The economic turn-around

Hindsight purportedly provides amazingly clear vision. Looking back, we should not have any doubts or uncertainties: the facts are supposed to speak for themselves.

Of course it never works quite that way, as historians appreciate. History is interpreted and revised based on current perspectives, technologies and resources (and sometimes contemporary ideologies).

I certainly thought of this dynamic a couple of years ago, comfortably seated on a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Tel Aviv. Certainly, there was plenty of security, but not the form that Hitler would have ever imagined.

Today, some -- perhaps most -- of this blog's readers are still fighting the Grand Recession of 2010. Aa few of us see the light at the end of the tunnel and have resumed growing. How have our perspectives changed, and where do they take us in reinterpreting the past year, and looking forward to the future?

I'd like to say we've matured, learned from our experiences, grown leaner and more effective at our work/business/life, and positioned ourselves for much better times ahead. But some of us are probably holding on, still, for dear life, wondering when this mess will end.

Here is how things have changed in my perspective:

The "new media", with social networking, the Internet, and convergence between visual and written media, have truly changed the way we communicate. Even though we continue to publish printed newspapers, I rarely read them like before. POINT: If you are thinking one-dimensionally in your marketing, and that the old approaches are still okay, watch out for the storm that is about to hit you.

Word-of-mouth and existing relationships still count for much, but your network and knowledge can (and should) be much deeper.

Research is much easier these days than before; I can write comprehensive stories on significant topics in days rather than weeks or months when I pull together online resources; these qualities are apparent in the story on social networking and technologies for the Design and Construction Report. OBSERVATION: If you aren't comfortably using at least some of the new media (you most likely are, if you are reading this blog), you will soon be left far behind the competition.

Bad, untalented, stuff is still out there; it may seem there is much more of it, and it is much more visible. But good stuff still rises to the top. Before, publishers would have screened your work before letting it see the light of day; now anyone can post, write, and observe. But other gatekeepers, whether it be search engine algorithms, spam blocks, or simply the "voice of the crowd" (see Wikipedia) manage things so that you don't waste your time with stuff that doesn't help your business and life.

CONCLUSION: Remember your strengths and focus on them. Just don't forget that your strengths are not what you want to be, but the combination of how you feel best about yourself and how others who matter to you think about you. We don't live in isolation.

Billion Dollar Blunders

Libraries are great places. Lots of useful information, for a really reasonable price. In the last six months, as I began watching my business "pennies", I've replaced the bookstore with the library, and discovered several gems on the shelves.

Billion Dollar Lessons by Paul B. Carroll and Chunka Mui is one of these greats. The overline title is: "What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years".

The book's thesis is that much attention is focused on success stories -- sometimes myths --- and little study has been done on why big businesses flop, crash, and burn.

The stories the authors tell are however also truly relevant to smaller organizations because all businesses ultimately fall under the same fundamental constraints, passions, and weaknesses.

So why do businesses fail?

Many disasters occur, the authors suggest, because of blind take-over and acquisition strategies, or the ignorance of major trends and shifts right under the business leaders' noses. Add to the mix a load of ego and group-think, and you have recipes for disaster like the AOL-Time Warner Merger, the decline and/or collapse of Kodak and Polaroid, and the flame-out of WebVan (an ill-fated Internet grocery delivery service born during the Internet boom.)

And of course there is FedEx's disastrous ZipMail, trying to combine faxing and courier service, and Motorola's Iridium, perhaps the highest flying (or rocketing) waste of funds when just a little common sense would have told the market for direct satellite phone service from utterly remote regions is, well, small.

Even smaller businesses (yours truly, included) have fallen into some of these traps:

1. Illusions of Synergy
2. Faulty Financial Engineering
3. Deflated Roll ups
4. Staying the (Misguided) Course
5. Misjudged Adjacencies
6. fumbling Technologies
7. Consolidation Blues

The writers suggest caution, real due diligence, and fearless verification of ideas is one way to avoid walking into disasters, without stifling innovation or the times when you need to face the music and realize the old game is up.

(You can buy this useful book from Amazon.com -- they will pay me a small commission -- or visit your local public library.)

Remembering the basics

Yesterday evening, after a string of setbacks and key employee resignations (yes, these things happen), I thought of my responses and strategies.

For a while, I thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to just put everything on hold for a year." Then I figured how I could finance this appealing diversion, and began imagining how I would live and spend the borrowed money to reset my emotional clock and priorities.

My wife (thankfully I am married to someone who is rational and wise, as well as beautiful) quickly put me into my place. She reminded me forcefully and effectively that debt rarely solves problems long-term, and if I want to take the break, I will have to deplete my savings. I can do this, of course, but should I?

These choices reflect the difficult decisions many people encounter; in exchange for short term or immediate gratification, they pull out their credit card or refinance their home and for a while live the good life. Then everything crumbles and the debt, if it is a problem originally, just gets worse.

Fortunately, I've followed my own advice to date in this blog, separating business debt from personal obligations (which are minimal) and this has given me a degree of security that people living on the financial edge don't enjoy.

