Business Is Like Being In Jail, When Do We Get Out?

Sometimes It Seems Like I'm The Boss, All Bullshit.

I want to be my own boss.  That is how a lot of people think.  A couple of decades ago I served on a Small Business Administration advisory board in a local community.  It was a temporary project initiated by the local Community College.  They wanted to set up an advisory board of local business owners to help new business owners get started on the right foot.  The idea was to introduce new start-up owners to a group of veteran business owners to have them help guide the new owners through some trying things that occur in a new business start-up.

Seven local business owners were selected to provide this advisory service to the new owners.  We were given some loose guidelines and a routine schedule to meet with the new owners to handle their questions.  The director of the Small Business Administration local chapter would moderate the scheduled routine sessions.  The setting was not private nor friendly in design.  It had the appearance of being much like going to a kangaroo court about troubling issues the new owners were discovering.  The project failed.  It did not attract very many new business owners to serve, even though at that period of time there were a lot of new business start-ups.  I could tell that many of the new business owners were intimidated by the set-up of the scheduled sessions.  I remember one day getting an opportunity to have a private and brief conversation with the Small Business Administration director of that project and asking him if he had ever owned a small business before?  His answer was, "No."  My suspicions were spot on.  It was obvious.

I noticed a couple of interesting patterns in that short experience.  As I met with several of the new business owners, I focused on why they wanted to go into business for themselves.  I wanted to see what the motivating factors were for them to take this kind of risk.  I made a short sheet of questions I prepared and asked them those initial questions.  One of those questions was for them to give five reasons why they wanted to open up their own business.  I listened to their reasons for going into business for themselves. I still remember most of their answers to this day.  The number one reason they offered was how they wanted to be their own boss.  I think all of them used that answer.  Another popular reason given was that they wanted to make more money.  Another popular one was how they wanted to be able to take more time off from work.  And yet another one that was high on the reason list was for them to be able to control what they wanted to do everyday at work.  Those were the top reasons why many of the new business owners were taking this risk.

I have been in the business world for almost forty years.  I associate with hundreds of business owners.  I have five family members who operate their own business models; a mother, a brother, a wife, a daughter and a sister-in-law.  They all own their own models of business, not shared with each other.  Not one of them was able to manage reaching any one of those top reasons for owning their own business, except for having more potential to accumulate wealth.  None of the business owners I know have a lot of 'free-time' to take off whenever they feel like it.  In fact, if you count the lawyers they retain, the accountants they hire, the bankers they use, the suppliers they find and the customers they serve...none of them are their own boss.  None of the successful ones, anyway.  Everyone of those small business owners is tugged and pulled by all of the rules, requirements, suggestions, obligations, arrangements and services they need to respect in order to operate profitably.  They are not their own boss.  They are governed heavily.  In fact, none of the business owners I know are in control until they respect the controls placed upon them for what they do for a living.  They have no control until they submit to the controls placed upon them.  It is no wonder why most of the new 'start-up' business owners in that Small Business Administration program bailed out before their businesses got started.  They quickly discovered that they had to kill most of the reasons why they were motivated to go into business for themselves in the first place.  What a rotten discovery to find.

Business owners are a lot like being placed into a jail to do what they do.  They have some very telling things that need to be done whether they want to do them or not.  If they fail to do those things that are required of them to perform, they will soon find they will need to do them or get out.  If they want to continue to operate their business model, they will need to comply or lose it all.  It is not a forgiving process.  Instead, it is a very demanding process.  Most of what a small business owner does to succeed comes from the fact that they do a lot of things they do not want to do.  If they were an employee, they would have a better chance to ignore doing some of the things they need to do and still remain compensated and employed.  I know, I have been on both sides of that fence.  Employees have more freedom to do what they want to do than a business owner.  Employees get to go home when the day is done and do some of the things that interest them during their private time.  Business owners often need to stay at work longer doing what they need to do when the others have gone home to play.  After a while, business owners give this extra effort of time spent with absolutely no thought at all.  It becomes part of their habit to responsibility.  Most owners do not notice it, but owning a business is much like being in jail.

Can The Economy Get Worse? Start Gambling.

What A Great Man Cave!

