December 2013 magazine final by Small Business Today Magazine

DECEMBER 2013

PARTNERSHIPS –

THE GOOD, BAD, & THE UGLY

GREAT IDEAS TO GROW YOUR OPT-IN LIST

MIKE ROBINSON

CARDINAL COMPANIES INTERNATIONAL

Volume 2 Issue 9

A COMPANY TO KEEP YOUR EYES ON AS THEY SOAR ABOVE THE REST!

www.SBTMagazine.net

SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

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SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

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10,000 small businesses

Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE/TALK SHOW & HCC Present

HCC Grows Entrepreneurs

Thursday, December 5, 2013 8:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. HCC West Loop, 5601 West Loop Auditorium A full day seminar dedicated to developing the skills you need to grow your business. Johnny Cupcakes will deliver the Keynote Address. Johnny Cupcakes went from selling whoopee cushions and candy to making t-shirts resulting in $5 Million in sales. Topics include: • • • • •

Entrepreneurial Mindset: Make it your company’s culture. You Are the Leader. Your leadership style impacts your organization. HCC’s new Minority Business Development Agency 2014 Ushers in Easier Access to Capital Making Your First Million: A panel of entrepreneurs share how they made it big.

Continental Breakfast and lunch included.

To register call Jodie Khan at 713.718.7441.

SBT Houston Staff December 2013

FROM THE

Publisher STEVE LEVINE

WHAT’S YOUR PLAN? In this column last month, I asked if it was time to refresh your business plan. If your business plan is over a year old, then it is certainly time to take a look at that business plan and address where it’s taken you and where else you need it to take you in the coming year. You may also want to take a look at your consumers and explore how they have changed in the past year. When I talk to successful entrepreneurs for the magazine, I have learned from them that there are certain “basics” for success for every business no matter how large or small they are. Those basics are: Positive Attitude Successful entrepreneurs understand that attitude has everything to do with success! Taking a clue from winning sports teams; they know that “Winners Expect to Win!” There is no doubt in their mind. They also understand that there will be setbacks with any successful plan and they are determined from the start to get past them. Successful business owners take a risk when they launch their business and take a risk with all new strategies. Not every strategy works for everyone. Customer Service Successful entrepreneurs start their business by creating a product or service that fulfills a want or need of a consumer. Successful companies are those whose mission is to exceed their client’s expectations for quality of product and service. They realize that they must always give the quality & quantity of service that is “worthy” of a testimonial and/or referral(s). Daily Marketing If your marketing is done by telling your story (that of your product or service) to as many people as you can and as often as you can, then it is a simple equation that you will increase your business by expanding your marketing base. So, if you want to increase your business in the coming year, it’s time to consider increasing your advertising budget to expand. “Investing” in the medias that reach your target audience is a must. No advertising dollars you say? You and your business card and any marketing materials are your advertising. When not enough business is coming your way, maybe it’s time that you get out of your rut and go out and find that new business. This month’s cover honoree, Mike Robinson of Cardinal Companies International could have written the book on “Business Success 101!” Mike is a great guy with a terrific attitude and continues to do all of the right things to grow his business! You will enjoy his story! It’s time to let you get started on this very special issue! Good Reading, Good Sales, Much Success, & Happy Holidays! Steve Levine Executive Publisher

Chairman of the board John Cruise President/Executive Publisher Steve Levine Associate Publisher/Creative Director/Editor Barbara Davis-Levine Business Development/PR Sonia Guimbellot Bill Huff Aaron Kaplan Susan Repka Donna Rooney Stephen Zappala Graphic Designers Malka G. Levy Vanessa Vara Photographer Gwen Juarez Contributing Writers Errol Allen Don Brown Mari-Ann Carlson Barbara Davis Dr. John Demartini Maya Durnovo Mila Golovine Lorraine Grubbs Toni Harris Bruce Hurta Jeff Jones Craig Klein Bertrand McHenry Hank Moore Mayor Annise Parker George Rose Rita Santamaria Alvin Terry Holly Uverity Jack Warkenthien Aimee Woodall Chief Advisor Hank Moore Publisher’s Advisory Board Cyndi Barnett Roger Burks Sonia Clayton Donna Cole John Cruise Dirk Cummins April Day Dr. John Demartini Maya Durnovo Kathie Edwards Leonard Faucher Mila Golovine Toni Harris David Holt Richard Huebner Jeffrey Jones Darryl King Craig Klein Wea Lee Bertrand McHenry Hank Moore Lisa M. Morton Mike Muhney Leisa Holland Nelson Mayor Annise Parker Maria Rios Susan Repka Grant Sadler Rita Santamaria Allen Shapiro William Sherrill Pam Terry Linda Toyota Jack Warkenthien Doug Winnie Aaron Young Phone: 832-460-2020 E-Mail: Steve.Levine@SBTMagazine.net Or Write: Small Business Today 5380 West 34th Street, Ste 230

Houston, TX 77092 See us on the web at www.SBTMagazine.net

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SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

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Designing For Your Success ™

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INSIDE

DECEMBER 2013

10,000 small businesses

PARTNERSHIPS –

Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE/TALK SHOW & HCC

Present

HCC Grows Entrepreneurs

GREAT IDEAS TO GROW YOUR OPT-IN LIST

MIKE ROBINSON

CARDINAL COMPANIES INTERNATIONAL A COMPANY TO KEEP YOUR EYES ON AS THEY SOAR ABOVE THE REST!

Volume 2 Issue 9

DECEMBER 2013 EDITION I HOUSTON

THE GOOD, BAD, & THE UGLY

Continental Breakfast and lunch included.

To register call Jodie Khan at 713.718.7441.

IN THIS ISSUE The Attitude for Being a Winner

Maintaining Balance within a Company

“End of Year Closeout”

The New Alchemy – Turn Your Sales Leads Into Gold

Houston Strong on Crime

Partnerships – The Good, Bad & The Ugly

Doing Business in Mexico

Developing Leaders: Part Four: Coaching Case Study… Ego and the Leader

MIKE ROBINSON

CARDINAL COMPANIES INTERNATIONAL

A COMPANY TO KEEP YOUR EYES ON AS THEY SOAR ABOVE THE REST!

JOIN US ON DECEMBER 5TH AT THE “HCC GROWS ENTREPRENEURS” EVENT FOR MORE INFORMATION SEE OUR AD ON PAGE 2

Puppy Farm or Well-Trained Pack? Biggest Mistake New Entrepreneurs Make 18 BIG Progress for Business at Houston Community College

3 Great Ideas to Grow Your Opt-in List

Tick Tock: Resetting the Marketing Clock for 2014

Communications Reflect Your Strategy

Which SBA Loan Applications Require a Business Plan?

Angry Customer Prevention

Protect Your Dream Vacation Home

Shamrocks Are Not Just For St. Patty’s Day

Fear and Loneliness

My Favorite Outlook Email Tips

Enough Sitting On The Job… It’s Time to Take A Stand!

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WOULD YOU OR YOUR COMPANY LIKE TO BE PROFILED IN OUR NEXT ISSUE? CALL STEVE LEVINE AT 832-419-2814

BACK COVER

TO ADVERTISE, BE A GUEST OR SPONSOR ON OUR RADIO SHOW CALL STEVE LEVINE AT 832-419-2814

HOUSTON EDITION PUBLISHER: STEVE LEVINE SMALL BUSINESS MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY LEGACY PUBLISHING GROUP, LLC. 5380 WEST 34TH ST. STE. 230 HOUSTON, TX 77092 EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER: STEVE LEVINE PRESIDENT: JOHN CRUISE PHONE: 832-460-2020 www.SBTMagazine.net ADVERTISING RATES ON REQUEST. BULK THIRD CLASS MAIL PAID IN TUCSON, AZ. POSTMASTER: PLEASE SEND NOTICES ON FORM 3579 TO 5380 WEST 34TH ST. STE. 230 HOUSTON, TX 77092 ALTHOUGH EVERY PRECAUTION IS TAKEN TO ENSURE ACCURACY OF PUBLISHED MATERIALS, SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR OPINIONS EXPRESSED OR FACTS SUPPLIED BY ITS AUTHORS. COPYRIGHT 2012, LEGACY PUBLISHING GROUP, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED.

SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

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CARDINAL COMPANIES INTERNATIONAL A COMPANY TO KEEP YOUR EYES ON AS THEY SOAR ABOVE THE REST!

By Barbara R. Davis

The male Northern Cardinal is perhaps responsible for getting more people to open up a field guide than any other bird. They’re a perfect combination of familiarity, conspicuousness, and style; a shade of red you can’t take your eyes off. So it’s quite interesting that even though Cardinal Companies International was named after co-owners, Mike and Patrick Robinson’s favorite baseball team, they too have a company that is the perfect combination of familiarity, conspicuousness, and style. Even though the company was founded in 2005, they have twice been named by Inc 5000 as one of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies! They are definitely a company to keep your eyes on as they soar above the rest! It is quite interesting how Cardinal Companies began in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Mike, who has a degree in hotel/restaurant management and culinary, had been “cheffing” around Houston and the surrounding areas for several years and then had gone into the distribution side to learn how products move from the manufacturer to the end user. Patrick was the general manager of a country club.

After they finished that project, they started working for a construction group that was starting it’s own marine division that was going to go out and repair some of the rigs and wells in the Gulf that were damaged from Hurricane Rita. Rita had done far more damage offshore than Katrina. The group liked so much what Mike and Patrick had done on land that they asked how they felt about doing the same offshore. SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

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Mike Robinson, President and CEO of Cardinal Companies International and younger brother, Patrick Robinson COO, had grown up in Springfield and then Edwardsville, Illinois. Being that Edwardsville is about 25 minutes from St. Louis, it was only natural for the Robinson boys to grow up being loyal Cardinal fans. In 2004, just prior to the creation of Cardinal Companies, Mike and Patrick were lucky enough to get tickets to see the Cardinals play in the World Series. Unfortunately, the tickets they had were for game 5 and Boston shut the Cardinals out by game 4! In spite of that disappointment, their love for the Cardinals never diminished and when

Gwen Juarez Photography

When Hurricane Katrina hit, they were asked by friends John Colelli and Todd Richards to help find chefs and help manage chefs, inventories, and menus for several different man camps and tent city operations in Louisiana that were for construction crews, relief workers, and the EPA. There were no facilities whatsoever over there for people to stay that had power. So they created these tent cities and managed the culinary operations which included coming in with the food and the inventory side of it.

The Robinson brothers recognized that providing services on vessels had greater potential for becoming a long term opportunity. They had always talked and dreamt about doing something together and this seemed perfect for them to join forces and do something that had the potential for them to really make things happen. So in October of 2005, Cardinal Culinary officially began.

Mike likes to personally oversee every aspect of his business and strives for excellence in every aspect of his business.

