Small Business Management

Family Business Goals - the MOST Important to Consider

2012-01-31T14:05:00.003-05:00

Consider the question "Are you a family business OR a business family"?

I wasattending a seminar recently on Family Business issues and goal setting,resolutions and succession were major topics. The goals discussed were thosethat would be apparent to others… family member engagement, focusing on the bigpicture, etc.

Here is the most Important Goal to Consider

The nextgeneration is best served by setting a more important goal that has generationaltime frame impacts. So the question - Shouldn't a major goal of the nextgeneration be to determine the viability of the business for the next generation?We now have what I call structural ambiguity present in the economy and thebusiness environment. Assumptions that were prudent in planning and forecast inthe past probably are now irrelevant.

Are You Assuming Perpetual Business Viability?

The youngergeneration simply cannot assume business viability for another 20 years, just becausethe business may have been family owned for several generations past.This is mostdifficult to do since the Family-Business overlap is so strong and the “family”component is highly emotionally charged.

As themoderators said and as I always say, sometimes the sale of the business is thebest decision for the next generation. A business in the Maturity stage of a business’scycle or in the early stage of declination may not be the best asset for thefamily.

Consider Becoming a Business Family

A FamilyBusiness is construct, a “container” so to speak that provides value in manyaspects to the family. However if the family thinks of themselves as a “businessfamily” or what is called an enterprise family, it is not narrowly defining abusiness sector where it can invest it’s Human, Social and Economic capital.

Do you liketo work together? Does your family have a great mix of skill sets? Are yougreat at articulating a vision and strategy? If yes… then you can apply all ofthat valuable family capital to new enterprises that will be born now and lastfor several generations into the future.

For a deeper dive into this subject, you may want to read The Route to Finding the best Family Business Adviser.

All the best!

Dom Celentano

Tips on Running a Small Business

Why the Route to Finding a Family Business Adviser is Confusing

2012-01-24T13:30:00.001-05:00

Why the Route to Finding aFamily Business Advisor is Confusing

Only a very few advisors and coaches are equipped to help familybusinesses. Most advisors tend to be attorneys or accountants - most familiesfeel comfortable confiding with these professionals since they know the mostdeep, dark secrets of the family.

This kind of advice tends to be transactional, meaning it centers onlegal or accounting tactics, as opposed to a more holistic effort address theroot causes of the surface issues.

Every semester I start each of my family business classes reviewingfundamentals of Family Business Management.

Here are the essentials real family business advisers work on withfamily businesses.

Are we a business family or a family business?
Why does this family have this business and why does this business have this family?
What is the ring model of Business, Family and Ownership?
Predictable Transitions
Emotional Resistance
Working on your Independent Credibility and Marketability
Credibility
Marketability

Are we a business family or a family business?

A family business is the tangible part, the container that generatescurrent cash flow, a place for family members to be employed, the symbol of thefamily that is represented to the community. Like everything, there is abeginning, middle and end. At some point a family business does not address thefamily needs and would be best to be sold with the proceeds going back togenerate more wealth in other vehicles for the family.

A business family is a family that likes to work together and has theunique "right balance" human capital and economic capital. They havethe strategic and tactical ingredients to make many types of businesssuccessful, thereby creating a steady growth in wealth for the family forgenerations to come.

Why does this family have this business and why does this businesshave this family?

This is not a trick question and it is very difficult to answer sinceit requires family discussion and brutal honesty. A business requires requisite businessknowledge and social management skills. Does the family in the aggregate havemost of them under one roof? If not, is the family "smart" enough torecognize this and seek the necessary management talent where they lack thistalent?

Why does the family have this business clarifies the reasons for thefamily to invest their time and money. Is it a place that simply generates asteady stream of cash? Is it a place that provides a safe landing strip ofemployment for family members that might have a difficult time matching theirlifestyle needs to what they would be compensated in the real world? There is no right or wrong answer.. Just thehonest answer.

What is the ring model of Business, Family and Ownership?

Family business consists of overlapping dynamics of family, businessand ownership and ALL qualified family advisors know what this is. It is theearly stage blueprint where one starts to address everything that is happeningin each family, business and ownership sector and most importantly, all of thestakeholders within and outside of the family business. Most business havestakeholders primarily as equity holders or employees and management. Familybusinesses have stakeholders that are neither owners or work in the business…essentially other family members that are children, spouses, cousins, etc. Theyhave a strong influence in what happens in the business and this is where mostsupposed family advisors go wrong in that they do not understand what is calledstakeholder analysis.

So if you are a family business and are seeking a coach or advisor,pose the above questions and see if they can answer each similarly to how Ihave. If they can, then they understand how to help family businesses…otherwise move on.

Predictable Transitions

Every family business has a similar time line with transitions thatWILL occur. They are predictable and therefore can be part of the "familybusiness plan" early on in order for all stakeholders to see and have theability to discuss with founders and all that are part of the family, witherworking family or those that have some interest in the family business.

Emotional Resistance

Stemming from the above, there are emotional components to Transitionsand many of those transitions are difficult to deal with from a personal/familyperspective. The most obvious is dealing with family business transition issuesrelated to the death of a family business member.

We all can look back and see that some of the conflicts we haveexperienced could have been eliminated or dealt with in a better way if wefirst recognized Predictable Transitions and Emotional Resistance. Starting to recognizePredictable Transitions requires being proactive early on and dealing with thelarge unknown of "I don't know what I don't know"... much harder toexecute but never the less critical to the successful growth and transition ofa family business.

Working on yourIndependent Credibility and Marketability
"Start planning now for your professional life at a company where the bossdoesn’t share your last name" by working on your Independent Credibilityand Marketability. For the Successor Generation, the issues of Credibility andMarketability come into play when the “safety” of the Family Business no longerexists. The vast majority of family members in a business never developindependent credibility and marketability and are ill prepared for this once asale is completed.

Credibility
Too many members of family businesses have the air of Entitlement and do notunderstand nor develop Credibility. Dr. Gregg McCann, Founder of the StetsonUniversity Family Business Center succinctly defines Credibility as “..havingself-confidence and having those we associate legitimately validate thatfeeling.” There is an internal and external aspect… both of which you need todevelop! Entitlement, on the other hand means getting something withoutdeserving it.

The reality for those family members in a family business is they are employeddue to Nepotism. Now there is nothing wrong with Nepotism. It is wonderful tobe able to have your family work together; done properly it greatly strengthensthe family bonds. I “got my job” in my family business because of Mom and Dadhaving me work in the business starting as a teenager, obtaining broadexperience in Operations, Sales, Marketing, Finance, etc. Those in corporaterarely get this experiential opportunity and are unfortunately relegated tonarrow “silos” of the business.

The problem with Nepotism is that one lacks the external credentials thatvalidate ones capabilities in business. The outside world incorrectly connectsNepotism to Entitlement to lack of Competence. This means as a family businessmember, one has to work hard at establishing Credibility within yourorganization (Internal) as well as to the overall business community(External).

Why is Credibility ignored? In a family business there rarely is any pressureto establish credibility. Family is about Emotion, Security, Fun and an InwardFocus. Business is about Task Orientation, Productivity and is ExternallyFocused. The “insular” nature of family and family business can lead one tobelieve that credibility is not necessary to develop. Do you really need toformally develop your credibility with your family? Even if you know more thankey non family personnel, how will the outside world validate that unless you makean effort to develop credibility beyond the safety net of the family business?I did not realize this. Even though my experience was broad and new more thanmy colleagues, I did not take the steps that were necessary to reinforce thiswith the external business community.

Marketability
Marketability is inextricably tied to developing Credibility. Again GreggMcCann succinctly defines Marketability as “…having the skills, credentials andexperience needed to succeed in a career you want to pursue”. How many of youin family businesses interviewed for your job and created a resume? Maybe none?Families have unconditional support for each other as well as a high degree oftrust. When I entered the family business as a teenager, I lacked the skills,credentials and experience that would be required should I have taken adifferent road to a business career. However parents, in general, believe intheir children and the family business is a safe place to develop skills,credentials and experience, to make mistakes, and iteratively develop as aprofessional. I made many mistakes but was allowed a safe environment to grow,learn and flourish.

No longer in a family business, my Marketability is partly based on the FamilyBusiness experience, one reason being the business is a well known brand and toa degree I have some established, immediate credibility with new clients.However while I was with the family business, I was recognized as the “bossesson” first and then as Executive VP or whatever title I had at the time. Todaymy Marketability is External, such as a consultant to Family Businesses,Business Strategy Developer, Adjunct Professor, etc. Successes in Consulting orTeaching are unrelated to family and are easily verifiable and credible.

So What Do You Do?
You work on Credibility and Marketability simultaneously; they are linked andtherefore one supports the other. If you are a founder set on selling thebusiness, it is incumbent upon you to understand the impact on the SuccessorGeneration. Examples:

Work in thefamily business has been a goal since early childhood and they are ensconced invalues related to a Family Business.

They have prepared themselves academically and psychologically for the opportunity to work in the business.
When the business is sold, their dreams and hard work disappear. Their needs should be a key consideration prior to the sale. AND don’t assume that because they are younger they are flexible and have many opportunities. Emphatically this is wrong!
They will take years to recover and are shocked to the core and lack of recognition here can dissipate the family.

Work with a Family Business professional (not just your accounts andattorneys) to develop a plan to provide counseling on career opportunitiesoutside the business as well as transitioning from a Family must plantransition from a industrial/service family to a Financial Family. Also insurethat you monitor the successor generation for post sales trauma.

The Family’s must survive the sale and recognize that it’s most importantassets, its human assets, are intact.

Tips for the FamilyBusiness Successor
If you are a Successor to the business take steps now to establish ExternalCredibility and Marketability.

Create and maintain a resume and biography. This may sound simple… it is, but you want to have a portfolio of your accomplishments. If your business has a web site, inure that the site has a section outlining family history and a place for key member’s resumes and bios. The bio is critical when dealing with Public Relations opportunities.
Get involved with industry organizations. Creating a high level of visibility in external organizations in your industry allows you to establish credibility beyond the four walls of your business. Speak at trade shows, participate in advisory boards, show case your business as a leader in the field.
Get involved in your community. Run for office; sit on your Planning Board or Board of Adjustment. Participate on the Board of Education. Anything community oriented establishes credibility outside of your family business. If forces you to learn new things, deal with people in different ways, increases your visibility and so on. It establishes Marketability in so far as a non family entity has entrusted responsibility and accountability to you.
Get an MBA. In today’s business world, an undergraduate degree is not enough. An MBA adds a high level of credibility and enhances your marketability to the external world. The MBA also adds to your Intellectual Capital which inures great benefits to your Family Business. If you choose an Executive MBA, all the better since you also network with Peers and gain knowledge and insight from people outside of the Family Circle.

All the best!

Dom Celentano

Tips on Running a Small Business

Lecturing Appears to be only 10% Effective

2012-01-05T08:51:00.000-05:00

physicists-seek-to-lose-the-lecture-as-teaching-tool

All the best!
Dom Celentano
Tips on Running a Small Business

Colleges Mine Data to Tailor Students' Experience

2011-12-15T07:59:00.002-05:00

http://chronicle.com/article/A-Moneyball-Approach-to/130062/

All the best!
Dom Celentano
Tips on Running a Small Business

Why the Route to Finding a Family Business Advisor is Confusing

2011-10-09T13:23:00.000-04:00

Confused, a FamilyBusiness Turns to a Coach, The New York Times articulates how 2 sisters inbusiness turned to a coach to work through family issues that threatened thelong term sustainability of their business AND their relationship with onanother.

Only a very fewadvisors and coaches are equipped to help family businesses. Most advisors tendto be attorneys or accountants - most families feel comfortable confiding withthese professionals since they know the most deep, dark secrets of the family.

This kind of advicetends to be transactional, meaning it centers around legal or accountingtactics, as opposed to a more holistic effort address the root causes of thesurface issues.

Every semester Istart each of my family business classes reviewing 3 fundamentals of Family Business Management.

Arewe a business family or a family business?

A family business is the tangible part, thecontainer that generates current cash flow, a place for family members to beemployed, the symbol of the family that is represented to the community. Likeeverything, there is a beginning, middle and end. At some point a familybusiness does not address the family needs and would be best to be sold withthe proceeds going back to generate more wealth in other vehicles for thefamily.

A business family isa family that likes to work together and has the unique "rightbalance" human capital and economic capital. They have the strategic andtactical ingredients to make many types of business successful, therebycreating a steady growth in wealth for the family for generations to come.

Whydoes this family have this business and why does this business have thisfamily?

This is not a trickquestion and it is very difficult to answer since it requires family discussionand brutal honesty. A business requiresrequisite business knowledge and social management skills. Does the family inthe aggregate have most of them under one roof? If not, is the family"smart" enough to recognize this and seek the necessary managementtalent where they lack this talent?

Why does the familyhave this business clarifies the reasons for the family to invest their timeand money. Is it a place that simply generates a steady stream of cash? Is it aplace that provides a safe landing strip of employment for family members thatmight have a difficult time matching their lifestyle needs to what they wouldbe compensated in the real world? Thereis no right or wrong answer.. Just the honest answer.

Whatis the ring model of Business, Family and Ownership?

Family businessconsists of overlapping dynamics of family, business and ownership and ALLqualified family advisors know what this is. It is the early stage blueprintwhere one starts to address everything that is happening in each family,business and ownership sector and most importantly, all of the stakeholderswithin and outside of the family business. Most business have stakeholdersprimarily as equity holders or employees and management. Family businesses havestakeholders that are neither owners or work in the business… essentially otherfamily members that are children, spouses, cousins, etc. They have a stronginfluence in what happens in the business and this is where most supposedfamily advisors go wrong in that they do not understand what is calledstakeholder analysis.

So if you are afamily business and are seeking a coach or advisor, pose the above questionsand see if they can answer each similarly to how I have. If they can, then theyunderstand how to help family businesses… otherwise move on.

All the best!

Dom Celentano

Tips on Running a Family Business

High Performance Teams Part 4

2011-09-28T03:21:00.000-04:00

Define what the power is

The key issue is what the team is empowered to do without Ownership approval. Additionally what levels of empowerment are allocated to core areas of the business; namely Sales, Marketing, Operations and Finance.

Who has it?

Who are the members and how many will there be? Will there be an advisory member? Who will be the Team Leader? What skill sets reside on the Team and what level of empowerment is given?

Boundary Management

Ownership needs to define Where it starts (Boundary) and Where it ends (Boundary). Once overall boundaries are defined each member of the High Performance Team will be identified for one or two areas of key strengths. Inevitably tasks and responsibilities will be passed along to another person. Therefore the team will set internal boundary definitions of Start and End.

A plan for Boundary Management within the team should consist of:

Method(s) for negotiating constraints
Agreeing on constraints
Which team members are free to make decisions on their own

The Empowerment Grid

The Empowerment Grid is a simple and effective tool to keep High Performance teams performing! Download The Empowerment Grid and see how easy it is to use. The grid should be developed by the team and used regularly to track performance. The grid consists of four constraints/parameters to answer the question of “how are we going to do this?”

It explicitly states what each team member has the authority to do.
If it is not stated explicitly, the team member must consult with others before acting
The leader creates a target for each constraint

The Objective is set by Ownership

The Constraints in each box are initially set by the team leader. The Constraints are then negotiated with the team. As things change, the Grid forces the members to go back and check the validity of each constraint. The grid allows each team member to know what lengths they must go to without asking for permission. The grid helps define boundaries and provide the Joint Accountability necessary for obtaining high performance.

Summary

Family Businesses consist of Economic, Human and Intellectual Capital. Families by their makeup are natural High Performance Teams. High Performance Teams capitalize on obtaining the best of the Human and Intellectual Capital through Empowerment and clearly defined Boundary Management.

I urge you to try this in your family business to during these tough times to insure your business is there for the next generation.

All the best!
Dom Celentano
Tips on Running a Family Business

High Performance Teams Part 3

2011-09-21T03:20:00.000-04:00

This is a four part series outlining Tips for Running a Family Business by creating High Performance Teams.

Part 1 Types of Teams
Part 2 Team Key Elements and Keys to Success
Part 3 The Decision Making Process
Part 4 Developing Empowerment and Boundary Management

The way a team decides to decide is the most important decision it makes. The team must decide, in advance on how the team will decide. The Ownership circle of the 3 Ring Family Business Model sets the guidelines on decision making.

Decision Definitions

Here are the most appropriate Decision Processes and Definitions for Family Business. Note that some are neither appropriate nor desirable in all circumstances.

Consensus

Compromise is used so every team member can agree with and commit to the outcome. This produces innovative decisions, but can be time consuming.

Majority Rule

A simple Majority agrees upon the decision. This allows a quick decision process but can only be successfully used for routine and administrative issues.

Minority Rule

This usually takes the form of a subcommittee that recommends actions. If is appropriate for decisions that require special expertise that may only be in the minority of the team. However it does not use all team members’ capabilities and therefore should be used infrequently.

Authority Rule without Discussion

Decisions are handed down from Ownership. This is best for administrative needs or for emergency situations that do not allow for an elongated decision process. The downside of this process is that one person never can be knowledgeable for all decisions and is not taking the collective knowledge of the team.

Authority Rule with Discussion

This process is a hybrid. Those with decision making authority make it clear that they have the authority. They start by gathering all team member inputs. The final decision is made with team member input and leader lets team members know the decision and how their inputs affected the decision. This requires good communications skills between decision makers and team members.

Example Decision Making Process

You can download an example of a Decision Matrix and Escalation Matrix outlining a process that allows a Family Business to institute a High Performance Team. It spells out in detail what each decision process can do and where it is escalated to the next process.