But I admit that, for a while yesterday evening, I was tempted to break my own rules. Not everyone has the will or ability to defer gratification, of course.

Then, what is the right way for me to "find my break", if I want to take it?

These answers from common-sense business models apply:

• I can reduce my expenses and fixed costs, including, if necessary, my salary, to balance the reduced income if I am not actively engaged in day-to-day work. This may mean giving up some of the treats and pleasures of life, and being frugal about my personal budget.

• I can drain my savings. Hardly wise, but if I really need the break, I can take the money from retirement funds and feel the emotional pain of every dollar I withdraw. This will keep me firmly focused on restoring financial equilibrium and avoid the false feeling that "everything is normal" when debt is increased to maintain comfort or purchase pleasurable things.
  

• I can improve the business income from current activities. Obviously a good idea, and one of the best ways to do this is to find and encourage people to buy more of what we have to sell.

• I can develop new streams of income. Probably the most satisfying answer, because the additional revenue provides more security and of course allows more freedom. How? Some ideas are forming at the back of my mind (which of course require little if no financial investment).

As I thought about these options, I regained my spirit, composure, and hope for the future. Sure, I can take a break. But why not instead think about creating some new breakthroughs?

What you really need to know to survive (and succeed) in business

Family weddings are great events. You see your closest relatives, and a large number of (until now) complete strangers -- friends and family members from the other side.

Because of scheduling confusion, we had an hour sitting at our table with not much to do but converse with our table mates. On my left, I chatted with my younger brother, who for years has run a music studio/support business in Vancouver. On my right, I met one of my brother's neighbours.

Overhearing two of the three Buckshon brothers discussing business, the neighbour to the right said: "You must have a lot of courage to be in business for yourselves."

I responded, "Well, not really, I think I have more job security than most people with regular jobs. If things get tough, I can lay off employees and keep my salary."

Then she explained how a friend had gone bankrupt in business. Turns out, he "invested" a small fortune in real cash in the operation, and it collapsed shortly after launch.

Ouch!

If there is one vital rule of starting a business, it is this: If you need to "invest" a significant amount of real cash in the business, (especially if it is your first), stop, right away, and drop the idea. Do something else.

While our older brother (one of whose daughters was getting married), inherited the family business (a pharmacy), neither Jim nor I wanted to get into the drugstore world. I wanted to be a journalist, and Jim, the younger brother, wanted to be a musician. Hardly careers where you can get rich, and hardly careers on the surface that match with business success.

But life throws its curves, and our upbringing in a home where our father said: "You should always be in business for yourselves", eventually struck a chord. I became a publisher, and my brother began renting studios to other musicians. We started our businesses on shoestrings -- no inherited family wealth to squander.

We've had our shares of ups and downs, but have been able to retain viable businesses by remembering the basics. It helps that we generally enjoy our work.

In the end, businesses survive and succeed because they provide value and meaningful service to clients willing to pay. Trouble is, at the start you aren't sure if they will -- and this is why investing significanct money in the hopes that your brilliant idea will succeed is often a recipe for disaster, especially if you lack business experience.

Personal, business, or both

This image of a construction worker at Providenciales, Turks and Caicos, is relevant to the business, but does the viewing of some construction sites make the family vacation over the Christmas holidays a business trip? Not in this case: We kept our costs rock-bottom low, but used personal not business funds to pay for the vacation.

Successful entrepreneurs rarely truly separate their personal and business lives. If you start your business because of your passion, skills, and drive for the business, you can't just "leave it at the office" when your work day ends. This isn't that bad, of course, if you are married to someone who shares your entrepreneurial values (my wife, thankfully does), and you don't allow your business time to take away so much from your family that you cannot be with the key people in your personal life.

A more complex and challenging situation occurs when you merge your personal and business interests to improve your life. At least one major Canadian construction association, for example, structures its conferences so that every second year they are in warm and sunny places, and all conference business sessions are conducted in the morning, leaving the afternoons (and most evenings) free. The conference brochure also outlines the resort's "Children's program".

Lets call this what it really is, a free ride, vacation junket (paid for by the company, regional construction association, or your business, which then claims the business expense deductions for the conference.)

Other examples of merged business and personal activities include season's tickets for major league sports teams, cultural events "sponsorships" and the like. If you can bring your family along, all the better.

Is this bad marketing or business? Here, things get a little complicated -- and potentially lucratively interesting. Clearly, if you enjoy these free activities, and you are associating with current and potential clients, the time is well spent. We melded for example last summer a visit to the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) national conference in Denver with a family vacation. (I claimed my air fare, and the hotel accommodations for the actual conference days as business expenses, obviously reducing costs for our family overall.)

But there is an argument against this sort of mixing of business and pleasure; and it occurs when the pleasure overrides your business judgment and common sense, or causes you to fail to appreciate the true cost of your enjoyment. For example, if your company is struggling, how would your employees feel if you enjoy your annual junket?

Think carefully when you "ask" your company to pay for something that benefits you personally. But when it makes sense, go for it -- nothing says you can't enjoy your life when you are running a business.

