There are a couple different meanings which this line in Hamlet could take on. I'm going to play with it a little though, because I recently lost a potential job due to stupid people in high places making stupid decisions to which they themselves are immune and from the effects of which they are insulated.
It is a struggle for me in this life to determine the appropriate course of action. Too many variables in an increasingly larger web of relationships debilitates me to the extent that I become apathetic toward it all. Let's take the Boston Tea Party, for instance. Was this a justified course of action? Granted, there was oppression of taxation with the only cause being the greed of king George III. The British government was continuously placing more and more taxes upon the colonists until, fed up with it, they revolted.
This may seem to you, as it does to me, warranted, but I get stuck thinking of the Biblical implications of this action. Many of those who revolted in Colonial America called themselves Christians, Bible-believers, and yet (this is where it gets personal for me) God never promised a life of ease, and in fact when it came to taxation, He instructed, "Render unto Caesar what is Caesars." This is all fine and good so long as it doesn't affect me, but then it did.
I was offered a job and was to start that job this week. My financial woes were finally behind me and I was able to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Turns out I am in a cave and it was just some lightening bugs. You see, the business I was to begin working for just closed out its fiscal year and was in the process of going through books when it encountered a problem, more taxes. This company made less last year than it had in the past, but coincidentally owes an extra $20,000.00 in taxes. This $20,000.00 is the same that had been saved to put toward hiring another account representative. Thanks to the Federal Government however, it will now be spent to fund new schools for some senator's reprobate kid to go to because he is too special for public school.
This is the rub, the Federal government loves to impose taxes in the name of "Unemployment funds" or "Bailouts for businesses" or "Helping people buy a homes," but the reality is that if they continue to tax small businesses and citizens, there will be no more businesses to pay that unemployment fund or to employ people, nor will there be citizens gainfully employed to buy houses and pay for the business bailouts. It is a filthy cycle in which I find myself, currently, smack dab center.
So where does this cycle end. I am sure I don't have an answer for that, I am not a senator's son. What I do know is that I would have had a job were it not for heavier small business taxes this year. But I am not really here to complain, I am here to uplift, for in this reality there must be a silver, or more likely a golden, lining.
Looking back over prior posts this morning I happened upon a verse from Ecclesiastes, "When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other" (7:14). Now that's some hard stuff to swallow. There is a plan here, I know there is, I just don't know what it is just yet. I know my God and I know that he is a God of redemption, a God that saves the day! Whether it is the salvation of my soul, or the salvation of my apparent helplessness in life. The one thing I know is that someday, when this life is swept into the past and timelessness becomes reality, on that day when I look him in the face, I will forever forget these trivial problems and be swept away in the foreverness and infinity that is God, whether I know and understand or not.
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Business Thinking
There are a number of questions most business owners want to have answered when it comes to advertising, there are numerous perspectives on the answers for those questions, and most of the questions have a common denominator, that is, a single question that ties them all together.
To advertise, or not to advertise? That is the question, whether ‘tis nobler for the business to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous, economic misfortune, or to take ads against a sea of troubled consumers, and by advertising, bring them in?
This is really the crux of the issue if not a little melodramatic (I swear I’ve heard it somewhere before). It is a worthy question and the real issue that is at stake is not whether your should be advertising or not, but rather, how proactive are you in making sure your business doesn’t fall by the wayside? Ladies and gentlemen, let me clear something up from the starting gate, this economic distress that your business is facing is not a black cloud hanging directly over your head and nobody else’s! We are all in it together. I think that is sometimes what we think as business owners, “Oh woe as me, I just don’t have anybody giving me any business anymore,” we say with an Eeyore drawl.
Here is an image for you, drawn from an actual experience of mine:
It was a slightly blustery spring day in Boise, Idaho, the rain had stopped, but the wind continued and in spite of the gray overhang in the sky, I decided to go drum up some business. I walked into Anybusiness, too a look around at the dismal, dark, empty, barren, listless, dull, gray (I could do this for hours) interior, and my eyes met the solitary individual, seated at a desk, playing a computer game (computers were not the business of this company). I made eye contact, as not to scare the frightened, startled creature and began my approach. I took only a few brief seconds to realize that this person was the owner and sole proprietor of the business in question.