Start playing the odds like a serious gambler.  The American economy can and may get worse before it ever improves.  It is looking very probable that the American economy is headed for the wrong kind of fundamental steps to find its way out of the deep hole it is in.  The solutions coming to the table are not the kind of solutions you and I would perform to correct our own financial troubles.  We would not perform some of the steps we see coming because we know they will not help us repair the enormous size of our debt policies.  That is in fact the problem...we have expanded how we treat our debt policies.  We keep moving the debt bar higher and higher in the effort to repair the size of our debt.  At home we know we cannot personally get out of debt by raising our debt ceiling and adding more to the debt we already owe.  We know that kind of action will only increase the amount of our debt and has nothing to do with increasing our income to service that new debt.  It does not work, it will not work and it is amazing that great minds believe it will work.  With this in mind, the American economy may get worse before it gets better.  I suggest business owners start playing the game like serious gamblers.  Here is why.

The general public has lost its faith and confidence that the leaders of our economic policies have a good plan.  I do not know a single person who believes our American economic policies are spot on.  What is worse, the media does not believe it.  Furthermore, the leaders are too busy fighting among each other to correct what is obviously wrong.  The business of America is spinning out of control and the monetary advances are driving more weight to the falling objects.  To the business people of the world, this is not good policy to practice.  Of course, I do not find any business owners sitting at the American policy making tables.  The voice of how to operate a business successfully is missing in the financial policy making process.  I wonder if that is a major clue.  In my world, I call that a 'tip.'  My accountant once told me he does not understand how I make money.  He spent about an hour one time describing how difficult it would be to operate a retail business much like mine, and to make money to boot.  He said he is always mystified how we do it.  My lawyer agreed several months later when we had a similar conversation.  He said he did not know how retailers made money in this world.  He said he would never try to do what they do.  It looked too risky.

Keep in mind that the accountant and the lawyer are business owners.  They were self employed operators of their trade.  They are operating a business model.  Their product is a service.  The service they sell is something the customer buys.  The elimination of risk occurs when they do not need to 'guess' what the customer is shopping for when they come into their business model to buy.  Retailers and manufacturers need to guess what will sell before the customer comes into their model to buy.  They must gamble more seriously about what will sell and what will not.  The accountant and the lawyer could not picture themselves as taking that kind of risk.  As a result, they do not take the time to get a 'feel' for what the American customer wants to see happen in their lives.  Manufacturers and retailers do this step involuntarily.  They get a 'feel' for what the masses want to see happen.  Let me ask a question.  If this is true, do you think the American financial leaders have a 'feel' for what the American customers want to see happen?  Remember, our financial policy makers are lawyers and accountants.  Hence, the gap.  Those are the trades that do not need to get a 'feel' for the American consumer.  Therefore, the decisions they make about what should be done to improve the business of America is tainted with the wrong kind of efforts.  The policy makers of our American financial well-being have no idea how to serve the American consumer.  As a result, they use pragmatic assumptions to develop the cures for the things they think will work.  Guess what?  They have no idea how to create business in our American economy.  It is very clear that they are completely lost.

The consumers have lost their confidence.  The business owners are ticked off.  The balance of the pragmatic sectors; the politicians, the lawyers, the accountants and the government managers, are battling among themselves for the highest attention each of their beliefs and methods can muster to receive.  It is a very disturbing scene.  I know.  I also know business owners can see it.  That is not a good view for them to see.  That view, however accurate it may be, is a view of continued future demise to the American economy.  It spells some unwanted future positions for the American business models.  It makes your job to profit successfully more difficult to do.  I know.  I think we need to put on some higher topped wadding boots.  The debt is going to get deeper and the confusion will deliver more of the same unwanted stuff.  The American business landscape is headed for some more troubled grounds.  The weak will continue to give away the farm to the strong, for a song.  We will spiral deeper into less independents and more conglomerates.  That is the only way the math will work temporarily.  The math has very few options to avoid this choice.  Start gambling.  Your survival may be at serious risk.

Monkey See, Monkey Do.

Good Ideas Come From Everywhere

I use a lot of creativity in my business marketing.  I see some things others do that I like a whole lot.  I check out how other business models do the stuff they do.  I will look at clothing manufacturers and check out how they process their business model.  I might check out how a news network on television processes their business model.  I might take a look at something UPS is doing new with regard to how they have changed something they do.  It does not matter what the industry is or where the model fits in the food chain, I check out ideas that seem to work.  Some of those ideas are very good and will work out well in my business models.  I have no problem taking a good working idea from one sector into another one.  Monkey see, monkey do.

