Jim Blasingame's Blog, page 8

4 Power Questions That Will Cultivate Your Leadership Tree

Most agree that there are many traits of a true leader, including: highly competent, professional, visionary, trustworthy, instill confidence, good communicator and, of course, courageous.

But great leaders have three other qualities that further set them apart.

In the 21st century marketplace, the prime devotion of leaders is to their people because they know it’s through engaged, high-functioning teams that their “bottom line” goals are achieved. If you can deliver on this trait, you’ll be...

Blasingame’s Law of Sales Pipelines

Here’s a sales maxim: Selling is a numbers game. Even though there are a thousand things that could prevent a sale from being completed, it’s still your job as a small business owner to close enough sales to keep your doors open. Enter Blasingame’s Law of Sales Pipelines.

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6 steps that can make a banker your champion

At some point in your career as a business owner, you’ll need a business loan; probably from a bank, but perhaps from a non-traditional source, like a crowdfunding lending platform. Allow me to help maximize your chances of getting the loan by introducing you to the fundamental underwriting elements any lender will use when considering your loan proposal. Meet the “Six Cs Of Credit.”

1. Character – What’s the character of the borrower? To a community bank, character still means a lot. For lar...

What is your prime goal as a small business owner?

What’s your prime directive as a business owner — what is it that you want to accomplish? When you answer that question, then you have to answer an even bigger one: What will you have to do to realize that goal?

The pursuit of our entrepreneurial goals is usually met with resistance on many fronts. Some of the obstacles are fundamental, including: Acquiring enough experience; enough education; enough training; and enough capital.

Then there are the mind-game challenges that are laid on us by...

The Power Question: Ask it and then deliver

One hundred twenty years ago, lawyer Paul J. Harris moved his practice to Chicago. While he enjoyed the new opportunity his adopted city afforded, Harris missed the friendly relationships he knew growing up in a small Vermont town.

One fall day in 1900, while walking around the Windy City’s North Side with Bob Frank, Harris noticed the connections his friend had made with local shopkeepers and it made him long for this kind of interaction. He wondered if, like himself, other professionals who...

Identifying the elusive entrepreneur

If you venture into the marketplace jungle, you may be able to observe that rare wild creature, the entrepreneur, in his or her natural environment (darting is not necessary, entrepreneurs are very gentle - just rub their stomachs). As you study them, you will find levels of vision, curiosity, courage, tenacity, and faith. Here’s what to look for in order to identify this elusive critter:

Vision: Entrepreneurs see things and consider the possibilities before they exist, even as the world is t...

Poll results: Which of the frontrunners would you vote for?

The Question:
It’s the week before the Iowa caucuses. Which of the frontrunner of the two parties would you vote for?

4% - Hillary Clinton
7% - Bernie Sanders
44% - Donald Trump
25% - Ted Cruz
20% - If these are my choices, I won’t vote.

Jim’s Comments:
So, there you have it. The Small Business Advocate Iowa Straw Poll results.

First, you have to notice that small business owners are heavily weighted toward the GOP. When asked why, they typically say, “Because I make payroll twice a month.”

S...

How to prevent your small business from being the next named disaster

Ever since World War II the U.S. government’s weather service has given official human names to tropical cyclones (hurricanes and typhoons). Everybody knows that. But am I the only one who didn’t know we were anthropomorphizing winter storms?

It turns out the Weather Channel has unofficially been naming winter storms since 2012. “Jonas” was the most recent winter wallop by Mother Nature, and it earned a moniker due to the magnitude of forecasted disruption. We now know the forecasts were pret...

Risk failure to enjoy success

Here are three pieces of wisdom which can only come from those who have known failure and from that acquaintance, found success:

In Uncommon Wisdom, my friend, Tom Feltenstein wrote, “When winners fail, they get up and go again. And the very act of getting up is victory”.

Robert Allen, author of Multiple Steams of Income, wrote, “There is no failure, only feedback.”

Paraphrasing Thomas Edison just a little, “Failure is successfully identifying what doesn’t work.”

And since I certainly am no s...

Poll Results: What grade would you give President Obama?

The Question:
From the standpoint of the impact on your business, what grade would you give President Obama for his time in office?

5% - A
6% - B
6% - C
9% - D
74% - F

Jim’s Comments:
As you can see, President Obama is a failure to three-fourths of our small business audience. It’s been clear from day one that the president has been ambivalent to the Main Street economy atbest, and against us at worst. In seven years in office, the only policy he’s proposed that looks anything like pro-busin...