You Gotta Have a Reason To Buy and a Reason to Believe

I was in a mentor meeting the other day with one or our Innovative Business Resource Center (IBRC*) incubation candidates and his mentor. The candidate commented that current business was about 75% of what he needed it to be. The mentor then asked him "Why would anyone buy from you?" This caught the candidate off guard and he didn't really have an answer. The mentor then gave a short elevator pitch about two of his businesses with the reasons why customers buy from them.


People buy products and services where they get the best perceived value for their needs. While there are a few that actually consider the lowest price to be the most important factor in their decision, for the majority of us, other factors are just as much or more important than price. People want convenience and they want to buy from people that treat them nicely and with respect. If fast is good, they want it faster. If slow is good, they want it slower; big, bigger; small, smaller; safe, safer, etc. Sometimes, you can combine two or more existing products or services in a new way to provide the value the customer wants. They want a better value for the money spent and will shop where they get that better value. The combination of things you do to provide this value is what will make you unique in the marketplace and position you in a favorable way.

If you're in business, trying to figure out how to get more business, ask yourself the question; "Why would anyone want to buy anything from me?" The answer shouldn't be "because I offer the lowest prices". Most small businesses can't offer the extra touch of service needed to attract customers and still be cheaper than all the competition. Also, the answer should not be "because I'm local". Most people will not buy locally just for the sake of buying locally. They buy locally if the local business can give them the perceived value they want. If they can't get the value they want locally, they will try to find it out of town. If they can't find it out of town either, they may even resort to making their purchase at the dreaded "box store".

How can you develop a reason someone would buy something from you? Here are a few ideas:

Analyze the Strengths and Weaknesses of Your Competition

While most companies do many things well, there are alway things they don't do well. While you should do everything you can to match or exceed the things your competitors do well, you really need to exploit their weaknesses by making them your strengths. You can determine your competitors' strengths and weaknesses by talking to their customers, being their customers and by examining their business practices and policies.

Watch for Trends

As the world changes more and more quickly, peoples' needs and wants also change. There will always be opportunities for products and services that fulfill these new needs and wants. Many of these new trends develop in the cities and urban areas of the world due to the inherent diversity of thoughts and ideas resulting from densely populated areas. This is good for those of us choosing to live in rural areas because we have plenty of time to observe new trends from a distance deciding which ones will eventually take place here.

We can observe some new trends by observing news reports, but current popular media outlets present a rather narrow view of new trends. Spend some time each week browsing through these web sites to become aware of new and upcoming trends and try to think of ways your market might be affected. If you practice "trend watching" regularly, you'll begin to develop ideas for changing your product/service mix to meet the changing needs of your market.

* http://www.ted.com/
* http://www.trendwatching.com/
* http://www.hazelhenderson.com/
* www.wired.com/wired/scenarios
* http://www.futurist.com/

Ask Your Customers

If you can build a relationship with your existing customers so they will be candid with you, they can give you a wealth of information about how you can continue to develop your "reason someone might buy something from you". For some markets, you might get customers to complete an on-line survey. For most of us in brick and mortar stores a simple post card sized survey is a good option; short enough not to be intimidating. The list below will fit on a 4 x 6 card and give you information about how you might increase your "Reason to Buy".

* What is your zip code?
* What do you like at [yourcompanyname]; about us, our store and our products and services?
* We would like to be your favorite [type of business]. If we're not already, what things could we do to change your mind?
* If you just moved into the area, what would you do to try to find a place like ours?
* If you use the Internet, please tell us three words or phrases you might use to find out about us in Google, Yahoo, Bing or other search engines.

Get Away

Our involvement with our daily routines and technical tasks generally reduces our ability to think creatively about new solutions to the problems in the marketplace. It is important for us to get away from work regularly to expose our brains to different stimuli. Leisure time should be a regular part of your life and leisure shouldn't mean just sitting around watching mindless television and being a couch potato. Leisure should be a time for learning new things and exposing our minds to new thoughts and ideas that we don't normally think about during our work day.

Once You Have the Reason to Buy, Provide a Reason to Believe

After you figure out ways to give people reasons to buy from you, you have to figure out how to communicate those reasons. This is what marketing and advertising are all about. People are generally skeptical about the truth of the marketing messages they hear and they will be skeptical to believe yours. Its best if you not only tell customers the reasons to buy from you, but to demonstrate reasons to believe you. Here are just a few ideas about how you might communicate (effectively) your reason to believe.

* Be straightforward and truthful. Don't over promise but deliver what you promise; over-deliver when possible.
* Tell what it is about your process or method that makes yours better.
* Use testimonials by your current customers to tell why yours is better. When a customer compliments you, ask if you can use the compliment as a testimonial.
* Use test results if you can figure out a way to test your products against the competition.
* Demonstrate why yours is better by offering samples or providing demonstrable evidence of why yours is better.
* Guarantee your product or service and then stand behind it.

To survive and thrive in today's changing marketplace, with competition coming from around the globe, not just from down the street or the big box stores, we have to innovate reasons for people to buy from us and communicate the reasons to buy with reasons to believe.

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*More about Innovative Business Resource Center

From the IBRC "About Us" page at www.ibrcenter.org/About-IBRC-58638.asp:

The Innovative Business Resource Center (IBRC) was created to provide business mentoring and incubation services for area businesses.

Mentoring is provided by local/area volunteers experienced in general and specific areas of business while special entrepreneurship curriculum is provided by the Successful Entrepreneur Program at Independence Community College.

Incorporated in February 2010 as Independence Business Resource Center, the name was changed in November of 2010 to better reflect the purpose of the organization and the area wide scope.

IBRC is a 501c3 organization so that contributions of money, equipment or materials are tax deductible.

