Small Business Boomers

Customer service in many industries has become a thing of the past.  Retailers will tell you that people will buy on price alone.  They cannot differentiate themselves with good service.  They cut costs by paying low wages, but get caught in the spiral of high turnover.  The Internet has turned everything into a commodity.
 
I agree, but only to a point.  That point is when you personally need customer service.  There is an industry now where you can go and hire a person to interpret your medical bills and insurance statements for you and advocate with your insurance company.  In efforts …read more

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I’m being polite.  Lee Iacocca is pissed.  In his new book “Where Have All The Leaders Gone?” the man is really pissed at us, the Baby Boom generation.  What makes him so upset?  Oh, a wide range of specific things, but maybe it can be summed up in the terms “laid back” and “selfish.”
Lee thinks Boomers are screwing up because we don’t hold each other accountable for our actions.  Just look around.  Mistakes are not penalized.  Look at government; Katrina, Iraq.  Look at business.  It’s not just Enron and back dating options.  It’s CEO taking exorbitant salaries as stock prices fall.  It’s …read more

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Yesterday Ben Stein was lamenting the problems the world, particularly the US, has with oil.  How can the stock market keep going up when the world oil supply is threatened?  Maybe the market knows something Ben doesn’t.  There is plenty of oil for the world and the US.  It just depends on the price.
We heard this same lament in the ’70’s.  You know what we found?  We found oil shale in the Rockies and tar sands in Canada, reserves several times larger than was ever under the ground in Arabia.  At the time it was just too expensive to extract.  Guess …read more

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There is a old joke from The New Yorker.  Two men are sitting in an office and we can see a large industrial complex out the window.  The older man, the father, says to a younger man, the son, “It’s all yours.  Don’t loose it.” 
This is a very important concept.  Many, many people around the world are rich because they were given a fortune and didn’t blow it.  There are a larger number of people who are not so well off because the lost their wealth.  This can be due to any number of things, but preserving wealth is important than …read more

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For those of you that don’t get the Saturday Wall Street Journal and for those of you who missed it, they reprinted one of Kelly Greene’s advice peices on selecting a financial adviser.  The most important part of the short article were the six web sites you need to visit when searching for a financial adviser.  Go see them all.
Financial Planning Association www.fpanet.org
National Association of Personal Financial Advisors www.napfa.org
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.  www.cfp.net
Garrett Planning Network, Inc. www.garrettplanningnetwork.com
Alliance of Cambridge Advisors, Inc. www.cambridgeadvisors.com  A must for the list of questions the give you to ask any potential advisor.  …read more

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My daughter is looking for a job as she finishes up a Master’s program which has put me in a mindset of job hunting.  It’s my usual mindset because I’ve been in sales most of working life.  Everyone should realize that they are employed “at will.”  Read those words to mean at the will of management, the market place, your health, your family and the vagaries of bad weather.  We are all just consultants whose gig could end today.  Because I am always prepared to sell myself again I like to stay up on current trends in the job market.
My …read more

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First and foremost, thanks to Darlene McDaniel for doing a superior job at Small Business Boomers while i was away.  Busy I was on a Sarbanes-Oxley consulting gig and a little vacation, the success filtered through.  Here’s best wishes for your own blog at b5.  I’m sure it will be a success.
Now, I offer something to build on top of Darlene’s last entry about your business and your competition.
One of my favorite coffee hangouts just closed its doors after less than a year in operation.  My wife and I drank as much as we could, but we couldn’t pull him through.  …read more

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What’s up with your competition? Do you know who they are? What are their strengths? Where are their gaps or opportunities? What is their target market? Who are their customers? How can you tailor or market your products to compliment their identified target market?
Your competition are those companies who currently sell the same or similar products or services. It is important for you to know who you are competing with. The questions I ask in the introduction are just a few of the questions you should be asking yourself about your competition.

I wonder if Dave Thomas, Wendy’s founder, …read more

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It is late morning and I am committed to recognizing 5 more blogs from the Problogger Writing Project this week. In the end there were 893 total submissions. The grand prize winner was Nancy R. Callahan for her entry Baby Names from Video Games. I

The Top 5 Blogs I found in my reading last night are:
1. Top 5 Things to Consider When Starting a Business
2. Top 5 Young Entrepreneur Projects
3. Top 5 Actions to Build An Online Business
4. Top 5 Ways to Become a Millionaire
5. Top 5 Questions – To Spark New Marketing Ideas
If you are interested in reading the …read more

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How do you define a customer? In short, a customer is someone who is willing to pay for the products and services that you offer. If I were in the business of adding to this definition, I would say a customer is someone who is willing to pay for your products and services over and over. They are committed and loyal to what you are offering in the marketplace. But, that’s my definition.
How do you find customers? You must find prospects first. Who are you targeting? Have you done any market research? Who are potential buyers? If you don’t …read more

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