The Freestyle Entrepreneur

Yes, we are awallow in The Great Recession.  So, take a few minutes to snivel, whine, complain … and then get over it.  If your biz is in the tank, stop blaming the recession.  And definitely stop sitting around hoping and waiting for it to end.  Do something about it!

In my roaming, “clinical” research, I ask every business owner I encounter a simple question:  “How’s business?”  I hear three possible answers:

1. It’s awful.  I’m hanging on by my fingertips.
2. It’s been tough, but we’re trying new ideas, redesigning our business model, and it’s showing signs of working.  (If not, we’ll keep on researching and trying others.)
3. We’re doing great.  As the field thins and our competitors go under, we’re capitalizing on the opportunities that are everywhere.  We have elected to skip the recession.

Now, I would love to be able to brag that I am category # 3: a brilliant businessman, with vision and a plan that proved I’m so much smarter than my fellow entrepreneurs.  Just ain’t so, Joe. 

Instead, I confess that I was the proverbial deer in the headlights when I woke up two years ago to see that half my business had evaporated.  I had not been paying attention, just tooling along on auto pilot, enjoying the trip, ignoring all the signs that read:  “Danger!  Danger!  Brick wall ahead!”

So, I spent the next 18 months shaking off the daze, and looking for a way, first, to rebuild my existing business and then, second, when I realized that the old model no longer worked, getting outside the box and looking for new opportunities.  I had a lot of false starts and made some bad turns into dead-end streets. 

I learned a lot along the way and came close to the brink.  However, while too many of my biz associates have gone under, I’m still standing:  new ‘n improved, and even making money in this new, stranger-than-fiction economic reality in which we do business these days.  No, I’m not getting rich, but I am again financially stable and in growth mode. 

My point:  If you’re holding on in hopes that the economy will turn around, that’s not we do it in the business world, and you know it.  No business owner worth his/her weight in salt just sits back and hopes that things will improve.  Get out there and make it improve.    

What to do:   

• Assess.  Look over your books and your markets.  See where you are still strong and where you are losing business.  Find out WHERE and WHY the game has changed for you.
• Review your power strengths.  Where are you strongest?  What do you do best?  What is your number one competitive advantage? 
• Update your business model.  See how you can adjust your business model to regain market share in your traditional markets.  Sometimes it’s only a matter of re-packaging your offer and beating the drum via some heavy-duty marketing.  (Revamping your website, looking to marketing sites like LinkedIn and Facebook, expanding laterally into a new niche in your current market.  Get creative.) 
• Do not compete on price.  Don’t become a bottom-feeding price cutter.  Instead, focus on what makes you unique, special, attractive to prospective customers.

• Get outside the box.  I know business owners who have explored everything from the ridiculous to the sublime.  No one – I repeat, NO ONE – truly understands today’s economy or where it will go in the coming months and years.  Explore your options and take reasonable risks.
• Never give up.  Remember that the goal of business is to make money, but also to maintain independence.  My new business calls for a lot of travel, doing day seminars.  Though fun, it’s also tough.  Most of all, it beats becoming a cubicle-dwelling-wage-slave for some politically correct boss who likes to hold happy-clappy motivational meetings every Monday morning.  I’ll rise or fall on my own talents and weaknesses, thank you.

The bottom line:  These are tough times for everyone.  Do not roll over and play dead or just sit on the sidelines hoping that the next great econ boom is on its way.  You’re a business person.  You do not wait for things to happen.  You make them happen.

So, work hard and find a way to make money.   – JRI

The Freestyle Entrepreneur

Are we there yet?  That’s the kids’ mantra from the backseat.  It can also be our whine when we wonder about when it’s ever going to get easier in our business.  Well, when it comes to you and your business success,  the answer should be:  Not yet! 

The fact is, in this uber-competitive, ever-changing world, we have to keep on growing, keep on learning, keep on investing in ourselves and finding new ways to stay ahead of the pack.  Life is challenging.  Embrace it.    