High Performance Teams Part 4 covers Developing Empowerment and Boundary Management

All the best!
Dom Celentano
Tips on Running a Small Business

Small Business Advice Cloud-based Accounting Software Advice from the Experts

2011-09-16T08:09:00.000-04:00

Here is a guest blog post from Michael Koploy, ERP Analyst, Software Advice

Because of its attractive pricing model, collaboration benefits, and little-needed IT resources, more small business should look into online accounting software.

Software Advice, a website that reviews both on-premise and cloud-based software programs, recently held a roundtable discussion with three cloud-based accounting software CEOs. These executives from Intacct, ePartners (a Microsoft Dynamics GP VAR), and Kashoo offer solutions for a wide range of industries and sizes of businesses, but they agreed on a number of qualities that make online software a good choice for small and medium-sized businesses.

Here are some highlights from the roundtable discussion:

More small and medium sized companies (less than $2 million in annual revenue) are choosing to adopt online accounting and ERP solutions.
Users are becoming more comfortable with putting their important financial information in the cloud, thanks to users warming up to the idea of storing sensitive information on vendors’ servers.
Most industries are quickly moving to cloud-based financial systems. One of the industries that is not? Manufacturing.
Benefits of switching to online systems from on-premise software include: less IT requirements, improved financial visibility, improved process automation, cash preservation, and increased collaboration.
Mobile technology, decreased data entry, and more accounting-focused, cloud-based ERP solutions are seen as future trends in the industry.

For a full transcript of the discussion check out: State of the Online Accounting Industry: Executive Roundtable.

Michael Koploy ERP AnalystSoftware AdviceAll the best!

Dom Celentano

Tips on Running a Small Business

High Performance Teams Part 2

2011-09-12T03:19:00.000-04:00

This is a four part series outlining Tips for Running a Family Business by creating High Performance Teams

Part 1 Types of Teams
Part 2 Team Key Elements and Keys to Success
Part 3 The Decision Making Process
Part 4 Developing Empowerment and Boundary Management

Team Key Elements and Keys to Success

High Performance Teams must be designed properly and adhere to a process for the team to be successful. So here are the key elements of team design.

A Purpose

The purpose should be in the realm of transformational
. Examples are Innovative ways to run the business, new products or major shifts in corporate strategy.

Performance Goals

Performance goals or Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are a must. It is not enough for the Objective to articulate "increase sales". The objective must be a clearly stated Business Objective such as "Compounded annual revenue increase of 5% over 3 years through the introduction of 5 new products specifically targeted to a Customer Segment satisfying specific needs of that segment." The goals must be attainable and the team needs to decide on what Objectives are attainable based on the company’s human, intellectual and financial capital. In other words the company must have enough money, enough people with the right skill sets to meet the Objective.

Small Wins

All teams need enough small incremental gains to keep the enthusiasm within. The big picture should always be the overarching goal, but the short term objectives are the steps that get you there!

Problem Solving Approach

Every team needs a process that is Replicable, yet allows flexibility and creativity. The Problem Solving approach is easily implemented in any organization. The Team goes through each step to arrive at “what needs to be done”. The six steps are

Issues.... defining all issues identified by the team
Root Causes... narrowing down to a few causes related to the issues
Define the real Problem or Problems
Set the Objective(s)
Develop the Strategy
Create a Tactical Plan

Summary

High Performance Teams Part 3 will talk about the Decision Making Process.

All the best! Dom Celentano Tips on Running a Small Business

High Performance Teams

2011-09-05T10:35:00.000-04:00

The word Team is used (incorrectly) interchangeably with Work Group. The key difference between the two is that a Work Group is tied to individual performance. However a High Performance team has both individual and group accountability. I will outline what a High Performance team is and how it can be readily incorporated into your Family Business.

This is a four part series consisting of:

Part 1 Types of Teams
Part 2 Team Key Elements and Keys to Success
Part 3 The Decision Making Process
Part 4 Developing Empowerment and Boundary Management

The most appropriate definition of a team that I find applicable for closely held family businesses is: "A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals and approach which they hold themselves accountable for[Joint Accountability] ". Therefore the key “ingredients” for a team are Complementary Skills, Common Purpose, Performance Goals and Joint Accountability.

The last point, Joint Accountability, facilitates Self Management and is the capstone for a successful High Performance Team. Without this, the group is only a work group and adds substantially less value to the organization.

There are three types of teams with the following key points and differentiators.

Those that recommend
Handing off is critical aspect of this type of team since they have to get top managements attention which can sometimes be difficult. There is also a delicate balance in getting outsiders involved in part of the process so they have an easier time taking ownership of the recommendations.

Those that make or do things
These are teams responsible for manufacturing, operations, marketing, etc. They key differentiator is these teams have an ongoing responsibility and usually do not have a team completion date; they of course have milestones to achieve. They must have key performance indicators for the team related to specific metrics such as revenue, costs or some added value.

Those that run things

These teams are a minority and generally consist of a small group. These teams are most effective when an organization is going through a major changes and where overall company behavior has to change. For example this type of team is very valuable in a Family Business environment when there is a need for succession of leadership from one generation to the next. This type of team is very effective for the transition.

High Performance Teams Part 2 will focus upon Team Key Elements and Keys to Success

All the best!
Dom Celentano
Tips on Running a Family Business

Can a Pet Chauffeur Business Scale Larger? How Big is the Pet Market?

2011-08-27T12:30:00.000-04:00

Can Pet Chauffeur Adapt to a Tough Economy?

A good example of a highly targeted Niche Market. At $1 Million in revenue, it may just be a very profitable small business and what is wrong with that. Take the profits and start another business. That is what serial entrepreneurs do all of the time.

All the best!
Dom Celentano
Tips on Running a Small Business

Managing a Small Business Requires a Few Linchpins

2011-08-24T10:55:00.000-04:00

Whos Job is it Anyway?

Most business hire people for “jobs” and jobs are framed (typically) into responsibilities and tasks. Why don’t most small businesses don’t hire people to really think outside of the narrow framework of their job description? Because it is scary and means empowering someone to act upon information that is incomplete and fuzzy and maybe to take action without checking with you… The Boss.

So in this article,A Strategy for Learning from Mistakes, 8 years worth of customer shipping bags were ordered. Bad! However was it anyone’s description to go beyond inventory management and re-ordering? Even the manager was doing his job since inventory was being taken, orders were being processed and vendors were being communicated with.

People in key positions should be empowered to act when things just don’t fit neatly into tasks and responsibilities. Rather than just acting upon information, they need to recognize what the information means and then make management decisions… Critical Thinking (sometimes referred t as Problem Solving).

Hire a few Critical Thinkers

Critical Thinking goes beyond recognizing an “auto-reorder”, knowing that orders fulfill approximately 3 years of the business needs and a vendor saying something does not seem right. It means recognizing that “something just does not seem right” and I need to determine what this means.

All the best!

Dom Celentano

Tips on Running a Small Business

Tips to Investing With Family

2011-08-22T16:13:00.000-04:00

As soon as you decide to invest in your child's future business, it begins to resemble a Family Business… and this where the complications begin. If you want to learn more about Family Business visit my Fairleigh Dickinson University Academic Site. Here are some tips and insights on family business.

This type of investment begins to have the overlap of Family, Business and Ownership, and needless to say the "Family" part has the most influence. The Venn diagram here is the illustration of this overlap and is the cornerstone of describing a family business.

You probably want to evaluate your son or daughters business investment request and they should create some form of business plan. You may immediately consider having your accountant look at this family business plan. I would not advise banking solely on your accountant to evaluate the business plan. Use the accountant to perform a critical analysis of the proformas.

However a family business plan is much more than financials. My viewpoint is this:

It is the articulation of how an idea is put through a feasibility analysis
If feasible, then the development of a marketing plan. All business rest on the success of "going to market", hence the critical importance of a marketing plan.
If you can create a convincing marking plan, and this is another areas where you should have a 3rd party review, an Operating Plan would come next.
Build Up Sales and Cost Assumptions come next to create your financial financial forecasts.

A better approach to 3rd parties is to include other business professionals along with your accountant. These can be consultants and Small Business Development Centers. A great resource is seeking out a university that has an Entrepreneurship Department. There are many professors and MBA students that can help in the business plan evaluation. For example we have our Business Ventures Program, that works with entrepreneurs to refine their plans for greater success. This is one way to be objective AND create the necessary boundaries between parent and investor.

A wonderful structure is The Family Bank. It allows you to invest in your children and have some structure and boundary separation. You can structure this as formal as your needs determine. It allows the parent to wear two hats:

the parent hat
the investor hat.

It allows you to say "as your parent I want to support you as my child", and then you can flip the hat to say "as your financial backer, here is what the 'bank' needs to make a decision".

The great thing about a Family Bank is it allows the return of capital to the "bank". The Family Bank is what we call patient capital, giving your children the extra breathing room they need to establish the business with feeling entitled the money, just because they are the son or daughter.

The return of principle and interest to the bank allows the parent to reinvest in the future for other children and/or to preserve and hopefully grow the family economic capital. It preserves the financial estate for the next generation.

All the best!

Tips on Family Business
Dom Celentano
Visit my Silberman College of Business Academic Site

Family Businesses are different. Why?

2011-08-18T09:49:00.000-04:00

Many small businesses are also Family Businesses. Family Businesses are VERY different and it is difficult to explain the differences in a brief and understandable manner. So here is a short narrated slide show that you will find helpful.

The FoodPreneur: The queen of condiments dishes about being a foodpreneur

2011-08-01T21:19:00.000-04:00

The FoodPreneur: The queen of condiments dishes about being a foodpreneur

The FoodPreneur
Food Entrepreneurship Tips

Tips for helping the entrepreneur how to start a food business.

PeachTree vs. Quickbooks

2011-07-19T11:00:00.000-04:00

Thefollowing is a guest post from David Matthew. He is an ERP Analyst at SoftwareAdvice where he writes about businessaccounting software.

Accounting softwarecan be tricky to understand, even for accountants. Most small business ownerslooking for the right accounting software simply don’t have time to do enoughresearch and determine what would be the best accounting software for their needs.With this in mind, here is a handy side-by-sideguide to the latest editions of Peachtree and Quickbooks. It not only keysyou into the pricing options and number of users, but also shows some of themore important features found in each product."

All the best!

Dom Celentano

Tips on Running a Small Business

Do Promotional Products Work?

2011-07-18T16:08:00.000-04:00

Are you being "sold" on how you should buy a thousand pens with your company name on it?

I just read The Surprising Power of Promotional Products and frankly see this as a distraction. I always focus on providing tips for helping the entrepreneur how to start a food business, so unless you have some extra cash floating around, put your money elsewhere.

Promotional products, promotional items can be a good investment for good will or as a takeaway when you are at a trade show or a convention. What are Promotional Products? Read More --->

All the best!

Dom Celentano

Tips on Running a Small Business

The Price of Bad Pricing

2011-07-07T08:37:00.000-04:00

Do you price based on your cost? Do you first view competitive prices and then figure how to make money at that price by adjusting your costs?

As you can see from the comments in The Price of Bad Pricing small businesses are all over the place so was this a helpful blog post? You decide.

All the best!

Dom Celentano

Tips on Running a Small Business

Are you working with The Resistance?

2011-07-03T12:51:00.000-04:00

Stop and Think About Your Thoughts.

This is your behavior that can be changed.

All the best!Dom CelentanoTips on Running a Small Business

Americas Next Great Restauarant - Lousy Advice!

2011-06-29T09:33:00.000-04:00

The Celebrity Chefs Advice Bombs For Soul Daddy in 2 of 3 locations

The NBC reality TV series "Americas Next Great Restaurant" was an entertaining series attracted restaurantpreneurs, all of whom had a vision to create the next greatest fast casual restaurant concept.

Restaurants are segmented into Quick Service (QSR), McDonalds, Fast Casual, like Panera Bread and Casual Dining, an example being Applebee's.

Soul Daddy, authentic soul food won and also lost, which is unfortunate for founder Jamawn J. Woods. Of the 3 locations funded by our celeb chefs, 2 have already closed!

The runner up, Meltworks would have been a better pick .

The Wrong People to Validate the Concept

The crew of investors were not the right people... the exception Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO of Chipotle one of the most successful fast casual restaurants.

The others: 2 who have Food Network shows, Bobby Flay and Curtis Stone and Lorena Garcia, former restaurateur who founded 2 restaurants featuring eclectic ethnic blends and and mentors.

I work with lots of entrepreneurs in how to start a business. So I bristle at how money and celebrity status seem to be credentials to advise food entrepreneurs.

Reality TV Series - Not Reality

Reality TV series such as ABC's Shark Tank are are entertaining... and are NOT the path of entrepreneurship. Shark Tank is probably the worst example of how entrepreneurs pitch investors. Americas Next Great Restaurant was a close second.

Investors Bail Quickly

Eater.com had 2 articlesSoul Daddy Shutters Los Angeles Location Too and Sould Daddy Closes NYC Location. . Only one month after opening!

Is that the team you want on your side? Soul Daddy is focusing on the last remaining site... Mall of America. Wishing him all the best and suggest he look for real investors and people who really can partner with him on growing his fast casual dream.

All the best!Dom CelentanoTips on Running a Small Business

Should Every Business Invest in Social Media

2011-06-25T09:59:00.000-04:00

Should Every Business Invest in Social Media? The New York Times Your the Boss blogger, MP Mueller wrote Should Every Business Invest in Social Media? MP was taking the shuttle bus from an off-site airport parking lot this week when she noticed a large poster on the window of the bus... the parking company was on Facebook, Twitter, etc and said to follow them. Follow a parking lot? This got me thinking AGAIN about how small business reaches for the tools without knowing what to do or more importantly, why am I doing this?

Does every business need to invest time and money in Social Media?
The first question is does your business have a marketing strategy? If no, don't spend on social media... it will waste your time and money. Don;t know how to start creating strategy? View The Seven Steps in Strategic Planning.

What is your Strategy? If your business does have a marketing strategy, then you already know what "problem" you are solving for your customers. If you know the problem, then is there a social media channel that helps you solve the problem and lets your customer know you ARE solving their problem in a very engaging way? If yes, spend! If no, consider email marketing or some other form of marketing tool. Don't know where to begin? View Marketing Plan Building Blocks.

Is this Rocket Science? Would you go to Home Depot to buy thousands of dollars of tools... only to come home and say "OK, what will I do with these tools?" Of course not. You buy the tools because you have a certain need or desire to do some form of home improvement. You select the right tools to do the right job at the right price.

So why is this so hard for businesses to get? Far too many of us are seeking the magic bullet to find new customers and generate new revenue. Running a growing a business is hard work and requires a committment to understand the business skills necessary to be a sustainable business that is more than just a paycheck.

Ask Yourself These Questions? Here is some Marketing 101... you should have the answers to these questions before you spend $1 on social media or for that matter and marketing tactics... unless you want to make someone richer at your expense.

What problem does your product solve for your customer? Do you know this a real problem for the customer... have you asked? Have you spent some time searching blogs and Twitter to see if people are talking about problems that are similar to the problem you beleive you are solving?
What is your Value Proposition for your Customer? The elements you must clearly communicate to your customer is this: " Ms./Mr. customer IF you buy my product here are the following (i) Specific, (ii) Measureable and (iii) Favorable results you will see for investing in my brand"
Clearly you don't articulate to your customer in the exact way I stated above. This is to illustrate that your product must be designed to have Specific, Measureable and Favorable results. If it does not, then why would anyone spend any money on your product.

If you can answer the above and validate that indeed, the answers resonate with your customers, go down the road of selecting a social media platform that supports your brand.

Need Some Help? Call me... would love to chat.
All the best! Dom Celentano Tips on Running a Small Business
@biz_preneur
dom@domenickcelentano.com

why facebooks facial recognition is creepy!

2011-06-11T10:40:00.000-04:00

why facebooks facial recognition is creepy!

All the best!Dom CelentanoTips on Running a Small Business

The Real Reasons a Retailer Can’t Get a Loan

2011-06-08T13:05:00.000-04:00

The New York Times The Real Reasons a Retailer Cant Get a Loan and their case study on Kopp's Cycle in Princeton, New Jersey, examined the efforts of the bicycle shop owner in Princeton, N.J. in obtaining a loan. Charles Kuhn tried to get a $1 million loan to consolidate debt and to have some cash as working capital. For a variety of reasons, he was not able to obtain the loan and maybe this was a blessing in disguise.

The cash flow problems stem, not so much from the bad economy, as opposed to how the banks view his business operations as sustainable. I see it also stemming from Tactical focus and not addressing a Strategic Focus as well.

This is a case study on the need for a strategic marketing plan and positioning to the best customer segments in the trading area.

Strategic Plans are ignored or put on the back burner due to current tactical business needs. When business owners search for help on business planning, what is found usually is confusing and complex… the help seems to be "by the pound". Strategic Plans are also difficult because "getting started" feels like you are staring at a blank piece of paper. The process does not have to be daunting… the best way to get started is to get started.

Strategic Plans can be 1 page and can be created in several days if the small business owner uses the basic building blocks of Issues, Key Learning's, the "real business Problem" and the Objective.

View the video 7 Steps to Success to see it really is this straightforward.

SMART Objectives
Objectives are frequently "mushy" They must be SMART. SMART Objectives are

Specific
Measurable
Aggressive
Realistic
Time bound

Believe it or not, your strategy flows fairly smoothly from that point. I speak from experience working with small businesses and teaching small business management at several universities.

Goals are different from Objectives

Here is an example of a Goal. A typical sales goal may be "increase sales to $X (X is whatever you want).

A SMART Objective would sound more like: "Increase sales by 15% in 18 months: 1/3 will come from new customers and the remainder in existing customers. Our key existing customers, Whole Foods and Earthfare, will be presented with 3 new items in the next six month with snack items all having a suggested retail price point under $3 per unit. e will measure performance monthly through analyzing sales volume with customer "pull reports" and sales dollars through our in-house accounting system".

Which one appears to a get you on a successful path?See the difference?

