The Economic Plight Of Small Business

First of all, when it comes to describing the plight of small business in America uncertainty is tops on the list.  I am also confident to say that uncertainty may also be on the top of the list of small business challenges worldwide.  Uncertainty is a very crippling thing.  It causes the small business owner to make some softer decisions.  It also helps small business owners perform less critical decisions.  Uncertainty can interfere with the notion that more risky stuff needs to occur.  As a result, calculated risks will not find their way to the strategic top of the cream of ideas.  The actual plight facing small businesses today is uncertainty.

I just spent a week traveling about chatting with small business owners.  Some I know rather well and some I have never met before.  I posed several nebulous questions before them.  The answers and chit chat they offered was kind of telling.  For the most part, all of them are a bit unsure of where their business might be three years from now.  Not one of them shared a high degree of confidence in their near future of performance opportunities.  Not one.

Just taking the time to read the Wall Street Journal recently, through and through, and the same uncertainty concern seems to hold true for corporations and the world's top companies.  Uncertainty is not just a political buzz word lately.  It is also becoming a mainstream habit, a part of our business world of reality.  Too many business owners and business leaders are pulling in their creative reins at a time when innovation is screaming out loud for more things to do.  This is not a very good scene for the world of business.  I am certain that the largeness of our looming debt on the balance sheets of countries, corporations and personal home budgets has a good deal to do with the higher levels of uncertainty being expressed.  Debt is a heavy weight.  It's benefit has already been realized.  So all that remains is its requirement to be lowered.  Nothing good remains to be enjoyed by that kind of a problem.  Debt brings on last years enjoyment at this years expense.  How certain is that?  Maybe it is not uncertainty that we fear?  Something to consider, for sure.

Uncertainty also circles around the fickle nature of the consumer markets.  Consumers have come to prove how unreliable their spending habits tend to lean.  With the complicated methods technology offers to identify how and where the consumer will release what it offers to spend has become a maize of metrics that read like a complicated, strange jigsaw puzzle.  The task of marketing new growth has become a daunting chore.  Not to mention, expensive to acquire.  This fuels the notions of uncertainty as well.

What is a small business owner to do?  How will they fight this overwhelming world of economic plight with the very limited resources they have to tap?  No wonder they are expressing higher levels of uncertainty.  Be also reminded that this is an election year.  The business owners have had to endure some of the most complicated, well-designed, high volume productions of lies and promises that they know their future political leaders will never be able to provide.  Uncertainty looms very large right now.

The economic plight of small business in America becomes sandwiched between the breads of these challenges.  As a result, innovation appears worn out.  Innovation sounds fruitless.  Innovation has found its dim light to the end of its promised tunnel of joy.  The business world is pulling in its horns for a time of breathing.  It is exhausted with this last run for survival.  Most small business owners are hanging on with sheer determination and with as much creativity as they can muster to stay alive.  That's it.  That is where the good ones seem to remain.  The not-so-good-ones are folding up shop, selling off assets or re-positioning with the help of shared ownership in order to move forward towards the next days.  The economic plight of small business today is learning how to manage its way through the current ocean of waves pounding uncertainty to the shores of their balance books.

The economic plight of small business today is uncertainty.

So what do we do about it?

Page two.

Let's Unscramble This Business Mess

Do These Guys Look Like Good Business Partners?  Neither Does Debt.

Several years ago I was struggling with my business.  I could not generate enough money to cover my expenses.  The amount of debt my business was managing was tolerable at that time.  Nearly every business model manages a certain level of debt.  Debt becomes much like a routine line item on your financials.  It seems to always show up on the income statement every month and the corresponding balance sheets.  Debt has become a routine fixture to the business world.

My business several years ago was managing its routine debts.  Some of those debts were short term, 'on account' product purchases from my suppliers while others were longer term debts coming from loans secured at my local bank.  At that time, my business was managing a debt package of about 15% of its gross sales.  To some of you who do not know what that means, this amount of debt is too large to carry.  Typically, if fifteen percent of your business income is dedicated to servicing your monthly debt payments you are carrying too much economic burden in your business model.  There are a lot of exceptions to this policy of thought, but make no mistake about when and when not to allow this kind of debt management to get out of hand.

