Venice Beach Lessons

A sweltering hot weekend in Los Angeles prompted me to stay close to home and the beach. My trusty old bicycle had a fresh overhaul at a nearby cycle shop so pedaling to the Venice pier along the board walk became my test run. It is truly a wonderland of the entrepreneurial spirit!

The merchants of Venice beach amaze and sometimes impress me on every visit, and I’ve been going there for over 25 years. There is a very pure form of the marketplace at work, and anyone who wants to start a retail business should spend a couple of hours browsing and asking questions. You’ll see people from all over the world as customers and as merchants. Tee shirts, tattoos, ice cream and kazoos are all available there. If I had a sizable retail business, I’d be tempted to do some test marketing along the beach because of the diversity among the throngs who flock to this unique seaside marketplace.

Mark Burnett, the mega TV producer, who created “Survivor,” among other shows, was hawking tee shirts at Venice beach in the late 1980s. I’d be willing to bet that he learned more than a couple of things about making strong but short presentations from that experience. What a place to prove that you can survive and thrive. When you are competing with a guy playing a guitar on roller skates (The Swami), a chainsaw juggler, and dozens of very lightly dressed women, you’d better have a good pitch!

What I love about it is the fundamentalism of it all. While there are some formally organized stores and restaurants, there are many stall type spaces where merchants offer a dizzying array of items from junk to jewels at a variety of price points. Also, there are some people who simply show up at 6am to stake out a piece of the sidewalk to sell their artwork or crafts. Do they all have business licenses? I doubt it, but they do learn pretty quickly if they have the flair to be a successful merchant. They probably know that in about as much time as it takes for one of the ice cream cones to melt. It is a sharp demonstration of how the marketplace mentality works. You want to buy for $1 and sell for $2. You want to double up on merchandise that moves and drop the items that don’t quickly find buyers. If you have a family, they may prove to be your best helpers. You want to learn how to endlessly ask for the order.

There are plenty of Asian and African immigrants hustling to make a living from their temporary stores along the boardwalk along with native born folks. This is how it was on certain streets in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other American cities in the early 20th century. This is how some legendary merchants, such as William Thomas Grant (W.T. Grant Stores), began by enthusiastically selling a product from a pushcart, on a sidewalk or door to door. John Cash Penny (J.C. Penny Stores) and even Sam Walton (Wal-Mart) learned their business lessons by standing on their feet facing customers every day. Those immigrant merchants of Venice are not at a welfare office or lounging at the corner sports bar. They are learning to test themselves in the marketplace. Hard work and thrift are on display here and if their paths resemble those of their predecessors, some of them will own buildings and businesses employing hundreds of people in the next couple of decades.

Of course I have to remind politicians that the entrepreneurial spirit is one of the cultural movements that made America great in the first place. And it wasn’t simply that business owners could be hit up for campaign donations! Our country wasn’t born of entitlement social programs and empty promises. Don’t tell us that our lives will be more prosperous as we do less and create less. Forget the fairytale that a growing government brings affluence. Just have a look at the Venice boardwalk or a large swap meet anywhere in America. You’ll get a clear picture of the entrepreneurial spirit at its grass roots best. As my small town merchant grandfather used to say, “You’ve got to learn to hustle.”

Be sure to check out www.MakingItTV.com for a comprehensive collection of resources for entrepreneurial thinkers and small business including streaming video, articles, events & workshops, entrepreneur confessions, Q&A, and more!

Smart Days

For people up and down the business spectrum, from tiny home based enterprises to Wall Street darlings, there seems to be a surplus of bad days so far in 2009. To prevent those pesky 24-hour negative episodes from rolling up to be a truly bad year, I practice something I call “smart days,” which gives me hope for the future.

In these crazy times we all yearn for smart insights and advice. What I call “smart days” is simply when I call someone who is smarter than me on a particular subject or aspect of business. I simply ask for 30 minutes of their time to ask questions and take notes. The practice started for me about 5 years ago when I met the legendary Art Linkletter at an advertising business event in Beverly Hills. He’d been one of my media idols since watching him host “People Are Funny” and “House Party.” In conversation and through his books I learned that he was a true entrepreneur, very successful and wonderfully insightful. He asked me how passionate I was about my mission of spreading the entrepreneurial spirit and told me to find something to smile or laugh about every day. When we parted after a brief chat I was smiling, grateful for the smart advice from a man I’d greatly admired. As of this writing, Linkletter is 96 years old and still functioning pretty well after a stroke last year.

A couple of events on my schedule for this past Monday earned it the designation as a smart day. At 12:30 I met in downtown Los Angeles with John Hope Bryant, the founder and Chairman of Operation Hope (www.operationhope.org.), a not-for-profit organization devoted to economic literacy. Why? We have launched The Making It Institute for the Advancement of Business, and I wanted advice from a person who’d built a not-for-profit from nothing to a $15 million annual budget. No matter what I read or look up on the Internet, nothing is as valuable as learning from someone who has accomplished something of substance and done it smartly.

At 4:30 that day, I was at The Milken Institute for a meeting followed by a symposium featuring Lynda Resnick. Michael Milken, who first gained fame as a bond trader, founded the institute and I like their mission. It is to improve the lives and economic conditions of diverse populations in the United States and around the world by helping business and public-policy leaders identify and implement innovative ideas for creating broad-based prosperity. In the halls of business and finance, Michael Milken is still revered and seen with awe for his abilities with numbers and to be able to simplify complex situations. The Milken Institute Global conference truly does bring together some of the smartest and most extraordinary people in the world.

