Stranger Danger

Mom told me to never talk to strangers. Her message penetrated my thinking to a nuclear core. To this day, I don't like talking to strangers.

I'm introverted to begin with. Talking to someone I don't know is stressful, uncomfortable and a  awkward. I do it, but I'd like to have a recording of some of these conversations. I probably sound like a pimple faced 12 year old fumbling for words between the "umm's and aah's". 

I went out of my way to speak to two strangers today. Doing what makes us uncomfortable is like water on a plant. It helps us grow.

The first stranger was hanging out at the hospital with a placard protesting the killing of babies as a means of birth control. Thinking this guy probably has a story, I started a conversation with him to find out why he was wasting a beautiful summer day protesting abortion.  He glared at me as if I were bothering him in his defiant protest of a woman's right. He stared at someone over my left shoulder  and explained that his personal relationship with Christ was his motivation. He offered me twice a DVD as he pursued his goal of spreading the Word in apostle-tic fashion.

Seeing countless people protesting abortion over the years, I often wondered what sparked these demonstrations. I don't think they work. But this stranger is working off purpose and I admire him for that. Raising two adopted children, I'm not pro abortion either. My babies were one decision away from being in a trashcan and that thought haunts me at times. I'm not willing to stand on a pedestal screaming out my opinions on the matter, despite this blog. I applaud this seemingly crazy man for his right to express his speech freedom. 

The second stranger was my barista at Starbucks. She painted my Frappacino like Davinci. Her intensity although focused was due to lack of experience.  Her magical smile beamed when I complimented her on an otherwise faceless drink. To which she confirmed what I already knew: she was new at Starbucks.

Two strangers in the light. Neither causing anyone harm. Both working for different purposes. Both strangers likely never to cross my path again. Today, I talked to both of them, learning a bit about them. Slowing my day, smelling the roses that others leave in their path I found a touch of joy.

The stranger danger message is hard to erase from my organic harddrive. There is little to no danger in communicating with complete strangers. I'm no longer a kid. No one is going to lure me into a white cargo van with candy.

Where there was fear, today I find a hint of joy. How strange is that?

Restaurant Days

Sometimes I think I never want to own another restaurant. I am good at it. I know how to make money at it. I like the work. It's the ever revolving door of staff that disturbs me.

But I'm looking at them again.

As I processed these thoughts, I ate at my favourite sandwich shop for lunch. The place was packed. Customers were waiting up to fifteen minutes for their sandwiches. The manager was visibly upset. The kids working behind the counter were hopelessly running around trying to figure out what they had to do next. An employee was called in and started helping right away moving the line a bit quicker.

The whole display was quite tiring. The manager used to work with me. He is known to lose his cool. I wonder how long he can handle the stress. He might be a grenade with the pin already pulled.

I wasn't sympathetic, sad, happy, scared, anxious nor stressed as I watched the restaurant theatre.

There was a time when I would've wanted to help these poor comrades get through their rush. There was a time when I could actually sense their pain.

Today, the only feeling I had was fatigue. I was losing my energy the longer I watched the slamming of doors, the constant running, and hurried conversations.

I can find the energy to get into that grind again. But today I felt a bit lazy not caring about the issues on the other side of the counter.

I recently volunteered to work at a benefit Pancake breakfast. No one ran like crazy chickens. The customers were well served. And I had a blast. So I know I can still enjoy the business. But no one was paid. We had all kinds of volunteers and there wasn't a balancing act between labour, food cost and sales.

Having worked in restaurants for the past 10 years, some people look to me as a restaurant guy.

I have a lot of respect for those who want to run a restaurant. But I don't envy them.

Having worked on farms, in fish factories, in offices, and in a cubicle, the hardest job I ever had was in a restaurant.

And it looks like I'm going to get back at it. Lord help me. I may be losing my mind.

Mission or commission

Why do you want to get into business?

I ask new entrepreneurs this question to get to the heart of their motivation.

Getting into business is crazy. Less than 5% of the population are entrepreneurs. Some estimate the number of entrepreneurs will climb to 50% in the next 20 years. And 85% of businesses fail in the first five years.

I believe businesses fail because the entrepreneur opened the business for the wrong reasons. Not knowing the difference, not having the right teachers, they go down a dark, scary path which ends in wreckage.