Penny Wise and Pound Foolish? Maybe not.

The cliche "penny wise and pound foolish" often is used when we wish to justify small unnecessary expenses, (wrong) or when we spend much time on little things while failing to consider the real cost and importance of major expenses (right).

If we are giving as much time and attention to the cost of paper clips or whether we can spend a little extra for coffee, as we are to our key staffing and business development and marketing efforts, I suppose we are penny wise and pound foolish.

But if we carelessly allow expense accounts to increase unchecked-- even if most of the expenses are "pennies" individually, we are also penny foolish!

Recessions, of course, are good times to bring the "wise" back into our thinking. Here is an example.

We have several out-of-town employees, and last year, we flew them all into Ottawa for the bi-annual planning review meeting.

This time around at today's meeting, two employees joined us by teleconferencing. We saved about $1,000 in flights. We aren't spending $250 for an evening pre-conference meal at the Keg. One of our sales representatives negotiated a trade-out at a local hotel, so two employees who are travelling into town for the event (one lives within driving distance; the other took the train), are staying without cash cost.

But can we do better? Our consultants said they would set up a conference line, and use their service. So I asked them: "How much does this cost?" Their response: "We don't know -- but look at what you are saving on travel costs."

Well, unknown reimbursable costs scare me in the current circumstances. On Friday, one of our sales representatives (Chase) forwarded marketing materials from Vesta Networks. Their price: $.06 cents a minute from callers anywhere in North America (toll free) compared to $.12 to $.16 for Bell (the service provider we had been using) and Primus. Last month's teleconference bill was approximately $700.00. So a 50 per cent or great savings makes sense.

Today, I also realized that our mailing list has more than 11,000 names, but that mailing service provider Constantcontact.com doubles its fee when there are more than 10,000 names in the database. So can we remove some unnecessary names, especially of people who don't really want to receive our emails? Certainly. You may be here because of a special "mass mailing" to remove names which shouldn't be there.

Email Marketing
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Online Surveys

The key in finding these savings is to remember you should allocate appropriate time and energy to achieve them. If it takes just a few minutes to test the system, and you can save $1,200 to $1,500 a year because of the savings, do it. If you are distracting yourself for weeks and analyzing every minute detail, then don't.

One important thing about penny-wise savings. This type of initiative, like most successful business endeavours, needs to come from both the heart of your employees -- and your own practices. If you expect your staff to be happy while you continue to travel first class (or travel at all) while they are restrained in their movements, expect rebellion, rule violation, or simply bad morale.

But it never hurts to be both pound -- and penny -- wise.

Crunching the numbers

Mixing vacation with high-level financial analysis and review creates a rather unique business/life mix. Right now, I'm sitting in a Starbucks near my mother's place in rainy Vancouver, B.C. I've just reviewed extensive financial reports and prepared materials for a special teleconference planning meeting this afternoon, as we pull things together to ensure our business's ongoing viability.

In a few minutes, I'll close the laptop, and return to vacation -- for a few hours.

The most important thing in preparing for today's meeting is to respect the values that define our business: To acknowledge the importance and contribution of every employee, and to treat everyone with respect and recognition for their contributions to the organization. I've seen too much corporate mismanagement, where senior managers take care of their own needs, at the expense of owners (shareholders), employees, and clients. This type of corruption tears at the soul of the business and ultimately destroys its brand and marketing effectiveness.

Consider how your own business and professional practice handles its internal relations and operations in thinking about your marketing strategies. You cannot really separate the two perspectives, as the external marketing manifestation will reflect either directly or indirectly your internal business realities.

Sure, it's raining in Vancouver, but the Starbucks coffee is warm (as are the hours with my family) and in a few days we are heading to the Los Angeles and Palm Springs areas, where things will be much brighter.

Construction marketing is only part of the story

This image of an unfinished basement is from Connecticut's WSFB TV.

The tragic failure of Custom Basements in Glastonbury, Connecticut, provides an enlightening reminder that great marketing (short term) will never replace solid business practices and ethics, and when you abuse the basic principals for short-term marketing gain, you can cause truly long-term damage.

According to the WSFB TV website, the business promoted its success in receiving the local Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Integrity and Ethics. To make things worse, the Connecticut Attorney General attended the awards ceremony in recognition of the winners' purported high ethical standards.

Unfortunately, according to Michael Stone, the whole thing represented a deck of cards. Stone had worked with one of Custom Basement's competitors who could not figure out how they could stay in business with their uneconomic pricing and business practices. In the end, dozens of people lost (each) tens of thousands of dollars, including clients and sub trades.

This news is sad on several levels.

A few years ago, I served on the board of directors of the Ottawa Better Business Bureau as the Bureau launched its Torch Awards program. Everyone involved in the selection and assessment process maintained high standards, and we found it satisfying to be able to grant the awards without charging any fees to the entrants; relying on client testimonials and independent judging.The recognition really helped the contractors and other businesses who won the awards attract hundreds of thousands of dollars in new business.

