Latest News from the SBA Network

Are you in a DIP?

2012-01-22T23:34:00.000-08:00

You have to check out Seth Godin's new book. It is pure genius. You know how it goes, often new project (or jobs, or hobbys, or companies) start out exciting and fun. Then get harder and less fun, until it hits a low point-really hard, and not much fun at all. And then you find yourself asking if the goal is even worth the hassle. Maybe you're in a Dip-a temporary setback that will get better if you keep pushing. But maybe it's really a Cul-de-Sac, which will never get better, no matter how hard you try. What really sets superstars apart from everyone else is the ability to escape dead ends quickly, while staying focused and motivated when it really counts.
Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt-until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons. In fact, winners seek out the Dip. Check it out at The Dip

Let Your Customers Buy

2012-01-11T14:07:00.001-08:00

Most salespeople refuse to do the hard work that makes selling easy, They do the easy stuf0f, which makes selling HARD! How do you let them buy? Ask more, talk less, be friendly, use tasteful humor, know your client’s motives, talk mostly about their desired OUTCOMES, not your company, product features or service benefits. create attraction by writing about timely relevant stuff, maintain a current Internet/social presence, Be a valuable resource to your clients and prospects. When you do this you will find you don’t have to resort to selling because you will be attracting qualified buyers. Yea, selling requires work because we are not really selling... we’re LETTING THEM BUY!

Factoring replacing traditional funding

2011-10-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

Mark Deo, President of the SBA Network was quoted today in an article on factoring in Bloomberg Businessweek. Unfortunately, many small businesses are forced into this method of funding when more traditional funding is made unavailable by the banks that their tax dollars have propped up.

You can read Mark's quote below, and the full article is available here.

Mark Deo, Torrance (Calif.)-based executive director of the consulting firm Small Business Advisory Network, says many entrepreneurs he consults with have turned to factoring, not only because they lack access to credit but also because they are having problems getting new business. “Factors are oftentimes the only source of funding for desperately needed cash, but it is very sad that business owners who have worked for years to build their businesses are entertaining factoring just to fund new purchases, equipment, or improvements,” he says.

Mark recently interviewed Steve Strauss, author of Get Your Business Funded about alternatives to traditional funding sources on his radio show. Listen online here to learn more about funding your business.

Jobs Bill No Win for Small Business

2011-09-14T09:06:00.001-07:00

President Obama recently gave his address on jobs to congress, and it seems the solutions he's presenting are more of the same that we've seen from the Bush and Obama administrations. What the president and congress seem to not understand is that funding, regulations, and taxes are not the biggest problems for small businesses, a lack of customers is!

It's not surprising, considering the fact that the president’s council on job creation is helmed by CEOs and board members of fortune 100 companies, with a token member who runs one of the largest labor unions in the country. There is ZERO representation from small businesses.

Large businesses have essentially created zero net new jobs over the past decade- almost all new jobs in this country are being created by small businesses, so why aren't the president and congress listening to those who actually know something about job creation?

If they say that it's too hard to find small businesses that are qualified to be representatives, that's a problem that has a solution. Every year the SBA gives out awards to honor the best run small businesses in America- there are regional, state, and national winners for these awards (and in 2003 I was named Small Business Journalist of the Year for California.) Why not tap these business owners as a resource to give input on how the federal government can help small businesses?

While I don't claim to have the answers to the problems our economy faces, I do know what the problem is. Let's end the focus on tax cuts, regulations, and funding, and focus on the real issue- getting more business!

Real Leaders of the Free World… Unite!

2011-09-06T08:52:00.001-07:00

I am sick and tired of hearing about how we need to stimulate funding for small businesses. As if that will have any impact whatsoever! The last thing a small business needs is more debt! On the contrary they are attempting to pay off the debt that they currently have.

The problem for small business is NOT lack of funding, scarcity of loans or an inability to participate in the global economy. It is lack of demand. The plain, simple fact is that these businesses just don’t have ENOUGH CUSTOMERS because their customers just don’t have the disposal income that they once had.

I am not at all surprised that politicians and economists have misconstrued this for so many years. At first I thought they were just “dim” and unaware of the real challenges facing small businesses. Then I began to realize that I was dim! Of course they are aware of this. After all they are Summa Cum Laude Harvard graduates who spend much of their time sailing, playing golf and attending dinners with bankers, corporate lobbyists and foreign financiers. They could care less about small business. In fact small business just amounts to the fruit fly in their Mouton Rothschild!

Don’t you think it’s odd that in order to “save our economy” we used taxpayer’s money to rescue the banks and mega-corporations who were the very villains that brought about the real estate/mortgage debacle that tanked our economy?