I presented a copy of my magazine, and explained that I had just started a new community-oriented magazine with inexpensive advertising, and wondered whether he was interested in advertising. The answer shocked me, “No, [motioning to the empty business place] we don’t have any business, so we can’t advertise, the economy has really hurt us,” he said.
I stayed for a few minutes to speak with the gentleman, but he just kept blaming the economy and slow times for the emptiness. A few minutes later would find me less than a half a mile down the road at another business in the same industry, that had at least four full time employees, who were all with customers, and the owner indicated that they are so busy, she has little time to advertise, but would definitely consider it.
There is, needless to say, a striking contrast in every aspect of these two businesses. I will probably be pointing out the obvious here, but I will plow forward anyway. Here are a couple of thinking points:
Concerning the initial point, as a business owner, your time is the most valuable asset in your company, squandering it on computer games or meaningless tasks is not the way to a fortune. This goes hand-in-hand with number three, if you have no business, shut the doors, lock them, and go find some business! This brings me to my second point, yes the economy is poor right now, we all know it and we all feel it, complaining to me about it doesn’t make me feel any better and it doesn’t make you feel any better. It is bad form, don’t do it! When I am working hard and you are sitting around blaming the economy, it makes you look rather silly.
Point 3 naturally follows the prior. If business is bad, you must do everything in your power to drive business to you. Whining about a poor economy doesn’t accomplish this. There are three ways to do this, basically, and they all have pros and cons, consider: 1) Do it yourself. Literally hit the streets. Make phone calls. Go to events. Join networking groups. Get online and discover social media. 2) Have an employee do those things. Get an excellent employee with a devotion to the business, give them an incentive to produce and send them forth! 3) Pay someone to do it. Find an advertiser that you trust and have them promote for you.
If you do it yourself, you have to consider how much time and effort it takes for your to do it, and whether your salary is worth it, see notes on point 5 for more on this. If you have an employee do it, you have to consider that you are often paying them hourly for things that appear to be social, i.e. non-business related, and their time is costly, especially if they are a skilled employee in another position. However this can have great benefits to your company, contacts that an employee makes can be invaluable. Finally, finding an advertiser that you can trust is difficult, we don’t lie, we present our case in a fashion that leaves us as the best possible of any alternative. It can be easy to feel conned by an advertiser. This has an immediate up front cost, and the results can take time, so sticker shock usually creates a mental block and produces an attitude of, “advertising doesn’t work.”
Just the dismal appearance alone, of this particular place of business was enough to turn me off. But the attitude of the owner, the Eeyore-esque complaining almost made me want to quit my profession altogether, it was not a place where I would take my business. No matter how bad times get, make your business the haven that people can come to and rest, get away from the negativity.
Point 5, consider the cost. I ask myself this question every time I approach a sales situation, “What is my fear costing me?” It sounds odd, but often sales people are fearful of walking into another business, because we must adapt instantly to an environment that we haven’t seen. In monetary terms, that fear can have a great cost if I don’t get the sale. For a business owner, sitting around complaining about the environment costs as well. Consider a $3,000.00 salary for a business owner. For every hour spent on a computer not doing something directly related to getting more business, s/he loses $18.75 from company profitability. If that hour doesn’t drive in at least that much in business, it is a complete loss. For our situation earlier, our gentleman told me that there wasn’t enough business to afford advertising, yet he was paying himself to play computer games. Even on a very small salary, one day of that type of behavior and he could afford a print ad that would produce business income and thus pay him another day.
6: Salesmen. I was a receptioneur for a small professional business and a toy salesman came in and asked for the owner of the company. I assumed that he would not want to listen to a toy salesman and sent the man away, which I felt bad doing because he looked kind and in need of help. Recounting the situation to my boss, he looked at me and quietly, very earnestly, said, “Never turn a salesman away, always come and get me, if I am not available, I will let them know when they can return.” WHAT!? He continued, “Every business is built on sales, we expect people to listen to us, I expected people to listen to me when I was door-to-door, I will always give them a few minutes, it doesn’t cost me anything.”