This is why I encourage contractors with good reputations and business values to enter (free or low fee) awards competitions. (I am not talking about the commercial services where the awards publicity company charges tens of thousands of dollars to promote the purported "winners" and where for some rather obvious reasons, anyone with the money, regardless of ethical standards, is able to "win" the recognition.)

But what happens when a business enters legitimate competition, wins the award, and then fails to deliver? You have marketing muck everywhere.

Maybe Custom Basements meant well. They certainly got their marketing practices on the right track initially, including selecting a clear and valid niche speciality (basements), while making use of the free recognition awards programs.

But what good does great marketing do when you can't pay your suppliers or complete your projects? You need to put everything into perspective and run your business properly. Effective marketing is only part of the story.

Magic bullets (not?)

This istockhoto.com image cost $1.00 to license legally -- it is one of my 'secrets' in developing marketing materials. But will it solve your own marketing challenges?

Recently, one of my major suppliers offered to credit $1,000 off of his company's invoices in exchange for an hours consultation on how to save on airline fares. I of course had no problem accepting this proposition.

After the meeting, my supplier granted the credit, as promised, but I could tell he wasn't totally happy. He had fallen into the trap (hope) of expecting a magic bullet; a one-size-fits all 'secret' that would free him from high airline travel costs and crappy service forever. And all I could offer him are a mix-and-match collection of solutions, using commonly available tools, that could possibly help under certain circumstances.

"Where are you travelling?", I asked him. "Is business class comfort important to you?" "Can you make use of credit cards to accumulate large numbers of airline points?" So many questions, so much need to 'think', and not a single secret formula -- a magic 1-800 number you could call -- to win Aerolotto any day, any time.

In fact, a few years ago, I temporarily cracked the code, discovering a loophole in Air Canada's Aeroplan program you could drive a truck (or perhaps metaphorically more appropriate, fly a 747) through. I posted on an Internet forum a technique to convert cheap credit card points into virtually unlimited short-notice, on-demand travel for an entire business. The airline, seeing the damage this discovery could cause to their revenue, closed it within the year -- in the process alienating and angering thousands of loyal customers with the (necessary) rule change.

This level of knowledge led me to others with even more skills and understanding of airline programs, including someone who managed to hire 20 handicapped Thai nationals, pay for inexpensive short-haul domestic flights, and then create 20 "Superelite" accounts, each of which allowed brokering of expensive international business class tickets for virtually nothing. (In case you want to try this trick yourself, the loophole he discovered has also since been closed.)

Today, I continue to use my airline knowledge effectively. Eric, now 11, has sat in business class seats more times on family vacations already than most adults have in their lifetime.

However, this knowledge, while useful, is not a simple answer, and I fear there are few magic bullets in life -- or construction industry marketing.

If you simply want to purchase an ad and have qualified clients flock to your door; if you want to subscribe to a leads service and each lead is tailor made to you (and there is no competition for the job); if you are hoping that reading a free blog posting will tell you exactly how to get rich, quick, I'll be happy to introduce you to a scammer. You'll spend your money, of course, and your magic solution will solve all your problems, instantly, with no real effort. You can hope -- and dream, of taking a (diet) pill -- but the cure is likely to be elusive if you do.

You can of course discover insights and ideas here and elsewhere, and apply this knowledge to your own business to create your own 'magic bullets'. The supplier who hoped for the secret to airline success, for example, has contributed some knowledge that has simplified and improved my business harmony, saving me thousands of dollars in waste (while earning him, equally, thousands of dollars in well-deserved fees).

Yes, I could write a direct marketing piece with this phrase: "I earned $100,000 with a single phone call" and it would be true, but the question is, could anyone replicate exactly the circumstances that led to that profitable call? If anything could be that easy, of course, we would have a truly incredible inflation problem!

You can put the pieces together, and if you are lucky, over the course of your life, enjoy a few really exciting flashes of insight that change your perceptions.

But most of what you achieve in marketing will be on a foundation adapted from your experience, readings and conversations with others, and sometimes some luck.

(You can phone me at 888-432-3555 ext 224 or email your credit card number to buckshon@cnrgp.com for the Secret. The fee is $10,000. Just kidding.)

The Renovators Guide

What should you do when you are presented with an apparently tempting business opportunity which doesn't fit within your business plan? Do you forget your plan and grab the opportunity, or do you say "no thanks" and walk away? In some cases, you'll find the answer is bluntly straightforward -- it doesn't match your markets, skills and resources, and you really don't expect to make any money on it. Then it is easy to say 'no'.

But sometimes situations are more complex, and we had just that challenge a couple of months ago when I learned that the Greater Ottawa Home Builders' Association Renovators Council wanted a new Renovators Guide for the public in time for the annual January renovators' show here.

As contract publishers of the associations' internal newsletter for close to two decades, we clearly know the people there, and are knowledgeable and experienced in print advertising. But this is a consumer-focused publication, not a business-to-business publication serving the construction industry, our mandate and focus. In other words, while many of our clients would be interested in the Renovators' Guide, and we had a logical inside track on winning the contract, I needed to decide (quickly) whether we should pursue it.

