What the “wise ones” always seem to forget is that it’s small business that makes the world go around.  Small business employs the vast majority of workers in America.  When long-term, viable, ongoing, REAL jobs are created, it’s almost always from small business.  The government talks about “shovel-ready” jobs.  What they mean is that they have a road to be repaired, or a bridge to be built.  The problem with such jobs is that when the money dries up (like it does when the project ends,) the jobs dry up as well.  Unlike the jobs created by small business, those created by a meddling government will be gone as quickly as they came, and there will be a need for more money.

The problem with small business (at least from a current government perspective,) is that they’re seldom unionized.  They are staffed by independent, freedom-loving, free-thinking, hard-working, dare-to-dream people.  Because they don’t belong to the union, they don’t pay dues, don’t make multi-million-dollar donations to political candidates, and therefore lack the “protection” of those who “serve” us.  Our new president seldom makes a move without talking to SEIU (service union.)  What they (SEIU) want is to unionize ALL business — even small business.  Since they donated over $400 million to the president, it’s likely you’ll see legislation soon that will further hamper the small business way of getting things done.

All in all, you can’t be pro small business and be pro big government at the same time.  They are diametrically opposed in everything they do and stand for.  I believe in the free market.  I believe it is capitalism that is part and parcel of the American dream.  I believe small business is the engine that drives our economy.  I believe un-meddled with, the market will make whatever corrections are necessary.  I believe that giving away our freedom to run our own businesses in our own way is a terrible idea.  I believe nobody knows better than me how to run my business.  I believe that any politician who thinks he can do it better than me is not only wrong, but supremely arrogant in thinking so.  Finally, I believe we can find our way out of this mess if we’re just given the same chance to do so that our forefathers have always been given — that is, to let a free market sort it out.  Historically the free market has produced the wealthiest nations on earth with the highest standard of living.  When governments have run things, they produce the poorest nations on earth lowest standard of living.  I know which I want.

Well, that’s what I believe — stated pure and simply.  What do you believe?

For example: there are two cars, same model year, same color, same equipment.  One has 100,000 miles and costs $5,000.  The other has 50,000 miles and is $5,500.  Even though the second car is $500 more expensive, it is by far the better deal.  If you were thinking about buying one of these cars, you’d be crazy to buy the cheaper car.  The more expensive car would give you two to three times the life.

It’s true for everything.  We talk all the time about “bang for the buck,” and that’s really what you look for.  People say you get what you pay for.  The inverse is also true:  you don’t get what you don’t pay for.  Sure, you can pay too much and not get the bang you’re looking for.  But more often you leave the things that are important on the table by buying the cheap stuff.

I remember selling skis when I was in college.  People would come in and I would show them the good stuff.  They would say, “Oh, that’s much too expensive.  I think I’ll go with this cheaper stuff.”  They would buy it, use it one season and come back next year and do the same thing.  Over two or three years they spent the same amount of money as the people who bought the good stuff right from the get-go, but they had three years of paying to ski on equipment they really never enjoyed.  ‘

Contrast that with the people who bought the good stuff right up front.  They had three years of very enjoyable skiing.  At $60 dollars (or more) a day for skiing, three years represents a significant sum of money spent to not enjoy yourself.  So what was the better deal?

My motto is, “I’ve never been unhappy with the best.”  It’s when you buy the cheap stuff you’re not happy.  So you suffer with it until you can’t stand it anymore, then go get some more cheap stuff and start the process over.  That’s not for me.

The bottom line in all this?  Buy value not price.  Don’t dismiss the best just because it’s expensive.  You don’t get what you don’t pay for.  The best price is seldom the best deal.

As I have pondered this call I got from out of the blue, I have to wonder what might have happened had my two friends said, “Oh, you don’t want to do business with him.”  Basically, I would have never heard from him and my life would have continued on.  But it might have been that I could have lost the most important contact of my life (whether this is or not, only time will tell, but you never know if you never get contacted.)

You never know what people are saying about you when you’re not there.  But it can have a dramatic impact on your life (or a dramatic lack of impact, depending on what they’re saying.)  Much of business today is done through networking.  Someone knows someone who knows us and we get a recommendation — either bad or good.  Then things happen or they don’t.