Let's discuss compensation of an entrepreneur:

For the first two years, there isn't any money to pay the entrepreneur a salary. The money coming in has to pay operational expenses, inventory, and/or rent. If the entrepreneur indebted the company to pay for equipment or assets, the interest and principal has to be paid from that cash.

Are you ready to work for less money than you could get as an employee?
Are you ready to work harder than you ever did as an employee?
Are you done working for someone else because of something bigger than money?

Don't ever get into business because you want to make money. Money is easy to make. Someone will pay you every two weeks and you get your weekends off if you choose the employee path.

Are you working for a mission or a commission?

Commissions come from being a good salesperson. Missions come from a deeper desire. They don't surface because it would be nice to do.

I was an employee for ten years after university. I loved what I did. I went to work everyday with a smile on my face. Stress was low. The money was good. I wanted more money. I wanted nicer things. I wanted fancier vacations, and sugary cars. But I wasn't making a difference.

In trying to buy a business, the employee in me, would never have quit my job. I wanted to buy a business, but I liked my comfortable lifestyle just as much. I wanted children. I wanted to be able to pay my mortgage. I didn't want to lose everything I had worked so hard to get.

Looking back on that time, I realize I had nothing. Funny how perspective does that.

It was like I stood at the edge of a cliff with a paraglider. I wanted to soar but I didn't know how to fly. I didn't want to fall to the bottom of the chasm. I never would've jumped on my own. I was scared. An asshole pushed me.

Once pushed the little bird in me had a choice, learn to fly or die. I reached for the outstretched branches trying to pull me back to employee safety.  But every branch looked like the asshole that pushed me off the cliff. And that's when I made the choice that changed my life.

I wanted to live. I wanted to soar. I wanted to be my own man. I didn't want to look over my shoulder waiting for the office politics to show me the door. I didn't want to be told what to do.

The decision was easy.  Looking back, I didn't have a choice. Live happy or compromise my one and only life for the safe bet. It came down to my mission. I couldn't achieve my mission as an employee.

And that's how I decided to become an entrepreneur. I burned my boat as I rushed the entrepreneurship shores, knowing there was no way I was going back from where I came.

Do you have a compelling reason why you want to get into business? If it's for money or time, do yourself and your family a favour, keep the job.

If you want to start or buy a business because of a greater cause, you may have a chance.

Where passion at?

One of my teachers, Roy Williams wrote this in his weekly Monday Morning Memo,

You cannot instruct a person to have enthusiasm any more than you can instruct them to give birth to a redheaded child.

The person must first be inspired.

Inspiration is what you give them.
Enthusiasm is what they give you.

People inhale inspiration and exhale enthusiasm.
They cannot give you enthusiasm until you give them inspiration.
Neither is a product of instruction.

There is a time to instruct and a time to inspire.
We often think we’re doing one when we’re actually doing the other.

Is your enthusiasm contagious or is it contained?
Are you inspiring those around you?

Exploding with ideas and thoughts, as I am often left with after a weekly Roy dose, it forced questions about the variable affecting inspiration. If enthusiasm is caused by inspiration, what causes inspiration?

Do they hold hands drawing each of them out completely dependently or is there a third gravitating body that causes the whole thing to explode into its riches?

The light went on. I saw it in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Come to think of it, I see it in most Sci Fi movies. 

Star Wars I was released to the public on May 19,1999. The filming and planning for this movie would have happened over the previous two years (from 1997-1999), yet there is a piece of technology that exists in this movie that did not exist at that time.

Apple invented iPad and released it on April 3, 2010. Its compact iPod grandfather was released two and a half years after the release of The Phantom Menace on October 23, 2001.

But the iPad exists in this movie, ten years before its invention.

Cell phones, microwave ovens, global positioning systems all exist because film thought of them first.

I'm still waiting for my flying car. But that's a discussion for another time.

Is it life imitating art? Or art imitating life?

Who cares!

We get inspiration from art.
Art is imagination.

Inspiration is a derivative of imagination.

It doesn't matter how we feed our imagination. It can come from movies, literature, music, theatre, art, nature, bears dancing on one leg, kids playing with a hula hoop, elephants singing dressed in a tutu or a simple poem.