OK, so now we face the national reported unemployment rate of 9.5% percent. Right?

WRONG!

Today many experts believe that the true unemployment rate is more like 25% or more! We need to include those people who are looking for work, underemployed, or who have given up looking. We all know that the government cooks the books to make it look far rosier than it is.

There are 28 million small businesses in the U.S. employing 83% of all non-government employees. Of these approximately 600,000 business owners employ 63% of the workforce. Can you imagine what would happen if they united? Can you imagine what would happen if politicians started listening to them? Can you imagine what would happen if we created laws, tax breaks and incentives for these, the real leaders of the free world?

I could. It would mean the end of the good days for the political, financial corporate big wigs that got us into this mess and the beginning of prosperity for hard working Americans.

Last on the List

2011-08-16T18:52:00.001-07:00

Here’s a great rant, worthy of it’s intent by my friend Chuck Blakeman, gutsy small business advocate. Tune in to my upcoming interview with Chuck. More proof that small business is “last on the list” of the Washington agenda regardless of of partisanship.

“Talk to any banker who used to give small business loans, and they will tell you very quietly and in complete anonymity that the reason their lending standards are beyond the reach of most healthy small businesses is because the government regulators are putting such pressure on them that they can’t adopt REASONABLE (not loose) lending standards. The pendulum has swung the other way and guess who’s coming-up short!

Seventy three percent of small businesses who need capital haven’t even bothered to apply because they know it’s useless - 43% get rejected – astonishing statistics. The 25 biggest banks control 32 percent more deposits than they did in 2006, but made 30 percent fewer small business loans.

This is your small business advocacy in Washington. In case you wondered if anyone is looking out for you, the small business owner, on either side of the aisle or in any of the halls of the giant bureaucracies there, you might think again.

I’ve said this in dozens of places on the internet for three years – access to capital is the #1 issue for small business and has been since October 2008. #2 is predictability from our govt., and #3 is regulations that hurt small business and help the big ones. The SBA says the #1 job growth sector is businesses with 1-9 employees and the #2 job growth sector is 10-19 employees. Then they, the rest of the government, and the giant corporations who all got us into this mess, continue to use this crisis to help each other just get bigger. Expect large donations from giant corporations to both sides next year.

Small business doesn’t want a bailout. And I personally don’t have time for recessions – I have somewhere I need to be with my business. None of the above make it impossible to succeed, but it does make it harder. And when government proactively kills jobs and small businesses like the State Dept. did on July 15, that is interventionism in commerce that is unacceptable and needs to be addressed, even if the SBA doesn’t have the spine to do it (in case you wondered, the SBA isn’t focused on small businesses under 19 employees).

Caveat emptor – for too long we have bought that someone in Washington is looking out for us. Think again. You won’t get help and you don’t need it. You can succeed without their help; just know that they are not in Washington to make it easier for you, but to make it easier for themselves and their giant corporation donors. It’s time to expose the game for what it is, one “big” scratching the back of another “big”, all at the expense of 28 million small businesses and the American economy.

This isn’t a lack of courage to act. This is simple self-preservation at work – both bigs (giant government and giant business) will protect their “bigness” at any cost, even the worst recession in history. And certainly without blinking an eye at the demise of small businesses.”

Thank you Chuck. Let’s face it we’re last on the list.

Mark Deo

Uping the Ante on Web Presence in San Francisco

2011-08-04T07:20:00.000-07:00

Join me in San Francisco this week with my friends at Cbeyond as I speak on how we can maximize our investment of time, dollars and resources in improving our web presence, social media or on-line marketing. With assets being scarce we must carefully prioritize where we should invest our time and attention. Surely for those who sell their products on the Internet this is an easier question to answer. But there are some basic tenants to increasing the chances that our investment produces an appropriate return. This presentation does NOT focus on the technical “how to” but rather on the “why should we” and the strategic elements of re-engineering your web presence. We will discuss why improving your on-line strategy and making it consistent with your off-line efforts will build brand continuity. We will also look at how “directive navigation” and the aggregation of relevant, timely content will produce greater attraction and participation from your target audience.

Why Business Don’t Plan

2011-06-13T05:59:00.001-07:00

In my opinion small businesses resist strategic planning not so much because they are immersed in the day-to-day tactical issues (which is true) but rather because of their lack of discipline. They have not seen a direct correlation between their planning efforts and elevated results. It is our responsibility as professional consultants to help your client see the tangible value of the time and effort they spent doing planning. This requires taking them back to look at specific decisions of the past and recognizing how valuable it was (or could have been) for them to gather information, analyze the facts and work with their people to plan the key steps of their approach and implement according to the plan.

