Turning A Negative Banker/Partner

For about 12 years I put my entrepreneurial pursuits on hold to help my father with his. I don't think that I'm talking out of turn here because he knows I think he's a little too pessimistic and sometimes negative. I'm the opposite and maybe that's why we were so successful together. In the early 80's he purchased a really bare bones type warehouse market grocery operation in Sandpoint, Idaho. Did I mention I love Idaho? I moved from Spokane to Sandpoint to manage that store, his 3rd at that time. It was immediately the most profitable and was showing steady growth. About the time he had purchased that store another local grocer had sold his store to Safeway and a few years later he decided to build another store just a stones throw away from our old beat up steel warehouse with cement floors. My Father would visit the store about every two weeks from Spokane, we would go over numbers and discuss operational changes. From the time the new store up the street began construction every visit had a similar tone. From my Fathers prospective we were going to loose 35% of our business and no matter how positive I was and no matter what I was doing to prepare, he was convinced, we were going to loose 35% of our business. While all this was going on I was trying to improve customer service by training my employees in "Selling in the Supermarket" and another training program dealing specifically with customers feelings. While I was working on that at the store, at home I was working out pretty hard. I was building up for the fight. I had no misconceptions about what we were, we were never going to be the prettier store, we were the price store. We would win or loose this fight on price and customer service, that's just the way it was. I believed we would win, and my training helped keep me in a positive frame of mind, even with the negativity in my face every other week. On my Fathers last visit before the new store up the street opened he decided he was ready to do what he could to stop our 35% loss in business. He told me on that visit "spend $100,000.00 if you have to, but don't loose market share". Now that put a smile on my face, I had everything I needed to win the war. To make a long story short, the store up the street opened and within two weeks of that I was showing moderate increases again. In that quarter I had spent $52,000.00 of my allotment. Within a couple years the new store closed down, I thought I had the final victory. That's when my Father explained to me that once a store had been built, someone would be occupying it. Sure enough, I had another competitor within a year and we started the cycle over again. Stay positive, work hard, listen to the nay sayer's when you have to, but make sure they are hearing you.

Partner/Banker Negative Energy

Let's start with what not to do, when your partner/banker is flooding your space with negative energy. I heard this story about my Grandfather from a family member. At one time my Grandfather had opened a grocery store in a small town. I guess he borrowed some money from the bank to get it done. One day the banker came in and was giving him a lot of grief because he was behind on his loan payments. At some point Grandpa got fed up and threw the keys to the store to him. He told the banker if he was so damn smart why didn't he go ahead run it himself. Then he walked out. Now, as much as you might want to do this - don't. Grandpa sure gets points from me for that one though.
When I have a negative banker/partner I try to limit contact with them as much as possible to reduce their impact on my Psyche. When I do have to meet with them I try to prepare. I want to flood them with as much positive information as I can. Of course, I listen to what they have to say, but still I won't allow the general negativity to get into my head. If they're talking about all the things that could go wrong, I'm talking about all the things we can do to avoid that outcome. Never let them drag you into that negative thought, the outcome would be bad for both of you.

Energy Positive/Negative

Once you've decided to take the leap, you're going to have to focus all your energy to get the project off the ground. Positive energy = all your thoughts and dreams of success. Negative energy = all your fears and doubts. You have to put the negative energy aside now, It's all got to be positive. I can get a little crazy about negative energy in my space at this stage of the game.
At 25 years old I owned 25% of the first grocery store I ever managed. The store had been owned by a grocery wholesaler that couldn't make it work, so we bought it for $1.00 + inventory. I had hired the employees and we had completed a minor remodel before re-opening the store. I had been working 120 hours a week for a month or so, but we were finally open. One day my wife, was coming into the store and she heard a Frito-Lay vendor, who had just made a delivery to the store, talking to some customers outside. Evidently, he had told them that if the grocery wholesaler couldn't make it work it was a pretty sure bet that we'd fail. Bells and whistles went off in my head when heard this. That my friends was negative energy in my space, and when I'm starting a project I do not tolerate it. The next morning I called the vendors boss and told him I didn't want him in my store anymore. He explained to me that if he couldn't deliver at my store they didn't really have a position for him. To that I replied, "that's really too bad". The problem with negative energy is that if you allow it to, it can seep in. It starts to affect your decision making and the next thing you know you've screwed the whole thing up. In this case I had eliminated the negative energy, the store was successful and is still operating today. I go to great lengths to keep negative energy away from my space when I'm starting a project. Okay, that's pretty simple. What happens when the negative energy is coming from your banker or partner? I'll talk about that in my next post.

More on Risk/Reward or Maybe Just Jumping

I got thinking that my post on Risk/Reward may have given you the impression that being an entrepreneur is about being reckless. Nothing could be further from the truth; an entrepreneur is anything but reckless. One more story and then I'll get off this topic.
The background in my blog header picture is Granite Falls just North of Priest Lake Idaho, one of my favorite places in the world. When I was in college my friends and I used to hike around Granite Falls from time to time. On one of our hikes we climbed up above the main falls and found a smaller water fall that emptied into a small pool about 25' in diameter. That pool spilled over into another pool of about the same size, which emptied into a large pond that fed the main falls. There was access to a cliff ledge about 50' above the upper pool. I had a strong urge to jump from the ledge into the pool, but before I did I had to do a little research. I climbed into the pool and dove down to check the depth and look for any rocks that could be a hazard after I entered the water from the cliff. The depth was fine and there were no hazards in the water. After completing my research I knew the only concerns would be to over jump and hit the rock wall on the far side of the pool, or to under jump and hit the rocks on the cliff I was jumping from. I figured I could do it, so I climbed up to the ledge and jumped. I hit the water pretty close to center pool never even touching bottom. As I came up the current washed me down into the smaller pool below. It was quite a rush. After that, every time we went to Granite Falls we had to go to the upper pool so I could demonstrate the jump to others. Strange thing is, even after my demonstration on how safe it was, I couldn't get anyone else to make the jump. To this day I don't know of anyone that's made that jump except for me, and I've done it dozens of times. Here's the thing. I did my research and accessed the risks before I jumped, just the same as I would with a business venture. In the end I jumped, my friends did not. Now, anyone with any kind of a head on their shoulders can access risks, it's usually the ability to jump that separates the entrepreneurs from the rest of the world.