What can/should you do?  For starters, how about just 30 minutes each day of reading, listening to biz or motivational CDs while in your car; or maybe investing in a seminar, workshop or trade show several times a year?

Imagine investing 30 minutes a day, five days a week in staying sharp, keeping motivated, and growing.  That averages out to 2.5 hours a week, 10 hours a month, about 120 hours a year. 

That’s like three full weeks each year devoted exclusively to continuing education.  What will that do for you?  It will make you sharper and more knowledgeable than 95% of your competitors, and, yes, knowledge is power.  Just as important, it will help keep you motivated.  While many of the also-rans will get wooly-headed and dull-witted, you will keep loping along, staying strong in your game, becoming – and being known for – being one of the best.

So, invest in yourself.  And when you begin to wonder, “Are we there yet?” just smile, shrug and keep on going.  It’s a long trip, but it can also be a fun one.

Work hard. Make money.  Have fun.  And keep on investing in yourself!   – JRI

I’m John R. Ingrisano, founder and president of Custom Communications and owner of The Freestyle Entrepreneur (www.TheFreestyleEntrepreneur.com).  I’m a marketing strategist who has helped businesses survive, grow and make money for 35 years.

What you do (and let’s see if I can get most of it right):  Well, you’re a business owner.  You may have dozens of employees, just a handful, or none at all.

Your business may be headquartered in the heart of downtown or in the spare bedroom down the hall.  You sometimes wake up at 3:00 AM thinking about this client or that delivery.  Money is often – if not always — on your mind, as you look for ways to spend less, earn more, cut your quarterly payment to the IRS.  You get eaten alive on expenses, nitpicked to distraction by the government, and have to shake your head in disbelief when you hear that such-and-such labor group is ready to strike over paying $5 more for health insurance.

You love what you do … sometimes, and hate what you do … often.  And let’s face it … there are times when your fondest fantasy is to chuck it all and become an hourly clerk a local convenience store.  Still,  while you sometimes wonder why you do this, you can’t imagine doing anything else.

You do it for the freedom.  You do it for the money.  You do it because you know the answers and don’t need to form a committee or check a survey to figure out what you already know.  You do it because there’s only one thing worse than working for yourself … and that’s working for someone else. 

What I do:  Ditto.  I’m an SBO, a small business owner, who is pretty much unemployable in the world of cubicle-dwelling wage slaves.

My role:  I not only understand small businesses and their needs, but I work with them to enhance their marketing results.  So, if you’d like me to help you and your business survive, thrive and move to the next level, let’s talk.

Work hard.  Make money.  Have fun.

– John R. Ingrisano (aka The Freestyle Entrepreneur)

As you may recall, in the name of shameless self-promotion, I sent out a notice a few days ago announcing that my biz blog, The Freestyle Entrepreneur, had been named one of the best blogs for entrepreneurs.  That tickled me.

But what really got me giggling was a card I received a few days later from Dean Lund, my insurance agent with American Family.  The card, with a hand-written note and a copy of my email announcement, caught me totally by surprise, especially since of the hundreds (thousands? Millions?) of people who were sent the notice, Dean was the only one to send a congrats note.    (And, no, no, no, this is not criticism of anyone; we’re all busy.)

This does explain why Dean is my insurance agent and has been for about 15 years.  Now, I could probably find insurance cheaper, and I get offers in the mail all the time.  But Dean has always been there for me, even now that I live more than 150 miles from his office and haven’t actually seen him face to face in at least 10 years.  I need service or have a question? He or one of his staff makes sure it is taken care of 100 % of the time.    

My point:  Nothing that Dean does is all that mystical or extraordinary.  He just always walks the walk when it comes to top-of-the-line service.  Most of all, he is aware of his clients and knows how rare it is for people to receive an attaboy (or attagirl).  We are all pretty much starved for appreciation; yes, even an old dog like me.  (Scratch me behind the ear and say, “Good fella,” and I’ll wag my tail for hours!)

The bottom line:  The five minutes Dean Lund took to send me that card not only made me giggle and earned my appreciation, but it also earned my business for a long time to come.