From the "Business Incubation in an Eggshell" page at www.ibrcenter.org/Incubation-58570.asp:

The goal of Incubation Services by the Innovative Business Resource Center* (IBRC) is to provide mentoring and education along with financial incentives to mitigate some of the risks of starting a new business, re-inventing an existing business or growing a business. The resources are provided by local/area mentors who have been business owners (or had general manager responsibility in larger businesses) along with a special buffet of entrepreneurship courses and seminars coordinated through IBRC and the Successful Entrepreneur program at Independence Community College (ICC).

Incubation clients agree to:

* Have or develop a solid business plan with adequate market research to know they have a solid business concept
* Have or develop a financial tracking system so they can manage their business activity, pay their bills on time and know how the business is performing at any given time
* Work with their IBRC mentor(s), sharing their financial information (in strict confidence), to help them with business coaching and comparison of business plan projections to actual results
* Develop a plan to build a winning team, empowering and motivating their employees to be the best of their business category in customer service and quality of products and services

SEK Economic Prosperity Won’t Come from Government or Traditional Economic Development

For the last several years, many of us in Southeast Kansas have come to realize that the traditional “business attraction” model has become ineffective as a primary strategy to drive our area economy. In desperation, many communities grasp at this straw, willing to make nearly unsupportable concessions in the name of being attractive. When a city ponies up three year’s worth of free rent, insurance and property tax abatements on a five year lease, it makes one wonder if the benefits outweigh the cost. It may be like getting caught up in bidding at an auction, ending up paying more than the item is worth.


It’s also becoming clear to many of us that creating an environment of “cultural” innovation is really the essential ingredient to our growth and prosperity in the future.

A successful 2011 SEK Innovation Summit last September reinforces this notion. We have several great innovators in the region; they are doing well. We need to build on what they have started and inspire others in our businesses, organizations and governmental units to incorporate innovation into the fabric, or culture, of the way they carry out their business.

When it comes right down to it, businesses, organizations and governments are supposed to be providing products and services that help people have better lives. Innovation is about using creativity to continuously develop new ways to serve. In business, the innovators are the ones that will survive and flourish—recession or no.

For organizations, the innovators will be the ones that make scarce resources help the greatest number of people. For governments—at all levels—but especially on the state and local level, the good innovators will not only provide the services their constituents want, but will do so with a helpful attitude that will actually make people want to live and build businesses within their jurisdictions, rather than leave for greener pastures.

Innovation starts with creative thoughts and ideas about better solutions. The creative ideas become innovations when we’ve executed a plan to implement new solutions. Most people have trouble thinking creatively although we could all do it when we were children. Our creative thoughts came about freely as we played and used our imaginations. As we grew older, many of our parents and teachers worked to “straighten us up” and get “serious” about life. “You can’t be daydreaming when you should be working on your lessons,” they said.

Reports from many, many teachers say we are only teaching toward satisfactory scores on the standardized tests. After decades of this “standardization” and trying to make all students think the same way we now have a couple of generations of us that think we can’t think creatively.

At the Innovation Summit, Praveen Gupta, Innovation facilitator and teacher demonstrated a sample of the “Nuts and Bolts of Innovation”. He started by having everyone get up and get a double handful of Tinker Toys from a large suitcase. As everyone began making creations, he had us all think of ideas to improve Southeast Kansas in four categories: good ideas; crazy ideas; funny ideas’ and stupid ideas.

For most, the act of playing with creative toys, coupled with encouragement of good, crazy, funny and stupid ideas exposed a part of our brain not used much since we were children. The resulting ideas from this session in those self-assigned categories appear on the Innovate SEK web site at www.InnovateSEK.org. Look for the Idea Lab menu link and the link that says “How do We Improve Southeast Kansas?” The suggestions from summit attendees are posted in a blog format so you can add your own ideas.

The answers to economic prosperity in Southeast Kansas lies within each one of us, buried in our brains behind all those years of “standardization”. The answers won’t come from the government. All we can hope for from the government is for them to provide the collective services we want at a reasonable price and to quit scaring us with thoughts of higher taxes. The answers won’t come in the form of some big company riding into the area on a white horse. The answers will come in the form of innovative companies, large and small, developed and grown from within by company owners and employees that adopt a “culture” of innovation.

Registration deadline for 2011 SEK Innovation summit approaches-Monday at noon.

(Copy of email sent to my contact list yesterday.)

Hello:

Wondering why some are flourishing, even in these uncertain times? Successful businesses, communities, organizations and individuals use innovation to improve their products and services. The SEK Innovation Summit is about sharing success stories that will inspire you to become an innovator in Southeast Kansas.

The registration deadline for this year’s Innovation summit (to be included in the meal count) is this Monday, 9/12 at noon.

• The summit starts with an optional Brainstorming Box Lunch at 11:30 on Wednesday 9/14 and ends with a keynote lunch on Thursday 9/15 at noon.

• The presentations we have lined up are summarized below as are links to the schedule and registration pages.

• Registration is $79. This includes about 10 sessions, Wednesday night dinner with Bob Dixson, Greensburg mayor, and a drink ticket as well as the keynote lunch the next day on Thursday with Dr. Nathan Mellor (CEO Character First). The optional Brainstorming Box lunch on Wednesday at 11:30 is $7.

• If you register 5 or more people, we’ll take $10 off; $69 each.

• We have a special offer for students K-12 and college (6 cr hrs or more): Free admission to non-meal sessions; with discount meal prices. This offer also applied to faculty, staff or administrator of any school in SEK as well.

If you have any of the special situations listed below, please contact me at 620-332-5470 or reply to this email and we’ll work out a solution for you.