Advice for Mr. Kuhn

So to Mr. Kuhn, my advice:

Determine now, the issues affecting the increase in business
Don’t work on a 3 year plan. Consider a 1 year plan first with what you have learned from step 1.When you begin to implement the 1 year plan, take feedback, adjust the plan and then work on your 3 year plan.

All the best!Dom CelentanoTips on Running a Small Business

Walmart to Become the Worlds Largest Family Business

2011-06-07T12:59:00.000-04:00

Walmart may become the largest family business due to the companies stock buy back program. Read the entire article below. If the family gets more than 50% equity ownership, go forward strategy would be driven more so by family members and there would be no need to have the board composed of independent members.

One of my students sent me a link that dovetails with the potential of family control of Walmart, The Walmart Family Deciding what to do regarding the current CEO Michael Duke.

Additionally Walmart is embarking on many new and risky ventures such as the new Walmart Express small format retail concept that looks more like a convenience store vs. a Walmart.

A financial analyst said "I first have to wonder if the aggressive share repurchase activity of the past three years was designed to reduce the share count so much that the "controlled company" provision was triggered. Then, I have to wonder why the Walton family would want to do this (especially given prominent lawsuits), which from what I can see is to regain a strong hold on the future direction of the company in light of the 10-year middle of the road performance of the stock".

The "wondering" is illustrative of the lack of insight most people in business have with respect to the Ongoing Creation of the Family Legacy. Families have a long term perspective and the Walton heirs may have decided a while ago to sit back and let the buy backs put them into control. If you think generationaly, this is a real possibility.

My Take On Walmart and the Family

So... my take on the preliminary information released on the potential control issue of the family based on the stock buy-back is this: Walmart as a brand is polarizing… people either love it or hate it. I believe the family has been sensitive to the negative issues surrounding the brand and maybe they began to see this was NOT the legacy they want to leave for future generations.

As a family controlled enterprise, they can place less emphasis on stock holder return and deal with strategies that can change the perception of the brand. Some of these issues are socially responsible enterprises, improving relations with employees based on public issues of pay scale, the "Walmart" effect on small business, etc.

These are links to several articles addressing Walmart future and of course there are many more.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/06/03/walton-family-faces-a-tough-decision-about-walmarts-ceo/

http://www.icyte.com/saved/www.breakingviews.com/492390

http://www.mogulite.com/walton-walmart-buy/

http://www.businessinsider.com/wal-mart-the-black-eyed-peas-of-retail-2011-6

http://seekingalpha.com/article/273542-is-the-walton-family-retaking-control-of-wal-mart

These are 2 examples of tough decisions that may happen faster with family control of Walmart. All the best!Dom CelentanoTips on Running a Small Business

The FoodPreneur: From Flip Camera to Grilled Cheese?

2011-06-05T12:43:00.000-04:00

The FoodPreneur: From Flip Camera to Grilled Cheese?: "This is an interesting article that caught my eye for 2 reasons: It illustrates how serial entrepreneurs think and turn their ideas into bus..."

From Flip Camera to Grilled Cheese?

2011-06-05T11:16:00.000-04:00

This is an interesting article that caught my eye for 2 reasons:

It illustrtes how serial entrepreneurs think and turn their ideas into business opportunties
Looking outside your industry for ideas is a common recommendation for creating new products and companies

Founder of the now defunct Flip Camera, Jonathan Kaplan is starting a grilled cheese chain of restaurants. He does not have food experience. He says it embraces “all the same tenets as the Flip: Simple, nostalgic, memorable, affordable.” But he left us all hanging without telling us what it was.Here is the article, below. It is illustrative of the ideation to opportunity journey we speak of in food entrepreneurship.

All the best!Dom CelentanoTips on Running a Small Business

RetailWire Discussion: The Sky is Not Falling - RetailWire - Retail News and Analysis

2011-05-31T10:54:00.000-04:00

RetailWire Discussion: The Sky is Not Falling - RetailWire - Retail News and Analysis How about some reality plus situational awareness?

An Owner Sets Goals for the Company and Himself: But No Strategy?

2011-05-25T09:24:00.000-04:00

The article Trying to Decide What to do First is illustrative of the need to educate small business owners on the value of Strategic Thinking.

The author had an extensive list of things to do that appeared to be well thought out and necessary. However it was task oriented and had nothing related to business or marketing strategy. Tasks are driven by strategy and a task list without some time allocated to thinking strategically will be flawed.

Goals are not relegated to task oriented tactical steps. In fact Goals are higher level an when we want to set goals we really are in need of setting Objectives. What is the difference?

Think of goals as one step removed from your Vision... more specific yet broad enough to drive key areas of the business.

Objectives should be SMART. SMART is an acronym for

• Specific
• Measurable
• Aggressive
• Realistic
• Time Driven

Try taking you goals and converting them to the SMART format. It is not easy but after you do it several times you will be able to replicate the process.

Example of a Goal: A typical sales goal may be "increase sales to $X (X is whatever you want).

A SMART Objective would sound more like: "Increase sales by 15% in 18 months: 1/3 will come from new customers and the remainder in existing customers. Existing customers will be presented with 3 new items during the 18 month period. We will measure performance monthly through analyzing sales volume and sales dollars through our in-house accounting system".

Which one of the above do you think will benefit your company more?

The CEO of any company has to carve out a reasonable percentage of their time on business and marketing strategy. The article had a list that had no time for strategic thinking. I counsel my clients that lack of strategic thinking is the major downfall of small business owners.

His list appears to be steps that are necessary but no strategy at all?

I too was recently on a plane trip and created a strategic plan to work with a potential partner on entrepreneurial services to a large constituency. The result: we have a meeting this week due to the compelling nature of the strategy built into the proposal.

Maybe some CEO time on strategy would point to a number of these "tasks" for elimination or delegation to someone else? Additionally thinking about screening your own tasks in the 80/20 mode. 20% of your tasks probably yield 80% of the results… of course only you can make this determination.

Every business CEO is well served to find someone to help with your strategic thinking and planning. Task lists feel good to create and strategy should drive the tasks. So strategy comes first.

All the best! Dom Celentano Tips on Running a Small Business

The FoodPreneur: Subway Tests Cafe Format

2011-05-24T13:22:00.000-04:00

The FoodPreneur: Subway Tests Cafe Format: "Subway and Latte? What do you think about the new Subway Cafe? Subway restaurants looks like they want to benefit from the growth in the F..."

The FoodPreneur: Yes, Green Companies Should Work with Large Compan...

2011-05-19T12:56:00.000-04:00

The FoodPreneur: Yes, Green Companies Should Work with Large Compan...: "Should Green Companies Work with Large Companies ? Tom Szaky of TeraCycle felt he had a dilemma in dealing with large and independent reta..."

Wilfull Blindness.Resisting the reality of Entrepreneurship,

2011-05-15T19:07:00.000-04:00

I read an interesting blog post titled Willful Blindness . The authors point was he tried to buffer his clients from the responsibility of understanding the financial aspect of their business. He realized this was a deficient business model. No matter how much a business person loves what they do whether it is a service or a product the must remove their aversion to learning how to manage the financial side of the business

Far too many peoplethinking of starting a business or actively starting a business are whatMichael Gerber, the author of The E-Myth Revisited, refers to as "technicians". Technicians love what theydo and believe that they can love what they do and run a business doing this. Most likely not correct..

The book's opening chapter describes a woman who loves to bake, and her friends all agree "you should be running a bakery." So off she goes. She soon becomes overwhelmed by the managerial requirements that come with owning a bakery, taking her away from her true love and passion: baking pies.

The willfulblindness of many small businesses is a symptom of the real problem which is maybe they should stay doing whatthey love not in their own business but somewhere else. Running a business has lessto do with the technical side and more with the marketing, sales, finance,operations, etc. I tell all clients that 80% of all businesses are the samesince much of a good entrepreneurs time is the business of running thebusiness.

Consultants are in ahelping profession and it is our charge to help people. However you are spot onthat a number of clients are not coach-able in financial literacy. Those clientsshould consider working for someone before they run into serious financialproblems or worse, going out of business.

All the best!Dom Celentano
Tips on Running a Small Business

The 2 Truths Business Owners Must Face: Shared Vision and Values.

2011-05-14T17:53:00.000-04:00

I read a blog post The 2 Truths Every Business Owner Has to Face centered around succession issues in a closely held business. The emphasis was in family business.

Almost to the article, Succession issues are dealt with in terms of legal and financial transactions. This blog was somewhat different with respect to the fact that they are not attorney's or accounts and were taking a more strategic position with helping a company.

Succession by and large is only thought of by the founder as they get into the later years of their lives. That is too late to evaluate and then prepare the next generation. Founders far too often think of and then get advice related to succession with respect to transactional issues and the resultant transactional solutions are executed. This typically is ineffective and results in the business deteriorating or worse, failing, in the next generation.

Succession must first start with Transitioning the next generation through Shared Values and and Shared Vision. If this process starts early, you can determined IF your children can embrace the shared vision and values of the founder.. you.

If they don;t, that is fine since there is no right or wrong Vision of ones future and in business, the vision and values of family business founders are determined in a myriad of ways. Just look at Whole Foods and WalMart, both succesful businesses AND not doubt it is clear they were started with very different visions and values.

If the family does not embrace your vision and values that created your enterprise, then it is wiser to sell the business, harvest the value and provide “family” capital to your children for them to seek out their own vision and wealth generating businesses. It will also preserve the family as an entity since happy family, seeing their vision and values alive, is a health family.

Please read my other posts in Tips on Running a Family Business.

All the best!Dom CelentanoTips on Running a Small Business

The FoodPreneur: The Growth Trap and Sweet Spot of Growth

2011-05-11T10:50:00.000-04:00

The FoodPreneur: The Growth Trap and Sweet Spot of Growth: "In the New York article The Sweet Spot of Business Growth , Jay Goltz talks about the Growth Trap. This occurs when your business grows in r..."

The FoodPreneur: The Quagmire of Design I.P.? Only if you don't thi...

2011-05-10T10:22:00.000-04:00

The FoodPreneur: The Quagmire of Design I.P.? Only if you don't thi...: "In the New York Times article The Quagmire of Design I.P . Tom Szaky of TerraCycle articulates an issue regarding designing products that a..."

McDonald's Strong Performance Continues: April Comparable Sales Up 6.0%

2011-05-09T16:16:00.000-04:00

McDonald's Strong Performance Continues: April Comparable Sales Up 6.0%

All the best!Professor Dom Celentano

The Tupperware Party Moves to Social Media

2011-05-05T10:11:00.000-04:00

The Tupperware Party Moves to Social Media

The venerable Tupperware Brand is moving to social media to continue their success in Word of Mouth Marketing... but updated for today's technology. The New York Times The Tupperware Party Moves to Social Media focused on the brands effort to continue to use it's success "Tupperware party" focus, which really was the earliest application of in-person social networking and use a new tool, social media, to bolster the relevancy of the brand in today's consumer.

New consumers are those entering the workfoces, getting married and graduating from college and the common thread here is these are consumers leaving the home and starting out in their own homes. They will need to purchase lots of products to outfit their new abode and as the article says, Tupperware wants to dispel perceptions that “we are your mother’s Tupperware,” according to Rick Goings, chairman and chief executive of Tupperware Brands in Orlando, Fla. A look at the Tupperware site new items page shows a variety of products well beyond their basic storage systems.

Tupperware’s Facebook page is rolling out their new “Chain of confidence” brand positioning. Interestingly they are messaging “Tupperware is made for Moms and Dads!” which is critical in today’s households that are single parent.

What does this mean?

Tupperware is moving from selling Features and Benefits to an Emotional/Aspirational connection with their consumers. Who does not want to be linked to confidence? They are focusing the brand on how they empower women to live life on their own terms, the friendship, community of strong and successful human beings. They coined the phrase “random acts of confidence” borrowed from random acts of kindness.

Tupperware is a $2.4 Billion brand and can plan and execute high profile strategies such as “Chain of Confidence” and that should encourage you vs. discourage you from considering ways to position your brand beyond tangibles such as price, size, color, durability, etc.

Learning from outside your industry is an effective way to achieve a healthy and sustainable business for your employees and family.

All the best! Dom Celentano Tips on Running a Small Business

When There’s No Such Thing as Too Much Information

2011-04-24T09:12:00.000-04:00

There is evidence that companies practice Data Driven Decision Making show real productivity gains. In When There’s No Such Thing as Too Much Information in the NY Times an economist at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, suggests that the beginnings are now visible.

What we once viewed as the information overload is now turning into the information treasure trove using what is called Analytics, essentially software that takes seeminly disparate information, correlating it and highlighting trends that were not so obvious.

The productivity payoff from a new technology comes only when people adopt new management skills and new ways of working.

For entrepreneurs and small businesses, the takeaway from this article is not learning where to buy and how to use Analytics software, since this is way out of the budgetary capabilities for all of us.

The productivity payoff from a new technology comes only when people adopt new management skills and new ways of working.

The electric motor only had wide spread impact only when businesses decided to reorganize work around the mass-production assembly line, the efficiency breakthrough of its day. The PC was around since the mid 70's and did not have a significant impact on the economy until 1995 when it was combined with the power of the Internet.

So what do you do as an entrepreneur since you are not going out and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on expensive software and analysts?

Well, start by taking the existing information you receive daily in your emails, internet searches, blog posts, LinkedIn, etc. Read it and then say "what does this really mean?" Keep the phrase "don't tell me what you learned... tell me how you will act differently with the the knowledge you have gained". If you take the approach that each new piece of information is not just stored but will be used to create new and more affective Action Plans for your business.

Look outside your industry to probe for larger trends. Check out Kraft MIO, a new line of water enhancers to put in your own water instead of buying a ready to drink flavored water. It was launched by Kraft in response to trends in Affordability, environmental Sustainability and something new, the consumers growing interest in Customizing their purchases.

These are meta trends that go beyond beverages,so look in your market segment and industry. Do you see evidence of these happening there? I think there is a high probability of a yes!

Wishing you all the best!Dom CelentanoTips on Running a Small Business

Are You a Family Business OR a Business Family?

2011-04-22T17:19:00.000-04:00

Barbara Taylor writes wonderful posts in the New York Times and Is Now the Time to Give Away the Business is but another example of great insight for family businesses everywhere.

The article had man excellent points, in particular the family must focus on family business strategies that address wealth generation and family values. There are many reasons for the "shirts sleeves to shirt sleeves phenomenon". This is the Chinese proverb that illustrates the cycle of starting with nothing, creating wealth only to have it dissipated and ending with nothing.

I don't agree on the articles focus that gifting shares to the next generation of family business members is coupled with "“Family businesses are not built to last.”

Is Now the Time to Give Away the Business? Well there is a better way to approach how to best serve the next generation.

Gifting is the symptom. The core issue is rampant Entitlement that afflicts most family businesses. Lessen the entitlement and you increase the chances for success in the family enterprise.

I teach family business management at Fairleigh Dickinson University and my experience teaching both undergraduate and graduate levels has convinced me that all who are in the next generation are served well by understanding the unique characteristics of family businesses. The overlap of three sub-systems, family, business and ownership is at the core of family business problems yet is also a key strength. The problem is most families AND there advisors suffer from "you don't know what you don’t know".

Families either get blindsided because the "didn't know what they didn't know or get a lot of well intentioned but highly ineffective transactional help accountants, attorney's and financial advisors.

I now focus on advising clients to move toward the model of the enterprise family or the business family. Why? Because the family business should be a means to an end… wealth generation for future generations and applying family values for the good of the enterprise, it's employees and the community. The business is just a "container" and when the business becomes and end unto itself that is when troubles surface and most often leads to the demise of the business and the family.

Want to start on the road to attain a healthier family and a healthier family business? Watch Why Family Business is Different. Then ask your self the following questions:

Why does this business have this family?
Why does this family have this business?

These are fundamental to understanding how to best serve the family, either through the existing business or investing the proceeds from the sale of the business to serve future generations. If your answers are not synergistic, namely they don’t support one another, seek advice. You have time to address what your family plan and business plan should be.

Don’t wait until it is too late.

All the best! Dom Celentano Tips on Running a Small Business

The FoodPreneur: Why Is So Much Marketing The Same?

2011-04-15T09:58:00.000-04:00

The FoodPreneur: Why Is So Much Marketing The Same?: "Why is so much marketing the same? I can speak from the consumer packaged goods side…. Where I 'live'. MP Mueller in her NY Times You’re t..." All the best!Professor Dom Celentano

Teaching Women How to Think Like Angels

2011-04-06T08:47:00.000-04:00

The New York Times Your The Boss Blog ran a post on Teaching Women How to Think Like Angels.

The Pipeline Fund Fellowship was founded by Natalia Oberti Noguera. She saidher program differs because it offers education, mentoring, and practical experience combined.

What was compelling for me is the education, mentoring and practical experience they are offering. Many times entrepreneurs focus on the money and don't realize they need to loop back and solidify issues such as their business assumptions and overall feasibility of the product or service contemplated. If they can help entrepreneurs "think" like investors just a bit more, we can see many more innovative and creative entrepreneurial ventures.

All the best!Dom Celentano
Tips on Running a Small Business

The FoodPreneur: Great American Cookies created a nationwide contes...

2011-03-12T12:48:00.000-05:00

The FoodPreneur: Great American Cookies created a nationwide contes...: "Moms spend a great deal of time caring for their families and very rarely are able to break away for a bit of rest and relaxation. No argume..."

Social Media Pros... The Wine Library

2011-03-07T16:43:00.000-05:00

The New York Times You’re the Boss blog had a very good piece, More Tips From Social Media Pros, written by MP Mueller. She featured the Wine Library, a famous upscale wine establishment in New Jersey that has grown exponentially through the use of Social Media. MP started off with "We small-business owners sometimes just don’t know what we don’t know about new topics we need to master, like social media."