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There are four divisions of Cardinal International; the first one they began was Cardinal Culinary. It is their offshore division that focuses on facilities management for oilrigs and subsea construction projects. They provide all of the chefs, housekeepers, and laundry personnel to keep these remote cities up and running, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days out of the year. Also, in that division, they do emergency management. They have emergency management contracts with a lot of the local municipalities including Galveston County, Nassau Bay, Friendswood, La Porte, and League City. In the event a natural disaster occurs or a hurricane is coming into the Gulf, they provide support services for all of the city officials and emergency responders who are going to stay behind just before, during, and after the storm. They feed and service all of these personnel so that they can keep doing what they do in times of need. They even provide shower trailers and housing if needed. Cardinal Culinary grew so rapidly that within a year and a half, they were managing 15 offshore projects. There were other companies doing what they were doing but when they got in, they took it to a whole different level. At the time, there was such an explosion in the workforce needed for offshore work that employee retention became a big concern. In order for companies to attract and retain employees, they needed to offer something that other companies didn’t. With Mike’s background in fine dining, they came up with the idea of offering gourmet type menus and products. They offered everything from traditional Gulf, Cajun, and Louisiana fare to very high class meals with lobster, crab legs, duck, and steak. This was a far cry from opening cans of beans and heating things up which had been the standard before Cardinal Culinary came into the picture. As a result, the workers were spoiled and everyone was happy with their services. Quality of products, service, and creative menu selections quickly became synonymous with Cardinal Culinary. As a result, Cardinal Culinary’s offshore market was building momentum until the Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred in 2010 which caused a huge setback. Mike and Patrick were able to manage through those difficult times because www.SBTMagazine.net

they fortunately had a couple of very strong customers who stayed with them. During that time, they recognized the need to diversify in some other markets. So they opened their second division, Cardinal Chandlering. From their past experiences, they had become quite familiar with distribution. They had seen how other companies were operating offshore, which included a lot of price gauging. They believed that if they could offer a fairly priced product with good quality and excellent service there would be room to “slide into” the market, and so they did. In 2010, the dynamic Cardinal team started Cardinal Customized Services, their third division. At that point, they had already built up a large human resources arm. They were familiar with scheduling people for safety training and even processing people into their organization. A need was brought to their attention through some of their relationships after Hurricane Ike and that was the need for specialized labor in the industrial industry. They began bringing in and supplying hydroblasters, chemical cleaners, vacuum truck operators, safety technicians, and supervisors to work in the plants, not just locally but all over the country for shutdowns and turn-arounds. Their new market just kind of expanded on the efficiencies and skills they had created over the years in human resources and customer service. In 2011, the land-based oil boom started to show up in places such as Eagleford Shale, so once again, there were very similar conditions when the offshore boom had begun with a huge increase in the workforce with a limited infrastructure to support it. There weren’t enough hotels or restaurants so Cardinal Companies started to bid and offer the same services as offshore

Continued on page 30

Gwen Juarez Photography

it came time to name their company, Cardinal was the mutually agreed upon name.

Cardinal Companies International has assembled an incredibly talented and dedicated staff

SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

The Attitude for Being a Winner

THE BUSINESS OF REAL ESTATE

By Rita Santamaria

“

The most readily identifiable quality of a total winner is an overall attitude of personal optimism and enthusiasm.” Psych or mind and Soma, which is the body, are the primary role players in your development to winning. The body expresses what the mind is concentrating on according to Dr. Denis Waitley. We are told this is why hives, headaches, upset stomach are an outcome of the mind. If your mental thoughts are positive, your body will seek to display your general good feeling with energy and a general condition of good health.

environment healthy through praise and encouragement.

“Where there are hopes, there are dreams.”

Self-image can be changed from negative to the positive by never allowing yourself to seriously believe “I am too fat, or I see myself as unattractive, or I am just average”. The winner’s self-talk is “I can change, I am smart, I have control of myself, and no one else does”. The saying “what you think you see is what you get” is a truism. The same is true for “if your mind or psyche says I feel sickly, chances are, you will be”.

“Where there are vivid dreams, repeated, they become goals. Winners commit to inner memory until it becomes automatic and a reality”. Dr. Waitley

“Where there is life, there is hope.”

A way of life that prepares you for winning is always expect the best from yourself both physically and mentally and you are on the right path to receiving what you believe in your psych or your mind.

Rita Santamaria is the owner and founder of Champions School of Real Estate and Champions School of Professional Development. www.ChampionsSchool.com; 2013 BBB Excellence in Business Award recipient.

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When experiencing a fearful event or conversation, imagine your conversation is with your good friend or favorite associate. You know your words will be thought out and not filled with negatives if you were conversing with a friend. You might even decide the issue is “not an issue after all”. Time will work for your benefit every time but this doesn’t mean to wait a long period before discussing the issue. Give yourself time to put all things in perspective and to formulate the best approach for “fixing the problem”.

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These are the thoughts and attitude for becoming and remaining a winner whether in your career quest or personal world.

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

Maintaining Balance within a Company By Dr John Demartini

In a book titled 21st Century Leadership, my friend Lynne Joy McFarland and her colleagues Larry E. Senn and John R. Childress interviewed 100 business leaders to find out what they thought would be the most significant key to building sustainable businesses in the 21st century. The majority of them believed that business leaders of the future will be moving away from the industrialized, patriarchal, dictatorial approaches of major companies and gradually toward a more balanced and partly decentralized approach whereby creative specialists are doing more of what they love with more equalized and autonomous power. Instead of an extreme oppressor and oppressed approach, they will be more moderated and equilibrated, thereby allowing specialists to be more contributively creative and innovative. They believed that business leaders of the future will discover the power of and demonstrate a more masculine and feminine balance. (Note: masculine and feminine forces mentioned here are not limited to men or women leaders. Either gender can lean to one or the other side). Previous selective company leaders who assertively controlled and overextended their workers eventually forced those workers to organize retaliating unions in order for a collective feminine force to balance the masculine dominance that concentrated primarily on immediate profits. These unions developed to protect the workers from burn-out and to teach the patriarchal business leaders to care more about the workers they were extracting surplus labor profits from. Many business leaders lean toward one side or the other in their approaches to leadership, but nature automatically forces business leaders of companies to oscillate between these masculine (visionary and profit driven) and feminine (feeling and nurture driven) sides. Effective business leaders of the future will strive to maintain this essential balance of masculine and feminine forces within their businesses. Values and Profitability I recently received an email from a small company in Massachusetts that had a turnover of $32 million dollars, but a slim profit margin of just over $1 million (a profit of about three per cent). No one on this company’s board had ever earned more than $1 million previously. The board was very family, education and altruistically oriented. Therefore, the company was led and guided according to these values. The business leaders’ hierarchy of values dictated the destiny of the com-

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pany and, consequently, the profit margins. As a result, I was among many consultants who were brought into the company to focus the leaders effectively on the objective of increasing profitability, which meant bringing an essential masculine side to the equation. If a business leader does not have a high value on making profits, but places a higher value on managing and taking care of his or her people only, the likely result is that the company may be a great place to work, but their its margins are likely to be sacrificed. If a leader is too focused on the bottom line and focused only on making profits, the company is likely not to be the best of workplaces and employees may burn out or leave. Business leaders of the future will who allow for a balance of masculine and feminine forces — oscillating between these two poles, yet striking a synchronous balance. These leaders of the future will be the most loved, loving and sustainable. In studying business management ideals for over three decades, I have found fluctuating trends return every seven to ten years like a slow swinging pendulum which always returns to balance. Currently, as the world is emerging from an extended economic recessionary period, companies are temporarily focusing on building their muscle and trimming their excess fat. This means they are likely to find ways of becoming more efficient and focused, cutting spending to maximize profits. But, before the recession, many companies were allocating funds for health and wellness programs and day care services for their teams along with fostering and supporting more “social” work environments. In a few more years, the present masculine side and structure will once again begin to give way to the feminine side. Equilibrium of Complementary Opposites Business wisdom maintains a close balance of the more extremes in complementary opposite gender polarities. A company is the most basic unit of socio-economics and is wisely led and managed when it demonstrates the principle of gender balance. The more competitive and assertive some leaders become within the company, the more cooperative and passive the other workers will become in order to maintain this innate striving for gender balance. Continued on page 38 SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

“End of Year Closeout”

ENTREPRENEURS TOOL BOX

By Alvin E. Terry MBA, Business Consultant, Dynamic Business Builders

Dynamic Business Builders

elieve it or not, we all have either, raced, walked, or limped to the finish line as we closeout the year 2013. If you are on the calendar year, December 31st is upon us and we should all have the same focus on exactly how did we perform based on our projections from the beginning of the year?

business with certain operational controls, these ventures never got off of the ground. I have already touched on the statistics of businesses failing and so have many of the contributors to SBT Magazine Today. These statistics have been documented by various associations, organizations, banking institutions, and other governmental agencies.

As we review those 12 months cash flow projections from our individual “Business Plans” that we all have crafted from 2012, we were living with the hope of achieving an exponential growth in our revenue streams. Because we did our homework with updated marketing plans, advertising plans, and super-sizing our corporate branding imprints, we were able to achieve our target goals.

We have the power in our control to stay on course and make our businesses successful and profitable. Now is the time to take a very long and hard look on our individual operations month by month to see if the right decisions were made in getting our businesses back on track by listening to the economy, listening to our customers, listening to our suppliers, listening to our accountants, listening to our bankers, and understanding our markets.

Hopefully we have all reviewed our individual Business Plans and calculated constantly on a daily and monthly basis. I know that this seems to be a bit much, but in being successful, we have to be on top of our game. As I have said before, “It is a bunch of work”. Understanding the planned versus the actual in our business plans, looking at the numbers, and interpreting what the variance analysis is telling us, we should listen to the words whispering in our ears and the numbers staring us in our faces. As small business owners, we all share the same challenges on a constant and daily basis. This is what it is all about. As far as interpreting the analysis and what it really means, make sure that you engage in with professionals that understand exactly what they mean. As a business consultant, my job is to understand what the numbers are saying. Over the past 12 months, I have encountered countless small businesses saying that they cannot afford a consultant to advise them on how to run their business on a monthly basis. Unless you or your Accountant has an advanced degree in business, you are denying yourself of identifying the obvious and not so obvious signs of impending danger either staring you in the face or just lurking around the corner. Please believe me; I have experienced the same encounters trying to work with others in consulting and joint venture situations over the past two years. Because of the lack of understanding and the unwillingness to learn and operate a SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

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Recap: When we all started with a renewed hope of visions and clarity of thought on just how we were going to achieve our numbers and have a profitable year in 2013 twelve months ago, I know that some of us have achieved phenomenal growth and met our numbers. Small Business Today has been able to highlight a small number of businesses that believe in doing “business by the book” and understand that the contributing writers in the Magazine are sincere and are animate in giving its readers the best that they can give of their experiences. Now is the time to review our credit policies, shed unprofitable relationships, eliminate waste, review our employee’s performances, and enhance our banking relationships. Above all, it also the time to look at the reflection in the mirror to focus in on ourselves to see if we were the best managers we could have or should have been. We can all strive to do better and practice those basic business principles that can ultimate lead to the achievement of our dreams of owning a successful business. Once again it has been a pleasure to write to you. Have a great New Year beginning. You may contact Alvin E. Terry, MBA @ alvin.terry@rocketmail.com or by Cell @ 713-392-9107. www.SBTMagazine.net

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SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

The New Alchemy – Turn Your Sales Leads Into Gold By Craig Klein, CEO of SalesNexus.com

n Greek mythology, King Midas could turn everything he touched into gold. Today, people continue to look for a way to spin sales leads into golden opportunities. In the early 20th century, peddlers crossed the country with promises of the potion that could cure everything. Sales were synonymous with manipulation in those days.

The First World’s Salesmanship Congress was held on July 10, 1916. At that meeting, the keynote speaker was President Woodrow Wilson. Recognizing the important role of sales in the development of our country, he encouraged attendees to “carry liberty and justice and the principles of humanity wherever you go. Go out and sell goods that will make the world more comfortable and more happy, and convert them to the principles of America.”

a lead nurturing campaign delivered by email. When companies first consider using email marketing, they often come with a preconceived notion of being considered spam. They shudder at the thought of being one of the hundreds of emails that greet business people each and every day. They don’t want to be one of “those guys” and often put off using email as an effective marketing tool because it seems to be an unpleasant way to reach sales leads with their message.

In Greek mythology, King Midas could turn everything he touched into gold.

CRM Alchemy Develops Gold Today, the sales profession has been developed into a sophisticated, data-driven industry. Based on more than a century of learning and development, sales professionals have shed the image of an individual ‘hawking their wares’ and embraced a more scientific approach to meeting the needs of buyers.

Let’s Get Personal The best way to understand why marketing automation turns sales leads into gold is to bring the idea down to the personal level. Step out of business for just a little while and stop being the decision maker for your company.

