January 2024
Volume No. 25, Issue No. 2


News of the day in 1924 and time away from your business

We can not find the exact date, but looking at old photos the estimate is that my great-grandfather, G.W. Brown, opened the first of our family businesses in 1924. He worked for someone who had a similar business across the street and decided to open his own when his employer would not try an idea my great-grandfather suggested.

It is a familiar story with many businesses as an individual believes they can improve on what they currently see. It causes me to wonder as I think what would have happened if his employer had told him to implement the suggestions instead of seeing my great-grandfather open a competing business.

And with your own business comes decisions and choices. What causes me to approach this topic is a couple of recent experiences of observing businesses in our area. There were community events going on with hundreds of people (also known as potential customers) on the streets.

I have been there, and I understand the situation; there is a need for you and your staff to have time away from the business. However, I look at these recent situations from two perspectives. The first perspective is looking at the business in the future. Of all the days and times to choose not to be open, I do not believe these were good choices for two reasons.

The first reason is missing the opportunity for those potential customers I mentioned; there were a lot of them.

The second is the local business community. The staff and volunteers of the merchants association, chamber of commerce, Main Street program, and other organizations have spent time and money inviting people to come to where these businesses are. And when people arrive they are finding businesses closed.

I believe these actions are disrespectful to the organizations that promote local businesses as well as disrespectful to fellow businesses who look to the event to highlight the business community.

Article of the Month - What you can learn from the movies

"Fifty First Dates" and "Groundhog Day"; both of these movies are comedies. They share a commonality of a message about events being repeated. The article of the month addresses this issue from the perspective of small businesses as it asks why effort and money are spent on social media and traditional media.

The message is repetitive. The message talks to potential customers and those who have previously been our customers. Seems to me that we should be approaching those previous customers differently. We trust you will find value in this month's article.

Article of the Month

Book of the month - The art of the start 2.0

An appropriate book to start a new year; the Art of the Start 2.0 by Guy Kawasaki. Speaking at trade shows and conferences, I can count on meeting people in attendance who are thinking about starting a new business or adding something new to their business.

Unfortunately, there is a paralysis that sets in and that person does not move forward. This person has not made a decision either way, but their lack of action becomes a decision.

This book by Kawasaki can perhaps cut through that mental paralysis and help you move forward.

As I mentioned, the timing of this book suggestion is very appropriate for the start of a new year.

Book of the Month

Internet Tool for Your Business - Acid ratio

The acid ratio is a measurement of the expected healthiness of your business over the next 12 months. We will let the link below to the free calculator do the rest of the explaining. We will leave our part to tell you this is a simple and very important measurement that should be a part of monitoring your business.

Each month we highlight one of the 47 free tools on the Profits Plus website; we call them "calculators". While some provide analysis by numbers and ratios, some are assessments and others are self-examination questions. Many are downloadable while others, because of the complexity of the calculations going on behind the scenes, are a part of the website and allow you to print your answers. None of them require you to give any personal information nor are there any "cookies" tracking you or your information.

Internet Tool for Your Business

Staff Incentive for Your Business

Starting a new year, we think that this part of our monthly newsletter continues to be very important. A shortage of available staff as well as keeping staff continues to be a challenge to businesses offering services and products.

January 1 is an excellent time to share what we have seen with the businesses that have shown to be the best when it comes to engaging and keeping their employees.

While we share an idea each month, there is not one thing that makes the difference.

There is the restaurant in which the wait staff all have business cards. Instead of laying the bill on the table and saying, "no hurry" as we see in most places, their staff take a moment to hand you their card, say "thank you", and invite you to return with a sound of confidence in their voice.

You may have a business card, but the majority of workers in businesses have not had one.

There is the business that features its staff in its social media and traditional media advertisements. And there is the business in which the owner brings a snack occasionally for their staff; when the weather begins to cool they surprise their staff with a sweatshirt.

It is all about being personable and caring about employees as individuals. Is there a cost to this? Absolutely. But this is not anywhere as expensive as the cost in time, money and stress with what is required in finding, hiring, and educating new employees.

And from personal experience, it is a lot more enjoyable to utilize these ideas I am sharing from businesses I have observed.

We want to recognize A Carrot A Day by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, whose book provides the basis for each month's incentive idea.