Building Bench Skills vs. Traditional Succession Planning

2011-05-27T13:48:00.001-07:00

Traditional succession planning is often a waste of time. Let’s face it, “plans” themselves, although filled with good intention, often fail to create change in an organization. The idea of “planning” focuses on a process rather than a specific goal or outcome. Most company leaders that I know are so busy with the day-to-day issues of running their business that the idea of spending time thinking through a “process” often takes a backseat to critical items like customer complaints, new product development, making financial decisions, addressing employee requirements and more. Perhaps we need to think about succession planning more as a way to develop bench skills in executives with great promise. In other words, as a first step, we need to ask ourselves the question; “how do we help key leaders in the organization build the skills needed to step into critical future roles?” If we think about succession in this way there is a greater chance that these plans will be executed.

PR Blunders

2011-04-06T14:47:00.001-07:00

I stumbled upon this very cool site about PR Blunders, Erica doesn’t skimp in brutal honesty but she is right on. There is nothing worse than a shameless pug that is dull, boring, in bad taste or completely irrelevant! Check it out here:http://ericaswallow.com/2011/03/22/worst-pr-pitches/

Advertising Isn’t Dead

2011-03-31T08:26:00.001-07:00

Advertising isn’t dead, it’s just changed venues. Small businesses control 83 percent of all local advertising — but that’s only because there are so many of them (15 million businesses in the U.S. ), not because they’re big spenders. The average small business spent just $11,740 on advertising in 2010, about $2,300 of it online. Small businesses are spending less on yellow pages, radio and print and more on-line particularly with their own web sites.

Proactive Customer Service

2011-03-26T18:23:00.001-07:00

A Dallas firm may soon replace traditional corporate call center operators with social media agents who handle Facebook, Twitter and more. By using high-tech web-scanning tools to monitor bloggers, YouTubers and Facebookers, Working Solutions home-based customer engagement agents have the opportunity via text, chat or Tweet, to handle angry callers or bloggers who want to vent. In business since 1996, Working Solutions’ makes your grandmother’s call center a thing of the past! This Dallas-based corporation provides more than 70,000 home-based customer service agents, trained to be proactive problem-solvers, to corporate clients who want to improve customer contact and reduce their costs. With agents monitoring up to 180 million unique websites and blogs looking for pertinent corporate names or terms, this service is a win-win for clients who also get a guarantee they will achieve an 8-14% increase in ROI while meeting or improving current service levels – or Working Solutions will make up the difference! On an upcoming Small Business Hour Show.

Transformational Leadership

2011-03-24T06:14:00.001-07:00

Transformational Leaders overtly change organizations with an implied promise to followers that they also will be transformed in some way. When practiced effectively it enhances the motivation, morale and performance of followers through a variety of mechanisms. In order to create followers a leader has to be very careful in winning genuine trust. Their personal integrity is a critical part of the package that they are selling. The following are some of the ways to practice of transformational leadership:

Become the chief learner and inspirer
Listen to understanding rather than respond
Set the example
Learn the art of self-reflection
Share the leadership role

Process Follows People

2011-03-21T13:19:00.001-07:00

Today business leaders have no choice but to be focused on proactive, income sustaining activities. This is of course critical in a market where demand is short and discretionary spending is compressed. As important as execution I most leaders become hyper fixated on the “process” and the “work.” The result of this may mean that our “people” take a backseat to the processes. People are the element which most distinguishes one product or service from another. While Products are becoming more homogeneous, people and relationships are becoming more integral in producing business results. My advise is to take caution in your relationships both with internal stakeholders (employees, team members, leaders) as well as clients and external partners. Let’s face it there can be no effective process without dedicated, focused people!

This blog has moved

2010-04-28T13:46:00.001-07:00

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Beyond Traditional Marketing - half day seminar

2010-04-26T15:40:00.001-07:00

Chasing customers doesn't work anymore. In today's culture we must leverage curiosity to "attract" clients and business partners.

This 2.5 hour class will help you to customize a strategy for your company.
- Reduce your advertising while at the same time increase demand for your product/service.
- Fully integrate the marketing campaign with a parallel selling strategy.
- Set your company, product or service apart from the competition like never before.
- Ensure that every participant establishes their own personal marketing plan.