Now an online CRM can manage every step of the buying process and literally turn raw sales leads into golden opportunities. The really great news about this new way of selling is the sales lead actually appreciates the information offered. Pull Sales Leads – Not Push A growing percentage of new sales leads are not ready for a buying conversation. Your company’s sales pros must focus on the ones who are ready for an appointment. The rest of the sales leads fall naturally into SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

• Think about the last major purchase you made in your personal life. • Try to recall a purchase you needed to make, but were not yet an expert on the product or the industry. • Remember that you searched the internet, seeking more information about the product, service or industry. • Maybe you were offered an eBook, Case Study or report that could help you further understand. You probably downloaded the information because

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you knew you needed all the information you could get to make a good decision on this personal purchase. • After you exchanged your contact data for the information you needed, what did you expect from the company who offered you the educational item? • Would you prefer to learn even more in an email marketing campaign? Would you appreciate the company teaching you all they could – whether you purchased from them or not? Buyer-Controlled Purchasing The world of making purchasing decisions is totally upside down from the way it was less than a decade ago. With the sales lead in control of the process, buying begins with information gathering. A company that educates and informs is being very considerate of the sales lead. The prospective buyer does not see the information as pushy or even an interruption. Instead, they see you as a partner in the gathering stage of the process. During this stage it also allows them to deepen their trust in your company and staff. They will often contact you when they have learned everything they feel they need to know. It becomes a very easy sale for your staff and sets up a friendly, helpful dynamic in the customer relationship.

Craig is the founder of SalesNexus. com, a leading provider of CRM, Email Marketing, and Lead Generation solutions to business 2 business sales teams. www.SBTMagazine.net

www.SBTMagazine.net SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE JULY 2013

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3 I PG 13 www.SBTMagazine.net

SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

EDITORIAL FEATURE

Houston Strong on Crime By Mayor Annise Parker

y administration is built around five specific priorities that include public safety, infrastructure, economic development, quality of life, and fiscal responsibility. Meeting each one of these priorities is important to our city’s success but public safety - the effort to keep our residents as safe as possible - is always my top priority. Houston’s murder rate is the lowest in decades and our overall crime rate is down 8 percent compared to the three years prior to 2010. When crimes do occur, the Houston Police Department is quick to put in action its state-of-the-art crime fighting techniques to catch those responsible. This was evident in the quick arrest and capture of suspects wanted in connection with a recent restaurant shooting and assaults of cyclists along the Columbia Tap Hike and Bike Trail. I am proud of the commitment and hard work of our men and women in blue who are out on our streets every day fighting crime. We are also working at the neighborhood level to implement new programs that can have an impact on crime. Our aggressive approach to demolishing dangerous buildings has resulted in the removal of approximately 3,000 structures since I took office in 2010. This includes the original dirty half-dozen, considered to be the worst of the worst rundown apartment complexes in the city. These properties serve as havens for criminal activity such as drugs and prostitution. Removing them will pave the way for redevelopment that will improve neighborhoods and quality of life. Our “Make Safe Saturday” initiative is meant to do the same thing. Each quarter, crews from the City’s Department of Neighborhoods fan out across the city to board up and clean up blighted lots and dangerous buildings that are in violation of city codes but do not yet meet the multiple criteria for demolition. These are properties for which the owners have been cited for violations and have failed to correct the problems. Since this program began in March of 2013, more than 200 properties have been targeted.

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I am also concerned about a crime many of you may not be familiar with - human trafficking. Known as modern day slavery, human trafficking is defined as the buying and selling of people for the purpose of forced, defrauded, or coerced services, labor or sex. Due to our close proximity to the U.S.Mexico border, our huge international port, the Interstate 10 corridor, and our large immigrant and migrant population, Houston is a hub for this illegal activity. The crime includes the victimization of adults and children and it could be happening at the house next door, the local nail salon, a local restaurant, a construction site down the street, at your front door, and on the Internet. The “Shine a Light on Human Trafficking” campaign is meant to help inform Houstonians about the crime and encourage them to report suspicious situations to authorities. It is based on the recommendations of the Human Trafficking Task Force I created about a year ago - a panel composed of law enforcement representatives, community stakeholders, and experts on the issue.

To report human trafficking crime in Houston, call the Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline at 1-888-3737-888. More information is available at www.shinealighthouston.org. This past October was the 30th anniversary of National Night Out, a nationwide effort to give residents the opportunity to get to know their neighbors while building community-police partnerships. Our police officers do a wonderful job, but they can’t do it alone. All of us can help by being diligent when it comes to our own safety and protection of belongings and reporting suspicious activity. Together, Houston will be not only the job-producing capital and “coolest city” in the nation, we will also be the safest.

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

Partnerships –

The Good, Bad & The Ugly By Jeffrey D. Jones, ASA, CBA, CBI

wning and managing a business can be a real challenge. Dealing with partners or shareholders creates a whole set of additional challenges that can be beneficial or detrimental depending upon the structure of the partnership, the relationship of the partners, and the documentation specifying operational procedures, management responsibilities, and buy/sell provisions. This article will review some of the benefits of having partners and some of the trials and tribulations that I experienced when owning businesses with partners/shareholders. THE BENEFITS Sharing the economic risk in operating a business is one of the major benefits of having partners. Due to the up and down nature of most businesses, meeting fixed overhead expenses can be a major challenge. Prior to having partners, all the overhead expenses were mine. In those months where the cash flow was low, the first thing that was cut back was the marketing cost, which in turn created a yoyo effect on income. Having partners who are responsible for paying their pro rata share of expenses enables a more consistent marketing effort and stability in the business operations. The owner of a small business is usually one of the top producers; however, hiring, training, and managing the dayto-day operations of a business can be very time consuming. Trying to manage all these activities is the primary reason for burn-out of an owner. Partners can share in the management and training responsibilities so that it is not a major burden on any one person and allows each of the partners to have sufficient time to handle their own activities. Having peers to talk to regarding business planning and business operations can be very beneficial for the business. As the saying goes, “It is lonely at the top.” While it is important to get feed back from your staff, those who share in the ownership are far more likely to provide meaningful input and peer review on an ongoing basis. Offering partnerships in your firm enhances the ability to attract top producers. Over the years, I have been able to get experienced people in other firms to join with me by offering partnerships. I have also acquired other firms by offering the

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owner a partnership in a larger firm. This has worked extremely well, because not only did I get a quality business owner, I also got their employees and book of business. Having partners who are top producers reduces staff turn-over, lessens employee training time, and tends to attract new high caliber employees due to the firm’s success. In my opinion, the most beneficial aspect of having partners is the opportunity to leverage your individual skills with the skills of others which in turn significantly increases profitability. As an individual, you can only grow your company to the extent of your own ability and time. Leveraging time, skills, and money through other people has enabled our firm to grow into being a large and profitable business much faster than if I had to do it on my own. At some point in time, many of us will want to sell our business due to health reasons, family problems, other investment opportunities, retirement, or partnership problems. As a oneman operation, the value of any business is limited due to the ability of that person to generate earnings. Furthermore, buyer prospects become concerned that all the customers are tied to one person. On the other hand, if the business has a staff of employees who can handle the business functions, there is less risk of the business going away following an acquisition which usually results in a higher value for the business. For many businesses, the buyer pool is limited depending upon the specialization of the business. Having one or more partners and a buy/sell agreement builds in the opportunity to sell your partnership interest to one or more of the partners who are already familiar with the business and willing to pay a reasonable value. TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS As a sole owner, you have total control over business operations. Giving up a portion of this control to others can sometimes be traumatic. Change is always difficult. The benefits have to be very lucrative for people to want to change. I have had many discussions with business owners regarding acquisition of their business and/or offering a merger or partnership arrangement. Initially I often get a positive response Continued on page 26 SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

Doing Business in Mexico By Ludmila (Mila) Rusakova Golovine

or American businesspeople looking to engage in international business ventures, one country stands out among all others - Mexico. First, the United States shares its entire southern border with the country. Second, there is already a longstanding history of business cooperation between our two countries. Last but not least, Mexico has the thirteenth largest economy in the world and it is only growing. All of these factors make Mexico an extremely attractive place to do business. Nevertheless, just because we are so close does not mean business etiquette is the same. There are subtle differences in Mexican culture that must be learned and adapted so that your business venture will be accomplished successfully. The first issue is the concept of time. Quite simply, it is not viewed the same way in Mexico as it is in the United States. Americans typically think of time as money but this not how it is considered in Mexico. Most Mexicans prefer to take their time believing that you work in order to live and not vice versa. Punctuality is fairly lax. Do not be insulted if your Mexican counterpart is a half hour late. This is a standard business practice. Nevertheless, you should always be punctual to meetings. It is advisable to just take this cultural difference in stride and accept it as part of doing business. Your appearance is also important. For all meetings, you should dress accordingly. Mexican businesspeople tend to dress formally, especially in large cities like Mexico City and Monterrey. For men, dark suits and ties are appropriate. Shirts should be either white or blue. White shirts are deemed necessary for extremely formal meetings, so please keep this in mind. For women, dark business suits or dresses are preferable.

If the meeting is taking place in a more tropical area, more casual dress is allowed such as pants and a light shirt. Regardless of the situation, you should try to look as formal as possible just to be on the safe side. Upon meeting your Mexican counterpart, it is customary to shake hands. If the relationship has already developed between businesspeople, it is not uncommon for a woman to give a small kiss on the cheek or for men to give each other a short hug. Bear in mind that there is more physical contact in Mexican business culture. It is not at all uncommon for a Mexican businessman to touch his counterpart’s shoulder or hold him by the arm. This is a friendly gesture. Any recoil will be taken as an insult and can harm the business relationship, so please adapt accordingly. Your way of addressing your Mexican counterpart is also important. In Mexico, people usually have three names: the first name, the father’s last name, and the mother’s last name. As a rule, you should address someone by the father’s last name with the appropriate title, such as in the case that the person is a doctor. It is incorrect to use the mother’s last name. Typically American businesspeople will switch to first names very quickly upon the initial meeting. This is not done in Mexico where it takes longer for businesspeople to become comfortable with one another. Wait until your Mexican counterparts give you leave to address them by the first name. In this way, there will be no ambiguity and respect will always be maintained. As with all cultures, Mexican speech has certain specifics of which you should be aware. When speaking English, very often

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they will end a statement with “no.” Usually in English, this indicates that a question is being posed. This is not the case. Consequently, you will have to be very attentive and derive the meaning from the context of the sentence. Moreover, Mexicans can be quite humble and actually degrade themselves in statements. For example, they will usually say something negative either about their appearance, city, country, etc. Your polite response to this should always be a positive disagreement stating that the subject is actually quite nice. Body language is crucial when dealing with Mexicans. You must pay attention to it when negotiating because very often spoken language does not convey the actual meaning. For example, Mexicans sometimes say “no” meaning “maybe” and “yes” sometimes meaning “no.” This situation has to do with both politeness and negotiation tactics. The only way to discern the actual meaning is to observe how the person says the answer. The natural facial expression should be a good indicator. Despite the cultural differences, Mexico is still a wonderful place to do business. The Mexican people are welcoming and enthusiastic to work with us. With just a little research, cultural sensitivity training, and patience, you can definitely prosper in the Mexican business world. Ludmila (Mila) Rusakova Golovine, Founder/CEO and President of MasterWord Services, Inc. is a graduate of the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Houston. Mila started her company with a vision of seamlessly connecting people across any language, any time, and any culture so she understands the complexities of the global marketplace and excels at providing language solutions based on creative thinking and strategic planning.

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

Developing Leaders:

Part Four: Coaching Case Study…Ego and the Leader By Lorraine Grubbs

got to the Starbucks early for my coaching appointment with the newly appointed Chief Pilot of an aviation company. The CEO of a small (30 employee) private charter company had contacted me and told me that she had promoted a line captain who had been with the company for two years and had, on numerous occasions, demonstrated leadership skills, to Chief Pilot. She realized he was not a seasoned leader, so she asked me to help him learn the basics of leadership. She said that she was simply too busy to coach him given the frantic nature of their 24/7 business and, since I had been in the aviation business, felt I could relate to this particular leadership situation. The company had recently undergone some major growth, which meant the addition of a number of new pilots and she needed a strong, capable leader to bring the new team together.

attention was continually drawn to any attractive girl that walked in, clearly taking your attention away from our conversation”.