Back when this was happening to my business I was able to manage the payments and keep the debt from climbing any larger.  The mess began to occur when I trusted that process and allowed that debt to become a permanent fixture in my business management process.  I permitted that debt to become a 'line item' of allowable cost.  It was permitted, expected, budgeted and planned.  I was doing what most Americans have learned how to do.  I was living above my business means.

This kind of economic policy will eventually create a terrible financial mess.  Sooner or later it will grow too large to be manageable.  It will become larger than the business revenues can support.  It is also a problem in that this kind of expense is not something you can cut out of the budget without paying it off.  In other words, you cannot trim down debt like you can cut back on energy use.  You cannot trim down debt like you can cut payroll expenses.  If budgets need to be cut, laying one employee off will do the trick immediately.  However, regarding debt, you cannot decide to stop paying it and cut it off.  Debt cannot be trimmed from the budget.  Debt is a permanent fixture in your package of business requirements.  Debt is a sneaky little monster boss.  Be very careful how much power you give it.

Debt also has a tendency to limit where you can cut back on other expenses.  For example, if you are working to expand your business and you have placed some major capital investments into new markets, your business demand for increased marketing money has come alive.  The demand for spending more money to market your expansion successfully has cramped where your cuts can occur when the debt exceeds your ability to keep up with the cost of its servicing.  The cost of reaching new markets is not as serious of a contender in expense attention as is the debt you carry.  Debt limits the decisions you have for cutting where you would prefer to cut.  By the pure nature of its demand for being serviced first, debt reduces the funds you have for feeding the other important business costs you need to be servicing.  Debt limits what you can spend, when you need to spend it and where you want to select what to spend.  Debt is a terrible boss.  It is a clear boss with a terrible business partner attitude.

When you manage debt, especially by plan, you admit to taking on a business partner.  That debt becomes your new boss.  It might not be much but it will govern a lot of what you prefer to do.  Debt will see to it that your future gets a few limits placed on its expense spending ideas.  Debt will grow up and begin to govern where you spend your business income.  Debt will not only boss you around, it will want its money first.  I know what I speak to be true.  If your business has any debt, that debt has become your silent boss.  It controls a portion of your business model.  If that portion is 15% or more, you have a little mess developing.  You have a boss who is beginning to dominate what you can and cannot do in your business model.  You have a small business mess.  You have an unwanted silent partner.

Let's unscramble this business mess.

Page two.

Warning: This Is Not A Politically Correct Post!

What color is your nose?

I warned you.  The title was absolutely correct.  This piece will not cover friendly ground.  You were properly forewarned.  Read on or go away if it might offend you.  It is your choice, not mine.  I am comfortable with it.  You have been warned.

Therefore, if you are of the sensitive type, looking at the world through critically adjusted sunglasses, you might quit reading this post right now.  This particular post is not aimed at being careful enough to wake up on the politically correct side of the bed.  For those who believe everything in the world needs to be more sensitive to all people and all things, you may perfectly excuse yourself from reading anymore of what is to follow.  You may want to keep your nose clean.  You may go away right now because I am going to write on.

The world of employment has gone overboard to be politically correct.  Did you know that?  It has.
I know a lot about this subject, I take a lot of notes in the workplace.  I also do not worry much about what others think of me.  I am solid with who I am and why I do what I do.  Has it cost me promotions and support along the way?  Well of course it has.  Being politically correct does not guarantee success but it will help reduce the challenges you face that destroys good opportunities.  That is a certain and 'for sure' statement.