When: Friday, June 5, 2010
Time: 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Where: Dale Carnegie Training 2525 Cherry Ave. Suite #380 Signal Hill, CA 90755
Who: Presented by Mark Deo, Bestselling Author of The Rules of Attraction
Tuition: $49 Investment

To sign-up call 562-427-1040 or email mark@markdeo.com

The Rules of Attraction

2008-12-15T18:25:00.000-08:00

As you can see, we've undergone some big changes here at the SBA Network, and have updated our websites (as you can probably tell). Our Executive Director, Mark Deo, also has some exciting news. His book The Rules of Attraction is being published by Morgan James Publishing. That's the company behind the Guerrilla Marketing series of books by Jay Conrad Levinson. To read more about this book and find out about how you can get a pre-release copy, head on over to: http://www.markdeo.com/2008/12/rules-of-attraction.asp

When great prices and great service meet

2008-11-24T13:49:00.000-08:00

With all the problems facing the transportation industry, most airlines are struggling to get passengers in seats. Some reasons are out of their control, but two airlines continually show that passengers will fly, and will choose a brand they like when given the choice. Jet Blue and Southwest have consistently attracted a loyal following of passengers, not just because they tend to be less expensive than major airlines (look at the struggles of Ted and ATA to see that price isn't everything when it comes to air travel.) Southwest and Jet Blue have service that is considered head and shoulders above the competition, and that makes the difference. They both have had major PR problems in the past year, yet they have engendered such good will with passengers that they have flown through these rocky times with little turbulence. To see a detailed discussion on why Jet Blue and Southwest are doing so well, see this article.

Causing Your Own Economic Crisis

2008-09-12T13:47:00.000-07:00

As the media touts the failing economy more and more vociferously, business owners seem to be pulling in their horns more and more. This means lay-offs, staff cuts and belt-tightening. That translates into owners and managers getting more involved in the day-to-day operations. Often times the result of this is that leaders take their eye off the big picture in favor of micro-managing the details. My conclusion is that the results of this action can be much more devastating than any so-called economic slow-down. We spend end up spending so much time working IN our business that we fail to work ON the business and cause our own personal economic crisis. Peter Drucker said that on the average one hour spent planning is worth 5 hours of execution. Are you spending enough time planning? Do you need to take a step back and look at the big picture and identify some contingencies? Read my recent article on No Time to Plan.

Globality

2008-06-21T06:01:00.000-07:00

I want to make everyone aware of an upcoming radio show with one of the most interesting business authors I have spoken with in a while. His name is James Hemerling and his book is called GLOBALITY: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything. Hemerling states that the old global business model (centralized, top-down, process-driven, with influence running from West to East) will recede, perhaps vanish. It is inadequate for a world in which every global company will be forced to compete: in every market, with everyone, from everywhere, all the time, for resources and market share. Unlike developed-market leaders, emerging-market challengers have evolved new management and governance structures that are ideally suited to this new competitive landscape. And it has enabled them to undercut, outthink, outwork, out-innovate, and generally outfox some of the biggest, most powerful names in global industry. What are these upstart challengers doing? And how are they winning?

Imagine companies that:
-Innovate at the rate of one new product development every 12 hours.
-Give up the notion of "headquarters" in a drive toward global expansion.
-Do away with titles and committees in an effort to improve staff development.
-Expand into 50 countries by satisfying global demand that no one else could see - at the lowest, cheapest end of the market.
-Hire thousands of people to staff assembly lines, instead of automating, to be more efficient, flexible, and profitable.
-Achieve such high efficiency that they can give away 60% of their services and still make a profit.
-Retrain workers by the tens of thousands to build a world-class capability, in less than a decade.

Listen to my interview with Hemerling at 4pm Pacific on July 11, 2008.

The Media is WRONG again, as usual!

2008-04-30T09:31:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the news? It must be KILLING the media-moguls to be reporting something positive. I'll bet they're getting physically ill just hearing about it themselves. Instead of seeing our first quarter of negative growth which would be sign of an impending recession, what do we see? POSITIVE GROWTH!! That's right, the Commerce Department today (Wednesday April 30, 2008) reported that gross domestic product or GDP expanded at a 0.6 percent annual rate in the first quarter, matching the fourth quarter's advance and handily topping a forecast for 0.2 percent growth in an advance poll of economists by Reuters. Not only that but personal consumption expenditures rose at a 2.2 percent rate after increasing 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter. This indicates that people are still buying stuff and are confident about the economy. Awe too bad predictors of doom, the economy isn't collapsing. My plea to entrepreneurs, who literally DRIVE this economy - STOP watching the news, STOP reading the paper, STOP exposing yourself to all the negative propaganda. START educating yourself, START believing in a promising outcome, and CONTINUE taking constructive action. This will have a positive impact on your personal economy and the entire economic structure.

