Is “Routine” synonymous with “Monotony” ?

An article in this morning’s Vibrant Nation reminded me of the # 1 reason I will probably always be self employed: I want every day to be new and fresh.  I hear this daily from clients wanting to leave the job world and start their own business. They want to escape the “same, old routine.”

The Vibrant Nation post is titled, “The secret to being your own boss?  Routine!”  However, when I read the article, author Kay Strom’s day is anything but tedious. Her “routine” includes scheduling time for soaking in the tub, a mid-day tea break, coffee dates with friends, daily river walks,  and speaking engagements on cruise ships. Hardly monotonous.

What Kay does that makes her writing life a success is schedule her days so that the things she wants to do have a time slot everyday along with the work she must do, including writing a chapter every single day.

Thinking back to times I’ve been most productive, I realize there was a lot of routine in my day. A couple of years ago, I spent several months in Florida  where I had an investment property. Daily beach walks, the primary constant in my day, had nothing and everything to do with productivity. Each Sunday evening, I checked the tide charts for the following week. Then I scheduled my work day, including appointments and phone calls around low tide. It was a different time each day, of course, but those beach walks were so important to me that I made sure I scheduled everything else I wanted to accomplish that day around them.  Not only were my walks good for my mental and physical well-being but often, my best ideas were born during those walks so I considered them a business necessity.

Like snowflakes, no two beach walks are ever exactly the same and none of my days was just like the one before. Some days I worked at home in my den. Other times, I checked out different coffee shops with internet access. Several times I brought my work to the clinic where I spent hours between medical appointments. Always, I scheduled my “routine” beach walk.

That same year, I spent months living and traveling in my volkswagon camper van. On the road, no two days are the same because the people and environment change, but I did have a kind of routine. Over breakfast, I’d check and answer emails, read a few favorite blogs, check weather and road conditions and decide on my route for the day. I’d usually drive for a few hours, then stop and make client calls, have group mastermind calls or record a telephone interview for my Inspired Livelihood inspired entrepreneur series. I’d have lunch, take a walk and drive a few more hours. At night, I’d write and schedule posts to appear on my blog.

Thinking back on that time, I realize it wasn’t a routine in the sense that I did the same things in the same place at the same time every day but my days did have structure and I believe it is that structure, the scheduled time for the things that matter, that’s the secret to successful self-employment. And structure does not have to be boring.

What NOT to do when you purchase a business.

It’s always a mystery to me why someone would pay a lot of money to purchase a successful business and immediately change things. This happens so frequently that I feel it warrants addressing.

My friend Cyndy spent a decade building a profitable business selling items from her native country. She had a strong following with repeat customers and great relationships with her vendors. When she decided to return to her homeland, she sold to a local man and trained him in all aspects of the business.

The week the new owner took over, he began “cleaning up” the shop, which meant changing all the displays and straightening up all the inventory. Several of us who knew the business explained to him that part of Cyndy’s success was that she had figured out how the traffic patterns in her shop drew attention to particular items and she had placed things strategically where they sold best. He continued to make changes and complained that business was slow. Recently, I noticed he had moved the store to a less expensive and less than prime location. It’s no coincidence that sales are suffering.

In my little seaside town alone, I’ve seen this happen whenever shops change ownership. It makes sense to make changes if you purchase an unsuccessful business with the intent of turning it around and making it profitable, but if you buy a business based on it’s profitable track record, the biggest mistake you can make is to change anything immediately.  What you pay for when you purchase a successful business is the previous owner’s  knowledge, reputation and relationships. If you aren’t going to follow their lead, save your money and start your own business.

Sure you want to give the business your own style and flavor but when purchasing a successful, profitable business, my recommendation is to soak up every bit of information the previous owner shares, ask questions and listen. Ask for introductions to clients and vendors. Ask the seller to attend your first trade show with you and help you with your initial purchase orders. Then model their practices exactly for at least the first year. Put aside your own preferences for now and do things exactly as the previous owner did, making notes on improvements you think of but don’t implement any changes yet. Listen to clients. Ask what they like about the business and what improvements they would like to see. Note comments that you hear repeatedly.