In making this sort of decision, you should remember one of the simple rules of PCL Construction founder Ernie Poole: "Don't have sidelines." But is this initiative a sideline?

I decided the right way to handle this opportunity would be to set it outside my existing business and so called designer Gordon Keith, who I knew from years within the GOHBA as a competent retail focused designer and marketer. He instantly suggested a third partner, Brian Warren, who has published primarily retail magazines and special projects for years within Ottawa.

We had a meeting and I provided some information about the project and why I thought we had a very good chance of winning the bid, and decided on a three-way-joint venture. Gordon will co-ordinate design and editorial, Brian sales, and I will oversee client (GOHBA) relationships and administer the accounting and billing. The result: Our business is not strained; sales staff are not diverted and editorial and production resources are not forced to absorb an unplanned publication (but our administrative staff will have an increased workload, to some extent, in handling the back-end accounting and paperwork for the project).

Is this a wise decision? In deciding to move forward with the joint venture, I looked at the potential -- the profitable opportunities that could be extended from this simple initiative -- but I also considered the risks; without a place in our business plan, the project could truly disrupt and damage the business cohesion and focus if we pushed forward internally, or, for that matter, extended this initiative too rapidly. But right now, the decision seems right -- if it is an opportunity not in the plan, and it isn't a wild-goose-chase sideline, the best answer, indeed, may be to segregate it and put it into a new business.

Have you ever had these types of choices/decisions? How did you handle them?

Ten commandments for business (and construction marketing) failure

Former Coca-Cola President Donald R. Keough has written a fascinating and simple book: Ten Commandments For Business Failure. Keough of course is friends with Warren Buffett, who can be described as anything but a failure in business. His advice is relevant for all businesses; here are some interpretations within this blog's theme.

Commandment One ---Top of the List -- "Quit Taking Risks"
Success can be dangerous, indeed. You start thinking you know it all; you build systems and processes and insulate yourself from danger, and then, out of left field, something surprises you. Note the posting about Isomorphism and Seth Godin's Purple Cow concept. You always need to keep a significant element of newness, freshness, and daring in your business if you want to achieve great things (and even survive long-term).

Commandment Two -- Be Inflexible

Yes, you have the right way, the only way, you have rules and policies and procedures, but don't see things from your clients' eyes. So, what do you do when you are a supplier to a sub-trade who can't pay you because the general has stiffed his business on a major job? (Hopefully your business is not structured to depend for its survival on any single account.) Do you press that supplier to pay up, regardless, or do you bend your payment policies to accommodate and show respect for his crisis/frustration? Who gets more lasting business in the long term?

Commandment Three -- Isolate Yourself
Ah, yes, yours truly has been guilty of this one -- and it cost dearly! If you think you can delegate your client relations and responsibilities to your sales team or front-line employees while you focus on administering your business (while taking long personal breaks, perhaps), you will ultimately lose contact with your marketplace, and things will go very wrong.

Commandment Four -- Assume Infallibility
Sure, you are on the top of the world; for now, but who says you won't be like the many titans of business success falling like dominoes because they thought they could make money by selling/backing mortgages to uncreditworthy people who couldn't really afford their homes.

Commandment Five -- Play the Game Close to the Foul Line
I like this one, though of course there are exceptions that prove every rule. Sure, Conrad Black is receiving food and shelter courtesy of the U.S. Government for five and a half years even though he declares his innocence; and someone who admitted embezzling a major bank (and served time for it) is now prospering with a media/marketing business, and the judge who nailed a former Ottawa general contractor in a messy bankruptcy hearing is now facing discipline -- but something can be said for (while admitting imperfection) living by solid values, doing the right thing, and respecting others. For those with some conscious and ethical core values, business can still be fun and truly rewarding.

Commandment Six -- Don't take time to think
Yes, you need time to reflect, to consider options, and to see the big picture -- the basics remain the same, but there are constant changes all around us.

Commandment Seven -- Put All Your Faith in Experts and Outside Consultants
You certainly need your own road map; passion, and values. Certainly, you should listen to outsiders -- gather several opinions if necessary -- but listen to the mood of your own clients, employees, and suppliers, and then make your own decisions based on your insights and knowledge.

Commandment Eight -- Love Your Bureaucracy
This one is a tough one -- businesses need systems, rules, processes and hierarchy to operate, and going too far to eliminate these can result in anarchy, chaos, and dissension (guess who learned this lesson the hard way . . . ). But equally, you can get far too rule bound. For example, you find a process mistake results in an error which causes client dissatisfaction; should you simply work to make the customer happy and move on, or restructure your processes with an additional 'check' on procedures to ensure the mistake is not repeated? Probably the former is the best approach, unless you are finding the error is repeating and there is no simple tweak you can make to resolve the situation.

Commandment Nine -- Send Mixed Messages
Ah yes, you know the contractor who cites LEED in marketing material, then drives a Hummer to work; or the organization which advocates "Great Customer Service" and doesn't return phone calls. You've got to be consistent or you lose.