She nailed it with respect to the single greatest impediment to small business growth and success. In her blog ,"Taking a "Humorous" and Effective Crack at Social Media" she highlighted the success of Expert Laser, creating a viral campaign that found a creative approach to engaging with potential customers. They created the contest, Destroy Your Printer, asking people on Twitter to create videos doing just that. Winners get their 15 minutes of fame and two free toner cartridges. He used the search function on Twitter to find things like “punch printer,” “hate printer,” “kick printer,” etc. There is more and I want to get the Insights from this post so the entire post is at Taking a Crack at Social Media.
The Wine Library is legendary in New Jersey and so is Gary Vaynerchuk’s AND but he a brand name in the blogoshpere.

A family business, Gary started working in his dad’s liquor store in New Jersey. He used Social Media to rebrand the Wine Library, mostly through a series of events and social media, the most well known is his Wine Library TV, which according to MP "...garners more than 100,000 viewers a day. Oh, and along the way, the store’s sales grew from $4 million to $50 million plus."

The key point to the Social Media success of the Wine Library is this: Strategy. We don't know Gary's detailed strategy and scaling the business from a local wine establishment to a national entity clearly was part of that strategy. Scaling is the where most small businesses never go because there is the misconception that strategy is not needed or only for the big guys.

Social Media is a powerful tool for small businesses and entrepreneurs, there is no denying this. It is so important that I have incorporated social media in the Small Business Management classes I teach at Fairleigh Dickinson University and the Retail Marketing classes at Kean University. I focus on a listening strategy and engaging customers in ways not possible without Social Media.

It is distressing to see how many businesses use social media with an emphasis on product and price… that is not what the social media "consumer" wants. The Wine Library is an example all entrepreneurs and small businesses can find some takeaways to use in their business. I call this Borrow, Adapt, Adopt.

There are many upscale specialty wine retailers throughout the country. One would say that the business is undifferentiated because everyone is reselling a brand that can be purchased in other retailers. Social Media allows a business to connect with people on an "emotional" basis instead of touting price, quantity, promotions… these can be copied by your competitors.

My familiarity with the Wine Library tells me that they are tough competition. Social Media gives business a way to facilitate the total customer experience and it does take time… often much more time than we anticipated.

However think about all of the time you may spend on networking events that achieve little… think of all of the money spent on many traditional advertising tactics that are difficult to impossible to measure. Social Media requires re-adjusting how we think about our time and money. Examples like the Wine Library are great case studies on how Social Media is part of your "foundation" for business sustainability.

Dom Celentano Tips on Running a Small Business

Family Business Conflict: Transitions and Emotional Resistance

2011-03-07T10:18:00.000-05:00

I just read an interesting post on the Soundboard blog, Conflict - What is It?. The post identifies 5 causes of conflict:

Control: the basic human desire is to effect the direction of events

Preferences: our personal styles
Beliefs about facts: perception vs. reality
Values
Relationships… we have with each others

All good points. Let me add 2 that are conflicts in family businesses:

Predictable Transitions. Every family business has a similar time line with transitions that WILL occur. They are predictable and therefore can be part of the "family business plan" early on in order for all stakeholders to see and have the ability to discuss with founders and all that are part of the family, wither working family or those that have some interest in the family business.

Emotional Resistance. Stemming from the above, there are emotional components to Transitions and many of those transitions are difficult to deal with from a personal/family perspective. The most obvious is dealing with family business transition issues related to the death of a family business member.

We all can look back and see that some of the conflicts we have experienced could have been eliminated or dealt with in a better way if we first recognized Predictable Transitions and Emotional Resistance. Starting to reconize Predictable Transitions requires being proactive early on and dealing with the large unkown of "I don't know what I don't know"... much harder to execute but never the less critical to the successful growth and transition of a family business.

All the best!

All the best! Dom Celentano Tips on Running a Small Business

Taking a "Humorous" and Effective Crack at Social Media

2011-03-02T14:15:00.000-05:00

The New York Times You’re the Boss blog had a great post by MP Mueller that is a text book example of the proper use of Social Media in a small business.

I am in agreement that many small-businesses with social media. Do you use Facebook, Twitter, do I start a blog? Oh and all of the work!

Expert Laser , the feature company's new hire Nathan Dube suggested they implement a social media campaign but the company could not find the capital to do this.

As a B2B company they needed to connect with their business clients. Light bulb moment: printers jam and all of us at one time or another have contemplated taking out our frustrations on the printer. So he thought, the company can create a contest, Destroy Your Printer,
asking people on Twitter to create videos doing just that. Winners get their 15 minutes of fame and two free toner cartridges. He used the search function on Twitter to find things like “punch printer,” “hate printer,” “kick printer,” etc. There is more and I want to get the Insights from this post so the entire post is at Taking a Crack at Social Media.

Insights and Learning's

Nathans idea is a text book example of social media as a tool.
What may not be apparent here is the overall strategy that readers can pull from this NOT using Social Media as an extension of the advertising effort that may focus on Features (attributes) and Benefits.

This category is heavily laden with promoting tangible features and benefits of the product and clearly customers want to know these things when making a brand decision. This is particularly evident in "compare and save" behavior when Private Brand cartridge are side by side with the brands.

The emphasis in a marketing strategy should be the "Emotional" or intangible aspect of what you are selling? Why? Because intangible are hard to compare and for the competition to copy. Clearly some categories are more of a challenge to apply this.

Customers periodically get frustrated with technology and of course the printer malfunctions when you need it most and "bashing" the printer is an emotional feeling we all can related to.

Social Media is a channel where we go to comment, compliment and complain. So a natural way for them or any brand is to use Social Media to relate to your customer and "feel their pain". Brilliant application for Expert Laser that all here can learn from.

Before you jump into Social Media, do some "listening" like Nathan did… you will be surprised at what you "hear"

All the Best

Diet Pepsi Skinny Can Launch Creating Backlash and Controversy

2011-02-27T09:46:00.000-05:00

As predicted, Diet Pepsi’s Skinny Can was sure to create a controversy and backlash with the rollout of their “Skinny Can”, the brand positioning was not on the features and benefits of Diet Pepsi. Features and Benefits of a product are necessary to articulate to the get trial and repeat purchase. The problem with Features and Benefits is this: they can easily be copied. Think about a diet beverage Features: no sugar, zero calories, etc. The Benefits are satisfaction of thirst without calories, helps you lose or maintain weight, etc. Every diet beverage has these features and benefits and the consumer can easily switch between brands. Read more...

The Family Business Test

2011-02-27T09:04:00.000-05:00

The New York Times ran an article on Nita Werners Family Business journey at Ornelas Enterprise.

The journey for most family members seeking to enter the family business can take several paths and there are always common challenges irrespective of the business or the family member.

A common challenge is the communications styles of family members. We born with a certain temperament and our communications styles are embedded in that temperament. Read more

All the best!
Dom Celentano
Tips on Running a Small Business

The Sell - Hold Decision for Closely Held Family Businesses

2011-02-19T13:47:00.000-05:00

Working on your Independent Credibility and Marketability

"Start planning now for your professional life at a company where the boss doesn’t share your last name" by working on your Independent Credibility and Marketability. For the Successor Generation, the issues of Credibility and Marketability come into play when the “safety” of the Family Business no longer exists. The vast majority of family members in a business never develop independent credibility and marketability and are ill prepared for this once a sale is completed.

I was a panelist in a seminar run by the Association For Corporate Growth (www.acg.org) on the Sell - Hold Decision for Closely Held Family Businesses. The audience composed of bankers, attorneys and M&A people were primarily focused on the “deal” and the audience was struck by the many non financial issues a Family Business must face in this decision. For the Successor Generation, the issues of Credibility and Marketability come into play when the “safety” of the Family Business no longer exists. The vast majority of family members in a business never develop independent credibility and marketability and are ill prepared for this once a sale is completed.

My mission in life, after being involved with a family business for over 35 years is to educate my Family Business clients, along with their key managers and professionals on the unique characteristics of Family Businesses.

Families and Family businesses are all about Transition and NOT Transaction. Although beyond the scope of this article the sale of a family business has the following impacts on the Family:

Impact on Family Values and Core Beleifs
Family must plan transition from a industrial/service family to a Financial Family
The family governance system must change insure a Family of Affinity exists beyond the next generation

You must take the steps necessary to mitigate the Trauma of the sale to help build a new family governance system and to lessen the impact on the Successor Generation.

Let’s talk about the Impact on the Successor Generation with respect to Credibility and Marketability, both academically as well as from personal experience. However we must first look at the structure of a family business.

The 3 Ring Model of the Family Business illustrated in Why Family Business is Different graphically illustrates the distinct dynamics of Family, Ownership and Business (Business consists of both Family and Non Family employees). What complicates the structure of Family Businesses is the overlap areas that are inherent in a Family Business.

Credibility
Too many members of family businesses have the air of Entitlement and do not understand nor develop Credibility. Dr. Gregg McCann, Founder of the Stetson University Family Business Center succinctly defines Credibility as “..having self-confidence and having those we associate legitimately validate that feeling.” There is an internal and external aspect… both of which you need to develop! Entitlement, on the other hand means getting something without deserving it.

The reality for those family members in a family business is they are employed due to Nepotism. Now there is nothing wrong with Nepotism. It is wonderful to be able to have your family work together; done properly it greatly strengthens the family bonds. I “got my job” in my family business because of Mom and Dad having me work in the business starting as a teenager, obtaining broad experience in Operations, Sales, Marketing, Finance, etc. Those in corporate rarely get this experiential opportunity and are unfortunately relegated to narrow “silos” of the business.

The problem with Nepotism is that one lacks the external credentials that validate ones capabilities in business. The outside world incorrectly connects Nepotism to Entitlement to lack of Competence. This means as a family business member, one has to work hard at establishing Credibility within your organization (Internal) as well as to the overall business community (External).

Why is Credibility ignored? In a family business there rarely is any pressure to establish credibility. Family is about Emotion, Security, Fun and an Inward Focus. Business is about Task Orientation, Productivity and is Externally Focused. The “insular” nature of family and family business can lead one to believe that credibility is not necessary to develop. Do you really need to formally develop your credibility with your family? Even if you know more than key non family personnel, how will the outside world validate that unless you make an effort to develop credibility beyond the safety net of the family business? I did not realize this. Even though my experience was broad and new more than my colleagues, I did not take the steps that were necessary to reinforce this with the external business community.

Marketability
Marketability is inextricably tied to developing Credibility. Again Gregg McCann succinctly defines Marketability as “…having the skills, credentials and experience needed to succeed in a career you want to pursue”. How many of you in family businesses interviewed for your job and created a resume? Maybe none? Families have unconditional support for each other as well as a high degree of trust. When I entered the family business as a teenager, I lacked the skills, credentials and experience that would be required should I have taken a different road to a business career. However parents, in general, believe in their children and the family business is a safe place to develop skills, credentials and experience, to make mistakes, and iteratively develop as a professional. I made many mistakes but was allowed a safe environment to grow, learn and flourish.

No longer in a family business, my Marketability is partly based on the Family Business experience, one reason being the business is a well known brand and to a degree I have some established, immediate credibility with new clients. However while I was with the family business, I was recognized as the “bosses son” first and then as Executive VP or whatever title I had at the time. Today my Marketability is External, such as a consultant to Family Businesses, Business Strategy Developer, Adjunct Professor, etc. Successes in Consulting or Teaching are unrelated to family and are easily verifiable and credible.

So What Do You Do?
You work on Credibility and Marketability simultaneously; they are linked and therefore one supports the other. If you are a founder set on selling the business, it is incumbent upon you to understand the impact on the Successor Generation. Examples:

Work in the family business has been a goal since early childhood and they are ensconced in values related to a Family Business.
They have prepared themselves academically and psychologically for the opportunity to work in the business.
When the business is sold, their dreams and hard work disappear. Their needs should be a key consideration prior to the sale. AND don’t assume that because they are younger they are flexible and have many opportunities. Emphatically this is wrong!
They will take years to recover and are shocked to the core and lack of recognition here can dissipate the family.

Work with a Family Business professional (not just your accounts and attorneys) to develop a plan to provide counseling on career opportunities outside the business as well as transitioning from a Family must plan transition from a industrial/service family to a Financial Family. Also insure that you monitor the successor generation for post sales trauma.

The Family’s must survive the sale and recognize that it’s most important assets, its human assets, are intact.

Tips for the Early Successor
If you are a Successor to the business take steps now to establish External Credibility and Marketability:

Create and maintain a resume and biography. This may sound simple… it is, but you want to have a portfolio of your accomplishments. If your business has a web site, inure that the site has a section outlining family history and a place for key member’s resumes and bios. The bio is critical when dealing with Public Relations opportunities.
Get involved with industry organizations. Creating a high level of visibility in external organizations in your industry allows you to establish credibility beyond the four walls of your business. Speak at trade shows, participate in advisory boards, show case your business as a leader in the field.
Get involved in your community. Run for office; sit on your Planning Board or Board of Adjustment. Participate on the Board of Education. Anything community oriented establishes credibility outside of your family business. If forces you to learn new things, deal with people in different ways, increases your visibility and so on. It establishes Marketability in so far as a non family entity has entrusted responsibility and accountability to you.
Get an MBA. In today’s business world, an undergraduate degree is not enough. An MBA adds a high level of credibility and enhances your marketability to the external world. The MBA also adds to your Intellectual Capital which inures great benefits to your Family Business. If you choose an Executive MBA, all the better since you also network with Peers and gain knowledge and insight from people outside of the Family Circle.

In Summary
“Shirt Sleeves to Shirt Sleeves in Three Generations”... 85% of all Family Business never reach the third generation. My goal as a family business consultant is to help family business get beyond the third generation. I hope I have inspired you to start the process of developing independent Credibility and Marketability through the knowledge and my personal trials and tribulations in this article. After you read this article, set it aside and come back for a second read. You have personal responsibility for your success, the business success and most importantly for the preservation of your family. Good Luck!.

All the best!
Dom Celentano
Tips on Running a Family Business

Reboot Reset and Respond

2011-02-19T10:17:00.000-05:00

In today’s business climate businesses that achieve success will have a business model that effectively manages the external changes in the economy and changes in consumer behavior. Consumers are moving away from “loyalty” to what is termed “preference”… what does this mean? Unlike loyalty, Preference is less brand loyalty and having a basket of brands to choose from based on price, convenience, availability, etc.

Here are Tips in Starting or Running a Small Business that should be adopted by any business that encompass:

Creating a Structured Plan of attack
Get your people moving
Determine what can be controlled

Reboot

What do you do when your computer runs slow or just freezes up? You reboot… it is the universal first approach to fixing the problem! Computers get cluttered with viruses, spyware and programs that are no longer used or provide value. The same goes for businesses that run slow or freeze up; they get cluttered, with things that are no longer relevant, old habits, low moral (viruses) and therefore the business needs a reboot.

Rebooting a business is way to get back to its core, before it becomes cluttered with things that get in the way of healthy operations.

Rebooting a business is of course more difficult than a computer; with the computer you just push the button. There is no “button” with a business. There are people, processes, products, customers and the like that need to be assessed as part of the reboot process.

Re-assess Assumptions

Assumptions as a rule should be re-assessed in any business periodically. The reality is most businesses don’t. Businesses and consumers are drastically changing their perceptions of value and the very nature of what they need and don’t need.

Today it is imperative to take a clean piece of paper and start from scratch! List all of the old assumptions in the left column. For each assumption use the Five Whys technique. Ask why, get the initial answer and then ask why again and again. Continue through the last why; if the answer does not make sense, throw out that assumption. In the right column place your new assumption and put it through the Five Whys test. Don’t be surprised if more than half of the business assumptions are no longer valid.

Determine the New Normal

Normal is relative; in business it should be relative to the external factors of the market. There was a time when groceries were only sold in grocery stores. Today food is everywhere, at the Supermarket, Convenience Stores, CVS, Dollar Stores, Amazon.com… the list goes on and on. It is called Channel Blurring. The US Post Office is suffering terribly because of not addressing the New Normal. First Class mail was “normal” for bills, correspondence, many business and legal documents and greeting cards. Today the new normal is email, virtual billing and e-cards.

Reset Expectations

It wasn’t long ago that the general consensus was real estate would appreciate indefinitely. No need to elaborate as to the inaccuracy of this expectation! It is prudent to reset expectations lower, and to consider using best, worst and normal case scenarios in any important business decision.

Respond, Change and Act Quickly

When you perform all of the above… don’t delay. Follow these three steps:

Create your Structured Plan of attack
Get people moving
Determine what can be controlled

Obviously you want to be careful with how quick is quick. As a key decision maker in your business, you need to balance the time it takes to enact change vs. how your market is functioning.

A good example of this is Social Networking. We all have heard of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, user groups, etc. This Social Networking phenomenon has mushroomed and radically changes how business is conducted. Estimates from numerous research houses point to this: approximately 80% of consumers use the Internet in some form in their every day purchase decisions. Once it was the norm to perform extensive research and conduct focus groups and mall intercepts. Today those are too slow. Companies such as Dell and Proctor and Gamble are now using what is called a Listening Strategy to find out what their consumers are saying about them. By engaging their customer’s real time, they are able to Respond, Change and Act quickly like never before.

I hope you find these tools useful in your business.

All the best! Dom Celentano Tips on Running a Small Business

Google Friendly Brand Names

2011-02-17T10:40:00.001-05:00

Social Media in Food is a topic dear to my heart and a blog post from Rachael Narins, aka @chickswknives on Twitter really hit home. The Top 5 Least-Google-Friendly L.A. Restaurants blog post has implications far beyond L.A. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the art and science of facilitating great "visibility" for your web site or blog post in search engine results, the first page being the most coveted. Read More...