Assuming your numbers are as good at the end of the first year as before you purchased, you can begin making small improvements a bit at a time. Don’t alter too much at once so that you can monitor the results of each modification. If you see positive results, keep the change. If your numbers begin to slide, either make adjustments or return to the way the seller did things.  Remember, you paid for that know-how.

It’s always a mystery to me why someone would pay a lot of money to purchase a successful business and immediately change things. This happens so frequently that I feel it warrants addressing.

My friend Cyndy spent a decade building a profitable business selling items from her native country. She had a strong following with repeat customers and great relationships with her vendors. When she decided to return to her homeland, she sold to a local man and trained him in all aspects of the business.

The week the new owner took over, he began “cleaning up” the shop, which meant changing all the displays and straightening up all the inventory. Several of us who knew the business explained to him that part of Cyndy’s success was that she had figured out how the traffic patterns in her shop drew attention to particular items and she had placed things strategically where they sold best. He continued to make changes and complained that business was slow. Recently, I noticed he had moved the store to a less expensive and less than prime location. It’s no coincidence that sales are suffering.

In my little seaside town alone, I’ve seen this happen whenever shops change ownership. It makes sense to make changes if you purchase an unsuccessful business with the intent of turning it around and making it profitable, but if you buy a business based on it’s profitable track record, the biggest mistake you can make is to change anything immediately.  What you pay for when you purchase a successful business is the previous owner’s  knowledge, reputation and relationships. If you aren’t going to follow their lead, save your money and start your own business.

Sure you want to give the business your own style and flavor but when purchasing a successful, profitable business, my recommendation is to soak up every bit of information the previous owner shares, ask questions and listen. Ask for introductions to clients and vendors. Ask the seller to attend your first trade show with you and help you with your initial purchase orders. Then model their practices exactly for at least the first year. Put aside your own preferences for now and do things exactly as the previous owner did, making notes on improvements you think of but don’t implement any changes yet. Listen to clients. Ask what they like about the business and what improvements they would like to see. Note comments that you hear repeatedly.

Assuming your numbers are as good at the end of the first year as before you purchased, you can begin making small improvements a bit at a time. Don’t alter too much at once so that you can monitor the results of each modification. If you see positive results, keep the change. If your numbers begin to slide, either make adjustments or return to the way the seller did things.  Remember, you paid for that know-how.

Thinking about expanding your niche? Think twice!

Sometimes it’s tempting in a slower economy to try to be everything to everyone but it could be your demise. If you’ve been successful in a particular niche, you are likely thought of as the  expert in that specific area and that’s what attracts your customers or clients to you.

This was never more evident than yesterday when I visited a glass gallery that has for nearly thirty years been one of the premier glass art galleries in the country. They had a strong following both on and off line with great tremendous loyalty from both the customers and artists they represented.

The merchandising in the  gallery was exactly as it should be in a tourist area. A few items priced in the thousands were sold infrequently but necessary to draw attention. Serious collectors purchased the many medium priced items. Then there were lots of smaller, affordable pieces that were the galleries bread and butter. The gallery carried only handmade, American glass. Nothing else. They were THE go-to place for American glass art.

A couple of years ago, the gallery was purchased by a long time employee. She saw business slow as it had a number of times over the years as the economy dipped. The previous owners successfully rode out several economic slumps, probably selling more of the less pricey pieces and held in there until the next recovery. The new owner, however, has tried to compensate by stocking  wood, metal and other fine craft. (note: I will go into more depth in a future post about the mistakes new business owners often make when they purchase an existing business.)

