Future Success Stories in a Painful Economy

I have been involved in politics and business for decades and I have not seen a situation like we are in today since the late 1970s and early 1980s. It is simply a challenging time and people are having a difficult time determining what to do next.

The Stock Market is now worth less than half of its all time high and unemployment is on its way towards double digits, with the number of people filing for benefits swelling by over 500,000 in just a few months.

One of the earliest and biggest problems of such rough times is the focus of news and other business information from what works and what is positive, to some of the most negative content you can find. An excellent recent example has been the laying off of Donny Deutsch by CNBC. The reason why? The network decided that people don’t want to hear success stories (a big focus of his program) in such a dismal economy. I think they could not be more wrong. The reality is, CNBC was in financial trouble and laid off several hundred employees (including Deutsch) in a money saving effort. People don’t merely want bad news and negative information. They are demanding inspiration. I am planning on providing more such positive information on the Price of Business show in the months to come.

The reality is we are going to have some excellent things come from the currently hard times. This country is made up of entrepreneurs and many (if not most) of the 500,000 who recently loss their jobs will be providing future success stories of people who brought new products and services to the market place. They will choose entrepreneurship instead of wallowing in their difficult circumstances.

Do you have a success story? If so, I want to hear from you. Send me an email and tune into the Price of Business every weekday at 11 am on CNN 650 and on AOLRadio.com (central time).

This article originally appeared on CNN650.com, part of the CBS Radio Network.

Kevin Price is a syndicated columnist whose articles frequently appear at ChicagoSunTimes.com, Reuters.com, USAToday.com, and other national media. Kevin Price is Host of the Price of Business (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at PriceofBusiness.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.

The Gift of Ronald Reagan for Christmas

As a parent I love to watch my children enjoy the presents they receive. When you have as many kids as my wife and I, gifts to one another are simply not a priority. The most memorable gift I may have received was from a couple we know (Archie and Robin Arredondo). There is a huge group of friends that participates as "secret Santas" made up of a families we know. Archie was my secret Santa. We know around Thanksgiving who has who. A few weeks ago, Archie and Robin asked my wife what I like. Wisely, she said "anything with Ronald Reagan." She naturally thought -- as would I -- that I might get a great tribute book (like my daughter gave me a couple of years ago) or a T-Shirt (like my sons gave me on a Father's Day). Archie would have none of it, he went on a quest at eBay.

What I received was a Ronald Reagan action figure. Move over GI Joe, here comes the Gipper. Okay, it was more like a talking doll with a push button instead of a string, but it was one of the most thoughtful gifts I have ever received and it is the type of gift that keeps on giving. Americans, everywhere, should be familiar with the quotes of Reagan and this gift was full of them. The following are a few examples from the "Great Communicator."


* "Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have."


The statement was even more powerful when delivered two decades ago when our primary enemy -- the Soviet Union -- had become weakened after decades of brainwashing and lies from its bloodthirsty regime.



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


Where was wisdom such as this when the federal government decided to bailout Wall Street, while taxing the backs of Main Street?



* "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."


Bravo! Most parents enjoy giving their children the fruits of our freedom, but are not doing enough to pass it on to the next generation. This is a message that must be conveyed.


* "The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."


One of my favorite Reagan quotes.


When I was a kid the "in thing" was a GI Joe action figure. I think every child should be given a Reagan action figure so we can raise another generation of adults who enjoy freedom. A Reagan action figure is the gift that keeps on giving.

Kevin Price is a syndicated columnist whose articles frequently appear at ChicagoSunTimes.com, Reuters.com, USAToday.com, and other national media. Kevin Price is Host of the Price of Business (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at PriceofBusiness.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.

The Year of the Bailout

I consider myself the perennial optimist. I always try to view things from a "half full" versus "half empty" perspective. But 2008 was a challenging year. It is a year where it appears that we made a paradigm shift when it comes to the role of government in the economy.

I believe that future history books will call 2009 the year the United States became the "bailout nation." We saw more of such today with GMAC Finance receiving $6 billion from the federal government. Democrats defied the image of being for "the little guy" that they worked so hard to maintain by leading the effort for bailout for major banks and corporations. There was far more reluctance by Republicans to bailout these fat cats, but in the end, I am sure the media will find these bailouts the complete fault of the GOP if they fail and will be seen as an act of courage by Democrats if they are interpreted as successful. The reality is, we already know they have "failed" because we had to abandon the ideas of limited Constitutional government to make them happen and the hangover effect of them may not be felt for years.

What is almost as negative as the Constitutional and policy implications of these bailouts is the view they project of what is important to us a country. In the United States we have a safety net for the poor, we bailout the super rich, and we obliterate the engine that creates more than 80 percent of the jobs in the country through excessive taxation, regulation, and licensure law. The highest income groups are not nearly as influential as those rising up the economic ladder in creating jobs, yet we sacrifice the entrepreneur at the altar of the mega corporation.

Those who have eaten at the trough of bailout are extremely vulnerable in the future. The government never "gives" without demanding more. Many of the task masters in government that have fed these companies, have advocated the nationalizations of industries. The hubris to think they will not be vulnerable is unbelievable.

The United States has been successful because of its long term commitment to economic freedom. This freedom includes the right to succeed and fail. Moral hazard is an important element in economic freedom. There has to be consequences to failure in order to avoid those mistakes in the future. The government is replacing this system with one that will eventually force the failure of many entrepreneurs and create a new welfare class of the mega wealthy. Let's hope 2009 sees a reversal of such a trend.

Kevin Price is a syndicated columnist whose articles frequently appear at ChicagoSunTimes.com, Reuters.com, USAToday.com, and other national media. Kevin Price is Host of the Price of Business (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at PriceofBusiness.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.

