. Thanks to my friend, Russell Brown, and his book, Laws of the Business Buying and Selling Jungle for the inspiration.

Buyer beware – of himself.
In the securities industry, full disclosure is the coin of the realm. But in the marketplace, caveat emptor — let the buyer beware — is the fair warning standard. If a seller misleads or misrepresents something, legal redress may be available. But business purchases that don’t work out are born more from inept buyers than from seller malfeasance.

What’s a business worth?
Many metrics and factors are used to divine the value of a business, including strategic elements outside of the empirical. But primarily, you should focus on the business’s ability to generate earnings — net profits. With the exception of strategic factors, if the prospective business isn’t creating acceptable earnings and you don’t know how to change that, don’t buy the business. [Continue Reading]