However, make sure you do not steal a legally protected idea.  They are out there.  The owner of that process went to a lot of trouble securing protection on the process.  Honor that effort.  Tip your hat to the good idea and move on.  However, for those ideas that work well and are arranged perfectly, unprotected to copy, I find parts of how they are arranged good enough to be included in my business cycles of effort.  I do not necessarily need to come up with the best ideas.  I can find many of them already in place out in the marketing world.  Try to expand where you look to get your new ideas.  If you own a tire shop, make sure you do not just look at other tire shops when you are searching for ways to improve your business model.  Your next best idea may actually come from a little dress boutique located in a city mall.  Pay attention out there.  Some really good ideas can be found in some very unsuspecting ways.  Be open to seeing what they are and where they are hiding.  Monkey see, monkey do is not always a bad thing.  I have introduced many great working ideas in my business models that were spawned by things someone else was trying to do.

In fact, some ideas I have come across did not seem to work well where I found them because something was missing to make them work well.  I would catch myself evaluating how something I witnessed would work better if only they made a simple change in what they were trying to do.  While I was evaluating their effort I discovered how that change would also work for my model.  Monkey see, monkey do would get modified to become better arranged in a working success.  The examination evaluation process worked the monkey see, monkey do process into a better solution.  I practice this move in my business development quite often.  I know there are great minds out in this world and much of what they do makes a lot of good sense.  I dovetail my policies, my procedures, my marketing, my designs and some of my methods into the fold of many ideas I find out on the street.  I certainly do not hold all of the good ideas in the world.  I do not own the monopoly on that process.  Be big enough to find better ideas in the open marketplace.

Be respectful when you discover another good idea out there.  For example, we recently introduced a new delivery program in a business model that did not exist in that model.  We purchased a new delivery truck and had the company logo placed on the cab doors.  I suggested that they also place a large permanent banner on both sides of the cab that read, "We Deliver."  It has generated some comments from a lot of people we see out on the road.  This idea had been used by other business models.  It is not a unique idea.  Monkey see, monkey do.  I have no problem with that.  By all means, use the good idea for your business advantage.

Work your travels with an open mind.  Look for other ways you can find legitimate monkey see, monkey do ideas.  They are all around you.  If Disney has a great parking lot idea on how to help customers do a better job in parking their vehicles without wasting space, see if how they do that task can be dovetailed into your tire shop parking lot.  It might make your efforts to improve customer service happen more smoothly.  Monkey see, monkey do.  Be open to find the better ways out there that business models use to improve how they win at their game.  Just because it is not purely your idea does not mean it will not help you win more often.  Do not forget that your goal is to win more often.  If borrowing a good idea helps that process occur, count me in.  I do not get paid better because I came up with some unique winning way.  I get paid better because I have introduced hundreds of new ideas that work better.  Monkey see, monkey do can easily speed up the good idea process.  If good ideas help to improve business results, more good ideas is better than one or two of them.  In fact, when we read to get new ideas, are we not taking something from that reading to improve our ideas and success?  Are we not practicing the monkey see, monkey do concept?  Of course we are.  We do it because it works.  Business owners want to do the things that work well.

Leading People In My Business

Leading People, Even Talented Ones, Can Be Difficult Work

People are not easy to lead.  They love to lead themselves.  Most people I have hired find their own way around the business model and do what they think is the right things to do.  It is very common to employ people who just want to learn what they need to do and be done with it.  They only want to learn what will be necessary for them to do in order to remain employed.  Very few will come aboard your business model and want to do more of the things that will help your business model 'fine-tune' its existence.  Employees come to work each day with the expectation that you will provide for them a safe place to work, one that will compensate them for a fair day of work and one that does not put them on the spot or expect them to go the extra mile without added compensation.  For the most part, they do not want to come to work to be put on the spot.  Employees hate that place.

The art in learning how to get your employees to work on improving their 'at work' skills is a very slippery slope.  They do not feel it is their responsibility to learn how to 'fine tune' how they were shown to do their job when they were hired.  They came to work expecting to be told what their role was and how they are suppose to perform that role.  That's it.  Anything higher in expectation that comes later down the employment trail will be considered additional duties.  The employee feels like they are now being asked to do more than what they were hired to do.  In most cases, they accept this process fairly well.  They will tolerate learning knew stuff about what they are employed to do up to a point.  Every employee has a point in which they will tolerate learning new stuff to do.  Once that point is reached, they begin to find ways to slough off doing more.  Each employee has a different level that becomes that point.  Some go further down the learning trail than others.  Some come aboard your business model with very little desire to learn more about the 'fine-tuning' of their job responsibilities.  It takes all kinds of people to make up the personality of your employment staff.  You are the leader of this group.

