How to save the economy

Its been said that President Elect Obama is preparing to stimulate the economy via one of the largest federal spending initiatives ever. His plan is to take billions and immediately invest into infrastructure projects like bridges, roads, mass transit, and green projects that retrofit old buildings to make them more efficient. Why? To provide thousands of jobs, get money into the hands of workers, and also have the long-term benefit of better transit and organization. This is an excellent idea, with one exception…projects like this take a long time to start which may delay economic stimulus.

SO HERE IS THE QUESTION: What would happen if President Elect Obama gave at least part of that money to entrepreneurs? Many people say that it’s entrepreneurs that move quickly despite economic hard times. They are the ones that take the chances, and in the end create jobs, provide security, and dare I say…strengthen the economy.

Think about it, with entrepreneurs, there would be no universities (Entrepreneurs are usually the ones that donated the money to build the buildings), your current job wouldn’t exist, there would be no restaurants, factories, or massage parlors. Everything we touch in this world for the most part can have its origination traced to an entrepreneur who had an idea. Even the ground you walk on was probably landscaped by some entrepreneur who took a chance.

So, if you have your idea that you’ve been harboring for some time, get out there and get it done! Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, take chances, and create. If you are an entrepreneur, this is your call to stimulate the economy while the world sits by and waits.

A point does need to be made here however. Many would be entrepreneurs feel that if they could just get their hands on a mountain of cash, their idea would sell, sell, SELL! If its a good idea, you don’t need any money. Your future customers will give it to you. So, maybe I should change my position here. I supposed the answer is not to give entrepreneurs the cash. Instead, the plan here is to watch as the army of entrepreneurs step up to the plate and create despite the odds. So, we shall watch as the new roads and bridges are built across much of the economically depressed nation. What will be far more entertaining is to watch the roads blazed and bridges spanned from divide to divide that entrepreneurs create.

What is an idea that is good enough to merit customers giving you cash before you start the business? Is it totally unique? No. I know very little in this world, but one thing I do know is that very few ideas are unique anymore. If you have though of a business, someone else has already thought of it. Our goal is to take our idea, and be the best at it. If we waste our time looking for the one unique idea that is left in this world , we’ll never go into business. I can’t count how many people I meet that say to me “I wish I could start a business. I’m still waiting for the perfect idea though.” My answer is always, “go out and start a taco stand for heaven sakes. Do something. Start and grow a beauty salon or a computer store. Don’t wait until the opportunity is gone.

Quick, do what everyone else is doing, it must be right!!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times – and through it all, businesses for the most part seem to do the same ol’ thing.  When it’s the best of times, we go hog-wild, have extravagant Christmas parties, and buy the really high quality stationary that makes the receiver want to feel it and say to themselves, “Oooooo, this company must be doing well.”  Then, sudden disaster. The economy goes down the toilet and what do we do?   We lock the doors, pull out the shotgun, and start buying the crappy stationary to save 3 cents per sheet.  Aaaagggh, Run for your lives!

So here’s a thought.  What would happen if, during the good times, we let everyone else party.  We throw parties too, but instead of renting out the 5 star hotel for everyone of our employees, we bring out the Wii and have golf tournaments and pizza.  Instead of trying to impress the world with our big pocket books, we simply have a blast with our employees as best friends in a company should do every day.  Of course, we keep this attitude through out all divisions of the company.  Instead of shelling out cash for 10 high profile billboards (which are a fortune), we turn to our marketing guru, and say “Where’s the  creative juice?  Billboards don’t create buzz.   What can we do with $1,000 ,  our personal networks,  and our brains?”

What we have here is an interesting use of company resources.  We treat the good times like they are the bad times. I’m not saying that we be cheap. I know I’m an accountant an all, but come on, give me some credit.   No, I’m saying that we be the entrepreneurs we know we can be.  We get creative, we marshal our resources, and we produce by making something huge out of nothing instead of throwing a lot of money at something and hoping it sticks.

Then when times get bad, which the will – we carry on like usual eating pizza, playing the wii, and having a blast while we innovate.  All this will be taking place while everyone else is tightening down their belts, pulling out shotguns, and  letting go of their staff.  As they prepare for what looks like World War III, we rock the boat as entrepreneurs and grow the economy.  The best part about this strategy is that when the bad times come around, we have resources that not only float the company but propel us forward.

I want our employees to never feel the wake of overspending in the good times followed by the tidal wave of job loss and disappointment in the bad times.  As a matter of fact, Greg Warnock (an entrepreneur, angel investor, and business rock star) once taught me a lesson I will never forget.  He was going over my business with me and asked me what I would do if I could get my hands on a chunk of change for my company.  I immediatly fell into the trap described above.  I stated talking about getting nice office space, buying things that create validity in my company (like that killer stationary), and on and on.  I though he was going to slap me.  He said in essence, ” Then you don’t deserve to be in business.  Money should only be spent on one thing:  getting more customers to give you money. How does getting an overly large and lavish office space make that happen?  It doesn’t.  Since then, I have evaluated every spending decision on that one premise.  If I spend this dollar, will it lead to a customer giving me two?  If not, I don’t need it.  Thanks for the lesson Greg!  p.s. This is the reason why Dashboard Accountants is a virtual Accounting firm.

As a side note, there is a good read in Utah CEO this month.  According to Brandy A. Lee, in an article titled “Finding Cash in Lean Times” on page 44, one of the best things you can do as a business owner during the good times is to focus on your relations with vendors and customers.  Pay on time with your vendors and treat your clients like gold.  When the bad times roll around and you run out of cash, the vendors will extend terms instead of introducing you to collections and bankruptcy.

A new blog for business owners who are confused by accounting

There are so many aspects to business, and one of the most important is understanding how your accounting works.  So we created a blog that will post articles on topics like how to calculate your break-even point, what’s gross margin and where should you be, how do I find your industry benchmarks, etc.  Check it out at here.

Crunch Lunch

It seems like there is always something entrepreneurial going on in Utah.  You could fill your calendar with networking events, classes on how to raise capital from angels or ventures, and luncheons all day long if you wanted to .  Today, I went to the first ever “Crunch Lunch” held by the Utah Valley Business crew.  So the idea is to have tons of presenters share pertinent business information in a crunched period of time while you eat lunch.  It was great.  All of the presenters today were exceptional.  I really enjoyed one in particular:

Branding and messaging strategies by Jack Hadley from Clarityworx. This presentation was powerful for me.  The premise is that competition is not the other business down the road that does what you do;  Today’s competition is clutter.  There are marketing messages everywhere, and most of them are poorly crafted.  His slogan was something along the lines of :  Its not how much you say but how little you say effectively. You should check out his site at clarityworx.com

The main exercise to crafting a clear marketing message was to list the top three benefits of what you do in a clear and efficient way and then to build a marketing slogan that communicates that.

As I applied this to Dashboard Accountants, I realized that our marketing message would have to convey the following three benefits that we strive to provide for our clients:

1.  EASY to work with due to our virtual organization.

2.  RELIABLE due to our full service bookkeeping, payroll, and controller services.

3.  STRATEGIC due to our web-based dashboard reports and weekly strategic meetings.

4.  AFFORDABLE due to our unique process.

After looking at our core benefits, I tried to come up a slogan that would communicate them to the world.  Maybe the wonderful readers of this blog can tell me what they think.  Here are some of the ideas I had:

-Not just another bookkeeper

-Accounting made useful

Let me know what you think, or if you have an even better one.