Imagine the stereotypical Artist. (I know we are not to stereotype people. But humor me for a moment.) Most people imagine a person that dresses in a certain way, talks a certain way, and hangs out in creative spaces with inspiring, smart, and creative people, right? Now picture the stereotypical entrepreneur. This person also dresses in a certain way, talks in a certain way, and hangs out in creative spaces with other inspiring, smart, and creative people. Not much difference, huh? True artists and entrepreneurs both want to make the world a better place. They both desire to make something that gets people talking, and to use their gifts and abilities to create something beautiful.

The difference between the two disciplines is trivial. Small business is indeed an art form. Since Art is hard to define, small business as an art form is also hard to peg. Is it art? Or is it not? It is a fine question to answer.

Years ago, my husband and I visited a local hotel for a celebration weekend. The proprietor was an unabashed art collector, and the hotel leaned more toward art gallery with a splash of hospitality on the side. This particular weekend, we were in the Japanese room. Center stage was a canvas that filled an entire wall, featuring a dynamic winter scene of golden trees in snowy drifts. You have, I am sure, experienced such a day, whether you noticed the beauty or not: the sun splintering across the snow, illuminating the trunks and branches of the trees in an eerie evening light. It is hard to describe what it was like to live in the presence of that painting for a weekend. We will just call it sublime. Years later, traveling again, I caught sight of another painting, and instantly recognized it as being the work of the same artist. How I knew this was his work was subliminal. But I knew that I knew. The painting shouted his name at me from across the room. I had not thought about this artist since the hotel visit. The recognizability of his style mowed me over. This time I searched him out. His name is Makoto Fujimura. Mr. Fujimura currently lives and works in New York, and his art form is a contemporary twist on an ancient Japanese art form called Nihonga. We love his style, his methodology, and his philosophy. All are completely original and totally his own.

Does everyone like Makoto Fujimura’s art? No. Maybe you do not like it. (Check out the link above.) Some people may even hate it. That is ok. He is not out to sell his paintings to everyone. But the people who love them, really love them, and are willing to pay.

All this is true for the Artistic Small Business. Not everyone will like what you have to sell. Once your business has found its sweet spot, you will have a clarity of style that can be recognized for what it is. If you are truly doing business as an art, you will have a voice all your own that is not easily duplicated by anyone. Not everyone will love it, but that is good, because it means you have finally developed a style of your very own. You will create an expectation of this style, and attract the people that are most likely to buy, because they are crazy about your work and will come back for more. The sheer originality of your work will launch a thousand conversations everywhere you go. People will search you out and seek a way to connect with you. And being the thinking entrepreneur that you are, you will have already developed a place and a way to connect with them.

We all know what Art is not. True art is never a rubber stamp reproduction of stuff that has already been made. And it is never boring. True art is an Original with a capital O, and surprisingly so. It gives expression to something larger than itself, and it makes everyone want to talk about it.

Isn’t that what you want in your Small business? All this month we will be talking about doing business as an art form. Tune in and harness the power of art for your small business.

It isn’t what you have to say. It is how you say it. That is the power of Art.

They don’t call it a launch for nothing! On opening day of any Startup, there is usually enough palpable energy inside any small business to blow the doors wide open. No need to unlock them. With the soft open, the ribbon cutting, the hearty congrats and warm wishes all around, the anticipation alone can energize several months.

Starting a business is very much like starting a vineyard–so fresh and full of hope. Every ray of sun beams for you. Every idea holds the promise of ultimate destiny.

Prepared business owners do their utmost to dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t’. You have your dynamic business idea. Check. You have done your homework, made your plan, and have prepared the soil for success. Check, check, and check.

Now what? Do you just sit back and just watch your business grow?

It is always a surprise to small business owners that this becoming is harder than it seems. Most new entrepreneurs imagine that they will eventually get to the point where they can stop working so hard and coast a while. Not on your life.The creative work of growing is never really over. The day in and day out management of the vineyard of your business is very hard work. Not only do you need to produce fruit, (which is hard enough), but you need to produce it differently. The last thing the world needs is another cheap bottle of wine. You must create a product that makes people sit up and take notice.

What is the catalyst that helps a business to age to perfection? I have got a secret for you. It is not what you are expecting. Get ready.

Dung. Yes, there is nothing like a pile of crap to produce the largest fruit.

