Small Business Boomers

The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer – Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s
I firmly believe that you are never too old to start something new.  Are you considering starting a new “post retirement” business?   If so, get started.  Do something TODAY to make that dream come true.

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It’s hard to believe but our home re-modeling project is complete.  We can actually empty our boxes and move back into our first floor.  When the painter left yesterday the fact that workmen weren’t coming back didn’t register for about half an hour.  There still is some furniture re-assembly to be done, but we could actually be back in our own bed tonight.
This was a fairly simple job, but it took 63 days.  Workmen showed up as scheduled.  There was a 5 day break around Thanksgiving and deer hunting season.  People slide in and out of the project easily and pretty …read more

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I have been listening to holiday songs, mostly on Pandora and I have decided that we need a new one. I like Pandora, which is a free web song player; you can create your own stations and select music to suit your taste. I have several holiday stations, including a Motown holiday station and a Rock holiday station. But after listening to these stations for a week or two, I am getting tired of hearing the same songs. Is there a new song that you like?
My inquisitive side wondered what songs were created during the …read more

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Well, the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States held their special auction for banks yesterday and it was reasonably successful.  They put another $20 billion of liquidity into the US banking system.  A similar auction will happen again in the near future.  So what does that mean for small businesses?
Good credit news:  The Fed is able to manipulate the availability of credit among banks to some extent.  It means that the velocity of money is picking up slightly.  More velocity.  More money available for businesses to borrow.  the wheels of industry are greased with credit.  Generally, everybody gets into a …read more

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 You see them all the time.  Mostly men, shuffling along with a slight stoop at the waist.  they have pain in their lower back and upper legs.  They pop pills to relax their muscles.  They get shots to deaden the nerves.  They don’t sleep well.  All, they really look forward to is a nice easy-chair.  Been there.
At 51 a life of hard driving, literally and figuratively, was crippling me.  I had a bad back which lead to a bad shoulder which was from really tight hamstrings.  I was eating a dozen Ibuprofen a day jsut to keep going.  I was lucky to get …read more

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For the “Apprentice” challenge on the b5media business channel this week, we are asked to submit a business success story.
This story is about a young chiropractor named Braxton. He graduated from chiropractic college over $100,000 in debt, with no personal finances to get a loan., and a young wife and baby. But he was determined to start his chiropractic practice. He went to bank after bank. Each bank turned him down. Some said “no” more or less politely, but they all said, “No way you can get a loan.” He was turned down by …read more

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“If you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything.”  That is what my father said about health.  From time to time he also mentioned that  “Be true to your teeth or they’ll be false to you.”  With the link between gum disease and heart disease, it turned out to be equally true and medically more relevant than I thought at the time.  Damn, the older I get the smarter he looks.
But, back to health and business.  Obviously, your health is a pivotal factor in your ability to successfully execute any kind of business plan.  The other side of that …read more

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Yes, it’s my 60th birthday. Hitting one of those decade milestones reminds me of the ones past and causes me to think about the future.

On my 30th birthday, I was sitting around bemoaning the fact that I had no children yet. You know the one about “be careful what you wish for…” – Two years later I had triplets!
On my 40th birthday, I was too busy to ponder anything. We were in the middle of a move to a new home and the moving truck was stuck on the hill going up to our house.
On my 50th …read more

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We just had an ice storm here in Iowa, and it reminded me about the dilemma most small businesses face – should I open during bad weather, especially during the holiday season?
Why should you stay open?

You need the money from sales
You may be disappointing some customer who is counting on you being open
You may have to pay your employees for a non-productive day
If you have a health care practice, you may have patients who need to see you

Why should you close?

Employees may be at risk trying to get to work in a bad storm, or its aftermath
Customers may also …read more

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The difference between a recession and a depression is that in first one you have a job and your neighbor doesn’t.  In the second one you don’t have a job.
“The financial erosion will come to an end when the prices of homes and equity in homes stabilize, probably not before.” Alan Greenspan (WSJ, 12/15/07, A1).  What Greenspan is talking about here is the deflation of the value of the housing stock in the United States.  Does that mean everybody’s house or residential investment property?  Yes, because even in Milwaukee, where I live, a major deflation in house prices in other …read more

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