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As a business owner, you know what it’s like to lie awake at 2 a.m. Maybe it has happened when you are excited and full of new ideas for your business. More often, it’s because you are worried about issues you will face the next day. Sometimes, it’s because you just woke up with the solution to a problem. I’ve experienced all those emotions about my businesses over the years. Awake at 2 o’clock? is where I share them with you, and hopefully help with answers that will let you sleep.
John F. Dini, CExP, CEPA
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Small business owners are the Hunters of the 21st century. We are 3% of the US population, and yet we create over half of all American jobs. As Hunters, we may not be inclined to manage by the numbers or stick to systems. Are you a Hunter or a Farmer?
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How prepared are you to exit your company?
The Assessment breaks down the four major categories of exit readiness; Finance, Planning, Operations and Revenue/Profit.
Tag Archives: entrepreneurship
Where are All Those Jobseekers?
Workers: There are currently 5.1 million job openings in the US; an all time high. While the official unemployment stands at 5.5%, the U-6 unemployment rate, which includes people working as little as one hour a week for “economic reasons” … Continue reading
10 Responses to Where are All Those Jobseekers?
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Does Investment Capital Make Sense for Your Business?
In the business acquisition world, deals where a seller keeps some equity for a future round of merger or acquisition activity is generally known as getting a “second bite of the apple.” Private Equity Groups (PEG), of which some 5,000 currently operate … Continue reading
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Regulation: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
True story: A fortune 500 company implements a new wellness plan for employees. It’s designed by consultants who use the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) as a template. Workers are incentivized to get regular exercise, quit smoking and lose weight; with … Continue reading
One Response to Regulation: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
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John
Welcome back – and as usual another great article – batting 1000
Frank
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“Everyone has Gotten So Rude!”
Not too long ago, I was leading a group of business owners in a discussion. These were not my peer board members, but rather owners at a breakfast, none of whom I’d met before. To start the conversation, I asked … Continue reading
6 Responses to “Everyone has Gotten So Rude!”
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It is true that we don’t see cold call sales people, but we do try to treat them courteously.
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Interesting and so true. The World has changed! When I started in sales in 1979, I use to park my car in an industrial area, and walk the block making cold calls. I do not believe that would work in today’s world.
Just like a lot of us grew up with an open chain link fence or no fence at all. We all knew our neighbors.
Today most fences are tall wooded structures that are not open to your neighbors to see in, and a lot of us never see or know our neighbors.
I agree that most of my calls today are “warm calls”. Either the customer found us on the web and ask to see us, or I connect with a referral or follow up from a show.
However I do miss the FUN of making cold calls. Use to learn a lot about an area and meet new and interesting people.
Mike
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I began selling in 1964. From day #1 – based on the sales book used at my Monsanto sales training course, “How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Sales” by Frank Bettger – I always worked by appointment out of respect for the other person’s time. I felt that just “dropping by” suggested that the CEO or Purchasing Agent had little to do besides entertain me.
That said, when I would call for appointments, I usually got a somewhat friendly reception and an appointment.
In 1975 I changed to selling estate planning/financial planning just like your subject in your opening story. We called on business owners – valuable, illiquid assets like a business need cash, i.e. insurance, to pay estate taxes at death. WHen I made that switch, also moving to New England from the Midwest at the time, I found an ENTIRELY different atmosphere – hostile, suspicious, defensive, closed off.
Since then it’s only gotten worse. Coward that I am, I now employ a telemarketer to “sell” initial telephone consultations. Easier appointment to get, somewhat less productive than face-to-face.
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As pointed out, the Internet has changed so much. It used to be that sales calls were an important source of information. Now we are constantly bombarded with information, and the challenge is on filtering most of it out. Which comes across as abrupt or rude. We have been trained the we can search for what we need when we need it. Knowing exactly what we are looking for has become the challenge.
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Our distribution business requires cold calling. We get no where with phone calls and little with emails, so we go to the prospects. In food service this has not become entirely unexpected. We apologize for interrupting, introduce ourselves, leave a card, ask for a card and a future appointment. Rarely are we treated poorly and the results are still worthwhile.
Glad to see you’ve made the last turn, John. Best wishes!
Thanks Al
John,
So so glad to hear that you are feeling better!
While agree with everything you said in the your this post, I’d like to extend your metaphor of the blindfolded people bumping the room. You and they found the elephant in the room and describe it from one limited perspective.