Commandment 10 -- Be Afraid of the Future
Undeniably, if you live in the present and past but don't adapt and change you will begin to fail, no matter how well you are established, and how much you think your existing relationships will sustain you in the future.

Keough adds at vitally important Commandment 11 -- Lose Your Passion for Work -- For Life. He writes:

You have to be passionate about doing the job at hand to get the best results possible. The easiest way to develop an inner passion in a business setting is to focus all your mind and heart on four aspects of your world: Your customers, our brands, your people, and finally, your dreams.

Keough's advice transcends all businesses, but his first-person experience at the helm of one of he world's largest multinationals certainly lends credibility to his observations. You can learn from him.

101 Ways to Destroy Your Tribe

You'll find many useful 'don'ts' in this e-list from Ed Welch. Worth printing out and reading, and rereading.

Online Entrepreneur Ed Welch has written this fascinating -- and really useful -- list of "101 Ways to Destroy Your Tribe". The ideas here reflect the basics of simple and responsible business in any field.

Don't stop believing

The IMG Creed

Because the customer has a need, we have a job to do. Because the customer has a choice, we must be the better choice. Beacuse the customer has sensibilities, we must be considerate. Because the customer has urgency, we must be quick. Because the customer is unique, we must be flexible. Because the customer has high expectations, we must excel. Because the customer has influence, we have the hope of more customers. Because of the customer, we exist.

I really enjoy this motto from the website of Integrity Marketing Group (Roy Zeh). I don't know him or his business, but sense IMG observes the values outlined in this blog entry.

Craig Galati, in his The Heart of Business blog, presents an impressive argument of the essential value of faith in marketing. He writes:

Who would hire someone or buy something from someone who doesn’t believe in himself? One of the most important aspects of developing new business is confidence. You must know and truly believe in the value you are providing to your clients.

Galati's observations ring true -- and, at least informally, are validated by the experiences of others who have lived through good and hard times, yet somehow kept their businesses intact. Deep down, you find in longer-term success, resilience coupled with talent and what seems to be a magical additional ingredient. Dumb people might call it 'luck' but individuals of different religious faiths would link it to the spiritual realm.

I'm certainly not describing here the blind and mindless arguments from The Secret (The Law of Attraction) and other similar sources which advocate seemingly blind (and dumb) faith. And I've seen (and fought against) some con-artists who know how to give false hopes and success visions to sometimes desperate and often unsophisticated suckers. You know you are dealing with these charlatans when they fail to make clear that you should not enter the business journey without real talent in your field, and real perseverance -- the 'luck' or spiritual edge only is valid if the other two ingredients are there.

But you can see the positive side of business success connecting with larger values when you review yesterday's Contractortalk.com thread about the renovator who has battled the cost of his child's illness, and economic setbacks, and is now receiving practical advice and support (which, by the way, is useful for anyone facing inordinately hard times). And I've shared several times my own two business rebound stories. If you are really good at what you do, and your faith is so strong that you will not give up, no matter how the odds seem stacked against you, just at the moment when you let go of your security ropes, and all seems to be failing, you'll receive the answers you are seeking.

The fall from grace

This morning I received a disturbing phone call from the wife of a subcontractor. I sensed her mixture of anger and bitterness, and loss, as she recounted the tale of her businesses' decline because, she said, of a dispute with a general contractor. I felt her pain, her hurt, her frustration and undoubtedly her sense of loneliness -- with the perceived destruction of her family business, and vultures circling everywhere, with fair weather friends and no end in sight to the loss and defeat.
I can't verify the truthfulness of her claims, nor can I be sure that the general contractor -- not her business -- is responsible for her distress. My emotional radar scope picked up a signal: "Stay away from this one". It is one thing to want to help others -- it is another to get dragged down in a painful, prolonged and bitter legal mess.
These stories, of course, happen all too often in business. They don't get reported publicly -- individual commercial disputes are rarely newsworthy; at least, they are rarely newsworthy enough for the media to spend thousands of dollars on legal advice to prevent libel actions.
But as I listened to her observations, I thought about how she could have avoided the mess she is experiencing, and, if she is in it, what she could do to correct the situation.