The Squeeze on Entrepreneurs

Over 80 percent of all businesses in this country are created by small business and over 90 percent of all jobs are created by such entrepreneurs, according to the Small Business Administration. It seems that this important engine of economic growth is under a constant state of siege by the government that continually taxes these companies without limits in order to subsidize those in poverty on the one end extreme and to bailout some of America's wealthiest businesses on the other. I cannot recall a time in this nation's recent history where small businesses have been under such pressure and yet have also been more important to the economy's future.

How important are small businesses? According to the SBA, entrepreneurs:

• Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.


• Employ about half of all private sector employees.
  
• Pay nearly 45 percent of total U.S. private payroll.
  
• Have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually
  over the last decade.


• Create more than half of non farm private gross domestic
  product (GDP).


• Hire 40 percent of high tech workers (such as scientists,
  engineers, and computer workers).


• Are 52 percent home-based and 2 percent franchises.


• Made up 97.3 percent of all identified exporters and produced 28.9 percent of the known export value in FY 2006.


• Produce 13 times more patents per employee than large
  patenting firms; these patents are twice as likely as large
  firm patents to be among the one percent most cited.

The logic behind bailing out failed auto companies and financial institutions is because these type of companies individually employ large numbers of people. If a Ford or a GM go under, tens of thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) will be instantly unemployed and the ripple effect will be more like a tidal wave. However, if the local movie rental place, the convenience store, and sandwich restaurant go under, that only translates into a dozen or so positions. However, thousands of these small businesses going down, on the other hand, paints a much different picture.

The lessons we are learning from government is that obsolescence and a lack of competitiveness are only a problem if your business is small. The larger a company is, the more resistant it can afford to be to necessary change, the less important it is too make tough decisions, and the more likely that company will receive a free pass for poor performance. What type of companies are we going to have if they are not allowed to fail? Companies that are destined to fail at a huge cost to taxpayers who keep them up for years. The biggest victims will be the huge entrepreneurial class who more than carries its own in job creation, but also has among the biggest tax burden.

The government control, subsidy, and even ownership of large businesses has historically been known as fascism. We don't like the term because we think of our enemies during World War II. Unfortunately, if the shoe fits, we are destined to wear it. What is most striking is that this desire to accommodate the most massive of businesses at the expense of small ones seems to transcends party lines. Both McCain and Obama joined George Bush in propping up many big businesses begging to fail. I wonder, at what point, will these small businesses that have a big impact will simply declare "enough!"

Kevin Price is a syndicated columnist whose articles frequently appear at ChicagoSunTimes.com, Reuters.com, USAToday.com, and other national media. Kevin Price is Host of the Price of Business (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at PriceofBusiness.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.

Do You Have a "Knack" for Business?

Recently a publicist sent me a fascinating book that I believe will help entrepreneurs in their efforts to build their business. It is called “The Knack: How Street Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up” by Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham. It is the compilation of the work of other successful entrepreneurs: their life stories, brilliant strategies, and “hands on” experiences.

The book isn’t scheduled for release until October 2, 2008, so you are getting a sneak preview of it in this blog post.

I receive many interesting books every month, several of which fall under the radar screen because of the large number of them. This one caught my attention. Frankly, the destructive power of Hurricane Ike has me thinking I might have to think differently about business.

What I like about it is that it is both profound and quite simple. It isn’t merely lofty strategies on business that you would find in the classroom, but “rubber meets the road” issues such as what to do when your customers stop paying in a timely manner, what to do with the problem of creeping expenses, how to keep customers when your competition pursues serious price cutting, and more.

However, the book is rich in areas that many (if not most) in business think about. In it the authors explain:

Why you should never confuse good sales with good cash flow
Why having competitors is better than being first to market
Why a “sales mentality” is dangerous to your business
Why it is smart to hire sales people from outside your industry
How to judge if your business is viable

What impresses me most about the authors is that they are, on the one hand, serious business writers with years of experience writing a column in Inc. Magazine. On the other hand they are serious entrepreneurs in their own right, having had mentored many successful business leaders.

I read a great deal of business literature for this blog and my radio show and over time it is pretty easy to cut through the rhetoric of those in academics that know little about business in the real world and the true business leaders that know exactly what they are talking about. Brodsky and Burlingham fall in the latter. When October 2 comes, get your copy.

Kevin Price articles frequently appear at ChicagoSunTimes.com, Reuters.com, USAToday.com, and other national media.

Kevin Price is Host of the Price of Business (M-F at 11 AM on CNN 650) and Publisher of the Houston Business Review. Hear the show live and online at HoustonBusinessShow.com. Visit the archive of past shows here.

Challenging Starbucks

Yesterday Allen Robinson and myself co-hosted our Sports Business Edition of the Houston Business Hour at a little coffee store called the Coffee Oasis. This event was arranged by Allen and the Oasis is clearly intending to challenge Starbucks in the Houston area. While there I noticed:

* A comparable quality drink

* A slightly lower price

* Free Internet (versus around $10 at most Starbucks)

* An environment very similar to Starbucks

It was a great event and we got to showcase some of the local high school teams. Also it appeared the shop was doing quite well for itself. But it also reminded me of the power of the free market and the great thing mega companies (like Starbucks) does for the economy as a whole. Starbucks proved you could have virtually unlimited establishments with relatively high priced hot drinks and make a sizable profit (sure they still sell food and music, but coffee is their mainstay). Starbucks proved it could be done and their prices are high enough to make room for competition. That is what leads to the rise of Coffee Oasis and other entrepreneurs trying to achieve the American Dream one cup at a time.

Note: Order Kevin Price's audio program The Accumulators, which explains the impact that the Internet is having on marketing and consumer behavior. It is available online here for only $10 plus p and h. Receive the Houston Business Review e-zine free each week by clicking here.