Recession - Another Perspective

Lately, when people ask me about my business and I talk to them about how well it's doing, they'll usually remind me in one way or another that there's a recession going on. It's like they're reminding me that my industry is not recession proof. Guess what, I already new that. I look at recession a little differently. I figure all of my competitors have been warned by someone they know and respect that the recession is going to hurt their business. That's where I come in. A recession is a perfect time to set a plan in place to take your competitors market share. If your plan is successful your sales can increase in a recession, while your competitors sales decrease. The great thing - they won't even fight to get their business back because they can blame their loss on the recession. They believe that a loss of sales is perfectly justifiable and acceptable, because we're in a recession. It's fantastic! I'm sitting here thinking if I take x dollars a day from each of my competitors that my sales will go up by 20 times x daily. If we weren't in a recession they'd fight me for it tooth and nail. Since we're in a recession, and they don't know it's me that's taking their sales, they give it up willingly because there's a recession going on. It's so easy to prey on people's negativity. Real world, my sales were up 53.6% over last year in the first quarter. Personally, I always try not to panic. Come up with the appropriate strategy and you may find that recessions do have some advantages. I'm not sure how long this recession is going to last, but don't tell me that I won't be the last man standing. That I won't buy. There are still a lot of sales out there, go get ya some.

Risk - Reward

I like a good story. I like hearing a good story, and from time to time I like to tell a story. I hope you find some value in this story: I was probably only about 6 years old when my father gave me my first set of snow skis for Christmas. By the time I was is high school I knew very few people who could ski as well as I did. Obviously, there were better skiers than I. I just didn't know many. Skiing was something we did as a family and almost every year we would take a family ski vacation. One year, when I was in high school, we took a week long vacation to Aspen Colorado where we skied Snow Mass most of the week. Early in the vacation I noticed a ski jump under one of the chair lifts. This wasn't your ordinary ski jump, because on the other side of it was a cabin covered with snow. In taking the jump you would sail over the cabin and land on the other side. At least that was the idea. I was drawn to that jump and every time I rode the chair lift over it, I would contemplate the risks and measure those risks against my confidence that I could successfully complete such a jump. I noticed that the signs leading to the jump said "For Professionals Only!", "Take At Your Own Risk". Just how good was I? We had a bad weather day one day, so we went into Aspen to check out the shops. In a tee shirt shop I had found a T-shirt that had a black diamond on it along with the phrase "No Guts - No Glory". For non-skiers a ski run marked with a black diamond means "Most Difficult". I had made the decision to take the jump; I bought that T-shirt. I had been talking about taking "The Jump" all week and my father kept telling me he was not in favor of the idea. The day before our vacation ended, I announced to the family that I had decided to take the jump. Imagine my surprise when my father said - "let me get the movie camera I'm coming with you". We didn't have camcorders in those days. As I started down the approach to the jump I was moving fast, I slowed myself slightly as it was a long approach to the jump. I could see the "For Professionals Only" signs in a blurr as I sped past them. Concentrating, I did not look up, I could here people on the chair lift above me yelling to me that I was not going fast enough. It was too late. I hit the jump, I felt my skis skim the snow on the top of the cabin and I struggled to straighten them out. I had made it over. The landing was near perfect, but I was really moving. All that was left to do was stop. I made it. There was only one problem; I had skimmed the top of the roof of the cabin when I went over. I was not satisfied. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. I went back up to the top and took the jump again, a little faster this time. I sailed over the cabin and landed with no problem. My father had the whole thing on film. I was satisfied in knowing that I had accomplished what I had set out to do from the beginning of the trip. That was all the reward I needed.
As an entrepreneur risk is always part of the game. If you're not willing to risk, you won't be an entrepreneur. Still, you'll have to calculate the risk. What's the worst that could happen. Could you live with that? With each risk you'll have to decide to either take the jump, or walk away. If you decide to take the jump, look closely for the reward. It may not always be what you had anticipated.

Welcome to my BLOG

This being my first posting on this blog, maybe I should start by answering what seems to me to be the obvious question. Why am I an entrepreneur? The answers are many. I come from a long line of entrepreneurs both on my Father's side and my Mother's. I have a proud heritage including the very successful and the not so successful. To me, this next story sums up the entrepreneurial spirit. In high school I was working as a Meat Cutter Apprentice in one of my fathers grocery stores. One day my Grandfather asked me how I liked cutting meat. I replied that I thought it might be a good thing to have to fall back on. With that, he told me this story. Evidently, when he was young he worked in a grocery store. In that particular store the owner was the meat cutter. One day, in the owners absence, they ran out of meat to sell. Although my Grandfather was not a trained meat cutter, he went ahead and started cutting meat to sell to their customers. Apparently he didn't do a very good job, because the owner fired him the next day. What he told me next was totally shocking. The next day, instead of going out and looking for another job, he began the process of opening a meat shop. As you might have guessed, the Butcher Shop was unsuccessful. I've never forgotten that story, and maybe that answers the question as to why I'm an entrepreneur. It's not a choice with me, it's who I am, it's like breathing, you just do it.