Lynda Resnick is a something of a savant when it comes to marketing and you can get a taste of her smarts in the new book on branding that she co-authored (with Francis Wilkinson), Rubies in the Orchard. She and her husband, Stewart, have built very significant businesses that you may have heard of including Pom Wonderful, Fiji Water, and Teleflora. Also, The Franklin Mint was in their portfolio for a while. In her role as President of Teleflora, Resnick introduced "Flowers in a Gift," which earned her a gold Effie award.

So in one day I was fortunate enough to hit the jackpot for having these people pour their smartness over me. I recommend smart days for anyone who wants to expand their horizons and mix some positive rays of light with the daily pounding of negative information that popular media delivers to each of us. Seeking out the company of other business owners is a favorite pastime with me, especially these days. While a bit of conversation deals with the fears and challenges of the downturn, they usually move quickly to talk about opportunities and how they plan to take advantage of this phase: “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful,” according to Warren Buffett.

So what does Lynda Resnick consider the smart way to think and behave in business these days? Well, she talked about having lived through many recessions; and also endured an industry with shrinking demand. Resnick said that the recent good times have gone on for so long that many of us have gotten away from the basics, “If you are under 40 this is a revelation. Well embrace it for the near future it is your life.” She also feels that Americans are getting past the obsession to consume instead of producing. Another of her observations is that people are starving for true value and that hard work is making a return. She got a chuckle from me when she said that too many people graduating from college these days expect success to be handed to them like a happy meal.

Michael Milken is a wonderful at summarizing thoughts into easily digested phrases. This isn’t a word for word quote, but I recall the intent of one of his summaries. Michael said that we all tend to want to have formulas and scientific principles to lead us on a successful path. But according to Milken to do anything at a very high level is an art, which often defies formulas.

On those too frequent days when you feel like Sisyphus pushing the boulder uphill, I recommend you think on how to construct your very own smart days. You may be surprised to find that people of immense accomplishment who you admire are willing to give you some of their time to help you become smarter about something. Art Linkletter, Lynda Resnick, and Michael Milken are worth hundreds of millions but continue to make themselves available to share their thinking and offer advice. People like John Hope Bryant travel thousands of miles per year to teach and preach according to their missions.

One of the smartest pieces of advice for small business owners came from my friend and author, Jane Applegate ("201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business"), who said; “never be afraid to ask for help, you may be pleasantly surprised at the quality of the advice you get.” These are indeed challenging times and just circling your own wagons may not be enough. A wagon load of smart thinking from someone else may be what is needed.

Be sure to check out www.MakingItTV.com for a comprehensive collection of resources for entrepreneurial thinkers and small business including streaming video, articles, events & workshops, entrepreneur confessions, Q&A, and more!

Business Does Go On

Though popular media may be having a field day with grinding out stories of abject gloom regarding slowed business activity and rampant job losses, my experiences of the past several days tell a different story. Just below the big media radar, there is intense activity involving America’s small business owners, and those men and women are proving that despite what you may hear or presume, business does go on.

I’ve just spent two days in San Francisco, California taping interviews with a variety of small business experts for a Wells Fargo online series called, “Insight.” Gathered in a video studio at the edge of Chinatown, were business owners and bankers who were well prepped to share information about how to develop, market and grow small businesses, even in today’s tough environment. Put me in a room like that with successful entrepreneurs and I become a tireless question machine!

The people I interviewed included Gene Marks, a technology consultant, Jagdeep Dayal, a banker and expert in commercial real estate, Barry Moltz, a business author, and Lisa Lambert, an attorney with deep knowledge of 1031 tax deferred exchanges in real estate. They were all fountains of information and good advice. I’d say that most college professors would be hard pressed to equal their practical knowledge and enthusiasm for their subjects.

Here are some of the thoughts that emerged from our two all-day tape sessions. Jagdeep Dayal, who offered some very useful guidelines for buying commercial real estate, feels that opportunities to acquire properties at good prices are beginning to emerge. The year 2010 is becoming a target year for many property investors. Gene Marks reminded me that there are 25 million small businesses in this country and that there are thriving segments such as low cost restaurants and credit counseling services. We Americans tend to think in terms of succeeding by hitting a home run but Gene said that in today’s marketplace getting to home plate hitting singles and doubles is just fine.

Barry Moltz, who says that he is “crazy about business and insane for success,” is a serial entrepreneur and author (Bounce! Failure, Resiliency and the Confidence for Your Next Great Success) who has boundless energy. While acknowledging the tough times we are living in Barry says business owners should focus on profitability, not growth, and focus on cash, not sales. Lisa Lambert took me through some of the ways that a business person who owns real estate can use a 1031 exchange to help manage their tax burden. If you didn’t know, the Internal Revenue Service’s 1031 rules allow you to defer payment of capital gains taxes on income properties under certain circumstances.

So, while gloomy seems to be the color of choice for many in the business world today, there is always another side to any situation. We hear that banks have gone into hiding but to create this useful material, Wells Fargo is partnering with several small businesses including Imagination Publishing of Chicago, Nelson Davis TV Productions, and Media One Studios. Joint ventures and special cooperation between disparate large and small businesses is a wave that isn’t waiting for the future. It is easy these days to speculate on how we’ll work our way through the big time challenges we are all facing. I’ll say yes to the entrepreneurial spirit lifting us from these doldrums and with the past few days as evidence, I’d bank on it.

By the way, my conversations with these vibrant and knowledgeable folks will be condensed into information-rich, five minute segments that will be streamed on a Wells Fargo web site, www.Wellsfargo.com/biz/education/insight. At the site you can already see some of the wonderful small business advocates that I’ve interviewed during the past year.

