Women’s History Month Tribute to Pioneering Entrepreneur: My Mother!
Every year during Women’s History Month, my thoughts turn to my mother. Why? Because my mom was a pioneer in the field of women business ownership. Mom became an entrepreneur at the end of World War II which was unheard of in those days. The war left her a young widow, and she was determined to provide for herself. Partnering with her brother who was just returning from the war, they pooled their resources and opened a furniture store in a rural Missouri town. I’ve heard many great stories about my mother’s ability to sell! She was a dynamo, and the business thrived as a result. Then, Cupid’s arrow struck again when my mother met the man who became her second husband, my father. Dad worked in a town about 60 miles away from where my mother lived so when they got married, mom sold her interest in the furniture store and moved to the town where dad was employed. Being a traditional wife didn’t appeal to my mom. So she found a business to buy – a children’s clothing store – which became Wilson’s Tot Shop. Her timing was interesting given the fact my birth was only months away. Her success with the children’s shop mirrored what she had enjoyed in the furniture business, and she expanded adding women’s clothing, gifts and dry goods. With no business or marketing education, she inherently knew how to build her customer base. The front page of an old local newspaper shows a picture of my mother in her shop with a package ready to ship to Queen Elizabeth as a gift for the newly born Prince Andrew. She knew how to get the press! As Dad watched my mother’s business grow, the entrepreneurial bug bit him. Employed as a funeral director at one of the town’s well-established funeral homes, he decided it was time to strike out on his own. So in 1963, my mom and dad became business partners and founded Wilson Funeral Home. Together they made a great team. Mom ran the business operations and my Dad had an admirable ability to build strong customer relationships. Some people believed they’d never make it to Heaven unless my Dad took care of their final arrangements. For a few years, mom tried to juggle the clothing store and the funeral home, but it became too much so she sold the clothing store. Because of their professionalism and commitment to the community, my parent’s business prospered, and they eventually succeeded in acquiring both of their competitors. They sold the business it in 1999 Mom passed away in 2001 with Alzheimer’s. My biggest regret is never spending time with her learning what it was like to be a woman business owner in the “June Clever” era. Despite the challenges and discrimination I know she dealt with she managed to succeed. And when I start to think life isn’t fair, all I have to do is stop to think about my mom who did it without the resources women business owners have today. I love to hear the stories people share with me about her courage and leadership. The former high school band teacher told me my mother single-handedly raised $20,000 to purchase new band uniforms. A local hair stylist shared the story of...
read moreCreate a Competitive Edge With the Right People
Right now, no matter the type of business you’re in, or the size of your organization, your company is at risk of becoming irrelevant. Why? Business owners and leaders get stuck in their current business models and fail to keep pace with changing markets. How do you avoid this pitfall to protect your business and maintain a competitive edge? You need to build innovation into your company’s DNA. Your business should be agile and flexible with an ability to adjust in real time. Tapping into the creativity of your company’s team is one way to help you identify new opportunities and initiatives. However, if your staff members all look the same and think the same way it’s difficult to unleash real creativity. Diversity is critical to an organization’s ability to innovate. A Harvard Business Review article notes a body of recent research that says non-homogenous teams are smarter. When you work with people who are different from you, you’re challenged to think in different ways. You shed your stale ways of thinking and are pushed out of the autopilot habits that have limited performance. We’re always talking about thinking “out of the box”; it’s impossible to do if everyone at the table thinks alike. Additionally consider this, a 2015 McKinsey report on 366 public companies found those in the top quartile for ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their industry mean, and those in the top quartile for gender diversity were 15 percent more likely to have returns above the industry mean. There is one more important element to consider in today’s changing workforce — generational diversity. Millennials (born between 1982 and 2000), now out-number Baby Boomers according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This change in demographics is having an interesting impact on the workplace. Millennials and Baby Bomers often clash when working together. Baby Boomers view Millennials as unmotivated slackers, while Millennials see Baby Boomers as rigid and out-dated. But each group can bring much to the table, learn from each other, and help your organization become more innovative and creative. The bottom line is, Millennials are the future of business. As a business leader here are some keys and benefits to building diverse,innovative organizations. Hire for life. You can’t build a great, highly performing business if you don’t make the right hiring choices from the beginning. Having the wrong people on your team comes with a significant profitability cost. Hiring team members has an associated cost known as LAC – labor acquisition cost. Your LAC can range from hundreds to thousands. A high turnover in personnel can result in significant costs and can can cripple your business – not to mention other costs such as lost opportunities, productivity, and morale.Solution? Make the right hires, and give them a reason to stay. Provide incentives for them to work hard and contribute to the company’s vision. Make employee satisfaction one of the key factors you measure in your business. Companies with a competitive edge hire for the long-term not just for an open position. They want someone who will perform well over time. Shared Values. Technical skills can be overrated. Prisons are full of criminals who are proficient technically. You can teach skills. By the time men and women...
read moreWhat are you reading? Business books to boost your success.
