Are You A Duck or An Eagle?

 

Are You A Duck or An Eagle?

 

Harvey Mackay is the author of two previous New York Times #1 bestsellers, “Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive” and “Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt”. In total, Harvey's books have sold 10 million copies worldwide, and have been translated into 37 languages.  He also is one of America's most popular and entertaining business speakers. Toastmasters International named him one of the top five speakers in the world.

 

In 1959, at the age of 26, Harvey purchased a small and failing company that produced envelopes.  Today that company has grown into a $100 million business employing over 600 people. It’s one of the nation's major envelope manufacturers, producing 25 million envelopes a day. As chairman, Harvey's philosophy is engrained in the company, beginning with its motto:

 

“Do what you love, love what you do and deliver more than you promise.”

 

Harvey Mackay tells a wonderful story about a cab driver that proves his point.  Allow me to paraphrase the story of Wally the cab driver.

McKay was waiting in line for a ride at the airport.   When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine.   Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey.  The driver then handed him a laminated card and said:

'I'm Wally, your driver. While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement.'

That was something totally unexpected from a cab driven, but something that immediately caught the attention of a business strategist like Harvey McKay.

 

Mission Statement:  To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.

 

This blew Harvey away. And, as he got into the cab, he noticed that the inside of the cab was as spotlessly clean as the outside.  As he slid behind the wheel, the driver asked, 'Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.'

Jokingly, McKay said, 'No, I'd prefer a soft drink.'

Wally smiled and said, 'No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice. Which would you prefer?”

Almost stuttering, Harvey said, 'I'll take a Diet Coke.'

Handing him his drink, the driver continued, 'If you'd like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today.'  Then the driver handed him another laminated card, explaining,  'These are the stations I get on my satellite radio, in case you'd like to listen to some music. I have the air conditioning on.  Is the temperature comfortable for you?”

 

Still stunned, Harvey muttered, “Yeah, sure, that feels great. Tell me Wally, have you always served customers like this?'

Wally smiled into the rear view mirror. 'No, sir, not always. In fact, it's only been in the last couple of years. My first five years as a cabbie, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the drivers do. Then one day I heard some personal growth guru on the radio.  He said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you will rarely disappoint yourself. He also said, 'Stop complaining!  Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don't be a duck.  Be an eagle’. I thought that was pretty funny.  But the man on the radio explained that ducks quack and complain.  Eagles soar above the crowd.''

'That hit me right between the eyes,' Wally said.  I realized that I was a duck, always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and their customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.'

 

 'I take it that has paid off for you,' Harvey said.

'It sure has,' Wally replied. 'My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year.  This year I'll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today. I had just delivered one of my regular customers to the airport.  I don't sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can't pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action.'

Wally the cab driver made a phenomenal discovery, and ended up running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab, doubling, then quadrupling his income.  He decided to stop quacking like a duck and start soaring like an eagle.

How about you?  How could your business profit from the same attitude change that Wally the cab driver made?  What changes would be necessary for you to differentiate yourself from the competition and begin to soar like an eagle?

 

Advisory boards are powerful tools

Q: I overheard some business people talking about using advisory boards. What are they and what can they do for me?


A: There is no way you can have all the information and answers to every nuance of the business world. There’s just too much to know and the world keeps changing. So, you need to gather around you people with a genuine interest in your company and with the knowledge and experience to guide you in your business decision making.

These advisors could be friends from a different industry or field who provide a unique perspective. Or they may be recently retired executives or managers, vendors, or other business people who want to see you succeed. They are typically called an Advisory Board and serve as a sounding board, provide a source of ideas and expertise, and tell you if you are about to mess up.

Two to three people is sufficient for an Advisory Board for a small business. They will be expected to meet with you (usually on a quarterly basis) to discuss and advise. While being an active part of your business is payment of a sort, you could also pay your Advisory Board members by hosting a nice lunch each meeting, or by possibly paying each Advisory Board member an honorarium each time.

Prepare for each meeting of your Advisory Board by distributing an agenda to your Board members ahead of time. Include any related materials necessary. Perhaps more difficult, you need to be prepared to be completely open and frank with your Advisory Board, sharing both your hopes and your fears. They won't be able to advise you properly or well if you hold back.

If you are unable to find the right advisors, try the SCORE SMART Squad (Score Mentoring And Resource Team). This is a free service for small business owners and managers. They can provide one or a team of SCORE counselors with the experience to serve on your Advisory Board. Send an email to smartsquad@scorehouston.org with your name, contact information, and a brief description of your business and the nature of the challenges you are facing.

An Advisory Board is an especially valuable management resource for small businesses. No single person can know everything, and ad hoc, on the fly advice can be worse than none. An Advisory Board that meets regularly gets to know you and your business and can provide the management expertise you need to avoid mistakes and keep your business on the right course.