For More Information On:

Lisa Lambert & 1031 exchange: http://apiexchange.com/

Gene Marks: http://www.marksgroup.net/

Barry Moltz: http://barrymoltz.com/

Be sure to check out www.MakingItTV.com for a comprehensive collection of resources for entrepreneurial thinkers and small business including streaming video, articles, events & workshops, entrepreneur confessions, Q&A, and more!

Road Trip Lessons

Last week my lady and I took off to Carmel California for a few days of “head clearing,” and we decided to go north from Los Angeles by road. Road trips are always therapeutic for me and they also offer a chance to do some first hand, eyes-on research as to what small business owners are thinking and doing.

I think that every business owner and even the most senior corporate executives should drive around their communities or territories or maybe across the country if that is your marketplace. Most of us in business necessarily read a lot to keep up with trends and developments. Not only do we like to know what other businesses are doing, making those observations in person can simply be the best.

At 7:15am while filling up the car with gasoline, I got into a chat with the owner of the Union 76 station in my neighborhood. Even though the price of gas here had risen every day for the past 40 days, the gross margins for station operators hadn’t budged and was still hovering around 2 cents per gallon. Just like movie theatre operators, the gas guys and girls are looking to sell other things like food and drink where they can rejoice with bigger markups and afford to pay their rent. The net profit numbers of Exxon, Chevron and others grew to the sky as prices went up, but the service station operators have had to be very resourceful with merchandising to make it through.

Rolling up Interstate 5 and across #46 from Bakersfield to Paso Robles, I was impressed by two things. Whatever may be happening with family food budgets across the nation, the agriculture business in the middle of California seems to be running full tilt. The big trucks carrying produce were spreading their dust trails in all directions. The second eye-witness observation is that wineries have grown up around this state like the wage increases for public union employees. When I moved to California in 1977, there were fewer than 400 bonded wineries in the state. By 2007 there were over 2600! They are generally small businesses themselves, and I got a lesson in how their growth provides opportunities for other small operators. At a meal stop we met a man who operates a pipe and valve business in Modesto who has adopted a pretty good lifestyle due to the increased business from the new vintners.

The strangest small business I noticed along the way was based on the death and legend of actor and cult figure James Dean. He died September 30, 1955 along highway 46 (then known as 466) at the intersection of highway 41, near Cholame California. Dean’s film roles in “East of Eden,” “Giant,” and “Rebel Without a Cause” made him an instant deity upon his tragic death while driving his new Porsche Spyder to compete in a sports car race at Salinas. Today, a convenience store near that intersection does a brisk business in James Dean souvenirs—nearly fifty four years later! So much for the people who say that you have to have the newest, trendiest thing to turn a buck. It left me wishing that I had a product that could sell to a cultish group of fans.

At our destination, the town of Carmel-by-the-Sea itself, there was a major municipal business lesson for towns wanting to attract a crowd at the affluent end of the tourist market. There are no parking meters or signs that say no parking on this side of the street between noon and two. There don’t seem to be any high rise hotels or sprawling condo developments either. Blissfully, I didn’t see any tee-shirt or flip flop shops anywhere near their central shopping district which has high end shops and galleries by the dozens. The lesson is that to attract people who will spend with the town’s merchants, you don’t have to make it cheap. You do need to make it easy, pretty and comfortable. The Tickle Pink Inn and Highlands Inn are just two examples.

I highly recommend that if you are even thinking of starting or growing a business, get out a map and plan a road trip. Don’t schedule it too tightly so that you have lots of time to wander and pause to talk with business owners and their customers. They are the best focus group for what you want to do. Toss that point and shoot digital camera into your pocket to record some of what you observe. I promise that if you let your curiosity be your guide it will an enjoyable, educational and probably inspiring trip.


Be sure to check out www.MakingItTV.com for a comprehensive collection of resources for entrepreneurial thinkers and small business including streaming video, articles, events & workshops, entrepreneur confessions, Q&A, and more!

There's Something Happening Here

While enjoying a Saturday night social gathering this past weekend, a great conversation regarding our favorite concerts and performers struck a chord with me regarding today’s tidal wave of business events. It is well described by the lyrics of a 1967 pop music hit from Buffalo Springfield, “For What Its Worth,” written by Stephen Stills.

“I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that soundEverybody look what's going down.”

General Motors, the most iconic United States business enterprise of the 20th Century, was finally swamped by the numbers and declared bankruptcy on June 1st. Events this large don’t just develop in a matter of months but generally have their roots in decisions made long ago by people who have left the stage.

The business that substantially helped create a way up to the middle class for thousands of industrial workers was eventually dragged down by the costs of having thousands of people on and off the payroll who clung to the notion that it was GM’s responsibility to keep them in the middle class, regardless of market conditions.

“There's something happening hereWhat it is ain't exactly clear.”

I believe in capitalism as fervently as I believe that sunshine and flowers make the world a prettier place. But it seems that defending capitalism these days is a tough job. Yes, I believe that the system must have stronger oversight because simple uncontrolled greed will always create problems that can destabilize the economy. However, the Obama administration’s level of Federal financial activism, unprecedented in modern times, is changing the game in the banking and automotive sectors. But the same fundamental and immutable laws of commerce that dropped a rock on General Motors will eventually visit the government’s “socio-capitalist” hybrid that is being created right before our startled eyes.