In a village with numerous galleries featuring multi-media, the once renowned glass gallery now blends in with all the others. The gallery is obviously suffering slow sales and low cash flow. They built a reputation over many years as a specialty business with a very specific niche. Why would they want to blend in and become “generalists”?

In your own business, does fear of not having something for everyone tempt you to broaden your specialty and become more heterogenous? Are you tempted to diversify so that you appeal to a wider audience? If you want to grow your business, or compensate for sluggish sales, what can you do to maintain your own niche so that you are still known as the expert in your specific area? Can you provide other products or services to the same customer group? Wouldn’t you rather be known to have the best selection of products and services in your own specialty niche than have a little something for everyone? When you are tempted to diversify, be careful not to become too general because blending in can mean becoming invisible. If you’ve found a niche that works when times are good, stay true to it and things will be good again.

What does “social entrepreneurship” really mean?

When I tell people my favorite clients to work with are aspiring social entrepreneurs, they frequently ask if I help people open non-profits. Maybe it’s time to clarify what a social entrepreneur is.

Yes, some social ventures are not-for-profit but it’s a common misconception that you can’t drive social change AND make a profit. By definition, social entrepreneurship is “a process involving the innovative use and combination of resources to pursue opportunities to catalyze social change and/or address social needs.” Whether a business is a non-profit, for profit or NGO, determining if it qualifies as a social enterprise comes down to a basic question: does the business add value to society or drive social change.

Two well-known examples of social entrepreneurship are micro-financier Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and Aravind Eye Hospital in India, a provider of eye surgery at a fraction of the usual cost. Both are for profit businesses that improve lives.

When we think of social entrepreneurship, most of us think of the international do-good organizations tackling hunger and disease in developing countries. Sure, we’d all love to change the world, but we can make enormous differences starting in our own little community.

Because my expertise is in the area of for profit, I only work with people wanting to set up a for-profit business. Aspiring entrepreneurs come to me when they want to start a business that has more meaning, makes a difference and a profit.  Every business needs a profit and loss statement but I leave that up to the accountants. I have a different balance sheet we work through that helps aspiring entrepreneurs work out their multiple bottom line-a value in addition to financial profit that’s measured in how the business improves lives. It doesn’t have to change the universe. it can be as small as making a difference in your own neighborhood, what my friend Alice Barry calls your “YOU-niverse.”

Even as an artist or craftsperson, you can be a social entrepreneur. Let’s say, for example, you design a line of jewelry that you’ve been fabricating yourself. Your business has grown to more than you can supply yourself but rather than outsource it to China, you want to help local women earn a living . By training local women to do part of the production for you, you are enabling them to feed and care for their families by teaching them a skill they can do at home. You save on overhead by not having a manufacturing facility and you’ve provided livelihood for women who may otherwise be dependent on social welfare. Your profit from your sales and the change you make in these women’s lives is your double bottom line.

Another category of social entrepreneurship is the buy-one, give-one model made popular by Tom’s Shoes. Other business donate a portion of their profits to a particular cause. My favorite is a business that actually teaches people how to help themselves so that they are no longer dependent on hand-outs. That method of making change is more sustainable than charity because it enables people to always be permanently independent. The giving continues even if the funds for the program are no longer available.

One way to decide what changes you want to make is to think about what really irks you. What do you think of as a terrible injustice or lack? Most likely if it’s an issue that really bothers you, it’s something you are passionate enough about driving change that you will be effective in creating lasting change. That’s the ultimate in social entrepreneurship.

Would a self employed person collect disability benefits or creatively problem solve?

One of my favorite pastimes is people watching. In airports, train stations, the post office even hospital waiting rooms, I can entertain myself endlessly trying to figure out relationships, occupations and destinations.

Yesterday, during a two hour wait at the social security office to change my ID back to my maiden name, I had plenty of interesting characters to keep my imagination busy. People were there for numerous reasons and I’m not even going to get into the issue of “entitlement” but I’ll likely make some enemies with what I have to say regardless.