Why write about being politically correct?  We all know it exists and we all know it actively runs true in the workplace.  Political correctness has a lot of influence regarding elements that come with a lot of the important matters regarding workplace respect.  Remaining politically correct is a prudent and clever way to help an employee keep from being overlooked for the next promotion.  Trust me on this one.  If you know how to keep your nose colored brown you will help your promotional chances.  I know that is not politically correct, but it is true.  In my book, the truth trumps a politically correct stance.  If that is too direct, excuse me.  Furthermore, I do not care if it strikes the more-sensitive spots remaining on the skin of someones true character.

We have become very soft as a society.  No tough stuff is allowed anymore.  Being direct and tough on personal matters looks like bullying, off-colored remarks, insensitive tongues and aggressive behavior.  All of these things are no longer allowed to run at all in the current workplace.  I happen to respect this approach.  I agree that being insensitive is a very wrong thing to perform.  It destroys the potential for success in such a quiet way.  I do not promote an aggressive and insensitive tongue.

However, sometimes the truth needs to stand taller than the quiet tongue that is trying so hard to remain politically correct.  This is where the conflict finds its best debate.  Should we permit some 'not-so-politically-correct' positions to enter the workplace if they reveal some unfair and protective management practices?  Is there a time when being politically correct can hurt the future integrity of the workplace environment?  I say it is true, can happen and does happen more often than we have the courage to reveal.

For the sake of keeping your job, most will remain steadfast to practicing the art of controlling their thoughts and tongue.  Most clearly recognize how dangerous it might become to permit their mind and tongue to come out and tell the truth about something being practiced wrong in the workplace that should be exposed.  The potential to become a whistle-blower brings with it some very real employment risks.  How brown is your nose?  How serious do you feel about protecting the status of your job?  These are real questions with real consequences.

Let me give you a classic example.

Page two.

Remember This...Always Keep The Faith.

Faith, Learn How To Keep It.

There is something to the idea of keeping faith.  I know a lot of people in the world, smart ones too, that will dispel the idea of keeping faith.  They just do not want to believe that something like faith can carry a huge advantage in the marketplace.  Although there are tons of great examples scattered all over the trail of business success, where faith has won its presence, they continue to dispel it.  They have that right.  They can believe what they want to believe.

I, on the other hand, have seen too many wonderful examples of the opposite.  I have seen how keeping the faith has helped to inspire many business leaders to do some things they might otherwise never attempt to do.  I have witnessed faith do its magical work, over and over.  There are not a limited supply of examples.

Faith is a very powerful deal.  Faith is also one of those things that is difficult to teach.  You cannot tell someone to keep up the faith and it automatically sticks solid in their mind and actions.  Faith is a process that requires some practice.  Faith is a process that requires support when it does not deserve support.  Faith is a process that occurs when all else makes sure it cannot occur.  Faith is amazing.  It works best when it is least likely to be proven.

There are thousands upon thousands of business leaders in this world who are managing their business models through some very tough economic times.  The past five years have been especially difficult.  The road to profits have been a real bumpy ride.  In fact, some of that ride has come to a complete stop in certain circumstances.  The pain felt when the activity stops for a short period of time is not a good pain to experience.  There is not a business leader alive who has not had this terrible feeling.  The fear of business failure is a real and devastating feeling.  Business leaders deal with it off and on in their careers.

Sometimes the pain of feeling the loss a business can produce overcomes the business leader.  They can become depressed and filled with added anxiety.  I have seen this happen to me, my associates, my business friends and many other business leaders in the business world.  Anxiety for business failure is a real thing to navigate.  It can take possession and dominate the business decision process.  It can cripple the good efforts a business leader needs to perform.  It can alter the clean thoughts, the healthy procedures and the needed clarity for a business leader to find their way through some tough times.  Anxiety and the fear of business failure can become a very devastating process.

Faith becomes the hero of the day.  Faith provides a solid way to help struggling business leaders get through some of the most difficult times they will or have ever faced.  Faith is likely the only thing that provides the necessary strength for a failing business leader to get on with getting on.  When all else fails, grab some faith and move on.  Do the next best thing and work your way out of where you are.  It will work out and your faith will help see it through.  Learn how to practice the art of faith.  Learn how to believe in doing well.  Learn how to practice reaching the improvement side.