“Paranoia strikes deepInto your life it will creep”

As a child I clearly remember the cold war battle of words between the United States and The Soviet Union. We were the world’s largest economy thriving on international business and reaping the rewards of having hard worked our way up to the highest levels of prosperity. We deserved the throne as kings and queens of capitalism. Those collectivists, communist Russians, were painted as a country that didn’t know how the world really operated, and they were paying the price with a drab lower class style of national life. Their premier, Nikita Khrushchev, famously said to capitalist states, “Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!" Their government directly owned many of the biggest businesses and capitalism was suspect or even banned.

Sometimes today I have to rub my eyes in disbelief as I read about the major stakes our government is taking in some of the biggest businesses under the cover of saving them. Is this a form of George Orwell’s predicted “Big Brother” scenario or a page from “The Communist Manifesto” written by Karl Marx? How things have changed in fifty years!

“There's battle lines being drawnNobody's right if everybody's wrong”

We also know from reading even a small amount of history that governments tend to overcompensate with a rather heavy hand. Here, in Los Angeles County California, we are down to just 14 of America’s Fortune 500 companies now. This morning I read about dialysis clinic operator, DaVita Inc., announcing a move from L.A. to Colorado because of an anti business atmosphere. Sometimes I wish that every newly elected official had to spend the first sixty days of their term in economics and business courses. They’d quickly understand that government can only remain solvent by helping to create conditions that support a healthy business community. This law is just as concrete as those legislated against heinous crimes.

“A thousand people in the streetSinging songs and carrying signsMostly say, hooray for our side”

This really doesn’t need to be a battle between the private and public sectors because sound business principles will prevail in the long term. You know them; something of value must be created, marketed and sold. Governments ride on the coattails of those who create. Despite many contrary attempts, the principle that governments can’t tax their way to prosperity has been proven.

Entrepreneurs engaged in enterprises of all sizes simply want to thrive and grow. Yes, the most ambitious among them can secretly yearn for a totally unfettered monopoly in their category, but even they realize there is a role for government regulations. They just want those rules to be clear, and have a steady hand that rests with a light touch on the tiller.

Be sure to check out www.MakingItTV.com for a comprehensive collection of resources for entrepreneurial thinkers and small business including streaming video, articles, events & workshops, entrepreneur confessions, Q&A, and more!

The Barber Shop Lesson

Barber shops in African American neighborhoods play several roles. They are a town hall and political debate forum as well as offering the expected hair care services. In addition to a hair trim this past weekend, I was reminded of the microcosm of the entrepreneurial spirit that exists in these shops as well.

My barber, Rodney, is a grandfather of Social Security collection age, and he considers himself to be semi-retired. Here is what I noticed during 45 minutes in the Crenshaw Boulevard shop where he cuts hair several days per week: When I arrived, there was one customer in the chair getting a cut, and there was another person lined up ahead of me. By the time my haircut was done and he handed me a mirror to admire his craftsmanship, before pocketing my $20 bill, I did a quick calculation. Three customers in forty five minutes at $20 each adds up to $60 an hour, including a 15 minute break! A junior attorney or aerospace engineer would be tickled to accept the equivalent of $60 an hour in today’s environment.

While Rodney doesn’t work forty hours per week nor does he capture $60 for every hour that he’s in the shop, he probably takes home enough working for himself to nicely supplement any other income, and while I suspect that the word honesty must be in the shop’s code of conduct, I would not bet that all the cash is reported to those who care about such things, like the IRS.

While I waited for my turn in the barber’s chair, a man of undetermined age walked through the shop with a belt slung over his shoulder and that belt held about ten various cell phone pouches. Though sunglasses shielded his eyes it was easy to see that he was sizing up the room in search of customers. Since I do love to support other small businesses and my Blackberry didn’t have the benefit of a pouch that could go on my hip, he probably spotted me as a likely buyer. Five dollars for the fake leather holder seemed like a fair deal, and the transaction only took thirty seconds to capture me as another happy customer. He may not see himself as an entrepreneur, but he was demonstrating the spirit.

Just after I settled into Rodney’s chair for my trim, a woman came up to him with a Styrofoam container and said that she is launching her catering business and wanted some of the barbers to sample her food at no charge. Though I didn’t want to suddenly move my head for fear of leaving there with more than a simple trim, I gave her an “atta girl” smile for that smart marketing move. I loved the simple resourcefulness of what she was doing.

This barber shop is a beehive of activity with about twelve chairs and customers ranging in age from four years up to people in the cocktail hour of life. I hope the youngsters were taking in these lessons on what my father used to call “the hustle,” which meant having a variety of legal ways to make a living. When I hear people say there aren’t enough opportunities and that they can’t make money, I’ll tell them about the simple but valuable barber shop lessons.

Be sure to check out www.MakingItTV.com for a comprehensive collection of resources for entrepreneurial thinkers and small business including streaming video, articles, events & workshops, entrepreneur confessions, Q&A, and more!

We Need Vintage People

I’m a big fan of vintage wines, vintage cars, and even old motorcycles. All these things have their own fan base, are eagerly sought out, and are often treasured by collectors. Why don’t we treat vintage people as well as fermented grape juice or an assembly of mechanical parts?

One morning this week an article in the Los Angeles Times was trumpeting the fact that “vintage motorcycles find traction in a soft economy” caught my attention. It went on to prompt an ooh from me when it mentioned a Vincent Black Shadow that sold for over $383,000 a few months ago. Knowledgeable collectors of fine wines will always snap to attention if you even mention that your cellar holds a few bottles of 1982 red Bordeaux. Right down the street from my office I can pick up a bottle of 1982 Chateau Latour for only $1,999.00! Even guitars such as the Stratocaster and Telecaster that were cranked out by Leo Fender in the 1960s are adored by collectors and change hands at many times their original cost. I probably don’t need to remind you of the cachet and value that old Duesenberg automobiles have attained. I’d say it’s a fact that people demonstrate their love of old things and with the ultimate compliment, they empty their wallets for them.