It was easy to tell who was there for what purpose because you went to a different “specialist” for each issue. The group that really got my attention was the line of disability benefit seekers.  Watching these people take their turns at the window, I didn’t spot anyone who appeared to be disabled. There were no apparent physical limitations. I understand that there are many “invisible” disabilities. (I have a couple of those myself: I faint when I stand still and the medication for that sometimes affects my ability to find words. But I have never considered myself “disabled”.) Of the seemingly healthy people at the disability benefits window, I’m sure there are some with carpal tunnel who are collecting benefits because it’s painful to type or scan groceries or do whatever repetitive task they did at their previous job. And some of those disability seekers probably suffer pain from back or shoulder or knee injuries that make doing their job difficult or impossible. But is there really no other way they can earn a living?

I’m sorry if I offend someone, but I just don’t understand why when a blind man can run a business by speaking into a computer with software that costs less than $100. and a paraplegic can teach kids to ride horses, someone with an injury can’t find another means of making income. And I wonder, how much of this disability mindset is employee mentality. If these same people were self employed, would they be collecting disability or would they be creative problem solvers and find another way to accomplish what needed to be done? If they had a business that involved standing all day and they could no longer stand, would they find a way to do it on a tall stool? If their business required hours at the keyboard, would a wrist injury stop them or would find a way to voice record and get transcripts?

My friend Joe is a sculptor who lost most of his dominant thumb to melanoma. He could have decided he could no longer make a living and collect disability but because he is self employed, he relearned how to use his hands to do his craft. I believe he would have used his feet if he had to because the self employed learn to be resourceful.

As I watched these people line up to file for disability benefits, I wondered if they were offered free consulting to help them create a way to make a living without using their injured body part, how many of them would take on the challenge and how many would opt to just continue seeing themselves as disabled and collect checks.

I hope that I will never consider myself disabled unless I I am unable to use my brain. Please don’t take offense if you are disabled but if I offered you a consult to figure out how you can make a living another way, would you take me up on it? If you or someone you know is disabled and making a living in a new way, do share in the comments below, please.

Design your own best MBA

Yesterday I had breakfast with a college freshman. He wanted my advise on what to major in since he wants to open a retail business. His parents both have post grad degrees and he wondered if he should plan on doing an MBA. After asking him more about the kind of business he hoped to start, I advised him to major in English or Communications and take courses that interested him rather than classes that had anything to do with business. The look on his face was disbelief. “You mean I shouldn’t even do my bachelor’s degree in business?” he asked. I told him that unless he wants to get a job in a large corporation and spend his life climbing the ladder, he should look at college as a time to learn about people and study cultures and trends and anything else he finds fascinating. Then I told him that the most important thing he can do to prepare for starting any business is to go to work for a few businesses that interest him and study them like he was cramming for a final.

I advised him to work during college for a few businesses similar to what he wants to start, note everything that works in the business and most importantly, LISTEN to the customers and pay attention to what they like and what they don’t because his greatest lessons will come from observing how he can improve on what’s already being done in the industry.

I feel confident steering him in this direction based on my own experience over the past 35 years and that of other successful entrepreneurs. Probably more important is that I’ve watched too many business majors graduate with no practical knowledge or real world experience applicable to starting a business.

This was never more clear to me than several years ago when I sold a business to a retired college professor.  The first time we went on a buying trip, he turned to me and said, “Terri, I spent 40 years turning out MBAs and I just realized I don’t know the first thing about running a small business.” Everything he knew and taught in college was strictly theory.

My father on the other hand had to leave school at 14 and peddled fruit from a cart to support his widowed mother and younger siblings. After serving in WW2, he went to work for a few different companies selling products door to door for a commission. No salary. The knowledge he gained from that experience was more valuable than an MBA because earning a living meant really listening to what people wanted and understanding the mindset of his customer. True, he wouldn’t have been hired by a fortune 500 company but he did go on to start and operate several successful companies based on serving the needs of the average working class American. By observing the buying patterns and thought processes of his customers, he figured out what worked and what he could improve on.