Using social networks could pay

Q: What exactly is Social Media and can it help bring in business?

A: Like any emerging idea, the definition of social media is still a little blurry around the edges. Social media is an umbrella term that includes interactive broadcasts such as blogs and podcasts, as well as social networking Web sites. These Web sites often allow visitors to become users or members, create profiles, and upload and share content through the Web site.

There are hundreds of social media Web sites out there. One of the most popular is MySpace which was originally a place for bands to promote themselves. Anyone can create a profile and there are no identity checks. Companies targeting consumers often set up shop there.

Another is LinkedIn. This networking Web site allows you to create a profile and connect with colleagues, give and get recommendations, and find people outside your immediate network for new opportunities. One of the fastest growing social media sites is Facebook.

Why should you care about social networking sites? If you had a retail outlet you wouldn't set up shop where there's no foot traffic, would you? Well, many of your customers and clients may already be at social media Web sites. You need to go to where your customers are.

To get started with social networking, you may want to do some investigative work to find out where your best customers are. Since these sites offer free memberships, it only costs you in time to join multiple sites. Once you've joined, listen to the conversations around you. Each site may have its own mores, but generally people don't want you storming into a conversation to tell them how great your products or services are.

Once you feel comfortable with your surroundings, feel free to join in. Just don't make it a sales pitch. Find a group that you can participate in. If you sell dog products, find and join dog lovers' groups. If you're feeling really daring, start your own group, and invite current clients and colleagues to join in. A real estate agent might start a group focused on the local area (restaurants, schools, taxes, etc.), getting local business owners and residents to join together.

Using social media as a marketing or networking tool is in its infancy. Like a lot of marketing endeavors, the results may be difficult to track. But if you're on the sidelines, your competitors may be making connections and building relationships with your prospects. Are you willing to take that chance?

Volunteering with SCORE

Q: I’m at the age of retirement and have an opportunity to sell my business. Although I’d like to slow down, I’m not ready to stop working entirely. Any advice?


A: Why not spend some of your time helping promising entrepreneurs start or run their own small businesses? You could share your business expertise, give back to your community, gain satisfaction from seeing others succeed and connect with like-minded people by volunteering with SCORE. Each year, SCORE counselors touch thousands of lives, generously sharing their knowledge and experience so that entrepreneurs can realize their dreams of business success.

Nationwide 10,500 men and women in 389 SCORE offices donate their time and talent to assist America's small businesses. At SCORE Houston, volunteers provide confidential one-to-one and team business counseling and low-cost training workshops and seminars. In addition, many counselors are virtual volunteers, providing email counseling directly from their homes or offices. SCORE members can not get paid for the services they provide to our small business clients.

Counselors come from a variety of occupations and backgrounds. Both retired and working professionals are welcome in SCORE. Many volunteers owned small businesses for years while others worked for large corporations.

Whatever their background, SCORE counselors share a belief that small business owners are more likely to succeed if they have a business mentor to guide them. We currently are seeking new members of diverse backgrounds and experiences to complement our current team of over 70 volunteers in the Houston area.

Our members choose from a variety of ways to contribute to our mission; but, a most of our counselors are focused primarily on helping aspiring entrepreneurs develop their business plans and launch their first business. Many work with clients to find the financing needed to start or expand a small business. Others are involved in organizing client educational sessions, carrying out our chapter treasury and accounting activities, managing our internal computer network, publishing newsletters, or other administrative functions.

New members go through an orientation program to get familiar with SCORE and comfortable with the counseling process. All members stay up-to-date by attending regular monthly training sessions.

In Houston, we share offices and work closely with the Small Business Administration. We have several satellite locations throughout the city. Check out our web site, www.scorehouston.org.

If you have any questions or would like to volunteer, please e-mail us at score37@scorehouston.org, or, call our office at 713-773-6565 and leave a message for our membership coordinator to call you.

Financing a Business with Retirement Funds

Q: I’d like to buy a business but most of my funds are tied up in a rollover IRA. Is there any way to use those funds for a new business?


A: Yes, you can invest your retirement account funds in your own business. This can help get you off to a good start by building equity and reducing the need for debt and cash flow. These are important factors for the long-term success of your business.



Funding a small business through the use of retirement plans is ever more prevalent in today’s economic environment, as bank loans and other sources of capital have become more difficult to obtain. It can be attractive for individuals who have suffered from downsizing, closures and lay-offs or who have just retired early.



This type of self-reliant funding is available to just about anyone who has an existing retirement plan and who has terminated employment with the employer where the funds were accumulated or for someone who just has an IRA. The money invested through a properly designed retirement plan can be used to fund the start-up of a new business, purchase a franchise, purchase an existing business, and in some instances, raise capital for an existing business.