What I learned then and there is that sales is an honest occupation, people buy, or don’t buy, based on their constructed image of who I am. If I don’t present a person they can have faith in, or at least pity on, I don’t get a paycheck. For me, I still listen to sales people, even when I am busy, and you know, there are a lot of great products out there, a lot of opportunities. If I didn’t do this, I would be the worst kind of hypocrite, and that is one thing I really don’t want to be.
One last point to consider about advertising salesman. If they literally come to you, begging for your business, and especially if they return and follow-up, imagine what that kind of advertising can do for your business. For much less than the cost of you or an employee, they are out there promoting your business, often, door-to-door.
Finally, when you do get leads, produced, or given to you, follow up. You can literally never know what will or will not be a sale. This is just a basic element of sales that I have picked up. No matter how hard it is for me, I force myself to pick up the phone and make the calls time and time again. This turns prospects into clients, because they know that I am active in what I do, if I can sell myself to them, I can sell them to others! That is the most important thing to remember.
To sum up, a business owner has only a few options to make it through any economy, advertising is by far the least expensive of those options. By leveraging advertising in your favor, you can be a growth business, even in a tough economy. Keep positive, and keep selling your products and services, don’t be lazy, do it yourself, have an employee get after it, or pay someone, but get it done, you have to, your business depends on it!
To advertise, or not to advertise? That is the question, whether ‘tis nobler for the business to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous, economic misfortune, or to take ads against a sea of troubled consumers, and by advertising, bring them in?
This is really the crux of the issue if not a little melodramatic (I swear I’ve heard it somewhere before). It is a worthy question and the real issue that is at stake is not whether your should be advertising or not, but rather, how proactive are you in making sure your business doesn’t fall by the wayside? Ladies and gentlemen, let me clear something up from the starting gate, this economic distress that your business is facing is not a black cloud hanging directly over your head and nobody else’s! We are all in it together. I think that is sometimes what we think as business owners, “Oh woe as me, I just don’t have anybody giving me any business anymore,” we say with an Eeyore drawl.
Here is an image for you, drawn from an actual experience of mine:
It was a slightly blustery spring day in Boise, Idaho, the rain had stopped, but the wind continued and in spite of the gray overhang in the sky, I decided to go drum up some business. I walked into Anybusiness, too a look around at the dismal, dark, empty, barren, listless, dull, gray (I could do this for hours) interior, and my eyes met the solitary individual, seated at a desk, playing a computer game (computers were not the business of this company). I made eye contact, as not to scare the frightened, startled creature and began my approach. I took only a few brief seconds to realize that this person was the owner and sole proprietor of the business in question.
I presented a copy of my magazine, and explained that I had just started a new community-oriented magazine with inexpensive advertising, and wondered whether he was interested in advertising. The answer shocked me, “No, [motioning to the empty business place] we don’t have any business, so we can’t advertise, the economy has really hurt us,” he said.
I stayed for a few minutes to speak with the gentleman, but he just kept blaming the economy and slow times for the emptiness. A few minutes later would find me less than a half a mile down the road at another business in the same industry, that had at least four full time employees, who were all with customers, and the owner indicated that they are so busy, she has little time to advertise, but would definitely consider it.
There is, needless to say, a striking contrast in every aspect of these two businesses. I will probably be pointing out the obvious here, but I will plow forward anyway. Here are a couple of thinking points:
- IF your business is doing poorly in ANY economy, don’t sit around and waste your precious time and resources playing computer games!
- Do not EVER blame the economy to a salesman who comes to you! More on this to follow.
- Be proactive to attract more business! There are three ways.
- Make you business a place with a spirit of optimism that makes people want to enter in.
- Consider the cost of your actions vs. the cost of advertising. Numbers will follow.
- Listen to a salesman every now and then. I know it sounds odd, but I had a boss that taught me this lesson, and he still is in business. I know it sounds odd, but I will explain why.
- Follow-up! follow-up! follow-up!
