Entrepreneurial News®

Don’t Chintz on Your Promotions

My wife and I like Habit Burger, and when I saw a coupon for a free Habit burger on the side of our takeout bag, I was interested.

But, upon reading the coupon, which required online logging in and purchase of a drink, it would take me more time to do these tasks than the coupon is worth. And that excludes the gas to get to the restaurant, which is about five miles away.

So, it’s not a deal at all.

The point is, if you’re going to do a promotion which is supposed to build sales, don’t put conditions on it that would impede the sales you’re trying to build.

If you want to reward people for being good customers (which we are), just give ’em a burger, no preconditions.

Most customers are gratified that they are being rewarded.

The Value of Values

Some time back, there was a post in Inc. about the value of values.

The early part of the article said ‘values are everything’, and you should have them even before you start your company.

All well and good, but values can change or get modified.

For example, when I and a partner bought my family company, it was run like a feudal patrimony…don’t stick your head up and object to anything going on. In return, the company takes care of you.

That value set wasn’t our value set. Because we had incurred a large obligation to buy the company, we had to grow, and rapidly, and make more money, because we wouldn’t make the monthly debt payments if we didn’t.

However, we continued the value of ethical behavior. We didn’t condone one employee diving into a truck to find out where a competitor’s shipment was going, but then we didn’t fire him, either. We did counsel him about the ethics of doing what he’d done.

As the article says, we had to hire a bunch of new employees that shared our values: Hard work, going the extra mile for customers, product and service innovation, to name a few.

So, examine what your company values are, and determine if your company is living up to them or maybe you need to change them or your people to get in line with your values.

They’re Here, Now What?

Some while ago, I wrote a post in this space that we shouldn’t get all spooled up about the illegals workers let into the country, because we needed the workers, and most of the illegals looked like they’re quite capable of working.

So, here they are. Arizona and Texas have borne the effects of the influx, but both states have been fairly adroit about shipping illegals that they catch off to other areas.

The economy has cooled somewhat since my earlier post, and there might not be the jobs that there once were, but I think that there are still about 4 million jobs out there, so we should be able to digest the folks that are here.

I’m not seeing them in a Scottsdale hotel I know housed some of them under contract with the Feds or the State, and I don’t see them camped in large parking lots or on the streets of Phoenix or Scottsdale.

It seems to me that we s a country might as well get on with putting the illegals into the pipeline for green cards and citizenship, as long as they appear to be productive citizens. If criminals screw up and get arrested, we can deport them.

The Biden Bozos screwed up, but we’re apparently making lemonade from the lemons.

There’s still an I-9 program for employers, so those employing the illegals can do it legally.

The states all presumably have labor departments that keep track of employees, so they can add more to their rolls as they register in the various states. We know that they’re not all in Texas, Arizona or Florida.

Eventually, probably next year, if the Republicans are to be believed, we will get a Republican House and Senate that can get the border back under control, finishing the wall to get the flow of migrants back under control.

The Federal Department of Labor could do something useful and try to figure out how many workers we might need in the economy. They did it before, so the processes are in place.

Tune Up Your Website for the Recession

This was a topic in one of our recent Solutions Forum meetings, because it was apparent that one of the attendees hadn’t really looked at his website in some time.

One of my cohorts in the consulting game, Reva Lekovsky, just posted a Tweet to this effect for Europeans, but tuning up your website applies equally well for America.

Do it even if you’re reluctant to spend the money. If you do website promotion correctly, it pays for itself many times over. One of our clients found us on a website that was well done when we had it done, but we haven’t touched it for two or three years.

Our tune up normally involves looking at your search terms on the back of your website, and especially your local search terms, such as ‘Scottsdale hair and nail salon’.

Do you have your latest products and services in the search terms?

Do you have your local or national competitors listed in your search terms? You can question the ethics of doing this listing, but I’m telling you that it works.

Are you using local search terms? Odds are you’re not, because most website developers don’t know to include them.

Do you have videos? Google still loves videos of products of services in use. Even if you shot them with your cell phone.

The Employee Retention Credit

This is another government program designed to reward employers that retained employees during 2020 and 2021. It is a refundable tax credit, but it’s not clear against which taxes: corporate or employer taxes on employees. Some handouts also say that it’s a grant, but that probably depends on whether your original PPP loan was in fact a grant. Some lenders have also converted grants into loans, but you probably know in which category you are.

Your CPA should know about this program, but many do not, which is why I’m doing this blog. The program, like the original PPP, has probably also seen its share of fraud.

You can get up to $5,000 per employee for 2020, and for 2021, the credit can be up to $7,000 per employee. The total can be up to $26,000 per employee, which means there might be other requirements.

Here are the eligibility requirements:

  1. During the government shutdown of 2020 and 2021, you experienced substantial reduction in your operating hours, inability to travel or restriction of group meetings.
  2. You need not have been deemed an ‘essential’ business.
  3. You experienced a shut-down of your supply chain or your vendors.
  4. If you received a PPP grant or loan, you are still eligible.
  5. If you remained open, you must have experienced at least a 20% decline in gross revenues. If you changed operating methods as a result of government orders, you’re eligible

The law was passed in 2022, and there are several entities out there that can help you if your CPA can’t. We don’t make any representations about the worth of any of them.