Sorry.

Yes, stuff happens.The day to day operation of our business is the ultimate litmus test to reveal the strength of our preparation. Stuff never happens like the textbooks say it will happen. If we have done our planning well, we will have already avoided a few potential mistakes. It is a great advantage for any Startup to ace these preliminary tests, because that reserves our energy to battle issues that no one could ever anticipate. And there are always issues that no one could ever anticipate. Ready or not, and like it or not, here they come.

Problems are the soil improvements in the vineyard of your business. As individuals, every problem provides a choice to become bitter or better. As a business, every problem is an opportunity to gripe or grow. Sure too much dung and the fruit is burned. (That is why you need to avoid as many problems as you can!) But too little dung results in weak growth, and loss of potential.How we view the can ‘o worms makes all the difference. Stop looking at your problems as if Capitalism is out to get you. When life hands you dung, make fertilizer.

The shift can happen! Not only can problems strengthen and prepare you for new opportunities, but dung has already proven its potential to produce a bumper crop.

Here’s to enjoying the fruit of your labors. Clink.

Last week, we talked about small business as a seed. Seeds are power packs of potential. They anxiously await opportunity to do what seeds have always done: to burst open, reach for the sun, grow deep, to bloom and become. New plants are both beautiful and vulnerable.

Starting a business is also a beautiful and vulnerable thing. Growing a business is perilous, and fraught with danger on every side. It is so treacherous that many businesses perish in the process. Good gardeners put four seeds in the same hole when we plant our gardens, knowing that three may perish. (If they all grow, we have the luxury of choosing the strongest plant!) And yet, many business owners begin with only one plan, even where the stakes are much higher.

Half of startups fail within the first five years. Half of those fail in the second five years, leaving only a quarter of the original number. With these odds, you would think that entrepreneurs would do everything in their power to foresee and eliminate as many problems as possible. But alas they do not. They are so excited to start businesses that they bolt out of the ground, growing up– but not deep. It is critical to prepare and support your business with knowledge before you begin. Every ounce of preparation returns a stronger business.

Years ago my parents and siblings decided to try their hand at wine making. Beautiful vineyards do not happen by accident. The preparation, the tending, and the nurturing can encompass many years of labor. If you know anything about growing grapes, you know you cannot plant any ol’ grape any ol’ way you like, and expect to get a terrific glass of wine. It takes what it takes. You cannot ignore the sun, the location, the soil, the trellis, the pruning, and expect to get good wine. The preparation is so essential that if you are not willing to do the work, you might as well not plant a vineyard at all.

So with the vision of a specific glass of red wine in their mind’s eye, my family planned a vineyard, well in advance of planting the actual vineyard. They chose the grape variety. They prepared the soil. They dug post holes and placed them in cement to hold the weight of the fruit. They chose the trellis method. They strung two sets of wires to create what is called a four-arm Kniffen, (which looks a bit like a letter “T” with two top strokes). Next they planted the vines, watered, weeded, and waited. They trained and pruned and corrected the vines into shape over the next few years. (If you want to encourage grape production, what you cut off the vine is just as important as what you keep.) Then they waited. And they waited some more for mature and consistent grapes. Even after all that work, they still were not happy with the wine. All this–just for a hobby.

When your livelihood depends on your small business, it is just as important to invest as much and more effort preparing your businesses to thrive. Begin with the end in mind. Know what you are creating, and why. Know who the work is for, and where you can best serve that person. Know what to cut, and what to keep. Create, train, and correct your systems to produce the perfect result for that specific person in mind. Find mentors to guide and direct. If you are not willing to do what it takes, you might as well not do it at all.

What are you hoping to make happen through your business? Who are you doing it for? Many business owners begin business with the all-encompassing goal to make a lot of money. While a business must make a profit, in all honesty, the goal of profit alone will not sustain your endeavor. If you are starting a business right now, please stop and consider how you might make a difference in the lives of the customers you serve. Give them an indisputable reason to raise their glass and toast your success. You will then find a renewable supply of work, and profit will result.

Here’s to making a difference. Clink.