Concerning the initial point, as a business owner, your time is the most valuable asset in your company, squandering it on computer games or meaningless tasks is not the way to a fortune. This goes hand-in-hand with number three, if you have no business, shut the doors, lock them, and go find some business! This brings me to my second point, yes the economy is poor right now, we all know it and we all feel it, complaining to me about it doesn’t make me feel any better and it doesn’t make you feel any better. It is bad form, don’t do it! When I am working hard and you are sitting around blaming the economy, it makes you look rather silly.
Point 3 naturally follows the prior. If business is bad, you must do everything in your power to drive business to you. Whining about a poor economy doesn’t accomplish this. There are three ways to do this, basically, and they all have pros and cons, consider: 1) Do it yourself. Literally hit the streets. Make phone calls. Go to events. Join networking groups. Get online and discover social media. 2) Have an employee do those things. Get an excellent employee with a devotion to the business, give them an incentive to produce and send them forth! 3) Pay someone to do it. Find an advertiser that you trust and have them promote for you.
If you do it yourself, you have to consider how much time and effort it takes for your to do it, and whether your salary is worth it, see notes on point 5 for more on this. If you have an employee do it, you have to consider that you are often paying them hourly for things that appear to be social, i.e. non-business related, and their time is costly, especially if they are a skilled employee in another position. However this can have great benefits to your company, contacts that an employee makes can be invaluable. Finally, finding an advertiser that you can trust is difficult, we don’t lie, we present our case in a fashion that leaves us as the best possible of any alternative. It can be easy to feel conned by an advertiser. This has an immediate up front cost, and the results can take time, so sticker shock usually creates a mental block and produces an attitude of, “advertising doesn’t work.”
Just the dismal appearance alone, of this particular place of business was enough to turn me off. But the attitude of the owner, the Eeyore-esque complaining almost made me want to quit my profession altogether, it was not a place where I would take my business. No matter how bad times get, make your business the haven that people can come to and rest, get away from the negativity.
Point 5, consider the cost. I ask myself this question every time I approach a sales situation, “What is my fear costing me?” It sounds odd, but often sales people are fearful of walking into another business, because we must adapt instantly to an environment that we haven’t seen. In monetary terms, that fear can have a great cost if I don’t get the sale. For a business owner, sitting around complaining about the environment costs as well. Consider a $3,000.00 salary for a business owner. For every hour spent on a computer not doing something directly related to getting more business, s/he loses $18.75 from company profitability. If that hour doesn’t drive in at least that much in business, it is a complete loss. For our situation earlier, our gentleman told me that there wasn’t enough business to afford advertising, yet he was paying himself to play computer games. Even on a very small salary, one day of that type of behavior and he could afford a print ad that would produce business income and thus pay him another day.
6: Salesmen. I was a receptioneur for a small professional business and a toy salesman came in and asked for the owner of the company. I assumed that he would not want to listen to a toy salesman and sent the man away, which I felt bad doing because he looked kind and in need of help. Recounting the situation to my boss, he looked at me and quietly, very earnestly, said, “Never turn a salesman away, always come and get me, if I am not available, I will let them know when they can return.” WHAT!? He continued, “Every business is built on sales, we expect people to listen to us, I expected people to listen to me when I was door-to-door, I will always give them a few minutes, it doesn’t cost me anything.”
What I learned then and there is that sales is an honest occupation, people buy, or don’t buy, based on their constructed image of who I am. If I don’t present a person they can have faith in, or at least pity on, I don’t get a paycheck. For me, I still listen to sales people, even when I am busy, and you know, there are a lot of great products out there, a lot of opportunities. If I didn’t do this, I would be the worst kind of hypocrite, and that is one thing I really don’t want to be.
One last point to consider about advertising salesman. If they literally come to you, begging for your business, and especially if they return and follow-up, imagine what that kind of advertising can do for your business. For much less than the cost of you or an employee, they are out there promoting your business, often, door-to-door.
Finally, when you do get leads, produced, or given to you, follow up. You can literally never know what will or will not be a sale. This is just a basic element of sales that I have picked up. No matter how hard it is for me, I force myself to pick up the phone and make the calls time and time again. This turns prospects into clients, because they know that I am active in what I do, if I can sell myself to them, I can sell them to others! That is the most important thing to remember.