Today, January 23, is National Reading Day which was launched to encourage young children to read more. However, I think it’s a good time to give all of you a little nudge too. Today’s business environment is changing so rapidly that it’s nearly impossible to keep up, particularly if you aren’t exposing yourself to new ideas and thoughts. So here are a few of my recommendations to give your business a boost. One Word: The Powerful Secret to Creating a Business and Life That Matter: A great new book authored by Evan Carmichael. Carmichael challenges you to reexamine your beliefs and the way you see the world. “Some have used the ideas in this book to build multi-billion dollar businesses. I’m going to give you the surprising simple-yet-powerful formula that they used, and you can also use, to realize your dreams,” he explains. Keep it Simple: Unclutter your mind. Uncomplicate your life. Chosen as Forbes.com #1 pick of the Top Ten Business Books of 2016 is definite must read. Written by Joe Calloway, an expert in how to focus and simplify. Calloway explains by gaining clarity on what is truly most important, you can streamline your life, reduce stress, and achieve the personal and business results that you desire. More Sales. Less Time. Sales guru, Jill Konrath, takes the concept of “simple” and applies it to sales to help you ramp up your game. The book is filled with fresh strategies, actionable ideas and unique experiments to help you free up 1-2 hours daily, focus on what matters and close more sales. These are just a few of the many great business books on the market to help your success in your business. By the way, I have a new book coming in October of 2017 called THE One Percent Edge: The Key to Remaining Relevant in Today’s Changing Market. Stay tuned for more info coming soon. ...
read moreFive pros you need to recruit to your small business team
The right professional advisors help small businesses grow. I don’t think anything has changed in business over the last several years more than the relationships between business owners, employees, contractors, advisors, consultants, and freelancers. Owners are still owners, but the lines between owners and all the other professionals with whom owners work are blurring. Small business owners have for a long time “outsourced” some vital functions – for example, there’s nothing new about having an established relationship with an independent accountant. But, there are other professionals who are new to the game. Let’s look at critical professional relationships that have almost always been outsourced as well as some new independent professionals you might want to recruit to your team. Mentor or coach The wise know what they don’t know. I’m not contradicting myself here. What I want you to understand is that wisdom is recognizing the limits of your knowledge and that’s why the most successful business owners and entrepreneurs work with mentors and coaches. Taking this just a step further, you need to connect with a coach or mentor who has experience that matches your situation. If you’ve been in business for a while and are now hitting a rocky patch, you need to find someone who has “fixer” or turnaround experience. If you’re in a crazy startup mode, that requires a different individual. Even if you are a start-up and feel you’re not in a position to get an “official coach” there are dedicated websites where you can obtain advice online. For example, SCORE is an excellent resource where you can get expertise and advice for free. Manta is another community where small business owners can share ideas and expertise. I encourage you to take steps today to find the right mentor for the position you and your business are in. Until we start working with people more experienced than ourselves we don’t know what we don’t know! Accountant Unless you come from an accounting, investment, or banking background, you probably have a lot to learn about the relationship between your business and its growth to cash flow, assets, taxation, payroll, and other sundry financial issues.In a great recently published MetLife paper on this topic, they note that only about a quarter of all businesses with between 11 and 25 employees have a controller or CFO. Further, whenever the topic revolves around money, it’s critical that you work with someone that you not only trust, but with whom you are also comfortable. You need to be open, honest and frank with your finance pro, and this person needs to be the same with you. The MetLife report offered some good tips for finding a financial advisor, including: Get a few recommendations when you’re searching for an accountant, bookkeeper, or independent CFO. When you have identified candidates, give each some smaller tasks as a kind of audition to find who is the best fit for you on both professional and personal levels. Benefits advisor Benefits and their costs are critical for small businesses today because of two market forces that are at odds with each other: The tight market for top talent requires small business to offer appealing benefits packages. The competitive business climate requires small businesses to hold down costs. Those requirements aren’t mutually exclusive, but any...
read moreBig Opportunities for Small Business: Six Predictions for 2017
Small business owners are cautiously optimistic going into 2017. According to the PNC Economic Outlook Survey, 71 percent of business owners are optimistic about the U.S. economy — the most since the fall of 2005. When asked what term best describes their feelings about their business prospects, 55 percent chose “hope.” The positive attitude should bode well for small businesses who want to seize opportunities and prosper in the New Year. Here are some of top trends that are destined to give small businesses a boost. 1. Cloud-Based Software. The use of technology to accelerate small business growth will continue in 2017. Cloud-based solutions give small firms the ability to access sophisticated software programs affordably, allowing them to compete more effectively with larger entities. Many of the SaaS providers are designing programs specifically for the SMB market. New data from Intuit and Emergent Research reveals that by 2020, 78 percent of small businesses will be “fully adapted” to cloud computing. That’s more than double the current 37 percent adoption rate. 2. Mobile. Once a “nice to have”, a mobilized Internet presence is a “must have” today. More and more people are turning to their mobile device than ever before. The adoption rate for mobile use is 8x faster than web adoption in the 1990s and early 2000’s. The number of small businesses with a mobilized presence should nearly double in the coming year. 3. Big Data. Big Data is another hot trend for small businesses in 2017. Once considered a resource only available to large companies, small businesses can now access big data and use it to make wiser business decisions. There is big data in the broad sense in terms of what is trending, demographics, etc. which is accessible via resources such as Google Trends or TrendHunter.com. Small businesses can also compile and mine their own data for decision-making. Leveraging opt-in email programs, social media platforms and surveys, small firms can gather critical information about their customers’ buying habits and needs. 4. Crowdfunding. Access to capital has long been an issue for small businesses and crowdfunding was a new way for small firms to circumvent traditional lending. In May, 2016, the SEC issued regulations to allow unaccredited investors to make equity investments in crowdfunded businesses. As such, 2017 will bring a burst of activity in this market, significantly increasing access to capital. 5. Online lending. Another area of growth in 2017 for small businesses is online lending. In this environment, small companies can go to one website, fill out an application and get responses from a host of traditional lenders. This gives a business owner the chance to shop for the best option without going to each financial institution individually. 6. Benefit packages: As we reach full-employment in the U.S., small businesses who are ready to hire are finding it more difficult to compete for the talent they need to grow. As such, during the coming year I believe we’ll see more firms making an investment in comprehensive benefits packages that feature non-medical must-haves, such as dental, vision and life insurance. Not only will these programs attract new employees, but they will also retain existing talent. According to “The Benefits of Benefits for Small Businesses” from MetLife, benefits are an important reason why employees stick around. The report...
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