I can think of few activities that are more filled with hope than planting a garden. Seeds are the weirdest little things. They are little power packs of potential. They come in all shapes and sizes and transform themselves into all shapes and sizes and varieties of life. When we buy a little packet of seeds at the garden center, we rarely imagine we have just purchased a little bag of miracles. But that is exactly what they are. How a seed can lie dormant for so long, and then under the right conditions, transform itself into something completely different, few can understand. It grows into all it was destined to be, just as all seeds have been doing for a hundred million years. We take them so for granted, deeming them a common everyday variety sort of miracle. But there are no common miracles.

Startups are the seeds of our economy. Entrepreneurs are also little power packs full of potential. They are also are a far cry in the beginning from what they will become in the end. Yet it is no less a miracle of transformation, and it is not common. Subject an entrepreneur to the right environmental conditions, and they will also become all they were destined to be. The only difference between a seed and an entrepreneur is that the seed knows what it is supposed to be right from the start. Entrepreneurs are not as fortunate. How nice it would be if we were all dropped out of the package with a picture on the front, showing us what we are supposed to look like in the end. Instead, small businesses are formed on the fly. We may have an imaginary picture in our heads, but reality is very different. We are formed partly by our intent, partly by the environment, and partly by the feedback. It is a surprise to many small business owners that the creative work of growing is never really over. Healthy small businesses are always transforming. The successful Small Business is always a work in progress, and the road to success is never a straight line. The trick is to remain flexible. Small business owners who roll with the change and use it to innovate, transform themselves into something they never dreamed they could be.

Is your small business still in the seed stage? Do not assume that the outcome will be exactly as shown on the outside of your seed packet. And do not be taken back if the environment is not as welcoming as you had hoped. Remember some seeds only germinate in the aftermath of forest fires. Our future should be flexible enough to be transformed by market conditions, by our customers, and by our environment. The flexible entrepreneur will benefit under pressure and will be better prepared to transform these pressures into opportunities, making their business stronger and better than originally planned.

Go ahead and envision the oak in your acorn. It is an excellent and hopeful thing to do. But should the environment not take you there, do not be afraid to become a different kind of tree. It may be a better one than you originally planted.

We have two stories left to tell. Like the rest of the Complex Characters of Capitalism, these two are also real people, though we have obviously changed their names. We have purposely saved the best for last, as these two are the cream of the crop. The V.I.E.’s. (Very Important Entrepreneur). They are our customers, and they have inspired us as we have watched them through the years. You might say they are role models for the rest of us.

Meet Sarah Bellum. Sarah has always been crazy about ice cream. As a young girl, she dreamed of owning her very own ice cream parlor. Though she was successful in her career in the hospitality industry, the dream constantly resurfaced in the back of her mind. When the opportunity arose to make it a reality, she dove in full speed ahead. But Sarah did not quit her day job just yet. In fact, she spent two years writing her business plan, researching the market, and putting her ducks in a row. (If you know anything about ducks? They rarely form a voluntary line). Next she sought out retired mentors from the industry and enlisted their help in preparing and reviewing her plan. They worked like Willy Wonka scientists to create unique recipes, (white lab coats and everthing), and conducted elaborate taste tests to ensure they had thee best homemade ice cream on the planet. She then developed a rock solid marketing and brand strategy to make sure it represented her vision well. When opening day finally arrived, her business was so well managed and so well branded that people asked if she were a franchisee- the finest compliment she could ever get. She continues to innovate, to expand her menu with new flavors, adding a fundraising program, and introducing her brand into grocery stores. Nothing about her business is anything short of outstanding. Passion plus preparation were key.

Meet Vic Torious. Vic is a master builder. Not only has Vic built a successful company that provides industrial services to cities, but he has a stellar reputation inside and out. What is different about Vic is that he lives what he believes. His very behavior is an expression of his brand and his culture. His company values are who he is as a person.

Walking into the office for a meeting, he stops to pull a weed from the sidewalk. He wants everything, even the lawn, to reflect the kind of work his customer can expect at the worksite. He sees the landscaper across the lawn and treats him with the same respect as the VP. Because he has taken the time to build systems into his business, he is rarely flustered. He has ultimate confidence in those he has entrusted with those systems. He can leave for a month-long vacation at the drop of a hat, knowing everything will be in fine shape when he returns. Vic knows how to grow people. He takes interest in each employee as a person, frequently connecting them with other people who can enrich their lives and build their skills, making them even more valuable to him in the workplace.

