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Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

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Entrepreneurship

Small Business Survival Lessons From Jeff Foxworthy

November 1, 2021 by Jim Blasingame

You’ve no doubt seen the classic Jeff Foxworthy act, the one where he says, for example, “If you have more than one car jacked up in your front yard, you might be a redneck.”

Just as Jeff got rich delivering this comedic routine, you can benefit from his cause-and-effect logic by applying it to your small business. Except unlike Foxworthy, it won’t be funny if you resemble too many of these one-liners. In fact, your business might not make it. Or as comedians say, you’ll bomb. [Continue Reading]

Filed Under: Entrepreneurship, Management Fundamentals, The Age of the Customer, Uncategorized

11 Reasons To Never Be Too Cool For THE School

April 24, 2021 by Jim Blasingame

There has never been a time in the history of the marketplace when tried and true best practices – oft mislabeled “Old School” – are being so indiscriminately brushed aside by digital leverage best practices we’ll call “New School.”

While sorting out what part of properly labeled Old School to shed (like running a business without a mobile strategy) and which New School practices to adopt (like a digital transformation strategy), we must remember that there’s a third category of best practices that often get lost in the generational translation.

Those best practices are what I call “THE School” – aka the fundamentals.

[Continue Reading]

Filed Under: Coronavirus, Entrepreneurship, Management Fundamentals

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 …

[Continue Reading]

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. 

[Continue Reading]

Filed Under: Business Planning, Entrepreneurship

The Best Of Times, The Worst Of Times

March 20, 2021 by Jim Blasingame

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

In his preamble of A Tale of Two Cities, the immortal Charles Dickens delivered an appraisal of the disruptive state of affairs in 18th-century London and Paris. Today, seeking perspective for the past 12 months, Dickens’ perfectly paradoxical passage continues to serve – our heads nodding resolutely as his 19th-century words overlay our 21st-century reality.

Let’s employ Dickens’ literary device in pursuit of our own perspective on America’s currently disruptive state-of-affairs. 

[Continue Reading]

Filed Under: Coronavirus, Entrepreneurship, Work-Life / Balance

As The CEO, You’re The Futurist Of Your Company

March 13, 2021 by Jim Blasingame

“For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.” – John F. Kennedy

Was America’s 35th president encouraging each of us to be a futurist? Some people dismiss that term as pretentious and stuffy, but as a small business owner, holding that attitude will hold you back. Because as the CEO, being the futurist of your company is your most important assignment.

To be a futurist, you don’t need a fancy education, nor do you have to be a genius. Futurists aren’t inspired by God, they’re not clairvoyant, psychic, or have ESP. But they do look at the world differently than everyone else. Futurists see things others don’t because they’re looking for those things.

Perhaps it will help to introduce the product of a futurist, which is foresight. A futurist’s job is to deliver foresight to an audience. As a small business futurist, your audience is made up of four groups that need to believe in your vision for the future of the enterprise: family, employees, customers, and bankers – in that order.

[Continue Reading]

Filed Under: Entrepreneurship, Ethics / Trust, Leadership

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