To sum up, a business owner has only a few options to make it through any economy, advertising is by far the least expensive of those options. By leveraging advertising in your favor, you can be a growth business, even in a tough economy. Keep positive, and keep selling your products and services, don’t be lazy, do it yourself, have an employee get after it, or pay someone, but get it done, you have to, your business depends on it!
Friday, November 14, 2008
Hope beyond Hopelessness
--This blog was originally written for an industry audience, so kindly disregard strange references. --
As I sit here drinking coffee and pondering the state of the great USA, my mind turns to contemplate where I will be by the summer of 2009. Let's be honest, it's a brutal market out there with over 6% of the country looking for work, national giga-corporations sinking without even a flare to fire for help, and the latest, the "3 Big Ones" GM, Ford and Daimler-Chrysler begging for a bailout. I work in construction and construction in the Treasure Valley has taken a nose-dive, racing headlong toward destruction. Here in Idaho we have the 15th highest forclosure rate in the nation, which means market saturation of homes. For my homebuilder counterparts I feel your pain. They say that commercial construction is still strong here, though I have to say that I can't see it.
What I can see is a few years of hard work, careful management, and hope. And that is the key, when it comes down to it for most of us, hope is the binding factor. Hope is what drives the economy. Hope is what gives confidence to the American consumer and hope is what we must hold on to when all is lost. Earlier this month we held an election in which the people of America spoke, raised men to office and made critical decisions. In a way, America said as a collective whole, "This group of men holds the answer to the question of hope." Let's hope that we did the right thing. Let's hope that the American will once again gain the confidence that they need through the hope they have elected.
Politics aside though, I think that there are bigger and greater things to be tackled. I got out of bed this morning and made my way to my office, got my coffee and proceeded to take care of the business of the day. As I did, a funny thing happened, the sun rose. You know, I remember the sun rising yesterday and the day before and before that, the sun rose. Makes me wonder what will happen tomorrow. As I think about this, it occurs to me, "Zach, why do you think it is so odd, that if you should get up every day, the sun wouldn't?" Will Obama get out of bed tomorrow? Probably. Will the sun rise because he tells it to? Absolutely not. The sun will rise, but at no humans urging. The sun will rise, because the sun's job is to do just that. Now back to hope. Where is it? In whom is it placed? In what?
This is an important question in the economy at large today. We have called the American dollar the "Almighty Dollar," raised it up to diestic status and put our hope in it. But what happens when it crashes as it is doing now. We all sit and watch and hope that with enough quantity of Dollars, we can pull through. Let me ask you though, does the sun rise because of the dollar?
With the looming economic crisis I have an opportunity for a greater choice. I have the opportunity to hope in something far greater than Dollars, than politicians, than giga-corporations, I have the opportunity to live on hope in the transcendental, that which is beyond all. I see the sun rise in the morning and am reminded, there is something beyond: a hope beyond hope, beyond hoplessness. The question is whether I will take that hope, or the hope that one more bailout will fix everything, one more G-20 meeting will solve the worlds problems.What would a world look like where hope-beyond-hope reigned free? I can't answer that question, I won't even speculate. What I can say for myself is that it makes building another building a whole lot less significant. It reminds me just how shallow my hope is; I am humbled.
"When times are good, be happy;
but when times are bad, consider:
God has made the one
as well as the other." -Ecclesiastes 7:14
My wife told me the other day, "You know, when you look at the world and try to find the value in every circumstance, you really can't have a bad day." So true, if I try to learn from these troublesome times we are in, even in them I can have good days, simply for rejoicing in what I am learning from them. Lessons like, "Be a wise steward of what you have," and "Give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land." Good reminders that taking care of others, giving to them serves only to lay up treasure for the day of famine.
Could I lose everything in this troublesome time? Well that depends on what is mine. If what has been given to me is not mine to have, but to care for for a time, then I have nothing to lose...ever.
Can I take my own medicine? Can I move a position and see the beauty in the ashes? Or will I instead allow myself to sink deeper into the muck of self-pity? I fear for myself that it may be the latter. I have hope though. I have hope. Until next time, keep watching the sunrise!
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