Although we have given them funny names, Sarah Bellum or Vic Torious are serious contenders in free enterprise. While their stories are almost intimidating, it is not beyond any entrepreneur to learn how to manage his or her business in the same way. The point of all these stories is to realize your mindset and personality play into your businesses, for good or for bad. The pressures in our day to day business affairs will reveal what kind of manager you are.

Want to be a Sarah or a Vic? Seek out your own inspiring mentors. Invite them for coffee and ask if they would be willing to let you to learn from them. Often, the answer is yes. It takes courage to bring your business to the next level, but small business has a way of bringing out the best in everyone. You as a business owner have something to offer the world. The challenge is yours to become the best you can be.

If you missed any of the stories of the Complex Characters of Capitalism, you can find them here:

Adam Baum- I can only afford to do it all myself.

Alan Rench- No one will ever do it as well as I can.

Bill Bored- It’s so much easier to work if you don’t take it so seriously.

Frank Sanbeans- I’m setting the bar low enough so I can achieve all my goals!

Paris Stroika- If you know what’s good for you, you’ll do what I say.

Aunt Mona Lott- Oh, you poor little entrepreneur!

Rick O’Shea- All of this branding mumbo jumbo is just a waste of money.

Les Waite- We’ll wait to Brand till we’ve made some real money.

Owen Cash- I have no idea where all my money went.

Dwayne Pipes- I’m not out of money until I’m out of checks.

Andy Prayed- Spray and Pray is my favorite marketing method.

Bunson Berner- I am going to do research until I am sure sure sure this will work.

Jack Potts- I don’t care how I got all this money- I’m running with it!

Alma Knack- I’m well read, and I already know how to do that.

Sarah Bellum- I’m living the dream!

Vic Torious- I’m living what I believe!

In small business, happiness is positive cash flow.

Meet Owen. He doesn’t have that. One indicator that his cash situation was getting dire was when he was tempted to rob the first dollar he had ever made out of the frame on the wall.

Owen plainly admits he has never liked numbers or paperwork. Now that he is knee deep into business, he is afraid to admit to anyone that he has never understood his monthly financial statements. He knows he is supposed to be watching key business numbers. But Owen is not sure which numbers they are. Therefore, he does not know what he needs to know, nor when he needs to know it. He spends a great deal of time staring at numbers that he cannot effect, and misses the numbers that are making all the difference. And so he is always chasing his tail. (The only numbers you need to watch are the ones you can effect.) Since Owen is committed to making his business work, he concludes the solution to his cash flow problems is simply to work harder. He is working very hard and getting very tired.

Owen is under duress of the #1 small business killer: poor cash flow. He does not know how to fix it.

Owen believes he can wear all the hats and still keep all the balls in the air. But the faster you can admit that you are not good at something, the sooner you will find help and the faster your situation will improve. Even the best entrepreneur will experience cash flow problems at some point. It takes time to learn how cash flow works in your particular industry. Find a mentor or an accountant that is willing to sit down with you and listen to the particulars about your business. They can help you to figure out your magic metrics, and help you simplify the reporting.

Why would we, a marketing and advertising company, spend time talking about cash flow? When a guy looks as stressed as Owen, you can guarantee his face is not doing a thing for his sales figures. Improving your cash flow improves your smile. Genuine smiles improve your sales. Conclusion? Smiles are the easiest marketing tactic ever.

We want to put the smile in your business. Not only will it help your sales, but creativity and innovation wither without the sunshine of fun.

So, are you having fun yet?

Winning is only half of it. Having fun is the other half.– Bum Phillips

Meet Owen’s Cousin: Dwayne Pipes

Did you know you can have decent cash flow, but not be making any money? You can. Meet Dwayne Pipes. He is Owen Cash’s cousin. Dwayne has positive cash flow, and it makes him very happy indeed. Unfortunately, like Owen, Dwayne does not know how to read an income statement or balance sheet, nor does he have a strategy for managing cash. All he knows is, right now? He has an ear worm. It is “We’re In The Money”. It feels good to whistle that song.

If you asked Dwayne why he started his business, he would give you a hundred socially acceptable reasons. But in a private conversations, it is evident he is driven for different reasons. Dwayne’s main motivation to be an entrepreneur was to compete with his older brother. Dwayne was able to disappoint his Dad just by being himself. His older brother got all the strokes. “If you had just gone into computers like your brother! Just look at the car he drives!” Admittedly, his brother’s hard work was paying off. Dwayne knew the only way he would ever measure up in his Dad’s eyes was to make more money than his brother. Now with cash in hand, he has a chance to prove his mettle. By buying some metal. A beautiful, brand new, cherry red truck. At least he will look successful.