So, work hard, make money, have fun, and find a way to make your customers giggle.  — JRI   

 * * *

The Freestyle Entrepreneur — winner of the 2010 Top 35 Entrepreneur Blog awards from OnLine MBA.

Well, I’ve spent the last 25 years living in small towns in Wisconsin. I guess I know maybe a dozen or so millionaires. It’s hard to tell, since most of these entrepreneurs dress like the thrift shop had a special, tend to drive either pick-up trucks or nondescript Fords or Buicks, meet at the local diner at 3:00 PM each day for coffee at a community table, and tend not to take themselves too seriously. In fact, they’re downright fun-loving, full of practical jokes.

No, it’s not quite like Andy of Mayberry, and don’t ever think these folks are anything but sharp as tacks – well-read, often well-educated, with a gift for knowing when to skin somebody on a deal and when to shake hands and do a fellow a favor … without ever mentioning it. They’re genuine.
They’re a different breed of cat from their big city cousins. So, here’s to you small town entrepreneurs. You rock!

The Freestyle Entrepreneur — winner of the 2010 Top 35 Entrepreneur Blog awards from OnLine MBA.
John Ingrisano
The Freestyle Entrepreneur
204 Lakeview Drive
Algoma, WI 54201
(920) 559-3722
www.TheFreestyleEntreprenuer.com

How to survive and thrive in a tough economy:  It’s not the big things; it’s not the little things.  It’s both the big things AND the little things that will make it a slam dunk.

Example:  Recently, a friend needed a new alternator for her car.  I shopped it around.  One place charged me $37 to do a diagnostic (since I wasn’t sure it was the alternator going in) and then said they could replace it for $460. 

Business # 2 said they could look at it, no diagnostic charge, and if it needed a new alternator, the cost would be $370.

Business # 3 said they’d look at it, no charge and, if the work was necessary, the cost would be around $350. 

Business # 3 got the business based on the cost and because we knew them from previous work.  That was the big thing.

Now for the little thing.  A piece of molding on the driver side door, by the window, had been loose for some time.  About a week after the alternator work was done, we noticed that the molding had been fixed – at no charge and without even a word about it from the shop. 

Ding!  Ding!  Ding!  Talk about a neat, little five-cent extra that warmed our hearts and cemented our loyalty.  That was a little thing that made a big difference.  So, guess where we’ll be going for ALL our future repair work? 

The moral to the story:  Work hard, make money, have fun, and remember that it is both the big things and the little things that make you successful.

P.S.  Giving credit where credit is due, if you live in the Kewaunee County or Door County area of Wisconsin, the name of the shop is Sahs Auto, on County S between Algoma and Sturgeon Bay.  Check ‘em out.  

Want more biz tips and support?  Visit www.TheFreestyleEntrepreneur.com.

As a small business owner, you don’t follow the herd.  You lead it … and if anyone else follows, that fine.  If not, so be it.  (One of the best bumper stickers I ever saw read:  “Unless you’re the lead sled dog, the view never changes.”) 

You’re holding your business together and making it work because you cut your own path, go your own way, make your own rules.

That’s what a friend of mine has done.  In this lousy economy, with its even lousier housing market, he started a “home detailing” business.  He approaches home sellers and for a fee, spruces up the home and makes it more attractive.  While others are going broke, he is so busy that he is hiring people … and still can’t keep up.  That’s a man who made his own rules, and he’s profiting handsomely as a result.

The bottom line:  During these tough times, you cannot afford to stay huddled in the box.  It’s time to get out of it.  Think about new ways to make money, cut costs, keep on growing (not just surviving) in this recession.

The bad news:  Somebody shot my dog.  The good news:  I’m teaching my cat how to hunt.  Let me explain.

The recession caught me between a rock and a hard place.  First, my small consulting business crashed, losing more than 50 % of my business in six months. 

