small business owner

Your Blockchain Close Encounter Of The First Kind

September 19, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

This is the third article in a series about Blockchain technology and its implications. The first, in June, was an introduction, and the second, in July, was how Blockchain works and its role in creating digital trust. This article is about your likely first contact.

As small businesses have increasingly become vertically integrated with Big Business customers, they’ve had to step up their Main-Street-Mom-and-Pop game to become more sophisticated while continuing to be nimble, quick, versatile, and efficient. With this integration, larger customers have notified smaller partners of their evolving expectations, as driven by macro events and trends.

Consequently, over the past 25 years, millions of small businesses have received letters requiring compliance with four of those macro markers: [Continue Reading]

Three Words That Might Change Your Life – Really!

September 12, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

For most of my half-century-plus career, I have consulted with small business owners about their current situation and future plans. Alas, the reality of operating on Main Street is that often the issue on the table could take them down. In fact, the circumstances might be so desperate and the prognosis so dire that the person upon whom the business’s buck stopped – or crashed – might be close to being unable to function.

During one such session, sitting in front of a client who looked like he was about to be eaten by an alligator, and having experienced a similar state of affairs myself in the past, I called upon what I’d learned about perspective and what really matters in life with this question: “How’re your children?”

“What the … ?!” he exclaimed incredulously and not a little irritated.

When I repeated the question more slowly, his next response was delivered with a level stare: “They’re fine. My business is going down the tube and you’re asking me about my kids?[Continue Reading]

Banks, Banking, And Brigadoon

August 1, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

As you know, the U.S. banking system has been challenged this year. Three large “regional” banks collapsed, and not a few experts have opined that there will be more banking-sector bloodshed going forward.

As you may remember, in our online poll last week (see below) we asked about concerns for your bank and the U.S. banking system with this question: “In light of the 2023 bank failures, have you been concerned about your own bank?” [Continue Reading]

Networking For Referrals: It Makes Business Easier And Life Simpler

April 20, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

The act and practice of networking – for business or any other endeavor – is one of the great intangibles in life. Networking can help you get into a college, a new job, a business prospect – you get the picture. But none of this happens until you actually meet people.

In the marketplace, the business reason for networking is to get referrals. Ivan Misner is the Founder of Business Network International (BNI), the world’s guru of networking, and the author of a wheelbarrow-full of books on the subject. He thinks people who don’t get enough referrals just don’t know how to ask for them. I agree. Ivan has an excellent suggestion to help with this, and it revolves around the person called the “center-of-influence,” or COI for short. The COI is the connection between you and the person you want/need to meet, and whom you likely met while networking.

Ivan says, “Don’t make your COI do all your work for you. Help them out by asking this question, ‘Who do you know who…?’ and then finish the sentence with a description that fits what you need: your business, industry, product, service, etc.” Here’s an example: John, let me ask you a question, who do you know who buys advertising? …truck tires? …owns apartments?

Here’s a concept I call, “Blasingame’s Entrée Spectrum.”[Continue Reading]

America’s Banking System – Let’s Get Some Things Straight

April 11, 2023 by Jim Blasingame

Right now, and likely for a while longer, there’s a lot of stuff coming out about challenges in the U.S. banking system. Sometimes it’s difficult to sort through the range of comments, from the smart to the stupid. But if you’ll give me five minutes, we’ll find some clarity so you can not only make better banking decisions for yourself and your business, but also for our country.

Watching a segment of a business news program recently, the conversation was about the impact on the banking system from the dramatic collapses of two very large San Francisco banks, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank. One of the guests, a celebrity “financial expert,” made this statement about the future of banking: “America no longer needs 3,000 regional banks, since most of us do our banking online.”

This stupid comment pulled off the hat trick: ignorant, inaccurate, and dangerous. On its face, the statement is factually incorrect – no American bank sector corresponds to the number he used. It’s ignorant from a marketplace standpoint because it assumes all banking is done online. And in the Digital Age, when inaccuracy and ignorance come out of the mouth of a so-called expert in a single comment, it can become dangerous.

So, let’s establish some clarity and avoid the danger by thinking of America’s three commercial bank sectors in the context of [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.