Cash flow is all about timing. Every business has their own private moon. Just like the moon’s gravitational pull on the Earth’s tides, your unique sales cycles creates an ebb and flow on your holding tank of cash. These transactions raise and lower your cash levels, sometimes with rhythmic predictability. Sometimes, it is not predictable, and a business owner must search out the key numbers to find out. Either way, predictable or not, new entrepreneurs need to learn how to read their own cash statements. If Dwayne were watching his numbers, he would know that the tide was soon to recede, and in a big way. He does not know he is about to be carried out to sea.

Because of hidden costs of doing business and varied sales cycles, it can be difficult for any new entrepreneur to know for sure just how much profit he or she is making. Dwayne is draining the business of critical operating cash. Even if he were sure he was making a profit, it does not mean he should spend the cash. Operating a business and sustaining a business are two very different things. If there is anything you can expect in small business, it is the unexpected.

Cash flow and profit are also two very different things. It may seem quite strange that we, a company devoted to helping entrepreneurs think like marketers, would spend so much time talking about cash flow. Let’s just say we know how important color is to business. If we could pick any color for you, we would keep you in the black, because we profit when you do.

Cash flow. Its the new black.

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In the 26 years that we have been helping small companies with their marketing and advertising, we have seen almost every kind of difficulty one can imagine. Throughout this month, we are sharing some of the most common problems using fictitious characters in a humorous way. While all of the details in these stories are true, the names have been changed, to protect the guilty. Should any of the stories sound familiar, it is our desire that they would help steer you around some pitfalls. Stay tuned for more Complex Characters of Capitalism.

Meet Rick O’Shea

Rick is a fine, hard-working Entrepreneur. He has always lived and worked in the same small town, and everyone loves him. Though Rick has been in business for quite some time, he confesses his business has never gotten over the proverbial hump.

Still, Rick does not want to advertise. He has tried so many different things, and he cannot make it work. “All this mumbo jumbo about branding is just a way for advertisers to take the money out of my pocket and put it in theirs”, he says. “I just need to focus on making a profit.” So Rick creates his own advertising. He is convinced he has “saved a lot of cash” through the years. Maybe. But probably not. Because no one can remember his company name or remember what he does. And if they do remember him, it is for all the wrong reasons.

Rick’s business is fashion challenged. Because he has never defined his brand, nothing is consistent, and nothing matches. Every new advertising effort is like starting over, with no fighting chance to build momentum. He is a bit like the kid in your junior high that was perpetually out of style, and yet no one wanted to be the one to tell him. He tries this color and then that color in his brochures, this style and then this design. If Rick O Shea is leaving any perception, it is not impressive. His business does not come up top of mind. His business Rick O Shea’s off the top of everyone’s mind.

Rick’s poor ROI from his efforts only cements his belief that advertising does not work. Rick is not short on competition, and the only way he knows to bring in more sales is to lower his prices. Which results in less profit. Which results in less profit to reinvest in branding. It becomes a vicious cycle.

Humans are pattern-seeking animals. Our memories are trained by the consistency of these patterns. The best thing you can do to make your small business memorable is to represent your brand consistently.

Perceptions are reality. Perceptions drive sales. Unmanaged perceptions are replaced with debilitating assumptions. If you have never bothered with Brand, you cannot expect your company name to be branded into anyone’s memory. You will be just so forgettable. If I remember correctly, that is the flip side Nat King Cole’s Unforgettable. Can you hear it?

So forgettable

That’s what you are

So forgettable

Though near or far

That’s why darling

It’s incredible

That someone that’s so forgettable,

Thinks they should be

Unforgettable too.

Rick falsely believes that when advertising yields nothing, it is advertising’s fault. Wouldn’t you like to be memorable? Consistency in representing your brand and your visual voice may be your chance for a hit record.

Meet Les Waite

Les is Rick O-Shea’s cousin. Les is not one to deny the power of brand. He is serious about business and knows it is as valuable as any other asset that appears long-term asset on his balance sheet. But like Adam Baum, Les desires to bootstrap. He plans to do Brand later when he has earned a profit.