What are people saying about you?  Would people who know you recommend you highly enough that someone might call?  If a person went to the internet to do a search on you, would they like what they find on your social networking sites?  If the answer to all these questions is positive, get ready for referrals.  If not, you’d better make some adjustments.

Ask yourself what you’ve learned about business from the experiences you’ve had in your life.  Is it easy to make the leap from water-skiing to business?  If not, that’s a talent you need to develop.  Once that talent is well developed, you’ll find that you know way more about business than you thought you did and that you’re way more prepared to deal with difficult situations.  You’ll find yourself asking, “When did I have a significantly difficult situation in some other area of my life, and how can I apply what I learned there to this situation?”  You’ll soon realize there’s not much that really throws you, or that you’re unprepared for.

How well do you tell a story?  You ought to do it in front of a video camera and really critique yourself.  Are you engaging?  Are you clever or funny?  Are you sincere?  Most importantly, are you believable and can you convince me it’s something I should care about?  If not, listen to people who are and ask yourself what the difference is between their manner of telling a story and yours — then make an adjustment.

If you can’t tell a story, you’ll never get a chance to make a difference.

Pat yourself on the back today.  I hope you feel like you did a good thing.  God bless the working man (and woman, of course) and God bless America.

This was an article from the St. Petersburg Times Newspaper on Sunday. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on
“How Would You Fix the Economy?” I thought this was the BEST idea….I think this guy nailed it!

Dear Mr.President,

Patriotic retirement:

There’s about 40 million people over 50 in the work
force-pay them $1 million apiece severance with stipulations.

They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings – Unemployment fixed.

They buy NEW American cars. Forty million cars ordered
Auto Industry fixed..

They either buy a house/pay off their mortgage -
Housing Crisis fixed.

The problem?  “Traction Control.”  Thank goodness my wheels weren’t slipping in that four inches of snow.  The problem was, the reason they weren’t slipping was because they weren’t turning.  Apparently with traction control you can’t chew your way through 4″ of snow.  You just have to be stuck.

I got out the owners manual (prior to pushing) and found you can disable the traction control.  Great.  I did.  But it doesn’t really disable it.  Just minimizes it.  You still don’t spin your way home.  But after backing up, getting a run (several times) I made it home.

The moral to this story is obvious.  Toyota spent a lot of money to include that feature in the car.  I paid for the privilege of not being able to go where I want.  Sure, traction control helps when you’re on an icy highway (and already moving.)  It has some safety value.  But for those of us who live in snow country, saving the up-front expense and controlling our own traction makes more sense.

I know Toyota wants to protect us from ourselves.  It’s obvious we can’t be trusted.  But the bottom line is this: not all improvements are good.  Not every “enhancement” should be implemented.  Sometimes what works well in one application hinders you in another.

Be sure as you evolve your products and services that what you offer really does make a difference.    There is often a small minority of the people clamoring for things the majority doesn’t even care about.  Before you go to the expense of developing new features / benefits, make sure it’s something the masses want.  You’ll always do well if you appeal to the masses, not the classes.

But the thing I found most fascinating was the report that many, many business leaders are doing . . . nothing!  With the fear of making a poor decision looming over their heads, they opt for the slow death of doing nothing in exchange for a quick death from making the wrong decision.

As I’ve said in the past, this is not the time for doing nothing.  You must take action  –  and that action must be correct.  This is a time when we will separate the true, business- savvy leaders from the pretenders.  Dont’ be afraid to take action.  You will learn a tremendous amount no matter if your decisions are good or bad.  And that education will serve you well in the future.

Gather your management team around you and council together on what you’re going to do.  Get input from all sides, then take a decision and run with it.  Just be careful whose opinion you value most highly.  You can see the results of trusting the wrong people playing itself out on the national stage.  At any rate, don’t let fear stop you in your tracks.  Do something.  Doing nothing is every bit as much a death knell for your business as doing the wrong thing.

So gird up your loins and move forward.  This is a time of tremendous opportunity for those who are both wise and aggressive.

AJW