• You can only attend one day of the summit. (One day only available for $45)

• You can only attend the dinner with the Greensburg mayor on Wednesday night ($25) or the keynote lunch on Thursday, ($15)

• You would like to bring a spouse or guest to the Wednesday dinner ($25) or the keynote lunch on Thursday ($15)

• You have people that can’t be gone at the same time and you’d like to send one person the first day and another the next

• You have any questions about the summit or the presentations

Thanks,

 

Jim

Jim Correll

Facilitator/Business Coach

Successful Entrepreneur Program

Independence Community College

http://www.indycc.edu/entrepreneur/

(620) 332-5470

(800) 842-6063 (Ext. 5470)

jcorrell@indycc.edu

Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.

~Ronald Reagan

See http://www.innovatesek.org/ for more information.


Bob Dixson, Mayor of Greensburg, Kansas: Tragedy to Triumph

How a Kansas town, destroyed by an F5 tornado in 2007, used innovation to re-identify and reinvent itself into a totally green, energy sustainable, world class model city. Bob Dixson will discuss how the disaster forced citizens to fully examine who they were and what values they represent in order to build a viable economic base at the same time. Even when there's been no natural disaster, many cities suffer from the lack of identity and values. Bob shares the lessons learned in the rebuilding experience that apply to every one of our Southeast Kansas cities and towns.







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Toby Lavine: World Class Company - The Innovative Approach

In today’s economic times, we are all facing higher costs and global competition. Business levels which once were routine, now take great effort just to sustain. How does an organization find growth in the midst of a constantly changing global economy mixed with an explosion of new technology, internet and social media?







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Praveen Gupta: The Nuts and Bolts of Innovation

Innovation has been talked about everywhere. Now, people are interested in learning to innovate to make an impact in their personal life as well as community. This session is designed to get people started to think, create and innovate. At the end of the session all participants will have their BIG idea to build on or pursue.







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Dr. Nathan Mellor: Increase Profit/Build Teamwork with Innovative C3 Model

Successful organizations are those who are able to consistently perform at the highest levels. The C3 program provides leaders a practical approach to developing a culture of Character (C1) and Competence (C2) which results in Consistency (C3).







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Dr. Daniel Barwick: The Role of the Community College in Encouraging Innovation

Dr. Barwick explains why the community college, as the community's convergence point between ongoing workforce development, public education, and quality of life initiatives, should be the driver of innovation in the workforce, in education, and in the community.







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Andy Livingston: Energy from Biomass - Innovated by Necessity

Developing process applications for manufacturing torrefied biomass products and end-users’ benefits that impact global markets. (And all of this right here in Southeast Kansas.)







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Innovative Cultural Collaboration: The Greensburg Theater Project

How organizations can work together to improve quality of life, create cultural and tourism events and GROW COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS. The William Inge Center for the Arts of Independence, KS, Cornerstone Theater of Los Angeles, CA and the 5.4.7 Arts Center of Greensburg are combining efforts to tell the story of how ONE SMALL community WORKS TOWARD REBUILDING IN THE FACE OF DISASTER.







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Expanding Your Market with eCommerce

Many in business today realize that the Internet can and should provide a larger piece of their revenue stream. Although it is easier than ever to prepare and initiate an online store, the path to successful e-commerce is full of pitfalls and potholes. In this conversational discussion, Tom and Andy share how they have each learned to deal effectively with the same issues most of us will encounter







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Jason Moore and Tiffany Horsley: Innovative Tips to Reduce Workers Comp Costs While Increasing Safety

In this session, we'll discuss some innovative methods you can use to reduce the cost of your workers compensation insurance while improving safety levels at the same time. We'll also cover the difference between workers compensation requirements and OSHA requirements with practical tips on calculating your workers compensation rates.







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Winning Government Contracts - Services of Heartland PTAC

Federal, state and local governments spend more than $800 billion annually on various products and services. The mission of Heartland PTAC (Procurement Technical Assistance Center) is to assist businesses, including small, disadvantaged, women-owned, veteran-owned and HUBZone firms in obtaining federal, state and local government contracts.







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Innovation for Main Street

This session will introduce techniques and resources to learn about new consumer trends and use them to stimulate new ideas to better serve your customers. Like panning for gold, you'll discard many new ideas until you find real gold; an idea that will lead to increased business and more profits in your pocket.

SEK Innovation Sessions Offered Free for Students/Staff

The Innovative Business Resource Center (IBRC) is offering much of the content of the 2011 SEK Innovation Summit free to area students, school instructors and administrators.

Click here to go to the Special Student-Staff Registration page.

The Innovation Summit, sponsored by the IBRC and Independence Community College, will be held in Independence in the Memorial Hall and Civic Center. The Summit begins on Wednesday, September 14 with a brainstorming lunch followed by nationally known and regionally grown innovators sharing how innovation can help businesses and communities better survive and thrive in the future.

Bob Dixson, mayor of Greensburg, Kansas will be the keynote speaker for Wednesday night’s dinner. September 15 begins with a continental breakfast sponsored by Montgomery County Action Council followed by more innovation presentations and work sessions. The event will end with lunch on the 15th and the keynote presentation by Dr. Nathan Mellor.

Nearly ten hours of innovation content will be available during the event. Besides Bob Dixson and Dr. Mellor, other featured speakers are Toby Lavine, Kansas Aviation on being World Class in a Small Town; Praveen Gupta, Accelper Consulting on the Nuts and Bolts of Innovation; Dr. Dan Barwick, Independence Community College on the Community College Role in Fostering Innovation; Andy Livingston, Earth Care Products on Innovating a New Fuel Source from Biomass; Peter Ellenstein, William Inge Center for the Arts on Innovative Collaborations through the Greensburg Project; Tom Schwarz and Andy McLenon, Internet experts on Increasing Market Share through e-commerce; Jason Moore, Spears Manufacturing and Tiffany Horsley, Coffeyville Regional Medical Center on Innovative Tips to Reduce Workers Compensation Costs While Improving Safety; Bernie Franks, Heartland PTAC on Contracting With the Government and Jim Correll, Independence Community College on Innovation on Main Street.