Fuel for the New Economy

2008-04-19T16:44:00.001-07:00

I remember my 1966 Mustang. I sold it for $600 in 1976 before going to grad school and I'm still kicking myself over that! Everyone loved Ford in those days. But it's not easy to believe in Ford these days. The auto giant has lost over $15 billion, closed factories, shed tens of thousands of jobs, sold-off Jaguar, Land Rover and given-up the No. 2 position in sales to Toyota!

Their new Chief Marketing Officer, James Farley, formerly with Toyota was rehearsing for his speech to dealers, stockholders and company leaders. As the lights dimmed, Mr. Farley didn't calmly announce his future plans or quote statistics. Instead, he spoke from the heart, revealing a depth of passion for Ford that turned the room dead silent. He became swept up in the emotional power of the moment. "I believe, in many ways, the future of Ford is the future of our country," he said. "The work here is simply more important than the work I was doing at Toyota." When he finished, the dealers rose for a standing ovation that left Mr. Farley momentarily stunned. After the applause died down, he savored the reaction. They were waiting for someone to believe in.

Computers, automation and mobile connectedness has had a strange impact on people today. It has caused a desensitization of emotional response. We want to quantify and analyze everything. It is draining the passion and heart from all that we do. I would like to encourage business leaders today to let their true emotions show. Cry real tears, quake with true laughter and shake with anger if you must. Don't downplay the power of REAL EMOTION. Your team is depending on your genuine emotional display to motivate them. It is the fuel for their continued belief and a precursor to talking action!

Turning the Economy Around

2008-04-11T08:55:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting time. The recent layoff of 80,000 American workers has resulted in all of the financial gurus spouting their drivel about the global economic crisis we are facing. I have even heard some say we are entering another depression. Just a few days ago I appeared on FOX TV and discussed this with business expert Neil Cavuto. He asked me how I thought this was affecting small business owners and what they could do about it. My comments were that maybe we should put some of these gurus on the firing line of small businesses and see how they do. Their demise would be quick and final. Because as I told Mr. Cavuto, the most important asset that entrepreneurs have today is their attitude. Without a positive attitude we are doomed regardless of how well or how poorly the economy is doing. Many of us perhaps have heard the Serenity Prayer - "We must accept the things we cannot change, have the courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference." Surely we cannot individually change the economy but collectively it is certainly possible. We can do this by focusing on the critical business issues at hand like, delivering a higher level of customer satisfaction, creative product development and line extensions, smart financial management, getting longer terms on payables, building customer loyalty programs and penetrating new markets. We do have the ability to turn this economy around but we must first look in the mirror and begin the change within. Do you have the courage to take that challenge? I sure hope so. All of our jobs might depend on it.

TSA, Friend or Foe?

2008-03-02T15:11:00.000-08:00

I have nothing but respect for the TSA. That's right, while everyone else would like to wring their necks, I truely respect the position these poor agents are in. It's no win! If they uphold the stupid policies thay are bound to, they are hated and reviled by most travelers. On the other hand if they become lax or let travelers slide, their job is at risk and they are threatening national security. That being said I finally was able to get several TSA agents to agree that thier policies were idiotic. As you may be aware travelers can only carry with them small bottles of liquid in containers less than 3.5ozs. Unfortunately this rule slipped by us and we actually tried to take a container of liquid through security which was apparently 6.25ozs. We were stopped and told this is not allowed. So we took our carry on out of the security area and tranfered the liquid into ANOTHER caontainer so that we now had TWO 3.5oz containers of liquid. This seemed to be OK with TSA and proceeded onto the flight. On the way out of security, the agent stopped me and appologized for the "stupid rule."

Do you have any stupid rules in your company that your employees may be appologizing for? If so, admit it now and get it changed before ot impacts your brand, customer perception and employee loyalty!

Filling Big Shoes

2008-02-26T07:52:00.000-08:00

Last week, while on vacation I received the very tragic and shocking news of the death of Tom Kiblen, Sponsor for Dale Carnegie here in Southern California. Tom was just 52 years old and in far better health than most 40 year-olds so that fact the he could just expire after a tennis game was a shocking reminder of the tenuous grip that we all have on life. He was large in stature (over 6'2") but his heart was bigger. It will take quite a bit to fill those shoes. But most of all Tom was a mentor to me and a host of others. He once told me the job of a leader is to place the needs of those who look-up to us above the needs of ourselves. Tom certainly did this. He led by example and he was the first to demonstrate what could be done if we would just make a commitment and follow-through. As we walk on without Tom we sense that we have lost a good man; we say farewell just a little too soon. Our sentiments and loving good-byes assist us in accepting the truth that death is oh so real! We are somewhat shaken because only yesterday we were enjoying pleasant conversation together. But let it be the time that we say to ourselves, "We need to walk in bigger shoes and lead and mentor those who are depending on us."