He looked at me with a surprised expression as I continued. “I have been hired by your boss to assess your potential as a leader. And, quite frankly, I am not impressed. You have a very large ego. I understand that you probably developed that ego because in order to get hired as a pilot you had to compete against others for limited positions and further, each time you get in the cockpit you are taking people’s lives in your hands, therefore you have to be supremely confident in what you do. But, John, you are no longer a line pilot. You must now begin to think of yourself as a Chief Pilot, a leader of other pilots. And, it is important for you to start thinking about how to get your ego under control. Have you ever heard the adage; People don’t care how much you know until they People don’t know how much you care? Well, in my experience care how much that is a true statement. If you are going to gain the trust of your team, you must first start by getting to you know know them and not worrying so much about how until they know others see you”.

At 9 a.m. straight up, John strutted in, projecting the aura of a confident, poised leader. I called his name and he approached the table, put out his hand and we shook, introducing ourselves. “John”, I said, “It’s nice to meet you.” “Likewise”, he said, as he took the seat across the how much He did not expect to hear that. He sat back, and table from me. And, we began to talk. Or, I should you care? said “Wow, that bad, huh? I guess I have some say, HE began to talk, and talk, and talk. As he work to do. Can we start again? “. “Sure”, I said, talked, his attention was consistently drawn to any and, we did. At the conclusion of the session I gave John an attractive woman that walked in. As he spoke, he started all assignment: to take the Myers-Briggs personality assesshis sentences with “I”. “When I did this…when I said this…” ment and email me the results. We agreed that we would I would occasionally interject, but he would interrupt me each talk about the results in our next meeting. As John stood time to continue with his conversation. Finally, after about 30 up to leave, (my notepaper in hand), he thanked me, told minutes he ran out of steam and looked at me and asked, “Well, me he was looking forward to our next session, and walked what do you think?” out, a more humbled man. And, I knew that our work would I did not hesitate. “I really don’t care”, I stated. He was shocked be challenging…he would need to learn how to differentiate to hear me say that but I went on to explain. “John, I am here between arrogance and confidence. to assess your potential to become the Chief Pilot in terms of Stay tuned for next month’s article and John’s continuing jouryour ability to lead a team. You walked in, introduced yourself ney in “Ego and Leadership”. and started telling me what you needed to do. You did not bring anything to take notes with and almost every sentence contained some version of the word “I”…” I think this needs Lorraine Grubbs is the president of Lessons in Loyalty. to be done…I have this idea…” Instead of first seeking to You can contact Lorraine at 281-813-0305 or by email at understand why we were there, you sat down and started lorrainegrubbs@gmail.com www.lessonsinloyalty.com talking about yourself. The entire time you talked, your www.SBTMagazine.net

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

Puppy Farm or Well-Trained Pack? Biggest Mistake New Entrepreneurs Make By Bertrand McHenry Bertrand McHenry

any budding entrepreneurs feel that the larger the size of their network, the greater their odds of success. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I love dogs, always have! I’ve loved dogs ever since I was a boy and on certain days, my dogs were sometimes the only ones who understood me! So, imagine me going to the local dog shelter and picking out a couple of cute puppies today; bringing them home, feeding them, playing with them, cleaning up their messes, training them, and then next week repeating that trip with the same results, week after week. I’d have a real situation on my hands after awhile, not to mention an unhappy wife! These puppies require and deserve attention and love. Because they require such devotion and attention, it would be almost impossible to continue to bring another two into our house every single week! Just like dogs, we need to nurture and give time and attention to our networks. The higher the number of connections we have, the less time we have to tend to those relationships. Thus, we need to determine the optimum number of connections we can comfortably handle. We have a limited capacity for relationships. While the numbers may vary a bit, research from University College, London tells us that our cognitive capacity is limited to handle no more than 150 to 250 relationships. To manage more connections than that, we need to hire help or even build an organization staffed with adequate people. To continue my analogy with dogs, we’d need to go from our home to an outright kennel with full staff! Don’t acquire more connections than you can cultivate. Research shows that this superficial “friending”, from everyone we went to high school with to the person we bumped into on the street, becomes unmanageable and stressful. Having said that, the most recent research tells us that, “Those of us who have the deepest connections with a select few have a greater chance of developing systematic streams of personally-recommended business.” SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

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In a work environment where people can get away with opportunistic behavior without serious legal or reputational consequences, research shows that having large networks is actually calling for disaster. In such environments, you need to work with people you know and trust very well. Incidentally, this is why businesspeople in emerging markets often operate in close hard-to-break-into groups. These cliques enforce rules among members that weak legal institutions in their countries cannot. That said, if you can trust your connections to make good on your agreements, you have a bit more room for larger networks. Here is what you can do to grow your professional network effectively: • Sow your seeds strategically. Don’t spread yourself too thin or spend all your time with a few close buddies. The relationships that work best in the entrepreneurial context are ones that are close, but not too close, according to a recent study in the Journal of Business Venturing. In fact recent studies show that those with the deepest relationships and who are widely connected enough to have • something to being to the table are the most successful. So just like designing a wholesome breeding kennel with a wide variety of breeds, you need a network with diverse groups of friends. • Think cross-breeding. Your network is actually composed of three basic networks that span work, school, and social. Every one of us has an Information Network, a Support Network, and a Referral Network, and there are numerous sub sets of these three. You are probably at the core of some networks and at the fringes of others. You are at the core if you are the main person who others in your network interact through. While this has its advantages, the ability to bring people together across various networks is a more important skill for entrepreneurs. The more you can act as a bridge for your connections across various networks, the Continued on page 37

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

BIG Progress for Business at Houston Community College By Maya Durnovo, Chief Entrepreneurial Initiatives Officer

ouston Community College continues to make giant strides in building programs and resources to help entrepreneurs and small businesses flourish. These are exciting times, as evidenced by Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker’s announcement that HCC is the new site for an MBDA (Minority Business Development Agency) center! The $900,000 MBDA grant is a significant addition to an already impressive array of programs and services. HCC is the only community college in the country to host both the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Initiative and a Minority Business Development Agency. The MBDA award will enable HCC to establish a center designed to support and assist minority-owned businesses to grow in size and scale, to penetrate new markets-both domestic and global, and access business advising services and information regarding securing capital, competing for contracts, identifying growth opportunities, and becoming export-ready. The MBDA center opened in November 2013. HCC has developed a strong network of outstanding partners who support and collaborate on many initiatives and make the city of Houston - “Great for Business”. A special note of gratitude to the following organizations for providing extraordinary business services and for supporting HCC’s MBDA proposal: The Houston Minority Supplier Development Council, the Office of Business Opportunity at the City of Houston, Accion, the Greater Houston Partnership, the Urban League, the UH-Small Business Development Center, SCORE, Port of Houston, National Association of Minority Contractors, Asian Chamber of Commerce, Amegy Bank, Women’s Business Enterprise Alliance, Houston Business Development, the Greater Houston Black Chamber of Commerce, and the Kingdom Builder’s Center. HCC’s Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program has been in operation for over two years and has graduated 238 small business owners. More importantly, the businesses have grown and prospered as a result of the training they received in this outstanding, intensive, and transformative program. “After the Goldman Sachs class, I had renewed passion for my business, specific goals, and one and five year financial www.SBTMagazine.net

forecasts. Now, a year later, I have a growing business with many new clients and 15 new employees with plans for another expansion,” says Debra Schindler, CEO of Genesis Telecom and the recent winner of the “Women’s Small Business of the Year Award” by the office of the Governor, State of Texas. Businesses are not only growing, but also making important contributions to our environment. According to Bernardo Herrero, CEO of Bioplanet Corps, a company that manufactures disposable and biodegradable plates, cups, and trays, “The Goldman Sachs program enabled me to understand how to grow my businesses and take it to the next level. I’m very excited about the future!” On October 7, 2013, Bernardo won the “Small Business Innovator of the Year Award” by the Office of the Governor, State of Texas. Mario Rios, President and CEO of Nation Waste, Inc. and a graduate of the very first Goldman Sachs class in 2012, was named one of Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs”. The 2013 “Fortune Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs Program” is an initiative that recognizes ten entrepreneurs each year who are “extraordinary innovators, groundbreakers, and game changers in their fields”. Maria is one of 10 female founders and CEOs of thriving companies with revenue in the $1 million to $25 million range. HCC is so proud of Maria and all her successes! HCC is also partnering with the Young Entrepreneur Academy (YEA) to offer entrepreneurial training to high school students. YEA is an afterschool program that teaches high school students to become real, confident entrepreneurs. Through the yearlong program, students generate business ideas, conduct a market research, write a business plan, pitch to a panel of investors, and launch their very own real companies. YEA was developed at the University of Rochester with support from the Kauffman Foundation. The academy is a national partner of the US Chamber of Commerce. Houston Community College (HCC) launched this program in partnership with the Alief Independent School District. After a recruitment announcement, 57 high school students applied for

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

3 Great Ideas to Grow Your Opt-in List By Toni Harris

ongratulations! You’ve started your business, published your website, and await a flood of interested parties bent on giving you cash and engagements, clicking dollars into your pocket.

Disillusioned because the Web doesn’t equate to instant wealth, you look for ways to reach those that need you. You realize the need for an opt-in list for email marketing. Having found a few experts, you read of thousands being made in minutes and so, happily follow their easy steps to overflowing pockets. Crossing every T, dotting the Is, you patiently wait and once again fail to find pockets packed with cash. Your results are few and expenses abound. For those who are starting, here are three quick and easy ways to build a profitable opt-in list: 1) Get your customers to trust you and your products. Just launching your opt-in list would not make you an expert and a believable seller. Write about the topic you know and have started and used for your site. Gain knowledge about your customers, their wants, their needs, and target their wants and needs.

3) Make friends with other opt-in list users. This is basically beneficial especially if it is someone who has already launched a successful opt-in list. These are people that have the experience in this venture and experience is still the best teacher. While there are many articles available for you in the Internet to use, there is nothing like getting a first hand account from someone you trust.

Congratulations! You’ve started your business, published your website, and await a flood of interested parties bent on giving you cash and engagements, clicking dollars into your pocket.

Join forums from other sites as well. Provide expert advice and recommendations. When people trust you, you will be able to start your own opt-in list. You can build a base as well with other forum users. You can ask them to join your list. Put up a link to your site so that they may be able to see what you’re business is all about.

The certain truth is, the money will only come in when the consumers and subscribers believe and trust in you. They want a product or service that could be a good exchange for their money. People are not going to buy something out of your recommendation if they don’t know you. 2) Find a product or service that people want and need. Although research may not be your forte, if you provide a service and product that you have researched and learned about well, you can carry it forward. Invest your time, effort, and money in a product that you could sell as well as what the buyers or subscribers of your opt-in list can use. SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

While it is true that it is best to sell something that you have interest in, there are not many people who have the same interest as you if you decide to sell something that is not entirely popular or profitable. Do your research well and you would see the profits come in. Also, provide your subscribers with promotional material that they could actually use and spread around.

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Experienced opt-in list users will be able to tell you what to do and what not to do because they have gone through it. While different situations occur for different people, the general concept can still be very helpful. There are many things to avoid and these people will be able to tell you which ones. Building a profitable opt-in list doesn’t just happen overnight. Opt-in lists are built from scratch. As your list grows, you should also maintain the quality of your list. Keep it organized and manageable. Get or hire help if needed. Just make sure that your subscribers are happy and satisfied and they will be willing to buy from you.

Now you can understand why there’s a growing interest in opt-in lists. When people start looking for more information about what you sell, you’ll be in a position to meet their needs.