The objective of the summit is to demonstrate that innovation is the key to economic and job growth in our region. There are innovative, world-class companies here in Southeast Kansas and nearly any company can become world-class by incorporating innovation into their business models.

“We believe the innovation message is crucial to the success of our young people in the future, whether they start their own businesses or work for someone else,” said Brian Hight, IBRC Board Chair. “We decided to make all non-meal innovations sessions free to area students and school staff members to encourage innovation without limiting attendance due to cost.”

All students K-12 and college students enrolled in at least 6 credit hours need only bring their student ID’s. Staff members from area schools will be admitted by showing their ID’s or Activity pass. “We want to invite students, teachers and administrators to make this event a field trip of learning that can’t be found in normal classroom content or text books,” continued Hight.

Those wanting more information can contact Jim Correll at 620-332-5470 or visit www.InnovateSEK.org.

Incorporated in 2010, the Innovative Business Resource Center (IBRC) was created in conjunction with the Successful Entrepreneur Program at Independence Community College to provide business mentoring and incubation services for area businesses. Mentoring is provided by local/area volunteers experienced in general and specific areas of business while special entrepreneurship curriculum is provided by the Successful Entrepreneur Program at ICC. IBRC is a not-for-profit, 501c3 organization that works with commercial property owners to incubation new, expanding or re-inventing businesses in an ideal location.

Small Business Accounting-QuickBooks Online Course Available

Knowledge, tools, and assistance to small business owners to plan, develop and/or better understand their financial recordkeeping system is available during the upcoming semester in an online class offered through the Successful Entrepreneur Program at Independence Community College. “Intro to Small Business Accounting and Finance” includes the full, 16 lesson curriculum of the QuickBooks Learning Guide for 2011.

“For the last couple of years, I’ve been working on a curriculum to help the small business owner develop and understand a financial tracking system without having to become an accountant.” says Jim Correll, facilitator and instructor. “At the same time, QuickBooks has become the most popular choice in small business software. Contrary to QuickBooks advertising, you can’t really be up and running-effectively, anyway-in fifteen minutes.”

The class is designed not only for the business owner that doesn’t have a financial tracking system, but also for the business owner that has a system that ineffective and not understood. “Many businesses have financial tracking systems, but few keep them current and understand how to use the information to better manage their businesses,” according to Correll. “In this class, students will learn the very basics of balance sheet accounting, and how everyday transactions flow into the financial statements.”

Debbie Collins, completer of the summer section says “Having been a small business owner as well as a current practitioner - we ran the concession stand in the park here in Independence for many years - I wish I'd had this class back then. It would have been invaluable! My real job now is doing taxes, and I can't tell you how many Quicken and QuickBooks reports I get from people who have no concept of income and expenses. I've recommended this class to several clients who think just because they use QuickBooks everything is done properly. It has been very helpful to me to know exactly where QuickBooks puts the journal entries. This class is good for new and existing business owners to better understand how QuickBooks is recording transactions and helping to make better sense of the reports - it's a great class!!”

The QuickBooks Learning Guide used for the class includes a license to try the full application for 140 days. The class is 3 credit hours, starting August 18 and ending in mid-December. Students can work ahead if they wish.

The Successful Entrepreneur Program at Independence Community College provides instruction and tools for business owners and key decision makers to be successful in today’s competitive marketplace. Most coursework is offered online for greater flexibility needed by today’s small business owners.

Those wanting to know more about the Successful Entrepreneur program are encouraged to call Correll at 620-332-5470.

SEK Innovation Summit to Feature Greensburg Mayor-Independence, Kansas

Press Release

July 29, 2011

Bob Dixon, mayor of Greensburg, Kansas will be a featured speaker at the second annual SEK Innovation Summit in Independence, Kansas on September 14 and 15. In a keynote dinner presentation on September 14, Dixon will share lessons learned in innovation during Greensburg’s resurrection after an F5 tornado destroyed most of the town in 2007. “We’ve used innovation not only to build a green, sustainable infrastructure, but also to build a new sustainable area economy,” says Dixon. He suggests that most rural communities need to undergo an innovative process to re-establish their identity and values even when there hasn’t been a natural disaster.

The SEK Innovation Summit is sponsored by the Innovative Business Resource Center and will be held in the Memorial Hall and Civic Center. The event begins on September 14 with a brainstorming lunch followed by nationally known and regionally grown innovators sharing how innovation can help businesses and communities better survive and thrive in the future. September 15 begins with a continental breakfast sponsored by Montgomery County Action Council followed by more innovation presentations and work sessions. The event will end with lunch on the 15th and a keynote presentation to close out the conference.

“We have a great line up of presenters again this year and we are very happy that Bob Dixon of Greensburg will be sharing innovation and inspiration with us on Wednesday evening,” said Jim Correll, executive vice-president of IBRC. “We had such positive response from those attending last year and we know this year’s program will inform and inspire about ways we can use innovation to improve our regional economy.”

Those wanting more information can contact Correll at 620-332-5470 or email jcorrell@indycc.edu.

Incorporated in 2010, the Innovative Business Resource Center (IBRC) was created to provide business mentoring and incubation services for area businesses. Mentoring is provided by local/area volunteers experienced in general and specific areas of business while special entrepreneurship curriculum is provided by the Successful Entrepreneur Program at Independence Community College. IBRC is a not-for-profit 501c3 organization that works with commercial property owners to incubate new, expanding or re-inventing businesses in an ideal location.

Intro to Small Business Accounting and Finance-Online at Independence Community College

"Few, very few, get their financial tracking system to a level where they can see snapshots of their overall business condition with the confidence that those snapshots are supported by all their financial transactions recorded accurately and reconciled in a timely manner."