All the best! Dom Celentano Tips on Running a Small Business

The FoodPreneur: A Woman Entrepreneur's Tasty Cure for Boring Foods...

2011-02-15T10:35:00.000-05:00

The FoodPreneur: A Woman Entrepreneur's Tasty Cure for Boring Foods...: "Many budding food entrepreneurs have great ideas they turn into tasty foods. It takes more than just a great tasting product to start a specialty food business..." Read More...

All the best!Dom CelentanoTips on Running a Small Business

Strategic Planning 7 Steps To Follow

2011-02-12T09:39:00.000-05:00

Strategic Planning is essential for all businesses to achieve long term sustainability. Far too often it is viewed as a complex task and many businesses do not plan which reduces the chances of a successful long term business venture.

There are 7 core steps to Strategic Planning... Click here to view a Business Strategy Tutorial...

All the best! Dom Celentano Tips on Running a Small Business

Are You The Old Man Trying To Deal With the Intern...

2011-02-08T09:43:00.000-05:00

The New York Times Your the Boss Blog had a post by Jay Goltz, The Old Man and the Internet. A salient comment was "This latest twist, becoming a Web marketer, is different. This time, it is not just about people and problems. It’s about understanding the realities of a whole new world. It crept up on me, this whole Internet thing. It’s probably the most powerful development since the Industrial Revolution, but I was a little slow to see it coming."

The post did address the technical aspects of web development that make our heads spin but as with many small business sites, marketing is addressed inadequately as a corner stone of a successful business. It should be the basis for a web site and social media effort. I attended a seminar organized by NJ.com, which is the web site for a host of leading New Jersey newspapers… the host was their chief of Search Engine Optimization and it was a revealing
look at how to us the web effectively, either B2B or B2C. From this seminar I have developed metaphors of building a house to add clarity to web site development since it is not just a technical exercise and should be a focused marketing exercise.

Let's reframe the post to the metaphor of buiding a house: you need sub-contractors, interior designers and architects.

The "Sub-Contractors". This is the backend heavy lifting done by as you say "the computer geek". This is where the technical work can get over most of our heads. Content Management Systems (or CMS) makes this much easier today. The sub-contractors can be divided into two: those that can add the HTML and other "geekie" stuff to the site if this is necessary and the e-commerce person who understands how to set up the shopping cart side. Sometimes you can find one firm or individual that can do this.

The "Interior Designer". This is the graphics person, not just a regular graphics designer, but an individual who understands graphics as well as creating the look and feel of the site and make the graphics work on the web.

Then there is the person I will call the "Architect", you may want to cast it as "director of the web". And the most important person since they pull it all together. The Architect should be a marketing person since the Sub Contractors and Interior Designers can make the site work and look fabulous. However the site is part of the marketing strategy and it better be relevant to the brand positioning desired. The site MUST be born from the marketing plan, which unfortunately most people choose not to create and make the mistake of jumping into site development first.

Your Architect should have a keen focus on the Optimization of the site. Forget about the old fashioned way of adding keywords (SEO)… Google is way to smart about this and their algorithms are tightly focused on relevance of the sites content versus what people are searching for. The really difficult part for the site owner is the creation of Optimized Copy and updating the copy so it is constantly relevant. Writing Optimized Copy almost becomes counter intuitive do to the need in researching and then including relevant keyword phrases Google algorithms are highly sensitive to social media activity and the Architect has to consider the organizations social media tactics to insure they are congruent with the web site.

Insights?

Find your "sub-contractors" and "interior designers"
Make sure your "architect" is marketing oriented
Transfer your marketing strategy into an effective web site.

Are you and entrepreneur? Enter the FDU Business Ventures Program.

2011-01-07T15:53:00.000-05:00

Are YOU ready for fresh perspective? FDU's Business Ventures Program provides an opportunity for advanced MBA students to partner with local businesses to tackle complex issues and craft comprehensive strategic solutions.

For businesses, it provides valuable entrepreneurial insight to strategically move your company to the next level. For students, it's hands-on consulting and much larger than classroom theory and simulation. This is real life. Whether you are a company seeking assistance or students seeking real-world challenges, this is truly a unique learning experience for all.

Visit our website www.fdu.edu/businessventures and discover how to expand your horizons and gain perspective. For more information and to request an application, contact Professor Gina Tedesco, gtedesco@fdu.edu, 908-696-8884 or 973-216-6267; or Professor Lindsey Greene Barrett, lgreene@fdu.edu, 201-739-9254.

All the best! Dom Celentano Tips on Running a Small Business

The FoodPreneur: I’m Still Standing afterTwenty-Five Years?

2011-01-04T08:08:00.000-05:00

In the New York Times Your The Boss Blog, Paul Downs posted, Twenty Five Years and I'm Still Standing. The essence is he has survived the ups and downs of business after 25 years and is wondering what is next? OK... we all are.

Well if a highway is a metaphor for the business environment, then standing implies the potential of colliding with traffic going in either direction? The white line in the center of the road is narrow and easy to move off of... yikes!

My take is this: Small Businesses need advice and skills NOT to stand but to move ahead. Hopefully I along with other business bloggers can use 2011 to help small businesses do more than stand? Maybe we can at least start with staying in the right hand slow lane :) Read More....

Small Business: Forget Hope. Start Learning Business & Think Like A Buyer!

2010-12-31T18:00:00.000-05:00

The FoodPreneur: Small Business: Forget Hope. Start Learning Busine...: "The New York Times Your The Boss Blog had a post by Jay Goltz, which I mentioned in a previous post is the harbinger to come. I had to post again with a comment.. the essecnce: Small Business: Forget Hope. Start Learning Business & Think Like A Buyer!

All the Best
Dom Celentano

The FoodPreneur: Preference Is Supplanting Loyalty and Explains Dic...

2010-12-29T18:49:00.000-05:00

The FoodPreneur: Preference Is Supplanting Loyalty and Explains Dic...: "Consumer Preference is supplanting Loyalty and may explain dichotomous consumer behavior in the latest Technomic 11 for 11 report on FoodSer..."

The FoodPreneur provides Tips on Starting a Specialty Food Business and helps you become more successful at:

~Getting your Idea out of the Kitchen

~And on to the Retailers Shelf

~And on to your Consumers Plate

Dom CelentanoThe FoodPreneur

Tips for Small Businesseses to be More Like Entrepreneurs

2010-12-29T10:48:00.000-05:00

The New York Times Your The Boss Blog had a post by Jay Goltz, which I believe is the harbinger to come.

The post, Are Small Businesses Going to Be Saviors or Victims?

was a wonderfully succinct outlook on what I see as the journey many Small Businesses need to take to become Entrepreneurs. Here is a quote from Jay that sums my feelings as well:

"The small businesses that succeed will need to do more than just hope. And they will need to do more than just complain about the government and wait for it to solve all problems. The real answer is to cope.

It’s always been that way. A successful entrepreneur copes with whatever problems come along, and there are sure to be plenty of them. Business ownership requires the wearing of many hats, which is part of the reason the failure rate for start-ups is high (about half survive for five years). To thrive, you have to understand accounting, finance, marketing, and management. It’s probably not enough to be great at just one or even two of those categories."

So here are some tips for growing your small business.

Entrepreneurs will lead the way, however the window of opportunity for many small businesses will be closing, which is just part of the business life cycle. It will become clearer how small business and entrepreneurship are different and many small businesses would be served well by taking advantage of the many resources available to them for increased business knowledge and skills.

I am reading a book "The New Experts" that articulates how the selling process has inverted in favor of the customer. Technology now allows a level of empowerment never before experienced by today's consumer. Consumer loyalty is rapidly eroding and morphing to consumer preferences. The meaning: consumers have so many choices they vet out prior to making a purchase and they buy differently. Preference means they buy differently based on circumstances, such as price, location, etc. Preference means a business has to constantly work to keep the consumer coming back.

Entrepreneurs who have a deeper level of knowledge of consumer behavior and can grasp marketing strategy will be the engines of growth. However I don’t see many small businesses recognizing they need to understand marketing, sales, accounting and finance. Too many are "artisans" who know and have a passion for their product and that is where it ends.

So looking into my Small Business crystal ball: right now it is cloudy. Suffice to say small business will "look" differently in the future, looking more like entrepreneurs… except I can’t see exactly what it is looking like!

All The best!

All the best!Dom CelentanoTips on Running a Small Business

How a Small Business Becomes a Big Business

2010-12-23T11:55:00.001-05:00

The New York Times Your The Boss Blog had a great post titled:
How a Small Business Becomes a Big Business

There are many reasons why businesses grow and fail. My insights from the blog are:

Scalability & Replicability
Growing through a series successful incremental steps
Taking a mulitgenerational point of view that allows a 40 plus year business plan

There is more to growing a business than "the numbers and customer service" and I wish to reframe things a bit.

For many entrepreneurs, 10% annual compounded growth would be a big yawn. The lesson learned here is a consistent growth pattern over the long haul yields tremendous results. The caveat is looking at the long haul vs. looking for usually unattainable overly aggressive growth forecasts.

Customer Service in today's environment is neutral and many businesses look at customer service as fixing problems. It appears Abt is practicing Customer Delight or focusing on the Customer Experience. Just Google either term and you will see what I mean. Customer Delight is this: "giving the customer an exemplary and unexpected experience". For this to work, the business must look at profits in a different manner: profits are your reward for delivering a delightful customer experience.

A small business becomes a big business through avoiding small thinking and developing Scalability and Replicability into their business. Where the confusion lies for small retailers is you can scale and replicate in the same location and do not need open new locations to do this. This does not work for all businesses so there is no way to create an omnibus formula for success in retail.

I believe a large component of their success… they are a family business. Yes, family businesses can be dysfunctional and difficult to transition from one generation to the next. I know first hand being in a family business for 35 years and teaching the subject at the university level.

Family Businesses tend to look very long term because a family is long term, transitioning from one generation to the next. Families go into business for far more than profits and have the ability to forgo short term gains for the long term health of the business and the ability to include the next generation. So it is very natural for a family business to plan for what might be considered banal growth rates, but then again they can take a 20, 40 or more year viewpoint. The beauty of compounded long term growth.

It is impossible in a blog post to flesh out why a business is successful. I am confident Abt's success is multi faceted. What I can say from what I read here and my family business experience are these key factors: slow , small, incremental steps in Scaling and Replicating and taking a very long term view of this business with conservative growth.

All the best! Dom Celentano Tips on Running a Small Business

Should College Graduates Consider Starting Their Own Business

2010-12-11T16:15:00.000-05:00

The New York Times Your The Boss Blog had an interesting post Can College Graduates Create Their Own Business?

There was a base article that the blog references that is a focus on Scott Gerber and his journey after he graduated. The lesson may be that entrepreneurship can be a viable career path, not a renegade choice — especially since the promise of “Go to college, get good grades and then get a job,” isn’t working the way it once did. The new reality has forced a whole generation to redefine what a stable job is.

I gave them my thoughts that college graduates certainly can and do create their own businesses and as a professor of Entrepreneurship I lean in this direction naturally. Having knowledge of entrepreneurship gives anyone a big advantage in starting your own business. Why?

Entrepreneurship and Small Business are different and one needs to recognize this before embarking on the journey.

A small business many times germinates from the individuals technician side… their subject matter expertise. Good examples are trades people who start by working for a contractor and then venture out on their own. Usually there is no plan on how to Scale and Replicate the business and there is nothing wrong with this.

Entrepreneurship is taking Ideas and determining if there is business feasibility that leads to an Opportunity. If this is the case, then how to create a replicable business model and scale the business successfully and generate value are what the true Entrepreneur excels at. Entrepreneurship knowledge instills the all important discipline of establishing the customer problem and how to solve it and be profitable.

Given the uncertainty that many who work in corporate America communicate to me, those who are recent graduates or still in college are well served to at least consider their own business as one of their career options. I will say that the student should also consider working for a company for several years before embarking on their own, applying problem solving skills, learned in an Entrepreneurship program, in the real business world. Honing them before venturing out on your own will help increase the probability of success.

All the best!Dom Celentano
Tips on Starting a Small Business

The FoodPreneur tips on starting a food business: Pay Per Click keeps getting attention. How about O...

2010-12-11T14:00:00.000-05:00

Pay Per Click keeps getting attention. How about O...: "Pay Per Click keeps getting attention. How about Optimized Copy for your foodpreneurial venture! Here are some tips for all Food Entreprene..."

All the best! Dom Celentano

The FoodPreneur tips on starting a food business: Product X: Plans for Product X - Product X Blog

2010-12-11T13:59:00.000-05:00

Product X: Plans for Product X - Product X Blog: "A cool bog that is on my short list to follow... Product X: Plans for Product X - Product X Blog: 'The Everything Marinator did not make it..."

All the best!DomCIG (Chief Idea Generator)

The FoodPreneur tips on starting a food business: Oh What a Charming Product

2010-12-11T13:58:00.000-05:00

Oh What a Charming Product: "Read my spotlight profile on Grill Charms. It is a great example of Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship. Leslie was featured on Shar..."

All the best!
Dom Celentano

Affinity Federal Credit Union Business Plan Seminar

2010-10-13T17:03:00.000-04:00

To see the supplimental presentation on marketing and feasability, go to the side bar marked pages and click on Feasability Analysis Presentation.

Please feel free to comment below with any questions you may have.

All the best! Dom CIG (Chief Idea Generator)

The FoodPreneur: Wow Social Media and other Onlie activities absorb...

2010-09-30T19:34:00.000-04:00

The FoodPreneur: Wow Social Media and other Onlie activities absorb...: "According to Nielsenwire... Americans spend nearly a quarter of their time online on social networking sites and blogs, up from 15.8 perc..."

Click on the link above to read more....

All the best!
Dom

The FoodPreneur: Whole Foods has 1.8 Million Friends! How Many Do Y...

2010-09-18T13:42:00.000-04:00

The FoodPreneur: Whole Foods has 1.8 Million Friends! How Many Do Y...: "I wanted the title to get your attention... guess it did :) I found a great piece on Natural Foods Marketplace regarding social media in th..."

All the best!Dom CelentanoThe FoodPreneur

Social Entrepreneurship. An Oxymoron?

2010-09-17T14:56:00.000-04:00

Jay Goltz wrote a post " What Exactly Is a Social Entrepreneur?" You can read the full post at http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/what-exactly-is-a-social-entrepreneur/
on the New York Times You’re the Boss Blog or click on the embedded article below.

This is a subject that is repeatedly coming up in Academia and in Business. Frankly no one really has definition of Social Entrepreneurship that most people can agree upon. Rutgers University, several months ago, ran a symposium just on this subject. The purpose of the conference was to develop a definition for a Social Entrepreneur and prepare guidelines for a Social Entrepreneurial venture. We spent 4 hours and came to few conclusions.

The conference came to no conclusions because everyone has a different way to define Social Entrepreneurship. The moderator went around the room to get what people felt the definition should be. Firstly there were no concise definitions. The range was from ventures that are started to generate proceeds to help people pay their rent or mortgage, ventures that are "green" and have a sustainable element to it, ventures that have a higher social cause and make some money, to the For-Profit arm of a Non Profit. So can you see my point, there is no consensus.

What you do hear is this; Triple Bottom Line, namely people, planet and profits define a Socially responsible business. The difficulty is in balancing the three elements… you can just imagine the debate in starting a business that, let's say, is creating composting technology. This is certainly something that helps the Planet, but it may only be profitable if it is made overseas to have a price point that is attractive to institutions that are more likely to gravitate to this product, such as hospitals, schools, municipalities, etc.

Additionally accounting has only a single bottom line, profits. So getting investors interested is a challenge since the other two bottom lines do not have way to account for their Return on Investment. So, "What Exactly is a Social Entrepreneur"? Hmmm… what day of the week are we discussing it :) All the best! Dom CIG (Chief Idea Generator)

The FoodPreneur: Do you think most new products have a go to market...

2010-08-11T18:07:00.000-04:00

The FoodPreneur: Do you think most new products have a go to market...: "Jeff Landsman runs New Foods Connections as a LinkedIn foods focused group as well as a Glorious Foods, http://gloriousfoods.net/. Recently ..."

All the best!Dom CelentanoThe FoodPreneur

Is the window of opportunity closing for many small businesses?

2010-08-10T14:56:00.000-04:00

Barbara Taylor wrote a blog post noting the difficulty in contemplating the future with the numerous contradictory headlines we see daily.

Business valuations are dramatically reflected in these tough times and as an expert in business valuations and sales, these are certainly difficult conversations she must have with her clients. She posed numerous questions to her associate Tom West, founder of the Business Brokerage Press and author.

You can read the full blog with comments at

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/still-waiting-for-the-value-of-your-business-to-recover/

I told Barbara,
I don’t want to be negative, but many businesses today will never see their value recover.

Everybody in business school learns about the product life cycle… we all have had our professors show us the curve. Businesses don’t have a product lifecycle per se but every business segment has what are called "windows of opportunity"… the time frame where there is sufficient consumer demand for your business model.

When I teach this in my Entrepreneurship Courses or my professional educational programs I use the video rental business as the perfect example… they all started as small independents, and then the business moved to the chain retail phase, BlockBuster for example. But then technology allowed disruption in the business and came along NetFlix, in both delivered format and download on demand. Now things have changed again with the entry of RedBox offering video rentals in a kiosk for $1 at your local supermarket.

Therefore the window of opportunity for independent video stores is for the most part… closed.

I believe too many of the "main street" businesses have their window of opportunity closed… replaced by other formats or lack of demand. Way too many were based on just passion or location and that is no longer enough to compete with the WalMart's, Amazons or the channel blurring occurring throughout retail today

Lack of financing is certainly a factor in the lack of health in small business and it may be hastening the demise that would naturally occur as the window closes in one area and starts to open elsewhere.

All the best!
Dom

Set Boundaries with your Spouse. You may be married but you are in charge!