The process calls for the assets in your existing retirement plan to be rolled over – tax-deferred and penalty-free – into a newly established qualified retirement plan for you and your new company’s employees. Then the new IRA assets can be invested in the stock of the new company as well as mutual funds, individual stocks and other types of investments.



At the completion of the process, your new company can raise cash from the sale of stock to the retirement plan which in turn holds company stock as a plan asset. The cash can be used for legitimate investments in the business or to pay legitimate business expenses.



With this type of funding, it’s extremely important to consult with a firm that specializes in retirement plan design and administration. As with any qualified plan, compliance with rules and regulations is critical.



Business financing of any kind comes with risks – the risks inherently associated with opening a new business or purchasing an existing one. Before you decide to use your retirement funds, or any other type of financing for that matter, you should ensure that you have a viable business idea, a comprehensive business plan, adequate capital, and the consultation of small business professionals, like those at SCORE, who can provide advice and guidance for your new venture.

A Strategy for Beating Burnout

Q: I’ve worked hard for several years to build up my business, but the long hours, missed weekends and pressure-packed deadlines are wearing me down. What can I do?


A: There are a great many rewards in running your own business. But you must also be aware of the trade-offs and sacrifices that come with being in charge. Over time, the stress and strain may take their toll on your physical and emotional health, affecting relations with your employees, family and friends as well as impacting your business. Fortunately, there are many good ways to keep business burnout at bay.

First, identify those responsibilities or activities that are causing the stress. What aspects of running your business regularly cause discomfort or even anxiety? Perhaps you dread mundane tasks like bookkeeping and filing reports, or having to make sales calls. You may have customers who are difficult to work with, or do not pay invoices on time. And, because you are responsible for everything your business does, you may find yourself obsessing about things beyond your control.

One cure for an overburdened mind is to shed some of your responsibilities. Members of your staff with specific skills or leadership potential may be good candidates to take on certain functions. Consider using a company that specializes in offloading the administrative work of businesses. If you’re a solo entrepreneur, it may be time to hire your first employee or outsource to a part-timer.

Schedule some “me” time and stick with it. You follow a regular maintenance schedule for your equipment, so why not treat yourself the same way? A monthly lunch get-together with colleagues and designated family nights are great ways to get your mind off business issues and reconnect with the people who matter most to you. Even a quick walk around the block will do wonders to refresh your mind and spirit.

Sometimes, problems or challenges aren’t the cause of burnout; it’s the lack of them. Look for new challenges to stimulate your interest and energy. Recapture the thrill you experienced when starting your business by considering expanding or enhancing your products or services. Make sure you plan staffing and resources to support any new venture, however, so you don’t unnecessarily add to your workload.

Seek advice from experts, mentors or experts. Many sources of burnout are common to entrepreneurs and you can learn much from their experience. SCORE offers many valuable resources to help you resolve your small business dilemmas.

Make sure customers always win

Q: I know that customer service is vitally important to my business. But how do I go about making good customer service the way we do business?


A: No matter what you’ve heard, the customer isn’t always right. But that doesn’t mean you should be the one to tell him. A better line to live by might be, “The customer always wins,” because if the customer doesn’t win, he doesn’t come back—and then you lose!


Linda Novey-White, international customer service consultant and former SCORE director, believes you should establish a customer service standard that depends on your particular business. Is your core value that the customer always walks out of the door happy, or is it that the customer always gets the best product even if he doesn’t want to pay for it? Those core values are your customer service standards. But whatever those standards are, they should be designed to engender loyalty with each customer who comes in contact with your business.


Novey-White says, “Once you know what the standard is, you have to manage to that standard. The business owner has to be the evangelist for the customer service standard and also its chief enforcer.”


If customer service is important, it’s not enough to say so. The business owner has to be prepared to hire—and fire—based on customer service performance. Customer service should be foremost in annual evaluations, and it should be attached to measurable goals.


If you want to improve your customer service, benchmark it against others in your industry. But if you really want to vastly improve customer service, compare it to others outside of your industry. You might learn a whole new creative process for implementing customer service if you go outside of your industry.


You should be evaluating your customer service on an ongoing basis. Don’t wait until evaluation time to set an employee straight—your customers won’t wait to find someone else if they’ve been disappointed.


It’s not enough to train your employees in customer service. The reinforcement has to be ongoing. Some of the best ways to do this are to let the customer help. One hotel distributes tokens to guests and encourages them to hand the tokens out to employees who have done an exemplary job. Those tokens can later be redeemed by the employees for merchandise. Another company used evaluation cards as the basis for days off for employees who consistently rank high in customer evaluations.