Les’s thinking reveals two common misconceptions about Branding.

First, he believes it takes a great deal of money to create a brand. He is correct in believing that any valuable business asset requires some investment. But what he does not know is that initially, a brand culture and a brand personality are simply a series of strategic choices, and cost you nothing but time. Defining your brand will help you structure your customer service to deliver a consistent customer experience. When your customer knows what they can expect, they will keep coming back. That sort of investment has a solid ROI.

The second misconception: Les thinks that a Brand is something he will do later. In reality, Les already has a brand. Because he thinks he is waiting to do it LATER, he is not thinking about how it is coming across NOW. Les’s Brand NOW is akin to a plain paper sack. He’s a no-label company. He does not even have a “thank you have a nice day” printed on his sack. We might conclude he is a green business because it is a paper sack and not a plastic sack. Is he green or isn’t he green? No one knows for sure. No one knows what he stands for, or what he believes in, or why he does what he does. He is attractive to no one–especially not his ideal client.

What Les is losing in opportunity cost is costing him exponentially more than if he invested in a good Brand model and a good identity design in the first place. With a clear message, he could be resonating with his ideal customer and in a way that they would understand.

Unless the stars perfectly align, unless his hair is parted correctly every day for many months, and unless he repeats several Hail Mary’s per day, it is a crap shoot that he will ever find enough profit to become a real brand.

Without a real brand identity, you may know what you are doing, but no one else does. Become an intentional brand, and every advertising effort will build exponentially.

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In the 26 years that we have been helping small companies with their marketing and advertising, we have seen almost every kind of difficulty one can imagine. Throughout this month, we are sharing some of the most common problems using fictitious characters in a humorous way. While all of the details in these stories are true, the names have been changed, to protect the guilty. Should any of the stories sound familiar, it is our desire that they would help steer you around some pitfalls. Stay tuned for more Complex Characters of Capitalism.

Business owners know these kinds of Mondays happen to everyone. But you were not prepared for this one. Only hour into the day, your main assistant calls in sick. Next, a shipment arrives for a hot project that is due tomorrow. Not only is the product not what you ordered, but the replacement product is three days away. So you send the production crew off for the day, only to find out that the truck will not start. You discover that no one has checked the oil in that truck for months, and most likely the engine is fried. Next you get the mail and discover you forgot to pay your federal taxes on time. The fine just sucked the rest of the profit from your entire month.  You do what every self-respecting entrepreneur would do.

You have a hissy fit.

But never fear. Here comes Aunt Mona Lott. Like Paris Stroika, she is another family member that is holding you back–just in a very specious way. She keeps you from achieving your best by the very thing she does best: sympathy. Her sympathy oozes from her every pore, she strokes your ego and soothes your every frustration. There there there, days like this should never happen to you. She reminds you how very smart you are, and that you are suffering for other people’s mistakes. The mean ol’ world is simply out to get you. None of this is your fault. Stamping her foot in your honor, she convinces you that you are the victim of stupid people.

These kinds of days do indeed happen to every entrepreneur. After the standard hissy fit, you have two responses:

You can choose to accept Aunt Mona Lott’s sympathy. Not recommended. Aunt Mona Lott keeps you in victim mode, and living forever in Crisis Town. If you listen to her, you will miss one of the most important opportunities in the life of your business–the opportunity to turn a really bad day into some really good days later.

Your second choice is to stop pointing fingers and become a leader. Sure, as the song says, some days are diamonds and others are rocks. But every bad day is an opportunity to build a system to ensure that these problems will never happen again.

Stop passing the buck and take ownership of your business. Seek and annihilate the recurring monkey on your back by converting them into fool-proof systems. Because what is really stupid is to experience the same monkey over and over and do nothing to get rid of it.

Ah, the power of a bad day! This kind of pressure can turn your rocks into diamonds.

In the 26 years that we have been helping small companies with their marketing and advertising, we have seen almost every kind of difficulty one can imagine. Throughout this month, we are sharing some of the most common problems using fictitious characters in a humorous way. While all of the details in these stories are true, the names have been changed, to protect the guilty. Should any of the stories sound familiar, it is our desire that they would help steer you around some pitfalls. Stay tuned for more Complex Characters of Capitalism.

Did you know that your tolerance for risk affects the way you do business?

