A Reluctant Entrepreneur

In an op-ed column today for the New York Times, Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, writes that many of the new entrepreneurs are really 'self-employed', that is, they want a job but the market has forced them into temporary free-lance serfdom.

He uses the example of George, an aquaintance who lost his job as associate partner at a technology and consulting company - probably a company like EDS or IBM Consulting. George sounds like he is in his mid- to late- career. George is self-employed, doing "exactly what he used to do, for less money, and no benefits - no health care, no 401(k) match, no sick leave, no paid vacation."

My brother Bryan is in much the same situation. Bryan is a mid-career creative Art Director. Good agency experience, great portfolio. Having a devil of a time catching back on in Texas. He too is doing free-lance work work less than he did before.

So what can we draw from this - what if we are a reluctant entrepreneur?

First, there is no easy answer and I will refrain from platitudes about 'keeping your chin up'.

If you have one client who is paying you, can you get a second? Is there any way to carve out a few hours a week to call on a second prospective client? Can you partner with another person slogging away just as you?

Leverage your experience to allow you to do more work in less time, so you can get a second and third client paying you at the same time. You have to free some excess labor from the contract. They are paying you to complete some objective, not piece work.

Not at all easy, but the only way to get yourself back into some control or the feeling of control.

And, if you need a crackerjack creative marketing guy - let me know. I will get you in touch with Bryan.

The last 11%

I am riffing off of yet another Seth Godin posting, but the point I want to make is slightly different.

All the spectacular is located in the last 11%. (I use 11% over 10 since a 90 is usually still an A!)

Doing something fine - that's B work. B work is good work. So much of what we experience is so dismal, that B looks pretty good.

But to knock your customers out - you need to do A work. And A work is not just a percentage better, it is logarithmically better.

An A employee is logarithmically better than a B employee
An A product is logarithmically better than a B product

You want your business to be in a place where price is not a problem - you got to have an A product...and A people.

Handling or Managing

Next time you are speaking with someone about something that needs to get done - listen to yourself...do you use "handling" as in "I'm handling that!" or "who's handling this?"

If you always describe what you do as handling you are too going to be constantly disappointed.

Entrepreneurs often bemoan the fact that none of their employees handle things like (they would have done so). Duh!

Handling, fixing and removing problems is of course something that has to be done on occasion, but if it is your management style, your organization will act fitfully and never take on its own responsibility for what happens.

Try to create and sustain processes and an environment where the employees can individually take on what happens as their own. That is managing.

Stop handling; start managing.

Semester over!

Turned in final grades for the Retailing Management class I taught at OSU this semester. The students did fine; I picked up some nice ideas to help our retailing clients.

Reflecting on the class, there is a sense of completion from a class that you do not normally have in business - the class ends, you get a grade, you sell the textbook back. At work, even if you are on a specific project, it seems there is always more which happens even after the deadline. Often, the deadline shifts, and you track onto the new one.

Given the level of exhaustion that you feel at the end of a semester's worth of work, I wonder if 16 weeks is about as long as someone can keep sustained effort on a given project? When working on a software application with release time lines stretching over a year, it is hard to stay focused.

Any way, I have a couple posts lined up and ready to get back at it! Thanks for reading.

Whose Value, whose Company

While reading a blog post on what Microsoft can learn from the iPad, I was struck by the following point - "The way Wall Street works is fairly simple — albeit, not always reasonable or fair. What drives stock prices forward are new endeavors. Stock prices rise when investors predict fantastic growth ahead."

Microsoft has had a great rollout with Windows 7 and Wall Street says, "meh". Apple has an iPad and everyone is excited (even Wall Street).

Likewise in a startup, your valuation is not based on where you are now, but where you will be in the future. If prospective funders seem to hold your company in low value - it may be that they do not understand your market, or they may not understand your product, etc. It could just as well be that they very well understand, and that is why they have valued you as they did.

Teaching, and Blogging

I apologize for the lack of posts.. As I described back in January, I am teaching a class at Oklahoma State University in Retailing Management. This has soaked up much of my time to write entries for this blog. That said, the semester is running to its close, and by mid-May, I should be back in (blogging) action.

A quote to leave with you, "the best teachers do not lecture students on what they should know, but ask questions that guide students to learn on their own." Pfeffer, Sutton, p. 237.

I need to remember not to just tell them what they need to know, but give them the skills to go find out what they need to do.

Buying the latest idea

So, you were in the airport and picked up the newest popular business book. It breathlessly tells you how you can change X, Y and Z and your entire business will become successful.

But before you rush back from your trip and start making changes, you might just take a moment and reflect on whether the prescriptions are worse than the disease.

Pfeffer and Sutton give five questions to ask before trying a business idea or practice:

1. what assumptions does the idea or practice make about people and organizations? What would have to be true about people and organizations for the idea or practice to be effective?
2. which of these assumptions seem reasonable and correct to you and your colleagues? Which seem wrong or suspect?
3. could this idea or practice still succeed if the assumptions turned out to be wrong?
4. how might you and your colleagues quickly and inexpensively gather some data to test the reasonableness of the underlying assumptions?
5. what other ideas or management practices can you think of that would address the same problem or issue and be more consistent with what you believe to be true about people and organizations?

Just because a book is written by a famous author or business executive does not make it true, correct or useful for your business. I would hazard most of the time your particular situation will not match whatever their study was covering. Instead, take a look around and test the assumptions against your organization. If the assumptions seem to hold, then try it in a sample or test environment.

Otherwise you may find your employees giving you books to read while on the plane!