Imagination is the heart of all inspiration. To be inspired or inspiring, you must let your inner beast run wild through the fresh grass, picking up smells, thoughts and ideas someone else discarded.

Imagination is a dream.

Inspiration is a translation.

Enthusiasm is the end result.

Together, the three form a cyclical triumvirate fostering an endless supply of passion.

Our lives are nothing without imagination. To squash it is the greatest sin we'll ever commit to ourselves.

I scream, you scream

The cops show up and it gets really awkward...

Marketing is a form of sales. Marketing is shared information generating awareness.

There's a problem with marketing. Most of us don't care about the millions of messages directed at us.

And here's why.

Our brains are split into three levels. The first level is what Seth Godin calls "the lizard brain". It is the part of the brain responsible for humanity's ability to survive. It generates "fight and flight". It's been with humans throughout our existence so we continue to use it without our knowledge. Call it instinct.

Here's how the lizard brain processes outside stimuli.

If these things are not dangerous, ignore it.
If this is not new and exciting, ignore it.
If it is new, summarize it as quickly as possible and forget about the details.
Do not send information to the problem solving part of the brain (neocortex) unless you have a situation really unexpected or totally out of the ordinary.

The neocortex evolved for humanity to understand mathematics, physics, medicine.

The lizard brain makes all initial decisions. It filters all messages before we interpret them in the higher evolved section of our brains.

Knowing this makes it easier to be a good marketer.

The message must be either dangerous, new, and exciting or the lizard brain will ignore it.
Not only must the message be new and exciting, it be unexpected and totally out of the ordinary or the lizard brain will not send the information to the neocortex. The lizard brain is the gatekeeper. The neocortex is the president. The lizard brain is the office secretary who won't let anyone visit the president without a pre-scheduled meeting. And she may not allow the meeting to ever take place if she doesn't see value for her boss.

That's her job as the lizard brain.

When you think of marketing, you have to be willing to take chances. There will be those who will criticize your decisions. But they were never going to buy anyways. Their lizard brains were looking for a reason to ignore you and you gave them an easy reason.

I saw the "I scream, you scream" message on a Dairy Queen readerboard sign. It was intriguing because it was out of the ordinary. I expected "... we all scream for ice cream". But they didn't go to the expected. That would have been easy. That would've been unremarkable. That would've been boring.

It reminded me of two other readerboard signs.

One was from 11 years ago, promoting a liquor store in Alberta. The sign read, "My boss told me to change the sign so I did". The playful act got my attention. The sign changed every week and they were all cute and unexpected.

Thanks to Seth Godin, we've learned in a pasture filled with cows, the purple one will get the attention.

The other readerboard sign never existed but I wish it would. There is a Chinese restaurant in my town with the same message for the past 10 years. It reads, "Experience the difference quality makes". Not only is the message now part of the landscape, it's boring. It's un-unique. It's a cow and could represent any cow-like business or industry.

Quality is nothing. Every one says they have quality. I wish someone would have the balls to put a new message on that board. Something like, "No cat or dog will be harmed in the cooking of your meal here". Deep down we know that restaurants don't use cats or dogs to cook meals. It's become a stereotype. It's a bad joke that lies beneath the covers. If you own a chinese restaurant, use it to your advantage. Laugh about it and others will laugh with you. Some will be upset, only because you said something they were already thinking.

Real marketing happens when someone has enough courage to stand up, be noticed and says something unexpected.

Don't scream to get attention. Say something remarkable. Slip past the lizard gatekeeper and speak directly to the president. She holds the money and decides where it gets spent. Nothing good ever came from screaming, unless you're in the bedroom...


With a background in finance and marketing, Rick Nicholson owned two highly successful restaurants before selling them to start a consulting business. His current company The Restaurant Ninjas provides tools to the foodservice industry to become more profitable. His book, "The Art of Restaurant Theft" can be downloaded for free at www.therestaurantninjas.com

You can subscribe to Rick's weekly email newsletter and his thoughts on business, life and everything in between at:
http://forms.aweber.com/form/05/1667819805.htm

Grass is greener...

Do you want to travel to exotic lands?

Do you want to drive a fancy car or own a boat or RV?

