The Future of Print Media

The world is changing because of the Internet. The businesses that will make the cut will adapt or die quickly. Print media is one of the most affected. Being a magazine founder, I really need to be on top of what a magazine is today. Is it just a printed medium?

Rupert Murdoch says it all in this speech captured below....

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24652174-664,00.html

Book Report - The Knack

I have challenged myself to read 50 books by the end of 2010. That's about two books a month between now and then. I am counting books on tape (or iPod while I work out).

This willl benefit you because I will share my thoguhts about each book with you!

The first book on my journey was The Knack, How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up by Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham. I read the hard copy on a plane in about two hours. It's hard to put down!

I have been in business for almost 14 years and still learned a ton. It's a very practical, grassroots learning tool. Brodsky shares his real-world experiences to help entrepreneurs think differently. He went bankrupt in the 1980's and learned a ton about what to do, and what not to do. Norms writes that you can either learn from your own experiences, or his!

Save some time and learn from his.

The Knack should be taught as a course in every business college. Instead of academia, it's the real thing, based on a real entrepeneur's experience.

On a scale of 1-10, (1 being "use to start a fire" and 10 being "a "MUST READ"), I give The Knack a 10. It's very informative and a fun read. Burlingham really works well with Norm to extract his experienes and own writings into compelling learning experience stories.

How Great Leaders Thrive in Tough Times

Chester Arthur, who served as President of the United States from 1881 to 1885, will never be regarded as one our great leaders. In fact, many Americans would be hard pressed to identify him as one of our presidents.

Arthur, who served after President Garfield was assassinated, may well have possessed the basic qualities of a great leader. But the time of his presidency was fairly stable, so he was never called upon to step up.

Tough times, on the other hand, are when great leaders show their stuff. If you look at many of the famous leaders throughout history, you'll notice they became famous because they navigated through seemingly impossible times. They held the flashlight at the end of the tunnel.

Legendary leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and, more recently, Rudy Giuliani come to mind. All were faced with incredibly complex or catastrophic situations. Instead of cowering in indecision, they reacted boldly and aggressively. They threw conventional wisdom out the window and developed their own playbooks on the spot.

So what does this have to do with entrepreneurs? In short, it's time to step up as leaders of your enterprises. Extremely difficult economic times are here and may be here to stay. You're time to shine is here.

So what is a business leader to do? The reflexive action is to take a hatchet to the budget, impose layoffs and halt all plans for growth. These steps are relatively easy to take, so leadership skills rarely come into play. And often, they are exactly the wrong things to do.

But great leaders know that only dead fish swim with the current. So they work harder to get through trying times, searching for more creative solutions and inspiring their coworkers to stay engaged. They also take some time to pause and think because they know they shouldn't react impusively. Only then do they act.
So how am I trying to live up to this leadership ideal? After pausing to think, I'm taking the following steps:

1) I asked my coworkers to help me look at our expenses and figure out where we can cut. Engaging the staff in this process is crucial. They need to understand that it's a time for sacrifice, and they'll be happy to be part of the process if you let them.

2) I'm looking for new opportunities that arise from the economic problems we're facing—new trends or market needs that will rise up because of the hard times.
3) I'm enhancing customer service to make sure the people who already love what we do don't slip away. It might be hard to find a lot of new business during a recession, so we need to work even harder to convince our current customers to sit tight?

4) I'm doing more marketing, not less. Many companies reflexively shut off their advertising efforts during tough times. I'd rather shut off the water supply than my marketing. With fewer customers in the market, we need to fight even harder for those that remain! Plus, if my competitors stop advertising, I'll get more bang for my buck in the ad market. And if the market is less cluttered, our marketing efforts stand a better chance of getting noticed.

Bottom line: Don't be depressed about the tough times ahead. Get excited and view it as an opportunity to test your skills as a great leader!

Chester Arthur would have relished the opportunity.

Blog issues...

There have been some problems with the blogging software we use and they have not been sending out (if you are a subscriber).

So, you may have missed a blog entry or two...

But don't fret, click below to see what you missed!
And thanks to Next Step superstar Shelly Stuart for recognizing and fixing the problem!

http://www.nextstepmag.com/dave

Interview with an entrepeneur

At The Next Step Magazine, I get to interview some cool people. Here is a recent interview I did that shares some advice for young people thinkinging about getting into business.

