entrepreneurship

Feed Your Spirit And Starve Your Alligators

June 29, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

Small business owners know all about that metaphorical business reptile – the ubiquitous alligator. They slither in from everywhere, continuously chomping holes in your business, tearing apart projects, taking a bite out of performance, and eating away at momentum.

We know three things about these caustic crocodilians: 1) every small business has them; 2) they don’t go away on their own; 3) besides the operational intrusion, they take an emotional toll. And as good as we may get at minimizing the business damage alligators can cause, we’re too often not as good at dealing with that emotional thing.

As the CEO of your business, if your enterprise is to survive, let alone flourish, you have to deal with each alligator that pops up. To paraphrase Rudyard Kipling, your business’s sustainability and organizational effectiveness depend on the ability to keep your head when all around, hungry alligators are trying to take it off.

To keep your head and at least stay even with the alligators you must do three things. [Continue Reading]

The CEO Question: Where Is My Company Going?

March 30, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

In a column a few weeks ago, I pointed out that every business, including small ones, has assignments that can only be performed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). In that article, I covered two of those Big Jobs:

1. CEO strategic responsibilities are not optional.

2. Small business CEOs have to periodically transport themselves from the operating trenches to a 30,000-foot strategic orbit.

There is the third Big Job that’s the sole domain of the CEO, and it’s what we’re going to cover now.

3. The CEO’s three Big Pictures: Where have we been? Where are we now? Where are we going?

The last part of this Big Job, “Where are we going,” becomes easier if you focus on what I call the 21st-century Big Four Factors: Bricks, Clicks, People, and Capital. Take a look at these handy parameters and let them help you focus better on this CEO Big Job.

BRICKS

Location and space are considered for a span of years: one, three, five, twenty, etc. What will your operation need to look like in five years? How long will your current location serve you? Will the physical space align with your strategy? What infrastructure and equipment will you need in one year, or five? Your future square footage requirements per dollar of revenue will likely be different in the next five years than in the past five.

CLICKS

This is both internal and external technology. Internal is hardware, software, networking, and connectivity required to both buy and sell efficiently and productively. External is the technology you ask customers to use in order to do business with you. This timeline is shorter than BRICKS; usually months or a year or two. Be prepared for this Factor to increasingly occupy more of your time every year.

PEOPLE

The line between consideration for PEOPLE and CLICKS is becoming increasingly blurred, especially regarding technology acquisition to mitigate the lack of available qualified employees. What will the company need humans to do in one, three, or five years? How many people and what kind of talent will you need? What kind of technology and training will team members need to meet those requirements? How will technology adoption impact the organization chart? Which jobs require employees, and which could be filled by an outsourcing contract?

The second part of PEOPLE is customers. What will your customer profile look like in one, three, or five years? What will be their expectations? What do you have to do to meet those expectations with relevance, not just competitiveness?

CAPITAL

How will you fund the future? What financial management systems and standards will you need? What combination of retained earnings, debt, and investment will produce a successful capitalization strategy? What do you need to know about new funding sources?

Only someone filling the role of CEO can ask and find answers to these strategic questions. Who’s asking these questions in your business?

Write this on a rock … If the buck for your business stops on your desk, you’re the CEO. Do the job.

Closeness: The 21st Century Coin Of The Realm

March 23, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?
Just like me, they long to be, close to you.

If you’re old enough to have had at least a couple of anniversaries of your 39th birthday, you recognize these lyrics from the Roger Nichols/Paul Williams song by the brother/sister act, The Carpenters, which topped the charts in 1970.

When I write the theme song for small business, the title will be, “Close To You.” My reasoning is because, like the birds and the stars and the objects of their affection, there are many stakeholders in our small businesses that we hope will long to be close to us. Let’s take a look at three of the most important ones.[Continue Reading]

Your American Dream Could Have Been Started By Someone Else

March 17, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

The American Dream has many components, but to me, the big three are liberty, business ownership, and home ownership. The order is intentional.

Liberty is prime because it makes the other two possible. Freedom is from God, but liberty is a contract we give to each other.
Business ownership in America has produced more self-determination than any other force in history, including from all of the associated jobs.
Homeownership is available to all Americans who’ve claimed one of those jobs.

As much as the latter two are part of our liberty, business ownership is the most challenging. Blasingame’s 1st Law of Small Business states: “It’s easy to start a small business, but it’s not easy to operate and grow one.”

That paradox manifests in full measure when the entrepreneurial sap starts rising in the bark of a prospective business owner who decides to start from scratch. It’s a natural process to envision your new business and then set about creating it out of whole cloth. But that natural urge must be tempered with this rude truth: Someone else has probably already created something that looks a whole lot like what you’re thinking about creating. Consider these points before you become a startup. [Continue Reading]

Small Business Owners Are Still Crazy After All These Years, Thank God

February 2, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

“Still crazy after all these years.”

That’s the title of a 1975 song and album by the legendary Paul Simon. Hearing that song – for the zillionth time – makes me think about what makes small business owners different.

It’s the crazy way they look at the world.

Entrepreneurs think about challenges, imagine outcomes, appraise risk, project potential, and measure all of that against their resources and themselves, differently than everyone else. And when they decide to move forward, [Continue Reading]

Sustained Small Business Success Requires Two Kinds Of Passion

January 3, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

Over the years, as I’ve talked with many a budding entrepreneur about how to start their business, it continues to amaze me how many haven’t conducted anywhere close to a prudent amount of research or due diligence on their baby. Indeed, they often act as if they must get their business going … right … now … or … they … will … just … POP!

This kind of impatience is dangerous.

Doing my best to talk them down off the ledge, I walk the fine line of tough love, between slowing them down to the speed of reason and smacking their entrepreneurial passion into a wall.

When would-be small business owners get that far-away look in their eyes at this impetuous stage, they have plenty of passion for what the business does. They can’t wait to sell suits, manufacture plastic parts, bake bagels, or (your baby here). And passion for what they want to do is not only a good thing, it’s essential.

But without a healthy interest in – if not an attraction for – business fundamentals, passion has only slightly more value than a dream. [Continue Reading]