What about paying off that mortgage?

Most of us get out of school to find a good job, earning decent money to pay for a house, car, kids and vacations. All while paying off massive student loan debt, only to get into middle age wondering what all these things serve.

I was mowing the lawn asking myself to what purpose does a lawn actually serve. A lawn is a statement. It feeds a need. I don't have cows, but it still feeds me. It makes me feel good. My ego loves it.

It wasn't long ago when lawns didn't exist. Looking at old pictures of my ancestors on the front step of the house, there was two foot long strands of grass, or as the farmers call it, hay.

Lawns are a newer phenomenon as houses got built closer and closer together. Lawns were developed as we moved away from farms and into cities as the industrial revolution clenched its knuckles around us.

Lawns were invented by Kings. The rich, with the desire of royalty, robbed the idea. The middle class, firmly entrapped in the American Dream, copied that feeling by replacing cattle, sheep and horses with machines.

It became an affordable luxury in the 20th century as subdivisions and the American Dream pushed our idealic thoughts toward wealth to the high diving board. The bigger the lawn, the greater the person and the bigger the statement.

I tell myself that I like mowing my lawn. It gives me time to listen to my latest audio book while turning and twisting in the hay. But it serves no real purpose. It's not productive. It doesn't make me money. It doesn't give me time with my kids.

It does the opposite of anything productive.
My lawn serves one sole purpose. It feeds my ego.

Yet, I continue to cut the grass around the property like a cud chewing cow. It seems like I have a choice to make.
-Keep doing what I'm doing
-Hire someone
-Stop mowing altogether and let the grass grow.

What would you do?


With a background in finance and marketing, Rick Nicholson owned two highly successful restaurants before selling them to start a consulting business. His current company The Restaurant Ninjas provides tools to the foodservice industry to become more profitable. His book, "The Art of Restaurant Theft" can be downloaded for free at www.therestaurantninjas.com

You can subscribe to Rick's weekly email newsletter and his thoughts on business, life and everything in between at:
http://forms.aweber.com/form/05/1667819805.htm

Opinions or Analysis

Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one...

What about analysis? Can you analyze a product, a situation, a person and keep the subjective emotional state from penetrating the objective, scientific, logical self?

Recently, I was in a room with six bureaucrats arguing the value of my property assessment. They said I didn't pay enough for my house and I should pay more in property taxes.

I argued the only issue to be analyzed is the subjective value (what we think) versus an objective value (what we know).

Subjective data was shared at nauseum from the bureaucrats as they justified their importance and validated their credibility to do their jobs. They suggested at one point that the method of analysis could be changed to increase the value of the property even further.

I thought to myself, "I'm dealing with cogs. Better yet, as my grade 11 English teacher used to call them, pinheads." There's no way I can win this argument. They are speaking a foreign language to me. They're speaking government talk.

As they tried to justify value, they used subjective data on the sale of comparable homes. As I questioned the interior of each of those homes, I discovered there was no data. I questioned the motivations of the sellers.  Seller motivation on other homes could not be ascertained. Yet, the value of my home was based on seller motivation and its interior.

I asked if any comparable homes had gold plated floors. The executive director who wished to be called Madame Chair, informed me that no two houses were exactly the same.

Exactly!

In retrospect, I could have asked Madame Chair to refer to me as Supreme Chancellor. It was a farce.

Then it occurred to me that data is used this way all the time. Prospective business owners are not encouraged to use objective data to predict future revenues in the purchase process. They make opinions about how much better the business will be when they own it.

Unfortunately sometimes data is limited. And we have to use what we have to form an opinion. The usage of that data is risky because of the multiple variables that could change the outcome. In these cases, the opinion is only an opinion. However, it's the closest value we can rely on to make a decision.

Imagine having chronic back pain. You go to your family doctor to relieve the pain and he tells you that you have cancer of the kidneys. His opinion, based on what you told him, is that cancer is the problem. You're not going to believe him. You're going to want to see a specialist or a second opinion. You'll want a blood test. You'll want to have accurate data before moving to the next stage of treatment.

But that probably won't happen. Doctor's aren't trained to give their opinions. Even though their opinions are based on experience and training. They are trained to get data and act on the information the data provides.