Even worse, it caught me with my pants down.  I was tooling along on autopilot until, all of a sudden:  “Hey, where’d the business go?”  I assumed that my business was fairly recession-proof.  After all, it had been in the past.  This time, no.  Like trying to herd pigs in a cornfield back through a broken fence, I’d shore up one contract here, lose two there, as clients desperately tried to save their own businesses by cutting back.  One 20-year client sadly told me, “You have to understand, John, I cannot submit ANY outside invoices this year!”

Definitely not business as usual.  The game had changed (as it has for most of us), and I had missed the signs (as have many of us).  Somebody shot my dog, one that for 20 years plus had been stirring up super business like a keen-nosed pointer in cornfield stubble crawling with quail.  

The good news:  I’m teaching my cat how to hunt … and it’s one smart, keen-eyed stalker of a cat.   Poignant metaphors aside, I finally woke up. I didn’t know how I was going to retool my business, but I knew I had to and was going to.  Here’s what I did:

• I studied what had changed in the markets.   The biggest change:  Customers were cautious.  It wasn’t a matter of cutting costs.  Instead, I recognized that, while they still had needs for my services, I had to do a better job of  presenting the value of those services in helping them achieve their goals. 
• I studied what had changed in my business … or for me, what had NOT changed.  I realized that I was operating under a 1999 business plan and marketing mindset.  Back then, my competitive advantage was that I was not only the best in terms of teaching clients how to maximize their profits by kick-butt marketing strategies; I was pretty much the only one in the markets in which I worked.  That void had filled in over the last decade, and I was locked in keen competition with interlopers. 
• I re-evaluated my competitive advantage.  What made me special?  Unique?  I found two things:  First, experience. I’ve been a blood ‘n guts business owner for 25 years.  During that time, I’ve seen it all, experienced it all.  Second, when I analyzed my records and talked to my clients, I found that, on average, my clients receive roughly a ten-fold  ROI on my services.  So, if my services cost $5,000, their direct return tends to be $50,000 in the first year alone.
• I set out to bang the drum long and loud, telling my story and connecting with clients old and new.  I now summarize my top competitive advantages by telling my prospects and clients, “What do I bring to our relationship?  ‘Twenty-five-ten.’  Twenty-five years of business experience that helps assure my clients a ten-fold return on the price of my services.”  
• I plan to review my plan every year.  I have no intention of getting caught flat-footed again. 

So, somebody shot my old dog.  Fortunately, my cat’s working out just fine.  Plus, I have a litter of new puppies I’ll be training and turning loose in the coming months and years.

We – as in the millions of small businesses across the land — didn’t start the recession.  However, I’m seeing more and more of us who have decided enough is enough. 

In other words, the recession ain’t over ‘til WE say it’s over … and just about every business owner I talk to says it’s time for it to be over.  No, it’s not some mindless wishful thinking, but, as always, a determination to put our  money where our mouth is and make it happen. 

I’m seeing it in places like New York, where a small, quirky grocery chain, Fairway Foods, is opening up new stores by the cartful.

I’m seeing it in little places like my beloved Algoma, Wisconsin, where Brad and Aric Schmiling are expanding their world-class von Stiehl Winery (yes, in sleepy Algoma, Wisconsin) to accommodate the growth in demand.

I’m seeing it in a little operation called Rio Creek Foods, also in Algoma, which has just introduced  its Kabuli, all-in-one pizza package for distribution.  They’re so small they don’t even have a website, but drop sales manager, Jeff Schoenborn, an email at schoenbornjeff@yahoo.com for details.  (And, no, I’m not paid for this, but I like to give a hustling company a good word.)

I’m seeing it in just about every business I talk to, as they’re ramping up, hiring, investing, declaring: This recession is over!  Why?  Because WE say it is!

As always, work hard, make money, have fun!

Oh, and by the way, speaking of ratcheting up sales, I invite you to order a copy of my The Back to  Basics Book of Selling.  Click on the title link or order directly from me by sending a check for $19.94 ($35.89 for two), and I’ll throw in shipping for free … and autograph your copies, as well.   

John Ingrisano
204 Lakeview Drive
Algoma, WI 54201
(920) 559-3722