So why don’t we put more value on real, live vintage people as we do on objects of a certain age? I believe that businesses from small to very large can benefit from the knowledge and experience of people who’ve learned many of the lessons first hand. Even in the hallowed halls of youth obsessed businesses such as FaceBook, the realities of the marketplace bring comparatively vintage people to the top of the organization chart. A frequent refrain around Google, MySpace, FaceBook and other explosively growing start ups has been, “We need some adults around here.” In Detroit, which is the current battleground of business survival, the last company standing may be Ford Motor and there, Alan Mulally, the CEO, is 63 years of age.

There is money and intelligence in every age category from 18 to dead, but where you find the greatest combination of both is toward the gray haired end of the spectrum. When hundreds of ambitious aspirants line up to become “The Apprentice,” they are looking to learn from Donald Trump in America or Sir Alan Sugar in Great Britain. Yes, we know that if Trump didn’t treat his hair to a weekly chemical bath he too would probably be gray haired!

This past week I visited the Small Business Administration office in Glendale, California and was reminded about the great counseling and mentoring organization called SCORE, which was originally formed by retired executives. Their wise and experienced counsel has probably helped spawn many a business plan and helped save more than a few businesses.

I sense a rather profound shift that is lurking around the business corner based on the economic downturn that is crippling individual’s retirement plans and remaking the pension plans of big industry and even government. The trend I see is that more people are remaining active in their businesses or in the workforce for a greater number of years. I’ve talked with several skilled executives recently who took early retirement packages in their 50s and who are now looking to start or buy a business. Some of these “vintage” folks have begun selling their experience as consultants. Keeping their brains active, staying healthy, and having some money coming in are all very worthy goals.

If you have to face the unknown or a jungle full of business problems, do you want the recent MBA graduate or would you prefer someone who has learned guerilla warfare and hand to hand combat on the business battlefield? In the19th and 20th centuries, the relationship between the young trainee and the experienced hand was an honored one, but of course that was during a heavily manufacturing era when most people used their hands to craft things or guide the machines that made them. The service economy was a small part of overall business activity and the creation of purely intellectual property was even smaller.

When I was a child and wasn’t sure what many people actually did for a living, we called them, “the old folks.” After being in business for myself for over 20 years, and seeking their advice on many subjects, I’ve seen the value of “vintage people.”

Be sure to check out www.MakingItTV.com for a comprehensive collection of resources for entrepreneurial thinkers and small business including streaming video, articles, events & workshops, entrepreneur confessions, Q&A, and more!

A Capitalist Fundamentalist

Since early in this century (using 9/11 as the time mark) fundamentalism of various types has been rising and our media seem to be having fun fueling the fires. I’m tired of hearing reports only about fundamentalist Muslims, Christians or Jews and the bad raps they are getting. Fundamentalism as a belief system doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with religion and can be applied across the spectrum of human endeavor.

I’ve often declared myself as a major believer in capitalism and today I proudly slip on the tee-shirt labeling me as a fundamentalist capitalist! One important difference between me and the religious folks is that I have no interest in killing or harming those who don’t believe in the same way. However I do carry the missionary zeal necessary to be a good fundamentalist and feel that if more people understood and embraced my capitalist beliefs, the world would be a better place. Certainly at least, the faceless and sometimes mindless beaurocracies that affect so much of our lives would be better places.

I keep a “capitalist” house and pray several times per day for the people, resources and determination to help realize my business dreams. Several personal development “bibles” are frequently read and quoted from at my house including “Think and Grow Rich” and “The Greatest Salesman in the World.” I gather with like minded entrepreneurial thinkers on a regular basis and we sometimes speak the short-hand of quotations from revered and mostly dead capitalists. Now this is not my religion, but if I want to be a good fundamentalist, I must learn from the ways they apply core principles to all aspects of life.

Here is the simple foundation of my belief. Capitalism generally refers to an economic system built on private ownership of the means of production which are operated for profit. The market aspects such as investment, pricing, distribution and production are determined through the operation of a market economy. Since I live in California, let’s use this state as an example of a multi-billion dollar enterprise that could use some capitalist thinking. Since we have the most heavily populated state with over 36 million people, fundamental capitalist principles would mean that we’d also have the largest budget surplus among the states, and not be teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Because we’d create the most products and services of value and receive the most in my fantasy scenario, our education, transportation and communications systems would all be as world class today as they were 45 years ago. Ideas, capital, goals, creation, revenue and results are all tightly linked in my fundamentalist view.

My form of “fundamentalist capitalism” begins with teaching basic economics in every school grade from 2 through 12. Even your favorite post office clerk should know as much about commerce as they do about postal work rules and coffee breaks. Everybody has customers to serve and yes that includes your spouse family. The principle that nothing gets made until something is sold means that your ability to articulate concepts, plans and expected results will determine much about how whether your dreams are realized in this life. Because true capitalism must give as much as it gets, it has nothing to do with the selfish greed that seems to have Wall Street in its grip these days. The creation of opportunity and wealth always feeds more than one person and can elevate entire communities. Fundamental capitalism is a mutual benefit game. Remember that when you write a check you get privileges and accepting a check means that you take on obligations!