2010-08-10T07:53:00.000-04:00

Jay Goltz had a post in the New York Times, "Do Sales People Make Too Much Money?" The entire post with comments is at http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/do-salespeople-make-too-much-money/.

The story articulates how the companies very successful sales people left the company due to the owners spouse having concerns that the sales people had better homes then theirs.

I suggest the REAL lesson learned for those in small businesses; consider addressing boundaries between you and your spouse. A spouse is a stakeholder in the business, irrespective of whether your spouse has ownership interest or not. However stakeholders do not have automatic authority to make or influence business decisions.

In this case, the spouse had undue influence here... crossing the boundary that the husband never set up.

So "Mixing bosses and employees at a party can be dangerous." may be a result of a gathering but not setting boundaries with your spouse in the business can be devastating... as you point out... he is now out of business.

All the best! Dom CIG (Chief Idea Generator)

The FoodPreneur: New Jersey Monthly Features The FoodPreneur and Taste of Crete.

2010-07-21T13:43:00.000-04:00

The FoodPreneur: New Jersey Monthly Features The FoodPreneur and Taste of Crete.

Food Entrepreneurs Work To Get Their Products In New Jersey Stores-www.njmonthly.com

2010-07-21T13:15:00.000-04:00

Food Entrepreneurs Work To Get Their Products In New Jersey Stores-www.njmonthly.com

Interested in Starting a Food Business?

2010-05-05T10:57:00.000-04:00

The FoodPreneur OnLine University Boot Camp starts this evening. If you are interested in attending, sign up at http://www.thefoodpreneurbootcamp.com/what-is-bootcamp/course-schedule-registrationLook forward to seeing you!All the best! Dom CIG (Chief Idea Generator)

A Focus on Niche Segments OR a Frontal Attack

2010-04-29T09:56:00.000-04:00

The New York Times Your The Boss Blog had a case study on a brand called Shave Mate. The created a disposable 6 blade shaver with shaving cream built into the shaver. The military saw it as a great value to the troops who were forced to dry shave. Yuk!

Here is the article with the details.

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/how-can-shavemate-compete-with-schick-and-gillette/

The question posed was can the compete with Gillette AND spend a potential $1Million to do this. See the case for more details by clicking on:

Shave Mate can't and should not compete with Gillette. This is called a "Frontal Attack Strategy" and small companies have a VERY low probability of succeeding in this strategy. I suggest they read Winning Marketing Strategy: The Rules by Richard George and John Stanton for some great advice.

This is a niche product that has great appeal
where separate shavers and shaving cream don’t make sense. For normal every day use, it does not. They are focusing too much on features and benefits as opposed to the Derived Value a consumer perceives through the belief in their purchase. That is the Emotional connection to the product and all consumer products strive to make that emotional connection.

LPI Consumer Products appears to be strong in developing niche products. For those who have commented and not seen their site, check it out first. Customer Segmentation is part of Target Marketing and far too few Entrepreneurs recognize that many products have a Derived Value to a few segments.

They can be a "House of Brands" or a "Branded House".

What is wrong with having an entire basket of highly segmented products and consumers? If they aggregate to a meaningful revenue and profit number… great!

They are better served to take the $1 Million estimate from the case study and spread that over several new product initiatives that appeal to other segments. This reduces risk and provides the company with many more opportunities.

All the best! Dom CIG (Chief Idea Generator)

Can you learn from other businesses in a group?

2010-04-21T17:58:00.000-04:00

A very interesting post in the New York Times Blog, Your The Boss by Jay Goltz, http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/should-you-join-a-business-group/ is the first in a two part series on the benefits oa joining a business group. There are so many groups that it can be daunting. They range from groups on LinkedIn, Meetup.com to high end groups such as YPO, EO and the like. Be careful about your selection and pay particular importance to the credentials of the moderator. You want more than just a professional facilitator.

Any business can benefit from joining a business group, provided there is an understanding of the following:

1. I don't know what I don't know. Business groups can provide wide ranges of perspective and knowledge... Filling in your blind spot. Their experiences collectively go far beyond what one can gain individually. We all have blind spots and IF you recognize that, a business group is a great asset to you.

2. Borrow, Adapt, Adopt. To Jay's point, when you peel the onion skin back, there are great commonalities across all businesses. Being in a diversified group allows a business to take great ideas from other non related businesses and adapt them to their business. Many people would be amazed at how much can be repurposed from other business segments.

All the best!
Dom
CIG (Chief Idea Generator)

How do you compete with P&G?

2010-04-15T09:55:00.000-04:00

The New York Times Your The Boss Blog http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/is-hangers-cleaners-taking-the-right-steps/ had an interesting Blog Post and subsequent Case Study http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/business/smallbusiness/15sbiz.html on Hangers, a dry cleaning business that is using Sustainable methods in a business that is not known for being eco-friendly.

The blog asked several small businesses for their comments on Hangers business and marketing strategy. I think those who commented where thinking "small" vs. thinking of Scalability and Replicability.

Hangers is definitely in the correct direction. A Small Business can't take a "frontal attack" strategy on Procter and Gamble and they are correct in not pursuing this.

I have three suggestions for Joe to focus upon:

Customer Delight
Customer Beliefs
Lifetime Value of a Customer

Customer Delight. Joe is focusing on "delighting" his customers with services that P&G can't or won’t provide. He should consider building the delight strategy into his Marketing Plans. He is delighting his customers but I see it as more tactical than strategic.

Customer Beliefs'. There is an easy to use Marketing Tool called the Benefits Ladder. You list your product/service Features and Benefits. Competition can try to duplicate these tangibles. The real challenge is to determine a consumer Belief for the purchase. This is the emotional connection a consumer has with a Brand and creates repeat purchase. Build into your strategy the belief you want your customer to have… or create a survey of your customers to determine the emotional connection they articulate with Hangers.

Life Time Value of Your Customer: Cleaning is a service customers need frequently as opposed to buying durables such as cars and televisions. Try to calculate the value of your customer over some period of time. This helps to focus what investments Hangers can make in the future and it will facilitate the process of determining the ROI of these investments.

Given Hangers sales and profit increases, they are doing the "right" things. Hangers should add the above suggestions to their plans. Why? Because this allows them to Replicate and Scale the business methodically. And… the most successful businesses have mastered Scalability and Replicability.

All the best!
Dom
CIG (Chief Idea Generator)

Can Pizza help you in Target Marketing?

2010-03-24T21:43:00.000-04:00

What!! The headline is there to grab your attention and to illustrate in clear terms what you should consider in acheiving success in this business environment.

I have been reading numerous blogs and articles focused on small businesses reevaluating their customer or client base. We all know things are changing and our customers are changing in their needs, wants and desires…. The New Normal. I bristle at using the phrase since it is so overused these days but it is the best "sound bite" to express the business environment today. Responding to the new customer base would appear to be the right way to achieve improved sales and profitability.

Most recently the New York Times Your The Boss Blog had a posting titled Kicking Around a New Sales Strategy by Jennifer Walzer. http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/kicking-around-a-new-sales-strategy/. This gave me the incentive to distill down the complex issues related to Customer Segmentation that can be used by anyone in any business.

Some of you might query your cohorts regarding their experiences and challenges and many of you will embark on this effort without creating a marketing strategy to redefine and target what you believe is your most profitable target.

Most companies routinely search for the "ideal" customer/client.
Unless your company is very small and your product only appeals to a narrow niche, then thinking ideal is artificially limiting. You are thinking like a small business and not an entrepreneur. They key objectives of what you do should be Replicating what you do in a quality and consistent manner. Additionally your objective is to Scale your business, your articulation of a revenue goal, maybe a stretch goal that is just a bit beyond your reach. So far so good… we now see that Scalability and Replicability are the major differences between a Small Business owner and an Entrepreneur.

You are in good company when you start the process of transitioning to the new normal. But don’t get enamored by Niche Marketing, Target Marketing and the like. You need to get to a more foundational basis of Segmentation. You rarely here this from the so called experts. Why? Because it requires more work to incorporate into a marketing plan and most of the experts don’t understand Segmentation!

In teaching marketing Kean University and Fairleigh Dickinson University and providing Marketing Strategy to clients, Target Marketing is a hot button word and tossed around without the commensurate understanding of its' composition. The foundation of a target market is not a homogeneous group of customers/clients. Rather is a series of Customer Segments that make up the Target. The target is like a Pizza with slices, yet the slices differ slightly in flavor, toppings and size.

The retail sector is the most advanced in understanding segmentation and how to serve those segments well… and they do it under the same store banner and physical facility.

For example, CVS defines their Target Market as females; over 80% of their shoppers are women. Yet CVS has developed three segments of consumers: Caroline, Vanessa and Sophie. By segmenting they are able to better understand, reach and service their customers based on their segment behavior. Each segment differs by age, marital status, and purchased behavior.

So do you want a Competitive Edge in this New Normal? My advice is to first classify your customer/clients into segments and then determine if they are a single target market or potentially several target markets. Once you determine this, your Marketing Plan will be built with one or more strategies that will provide a Delightful Customer experience and simultaneously Scale your business to Sales or Profit level you desire to achieve.

All the best!

Dom
CIG (Chief Idea Generator)

Don't try to swim by just jumping in the water!

2010-01-19T10:08:00.000-05:00

The New Tork Times Your The Boss Blog has Jack Stack who is an expert at Open Book Management. His last post was a company his firm took over and began the process of Open Book Management. If reading the article correctly, they let the existing teams come up with the solutions to problems. The entire post is http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/starting-over-in-lexington-a-clarification/. My issue in both posts was you can't throw people into the water and say swim! Here are my comments.

Open Book methodology can be analogized to how High Performance Teams are created and managed. My issue is just Opening Books and asking people to solve their problems is flawed, unless we are all not fully understanding what you do.

High Performance teams just don't materialize… someone develops the structure and it is not intuitive and therefore needs a structure and methodology handed to the levels of the organization that are closest to the problems/opportunities. I speak from experience in so far as this process is one I use repeatedly.

Team Key Elements and Keys to Success of High Performance Teams must be designed properly and adhere to a process for the team to be successful. So here are the key elements of team design.

· A Purpose

· Performance Goals
· Small Wins
· Problem Solving Approach which has six steps:

Issues.... defining all issues identified by the team
Root Causes... narrowing down to a few causes related to the issues
Define the real Problem or Problems...
Set the Objective(s)...
Develop the Strategy...
Create a Tactical Plan

The last element is the Decision making processes and there are many ways to get to a decision. I use these and know they work so in brief they are:

• Consensus

Compromise is used so every team member can agree with and commit to the outcome. This produces innovative decisions, but can be time consuming.

• Majority Rule

A simple Majority agrees upon the decision. This allows a quick decision process but can only be successfully used for routine and administrative issues.

• Minority Rule

This usually takes the form of a subcommittee that recommends actions. If is appropriate for decisions that require special expertise that may only be in the minority of the team. However it does not use all team members’ capabilities and therefore should be used infrequently.

• Authority Rule without Discussion

Decisions are handed down from Ownership. This is best for administrative needs or for emergency situations that do not allow for an elongated decision process. The downside of this process is that one person never can be knowledgeable for all decisions and is not taking the collective knowledge of the team.

• Authority Rule with Discussion

This process is a hybrid. Those with decision making authority make it clear that they have the authority. They start by gathering all team member inputs. The final decision is made with team member input and leader lets team members know the decision and how their inputs affected the decision. This requires good communications skills between decision makers and team members.

So Opening the Books is great as long as there is a process for the Organization to follow…. The process is not one that most employees below the C level understand so success is based on some education of the non C Level managers in following this methodology.

All the best!
Dom
CIG (Chief Idea Generator)

3 Steps to Incorporate into Small Business Planning 2010

2010-01-13T09:03:00.000-05:00

Jay Goltz had an interesting post in the NY Times Your The Boss Blog and you can click on the picture above to read the entire column, After reading it, here are my thoughts are Small Business Playing the Recession Right.

Far too many Small Business owners tend to seek advice from their accountants or attorneys. Of course we need both as subject matter experts but they are wholly unqualified to provide strategic advice to the Small Business community. Small business too often does not follow a plan to generate long term wealth for owners and possibly family members entering the business. They are in the business because they do something well or turned an avocation into a paycheck.

There is far too much emphasis to small businesses with respect to accounting and very little with respect to understanding customer behavior, understanding that customer experience matters, basics of customer segments and target marketing, anticipating hurdles, etc. It gets back to the lack of business skills that are the death knell of most small businesses. I counsel so many businesses at the Small Business Development Center at Raritan Valley College, http://www.rvccsbdc.com/. I spent two years acquiring and MBA in Marketing yet the blidnspot of too many small businesses prevents them from investing 3 hours of their time on core marketing and/or financial skills. I just don;t get it!

I have distilled down the basic elements of Jays comments that readers here would be well served to incorporate it into their plan for 2010. Jays comments are in Italics:

1. "You spent a lot of money on advertising.” This really addresses the Life Time Value of a customer. Too many Small Businesses look at customers as transactions. Wrong! Also Advertising today takes more of the form of Social Media since 85% of people make their purchase decisions on peer recommendations. Learning's here: Investigate ways to engage your customer beyond conventional media… it is less expensive and more effective.

2. “You could have laid off three or four more people.” Too many small businesses are not creative enough to look for savings elsewhere. I have one client who can save $30,000 or more annually on shipping materials yet have tunnel vision in thinking their staff is working too much overtime! Learning's here: Get your P&L out and see the possibilities of bottom line enhancements by focusing on ALL other areas of your business first. It takes more work on your part but hey… that is your job as the boss!

3. "O.K., fair enough. What about giving everybody pay cuts? You certainly took one.” Here is where we digress. Furloughs are common and keep everyone employed all be it at a lower pay scale. The "top" guy can only affect the bottom line through pay cuts or freezes. Learning's here: If you can articulate a path where everyone pitches in to help the company see it's way through a tough time, you can make it. Again it takes some work at crafting the plan and it is more than just a brief meeting with the staff.

If 1 through 3 don’t make sense as a small business owner, you might consider acquiring some additional business skills ASAP since each is grounded in principles that work.

All the best!
Dom
CIG (Chief Idea Generator)

Cutting SBDC funding is foolish

2010-01-08T18:10:00.000-05:00

Here was a letter to the editor I wrote to NJBiz, http://www.njbiz.com/, regarding the potential for Chris Christie to help restore some of the custs that have severley effected the New Jersey Small Business Development Centers. I guess they liked what I said and would like to share it with all of you.

You can read all of the letters at http://www.njbiz.com/print_article.asp?aID=80268 or click on the little graphic of the letters to the editor page.

I am pleased to see the Dec. 7 NJBIZ editorial, “Christie’s chance to erase unkindest cuts of all.” For small business, a key aspect is reinstating critical funding for the New Jersey Small Business Development Centers.
The federal stimulus bill ignored business and put too much money into irresponsible businesses in the financial sector. It is unbelievably foolish to cut SBDC funding that provides critical small-business guidance;
these businesses need the professional help as much as capital to fund their businesses.

I have counseled at the Small Business Development Centers, http://www.sbdcrvcc.com/,
at Raritan Valley College for more than six years and am part of the staff that provides continuing education programs touching every area of small business. SBDCs help small businesses overcome what is deemed, “I don’t know what I don’t know,” commonly called the “blind spot,” which causes the most pain with these businesses. The seasoned professionals at SBDC have seen it all and can help reduce the blind spots. Our group can also reinforce what the businesses know, help them grow this competency and point them to resources in the areas they don’t know in a rapid and timely manner.

The SBDC educational programs provide a depth of curriculum unmatched elsewhere that is easily adopted by the small-business owner and presented in an environment of other small-business owners. This “horizontal learning,” as we call it in education, is another unheralded benefit of the program; business owners share their knowledge, skills and experience with each other.

The Small Business Development Centers are one of the best-kept secrets in this state, so let’s get some funding back to get more of these businesses into our offices and classrooms.

All the best !

Dom
CIG (Chief Idea Generator)

Consider Applying for Fairleigh Dickinsons Venture Creation Program

2010-01-05T14:50:00.000-05:00

For those of you in the Northern New Jersey area, you might consider looking into a unique program at Silberman College of Business, Fairleigh Dickinson University. It is the MBA capstone Venture Creation Program in Entrepreneurship.

Each Semester Fairleigh Dickinson University’s MBA in Entrepreneurship candidates
form consulting teams to partner with New Jersey based ventures to tackle complex business situations and provide tailored entrepreneurial and innovative business strategies, creative business models, and effective business plans.

I attend each Venture Creation Program in Entrepreneurship end of semester presentation and have also been a student advisor several times. It is a great way to get a vetted out business plan and to add some discipline to your business going forward.

To read more about the Fairleigh Dickinson Venture Creation Program in Entrepreneurship program and to submit a request click on this link: http://view.fdu.edu/default.aspx?id=7535.

You can also click on this image of a December 20 article from the Daily Record that gives you some great insight into what happens during the program.

A 2010 Resolution For Small Business

2010-01-04T10:51:00.000-05:00

Happy New Years to all!

NY Times You’re the Boss, Eight Steps to a Better Year in 2010, post by By JAY GOLTZ had several interesting points and Social Media is the one I want to address. You can read the full post at http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/eight-steps-to-a-better-year-in-2010/ or click on the image here:

Social Media and Mobile Marketing can be Small Businesses Best Friends OR worst enemies.
Twitter is over-used as an example for small business so think Blogging and text based mobile marketing.

Mobile Marketing, although not exactly Social Media is a low or no cost method for small business to practice Segmented Marketing efficiently.
A good place to get information on mobile marketing, http://www.utipu.com/app/tips/?search=smartreply. I use it as an example for clients and in my Marketing and Entrepreneurship courses. Although they are a provider, their webinars are VERY educational and you will walk away with many ideas.