Have faith.

Page two.

Unintended Consequences.

Think About Your Future Consequences

Want to manage a real set of challenges?  Try on a tragedy in your business model.  Try dealing with something illegal that has happened inside your employment ranks.  Better yet, try facing the press on regional television regarding an immoral act that has been exposed to the media in a widespread way.  Now you have a set of challenges landing on your desk that will consume some very valuable time.  Not to mention, damage your business in unintended ways.  Welcome to the world of unintended consequences.

Business leaders are often faced with tough selections in their business decisions.  Sometimes the selections offer a 'no-win' situation.  I have had to deal with many 'no-win' corners in my life regarding business leadership selections.  It ain't fun.

Sometimes those 'no-win' situations arrive without warning through unintended crossroads developed from poorly selected choices of earlier opportunities.  When we look back we clearly see how earlier choices lead up to this unintended consequence.  Now we are faced with some 'no-win' decisions.  Regardless of what or how we select our next choice of actions, we will lose.

I term this kind of situation in business the place where leaders learn how to minimize loss rather than maximize profits.  Profits are no longer the main driving force of the business model.  Minimizing loss has taken over the steering wheel.  The business leader is now facing choices that are designed to lose with the least amount of loss maximized.  The 'no-win' pattern of choices must be dealt with at the lowest possible cost.

Amazing enough, this kind of scenario is simple to describe and easy to define.  Every single business leader recognizes this kind of situation.  Many have dealt with these kinds of situations often in their business careers.  'No-win' scenarios are not misunderstood occurrences.  All of us have had our fair share of them.

What's more, all of us have experienced how we felt about dealing with unintended consequences.  It is a troubling experience.  Sometimes that awful feeling lingers for a long time.  Guess what?  Even though the awful feeling lingers on and the unintended consequence drives the heart into a pattern of continued troubled feelings, the show must go on.  Business leadership must still endure.  Business leaders still have a show to perform.  The acts to that show are running live and continuous, regardless of how badly we feel about dealing with unintended consequences.  The show must go on.

Page two.

Get More Serious About Becoming More Serious.

The passing of time has brought with it some interesting developments in human interaction.  For example, it is no longer 'cool' to make fun of people.  That used to be a 'cool' thing to do when we were kids.  I did not say it was a right thing to do, I just reported that it was once considered a 'cool' thing to do.  Another thing that has changed significantly is that the growing concern to become politically correct in all things has been increasing its attention now by the ticking of the clock.  We are living in times that demand everything to be politically correct, in all matters, at all times.  This is a certain truth.  In fact, if you are running for a significant political office and you failed to be politically correct twenty years ago, when it was not necessarily as important to do as it is today, it defaults immediately and carries over to today!  The error you made twenty years ago, that was acceptable then, is today's 'your fault' and will taint your character right now!  This is also true.  The passing of time has brought with it some interesting developments in human interaction.

The public, the media and consumers expect a certain degree of perfection when they travel about our interconnecting worlds.  This is true.  Our actions have become more acute with the passing of time.  We are judged more seriously than ever before.  For goodness sakes, do not make the mistake of passing gas in the wrong place at the wrong moment...it might go viral and ruin your life!  Do not laugh, it has happened to many people in significant positions of life management.  This is true.  That is how serious we have become about every little detail and every little matter.  We are tyrants about people in power who express a casual or simple human mistake.  We have become so critical of each other that we run our lives circling our fears around what we say, what we may do, or how we may believe.  We must make sure that all of our actions on these subjects meet the high public standards that have become our governing rules.  We must travel our lives in a seriously careful and politically correct fashion, if we want to climb up the popularity scale.

What the heck does this have to do with business?  Everything.  It is just as important to understand this set of rules in politics as it is in business.  A business is running its way through its life trying to earn the support of its constituents...the consumers.  The game of attention and support is much the same.  A publicly insensitive business model will be as much ignored and banished as an insensitive politician would be treated that was running for the President's office.  The voter and the consumer will place their support with someone else.  Someone who is more sensitive and more caring.  Welcome to the twenty-first century.  It is not my fault that this is true.