Unlike a religious form of fundamentalism, my branch says that great and wonderful rewards come in this life. You’ll have to talk with your clergy about what happens in the life you have after the body wear out. I believe there is such a thing as heaven on earth---and it is well capitalized.

Be sure to check out www.MakingItTV.com for a comprehensive collection of resources for entrepreneurial thinkers and small business including streaming video, articles, events & workshops, entrepreneur confessions, Q&A, and more!

A New Lost Generation

The traffic on Los Angeles freeways is a bit lighter these days, for at least a couple of reasons. One is that the price of gasoline is approaching that of bottled water and the other is that most schools have released their inmates. Among those folks, the college grads in particular are the most eager, enthusiastic and fearful.

Sadly, I find that too many bright young men and women are emerging from distinguished and expensive educations without a clear idea of what they want to accomplish in their lives. I’m living with this old fashioned notion that knowing what you want to do and then learning how is one of the primary purposes of a formal education. The rocketing price of oil and the roller-coaster drop in the stock market don’t bother me as much as seeing a new lost generation. American poet Gertrude Stein actually coined the expression "lost generation." Speaking to Ernest Hemingway, she said, "You are all a lost generation." The term lives on and created a mystique around the writers and artists living in Paris in the 1920s and ‘30s. They seemed to be a generation going to great lengths and distances in search of themselves. Today as a business owner I interview people for jobs from internships on up and it saddens me to often encounter men and women who seem to be in a lost generation for the 21st Century.

Several decades ago I was flattered to be asked to speak a graduating senior high school class for the first time. Of course I was nervous about choosing a topic, writing the speech and practicing until it seemed almost spontaneous. Within the first few minutes I dropped a grenade into the proceedings by telling them that despite their bright eyes, eager smiles, loving parents and fresh diplomas, the hard statistics told an awful story about their prospects. The numbers predicted that about fifty years from their graduation date, out of one hundred students, one of them would be very rich, four would be financially independent, five would still be working and fifty four would be practically broke. You may have noticed that there are thirty-six unaccounted for. The prognosticators said that institutions and death would claim that group. Today, the numbers may be a bit more favorable thanks to 401-K programs and other forced savings vehicles.

If I was delivering a speech today to a graduating class, I’d say that I was privileged to begin my professional life during the century that clearly belonged to America and that they are starting their journey in a century that will belong to other world powers. America’s greatness was based on: a very good education system, a competitive economy and vibrant, diverse population. They worked, sacrificed and endured many hardships for the sake of a greater good. Today’s youngsters often feel entitled to the rewards they’ve seen others enjoy without taking into account what went into those benefits. There are rules to meaningful accomplishment and if you don’t know the rules or want to ignore them, you are truly lost.

Education is one of my passions and I view it as a lifelong process. For example, when I received my private pilot license decades ago, the instructor reminded me that it really was just a license to learn. I spend most of my time in a world populated by experienced functional adults, people with goals and pretty clear values, folks who accept the responsibilities of family and community. In an effort to give their children “something better,” too many unearned gifts have robbed them of the knowledge that striving is a big part of the joy of living and the key to great accomplishment. Many of the fresh faced flock of graduates are surprised to learn that business is as exacting as athletics when it comes to determining who gets to stand on the top step of the podium. Of course, those bright and eager graduates don’t have to remain lost because the knowledge and sparkling example are all around us. They have access to written history, mentor bosses and world-wide connectivity. The realities may not match their graduation day expectations, but in that reality there is a beacon of hope.


Be sure to check out www.MakingItTV.com for a comprehensive collection of resources for entrepreneurial thinkers and small business including streaming video, articles, events & workshops, entrepreneur confessions, Q&A, and more!

Everybody's Cheese is Moving

Events of the past several days in Los Angeles solidified some thoughts I’ve been nursing for several years now. So many things on the business and economic landscape are changing, and most of us aren’t sure where they are headed. All we know is that insecurity and the unhappiness that breeds are top-of-mind feelings for a lot of people right now.

In the past I’ve written that the decades long super consumer era that America has known is coming to an end and we saw an example of that during the holiday shopping season. Also, I had fun a couple of years ago analyzing the importance of the best selling business tome, “Who Moved My Cheese?” The story of Who Moved My Cheese? was created by Dr. Spencer Johnson to help him deal with a difficult change in his life. It showed him how to take his changing situation seriously, but not take himself so seriously. Through waves of downsizing, rightsizing and workforce reductions, the book became a best seller and a favorite in corporate America.

Let’s get back to the weekend event. On Saturday, my lady and I went to a favorite restaurant (Orso) in west Los Angeles that is usually buzzing and crowded. By the fashionable weekend dining hour of 8pm, the place was only about 40% occupied. The owner let us know that they were being adversely affected by the Writers Guild of America strike that is beginning to get a little gray at the temples after two months. There have been thousands of layoffs, and ancillary small businesses have been suffering as the film/TV production money spigot is only dribbling these days. Normally on this past weekend, there would have been parties and smiles everywhere because of the Golden Globe Awards. Instead, the caterers, limo companies and party planners were probably eating pizza while dreaming of last year’s caviar bashes.

You see, each group and business category has to learn that its cheese is not exempt from the forces that will cause it to move. Very old cheese or newly formed curd gets the same treatment. Just look at the 100-year-old automotive businesses in our country. Every U.S. automaker is weighted down with legacy expenditures to employees that were promised during their sunny business climate of the 1950s and ‘60s.