Small Businesses are using this tactic at an exponential rate. I was recently in Scottsdale Arizona and had breakfast at a small chain called "The Good Egg". On their home page, http://www.thegoodeggaz.com/
they have a box that promotes joining their text club. One might say that breakfast is undifferentiated… they are using mobile marketing AS a small business to be differentiated.

Start a Blog! I counsel so many small businesses and can’t understand the reluctance of small businesses to do this. Google's Blogger tools make it so easy to do this. You do need some patience in that it can take up to six months before you see some results. If you have a list of customers, email them with the blog URL to get the conversation going.

Bear in mind that a blog takes time and you will get good as well as bad feedback. Shelve your pride on the negative feedback… it is an opportunity to recapture a customer or as we say in marketing, practice "recovery". It is a also a great way to reinforce all of the good "stuff" you do for your customers. And customers love to get the feedback from the blog.

Customer Delight or Customer Experience DOES matter… the big guys are spending a great deal of time and money on this. If they continue making progress on the customer experience field, small business will not have that as it’s only differentiator. Want to know more about customer experience matters? Check out http://experiencematters.wordpress.com/. In fact if you have an RSS feed, add it. It is written by a reseracherer from Forrester. Great information for free!

There are many resources for getting some "education" in Social Marketing and Mobile Marketing. one example is the Small Business Development Centers throughout the country. Many courses are free or at a nominal charge. Use 2010 as the year to get a leg up on the competition and to get to engage your customer more intimately. If you don't, some one else will….

All the best!

Dom Celentano

My thoughts on 2010 for Small Business

2010-01-03T13:52:00.000-05:00

Jay Goltz wrote a post, on The NY Times You’re the Boss Blog, titled, "Thoughts on the End of a Very Long Year. Here is the link to the full post:

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/thoughts-on-the-end-of-a-very-long-year/.

What intrigues me was his assessment related to 2010. "This is like a giant science experiment where you mix the Internet, excess commercial real estate, tighter borrowing standards, little to no inflation, pay cuts, lower real estate values, a depressed stock market, a new-found desire on the part of consumers to pay down credit cards and maybe even save money all mixed together to form the new normal. What will it look like?"

Small Business has a mixed bag to deal with going forward. The often used phrase of the New Normal attempts to depict the uncharted state of the future that both small and large businesses are grappling with. There are many factors related to small business such as the definition of what is a small business, the sector the business competes within, etc,. so my comments are related to my area of expertise in Small Business, the Consumer Sector.

There was a time that Value was king… and that is still important.
Small Businesses have to figure out what value they offer to the consumer. So, why should the consumer make that extra stop, vs. shopping at the super store or off-price retailer? Even "e-Small Businesses" are not immune when you consider the plethora of items that can be purchased at Amazon. The Internet has empowered the consumer to easily seek out value, whether it be price comparison services or iPhone Apps that will scan bar codes and immediately return a list of retailers who sell that product and for how much.

The most important trend in Retail to emerge is Affordability. A product or service can have substantial and real value, but if the consumer can’t afford it… it goes un-purchased. Or worse yet, your customer finds a more affordable alternative at a competitor and you potentially lose that customer permanently.

Big companies are recognizing the power of "small"… just look at Wal-Mart's Marketside effort of small footprint stores. Tesco the largest European retailer has been rolling out Fresh & Easy, a small-format, neighborhood stores on the West Coast. Whole Foods is moving away from the mega-store concept and focusing on smaller footprints. If you want to see the epitome of success at blending Small, Value and Affordability, go into a Trader Joes.

The big guys are getting really good at supply chain management, squeezing costs out of the system that they are making it impossible for small businesses to succeed in certain market segments. So small businesses can't succeed in the area of costs.

So what will it look like for Small Business in 2010? I am still grappling with this question. If one looks at the trends and not be myopic, the days of Small Businesses running undifferentiated businesses, operating without an increased level of necessary business skills, thinking that just because they make or sell the best of…. focusing on what they like vs. what the consumer wants, well... those days are rapidly coming to an end. Sure there will always be businesses that people go into just for a paycheck or the local dry cleaner, local mechanic, etc. But that is not where the success of Small Business will be.

For 2010 and beyond, Small Businesses would be served well by embracing these five principles Rebooting, Re-Assessing Assumptions, Determine what the New Normal will be, Reset Expectations, and Respond, Change and Act Quickly. Not to seem totally negative, I have some positive thoughts as well and will republish an article dealing with the elements of the New Normal.

All the best!

Dom

Family Business & Open Book Management! Oil & Water will Never Mix.

2009-12-22T20:36:00.000-05:00

My interest is always peaked when a blog post references family businesses. I teach Family Business Management, consult with them and have 30 years experience in a major family business.

Jack Stack is a blogger on The NY Times You’re the Boss Blog and he writes about Open Book management, you can check this out at http://www.greatgame.com/.

His most recent post, Messing With The Family, http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/messing-with-the-family/ discusses the difficulty of Open Book Management for family-owned companies and tells the tale of Jacks friend who was hired as a CFO to as he says "… help a nice little specialty packing company in the Midwest go open-book". Jack hears many excuses why businesses can’t open their books to employees and hears it more frequently from people who work at family-owned businesses. His point is "families have gotten used to running the business a certain way and trying to go open-book is a massive cultural change".

Many family business run non-business-related expenses through the business… for those of us who teach Family Business and consult to Family Businesses… no big surprise here. In fact sometimes one family member is unaware of what the others are charging to the business. So if you opens the books, it's all out there for every employee to see and of course question.

Now I agree with Open Book Management, but in a family business, that is akin to pushing water uphill. It just won’t work 85% of the time. Why 85%? Read further :)

Few people really know the basic structure of a family business.

A family business is best defined in a Venn diagram of three overlapping circles, Family, Business and Ownership. It is the overlap of each where things just get messy and conventional business strategies and tactics fail. The vast majority of business professionals do not understand the dynamics of a family business and hence try to apply these, for the most part unsuccessfully. It is no wonder that 85% of family businesses fail prior to the 3rd generation.

Usually Nepotism is pointed to in situations such as this but that over-simplifies the problem here. Family businesses are surrogates for the family system and as such they act more like a family than a business. So, can you imagine running an Open Book family? How many of us knew or know what our parents made or their net worth? How many of us remember our parents warning us never to tell anyone how much dad or mom made? "Family Secrets" rule Family Business… and one of those secrets are money and wealth.

Also, another thing that bothers me… Family Business is referenced repeatedly as some sort of homogeneous business group. Larger family businesses are different from the typical mom and pop family business picture we conjure up in our minds. Those will never open their books… they do not have the business sophistication to understand what you are proposing.

In the business he blogged about, they were 3rd generation. At that point, a family business naturally moves toward more structured methods in their operations and has a more management focus. By the 3rd generation a Family Business is ready for some house cleaning so the Open Book project he blogs about just moved things along a bit faster.

I asked Jack to have a follow-up to this story.

I find there are not enough business stories on Family Businesses and for those in family businesses, stories such as this can be "teachable moments" that may help them sustain to the next generation. For those who interface with family businesses, either as outside professionals or managers, these are examples of the necessity to better understand the unique characteristics of family business and to modify their classical business techniques to effectively deal with the Family, Business, Ownership boundary overlap.

Dom

Why Entrepreneurs Don't Scale

2009-12-18T17:35:00.000-05:00

Jennifer Walzer always has great blogs on subjects all of us can relate to. Her latest two dealt with the explosion of emails, upwards of 1100 at one point. Candidly she asked for help from the readers and many great ideas came forth, mostly tools and techniques of managing the inflow. One reader was on the right approach by recommending more delegation. Good start but a ways to go.
However I recognized that this was the typical Symptom vs. Problem scenario. I was fortunate to take a Problem Solving class in my MBA program and it really changed how I think about things and recognize most "problems" are symptoms.

In here case the symptom was the explosion of emails... the problem was really not Scaling as a leader of a rapidly growing business. Fortunately she is a blogger on the NY Times and did get some good advice on delegating to eliminate the bottleneck she was creating. Now I really like Jennifer and she is really bright because in just a two day period she took the first big step. I constantly quote my former professor and colleague at St Joes Haub School of Business, Dr. Richard George, who always states : "...don't tell me what you have learned... tell me how you will act differently with WHAT you have learned". She took her several days of learning and is now starting to think and act differently. Here is my response to her 2nd post;

Jennifer, you hit the nail on the head with "delegate…". Your original post was less of a technology issue and more of an Entrepreneurial Scaling Issue. There is a great Harvard Business Review article called "Why Entrepreneurs Don’t Scale". The articles main point: "qualities that serve them [entreprneurs] well in launching businesses often bring them down as their companies grow".

The article has four key points. The email problem was really a symptom, the problem is probably what the article defines as Tendency for Task Orientation which creates the bottlenecks that Entrepreneurs experience as their business attempts to Scale. Task Orientation tendencies were identified in people from technical backgrounds and one hopes a business such as yours pays attention to the details:)

However, Entrepreneurs who do learn to Scale do so in a variety of ways and one way is seeking input from others and to know when and how much to change. The fact that you openly ask for advice in a very candid manner says you are already Scaling!

To Peters comment, it is far more than just going on an information diet. It is knowing the difference between what is Important vs. what is Urgent, recognizing that the CEO is less valuable in Task mode and adds far more value spending time thinking Abstractly, gaining Insights from what one sees internally and far more importantly from what is happening "outside".

Clearly you are open to learning, and that is a valuable asset you possess for your company.

Please read the entire Post at http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/getting-my-e-mail-under-control/

Economic Development Authority Bridges Gap and Saves Jobs

2009-12-15T12:36:00.000-05:00

There was a recent article regarding the Michigan Economic Development Corporation creating an interesting and effective program to aid Small Businesses in the credit crunch. You can read the full article in Business Week at http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_51/b4160074968656.htm written by John Tozzi.

Wolverine Metal Stamping was not able to get a line of credit for a contract lined up to supply Whirlpool due to inadequate business collateral and their bank stepped away. The MEDC provided cash as collateral to the bank to cinch the deal and Wolverine can now execute on their $10 Million contract, obviously creating many jobs. Now that is creative!

As I have stated numerous times here and on my own blogs, the SBA model at least for now will not substantially help small businesses because they rely on a business model that requires:

1. Collateral

2. Reliable Future Cash Flows

By stepping up with cash, MEDC has solved one of the two problems, Collateral. Now if Congress can stop giving away money in useless spots and increase funding substantially to SCORE and Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) we begin to fix the other problem of reliable Future Cash Flow projections as well as to address a new problem of small businesses; potential need to revamp your business model.

As a counselor at the Raritan Valley Community College, www.sbdcrvcc.com, the SBDC helps many small businesses address significant issues that for the most part they do not have the skills or knowledge to address.

The first is addressing the Exponential changes occurring in our economy, the consumer, channels of distribution, the move from value to affordability, etc. Many small businesses have outdated business models, or worse yet, don't even know their model needs changing. Some here might think "business model" is some fancy academic term… it is essentially how are your servicing and delighting your customer. Today, if you are not running a business with Customer Delight, your model needs a change.
The second is the proper and accurate way to forecast your business revenue. Most small business owners think they need their accountant to do this. Not so. I have shown many businesses how to do basic Build Up Sales Assumptions and Financial Feasibility spreadsheets and have created templates they can download. Yes you will probably need your accountant to do Proformas that a bank will require, but Proformas are fed by the Assumptions and Feasibilities you create.

Money without the associated education on how to invest it for a good ROI in your business increases the chances of failure, and the continued increase in SBDC funding helps address this.

Whole Foods Spreading Seed Capital in their Local Producer Loan Program

2009-12-13T13:45:00.000-05:00

Whole Foods lends $20,000 to Portland ice cream maker
By Jonathan Brinckman, The Oregonian
December 09, 2009, 5:06PM

For any of you would be FoodPreneurs or early stage specialty foods companies, reconsider Whole Foods as one of your Target Customers. Their MicroLoan Program, called Local Producer Loan Program was started about a year ago and they are apparantly serious about applying this money based on this article from The Oregonian.

After you read this article, go to http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/values/local-producer-loan-program.php to see the entire Local Producer Loan Program details. This is a great way to jumpstart your business so much so that we will be running a FoodPreneur Boot Camp session on this in early 2010.

Whole Foods Market announced Wednesday that it has made a low-interest $20,000 loan to Ruby Jewel Treats, a maker of gourmet ice cream sandwiches based in North Portland. The loan is intended to allow Ruby Jewel buy a larger and more energy-efficient freezer and increase production and distribution.

This is the second loan to an Oregon company made by Texas-based Whole Foods under its Local Producer Loan Program. The previous Oregon loan, $48,000 to Townshend's Tea Co. of Portland, was announced in October. Whole Foods, with 270 stores in North America and the United Kingdom including six in Oregon, has issued about $2.7 million in the loans and wants to see that amount rise to $10 million.

“This is a delicious and unique product that meets our quality standards,” said Bruce Silverman, Whole Foods’ Portland vice president. “We now stock Ruby Jewel treats across our Portland and Seattle stores,and with this loan they have the potential to now get picked up in our other regions too

SBDC yes. SBA...only with a new Business Model

2009-12-12T09:42:00.000-05:00

The New York Times You’re the Boss Blog had Posting on SBA potential to receive more funding. You can read the entire column at http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/sba-may-get-big-funding-boost/.

Key points of the bog post is "the S.B.A. will get $687 million in new appropriations for fiscal year 2010." But the vast majority of that will go to hiring more people? So how is that to help get capital into new businesses? Granted some amount will help reduce borrower fees by about 45 basis points , so the article points out that the savings on a typical $200,000 loan is approximately $900. But only $25 million goes toward microloans. Hugh? They have got to be kidding in thinking that will have any significant impact.

The continued thoughts that the SBA can help small businesses in any meaningful way is like saying the US Post Office can help raise consumer awareness for small businesses through first class mail!

Business and society are changing at exponential rates… just Google that or a similar phrase and you find an array of information ranging from Harvard Business Review cases to You Tube videos address the subject. SBA model is to guarantee a percent of a small business loan made by a bank The two major criteria that SBA lenders have are :

1. Future Cash Flows. Given all of the unknowns in the economy even large businesses can't get this right. So how can a small business credibly forecast future cash flows.

2. Collateralization at least 100%. Yes that is right, SBA lenders for the most part want a full lien on everything even if your loan is but a fraction of one's total collateral. Given the state of eroded collateral, how can this work!

The model is broke but my preference here is to discuss the increased support of The Small Business Development Centers since this congressional act has spurred numerous press and blog activity and I also feel so passionate about the work we do at the SBDC.

In my prior post I mention counseling hundreds of business at the Small Business Development Center at Raritan Valley College, http://www.sbdcrvcc.com/ , for over 6 years. Many of us, including myself, provides valuable Continuing Education Programs and Seminars that touch every area of business and are focused on the particular needs of small businesses. Our counseling services are free and the staff of counselors runs the gamut of professional competencies. Business seminars are affordable vs. many business seminars that are out of the budget scope of most small businesses.

Most small businesses suffer from the body of knowledge called "I don't know what I don't know"... this is commonly called the Blind Spot and causes the most pain with these businesses. The seasoned professionals at SBDC have seen it all and can help reduce the blind spots. If these Blind Spots are not reduced, good loans will turn into bad loans because the Small Business owner will not be able to appropriately use this capital .
The SBDC educational programs provide various techniques and systems that are easily adopted by the Small Business owner and are presented in an environment of other small business owners. This "horizontal learning" as we call it in education is another unheralded benefit of the program; business owners sharing their knowledge, skills and experience with each other.

The Small Business Development Centers are one of the best kept secrets ... You’re the Boss is doing a great service by highlighting this. Congress would get a far better return on their investment by substantially increasing SBDC funding so we can get more of these businesses into our offices and classrooms.

Dom

The Buck Stops Here in New Jersey for Small Business

2009-12-11T09:41:00.000-05:00

NJ Biz, 12/7/2009, had a great article, Christie’s chance to erase unkindest cuts of all calling for reinstating critical funding for the Small Business Development Centers throughout the state.

The stimulus bill is a dud and put too much money into irresponsible businesses, mainly the various financial institutions which somehow, only one year later, can pay bonuses! Yet Small Business has received almost nothing and the guidance they need from professionals such as myself who provide business advice through the Small Business Development Centers should have been increased...not cut as happened in the Corzine administration.

I have counseled hundreds of business at the Small Business Development Center at Raritan Valley College, http://www.sbdcrvcc.com/ , for over 6 years. In addition I am part of the staff that provides valuable Continuing Education Programs that touch every area of business and are focused on the particular needs of small businesses. Our counseling services are free and the staff of counselors runs the gamit of professional competencies.

Most small businesses suffer from what is deemed "I don't know what I don't know"... this is commonly called the Blind Spot and causes the most pain with these businesses. The seasoned professionals at SBDC have seen it all and can help reduce the blindspots. Our group can also reinforce what the businesses "know"... help themn grow this competency and point them to resources in the areas of "I don't know in a rapid and timely manner.

The SBDC educational programs provide various techniques and systems that are easily adopted by the Small Business owner and are presented in an environment of other small business owners. This "horizontal learning" as we call it in education is another uneralded benefit of the program; business owners sharing therir knowledge, skills and experience with each other.

The Small Business Development Centers are one of the best kept secrets in this state... so lets get some funding back to get more of these businesses into our offices and classrooms.

See http://njbiz.com/weekly_article.asp?aID=29823837.6529276.1040182.1834713.1528142.999&aID2=80005 for the complete article.

A Family Business Sometimes is Just a Business

2009-12-08T15:27:00.001-05:00

Barbara Taylor is a regular contributor to Your The Boss Blog in the New York Times Business section. Her company helps small business buy/sell transactions and she works ith family-owned businesses regularly. She recently had a post "Even a family business is Sometimes Just a Business" She commented that "it can sometimes be a challenge to navigate not only the complexities of the business itself, but also of the family dynamics. The family and the business become so intertwined that it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins." .