If you’re 18, don’t go to college to get a job. Go to college to learn about whatever interests you because that is what will ignite the passion you’ll need to be fired up for success. Get a job working in businesses that intrigue you and study them like they were your masters thesis.  If you are midlife or later and laid off, retired or re-careering don’t spend the time and money going back for an MBA unless you want to work in a large corporation. If you want to start your own business, I urge you to go to work for a short while for businesses that interest you and listen to the customers or clients about what they like, what they don’t and what they would like to see different. Take what you’ve learned and make it better.

Your assignment for success:

Research the industry that interests you.

Select a couple of those businesses and get hired on in any position you can.

Observe. Ask questions.  Listen. Listen. Listen.

Now, ask yourself what you can do to better meet the customers’ needs and get started. Do it better.

You’ve earned something more valuable than an MBA.

How will your business grow? By replicating what’s working or creating a community of complimentary businesses?

Recent conversations with clients and friends about how they can add additional revenue started me thinking about how we traditionally grow our companies.

When my partner and I had success with our first home furnishings business in Tucson, we knew the easiest way to expand would be to replicate this model in other cities. It never occurred to us to open other, complimentary stores in the same city.  Duplicating our flagship store made sourcing, merchandising, marketing and managing simpler and the lessons gained from our early mistakes benefited each of our next sixteen locations. Expansion was formulaic and systematic. It worked well financially and, for awhile, personally. It served my need to explore new places and meet new people. My restless nature was satisfied by several moves to new geography in the service of expansion, but eventually I became bored and needed new challenges.

I now view expansion possibilities differently. I could have stayed in the first location and grown the business by capitalizing on reputation and an existing clientele, offering the same customer group other complimentary products and services.

The food service industry is a good example. Restauranteurs most frequently grow by replicating their first business in multiple cities. Occasionally, we see one person or company open numerous but diverse restaurants in the same area. One of my favorites is a group in Carmel, Ca who own an Irish chowder house, a seafood and steak grill, a Greek cafe and a couple of Italian bistros all within a few blocks. They cross market to customers, offering coupons at each restaurant for discounts at their other locations. While the menus are different, they can share staff and have the advantages of using local vendors. This model of creating a community of businesses in one area based on an existing reputation and customer base works for brick and mortar as well as virtual enterprise.

Because many of you have online businesses rather than brick and mortar, let’s look at how you can use this method of expansion. If we’ve worked together, I may have suggested at some point that you leverage your knowledge and boost your income by replicating and repurposing what you do. In other words, let’s say you teach a metalworking class. I’ve probably encouraged you to record your lessons and sell them as a home-study tutorial. Using the model of capitalizing on your existing business, you might also think of selling some jewelry making supplies, kits and possibly even doing some affiliate marketing of complimentary materials or classes.

How can YOU create a community of businesses that cater to the clientele you already have? What other products or services can you offer to meet the needs of your existing customers? Can you align yourself with other business owners who already serve your ideal customer and provide complementary services?

AS always, your comments below are welcome and appreciated.

Recognizing a Royal Business Opportunity

Over the weekend I read about a young American woman who started a Princess Boot Camp for little girls in London. The upcoming royal wedding has sparked a new generation of Kate Middleton wannabes who dream of capturing the hearts of their own prince. Jerramy Fine, long enamored with everything British, recognized a great entrepreneurial opportunity and started Princess Prep to teach young girls the proper way to take tea, curtsey and behave appropriately in front of the queen. For $4000. a week, these aspiring princesses learn proper British etiquette.

I’m always impressed to see an innovative entrepreneur spot a trend or current event as a profitable business opportunity, particularly when it’s around such a simple concept.

What current events or trends can you think of that might spark an idea for a business opportunity?