People in a group are not easy to lead.  They have time and separate motives that they use to develop certain group pockets of interesting behavior.  Group dynamics can become a very slippery slope to manage.  Most leaders struggle with the art of managing groups well.  Most leaders tolerate certain group activities that harm some of the growth and progress their business model experiences.  They tolerate some 'not so good' stuff because they do not possess the skills to lead people through rocky waters.  Group dynamics can be very stealth in their approach to perform what they feel is the right way to do their job.  The employees will take possession of how they want to work well before they take possession of how the consumer expects them to perform.  Employees are employees, not owners.  There is a difference.

When your model has the opportunity to hire a previous owner of a past business, you will discover a different type of employee to manage.  That type of employee has a different level of work understanding.  They are employees that tend to take more initiative.  They take more possession of the work responsibilities that serve the customers larger desires.  They tend to take better grasp of difficult situations better than the employees who have never owned a business.  This can become a very challenging balancing act for the leader.  Having other leaders employed on board with those employees who do not lead well can become an interesting process to balance.  It becomes a lot like raising a large family of working kids.  Some dominate, some follow, some complain, some ignore and yet some will learn how to work harder on looking like they are working when in fact, they are not.  It can become real 'fun' to manage.

Leading people can become a very difficult task for some business owners.

Let's See, How Does Money Work?

We Get Trapped By How We Protect What We Know About Money.

I wonder how many people drive automobiles in the world yet have no idea how the internal combustion machine actually does what it does.  Tons of people purchase additional 'drive train' warranties on their new vehicles and likely have no idea what components are connected together to make up the 'drive train.'  Give the vehicle owners a blank piece of paper and ask them to draw a sketch of the engine and drive train system inside the workings of their vehicle.  With the sketch have them label each individual piece of the moving system that provides the power of motion that runs their automobile.  You would be surprised what percentage of owners could not successfully complete this task well.

Most vehicle owners do not know how their vehicle runs.  Most do not care to know.  Only the gear heads care about stuff like that.  Automobile owners just care that their key works and the vehicle gets the job done.  They know where the handles, brakes and pedals are, the knobs, the seat belt, and what kind of fuel to put in their rig.  They know how to manage the gadgets that come with the car.  They know most of the rules of the road and generally follow them most of the time.  Millions of drivers travel the roads every single day and millions of drivers succeed in getting where they want to go.  It is not imperative that the vehicle owner actually know how the engine does what it does.  Most get to where they are going without knowing those details.

Did you know this would be the same kind of comparison we would find with business owners trying to describe how money works?  Go ahead.  Take out a piece of paper and start describing how money works.  I will wait.  Did you know that most business owners do not specifically know how money actually works?  Again, there are tens of thousands of business owners who do what they do every single day without needing to know specifically how money works in their business model.  Most get their business to go where it goes without knowing those details.  Running a business is no different than running a vehicle.  Once you drive the two of them long enough, you get a pretty good idea on how to drive them to where they will usually go.  Business owners do not necessarily need to be able to write an essay on how money works in order to operate a business model.  Most business owners could not pass that test anyhow.  I couldn't.

Then one day I met a very successful businessman.  We did not hit it off very well.  I was too arrogant to receive his friendship.  I acted like I knew more about business than he did.  As we spent more time together, I became more irritated about how he treated me.  He nicknamed me "hot rod."

We crossed paths during a period of time when the two of us where working together on a joint project.  He was also one of my customers at that time.  I was thereby forced to put up with his unwanted leadership.  I had a vested interest in allowing his influence to occur.  I wanted his business to come more my way.  He fully understood my position and took complete advantage of the opportunity to share some leadership with me.  It was a lot like being forced to attend a business class because the instructor had something on you that would hurt if he let it out.  It was like being blackmailed.  I placed myself into a blackmailed position.  I remember coming home one night and my wife asked me how my day with that businessman went?  I walked by her with a very short quip, "He's a jerk."  I think behind my back she smiled and quietly said to herself, "Good, it's about time.  He has met his match."

Then one day it happened.  He asked me to describe how money works.  He started it out like this, "Hey hot rod, since you are so successful in business why don't you help me out and tell me how money works?"  He paused until I spoke.  It was silent for a very long time.  I started to gather my best thoughts together and began to describe to him what I knew about money.  I was all over the board on the subject.  I had a lot of truths rolling down the isle of conversation which included some 'not-so-true' descriptions coming right beside them.  I had the microphone, I gave the show.  My stage, my audience.  He sat quietly and listened.  It was not a debate.  It was a one way road.  I felt good about it all day long.  I finally got him to shut up and to quit bugging me about business talk.  When I got home that night my wife asked me, "How's your business guy today?"  I replied, "I finally beat him at his wits today.  He shut up for the rest of the day."