Toni Harris, who is also known as the Turnaround Queen®, is a Speaker/Trainer, Business Coach, Author, and an Authorized Local Expert with Constant Contact. Email Toni at toni@toniharrisspeaks.com or join her mailing list at www.toni-harris.com. www.SBTMagazine.net

EDITORIAL FEATURE

Tick Tock: Resetting the Marketing Clock for 2014 By Aimee Woodall

ime – who has it? And with the New Year fast approaching (Can someone please explain where 2013 went?) and the days turning into night before happy hour, it seems like everyone’s in a race against the ticking clock. There’s a lot of pressure to meet the goals you haven’t thought about since January, and even greater pressure to start 2014 off on the right foot, once and for all. We get it. You told yourself you were going to beat the odds, increase sales, and take your business to another level. Then you snapped your fingers and found yourself eating Thanksgiving leftovers in what seemed like a matter of minutes. This year, give yourself a fighting chance by following these simple instructions:

1. Prepare now.

Don’t be silly and think that you can launch a full-fledged PR plan by January 2 without planning for it today. Make sure you have the basics covered (press kit, media list, goals, and the tactical steps to achieve them) or you will drive yourself and your team crazy. If you don’t have these things in place, get to work, and factor that time and those resources into your long-term forecast.

2. Set reachable goals. If you

months may seem like a reasonable reporting period, but that doesn’t mean you have to position your blinders until next year at this time. Before 2014, schedule days when you (and perhaps, your whole team) can reassess your goals. Be prepared to shift and shuffle along the way so that your goals are what’s best for your company – not just an item on your checklist.

5. Pat yourself on the back. [Nerd alert!] The Premack Prin-

ciple states that “more probable behaviors reinforce less probable behaviors.” You know, eat your vegetables and then you can have ice cream. At Black Sheep, we like to reward ourselves with Champagne after a week of completed goals. Try small rewards for small goals and big rewards for big goals. As a marketer, you should know the power of a good incentive.

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN WHERE 2013 WENT?

own a local banana stand, you probably can’t expect to end up on Good Morning America by March, so don’t set yourself up for failure by making the impossible a priority. Set small intermediate milestones that lead up to a greater, quantifiable goal so you can track your progress every step of the way.

3. Organize and systemize. If you’re living in the clutter of

2013 (or worse, 2012), there’s no way you’ll make it past Valentine’s Day. Clean out your files, put a system in place that’s easy to use, and stick with it. Heck, make “stick with the organization system” a goal, and remind yourself of it every day.

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4. Schedule a time for checks and balances. Twelve

We know, we know. It is cold and you just want to go home, watch a sappy movie, and avoid the holidays (and the impending lecture about “where your life is going”). You’ve got a whole 1/12 of the year left and there’s much you can do; so get positive, get moving – and if you’re productive, pour yourself a glass of eggnog. Because, like we told you… rewards work.

Aimee Woodall is the owner of the Black Sheep Agency. The Black Sheep Agency is a Houston-based, creative agency specializing in non-traditional public relations, social media, and experiential marketing. You can contact Aimee at 832-971-7725 or aimee@theblacksheepagency.com. Visit them on the Web at www.theblacksheepagency.com, follow them on Facebook at Facebook.com/theblacksheepagency, and “Tweet” them on Twitter @shearcreativity

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

Communications Reflect Your Strategy

BIG PICTURE OF BUSINESS

A Beacon to Your Business Success By Hank Moore / Corporate Strategist™

he biggest problem with our business in our society is that people with one set of experiences, values, wants, and perceptions make misdirected attempts to communicate with others in trying to get what they want and need. Success is just in front of our faces. Yet, we often fail to see it coming. Too many companies live with their heads in the sand. Many go down into defeat because it was never on their radar to change. One of the biggest cop-outs that businesses in denial use is the term “Messaging”. They say, “We’re in the right business. We only need to improve our messaging.” That’s a rationalization to avoid confronting key strategic issues. 7 Biggest Communication Obstacles: 1. Lack of people skills, manners. 2. Wrong facts. 3. Denial/avoidance of the real issues. 4. Non-communication. 5. Saying the wrong things at the wrong times for the wrong reasons. 6. Failure to pick up subtle clues. 7. Failure to master communication as an art. 7 Levels of Communicating: 1. Sending out messages we wish/need to communicate. 2. Sending messages which are intended for the listener. 3. Communicating with many people at the same time. 4. Eliciting feedback from audiences. 5. Two-way communication process. 6. Adapting and improving communications with experience. 7. Developing communications as a vital tool of business and life.

Lack of communication is symptomatic of fear, which is the biggest handicap for any company. Because of fear, productivity suffers, turnover increases, and profitability drops. SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

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There are four main fears in the business environment: 1. Reprisal. This includes disciplining, termination, and transfer to an undesirable position. When employees fear reprisal, more effort is spent on affixing blame to others than achieving pro-active progress. 2. Communication. Rather than risk going out on a limb, employees either don’t learn or use their communication skills. This stymies employees’ professional development and hampers company productivity. 3. Not knowing. Rather than admit areas where information is lacking, employees often cover up, disseminating erroneous data, which comes back to hurt others. The wise employee has the building of knowledge a part of their career path...sharing with others what we most recently and most effectively learn. 4. Change. Managers and employees with the most to lose are most fearful of change. Their biggest fear is the unknown. Research shows that 90% of change is good. If people knew how beneficial that change is, they would not fight it so much. Each member of the organization should understand and covet the position they play. It is just as important how, when, and why they communicate with each other: • • • •

Shows that the company is a seamless concept...an integrated team working for the good of customers. Indicates sophistication by each representative...that every team player knows how to utilize each other for mutual benefit. Reminds customers that the company is detail-focused and quality-oriented...with an eye toward continually improving. Underscores how internal communications are comparable to the way we will interface with customers.

Pictures convey impressions symbolic of corporate culture. One of the hottest and most accessible vehicles is the photograph. With cameras now on phones, people are www.SBTMagazine.net

EDITORIAL FEATURE

snapping more pictures than ever before. Some get distributed on the internet, through social media, and in direct transfer to friends. This resurgence in photography comes after a conversion of the industry from film to digital. Photography is presently at an all-time high in terms of societal impact. The irony is that the principal corporate contributor (Eastman Kodak) fell by the wayside, a victim of changing technologies - the same fate that befell the electronics industry, whose innovator (the Thomas Edison Electric Company) fell behind others in leading the trends and usage. Photographs convey thoughts, ideas, and experiences. Hopefully, their usages represent thoughtful communications. Organizations can see photography as a boon to their business if utilized properly. Every business person and company needs a website and social media presence. Photographs convey what you’re doing new. They’re indicative of the scope of your business activity. Use photography to personify the company. Pictures draw relationships to the customers. Think of creative ways to show employees doing great work. Show customers as benefiting from the services that you offer.

• • • • • • • • •

Seek out supporters, early-on. Determine goals. Is the objective to get the idea accepted or get credit for it? Understand your audience. Understand differing personality types of your audiences. Think of yourselves as leaders, who are good communicators. Listen as others amplify upon the idea, which shows their buy-in potential. Determine as much accuracy in others’ perceptions to your ideas. Don’t fool yourself or be blind-sighted to opposition. Throw out decoy ideas for others to shoot down, so they don’t attack your core message. Use language that is easily understood by all. Avoid technical terms, unless you include brief definitions. Don’t over-exaggerate in promises and predictions. Other pointers in effectively communicating include:

• Speak with authority. • Make the most of face-to-face meetings, rather than through artificial barriers. • Remember that voice inflection, eye contact and body language are more important than the words you use. • Charts, graphs and illustrative materials make more impact for your points. • Don’t assume anything. If in doubt about their understanding, ask qualifying questions. Become a better listener. • Sound the best on the phone that you can. • Use humor successfully. • Get feedback. Validate that audiences have heard your intended messages. • Attitude is everything in effective communications

SUCCESS IS JUST IN FRONT OF OUR FACES.

Most companies would do well to devote a portion of its homepage to its charitable involvements. Show employees as being engaged in community activities. Promote and graphically portray your company’s designated cause-related marketing activities. Interface with outside communities tends to grow your stakeholder base. Don’t just view photography as something that everyone does. Establish company ground rules for the usage of pictures. Tie activities to customer outcomes (the tenet of Customer Focused Management). Nourish Communications Skills.

It is important to generate ideas and suggestions via writing memos, email messages, and internal documents. Their succinctness and regularity of issue have a direct relationship to your compensation and the company’s bottom line. Before presenting ideas to a customer or prospect, consider organizing your approach:

Hank Moore has advised 5,000+ client organizations including 100 of the Fortune 500, public sector agencies, small businesses, and non-profit organizations. Mr. Moore can be contacted through the web at www.hankmoore.com, by email at hankmoore4218@sbcglobal.net, or by phone at 713-668-0664.

• Predict reasons why someone might oppose your suggestions. www.SBTMagazine.net

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National National Association Association of of Women Women Business Business Owners Owners Houston Houston Chapter Chapter Connecting Connecting Women Women Who Who Mean Mean Business Business Why NAWBO? • Women own an estimated 10.6 million businesses in the United States • They employ 19.1 million workers (1 in 7) • Their businesses account for $2.5 trillion in sales • Women business owners are philanthropically active: seven in 10 volunteer at least once per month; 31% contribute $5,000 or more to charity annually; 15% give $10,000 or more. Shouldn’t you be involved in an organization that takes www.nawbohouston.org or call 713-487-8475

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

Which SBA Loan Applications Require a Business Plan? By Bruce Hurta

hen we drive somewhere we have not been before, we need a roadmap. When a small business owner requests an SBA loan, the lender wants to know where the business is going and how it plans to get there. Will the business be able to use the loan proceeds to reach its goals? More specifically, will the business produce enough extra income to make the loan payments? The SBA lender wants to see the business owner’s road map. Since the lender must ultimately decide whether the business has the capacity to make the proposed loan payments, he will ask the borrower for financial projections. The financial projections will use the various components of predicted revenues and expenses to calculate the predicted cash flow available to make those loan payments. Without reasonable assumptions, however, the financial projections are just numbers on a page. Where, then, do these assumptions come from? How can the lender rely upon them to be accurate predictors of future revenues and expenses for the business? The answer to these questions should be found in the business plan. Is there a certain format or a certain content that needs to be in a business plan? Not necessarily. Even though there are many wonderful models for business plans, I tell business owners that I like to see a business plan with the mark of the owners on it. A financial advisor may have a great software program or format for producing a business plan, but without the owners’ participation to generate the data necessary for input into the model, the plan may be worthless. After all, it is the business owners who must have the knowledge of their industry and their market to execute the plan. A lender wants to know that the small business borrowers have the industry experience or that they have done the necessary research to compete effectively with other business owners who are successful in their industry and their market. These criteria need to show up in the business plan. What convinces a lender that the borrower has the necessary

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business management experience? The best example of effective management experience is already having a good track record in the subject business. With SBA lending, however, we are often evaluating loan requests from new or expanding businesses which do not have the track record yet. In those cases, a management resume from the owners may reflect the necessary experience. The owners may have managed a similar business successfully for someone else. The owners may have the educational background and experience to strengthen the management team. In the case of a franchise, the owners may be using a time-tested model provided by the franchisor. With an expanding business, the trends in historical revenues and expenses may demonstrate the business’ ability to achieve financial projections. Lenders love facts and statistics. A lender can easily identify the loan applicant who has done his homework. This applicant’s business plan will include documentation of the research conducted by the applicant into the market his business is entering. He will make comparisons to similar businesses in the market which constitute his competition. He will evaluate growth trends in the market to assure himself and his lender about its capacity to absorb and support another business of the kind he is planning. The borrower will also include facts and statistics about his industry in relation to that market. The borrower needs to understand that the lender must be able to put himself in the shoes of the applicant and feel the potential for success that the applicant feels about the business. Market and industry research, facts, and statistics will support such a presentation. Finally, the business plan will address the amount of the business owners’ personal contribution (equity) to the business. Every lender wants to see a borrower with “skin in the game”. Being a lender, and not an equity provider, requires a reasonable ratio of borrower’s investment in relation to the loan amount. An acceptable debt-to-equity ratio can look like a moving target to the business owner, because there are so many factors that affect the amount of leverage a lender is willing to grant a Continued on page 38 SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

Continued from page 15 Which SBA Loan Applications Require a Business Plan?

when we talk about the benefits we could obtain together; however, having to give up some degree of control over business operations and to accept some limitation on fees and profit splits often overrides the perceived benefits. While short-sighted, the fear of change and the unknown often causes the death of a lot of deals. When all partners in a firm have an equal ownership interest, company benefits are usually equal and disputes over business operations can usually be resolved quickly. However, having both majority and minority partners in a firm can create some unique challenges. Minority partners often want the same benefits as the majority partners. Disputes can arise over salaries, company paid benefits, and company paid operating expenses such as advertising, clerical support, and lead distribution. Majority partners tend to think of the company’s profitability and future growth, whereas minority partners tend to be more interested in their personal benefits first. As a business broker and business appraiser, I have had the unique opportunity to see many businesses with partners or shareholders. Partnership problems are a common reason for a business to be for sale. Many of the business appraisals that I do are utilized in conjunction with litigation involving partnership/shareholder disputes. The problems include an unclear understanding as to management responsibilities, disagreement regarding operational procedures, and unmet personal expectations, PROPER DOCUMENTATION A major key in forming a successful partnership is to have all agreements in writing at the formation of the partnership. It is amazing to me how often I come across partnerships where there are no written agreements among the partners/ shareholders. A Shareholder or Partnership Agreement and a Buy/Sell Agreement are the two critical documents that every business with partners or shareholders should have at the inception of a business entity. The Partnership/Shareholder Agreement should spell out the type of organization to be formed, the division of management and operational duties among the partners, the method for determining the salaries, commissions, and benefits to be paid to the partners, the procedures for allowing partners to join or leave the firm, terms of covenants not to compete, and the voting procedures for making revisions and/or modifications to the Agreement.