The writers who supply most theatrical film and scripted network TV with words haven’t yet absorbed the fact that their turn at torture may be coming soon. They are locked in a tussle over future residual payments for their work in new media and that may be the battlefield. Many of these men and women are somewhere between bright and brilliant with ideas and words but they often miss a fundamental tenet of the capitalist system. That obvious rule is that the person taking the greatest risk usually gains the greatest rewards when a venture is successful. Not only that, but they get to write most of the rules on how the largesse is doled out. The money and the cheese move in lock step.

The decades old fundamental system of residual payments to writers may be in jeopardy. We all have a natural inclination to want things to remain as they were if it was fun, easy and rewarding. I’m fond of saying that yes, the truth will set you free, but first it may kick your butt. In every business, there are structural changes emerging and some are much less than pleasant. Some of those people manning the writer’s picket lines are smarter and more visionary than others and they should see this with an entrepreneurial eye. That may mean creating content directly for online distribution and bypassing networks, studios and other gatekeepers. Isn’t that supposed to be one of the opportunities presented by the new digital world?

The writers aren’t the only creative artists whose cheese is strapping on roller skates. I noticed today that EMI, the legendary music company that brought The Beatles to the world is laying off up to one third of its 6,000 employees because consumers aren’t buying recorded music in the same way as they were just three years ago. Of course, newspaper circulation in the United States has been skiing down Mount Everest for years. There won’t likely be any pickets in either of these cases and no cries by newspaper writers that they are entitled to continuing payments for an article they wrote years ago. In Hollywood the sacred cow of residual payments is an endangered species that will prompt many more fights between the artists and money interests.

I worked for one of the big three TV networks in the 1980s when they didn’t fully recognize or respect the fact that cable TV was about to change their business lives. Now, the Internet is guaranteeing there will be further radical change in how content is made, marketed and distributed. While writers and other “creatives” are lamenting their state of affairs, the TV networks and studios themselves are trying to figure out how to chase the cheese. There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Those are the words of Niccolo Machiavelli.


Be sure to check out www.MakingItTV.com for a comprehensive collection of resources for entrepreneurial thinkers and small business including streaming video, articles, events & workshops, entrepreneur confessions, Q&A, and more!

Business Media Democracy

This week I’ve been writing a speech to be delivered to a group of small business owners who supply products and services to The Port of Long Beach in California. While mulling over ideas for my brief message, I heard a portion of president Obama’s speech regarding plans to crack down on offshore tax havens used by American businesses. Immediately, what I saw was a classic collision between business and the crusading leader of a democracy that is at least partly fueled by 24 hour media coverage of everything.

The president referred to “ordinary Americans” as if ordinary business owners must be some other strain of Homo sapiens. Just as each young child must learn about touching a hot stove, politicians continue to poke at the entrepreneurial class until something hot blisters their fingers. Even the slowest of them knows enough to stay away from putting their hands on subjects such as unafordability of various entitlement programs for medical and pension costs. But they can’t resist periodic business bashing despite the fact that most of them couldn’t mount a successful campaign for dog catcher without support from the business community.

This wasn’t the first time that I’ve seen business, democracy, and media in a mash up. It was over thirty years ago that the great playwright, Paddy Chayefsky, wrote the script for the Academy Award winning film, “Network,” which contains one of my favorite cinematic speeches. It was delivered in a menacing tone by Ned Beatty as the character Mr. Jensen. When a president or other high level politico wants to roll out the rhetoric and talk about impacting international tax havens they should first have to listen to this thirty three year old speech:

Jensen: “You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it!! Is that clear?! You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance!

You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immense, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels.

It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!

Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.

What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.

We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality -- one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.

And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel.

Beale: But why me?

Jensen: Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday.”

So the speech I’m about to deliver this week seems very tame in comparison. My audience owns medium and small businesses and probably their closest tax haven is Nevada. Their concern is more about attracting new customers and not Wall Street. I don’t say that all business owners are patriotic saints or that unfettered capitalism is perfect. But I do grow tired of politicians or anyone else who tries to create a schism between Americans based on their tax bill.

Amidst all the confusion maybe what we really should be doing is following the explicit instructions of the fictional news anchor Howard Beale from “Network.” He said to get from your chair, open the window and shout, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore.”


Be sure to check out www.MakingItTV.com for a comprehensive collection of resources for entrepreneurial thinkers and small business including streaming video, articles, events & workshops, entrepreneur confessions, Q&A, and more!

I'm a Customer, Damn It!

The older I get, the more I enjoy a helpful interchange with people who work diligently for businesses of any size. But, with each passing day, businesses who covet my dollars seem to want me, the supposed customer to do more of their work and to give them money for that privilege! If I’m paying, being treated like a customer would be a fine idea.

I think it all began with self service gasoline stations. Not only do I remember .55 cent gasoline, but I recall the days when there were service station attendants who would check the oil and scrutinize the tires while filling your tank. Sadly, those memories are now shrouded in the mists of history. At first it was a charming novelty and a time saver to pump your own gas. They even discounted the price! Now we are the hose handlers, there are no discounts and the only people you see are behind a bullet barrier.

In the early 1980s I was an early adopter of an ATM card from my bank. It was both cool and great to be able to replenish my cash supply at times when the bankers were asleep. But as time went on it became obvious that the bankers really wanted us to use the ATM all of the time so they could get by with fewer tellers. In a counter move a couple of years ago, at least one bank began offering concierge service to get a competitive advantage.