In doing this, I am speaking in general, and not describing any particular business. Over 20 years in business, I've grown aware of the signals and warning signs that allow some to survive and thrive. Here is a summary of some of the guidelines I've learned through hard experience to follow.
It is rarely wise to put on 'airs' of wealth, success or conspicuous consumption. Yes, you may have 'earned' the luxury car or fancy home -- but you will invite envy and less than warm receptions, unless you are open, above board, and truly honorable in all your business dealings. Do you really need to show off your success? Can you live well, but more modestly?
Keep your nose to the ground, and your ears to reputation, before entering into business dealings with any other organization where the volume of the business or its significance is vital to your business survival.
One printer I have worked with described how he knew other similar medium-sized printers had fallen victim to a much larger printing company. This printer would give the smaller printer much work as a sub-contractor/supplier, to the point that the printer stopped looking for other clients and became dependent on the 'big guy'. Then the large printer suddenly pulled the business, declined to pay bills, and held the smaller printer for ransom -- with the only escape being a 'sell out' at fire sale prices. The printer, through his network within the business community, knew these practices, and knew to stay clear of the false 'opportunity' offered by the bigger printer. If something looks alluring, and 'easy' in business, it is often a sign that something is not right.
If you are going to engage in a legal fight, make sure you can win (or at least achieve a stalemate).
About a decade ago, I became embroiled in a nasty legal fight with a former competitor. The competitor had much more money than my business, and (I learned) was known to play dirty. But I set the fight on terms that made it particularily challenging for the other party -- to get my business, the competitor also had to sue a major, high-profile and well respected organization. Now, it is one thing for a small business to stand up to a bully, alone; it is quite another for the competitor to have to pick a legal fight with a major business organization. As it turns out, the matter ended in a split judgment, with a significant costs award in my business's favour.
Bitterness, anger, and recriminations will rarely help your case. There are times to make peace, accept responsibility and move on. Some fights are worth fighting; others are not. The mental energy and stress in battling the evil forces will drain and destroy you -- you need to look at things from other perspectives, and find the good things around you.
As I drafted this blog, the person involved called me again; I felt the hurt, the anger, the frustration, the bitterness. And I thought, more than ever, that there are times to "just let go" and find pride and happiness in things that really matter. Sometimes the bad guys win. Sometimes the 'bad guys' aren't really bad (but get the blame). But in the end we all should aim to find happiness and hope -- and the best way to do that is to see things from a positive and progressive perspective.

Why best is much better than good (or better)

Cuil.com arrived on the scene to beat Google as a search engine with some really successful public relations hype. Alas, Cuil is not the best search engine. It isn't even that good. And therefore it will likely fail.

Yesterday morning, I read with some excitement that a new Internet search start-up, http://cuil.com/, would take on Google to beat the search engine giant with the depth and quality of its search. The new engine, started with several million dollars in funding, also started with quite a PR bang. But, alas, Cuil is not the best. It isn't even that good (or better). With just a little less than 100 per cent modesty, I tested it with something close to my heart, the keywords "construction marketing". Cuil couldn't find this blog. Google now usually puts it within the top three entries. So there.

Now, maybe my example is just a little personal, but with several billion dollars in capitalization and the well-known fact that Google has torn holes through its competition (which is anyone who earns significant amounts of money by selling advertising), I'm going to go way out on a tounge-in-cheek limb and say that Google has the best search engine. Because of that, and all the money the company makes, it is attracting the best software engineers, thinkers, designers, and, dare I suggest, office administrators, janitors, and maintenance mechanics. So "best" just keeps on getting better.

Eventually, the story may have a less-than-stellar conclusion. Top dogs eventually get knocked down to earth. Upstarts indeed are better (or best) in their niches, and eventually one will overcome Google --just as the Roman, Greek and British empires declined. But at their peaks truly successful businesses are truly formidable. Mess with them at your own risk. I wouldn't try (as a start-up).

So we come to the point of this blog. If you want to be really successful in business you have to be the best at what you are doing (or at least in contention, say the top 10 to 20 per cent). And you need to surround yourself with the best employees, suppliers and clients. If you accept mediocrity, you are doomed.

(OK, there are exceptions, as the owner of a third generation refrigeration contractor celebrating its 75th anniversary told me. "If the (refrigeration mechanic) has a ticket, we hire the guy -- even though his work may be mediocre and his personality sucks. The labor shortage is that severe in the trades. Of course we put the person on construction jobs, out of site of the public and customers, and keep a close eye on him. And if there is a downturn, he is the first to go.")

How do you find great employees, suppliers, and clients? It helps to have them in the first place, and to treat them with absolute fairness and respect (and that certainly doesn't mean propping up weak performers at the expense of the better employees -- you'll drive your business back down to mediocrity if you do that.)

Other suggestions:

Find your passion, and live it. At heart, I've always been and will as long as I live, be a journalist. I really enjoy digging out stories, learning, understanding, and seeking out the truth. I'm sure this helps our product quality, since we publish newspapers and websites where journalism is important.

Hire top performers. Fair pay is important, but isn't the whole thing. If you create an environment of opportunity, growth, and respect, you can still find great talent to work with you.

Work in less-than-crowded spaces. A couple of years ago, I set out to be the leading blogger on Construction Marketing. It helped, of course, that no one else at the time happened to be blogging on the topic.

This week, I took a break from the usual Construction Marketing Ideas newsletter and sent a brief note with this question: "What is your number one construction marketing concern?" Already several readers have responded -- and your responses will help me define future newsletters and blog postings. I'm also inviting comments and reports of experiences with Pubic/Private Partnerships for stories I'm writing in Canada and for The SMPS Marketer.