Meet Andy Prayed and Bunsen Berner:

Everyone knows a guy like Andy. We could say he has an optimism bias. He was always the guy in school that would try things that no other kid would try, which were usually accompanied by an abnormally high dose of optimism that things would turn out better than they actually did. He always leaped before he looked. He runs his business the same way. For marketing, he is fond of the spray and pray method. Oh we are not discouraging prayer. Praying about your business is good. Our theology is not very deep here, but it is our guess is that God would prefer not to be used as a last resort. Andy gets distracted by every shiny new marketing gimmick–each one extracting a chunk of his cash and time. Take Social Media, for example. Andy likes the free advertising, so he tries to be on as many platforms as he can. While social media is a powerful tool, he does not know why he is there. All that power at his fingertips that never shifts into gear. His advertising is costing him big time as it fails to engage.

Bunsen Berner is on the complete opposite of the spectrum. Bunsen does not do risk. Prior to any effort, especially one involving cash, he goes into his laboratory and seeks to determine the outcome with scientific accuracy. With white papers and spreadsheets, he researches all possible outcomes and scenarios. His research takes so long, that the window of opportunity often closes before Bunsen has made a move. Because the possibility exists that he could lose money with any advertising effort, Bunsen rarely tries anything. As a result, customers rarely know his name.

If I were to err on either side, I would be in Andy’s corner. At least he knows he needs to advertize and is willing to take a risk. But the best avenue, of course, is a balance of both. If you are averse to risk taking, practice taking little risks on little things. Get use to it, and then branch into bigger things. And if you are an Andy, make sure all your tactics are working towards a consistent overarching strategy.

Transform your Ready-Shoot-Aim efforts, into Ready-Aim-Shoot efforts, with strategy. It makes all the difference.

In the 26 years that we have been helping small companies with their marketing and advertising, we have seen almost every kind of difficulty one can imagine. Throughout this month, we are sharing some of the most common problems using fictitious characters in a humorous way. While all of the details in these stories are true, the names have been changed, to protect the guilty. Should any of the stories sound familiar, it is our desire that they would help steer you around some pitfalls. Stay tuned for more Complex Characters of Capitalism.

Mixing family with business unearths a whole new set of small business concerns. It doesn’t have to be like mixing oil and water. Nevertheless, it can add a very challenging dynamic to any small business. (If you do not own a family business, you can stop reading now. Some of these problems will have never crossed your mind.)

Several years ago, we were helping a small family business with their marketing and graphics. Part of our recommendation included a change in their logo. It was causing misperceptions. “No, we can’t change the logo,” the owner responded, “because my Mother-In-Law designed that.” Further conversations identified the owner as figurehead. Meet Paris Stroika. She called the shots. If you married Paris’s kid, Paris was your first and biggest business problem. Paris’s biggest concern is not the health of your business. This mama bear was on a bender to protect her baby from any peril. During the busy months, she went so far as to speak rudely to clients in the office. She desired to protect her child from “all those demanding customers” that were making her baby work so much overtime. Her intimidation ranged from strong hints to unsolicited advice to applying emotional embargos. “If you know what is good for you,” was the silent propaganda.

Unfortunately, Paris was not on the payroll, so they could not fire her.

Family power plays can hold a business hostage. These are serious challenges for any small business. If you are only making business decisions to keep peace in the family, you don’t have a real business. Will the real leader please stand up?

This is why we love small business. It is breakdown before breakthrough. You should not have to choose between a healthy business and a happy family. Pressures like this can be the catalyst to transform passive people into leaders. Resolving these pressures can even improve a marriage. Small business becomes a platform for personal and professional development.

If you are experiencing such problems in your business, seek an experienced coach or a mentor to help you navigate difficult family dynamics, and to bolster your courage and honesty. They can help you open up the communication and draw clear boundaries between business and personal relationships. The ties that bind can once again become a blessing instead of a straight-jacket. And your business will be free to become all it can be.

In the 26 years that we have been helping small companies with their marketing and advertising, we have seen almost every kind of difficulty one can imagine. Throughout this month, we are sharing some of the most common problems using fictitious characters in a humorous way. While all of the details in these stories are true, the names have been changed, to protect the guilty. Should any of the stories sound familiar, it is our desire that they would help steer you around some pitfalls. Stay tuned for more Complex Characters of Capitalism.