The Buy/Sell Agreement should provide for the procedures of buying or selling a partner’s ownership interest upon death of a partner, the disability of a partner, divorce of a partner, or a partner’s desired to dissolve an ownership, often referred to as the 4 D’s. This Agreement should address issues such as restrictions on buying or selling a partnership interest, who has first right of refusal to buy another partner’s ownership interest, and how the ownership interest being bought or sold is to be valued. When valuing a partnership interest, the Agreement should specify the procedure for selecting an appraiser, the standard of value to be utilized, and how the price will be paid. In a partnership, mutual trust and respect is critical to a strong and good working relationship. Without mutual trust and respect, the partners will tend to do things that enhance their personal agenda; lines of communication will become blurred, confusion and lack of understanding will prevail, and the employees will begin to choose sides. This will have a negative impact on company operations and profitability. The overall benefits of having partners in a business include the sharing of economic risk, the assistance in management and training duties, obtaining peer review of business operations, leveraging the skills of others, the ability to attract top level employees to the firm, and enhancing your exit planning. The negative issues of being involved in a partnership can include having to give up degrees of control of business operations, dealing with different personalities and their personal agendas, not having a written partnership and buy/sell agreements, and not maintaining clear communications among the partners. A friend of mine once reminded me that partnerships are like marriage without sex. In my opinion, the benefits of having partners far outweigh the negatives, so long as all the partners share in a common goal, all agreements are in writing, and clear communications are maintained.

Jeff Jones is President of Certified Appraisers, Inc. and Advanced Business Brokers, Inc. located at 10500 Northwest Freeway, Suite 200, Houston, Texas 77092. You can reach Jeff by phone at 713-401-9110 or by email at jdj@advancedbb.com. SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

Angry Customer Prevention By Errol D. Allen

Having been in the customer service industry for 25+ years, I’ve heard, seen, attended and listened to various programs/seminars regarding “how to handle an angry customer”. Most often, these programs/seminars are very informative and provide excellent guidance on dealing with a not so happy customer. My question has always been - Why is the customer unhappy and is there anything that can be done to diminish the number of unhappy customers? My instincts say take a proactive stance in the battle to eliminate unhappy customers. Here are a few ways to do so.

dealing with customers. Are processes both customer and employee friendly? Is the training received sufficient to allow for successful customer interactions? Can employees count on the “system” functioning properly so that they can provide a great customer experience therefore preventing the need to exercise their “how to handle angry customers” skills? Take the time to get and act upon feedback provided by customer facing employees. You might be surprised by how doing so can assist in reducing the number of angry customers for your organization.

How Many Credits or Refunds Are You Issuing? - Another Why Are Customers Unhappy? Is there a pattern to the possible indicator of angry customers is the amount of products/ reasons that customers are unhappy? Is anyone in your services given away, account credits or refunds issued organization tracking these reasons? It’s been my experience by your organization. Is anyone attaching a reason for these that if you have one customer complaining about an issue or actions? Does your organization’s system allow for logging the situation, more than likely there are others complaining about reasons for refunds, account credits or other actions taken to the same things. During one call center stint, it was common appease angry customers? It’s important to monitor these areas for customers on certain billing cycles to experience problems as they may be an indicator that customers are not happy with with their bills - improper amounts, additional your products or services. Allow your customer charges, etc. We all know that this issue will facing employees the ability to provide reasons It’s a great idea to certainly create angry customers and for taking these actions. Analyze these reasons equip customer additional phone calls. While it’s important for and identify ways to prevent their continuance. the agents to be equipped with “how to handle Determine how much these refunds, credits facing personnel provision of goods/services costs your angry customers” skills, how about determining with “how to handle or organization. Spend time with customer facing what’s causing the “angry customer” issues. angry customers” personnel during their interactions with angry Identify external and internal issues that might customers to get first-hand experience of what be contributing to your customers’ unhappiness skills. appeasement actions are utilized. One’s with your organization. Doing so will surely willingness to take these steps will surely lead to a decrease in diminish or even eliminate the need for the customers to call and for customer service personnel to exercise their “how to handle the number of angry customers. angry customers” skills for these particular issues. Oh yeah, be It’s a great idea to equip customer facing personnel with “how sure that your customer facing personnel are equipped with the to handle angry customers” skills. Doing so gives them the proper customer interaction soft skills - voice tone, empathy, confidence to properly handle the situation. Take an additional body language, etc. - so that they do not inadvertently create an step by proactively identifying and addressing issues which angry customer! contribute to the number of angry customers your customer Why Are Front Line Personnel Unhappy? - It’s been my facing personnel encounter. I can guarantee both customers experience that unhappy employees are an indicator that there and employees will love you for that! may be organizational issues that negatively impact customers. Customer facing employees become frustrated and angry when it appears no one is interested in addressing issues which Errol Allen – Customer Service Engineer can be emailed contribute to the creation of angry customers. Check with your at errol@errolallenconsulting.com or customer facing employees regarding their experiences when call him at 1-800-830-4167. www.errolallenconsulting.com www.SBTMagazine.net

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

Protect Your Dream Vacation Home By: George Rose, Wells Fargo V.P., Business Relationship Manager George Rose, Wells Fargo V.P.

urchasing a vacation home is a “dream come true” for many. Spending time away from home allows you to take a break from work, relax with your family, and enjoy fresh surroundings. To be able to enjoy the benefits, owners of second homes face a few major responsibilities. Among the most important is protecting their properties — and their financial investments — against life’s unexpected events. Having sufficient insurance for your home-away-from-home can help protect your vacation haven — and your finances. The reality of property ownership is that unfortunate events — such as fires, tornadoes and burglaries — may occur. At a minimum, it’s important to have homeowners’ insurance coverage so you can protect the structure of the home itself. If your vacation home is damaged – or worse yet, destroyed — your policy should provide the resources you need to recover or rebuild. With replacement cost coverage, you should be able to replace most of what was lost and rebuild what was damaged. Quite often, second-home purchasers are tempted to skimp on their vacation home insurance coverage. Why? These vacation homeowners believe only a basic, bare-bones policy is needed because the property is not their primary residence. This line of thinking may be shortsighted because vacation homes tend to be in locations and have features that make additional insurance important. Example: floods and earthquakes are excluded under basic homeowners’ insurance policies. If your vacation home is along a coastline, river, or lake, it may be worthwhile to extend your coverage against these types of natural disasters. In addition, vacation homes often come with “attractive nuisances,” like trampolines, floating docks, and swimming platforms — all fun toys that may result in costly expenses due to accidents that may not be covered by your basic insurance. Whether you’re present or not, if a guest or stranger is injured on your property, you may be held liable if the accident is deemed the result of property-owner

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negligence. The appropriate insurance policy can provide coverage for those types of expenses. To gain the best protection for your particular property, talk with a qualified insurance representative about additional coverage options that may be right for you. These could include: 1 Umbrella policy coverage – This covers identified costs over and above the dollar limits of an underlying policy, and it may give you peace of mind for many unexpected situations. 2 Liability coverage – If you are hurt in an accident or sued for a mishap on your property, expenses could include medical and other costs. Make sure your policy covers these expenses with adequate limits of coverage. 3 Boat and personal watercraft coverage – Your watercraft may be eligible for coverage under your homeowners’ policy, depending on its size, type, or other characteristics. Whether it’s covered or not, you may still benefit from specialized coverages not available under a homeowners’ policy. For example: watersports liability coverage provides protection when towing a waterskier or tube with your boat. Once you select the right insurance policy for your vacation home, it’s important to review your policy annually — to make sure your current coverage is adequate and to update coverage for any improvements you’ve made to the property. Evaluating and choosing your insurance coverage is an important step in the vacation home buying process — one that is often neglected. Make sure your dream vacation home has the full insurance coverage and options that keep it as stress-free as a vacation home should be. George Rose is a Wells Fargo Vice President/ Business Banking Relationship Manager. He has served in small business banking in Houston, TX for over 10 years. George can be reached via email at george.rose@wellsfargo.com. www.SBTMagazine.net

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Gwen Juarez Photography

Mike’s door is always open to be of assistance to his staff and clients.

Continued from page 7

but in a land-based remote setting. As a result, the fourth division began and was named Cardinal Camp Services. Cardinal Camp Services provides facilities management which basically does the same things that Cardinal did offshore including providing chefs, housekeepers, laundry personnel, grounds maintenance, limited security, front desk operations, checking people in and out of the facilities, etc. They also do rigside catering for big fracking jobs. They have mobile kitchens that they can set up on site and feed any number of people at the well site so they don’t have to leave. They also do corporate events for Marathon and a lot of food service related activities. All four divisions – Cardinal Culinary, Cardinal Chandlering, Cardinal Customized Services, and Cardinal Camp fall under the management umbrella of Cardinal Companies International. Cardinal Companies International was created as a management company to provide some shared resources for all four divisions such as accounting services, human resources, and sales. Cardinal has been fortunate to have clients all over the world. They have worked in the North Sea, South America, the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, Trinidad, Tobago, Norway, and the Eastern Seaboard up into Canada. Cardinal Companies are certified trainers for the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC). They are also very proud of the fact that they are the very first catering company in the world to have received a certificate of compliance from the MLC 2006 (Maritime Labor Convention of 2006). Having this certification is going to enable them to have an even greater global expansion. Every year, the Robinsons have large, companywide parties for their employees and their families for the holidays that include SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

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Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the Fourth of July. In addition, they are involved with a charity group called Lighthouse Charity Group. The Lighthouse Charity Team is a non-profit 501(c) 3 organization. They provide equipment and volunteer labor to prepare meals to raise funds for charitable organizations and those in need. These groups only incur the costs of the food and products used for the event, allowing them to receive the benefit of 100% of the profits. They are all about providing meals in time of need for search and rescue efforts and also after storms. Both Patrick and Mike agree that the success and growth of their company is not just because of their drive to succeed, it has a lot to do with all of the great people who work for them. They brought in people who they had known and trusted over the years, including friends and family, and so far, it has worked out quite well, even though there have been a few bumps along the way. Presently, they have a fluctuation between 250 to 300 part-time and full-time employees. Mike expressed, “Everybody here is part of the family. We all are working towards the same goal and that is to see the company succeed and to able to continue to take care of all of the families that are involved in this organization. It’s not just about Pat and me. We’ve had hundreds of employees over the years and we feel responsible for the wellbeing of these people when they come in and dedicate themselves to this team. So we’ve got a shared love and dedication for the success of this company.” There is no doubt that Cardinal Companies International will continue to grow by leaps and bounds as a result of their winning combination of familiarity, conspicuousness, and style. Cardinal is definitely a company to keep a watchful eye on as they soar above the rest! www.SBTMagazine.net

MIKE’S TAKE-AWAY NOTES ON SUCCESS

1. It may be the single, hardest thing you ever do but it will also be the most fulfilling, so you have to go into business for the right reasons. 2. It’s not all about the money. It’s about passion, enjoying what you do, and having a positive effect on the lives of others. 3. Do get a good accountant. 4. Make sure you have all the proper insurance coverage in place. 5. Make sure you pay your taxes. 6. It’s important to hire people who you trust but you also have to know that you can’t trust everything that is going on around you. 7. You need to have good systems in place but you still have to get in there and check these things out and get on the ground and feel around from time to time. Make sure they’re as you expect them to be. 8. Assuming people are doing everything that you want all the time can be very costly. 9. Empower your employees. Push responsibility down to where they have the ability to maneuver within the confines that you basically give them. 10. Don’t put somebody into management who is not competent enough to manage. They need to be able to make quick decisions and think on their own. 11. You don’t need to micromanage.