Barbara had a prior article on working together as Co-Preneurs with her husband in her business and she was kind enough to mention my prior comment on this subject. She referenced the essence of my prior post on Family Business:

"Domenick Celentano, a family business consultant and adjunct professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey — who has left thoughtful comments on this blog — point outs that a business is often a surrogate family member, an inextricable part of the lives of the owners and even the community at large."

Barabara brings up that there may be a point where the business needs to move on from family onwership to preserve the business entity. However the process can be irrational and the sale of the business she discusses almost did not occur due to this irrationality.

A famous author in this area, Dolores Curran defines a family as “a group which possesses and implements an irrational commitment to the well-being of its members”. Members also include the non-family business employees and the “irrational” commitment is what baffles professionals on the workings of family business.

I tried to comment without making my post a full blown class in Family Business so here are comments and responses to several of her questions. Please note that I highlighted Barabaras questions in quotes.

“Julia, grew up in the business and loved it. In fact, it was hard to tell which she loved more, the work or the clients…”

This is called Dual Identity and occurs when the work and your life become so intertwined it is hard to see and mange the boundary. I will cover Dual Identity in greater detail in future posts.

Julia brough the family business from her mom. Buying a business from a family member is really a transition and NOT a transaction from the prior generation. And a great deal of Stewardship sets in upon this ownership purchase from family member to family member. Stewardship is a concept not well understood outside the very small profession of Family Business Consultants. It is not uncommon for a family business to prefer passing it on to another family, in the hopes of propagating the family traditions and family relationships through another family.

“Does there come a point at which loyalty to the family business comes at the expense of the family itself?”

Yes and this expense is a result of the lack of understanding that the family should strive to be a family of affinity and can continue to reinvent itself after the sale. Family Business consultants really practice Family Wealth Transition Planning. This illustrates that the wealth of a business is more than just money; it is the Human and Social capital in the business. A sale, with proper planning, may be the only way a family can continue these two additional wealth components.

“Should I have found a way to contact Julia about selling…”

No. The family was not emotionally ready and all us who practice in this field periodically ask this question of ourselves since we know that we can preserve the family for generations to come by intervening early. The famous Family Consultant Jay Hughes has a great phrase; "hasten slowly" and is very appropriate here in this example.

There was an accountant who had a comment that is unfortunately illustrative of the lack of knowledge between transactions and transitions. He reccomends to his family business clients “..the benefits of operating their companies purely from the entrepreneurial stand point….”. This is where most professionals err in so far as taking what works in non family enterprises and applying them in family enterprises. The “Family” part of the business dynamics will always have influence. It is akin to asking a family to run the family from an entrepreneurial standpoint.

One only needs to look at the successful chain of Supermarkets, Wegman’s, to see how the successful balance of both entrepreneurship AND Family has created one of the most dynamic retailers in the country.

Making the effort to have the family understand how to best utilize the Human, Social and Economic capital to preserve the Family Business and The Family is a far better way to advise family businesses.

I really appreciate that Barbara created such a wonderful post addressing Family Business in a forum, The New York Times, that will reach so many people and maybe…just maybe… this forum will help several avoid the heartache of her article.

In closing I too aggree with Barbara... yes there is “…nothing more important than family. Not even the family business.”

Dom

Should You Write a Busines Plan?

2009-12-05T16:36:00.000-05:00

In a NY Times Your the Boss Blog " Why Don’t All Entrepreneurs Write Business Plans?
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/why-dont-all-entrepreneurs-write-business-plans/ the subject was articulated as to why people don;t write business plans.

I have mixed feeling on business plans in the early phases of a business startup. Additionally we all use Entrepreneur and Small Business Interchangeably, so we should get that straight in the beginning. The best way to determine this is to read "The E-Myth".

I find the issue of no business plan is far greater with a small business person. Why?
Primarily they are thinking about a business that just provides a paycheck… basically thinking like an employee and employees don’t have a need to write a business plan.

If someone has Entrepreneurial tendencies they are thinking about Replicability and Scalability issues for the business and these issues are a critical part of any business plan. Without Replicability and Scalability a business has far less future value.

So why the issue of business plan creation? It appears to get in the way of the journey from Idea to Implementation. Now that is not true, but it feels that way to one who has a great idea and is ready to jump in to get started.

A business plan is a necessary component but I hear very little advice given to Entrepreneurs on doing a Feasibility Analysis. Now I am not referring to the academic versions of this. I created a simple to follow process partly based my readings in the book, “Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship” I call it the ADTV model that asks the questions:

Is it Attractive to the consumer? Will there be initial trial?
Is it Durable? Meaning will it be around for a while or is the idea a fad?
Is it Timely? Essentially will the consumer recognize the need for it today or are the market conditions such that it is too early in the cycle.
And finally does it provide some added Value to the customer? The last has some subjectivity in so far as determine Value.

This is a more intuitive process than SWOT for vetting out an Idea to see if it is really an Opportunity vs. jumping directly into a business plan. If the Entrepreneur and/or Small Business can get through ADTV with positive outcomes for each element, then a business plan is in order.

This is one way to ease the Entrepreneur into the process to see the value of eventually creating a business plan. It gives them tangible information quickly to convince them to move forward OR to take a step back and re-evaluate their idea.

The Dusenberry Diaries

2009-11-12T08:21:00.000-05:00

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/?s=dusenberry&search.x=11&search.y=15

Jay Goltz http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/contributors-at-youre-the-boss/ has been posting since June 2009 on the progress of a struggling Entrepreneur Debbie Dusenberry, the owner of a home-furnishing and gift store in Kansas called Curious Sofa. It is a vivid illustration of how Debbie Dusenberry built her store, gained media attention and then got slammed with the current recession. Her small-business journey is very typical, starting as someone with a technical passion; Artistry, and is attempting to turn this passion into a reality; a successful profitable business.

Jay’s postings have highlighted how the original business model was flawed
from the start. Like many would-be entrepreneurs, she did not have basic financial skills, such as budget preparation, cost controls and inventory controls. Marketing was “if you build it, they will come”. The “managers” hat was consistently put aside in favor of the artistry… the artistry was fun. We all know the “managers” hat has a lack of appeal… it can be boring!

The thread of posts over the past 6 months highlights many things I advise my clients on and teach my students in business school.

Passion and subject matter expertise does NOT make up for lack of basic business skills. One must have a general knowledge of finance and marketing. Accounting is not finance… accounting is simply accounting for the past. Finance is understanding how to plan for the future and the implications of what happens in any part of the business on Revenue and/or Costs.
Be aware of the “I don’t know what I don’t know”. This is the blind spot most small businesses inherently have and for that matter most of us have. Clearly if you don’t know what you don’t know, then of course you can’t know it! But if you are aware of potential blind spots, then you can think about what if scenarios and plan contingencies in your business for something that comes out of left field.
I learned a life changing statement from a friend many years ago: “keep doing what you are doing… keep getting what you got”. Debbie Dusenberry through the gracious help of Jay Goltz learned that late, but at least learned and is taking steps to do things differently.
Understand the difference between a Small Business and an Entrepreneur. We use them interchangeably but incorrectly so. Check out http://www.e-myth.com/ and the book The E-Myth Revisited http://www.e-myth.com/pub/htdocs/emr_ch1. Replicability and Scalability are distinguishing factors between Small Business and Entrpreneurship.

I have included the entire thread of posts here, click on the embedded picture at the top of this blog, and would encourage you to read them. They are not only inspiring but can provide insight into a bumpy journey. We all know the phrase “the road less traveled”. Just plan for pot holes, keep your eyes on the road and both hands on the wheel!

Applied and Practical Category Management And Assortment Planning in the Retail Industry

2009-11-11T07:50:00.001-05:00

Category Management is now the stanard in most retail organizations. Here is an interesting and practical presentation on Applied Category Management. There are several takeaways for any Small Business to gain a competitive advantage in acquiring Shelf Space.

Introduction to Category Management And Assortment Planning in the Retail Industry

View more documents from KINDUZ Business Consulting.

New ways of using social media to engage with customers

2009-11-04T18:14:00.000-05:00

Estee Lauder has launched a campaign of free makeovers in Bloomingdale's, Macy's and Saks.
Whats the idea: you get a digital photos after the makeover... the photo would be used on your FaceBook or other Social page... the catch? The Estee Lauder logo appears in the background of the picture! How cool is that! Estee took the the traditional in-store makeover and meged it with the need to look good on the various social networks one frequents.

It is a great promotion because it focuses NOT on price, but on the emotiional need of the customer... to have a complimentary profile picture, defining their online presence. They are endorsing the Estee Lauder brand visually.. remember the catch is the picture has the brand-mark on it. What is interesting is it takes social media endorsing beyond words... there is more credibility when you see a picture of someone who really looks great vs. someone just posting and endorsement.

It is a sublte marketing strategy has that makes a big statement for the brand and ads an ego boost to the consumer. Again making the emotional connection.

Creating a community in this way allows Estee Lauder to seed itself among the demographic it is targeting (35- to 55-year-old women) and generates positive buzz.

Rember they are NOT selling cosmetics, but selling "hope"... looking great through using Estee Lauder products. So the more important lesson here is there are probably some out of the box ideas we all can use to combine Social Media in future Marketing Strategies and Tactics.

Follow your Niche; STPM

2009-10-30T16:19:00.000-04:00

As you probably tell by now, I am big on Targeting and Positioning. Our Small Business Boot Camps will continue that focus and this is reinforced daily through the many interesting business e-newsletters I receive.

Evelyn Lee of NJ Biz just did an article on The Cereal Bowl, locating in New Brusnwick by Rutgers University. It is a very new concept... they serve cereal all day! Silly you say? No! They also serve a variety of smoothies and other "breakfasty" items. CLick on the article picture to see the entire article at NJ Biz.

The Cereal Bowl, http://www.thecerealbowl.com/home.html knows its Segments; college students. Their Positioning is comfort food that is affordable to cash strapped students who graze all day vs. eat regular meals. Hmmmm.. sounds like STPM we were teaching in The Small Business Boot Camp :) Just to review STPM is a process of Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning and finaly Marketing Strategy.

If you want to Start a Small Business or grow your existing Small Business, follow STPM.

Some out of the box thinking and applying STPM can help you start a food business and become a successful Small Business Entrepreneur.

Social Media and Customer Delight

2009-10-30T10:06:00.000-04:00

Still not convinced that Social Media is important as part of your marketing mix? In our recent FoodPreneur Boot Camp sessions we discussed the importance of Social Networking and the plethora of free information and research resources available for FoodPreneurs Starting a Food Business. It is relevant for anyone Starting a Business.

Kristi Gustafson is a reporter for the Times Union newspaper and runs her blog http://blog.timesunion.com/kristi/ that has a thread on Customer Service.

Customer Service or as we teach at The FoodPreneur Boot Camp, Customer Delight, is essential to the success of Starting a Food Business or Starting any Business.

Kristi had several postings on a bad customer at Friendly’s, titled Bad customer service times two at an area restaurant. She had a craving for a Friendly’s Super Melt so like any hungry person, went to Friendly’s.

Here is a direct quote: “ It was about 9 p.m. and only one other table was occupied. The place was smoky and stunk like burning grease (so much so, I still smell like the restaurant today). Despite knowing my clothes were going to reek, I sat down and ordered.
More than twenty minutes later I didn’t have my food, neither did the other table. In fact, nothing but a thick plume of smoke had come out of the kitchen since I came through the door. I flagged down one of the waitresses and asked what the deal was with the food…” You can read the entire posting by clicking on Bad customer service times two at an area restaurant.

Ron Oliveri, Regional Director of operations with Friendly’s, contacted her after reading her blog post on her experience at the Western Ave. Friendly’s in Guilderland. How did he know this? Mr. Oliveri regularly checks any post on her site related to Friendly’s AND he reads every comment! Kristi had 3 post on the subject with an aggregate number of comments exceeding 150! She wrote an article on her meeting with Ron Oliveri in the Times Union, click on the picture to read the entire article. The article in turn was picked up by this mornings Nations Restaurant News e-newsletter. Click her to see the NRN newsletter and how it got me to Kristis blog:

Mr. Oliveri is using a Social Media Listening Strategy that is so critical today. People now have the opportunity to discuss their good AND bad customer experiences on the internet. So instead of one person experiencing a bad customer service experience, thousands of people now know about customer service issues at Friendly’s. Mr. Oliveri deserves much credit in being in front of the trend in using a Social Media Listening Strategy for Friendly’s.

The FoodPreneur Boot Camp focuses on Starting a Food Business. Our FoodPreneur Boot Camp curriculum and networking functions will continue to focus on Social Media as an inexpensive and effective tool to insure that you know what people are saying about your business and brand. Our presentation from Mattie Mola of Studio 1Ne at The FoodPreneur networking event on Wednesday was timely regarding blogs.

Visit The FoodPreneur Boot Camp page on Customer Delight to see a short presentation on the key components of Customer Delight. This presentation is applicable for anyone Starting a Food Business or Starting any Business

N.J. BPU to offer appliance rebates starting Jan. 1 - pressofAtlanticCity.com : Business

2009-10-29T10:35:00.001-04:00

N.J. BPU to offer appliance rebates starting Jan. 1 - pressofAtlanticCity.com : Business

Posted using ShareThis

The Role of a CEO

2009-10-18T10:57:00.000-04:00

NY Time Your The Boss
More on Do-It-Yourself P.R. — and My Role as C.E.O.

October 15, 2009
By Jennifer Walzer

Jennifer has been sharing some interesting stuff about her journey as a small business CEO. She has a real skill at Public Relations but as most small businesses are, conflicted with the other operational duties. I sent here the following response:

Too many people think the CEO job is to be in the office and running things. The CEO should focus on Vision, Corporate Strategy and Growth. Growth and Business Value comes primarily from a business model of Scalability and Replicability. A business with value has to have a model that consistently delivers what it promises and has to have a model to do this as they get bigger.
The CEO is the face and voice of the company. Just the fact that you are posting here regularly is adding tremendous visibility to your company as well as helping to the grow the overall category of on-line backup.

Some Reccomendation to her and others:

Keep doing what you are doing
Get someone for operations. It does not have to be a C level person. Be cautious on handing out C level titles. There is no where to go but down at that level.
You may have a team, but it is probably more of a Work Group. Consider looking at High Performance Cross Functional team models instead. I have a client who adopted this a few months ago and we are already seeing tangible results. Harvard Business Press has some great books on this subject.

Read her full posting and all of the comments at http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/more-on-do-it-yourself-pr-and-my-role-as-ceo/

Social Media... a Fad?

2009-10-16T09:17:00.000-04:00

Check this YouTube video and you might change your mind. How might this affect your business or marketing strategy?

What Have We Learned

2009-09-27T15:51:00.000-04:00

You're the Boss: What Have We Learned?
By By The New York Times
Published: September 18, 2009

"A year after it became clear that we were suffering through the worst economy most of us can remember, it seems appropriate to ask what small businesses are doing differently...." a short but poignant post on what Small Businesses have learned in this challenging economy. By the way, if you are not a regular, check out the NY Times Blog...

Several interesting comments:

"Most of all I learned that the good old fashioned way of picking up the phone and talking to people, asking for their business, still works."...

"I realized that I had to be more focused ..."

" Always be prepared for business setbacks..."

All good advise. My posting was what I feel is critical today (to see my complete stream of consciousness see my post below... http://managementofsmallbusiness.blogspot.com/2009/09/reboot-your-business.html

What have I learned? I have focused more time in attending networking functions and panel discussions to learn what other industries and professionals are doing differently in response to the changing business environment. I am embracing the concept of Borrow, Adapt, Adopt. Essentially I am taking the best of many businesses and synthesizing this knowledge into new strategies and tactics.

I learned some very valuable lessons after attending a panel discussion hosted by the Gibbons Law, http://www.gibbons.com/, firm here in New Jersey. The focus; managing the external changes in the economy and changes in consumer behavior. I am applying them to my business, teaching and my clients business. The discussion focused on 5 imperatives, so in the interest of brevity, here are short bullet point takeaways:

• Reboot• Re-assess Assumptions• Determine the new normal• Reset Expectations and Respond• Change and Act quickly.

Rebooting your business… like a computer, unfreezes the organization, gets rid of the clutter and gets it back to the core that might have been lost with all of the “clutter”. It’s not easy but should be done.

Re-assessing Assumptions… addresses the reality of the drastically changing environment of your customers purchase habits and needs. Take a clean piece of paper and evaluate your assumptions against the reality of today.

Determining the new normal… is critical since normal is relative. Just look at how we communicate today; no longer is the “normal” the Post Office… “normal is email, social networking, texting, etc.

Resetting Expectations…. Hmmmm? Just look at the financial mess we are in today; no need to say more.

In the end you are well served to Respond, Change and Act quickly.

To read the entire post go to http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/what-have-we-learned/

Dom

Zoning Ordinaces Effect on Retail Small Business

2009-09-20T12:33:00.000-04:00

The New York Times Your The Boss Blog had an interesting posting, "Planning Boards and the Audacity of Change" By By Bruce Buschel Published: September 18, 2009. It postioned the land mines a retail business deals with in a typical community. Although slated with much humor, it was a posting that small businesses should read carefully. You can read the full posting here http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/planning-boards-and-the-audacity-of-change/.

I counsel many small businesses that are consiering a retail venture to pay close attention to zoning issues.

Unfortunately few if any small business programs deal with Planning Boards or Boards of Adjustment. Permitted Uses and Conditional Uses can be a morass of legalese… and signage ordinaces many times are impossible to decipher. And many of those are detrimental to the small business.

Just look at your main street in the town you live in... how many empty stores do you see? Some food for thought.