Samantha's Blog

"Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose." –Bill Gates

That’s why we are hitting the streets to keep up with the current business beat.

Success is a great journey; failure - not so much fun!  For the past two years, my team and I have been working diligently to find an innovative way to share our smarts with other business professionals, plus learn lots more ourselves. 

You see, we like to learn!  Like some people like sports or cars or cooking -- we like learning.  And we're always searching for new ways to make our smarts more entertaining and enlightening to a loyal audience.

Over the next few weeks, we will be reaching out to our members, corporations, clubs and anyone we meet that might provide some fresh and innovative ideas.

We want to make our learning model different, to stand out so that when you read our site you think, "Hey, this will make my workday a little easier, my career shine a little brighter or my business grow stronger."

So, look for us on the street getting the business beat…so we can keep loyal members like you!

If you have some ideas to share, PLEASE email me or post them here!  You can also post them in my Forum.

And thanks in advance for your help and your loyalty—it means a lot to me.

This week, my Lightbulb Moment and Blog are inspired by listening to a weekly business radio show.  To be honest, I can only handle so many hours of listening to the present and projected status of the business climate, as it can become a downer after a while.  But, these experts sparked my mind on two thoughts. 

One was to learn more about the impact of inflation, which I learned more about from talks with CFOEd and discuss in this week’s Lightbulb Moment.  The second was the grim reports from one expert on the projected decline in the standard of living for many Americans.   Another expert on the show clarified this point, going on that it was especially those in the unskilled labor pool who might see their living standards decline over the next few years.

Why unskilled workers only?  Advances in technology have and will continue to keep our economy growing and be more efficient.  I know that is so true in my business.  Much of my success incorporates using the latest and greatest technology. 

But using those technologies also increase my labor costs as most of my partners, associates and vendors hold advanced degrees.  And these degrees and skills mean higher wages and prices.

We now compete in a global economy with a much larger pool of professionals, and there is need for concern for those workers who do not increase their skills.

Every one of us needs to be aware that to maintain our standard of living, we must prepare, upgrade and sometimes repair our skills each and every week…maybe even every day!

So, keep learning – it’s likely to increase your earnings!

It takes many brains to build a business.  And when you lose a key employee, your company loses some of that brainpower. 

It is especially hard when your company is small.  Why do they leave?  Various reasons, but in the end it is hard on the company!

And as the owner/CEO/president, you may find that you quickly must discover skills and talents new to you or the work may not be covered.

So, today check your bases and think of what you may need to do if suddenly a key employee - one who covers important tasks - were to depart.  Your customers will still want the same level of service.

On the upside, an unexpected departure might help you find that some tasks can be done differently, particularly if you are required to quickly learn new skills.

So the pain might have been sudden, but in the long run, you may find things getting done not just different - but better!

A few weeks ago when I was working out with my personal power trainer, Sherri Allen of Impact Fitness, an idea hit us.  Our inspiration?  My pin-striped work-out suit, the one that passes enough in the office for business causal.  Sherri and I had been discussing the need for building up your personal strength to keep the stamina needed to run a business or move up the career ladder.  That's why I sought out Sherri.  And wow! have the returns on my investment been powerful.  And that is when it struck us..the power suit is being redefined. 

If you look at the old definitions, Wikipedia* states:

A power suit may be:

• a type of suit stereotypically associated with the 1980s. It is characterized by sharp cuts, wide shoulder pads and a stiff rigidity and was first introduced by Polo Ralph Lauren 
• Another name for a powered exoskeleton

A powered exoskeleton is a powered mobile machine consisting primarily of a skeleton-like framework worn by a person, and a power supply which supplies at least part of the activation-energy for limb movement. Powered exoskeletons are designed to assist and protect the wearer. They may be designed for example….to aid the survival of people in other dangerous environments.

And for today’s world—redefine that to a powered skeleton!  Your bones, your muscles, your skeleton are your best power suit! The one you need in our ever-changing and sometimes dangerous environments.

So, not only keep building up your mind, but build up your body.  And take it from me - the weight of the business world becomes much lighter when you have the muscles and increased stamina to deal with the challenges of building a career or business! 

(*Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powered_exoskeleton)

The research statistics* show a 42% increase in women-owned businesses from 1997 to 2006. Why am I interested?  Well it’s two-fold:  I am the majority owner of my company and a woman.  As a business person, I realize the need to be always benchmarking our company performance to others in our industry and to take an outside look here and there and see what others are up to.

So, when I dug deeper into the numbers from the Center for Women’s Business Research 2006 Fact Sheet concerning majority-woman-owned businesses, a lightbulb went off!

What I did not see was an increase in sales comparable to the increase in the number of women-owned businesses. There was only a 4.4% increase in sales and a 0.4% increase in number of employees over the same time period. So, yes, the number of firms rose by almost half, but the market share barely increased.  Shouldn’t the real goal be to increase revenues? 

Well, that’s one of our main goals at SmartSamantha.com:  to increase the revenues of women-owned businesses and all small and medium businesses, by building companies and – add to that – profitable ones!

How? The SmartSamantha team has calculated, just for our members, an Industry Insight SmartCard.  This card provides a detailed scorecard of key metrics to give you the smarts you need to analyze both the profitability and capital needs for several major industries.

Add to that our Sane-O-Meter and you have two smart tools to benchmark your business performance!

So check out the arrows on my SmartSamantha Industry Insight SmartCard in this week’s Bizdom.  Next week you’ll find it in my Brains section.

Let’s really start growing some businesses!

*http://www.cfwbr.org/national/index.php

Foriegner’s song plays as I attempt to make dinner:

I’ve been looking too hard, I’ve been waiting too long

Sometimes I don’t know what I will find

I only know it’s a matter of time…

It feels so right, so warm and true…

It made me think about how true and crucial this can be for many businesses both small and big--finding the right partners. 

Building a business or building up your division/expanding a company idea is hard work--and building successful business relationships takes the same stamina. No one builds a successful company initiative on just one idea and one person. 

The real work and real success comes with finding, keeping and nurturing the right relationships, ones that help build brighter ideas, which can be built into a growing business or expanding a division of an established company.

I have been studying some research on the ten year growth of women-owned businesses (since I am one) and working with CFOEd to analyze it.  The findings shed some light on just what industries are the best in which to grow profitable businesses and can be used for any company thinking of exploring new areas or just how they benchmark to others.

So, look for my SmartSamantha Industry Insight SmartCard coming next week--it is a card filled with smarts.

But remember, building profitable relationships are crucial too. So, when you find good partners – associates, vendors, bankers, clients – remember to cherish them… as they will help your business not perish!