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12. Communication is extremely important within your departments and overall. It’s just so important for everybody to be on the same page all of the time and have up-to-date information. It is also important to understand the thought process behind every decision made. 13. It’s important to create a team spirit in understanding that everyone shares the same goals. 14. Get key employees together and create a director’s group. Meet weekly and discuss all of the problems that face the company and then try and work within the group to problemsolve and lead your company into the future.

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

Your Next Step

Shamrocks Are Not Just For St. Patty’s Day By Jack Warkenthien

ne of the best “business reads” ever was the book, “The Age of Unreason”, written in 1989 by Charles Handy, an Irish academic and management author/ philosopher. As I prepared to write this month’s column on Consulting, I dusted off my old hardcover tome and realized that The Shamrock Organization, a term Mr. Handy invented, is alive and well today, even a quarter of a century later.

Finally, there are the self-employed professionals--or CONSULTANTS! This leaf includes the specialists who are hired on a contract/retainer basis or on a project -by-project basis. They are typically paid in fees based on results rather than in salary for time. No benefits are paid to this group and the consultants always carry the risk of insecurity. Here is where I choose to focus my attention and opinion. Why? Because I “are” one!

The Shamrock Organization is an organizational structure where a core of essential executives and workers are supported by outside contractors and part-time help. The shamrock leaf shape is a symbolic representation of an organization with three types of workforces, having a main body and connected leaves that together form a template of the whole company.

There are legions of “consultants” out there who perpetuate a negative opinion to Corporate America, thus giving us a bad name along the way. I happen to be a Sales Consultant, and firms hire me for one reason: INCREASE SALES FOR THEIR FIRM. Fast. I’m pleased to say that NextStep Solutions celebrated our 18th Anniversary on October 1 and we’re growing strong. I carry a bag (an accepted metaphor used to describe a Sales professional) and have continuously done so since my first day at IBM on June 1, 1978. Fortunately, I was pretty good at Sales and enjoyed explosive results quite quickly. However, even today I don’t consider myself an expert. Rather, I choose to be known as a life-long student of the craft.

The first leaf of the shamrock is made up of the professional core. It consists of a small group of professionals and managers who possess the skills that represent the organization’s core competence. Their pay is tied to performance and their status will be more like those among the partners in a professional firm or owners in a small to mid-size firm. Without these core professionals, the firm ceases to exist. The next leaf is comprised of the contingent work force, where employment is temporary, there’s no career track and the jobs are routine. Think supplemental help retailers need for the upcoming Christmas season. They are usually part-time workers who will experience short periods of employment. They’re paid by the hour or day or week for the times they work.

My question to you: Why would you, as a savvy Entrepreneur and/or Business Owner, hire anyone other than a Sales Professional with a proven track-record of success? For the same reason I’d never hire a fat Personal Trainer or a broke Financial Planner, I’d never personally hire a consultant who was not an expert. Remember Malcolm Gladwell’s hypothesis from one of his recent books? He explained the “10,000 Hour Rule”--one

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cannot be considered an expert unless they’ve been “practicing” for a minimum of 10,000 hours. As Charles Handy predicted in his Shamrock Organization, the legion of Consultants are increasing as the Core Professionals are decreasing as the world rewards specialists or experts. Unfortunately many--if not most-Consultants are “between jobs” and will drop you, Mr(s) Client, like a bad habit, if they accept their next job (Just Over Broke) offer. Factor this possibility into your selection process as you audition potential Consultants for your upcoming specialized need. Whereas the hiring of your contingent work force doesn’t include too many selection criteria (“Can you fog a mirror?”), it’s imperative for you to call the consultants’ references of recent Clients. Remember, it’s all about the way YOU ask the question. If you ask, “Do you have any references I can call?”, you’re gonna get that stale list of references you’ve appended to your resume six years ago when you last updated it. After all, that’s the last time you had a real job. Rather, here’s the question you should ask, “Please provide me the Client company names and contact information for your last five current or most recent Client engagements”. Do you see the difference? As a Business Owner, you want to make sure that you don’t have to pay a Consultant to learn your business, processes, or market in which you compete.

Continued on page 39

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

Fear and Loneliness By N.D. Brown

I just saw the movie GRAVITY.

(I suggest the 3D version. It is the first 3D film I have seen that was worth the extra bucks.) It is about overcoming gut-wrenching fear and a purity of loneliness that freezes the brain, pushing it to delusional thoughts.

As a new business owner you have lived or are living through both. You have felt that coppery taste of fear that floods your mouth as you wonder if you will ever make another sale, or if you can make the next rent payment, or make the next payroll, or make any of the other myriad commitments you made when you got started.

We have all lived through it. When you started, you knew your idea was better. The product you had developed was better than any of the others. The service you were offering beat the competition hands down.

Still there was no way to keep the doubts from creeping in. The movie GRAVITY doesn’t offer any lessons, moral or otherwise. It will just remind you that your success is up to you. It might help you swallow that taste of fear and get a grip on the power of you. After I had bitten the bullet and left corporate America and opened my small business, I was walking through the office, last one to leave, and I realized what I had done. From a challenge to be just that much better than www.SBTMagazine.net

other advertising agencies, a tiny group of three had grown to more than sixty! We had taken an idea and grew it to make work for sixty people. There was a host of ancillary businesses that depended on us to make business for them. We were setting new standards and teaching new methods. We gave people a place to come each day to learn and grow and get pride from their efforts. From the moment of the idea to start a new company, we had never thought of failure. For us, the future was filled with brightness. The opportunities were endless and we were the best. Yet it was always there; lurking. Every day we worked through the fear and the loneliness of being on the edge. We could measure our success with a balance sheet but we preferred to measure it in the smiles on the people who worked with us.

But the destroyers of success in a small business were still there - Fear. - Loneliness. If you see GRAVITY, you will hear the NASA command center anonymous voice. The irony is that it is the voice of actor Ed Harris who played the role of Gene Kranz in APOLLO 13. Kranz replaced legendary Chris Kraft as NASA flight commander who had become the voice of space exploration. You should remember Kranz’s famous line, “Failure is not an option”. It should be a signatory line in your small business. Failure was not an option in APOLLO 13 and it is not in GRAVITY; and as I left the

theater reflecting on that lonely walk down darkened hallways, I realized none of us ever thought about failure. We knew we would be a success.

I am willing to bet the thought of failing never crossed your mind either. There are tons of books and pithy sayings about how failure is the best way to success. Learning to fail is big part of high priced management lessons but what they are talking about is failure after the business started. They teach you that you should always get up and start over. Lesson learned. History teaches etc. Today, I am talking about living with the knowledge that failure is not an option. Too often, without realizing it, we succumb to the fear and the loneliness that breeds fear.

To me there are two key words to success: Courage - Confidence You must have both in equal measures. That really is not a ‘duh’. You have already proven that you started with both key attributes. If you were like me, in those early days, you probably never thought about either of them. You just did what had to be done. That was Continued on page 39

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

Getting Organized: My Favorite Outlook Email Tips By: Holly Uverity CPO®, Office Organizers Holly Uverity

anaging email can be a real challenge but if you’re an Outlook user, there’s hope. Outlook is a great productivity tool, and while it’s designed to help people better manage their time and tasks, most people still use it primarily for email. Here are four of my favorite Outlook tips that can help you get through that cluttered Inbox. Flag for Follow Up or Add a Reminder • If an email contains an action item that you don’t want to forget to do, you can flag the email for follow up or you can set a reminder. You can flag and set reminders whether the email is open or not; simply right click on an unopened email and you’ll see your flag options as well as an option called Add Reminder. On an email that is open, both options are available under the Flag for Follow Up icon. Once you’ve clicked on Add Reminder, a window will open which will allow you to set the exact date and time you want to be reminded. When that option is chosen, your email will pop up just like any other reminder you set. Change the Subject Line • Often the subject of an email will change but the subject line won’t. To change the subject of an email after you’ve received it, just highlight the subject line, type in the new subject line, and hit close. When prompted to save, say ‘Yes’ and your email will be saved with the subject line you just created. This allows you to group emails together in ways that make sense to you regardless of the subject line. Use Favorites • Outlook automatically alphabetizes the folders in your Inbox. This can be problematic because it can happen that the folder you use the most is near the bottom of the folder list simply because of the name you gave it. Many people work around this issue by adding a star, SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

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a number or some other character in front of the folder name so the folder will be at the top of the list. This can lead to odd folder names and in fact, can make it more difficult to find the folder you need. A much better solution is to use Favorites. Simply drag the folder you’ve created into the Favorites section and it will always be easily accessible. (Your Favorites section is directly above your Outlook folders on the left hand side of your screen.) In Favorites, you can organize your folders in any order so you can have the most used first, regardless of the name of the folder. This is a great place to drag and drop folders that are specific to projects that you are working on; when the project has completed, simply remove the folder from Favorites by right clicking on the folder and selecting Remove from Favorites. When you add or remove a folder from Favorites, you are working with a copy of that folder so whatever you do in the Favorites section has no effect on the actual folder that resides in your Inbox. . Arrange by Conversation • In addition to arranging your emails by date, sender, or subject (the most common ways that people arrange their emails), you can also arrange your emails by Conversation. Using Arrange by Conversation will group your emails by ‘thread’ which is a complete chain of messages with the same subject. Each thread is sorted by date and the messages within the thread are sorted based on the conversation – who replied to whom. If your messages are arranged by conversation, when you receive a new message, the entire conversation moves to the top of your email list. By default, only unread and flagged emails are shown and the conversations are collapsed until you click the arrow next to the heading to open them. Click the arrow and you’ll see all the messages in that conversation and the messages are indented so it’s easy to see all the responses. Continued on page 38

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EDITORIAL FEATURE

Enough Sitting On The Job… It’s Time to Take A Stand! By Mari-Ann Carlson

ew research is showing that sitting in an office chair all day is simply bad for your health. Adopting standing-height desks and adjustable-height equipment into the office provides a way to improve both the health and the productivity of the workplace. Let’s look at the reasons why moving is so important, and how a few simple changes can make your office more energetic, productive, and healthy. Healthy employees incur lower health care costs, miss work less frequently, and are more productive overall. We experience higher levels of serotonin in our brains when our bodies are active, creating a happier worker. Standing on the job improves communication and gives employees a chance to talk with co-workers at eye level. Credible studies reveal health risks for American desk-job workers who spend too much time sitting on the job and the many benefits for incorporating periodic standing into the office environment. Experts recommend standing up every 20 minutes. Providing a work space to give employees the chance to stand up and remaining productive on the job is the key. Can you afford not to incorporate standing-height desk options into the workplace? The answer is “no.” Now, let’s get you ready to take a stand and build standing-height options into your work space. These steps will help you make it a reality for your business environment and get the corporate buy-in you need to integrate standing into your employees’ work day:

STEP ONE: Build Your Case

STEP THREE: Identify Options

You need to understand how prolonged sitting can be a health hazard. Sitting on the job not only causes bodily aches and pains, it can also be the source of many serious health problems – including obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. That’s bad news for employers and their nine-to-five office workers. A universal understanding of the negative impact among your business leaders and office furniture procurement staff will build the support you need to champion change.