Who: Norm Brodsky, entrepreneur
What he’s done: Norm Brodsky is a veteran entrepreneur whose six businesses include a three-time “Inc. 500” company. He shares advice as a regular Inc. magazine contributor and is CEO of CitiStorage Inc. in Brooklyn, N.Y., an independent records-storage business. He has also partnered with Bo Burlingham and written a book called The Knack. I read it and it's awesome! Buy it at Amazon.com.
How to learn more: Read Norm’s column in Inc., or go to www.inc.com/magazine/columns/streetsmarts/index.html

NSM: What caused you to start your own business in the first place?
Norm Brodsky: I think that goes back to when I was in high school. My friends and I grew up in a lower-middle class family, and there was a consensus that we were all going to be rich.

NSM: What are the benefits of being an entrepreneur, and what are the downsides?
NB: Benefits are numerous: from being independent; setting your own standards, pace, hours; and of course, having the ability to earn a lot of money. A lot of those benefits are also downsides. When you work for someone else, you leave at 5 o’clock. When you’re an entrepreneur, you always take your work home.

It can be a very stressful life at times, and it’s not always as glamorous as it looks. Most people don’t understand, or care, what you’re going through.

NSM: What are the traits that you see in successful entrepreneurs?
NB: The trait of not quitting, ever. You can never give up as an entrepreneur. If their first business goes under, they start another one. If their seventh business goes under, they start another one, and so on.

Also, I see a lot of people that had tough times growing up be successful entrepreneurs. They have a trait of survival. I had to declare bankruptcy on one my first businesses, and it was a miserable experience at the time. But I learned from my mistakes and vowed not to repeat them in the future.

Another trait I see is not listening to the masses when they say something can’t be done. Successful entrepreneurs have the perseverance to see their idea through when others say it can’t be done. They never listen to the naysayer.

NSM: How can young entrepreneurs gain respect and be taken seriously?
NB: People like to be around successful people, whether they’re young or not. So to have an air of success is a very good thing, even if you haven’t “made it” yet. Additionally, people respect people who help in their community with charity, boards and things like that. Be seen at charitable events, and take an active interest in helping your community.

People will admire your confidence as long as it doesn’t cross the line of being a bragger. You can temper your bravado with the charity work and show people that you really care.

NSM: What advice do you have for a teen in high school who is thinking about starting a business?
NB: Develop your contacts. Every time a person asks you to do a favor and you can do it, just do it. What will happen is that you’ll develop a network of people that can help you later in life when and if you need them. The more you put in now, the more you’ll get out later.

Next Step has 2020 Vision!

Last year, I met Ari Weinzweig, co-founder of the famous Zingerman’s Community of Businesses in Ann Arbor, MI. Ari and his partner Paul Saginaw have built many thriving businesses, all around common themes, including food and culture.

I asked Ari how they went from being just a small deli to creating a thriving community of businesses. He said it was all because of their vision. He and Paul, at a crossroads of whether to expand the deli nationwide or not, opted to grow within Ann Arbor instead and create a community of related and exceptional businesses.

The mission was to create a vision that described the company in 20 years. They did that and actually finished their vision years ahead of schedule.

Ari told me that the important thing to remember is that the vision is not how to get there but what it looks like. It’s a destination of where you want to be.

So, I came back to Rochester and started the first draft of Next Step’s 2020 vision. It’s for the year 2020 but also ties in nicely to having great vision! I asked my managers to dig into it next and then the rest of our coworkers. It’s been a collaborative effort that began more than six months ago.

The goals are simple:

1. It is inspiring? Does it excite and motivate?
2. It is strategically sound. Is it challenging but attainable?
3. It is well documented? Is the vision written well, handed out to the team and reviewed frequently?
4. Is it communicated effectively? Are we clearly and regularly communicating the vision to coworkers, customers and to the community at large in both direct and indirect ways?

The Next Step 2020 Vision is finally complete and I am very passionate about it! It’s very bold, yet very doable. If you’d like to take a look at it, e-mail me at David@nextSTEPmag.com.

I hope it inspires you to think about your own vision. It could be about your company or your life.