How does a small business leader deal with this tightened rope?  How does a small business leader protect themselves from a simple public error that could easily destroy their future consumer support?  What's more, I wonder how many small business leaders truly understand how fine that simple line can become?

I watched a small limousine company recently experience a freak and tragic accident with one of their passengers who lost a life in that event.  It happened to be a small young girl who was hurt innocently.  Regarding that unfortunate event, no equipment safety violations were ignored.  However, the young girl did climb out of her passenger seat while the vehicle was running and when a corner was turned, she fell sideways and right through an unlocked window out onto the street, which took her life.

Last month, this was a business trying to do its thing like so many other business leaders try to do.  It was marketing its wares, working its maintenance, preparing its hospitality, attracting its consumer support and making sure the checkbook was ending up balanced at the end of each day.  It was doing the same stuff every other business owner works each day trying to do.  That limousine company has several fleet pieces of equipment to manage.  It has a couple of locations to serve.  It was a growing model.  The operative word...was.  Today, the popular media movement and the evening news has gone to examine the two divorces of the owner from his past, his troubles in two other business models fifteen years ago, his run-in with the law over twenty years ago about drinking and driving and his current past due payments to one of his tax collecting agencies.  He is not being currently projected as being anything less than a criminal.  His business activity has come to a screeching halt.  It is over for his model.  This one unfortunate event has suddenly happened and taken his life work, his thirty years of business efforts and tossed it into the round file for his future use.

It is a very tight rope we all walk, people.  I am not here to condone any support for illegal, inappropriate or immoral actions of a business model or the life of a business leader.  Just read many of my perspectives of support in any one of my previous posts and you will notice I believe in operating cleanly.  However, I do recognize and want to share with all of you business leaders that your actions are at great risk in this new day and age.  You are walking on a very tight rope with very little margin for error.  Do not take this warning lightly.  The world is a much more serious place to live and play today than it was thirty years ago.  Recognize this truth and make your life adjustments accordingly.  If you are working your business model in a careless fashion, stop it.  Your days are numbered.  You may walk into your office tomorrow and discover some things surface that will never be able to be overcome.

Get serious about becoming more serious.  I heard about a furniture store owner who allowed one of their customers to borrow the company delivery van to take home a purchase they made at their store.  I just heard a few thousand of you readers cringe at that statement!  Be very careful!  The rope is so much tighter than you could ever expect.  Get more serious about becoming more serious.  Protect your tomorrow.  Ask the owner of that limousine company how he feels about one of his two divorces and you might discover a very angry man.  Remember, during the investigation of that accident, that one limousine passed inspection just two days prior to that unfortunate accident.  That truth, however, no longer matters...and he knows it now.  Protect your tomorrow by doing it today.  Get more serious about becoming more serious.

Page two.

The Wrong Three C's...Counter, Control and Criticism.

Character Comes With Good "C" Management Techniques.

In the world of success, there are elements that bolster the process for achieving success.  Those are the components that every business owner hopes to see happen on a routine basis.  Also in the world of success, there are elements that show up that deflect the chance for increasing success.  Those negative things slip into the process and they tend to thwart how success can occur.  Business owners would like to see these kinds of things disappear more often.

Unfortunately, sometimes the things that slip into the way of success come onto the business scene unnoticed.  The business leaders do not always see them coming.  Some of the deflections to success come disguised in unnoticeable ways.  They come onto the business scene with little fanfare but do great damage to the process of success.  The arrive in disguise.  That is why many business leaders do not easily recognize these disguised villains.  They come onto the business scene unnoticed.