Supermarkets are now joining in that game with some featuring self-check-out. Do you really want to be behind the person with 40 items in their cart the first time they use that service? I’d rather have to take close up pictures of a rattlesnake! I like what comedian George Carlin had to say on the subject of getting out of a supermarket. “I'm not the cashier! By the time I look up from sliding my card, entering my PIN number, pressing 'Enter,' verifying the amount, deciding, no, I don't want Cash back, and pressing 'Enter' again, the kid who is supposed to be ringing me up is standing there eating my Almond Joy.”

One of the things we most easily connect with and sometimes yearn for is the sound of a human voice, especially one that is able to respond to your questions. It is OK for me to tell my Blackberry to “call office” and have it do just that, but when I get the office, I want to speak with a real live person. Customers should be warmly greeted and treated with respect. Too many managers and employees loose site of who is really paying their salaries.

Everywhere we look, businesses are beating the bushes in search of customers, but the same enterprises are pinching and squeezing on customer service. Yes, it is challenging to find good people and even more so to train them well. Sadly, service from a live and knowledgeable human being is becoming the new luxury, soon to be afforded only by those who demand it and are willing to pay more. You can now book a plane trip, print out a ticket, endure the security screening and be on your way to the destination without anyone paying attention to your needs until they offer to sell you a sandwich onboard! And airlines wonder why they are sliding toward post office territory on the scale of experiences we dislike.

No, I’m not against progress but I am also a true contrarian. In my own business the phone is answered by live people between 9am and 6pm. We don’t ask you to choose languages or have a trap door behind the pound key leading directly to voice mail hell.

If I’m dealing with your business as a customer, then I really want to be treated like a customer, not one of your associates who works there and gets paid for it. My money should buy service and the attention of a human being even if fleetingly. Give me a human experience and in return I’ll give you loyalty and more business. Anybody can install an automated phone system and other electronic “service” devices. They are now just another commodity. If you want a competitive advantage in this marketplace, bring a human face and voice to what you do. It will be appreciated and we know that can lead to sales and growth. Give me a reason to be a good customer by treating me like a desired customer. That is the true definition of a brand.


Be sure to check out www.MakingItTV.com for a comprehensive collection of resources for entrepreneurial thinkers and small business including streaming video, articles, events & workshops, entrepreneur confessions, Q&A, and more!

The Government Hates Small Business

Some days I think that governments of all levels pay only lip service to the dynamic and vital small business community of America. Despite the nice words and flowery press releases extolling the virtues and value of small business owners, I don’t see the abiding love and understanding that the small business community deserves.

Why does government dismiss the small business community? They do it simply because these businesses are small and usually of modest financial muscle. Governments from municipal to Federal admire and seek out that which is large. Large things are easier to keep track of, brag about, measure, and tap for funds. With a single jab on the enter key of a computer in Redmond Washington, the mountain of money that represents withholding taxes for Microsoft employees is instantly transported to the federal coffers in Washington DC. That number is probably many millions of dollars each month, and it obviously garners a degree of love and respect among those who receive it. Corporations of that size represent very large, juicy and ripe low hanging fruit.

For politicians the world of small business entrepreneurs and independent contractors is hard to get their arms around. For them it’s like trying to create a seafood banquet from a net full of sardines or making wallpaper from postage stamps! Of all US businesses, 99% have 10 or fewer employees and they probably can’t be considered major donors to anyone’s campaign coffers. Despite that one criterion, our federal government still defines small business as one with less than 500 employees. Using the government's standard, small business accounts for 99.9% of all businesses in the US, all of the job growth over the past decade, roughly half of all employment, and just over 50% of the gross domestic product.

High level government operatives can smell money as surely as a shark always turns it teeth toward the faintest scent of blood. I just breezed through the April-09 edition of Inc Magazine, one of the leading monthly publications for the country’s small business community. There weren’t any pictures of politicians showing their love with “atta-boy” or “atta-girl” handshakes and backslaps to the owners of small businesses. However leafing through Fortune Magazines you can often find officials and dignitaries and others on the public payroll “gripping and grinning” with a corporate titan as though they’ve just uncovered the cure for some awful disease. Money does indeed make for interesting couplings.

At a certain level, I do understand the real life aspect of small versus large business. If I create 10 jobs, only those employees and their families care. But if my company can say we hired 800 people, it hits the radar for the public sector. They start to count the tax dollars that spurt from a single source. There was a time when Bill Gates and Walt Disney were small business owners seeking opportunities and customers just like the rest of us. Their fame grew a bit faster than their bank accounts, but it was eventually the companies’ large storehouses of dollars that caught the attention of politicians. Yes, election campaign donations sometimes determine the level of vision that we get from those seeking public office and guiding our government institutions.

I must say that in my opinion, the federal Small Business Administration does a fine job despite having 50 pound portions of bureaucracy tied to their hands. There are some officials in all parts of the country who recognize that rules of nature also have parallels in business. There must be fertile patches of ground, seeds, and nourishing care for new growth. Choking the seedlings with too many regulations, prickly taxes, and uncaring treatment will surely create bare patches in the business garden.

Perhaps our present major economic downdraft will help business owners and government gurus get it right. Some of the country’s giant legacy enterprises are being refocused so sharply that we may not recognize them after the major makeovers that are in progress. At the same time, I suspect that two years from now we’ll be hearing and reading about some presently unheralded entrepreneurs who’ve made that Star Wars like hyperspace jump from having less than 500 hundred employees to enterprises harvesting billions. Then the politicians and government functionaries will suddenly have a new group of best friends.


Be sure to check out www.MakingItTV.com for a comprehensive collection of resources for entrepreneurial thinkers and small business including streaming video, articles, events & workshops, entrepreneur confessions, Q&A, and more!