If you talk to bankers and others who know, they will tell you that nearly 100% of failed businesses don't have a good financial tracking system. 

This is the class introduction for my Intro to Small Business Accounting and Finance Online Class.

Hello and Welcome to Intro to Small Business Accounting and Finance


Survival in today's competitive business environment requires good decisions made daily. Nearly all business decisions require up-to-date financial information for full effectiveness. Unfortunately, many business owners make daily business decisions based on the balance in their check book on any given day.

Some owners purchase QuickBooks or some other financial software package. Some even take a 4-hour QuickBooks class now and again. Most get to a point where they can manage to make payroll, pay their bills and know how much is owed to them. Few, very few, get their financial tracking system to a level where they can see snapshots of their overall business condition with the confidence that those snapshots are supported by all their financial transactions recorded accurately and reconciled in a timely manner.

As I've worked over the years in QuickBooks, Quicken and others and watched small business owners struggle with the challenge of having solid financial information available at their fingertips, I've come to these conclusions:

• Most people can't or won't learn enough about QuickBooks on their own to have the financial information before them to make the best decisions

• You can't learn to use QuickBooks effectively by attending one or even two 4-hour QuickBooks classes

• You can't learn to use QuickBooks effectively without an introduction to balance sheet accounting and the concept of the debit and credit

• You don't have to become an accountant or take a bunch of accounting classes to learn to use QuickBooks and to better understand your financial condition

I've worked to develop this course in an effort to make it more effective at helping the small business owner or aspiring entrepreneur develop a good financial tracking system without having to become an accountant.

An introductory scenario demonstrates a situation many small business owners face. They have been able to establish a business and generate sales, but can't really see for sure how they are doing or how to plan for the future. The Go-Venture online simulation allows students to make daily decisions in running a small business and to journalize each transaction so you can see how your transactions feed into the financial reports.

Since QuickBooks (QB) has such a large share of the market for small business accounting software, we use QB to implement the principles we learn from the scenario and the simulation. Knowledge of these principles and the functionality of QB will transfer to most of the other small business accounting software packages you may encounter.

The activities and exercises in the sixteen chapter QuickBooks learning guide will help you become very familiar with QB features and the way it can help streamline the recording of transactions and provide accurate reports and snapshot views of your business.

The course objective is:

To provide the fundamental concepts required to plan and develop a solid financial and informational recordkeeping system; a cornerstone for any successful business, including a thorough knowledge of QuickBooks and a 140 day trial period for QuickBooks software.



The online business simulation, “Go-Venture Accounting” will give students a fun, interactive introduction into small business financials while “running” a small business.



There is no penalty for late work, however if you wait until the end of the semester to catch up you very likely will not do well.

There is an instruction sheet in each lesson folder that will tell you the assignments that are due for that lesson.

Alternative Email Solution for ICC Email Users

Many students, enrolling in classes at Independence Community College (ICC) are frustrated when they learn they can't use their existing Hotmail or Yahoo email accounts as their email address of choice in the ICC system.  This has to do with Hotmail and Yahoo not liking the way ICC sends email to large groups of students at once.

The alternative offered by the ICC system is to create an ICC email account, but users have no way to set up email forwarding for their ICC email accounts.  Many have trouble remembering to check their ICC email accounts and instructors are frustrated when they send notices to students and receive no responses.

Here are the steps for a backdoor solution that forwards email from the ICC system to a student's incompatible Hotmail or Yahoo account.

1.  Create a free Google gmail account.
2.  In the settings for your new gmail account, set up email forwarding to your Hotmail or Yahoo email address.
3.  Use your new Gmail address in your ICC computer account.

When ICC sends email through it's system to your gmail account, gmail will forward to your Hotmail or Yahoo account.

Keeping Your Business Hours

Since the beginning of trading, successful commerce has always hinged on buyer and seller reaching a common understanding or agreement. The seller makes an offer. The buyer analyzes the offer and decides accepting the offer will fill his/her need and bases the buying decision on that analysis. As long as there is a common understanding of the details of the offer, both buyer and seller can come away happy, ready to do business again at some point in the future.

For a brick and mortar establishment, the hours of operation; i.e. the hours during which the products or services are available is a part of the successful customer agreement. When sellers fail to uphold the commitment to be available during certain hours, they run the risk of alienating future successful sales.

Example:

A restaurant has the following hours of operation posted on its sign:

Tues - Thurs 11:00am - 9:00pm

Fri - Sat 11:00am - 11:00pm

Sun 11:00am - 9:00pm

Mon Closed

The establishment generally stays pretty business until closing time on Friday and Saturday nights. With the economy the way it is, sometimes from Tuesday - Thursday or on Sunday, things are a little slow between 7:30 and 9:00.

The owner has done a study and found that on average, one Sunday evening of every month, he loses money (wages, utilities, etc) between 7:30 and 9:00pm. He can't establish a pattern of predicting which of the Sunday nights in a month will be a slow one.

Thinking that by 8:00pm on a Sunday night, he'll be able to tell if the last hour will be profitable or not, he decides that on those Sunday nights, when he can predict, he will close the restaurant at 8:00pm. Because the other Sunday nights are ok, he wants to leave his sign alone, saying he is open until 9:00pm.

If the owner follows through with this decision, he will be breaking a substantial part of the customer agreement with everyone that comes to his restaurant on the Sunday nights that he closes early. His sign says he’s open until 9:00 and that’s what people expect. Some of these disappointed customers will become past customers.

People expect businesses to follow through on the promises they make. This includes the hours of operation. What makes people especially angry is to make a special trip to patronize a business during published hours only to find out the business is closed when its sign says it should be open. It may be ok for a business owner to change the hours of operation from time to time if notice is given and any signage changed to reflect the new hours. To maintain the integrity of the customer agreement, a business must stay open during the hours stated on its signage, advertising and other media.