I have written a few pieces that describe the three C's.  These are the three C's that should be avoided in business leadership.  They are; condemn, criticize and complain.  These three things can kill business leadership with their eyes closed.  They are cancerous.  They will easily suck the life right out of the vitality of the enthusiasm your business needs to have happen.  Avoid these three C's like the plague.  They are a disease that will eventually take down all of your hard earned efforts to succeed in your business model.  Kick them out of your life.  The sooner the better.

With a longer look at these three C's comes a deeper understanding.  A deeper understanding that brings on another set of three C's.  This time the three C's deliver three concepts that are highlighted by these three words...counter, control and criticism.

Let's examine the first one, counter.  Counter represents the idea that whatever anyone says, shares or describes becomes part of your challenge to deliver a counter thought that attempts to over-turn what they said, believe or shared.  "Counter" thinking can become a deadly disease.  Some leaders become inoculated with this simple process.  They tend to "counter" everything others say and do.

When someone comes up with an idea, almost as soon as they share that idea, they witness the leader deliver an immediate "counter" thought to their idea.  Many business leaders make this simple leadership mistake.  They try to lead by taking charge.  Therefore they cannot have anyone else suggest an idea that may take anything away from their current leadership ways.  As a result, they must immediately kill the other idea with a counter thought as a means to deflect it, to thwart away any potential loss of control.

The effort to "counter" the other ideas is an effort to deflect control and return that control back to themselves.  This is how one of the 'wrong' three C's works against success developments.  It deflects their growth and limits success before it ever gets off the ground.  "Counter" moving becomes a big time habit and eventually any other good ideas become quietly self-suppressed by those who discover them.  Others learn to keep these good ideas suppressed because they fear the feeling of how the 'counter' attack delivers such an uncomfortable environment.  Sharing good ideas eventually becomes void.  Growth therefore retreats itself into the shadows of the quiet hallways of the business model.  Stagnation rules the business model.

In every single business model that I have been hired to repair, this effect exists.  Every single one.  It is one of the most common denominators to failure.  In every single case, the leader of those business models  practiced 'counter' controls.  Furthermore, in every single case, the leader was somehow threatened by the good ideas of others.  As a result, those threatened business leaders quietly and cleverly 'countered' every single good idea that surfaced.  Leaving their business models dry and stagnant and without any measurable enthusiasm to win.  'Counter' activities work like cancer.  They are slow to develop, they often times grow up big in an unnoticed way until it is too late and they are certainly destined to kill all business success efforts.  Watch out for 'counter' behavior...that is if you want your business to succeed.

Let's move onto the next two wrong C's.

Page two.

We Are Not Empowered, Just Crazy!

The evening news covers all of the "wow" things that happen in this world.  The evening news also covers the good stuff like shootings, robbery, personal violations, corporate improprieties, celebrity mess-ups, terrible business flops, fires, drownings and government scandals.  All of the bad news that is easy to sell they report.  The evening news is where the negative world co-exists.  It is the place where we can capture how bad it is for others, instead of us.  The evening news is where we go to get our most current information.

I have had this belief, this growing stance that people in this time and place are beginning to develop the belief that they are becoming more empowered.  With the advent of increasing access and more user-friendly technologies, the regular person on the street has discovered some very empowering new abilities to become more common in their lives.  A lot of 'once' easily unobtainable pools of relevant information are now more commonly accessed and able to be used in an advantageous way.  For example, the 'lay' person on the street can see how much a dealership truly paid for the new automobile on their showroom floor.  The 'lay' person can truly see what kind of public mess the owner of that dealership is managing in their life right now.  Very few secrets are able to be kept away from the savvy consumer.  This kind of increase in information access has given the "regular joe" the simple idea that he is more empowered than ever before.  In some ways, he is.

However, with this new found empowerment comes some new but unlearned responsibilities.  Having quick and unguarded access to some sensitive information that may be more readily available than ever before but does not necessarily mean that those gaining that information have come to respect the boundaries of this kind of news.  Knowing what recent legal suits have been settled about an owner of a limousine business model does not necessarily mean that the limousine business owner is an insensitive business 'rat.'  Sometimes our desire to become more empowered is shadowed heavily by our desire to take control.  This kind of desire is not always managed properly.