The Electrical Marketplace

Tom Haggerty in Florida has introduced a well-written blog in conjunction with his site electricalmarketplace.com. This posting in March gives some insights into his business and blog:

Is your Business Changing for 2008?
Posted By Tom Haggerty At 10:50 PM • Comments (0)

My name is Tom Haggerty and I am the owner of Electrical Marketplace. If you’ve had a chance to navigate through our website you will see that we are a large lighting and electrical supplier in Pompano Beach, FL.

I started my company in 2002 with the crazy notion that electrical contractors would buy electrical and lighting equipment online in the comfort of their homes and offices and eventually directly from the jobsite. Thanks to the dedication and hard work from our team of employees this concept has been working for hundreds of electrical contractors and maintaince personnel nationwide.

It was during my 13 year career at General Electric that I learned firsthand that businesses must operate in a global economy and those companies that could become a low cost provider of their products and maintain product quality were winning the game. Purchasing managers at GE were trained on how to utilize the internet to identify global low cost producers of key materials. As an innovator in global sourcing techniques, GE had an enormous competitive advantage in the marketplace. That experience taught me that all that buyers really needed to have was enough information to be sure that the product that they were going to buy online was going to be of high quality, it would be shipped quickly, and the cost savings would justify the planning of materials deliveries to coincide with the needs of the job.

It was on that concept that Electrical Marketplace was founded.

These days I still spend a good portion of each day talking to electrical contractors around the country and getting a sense of what is happening in their local construction markets. There is no question that our national construction forecast is weak and some areas of the country and markets are getting hit particularly hard. I have spoken with large residential contractors in areas of the country that were booming two years ago that today have downsized huge percentages of their workforce. Smaller contractors face a different challenge and find that they must adapt to the changing construction climate.

In order to adjust your business to this 2008 construction environment it is necessary to understand where the construction dollars are flowing and prepare your business to thrive. For many of our customers that has meant exploring ways to capitalize on growth opportunities with lighting retrofits, commercial and industrial construction, and remodeling.

So the question that I would like to put out is simply this…

What (if anything) is your company doing differently in 2008 to maintain or grow profitability?

The question is wise. And, with a definite lack of modesty, the answers are in this blog.

Tragedy and hope -- the larger perspective

This image is from an article on business perspective in the blog Slow Leadership -- Articles on Returning Humanity to Working Life.

Yesterday I went with Vivian to a funeral -- for a nine year old boy. We knew the boy and his parents; Eric became his friend before the family received a transfer to the Philippines (his mother is employed with the Canadian foreign service). The child died naturally of a brain aneurysm, the underlying problem appears to have been from birth; the parents had the horrible task of getting the body home a half way around the world; challenging Jewish funeral rituals which call for the funeral and burial to be as soon as possible after death.

After the funeral I went to exercise -- I now work out five days a week; with commuting and so on, this exercise time costs me more than 20 days a year; but the payback is apparent -- despite a family history of diabetes, when staff at the drugstore within our local supermarket administered a computer-aided evaluation, my "health" age came up as 51 (though I am actually 54).

And in the evening, after a hockey practice, I took my son, and four of his nine and 10-year-old hockey playing friends, to a junior hockey game using box tickets gifted to me by Greater Ottawa Home Builders' Association Renovations Council chair Michael Martin. We laughed, consumed some pizza and soft drinks, and enjoyed a true"boy's night out".

Work? Where does business fit into all of this? I'll certainly be happy here to provide a positive reference for Michael Martin's business, Michael J. Martin Luxury Renovations. (Evidence of the power of gifting sporting tickets is here; and I respect that our relationship with Michael's business has been that of a supplier rather than client.) But there is a broader point; our businesses are only a part of our lives, and we need always to keep things in perspective. Only a few of us will have the misfortune of having to bury our child; but many will see marriages fail, avoidable health problems, and premature death. And others may, in the name of 'working for the business' lose that essential time for fun and family.

We cannot do much if anything about the hand of fortune or G-d. Living with healthy values of course we'll obtain support when we need it; I'm satisfied the unfortunate parents at the funeral know their community is with them in their grief, and the eulogies and remembrances at the funeral reinforced their lack of responsibility for the sad event which occurred in their family.

But we can do something about how we live our lives. Yesterday evening, after I returned home from the hockey game and had a chance to catch up on my work, I reviewed the financial/sales reports for the month (satisfactory if not overwhelming), and communications and reports from our employees during the day. The individuals in this business are 'getting it' -- they are innovating within their areas of responsibility, thinking creatively, responding to opportunity, respecting their clients, and communicating effectively with each other. The result: Our brand image is improving, and the business is growing. (And if anyone thinks I am doing the heavy lifting here, you are missing the point -- I'll certainly contribute my experience and guidance to the process; and do my best to select the right people to work in the organization -- but the employees themselves have the responsibility to get it right, and enjoy the rewards of work satisfaction and financial compensation.

The world is not perfect; bad things sometimes happen to good people, and your own business may be struggling under the weight of recessionary pressure. There are things we cannot change; but we all still have a responsibility to respect ourselves and others; including our health, personal relationships, and business integrity. Then, maybe, we'll find some element of real and lasting success and happiness.