While staying open when you say you’re open doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be successful, closing when you say you’re open will adversely affect your chances of success. Choose your hours carefully and make sure you abide by the hours you advertise.

Intro to Entrepreneurship Online Class Gives You a Taste

I have developed an online class called Intro to Entrepreneurship.  The objective of this class is to give students and exposure to many of the facets of owning and operating a business.  By the end of the class, students should know whether or not they have the desire to learn and do everything necessary to be successful small business owners.  This "Welcome to Intro to Entrepreneurship" article gives students (and you) some of the details of how the class works.
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Welcome to Intro to Entrepreneurship

I believe we all have an innate desire to figure out a skill that we can turn into a product or service that is unique and desirable and that people; i.e. customers, will pay money to receive. From the time of the American Revolution up until the Industrial Revolution, most commerce took place between individual and small groups of entrepreneurs providing goods and services needed by others in the community. After the industrial revolution, people trended toward the factory, trading the independence of individual business ownership for the steady paycheck of working for others. Indeed, during the last 50 years, our society has done everything it can to drum the entrepreneurial spirit out of our young people telling them to “go to school and get a good job”. For a long time, the “good job” meant a lifelong career where one could work for the same company and retire with a nice comfortable pension. In today’s world, that kind of job longevity is gone; the pensions are gone. Today, young and old alike are beginning to look to small business ownership as a way to “break free”, surviving by making customers in the marketplace happy rather than some mid-level manager boss.

It takes much more than a single area of knowledge or skill to make a successful business. In this class, we’ll explore the other areas of skill and expertise necessary to compliment a specialized skill to make a business a success. Some of you will be more determined than ever to start a new business and make it work. Some of you may decide that using your specific skills in the employment of others is a better fit for your personal style and temperament. For all, the course will be a good overview of what it takes to make a small business work.

For those of you that forge ahead, the Successful Entrepreneur program can provide knowledge and skills in most areas of the “business pie”, giving you a much better chance for success than learning the “business pie” the hard way over 6 – 8 years.

Intro to Entrepreneurship will provide a broad overview of the “business pie” and what all is involved.

· Where to Begin

· What to Do and Sell

· Who and Where are Your Markets?

· Who Are You?

· How to Map Out Your Future

· How Much Do You Need?

· How to Market Your Products and Services

· The Importance of Good Customer Service

· How to Behave Ethically

· Planning Your Web Site

· Launching and Promoting Your Web Site

· How to Manage and Grow

· Lessons from Leaders

Generally, each one of these topics will comprise a Lesson folder in Angel. Additional ancillary topics will be added to the Lesson folders as they are available. Each Lesson folder* may include, but not necessarily be limited to:

· On-Line Discussion (or Discussion Board): You will provide two responses to the topics presented; first one due by Saturday at midnight following the Thursday assigned. After Saturday, midnight, take a look at what other class members have written and respond with a follow-up before the following Wednesday at midnight.

· Exercises: Express and explore your feelings about various business topics as presented in the chapters of the book. I’ll be the only one to see your exercise answers. Except for the last exercise assignment of the semester, exercise answers will typically be due within two weeks of the assignment date.

· Quizzes: To make sure you read and review the chapters in the book, quizzes will generally be made up of multiple choice questions covering the topics of the assigned chapters. Quizzes are “open source” (i.e. you can look up the answers in the book or course materials). Questions are written in such a way that you won’t be able to answer successfully without knowing or reviewing the information in the book or reference materials.

· Final Exam: This compilation of the quizzes, the Final Exam, is also open source and also written in a way that you will need to review the material to answer correctly.

All these items and the scoring formulas are included in the syllabus.

*The syllabus refers to “topic folders”. Consider “topic folders” and “lesson folders” to be synonymous.

About the Simulation

"Micro Business" is an online simulation that allows each student to make decisions about start up and daily operations to get a feel for running their own business. The program will compile financial results over a period of time with regard to them amount of profit made after each day of operation.

About the Text

“The Small Business Start-Up Workbook” was written by Cheryl D. Rickman as a result of her experience with a web design start up business in Britain. She augments her knowledge with that of other leading British entrepreneurs and her chapters cover exactly what needs to be covered. Other than the few instances where the Brits use different terms (They say “ring up” we say “call”.) her experience and advice will suit us well.

Do You Want Community in Your Community College?

Below is the text of a letter to the editor that will be sent to newspapers in the Montgomery County Kansas on March 24, 2011 before the April 5 General Election for the Independence Community College Board of Trustees.

An issue surfaced during the ICC trustee candidate forum last Tuesday night in Independence that should become the defining issue of the whole election.  All the other issues can be pushed aside while voters decide if they want to keep the Community in their Community College.

Three candidates who repeatedly market themselves as a “bloc”; Dale Roberts, Phillip Fienen and David Wallis, do not want ICC to be involved in the community.  (I’ll paraphrase.) “We do not have any business being downtown in Independence, working with the Indy Chamber, Main Street or Montgomery County Action Council.   We don’t have any business helping local and area businesses with an incubation program.”, said Dale Roberts.  Since the three market themselves as a “bloc” we can to assume that any one of them always speaks for all three of them; the Radical 3.

The choice for voters is this:  If you want ICC to continue to be involved in the community, vote against the Radical 3.

In 2006, ICC president Dr. Terry Hetrick with the support of the ICC board of trustees had a vision to help local and area businesses.  By anyone’s definition, except for the Radical 3, any help for small businesses involves an educational component.  Terry wanted someone from a business background to facilitate the Successful Entrepreneur Program.  After working in the business world for 30 years, I had the kind of nuts and bolts experience he and the board wanted for the program.  From the beginning, we all knew I would need to be involved with the area’s chambers of commerce, main street groups and the Montgomery County Action Council.  You can’t help businesses without working among them for the betterment of the local/area economy.