Having gained control of some sensitive and important matters requires some learned respect in order for that control to be approached properly.  Managing our lives well through troubled waters requires some detailed lessons about how to perform better while dealing with new pressures.  It takes some specific management schooling, some detailed training and some bloody noses to acquire this kind of knowledge.  In the past, when people become empowered to control some situations they usually come to that point with a bit of trial and error experience under their belts.  With the help of technology today, someone can easily gain 'unearned' control of pertinent information in their immediate surroundings.  They can get easily carried away with the power they feel of that new control.  The potential to mismanage that power ruins high.  The new control was not earned.  It did not carry the usually trial and error lessons that help to curb the disrespect for that kind of new and quick power.  It helps if they have been burnt a few times before they travel down that new road of control.  Otherwise, they can become a bit crazy in their leadership ways.

When someone gains quick and unearned control in a situation of power, strange things can occur.  Power has some interesting attributes.  If those who gain power do not earn that sense of power through some effective patterns of respect they may inadvertently exercise that control in unfriendly ways.  And they do.  Power is a funny thing, however.  It runs mostly on illusion.  Very few of us have any power at all.  We cannot buy our way out of tough situations.  Most of us must pay the cost of our errors and foibles.  I am not opposed to this kind of process, however.

My point is this, power is usually an illusion.  It is rarely real.  Technology has grown up to offer millions upon millions the added illusion that they have gained new powers.  Guess what?  That new power is not real power.  It is just an illusion of owning something that does not exist.  Millions upon millions gather 'dirt' and 'opinions', even 'facts' about anything of character from the quick information they found through technology and those who gained that information believe they have gained new power.  They treat the new and guarded information they found as if they have gained new power over that person, business, situation or thing.  They feel empowered.  Technology today has offered millions of people a new sense of power.  We can now easily pass on 'dirt' about someone in power and quickly bring them down.  Technology offers regular people this new ability.  What's more, it works well and is very effective.

Let me give you a simple example.  My wife and I were traveling in the upper State of Washington on a rural country highway.  We had just left a wonderful resort town where we spent the weekend.  In the rear view mirror of my vehicle I could see another automobile doing some extremely fast and dangerous driving.  It was also coming closer to catching up with us.  I noticed how it took some terrible risks in passing some of the other people that were driving their vehicles well behind us.  Some of those passes were dangerously made on double-lined, blind-side outside corners in the road.  The risk for meeting other traffic going the opposite direction was extremely high.  I was shocked to see this kind of driving going on in my rear view mirror.  What's more, this dangerous and terrible driver was approaching my rear.

Having a hands-free device in my ear, I called 911.  Within a minute or so I was batched forward and talking to a Washington State patrolman, as he was driving his patrol car about ten miles in front of us near the town we were approaching.  While I was talking to that patrolman, that ridiculous driver zoomed right past our car on this highway.  I gave the patrolman the description and license number of the foolish driver.  He took my description and story down and positioned himself to wait for the oncoming crazy driver.  He asked me to stop on the side of the road when I came to the place where he might pull that driver over up ahead.  He asked me to remain parked several car lengths back when I pulled over, however.  He said he wanted my testimony to help prove to that driver about his reckless driving habits...just in case that driver was not driving wrong at the time he passed the patrolman.  Technology.  It is a new empowering tool.

When we came around one of the corners on that two lane highway in Washington, we could see the patrol car lights flashing ahead.  That patrolman had pulled over that same vehicle and was stopped on the side of the road.  This is what I found amazing.  There were already two other cars parked on the side of the road, well behind where the officer had pulled that vehicle over.  As we pulled over to park, like the patrolman asked us to do, three more cars behind us pulled over, too.  I started to laugh out loud.  I told my wife, just look at how much more empowered these regular people have become.  They can now use technology to stop a criminal act while it is being committed, all without becoming physically involved with performing the arrest.  They have all become deputized!  They are able to act like deputies all without training, with little effort, and with virtually no added expense.  Empowered by technology.