You know your office environment best and specifying the ideal options for your cubicles, offices, and shared work spaces will fuel an easier transition. Keep in mind that the ideal height for a standing desk is at or slightly below elbow height so you can position your forearms at a 90-degree angle on the desk surface. A 90 to 105 degree angle at your elbows and no bend in your wrists is the best way to avoid repetitive stress injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome.

STEP TWO: Spread the Good News No one enjoys a “Debbie Downer”, so pair your knowledge-sharing of the health risks with the good news that there’s a healthy alternative to sitting all day - standingheight desks. Chances are, your audience will already be aware of the concept. Standing desks and equipment are catching on in entrepreneurial and corporate environments alike, as businesses discover the many health and ergonomic benefits they offer in addition to increasing worker productivity.

Explore numerous standing-height solutions that offer adequate workspace and computer real estate. You’ll discover there is a wide selection of affordable products that ensure a perfect fit for every type of worker and space. For example:

In fact, renowned ergonomic experts have examined various ways in which office workers can improve their health and efficiency by standing periodically throughout the day. According to Ergonomist, Denise Vester, standing throughout the work day helps employees mitigate a plethora of issues including back, neck and shoulder pain, disc pressure, carpal tunnel, blood clots, obesity, muscle atrophy, and low enzyme production.

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1. Many desks and tables offer sit/ stand functionality that enable people to quickly alternate between each position. 2. Use clusters of 40-inch-high filing or storage cabinets to create standingheight “islands.” A standing-height island can act as a central work area or meeting place, giving people options to sit or stand, while also offering plenty of storage and file space. Islands also make an attractive, functional addition to lobbies, file rooms, and other shared spaces. 3. Walk-up workstations give teleworkers and visitors a spot to check email or jot down notes. 4. Through the use of telescoping www.SBTMagazine.net

monitor arms and height adjustable keyboard trays, a person can acquire sit/stand adaptation in one place in a simple and inexpensive manner. It enables you to move the monitor up to eye-level and your keyboard from sitting to standing height without moving the desk itself or replacing it. STEP FOUR: A Little Help Goes a Long Way From L-shaped workstations to electric adjustable-height equipment, there are a variety of ergonomically-friendly products that can be easily integrated into any office space. In your search for standing-height solutions, you may want to also seek the help of a furniture professional who specializes in ergonomically-friendly products. Choose someone with the ability to offer you an ample choice of desks and tables that you can use as complete sets or in combination with your existing furniture. Some busi ness furniture merchants provide free office space planning and design services over the phone or in person, helping you choose the right furniture or even generate a 3D drawing to show you how your selections will look in the context of your spaces.

A free how-to guide titled, “No More Sitting Down on the Job: How to Incorporate Standing into Your Workday,” is available for download at www.nbf.com/standing-desk-benefits. For complimentary design services, call 800.558.1010 and use webcode 422189.

Continued from page 19 BIG Progress for Business at Houston Community College

24 slots! The mission of this program is develop and deliver experience-based entrepreneurship programs to: • Enable students to transition successfully to adulthood; • Help students to pursue their dreams by harnessing their creativity and energy; • Help students transform their ideas into tangible enterprises that create economic and social value for a better world; • Develop the character of tomorrow’s leaders based on personal principles and values; • Enable educational institutions and Chambers of Commerce to provide successful and effective entrepreneurship programs for middle and high school students; • Create a culture of innovation in schools and communities across the nation; and • Foster the entrepreneurial mindset in young people, educators, and community members.

Continued from page 18 Puppy Farm or Well-Trained Pack?

better your chances of enlisting their help. You’ll be able to recognize problems or opportunities in one network to help people in other networks. • Think variety, not quantity. We like to network with those who have something unique to offer -- knowledge, skills, or entertainment. The first step in building your network is to identify your unique skills and find people who are different, but complementary. You do not want your contacts to be so similar that all the information and resources you get are redundant or so different that you have nothing in common. It’s also important to pay attention to other people’s needs and know how to manage the impression you leave on others. Focus on managing key relationships yourself and let word-of-mouth from those connections keep you in good standing with a broader network. If you try to cultivate too many connections directly, you will be hard-pressed to manage even a few relationships. Learn to develop a strong, well-trained hunting pack, not a litter! Bertrand McHenry, President/Owner of Referral Institute Houston can be contacted on the web at www.referralinstitutehouston.com or by phone at 281-300-8228.

These are indeed exciting times at Houston Community College.

Maya Durnovo, Ed.D, Chief Entrepreneurial Initiatives Officer of Houston Community College, located at 3100 Main Street, 12E14, Houston, TX 77002. She can be reached at 713-718-8267.

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Continued from page 9 Maintaining Balance within a Company

A company is a collective version of what the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus called a dynamic equilibrium. It contains complementary balancing views and acts. All opposing values organically emerge naturally. For instance, in companies there are the assertive over-workers or drivers and the passive under-workers and driven (the empowered and the entitled). If a business leader over infatuates with the former, he or she will also breed the latter. If an over-worker gets to work early and stays late and is labeled by others as a workaholic, they will be balanced by the under-worker who will come and go at the scheduled times and do nothing more than what is expected. If the leader infatuates with one, they will reject the other. Business leaders of the future, though, would be wise to understand how complementary pairs of gender opposites are necessary for the overall balance and not try to get every worker to become one-sided, which nature will not allow. As with all reproducing pairs of organisms found within nature where there must be a gender balance, so too for all sustaining business organizations there must be such a beautiful balance. Inspired business leaders of the future will remain conscious of this most important principle and aim to maintain poise in

relationship to the gender roles within their companies or organizations. They will integrate before their companies disintegrate.

Dr John Demartini, a native of Houston, is a world renowned expert in human behavior and leadership development. He has synthesized 41 years of research in over 280 disciplines into keynote presentations, seminars, 40 self-development books and an extensive library of CDs and DVDs covering topics from business and financial mastery, building teams, communication to activating leadership and greater productivity in all areas of life. He has shared the stage with Sir Richard Branson, Steven Covey, Deepak Chopra and Donald Trump and been interviewed by the world’s leading media such as Larry King Live, Wall Street Journal and O Magazine (Oprah). To book Dr Demartini contact the Demartini Institute: info@DrDemartini.co.za. Website: www.DrDemartini.com To download a free Value Determination Process Workbook, please visit www.DrDemartini.com/pm_determine_your_values.

Continued from page 25 Which SBA Loan Applications Require a Business Plan?

business owner. Those factors include the track record of the business, the credentials of management, the type of business, the perceived risk in that industry, the credit record of the borrower, collateral offered, and the reasonableness of assumptions in the business plan and financial projections. Ultimately, the business owner must have enough of his own in vestment in the business to cause him to “do what it takes” to make that business successful! In summary, the lender will be looking at financial projections for a new or expanding business on a month-to-month basis for at least the upcoming year. The lender must have the facts and research to believe that the projected revenues are achievable. He must also understand why the business owner is predicting the various expenses related to that revenue, and that nothing is left out. A “hands-on” business plan, financial projections, and reasonable assumptions based upon facts and research will go a long way. The business plan does not need to be a fancy, thick book of information. It needs to be a genuine portrayal of the borrower and his business. A business owner who cannot answer questions about his business plan, which was prepared by somebody else, won’t get far with a lender.

Bruce Hurta is the Business Lending Manager of Members Choice Credit Union that specializes in SBA Lending. Bruce can be reached by phone at 281-384-2595, by email at bhurta@mccu.com, or visit Bruce’s SBA lending blog at brucehurta.wordpress.com. SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2013

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Continued from page 34 Getting Organized: My Favorite Outlook Email Tips

Using Arrange by Conversation is a great option when there are many back and forth responses on the same subject from different people. To find Arrange by Conversation, click on the View option and it is listed as a choice, along with the other options for viewing your emails. Another advantage to arranging by conversation is that you can opt for Conversation Clean Up which will read each email and delete the redundant ones. If a message is completely contained within one of the replies, that email is deleted.

Holly Uverity, CPO® is the owner of Office Organizers – The Entrepreneur’s Organizer. Founded in 1993, they work with business people to create solutions to their organizational challenges. Contact them at 281.655.5022, www.OfficeOrganizers.com or www.fb.com/OfficeOrganizers.

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Continued from page 32 Shamrocks Are Not Just For St. Patty’s Day

Continued from page 33 Fear and Loneliness

Sure, there will always be a learning curve and the savviest of us are “quick studies” but I’m trying to weed out the ones who have little to no experience in solving the business you’re describing. You know the type (at the risk of offending here): He knows 87 ways to make love to a woman but he doesn’t know any chicks!

then and this is now. To stay successful, you have to keep renewing them.

Finally, one of the most gratifying conclusions of an engagement is actually when the Owner/Executive that hired you offers you a job and an opportunity to join their “core”. That’s the acid test of you really succeeding at the problem you were hired to solve. If you’re like me, you humbly accept the compliment and offer to perhaps extend the Agreement to solve them as a contractor/consultant. I learned early on that any time you have an audience with a CXO (any C-Level Executive), consider it a job interview. Heck, that’s the way they hire, so you should know it before you engage in the conversation. If you’re a hiring Business Owner, I hope this direction helps you hire your next Consultant; and if you’re a Consultant, I hope this helps you land your next engagement. While you’re at it, read The Age of Unreason--a classic business book that’s as true today as when it was written. Now you know that Shamrocks should be revered all year and not just for St. Patrick’s Day in March.

Jack Warkenthien, CEO, NextStep Solutions. Email him at jwarkenthien@nextstep-solutions.com or call him at 832-344-6998 www.nextstep-solutions.com.

There is another word I think key to staying successful and that is ‘Why’. It takes courage and confidence to ask that question repeatedly. A two year old has no idea about what courage and confidence are but a child at that age wants to know – Everything. And so should you!

Big success - Why? Customer rejects an idea with a great price - Why? Customer applauds your effort to please - Why? Are you really ready to hear the bad stuff and to dig under the good stuff to find if there are cracks? The only way to know is to ask why; over and over. The two year old is learning and so are you. As a small business, you are probably limited in your resources. Your bigger competitors can probably out-research you but you are lucky because they rarely ask why. I know because when I was in that environment, my whys were answered with looks of derision. The big guys often walk away from failures and even more rarely investigate the whys of success. As a small business, you should be quicker to react and more dedicated to knowing. So probing with why should be a mantra.

WOULD YOU OR YOUR COMPANY LIKE TO BE PROFILED IN OUR NEXT ISSUE?

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Overcome the loneliness with knowledge. Subdue the fear with your already proven courage. Use your confidence to assure yourself that you will find the right answer because failure is not an option.

N D Brown is a Principal of brownchild ltd inc, 3754 Sunset Blvd., Houston TX 77005. You can reach him at 713-807-9000 or cell at 713-822-8370. Contact him by email at don.brown@brownchild.com or visit him on the web at www.brownchild.com.

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Advertiserâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Index Aaron Kapan......................................................... 26

Masterword Services............................................. 24

Advertising Design Systems.................................... 4

Mian Law Firm....................................................... 37

Body Restore........................................................... 4

MJWJ Talk Radio .................................................. 35

Champions School of Business Development........ 1

NAWBO................................................................. 24

Champions School of Real Estate........................... 8

Nerium................................................................... 29

Gwen Juarez Photography.................................... 24

Sales Nexus.......................................................... 13

HCC We Grow Businesses..................................... 2

Small Business Today Magazine Radio Show ............................................Back Cover

Houston Minority Supplier Development Council................... Inside Back Cover MasterWord........................................................... 26

WBEA.....................................................................11 WDG...................................................................... 40 Westpark Communications...........Inside Front Cover

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