Not So Fast

I annually look carefully at the Motor Trend new car issue, and a couple of things stood out. This being a business blog, I’m outlining below some business opportunities for some hardy entrepreneurs.

  1. There’s a high degree of EV-ism among the offerings, but with the exception of Tesla’s charger, there don’t seem to be the chargers to support them. Ford, with all of its dealers, could do a charger network.
  2. The cars are all faster and more expensive, but in the middle of a recession, I would think the automakers would rethink this. Arizona is wider open than most states, but most of the cars are in the metro hubs of Phoenix and Tucson. Slower, more efficient isn’t much represented here. Ford’s even cancelling my little EcoSport, at least for the US market. I think this might be a mistake, given current economic conditions around the world.
  3. I applaud Jim Farley at Ford for saying he’s going to put passion back into all of Ford’s cars, and the recent Ford offerings seem to bear his philosophy out. Their cars and trucks seem to have a different slant to things. Market research is much in evidence. I wonder what he’s gonna do with the Escape or the Ecosport? The idea is to not do commodity cars, which is quite sound from a marketing standpoint.
  4.  Motor Trend doesn’t do trucks, but they’re a big segment of the market, and they all have motors. More electric than before, maybe more hybrid. Some of the SUV’s look like trucks, you’re doing pickups, and the vehicles like the Ford Transit bridge to car/truck divide, so think about it, MT.

Don’t Fund the Inflation Bill

Rep. Mast of Florida came up with a novel approach to dealing with the “inflation” bill that was just signed by President Biden.

Don’t fund it. Of course, not funding it assumes that the Republicans take control of the House of Representatives in the November ’22 elections. Mast said on Fox News that if the Republicans took control of the House, this bill and others could be on the chopping block.

Maybe some of the funds can be diverted to finish the southern border wall. Ducey’s shipping containers do the job, but they’re certainly not the best representation of the United States. Trump’s border wall was effective and had a certain elegance about it.

So, let’s be wise in where we spend our money.

Whip Inflation Now (WIN)

Let’s hope that the present spending bill doesn’t pass the House of Representatives and the Bidens have to start over, again. A much more balanced bill can be written, I think.

I also think if the Biden administration adopted the ideas below, they might just avert a recession, too.

We borrowed the title from some past bill, not sure where, but the title is catchy.

We have some ideas on how to really stop inflation, probably in about six months or so.

  1. Unblock energy production. I don’t think the Biden bunch understands the degree to which energy goes into many of the things that we consume. This means restarting the Keystone pipeline, and unblocking permitting and leasing for other energy projects. Promote an ‘all of the above’ energy policy. Biden might have to lock the greenies in a basement, but so be it. American industry is not going to kill our planet. We are far more careful about our environment than the Chinese and the Indians.
  2. Unlock the rest of the supply chain. I’m not sure what legislative measures are needed, but I’m sure our vaunted Washington wizards can do it. One of the problems is the change in depreciation in the current bill that disallows expensing of plant and equipment.
  3. Get rid of the minimum 15% tax. Most of my clients don’t pay that much in taxes, because they have extensive depreciation flows that reduce their taxable income.
  4. Once again encourage accelerated depreciation of plant and equipment. This might be in the Trump tax cut plan, but it can be reinforced.

So, these are some modest ideas to whip inflation, and I’d certainly encourage you readers to retweet our tweet on this subject.

People Are Your Most Important Asset

My oldest son was almost laid off by his employer, who is a midsized mortage company.

It would have been a big mistake, not just because he’s my son, but the company owner hasn’t figured out that his people are his best asset. Money is money, but his people make him distinctive. The company is having a bad year, because rates are up and home values are shaky.

And the owner hasn’t diversified into other loan products that might offset some of the cyclicality.

But, bad year or no, keep your people if they’ve done good work in the past. They will again. Even if you have to sell your Ferrari or your classic car.

He’s thinking of changing industries, because the mortgage business is notoriously cyclical, and it’s rather difficult for him, as the sole breadwinner, to plan when it’s hard to say if you’re going to sell something this month and earn some commission income. He’s got savings, but, still.

So, you owners out there who are having bad years, keep your best people, even if it means you don’t get a paycheck.

Rev Up That Red Headed Stepchild

With apologies in advance to one of my ex-wives, who was a redhead, in this uncertain economy, you should make sure that you’re getting the maximum out of all your product lines.

The rev-up includes any product lines that you might have neglected for a while because you were or are doing well with the product lines that you’re emphasizing.

Hence the readheaded stepchild analogy. Lore holds that redheads get neglected by their parents.

How long has it been since you did an analysis of all your product lines and brand names to see if they’re doing as well as you expected when you launched them?

Talk to your customers, past, present or future for the possibly neglected product line or service. They’ll tell you if you are really neglecting the product line.

For example, when one of my companies was putting nickel plating on everything we could produce to resist corrosion, I was talking to one of my big distributors and he asked why we weren’t doing plating on our garden variety exhaust clamps, which was about our first product.

An aha moment ensued. I asked him if he’d pay an extra 15 cents for a plated clamp, and he said ‘sure’. And he bought 250 on the spot.

If you look over your product or service lineup, at a minimum, you’ll probably come out with a product idea or two or five.

And you might find out if your perceived neglect of the one product or service is real.

Now get out there are look things over.