Yes, education systems are a mess, but that is but one cause. There are many. Here’s another which helps to, but does not wholly explain, our current employment situation. Business has a tremendous responsibility for the state of affairs – the lack of skilled employees. How did the boomers get trained for manufacturing jobs, construction jobs, and other “manual” labor jobs?
Businesses (and often unions) took responsibility for training workers. Starting in the 80s and continuing to today, the emphasis on corporate profit, just-in-time and lean labor forces, caused otherwise repsonsible businesses (and unions) to stop investing in training and cross training.
Today we hear from 10s of business owners hoping to find skilled labor to replace their retiring workforces. Guess what… no one trained them. And to me the chief responsibility for that falls on the people who profit from having trained labor. Stockholders.
Just another reason, I believe, we find ourselves in a pickle. There is a good solution though. Hire for aptitude and invest in your employees.
Keep getting well. Chuck
I agree, but I think it goes farther, Chuck. As the cost of an individual employee has risen, not least because of government attempts to make all employment generate a “living wage,” small employers have largely ceased to be the training ground for basic job skills. Part time and summer jobs for kids who acted as go-fers and floor sweepers taught things like showing up and following a procedure.
Hello John,
I did not know that you had a health problem. Congratulations on your recovery.
The college mess is getting worse. Cheap money has enabled colleges to embark on an expansion war, turning campuses into resorts. In Colorado, CU and CSU both have debt approaching $1 Billion. CSU is committed to a $250 million football stadium that the President thinks will elevate the mediocre RAMs from the Mountain West to Big 10/Big 12 status – and consequently boost foreign student enrollment to pay off the bond! (I have to check to see if CSU has an Economics department.) We have let on-line “colleges” entice veterans to spend their GI loans on courses that do not equip them to get employment.
The colleges will not change a lucrative business model. Change will only come when parents stop believing that their sons and daughters deserve the college “experience” they enjoyed or dreamed of. That experience degraded from education to the high life in the 90s when colleges began to be rated for their partying credentials. Parents need to take a hard nosed approach to college selection, and counsel their children against taking on debt without a high probability of quick repayment.
Another solution would be for student loans to be limited to only fund attendance at colleges that have a 50% or greater 4 year graduation rate, and an adequate record of graduate employment three years after graduation. Similarly, GI loans could only be spent on productive on-line courses. Money rules, and we would quickly see colleges actually focus on graduation and employment success.
Regards,
David Cunningham.
I would be afraid that setting a minimum 4 year grad level would just lead to further manipulation, but it is a good idea. Perhaps index the amount of a government-backed loan to the employability of the major?
Pleased to read that you are on the mend.
“Ridiculed as the refuge for dumb kids and criminals, manual arts, auto shop, home economics and other non-college preparatory classes were virtually extinguished from high school curriculums”[sic] is not universally factual. While the emphasis on college attendance is enormous, the emphasis on STEM oriented programs and the undervaluation of liberal arts is also to blame. Combined with the nonsensical new testing, the result leaves a diminished effectiveness in the new workforce.
Now layer on HR & owner bias against anyone out of work over one year and you have the genesis for the statistics you report in your article.
This emphasis toward STEM and standardized testing has another painful consequence: critical thinking capability is nonexistent in high school graduates. Do you agree this may be a contributing factor in the reduction in 4-year college graduations?
Our regional high school has a thriving poly-tech program. This is a school with an excess of three thousand students. And yes, counselors get bonuses for the number of students who take AP and honors courses, and likely something similar for the number of grads who attend college. But the vocational training program is excellent and very much in demand.
Lastly I believe this bullet was an oversight: “Fueled by student debt, colleges increased their costs at almost triple the rate of inflation.”… isn’t the equation the other way around? The debt is a by-product of the rising costs to attend college.
And what will happen when the college bubble bursts… the current rate of tuition increases and incurred debt levels in many colleges and universities cannot be sustained. When will be start seeing colleges folding? It may not be very far into the future.
I’m surprised to hear you say that there is too much emphasis on STEM, John. I still think it is weak. When my youngest was reviewing colleges, he was offered a alternating tracks for his major. A BS required one science course, the BA required none. Thanks for the corrections as well.
John — good to hear that you are doing better.
Walter
As many states, such as my state of FL, are seeking to do away with traditional student testing, more and more students will qualify for college entrance without a clue. High School
counselors need to do more to assess students and work with them and their parents to develop a plan for their continued education. Goal setting and planning need to be a major part of their education.