Early in 2009, around 200 people met at the Independence Civic Center to brainstorm ways to help Independence in light of the declining economy.  The subject of business incubation had so much support as to garner its own category of suggestions, alongside other important categories like housing, economic development, etc.  Everyone recognized that the college should be involved, so we took the lead.  After 1 ½ years of planning by  committee, we created a non-profit corporation, the Innovative Business Resource Center (IBRC), to develop an incubation process for new, growing and re-inventing businesses.  IBRC has an independent board of directors, who have been business owners (or had general manager responsibilities in a larger business) except for one voting position appointed by the college.  In return, the college allows me to work on behalf of IBRC. 

The benefit to the college is that many of our incubation clients will enroll in entrepreneurial classes at ICC.  We are not part of the Indy Chamber; however, the executive director is invited to be an ex-officio board member as is the executive director of Independence Main Street.  Our primary objective is to help businesses.  Although our objective is not to provide jobs, it is not economic development and it is not to fill certain buildings those things will be accomplished indirectly as we help businesses survive and thrive.  Frank Crebase and Hoite Caston are the only candidates that have asked me anything about IBRC or the incubation program.  The incumbent, Jay Jones has seen the reports and the updates to the ICC board. Had the Radical 3 inquired with me or one or our IBRC board members or even reviewed our web site at http://www.ibrc.org/, they would have known we work with the Chamber but are not a part of it.

So, if you’re a voter in the ICC district, the very essence of your community college is at stake in this election.  If you want your college to be a community college, vote against the Radical 3; by voting for your choice among the remaining six candidates. Don't vote for anyone who would make statements and decisions based on false assumptions.  Don't elect anyone whose philosophy is to take our community and college into decline rather than growth.

Jim Correll, Facilitator, Successful Entrepreneur Program, ICC and Executive VP, Innovative Business Resource Center

PS We are also involved in bringing events to Independence like Leadercast.  This is a live event in Atlanta, simulcast into Memorial Hall in Independence on May 6, 2011.  Sponsored by IBRC and ICC to encourage and inspire leadership among our citizens, I'm pretty sure the Radical 3 are not in favor of us sponsoring and supporting this kind of activity.  (More information at http://www.leadercast.ibrc.org/)

Let the Incubation Begin

For about two years, a group of people in Independence have been putting together an effort to incubate new or growing businesses as well as those whose owners know they need to re-invent their businesses. Some incubation programs focus on using a specific building or area for business incubation. Our program seeks to find the best location for the benefit of the business to be incubated (i.e. incubation client) and work with commercial property owners to participate in the incubation program. We created a 501c3 (not for profit) corporation-Innovative Business Resource Center-to work with Independence Community College to provide the mentoring and learning necessary to make incubation clients successful in their entrepreneurial ventures. We are now (finally) ready to launch our incubation services in Independence and other cities and towns in Southeast Kansas.

Here is the information about the program from our web site at www.ibrc.org. If you want to start, grow or re-invent a business, we’d like to visit with you to see if our incubation program can be of benefit to you. Click here to go directly to our Incubation Inquiry form and submit your contact information to us.

Business Incubation in an Eggshell

The goal of Incubation Services by the Innovative Business Resource Center* (IBRC) is to provide mentoring and education along with financial incentives to mitigate some of the risks of starting a new business, re-inventing an existing business or growing a business. The resources are provided by local/area mentors who have been business owners (or had general manager responsibility in larger businesses) along with a special buffet of entrepreneurship courses and seminars coordinated through IBRC and the Successful Entrepreneur program at Independence Community College (ICC).

Incubation clients agree to:

• Have or develop a solid business plan with adequate market research to know they have a solid business concept

• Have or develop a financial tracking system so they can manage their business activity, pay their bills on time and know how the business is performing at any given time

• Work with their IBRC mentor(s), sharing their financial information (in strict confidence), to help them with business coaching and comparison of business plan projections to actual results

• Develop a plan to build a winning team, empowering and motivating their employees to be the best of their business category in customer service and quality of products and services

Financially, incubation typically includes a sliding rent scale over the first year or two of business (i.e. the incubation period); rent starting at a reduced rate and “ramping” up to market price at the end of the incubation period. (The incubation period occurs between the time of the agreement between IBRC and the property owner and the end of the lease ramp-up period. Generally, the incubation period is from 12 to 24 months.)

IBRC works with multiple building owners participating in the program to provide a wide variety of locations so that each incubation client may find the most appropriate and advantageous location for the new, re-invented or growing business.

Frequently Asked Questions by Potential Incubation Clients

Q. Why would I want to participate in this program? (How will I benefit?)

A. You’ll benefit from the support of one or more mentor(s) that have owned and/or operated successful businesses themselves. You’ll benefit from the solid business plan and financial tracking system you’ll develop or refine while you’re an incubation client. Finally, you’ll benefit from financial incentives such as scaled rent over the first year or two of business and service certificates from those that specialize in working with new businesses.

Q. What do I have to do to become an incubation client?

A. You have to be starting a new business, reinventing or growing your existing business. You agree to

• Develop or demonstrate that you have a solid business plan that justifies your market and how your business model allows you to offer a unique solution to your market

• Develop or demonstrate that you have a financial tracking system in place so you will know how your business is performing

• Work with your IBRC mentor, sharing your financial information in strict confidence, to monitor your business performance against your business plan projections so you can make business model adjustments as needed (you will meet with your mentor at least quarterly during the incubation period, but more often at your request)

• Develop or demonstrate that you have a plan to build a winning team with employees that are motivated to provide the best customer service in your business class

We will help you develop any of the above you need, working in conjunction with the Successful Entrepreneur program at Independence Community College with programs and online coursework specifically designed to help owners of new, reinventing or growing businesses.