Several weeks later he had an opportunity to ask me the question again.  He asked that same question exactly how he asked it the first time, "Hey hot rod, since you are so successful in business why don't you help me out and tell me how money works, only this time, get it right?"  I thought last time was quiet.  Boy, this time I found out how quiet the air can really become.  This time mother nature quit making her background noises.  It was dead silent for a long while.  Then I broke the silence and said, "I have a better idea, why don't you tell me?"  He quickly replied and said, "I thought you would never ask."

Find Your Business Traditions

Michael Jackson Had His Signature, So Does Your Business

Every business model has a signature.  No matter how much a leader of a business wants to guide the model in the direction planned, some things the model does become expected events that consumers look forward to seeing.  Those expected patterns become part of the signature of that business model.  If you own or manage a business model, what are the events or patterns of your operation that have become part of the things your model does that your customers have grown to expect?  Do you know what those things or events are?

K Mart became known for its Blue Light Special.  Google does some interesting signatures with their company name on the cover page.  Les Schwab Tires in the Pacific Northwest does an annual "Free Beef" promotion.  Coca Cola promotes pageants and talent contests.  Pepsi uses celebrities in the entertainment business to promote its causes.  What does your business model do that your customers come to expect?  Does it do an annual barbecue?  Does it sponsor an annual golf tournament?  Does it promote a children's fun run?  Does it produce an annual pumpkin contest?  Does it have a Christmas open house?  Does it host an evening fashion show with all of its spring introductions?  What are the things your business model does that have become part of the signature your customers come to expect?

If you do not have a signature that consumers recognize, why not?  Ikea does not include Victorian furniture in its product line-up.  It does not match their European fashion trends.  Their consumer base does not expect them to deliver that kind of styling.  Their particular style, their particular 'look' has become part of their success as it defines their signature fashion.  Ikea has a following that they created in the fashion and style they maintain.  It is part of their signature.  What does your model look like?  How does your business model carve its way into the routine patterns of your customer support?  What do your customers look forward to seeing when they arrive at your business model?  What traditions have become part of who your business has become?  If you do not have any of these things happening, why not?  How do you expect your customers to become part of your business model and take a little possession of who your model has become?

Macy's in San Francisco used to do a magnificent 'tie day' for the men's department.  It was a whole floor dedicated to men's ties.  They would display them everywhere.  The interesting displays of ties would be creative and unique.  Some were placed on stuffed animals, automobile tires, model trains, baseball equipment and anything coordinated with the patterns and colors of the ties.  I do not gather my guy friends up and rally them together to go shopping at a major department store annual sales event.  It is not part of what us guys do. The male gender does not call their buddies up on the phone and schedule a day to head into a city and go shopping together at a special sales event in a downtown department store.  It is not a routine habit for the guys to do.  However, we did do exactly that for the big tie sale at Macy's, downtown San Francisco.  A few of us rallied together and headed in to see the event.  Joe Montana would be there, good food, good entertainment was scheduled and tons of chicks would be checking out the great looking ties for their guys.  We were single, had professional jobs and wore nice suits.  The tie event was just the ticket for up and coming young professionals like us.  A trip to the City was a great idea.  We lived in Sacramento.  When we arrived to the big tie event, we could not believe the packed store!  Unbelievable.  Shoulder to shoulder foot traffic.  The sign said this was the 45th Annual Tie Sale.  What signature does your business model support?

If you have not developed one, maybe it is time to carve one out.  Let's examine how to do it.  First of all, it will take time to become a great event.  Start slow and build gradually.  Find something unique about what your business model offers.  Make sure it is something the customers will support.  It might be a particular style of items you sell.  It might be the category of interest your model supplies, like hunting or fishing.  You may be an insurance agent in your model.  You can introduce safety programs for kids going to school for the very first time.  You can bring in the media, the teachers and the parents to help them prepare the community for the returning kids on the streets of the areas where the schools begin classes after the break from summer.  You can define a special focus on the kids that will be attending school for the very first time.  One family can win a free pizza per month with a drawing you hold during a special safety event you host at the end of summer.  You can head up a community fund raising drive to collect school supplies for the less fortunate.  Your agency can introduce a small scholarship fund given to a qualifying graduate, identified during their Junior year of school activity.  As a Senior in high school, they already know they have been awarded your small college scholarship.  Your agency is linked to education in the community through this huge annual event.  You no longer need to place your face on an expensive community billboard to sell your wares.  What is your business model signature?  Find one to support and begin to go to work on developing it into something that becomes very big and recognizable.