Page two.

Selling, An Art Or A Science?

Who Is Selling Who?

I love to meet people.  People are interesting.  People never cease to amaze me.  Even the really smart people have a lot of amazing characteristics.

Most of the people I have met in my life are afraid to meet strangers.  They avoid strangers like they avoid a disease.  Most people walk around strangers.  We have developed this cultural understanding that strangers are dangerous.  Stranger danger.  It is what we teach our little children.  They grow up thinking that every stranger is a qualified dangerous person.  Only a small, tiny percent are dangerous.  The rest of the world is very normal.  Unfortunately, our children do not know that.  They are taught differently.

I have been in the position of sales management in my career, a lot.  It is amazing how many people in the field of sales do not understand how it actually works.  Most of the sales people in this world do their job by pure instinct, freelanced by habit of conversation.  It is what they do best...talk.

I once remember a little lady who came into my furniture store many years ago with her teenage son.  She was searching to buy a new sleeper sofa.  He son was bored to death with the experience.  She apparently had him tag along while she tried to find the perfect piece.  He was not especially buzzed up about this kind of shopping task.

While she was checking out the sleeper sofas in my showroom, she suddenly stopped the process and turned to look at me and said, "You sound like a car salesman."  It became quiet for a brief moment.  I noticed how shocked her son was by the stunned look on his face.  This was not some typical comment his Mom normally made.  It was written all over his face.  It was also apparent that he was embarrassed for her.  The body language was evident.

I remained calm, having heard these kinds of comments before in my long selling career.  After a moment of silence that began to feel like very heavy air...I decided to break the thick ice that was building.  I quietly and slowly responded by saying, "I know.  That is because I am a furniture salesman.  That is what I do for a living that helps me to provide food and shelter for my wife and three children."  I continued, "If I sound like a car salesman I apologize.  Forgive me.  I try not to allow what I do for a living to get in the way of helping my family live a decent life and if I have in some way failed to gain your respect than I have not done my family very much justice.  Please forgive me."  I turned and walked away, saying, "I will let you two check out the rest of my showroom and if you have any questions please feel free to ask me.  I still would be delighted to help you solve your selection problem."

As I was walking away, I heard nothing but silence.  All of us are salespeople.  Including that rude lady.  She was trying to sell me that I was a "sound-alike" car salesman.  That was her pitch.  She spelled it out to make her point.  She was trying to convince me that I was too insensitive and pushy.  She wanted me to hear how she felt.  She worked to sell that perspective to me.  It had nothing to do with the color of the fabrics she was looking to find.  She became the worst salesperson at that moment.  In the world of selling, she failed.

Now, for the rest of the story.  She left without purchasing any products from my store.  I thought I would never see her again.  Then about two hours later, there she was.  She was all by herself.  She came straight back to my desk behind the sales counter.  She said, "I came back to apologize to you.  I was rude and insensitive.  When we left your store my son got all over my case about how rude I was to you.  My son has never said anything to me like the kinds of things he said I was.  It was a shock to me.  We had a slight argument and he won.  My penalty from him was for me to come back in here and apologize to you.  That is what I am doing.  I owe you an apology."

You see, everyone is a salesman.  Her son sold her on this idea.  He won.  He closed the deal to get her to go back and apologize.  She bought his argument.

This was my response..."Thank you.  However, I forgave you the moment you said what you said.  I figured you were feeling a bit stressed out about buying this piece of furniture and you had reached your limit.  I just happened to be standing in that place when that stress hit its limit.  You were forgiven a long time ago.  However, I would like to see your son come back here and apply for a job when he graduates from high school.  He has some heart and a lot of talent.  I know I may never see him again, but tell him thanks for me and to keep up the good work."  She puffed up and left the store with a very surprised look on her face.

The score that day...Son (3), Salesman (2) and Mom (0).

Selling, we all do it.  Sometimes it is an art, and sometimes it is a science.

Page two.