Q. How do I apply?

A. Start the process by going to our IBRC Incubation page and look for the link to our Incubation Inquiry form. In this confidential form, we’ll ask you for your basic contact information and a very brief summary of your business idea. We’ll contact you to get acquainted and learn more about you and your business concept. When we’re both comfortable that our incubation program is a good fit for you, we’ll ask you to submit the incubation application. Our Incubation Committee will review your application for acceptance as an Incubation client. At that point, we’ll recommend you as an incubation tenant to the owner of the Incubation property we’ve determined to be best for your use.

Frequently Asked Questions by Commercial Property Owners

Q. Why would I want to participate in this program? (How will I benefit?)

A. Incubation clients who have agreed to all the provisions of the program have a much higher chance of becoming successful, long-term tenants than the average tenant.

Q. What would I be agreeing to?

1. Allowing us to post a “This Location is Incubation Ready” sign on/in your property along side of your “For Rent” sign.

2. Work with IBRC to develop a sliding rent scale that is agreeable to you.

3. Review and choose to accept or not any incubation clients we present who are interested in renting your property.

4. Remove the rent incentive immediately if notified by IBRC that the incubation tenant is no longer an incubation client. (This would be in the event that the client fails to abide by the terms of the incubation agreement.)

Q. What if I have an opportunity to rent to a “regular” tenant?

A. No problem. You are free to rent to anyone you’d like.



Q. What if I have a prospect that I’d like to ask you to incubate on/in my property?

A. We welcome any incubation candidates to apply to become incubation clients. IBRC retains full control of who is accepted as an incubation client.

Click here to go directly to our Incubation Inquiry form and submit your contact information to us.



*The Innovative Business Resource Center was created to provide business mentoring and incubation services for area businesses. Mentoring is provided by local/area volunteers experienced in general and specific areas of business while special entrepreneurship curriculum is provided by the Successful Entrepreneur Program at Independence Community College. Incorporated in February 2010 as Independence Business Resource Center, the name was changed in November of 2010 to better reflect the purpose of the organization and the area wide scope.

Lunch with Dan and Frank Carney, Pizza Hut Founders

I originally these notes about “lunch with Dan and Frank Carney” back in May of 2006. I’ve posted it here because it’s an interesting story, the Carney brothers don’t make public appearances very often and the lessons Frank said he learned through the experience still ring true today and we can all learn something from them.

I was representing Independence Community College at Wichita State University for a meeting with other community colleges that day. There was some kind of big conference for a bunch of PhDs also at the college that day. Dan and Frank were there to address them over lunch, not us, but they decided to invite us lowly community college instructions to attend. What I learned, besides the information below, is not to ever sit at a table full of PhDs in a huge room full of PhDs if you can help it. The link below to the Pizza Hut “Our Story” still works and has a nice pictorial time line from the Pizza Hut start in 1958 to present.

For all you younger crowd, in 1958, you didn’t find pizza restaurants all over the place in the United States as we do today. There were hardly any. The beginning of Pizza Hut was a huge innovation in its day.

In May of 2006, while attending a conference at Wichita State University concerning setting up a competition for business plan writing, I was surprised and pleased to learn that Dan and Frank Carney (founders of Pizza Hut) were going to be speaking at the luncheon set up for us. (For the history of Pizza Hut, go to: http://www.pizzahut.com/OurStory.aspx)

Here are the highlights from the Carney brothers’ remarks.
• They were brothers in a family of 12 other siblings—neither of their parents nor any previous ancestors had graduated from college
• Their dad quit working while they were still kids at home to start Carney’s Market
• Both Dan and Frank (D&F) worked in their dad’s market
• D&F got the idea for a pizza restaurant as they tried to think of a niche market that might be expandable; they researched franchising in 1958
• They could not get any support from any bankers for the venture
• Got the pizza recipe from a Wichita airman that Dan knew
• Their mother loaned them $600 for the start up
• The Pizza Hut name came about as their original sign was to be a refurbished one with the word “Pizza” already on the sign. There was only room for 3 letters to follow “Pizza”. Dan’s wife commented that the building they were going to use reminded here of the huts you’d see at some vacation destinations, thus the name Pizza Hut
• After painting the walls in the restaurant, they fired up the used oven they purchased only to have it blow up and spew dirt and soot all over the freshly painted walls
• Two public offerings occurred in 1968 and Dan left the company in 1968
• They convinced franchisees to form an association in 1968 so company could deal with one voice
• Growth chart by Frank:
   o 1958 – 1963 1 – 43 stores
   o 1964 – 1968 43 – 300 stores
   o 1969 – 1973 300 – 1000 stores
   o 1974 – 1977 1000 – 3000 stores
• Sold to PepsiCo in 1977; reached 4000 stores and $1B in sales

Frank remained until he saw the larger company sacrifice the quality of ingredients to cut costs. Becoming disgusted with the slide in quality, he resigned. After his non-complete expired, he became a franchisee and continues to be involved with Papa John’s pizza.

Frank had some lessons learned from the Pizza Hut experience:
• Offer a product that you are proud of
• In a bargain, give more than agreed; this builds trust
• Employees will not treat customers better than they are treated [by employer]
• A fast feedback system is essential (you have to see what’s going on quickly, so you can react in time to make the greatest impact)
• In a business like pizza, hire for personality and train for skill
• Let your mistakes and your corrections of your mistakes be visible in the organization
• Give credit where credit is due
• Feeling that you know it all is almost always followed by a huge blunder
• Keep learning
• (From his 12 years as amateur racecar driver; quote from Mario Andretti)
   o If things seem like they’re under control, you’re simply not going fast enough