Do you look for data to support your thinking or do you look for data and then form your analysis? The first is subjective and is called confirmation bias. The second is objective.


With a background in finance and marketing, Rick Nicholson owned two highly successful restaurants before selling them to start a consulting business. His current company The Restaurant Ninjas provides tools to the foodservice industry to become more profitable. His book, "The Art of Restaurant Theft" can be downloaded for free at www.therestaurantninjas.com

You can subscribe to Rick's weekly email newsletter and his thoughts on business, life and everything in between at:
http://forms.aweber.com/form/05/1667819805.htm

What?

What?

I can't hear you.

What did you say?

I can't hear what you're saying because what you're doing is too loud.

Some of us has heard the famous saying from our parents, "Don't do as I do, do as I say", only to do exactly what our wiser older onspring told us not to do.

I was searching for professional services online this week, when I looked up the services of writers. Writers are like engineers. There is a special type depending on what you're trying to do. Some have to be technical. Some are creative. Some have a unique ability to capture a thought and describe it so well the reader sees herself in the story. And some are horrible.

I evaluate a writer based on her ability to sell.

If a writer can sell himself to me, then he should be able to sell me to my target audience.

I searched over 50 writers on a well known website that converges writers globally. With the exception of two, none of them used the power of their craft forcefully to convince me to buy their services. They tried to sell me on features and benefits using testimonials, level of experience and years of labour.

There's no emotion in features and benefits. The average person doesn't buy a drill for the voltage, revolutions per minute or the battery life. People buy drills based on its ability to make a hole in the wall. People buy for results. Unfortunately the results are not what you think.

We don't buy the latest BoFlex to get in shape. That's hard work. We buy it to be sexy.
We don't buy the red convertible because it's summer. We buy it to relive our youth.
And we don't buy Starbucks because it's better coffee. We buy it to prove we can afford a $5 coffee.

People buy on emotion. People think they buy rationally. But they don't. They buy emotionally and rationalize why they purchased after the fact.

Since people buy emotionally,  a good writer must capture the audience with magical words taking them on a roller coaster adventure. A good writer must be able to pull that very same emotion out of guys like me as we peruse their services. And if they can't, then they can't help me sell my services.

I was disappointed today.  But I learned a valuable lesson. There is a blustery snowstorm of noise from companies and people trying to sell us their stuff.  The magical ones worth buying from are rare and easy to pick out of a crowd.

Here are three examples of writers' sales pitches. Who would you hire to use the power of words to sell for you?

CC
Every word on the page is fluorescent through my eyes, with every syllable illuminated; having a meaning and a soul. When I write, I am not just merely typing words out on a page; I am living them, breathing them and experiencing them so that when my words are read, that experience lives on. 

KJ
Do you need help with your plot, characters, conflict, or dialogue? I'm an experienced book doctor, ghostwriter, and editor for general fiction, crime suspense, romance, young adult, new adult, fantasy, adventure, and science fiction. As an author and editor, I understand story structure, pacing, character development, and what makes a story sell. I enjoy working across genres,and I love helping others polish their work to reach more readers. Storytelling is my passion, and I'm here to make your story shine. I'll take your fiction to the next level! 

A little about me: I'm the author of over thirty books which have hit the top 100 in Kindle in the US, UK, and Canada, and #1 in ten categories. My fiction work includes short stories, novellas, and novels in contemporary romance, romantic suspense and thriller, western romance, new adult, Native American fiction, and military. I also have four nonfiction books on authorship and experience ghostwriting business and nonfiction.

PW
PW is an experienced writing corporation started in Boston, Massachusetts. We are a dynamic team of 10-15 writers with an exquisite blend of experience in the areas of article writing, ghost writing, academic writing, blogs, press releases, proofreading and editing and so our services will prove to be useful for your project.

Our work is unrivaled, seizes the reader's attention and ensures continued reading.

Working under strict deadline to complete the project or walking an extra mile just to satisfy our clients is never a...




With a background in finance and marketing, Rick Nicholson owned two highly successful restaurants before selling them to start a consulting business. His current company The Restaurant Ninjas provides tools to the foodservice industry to become more profitable. His book, "The Art of Restaurant Theft" can be downloaded for free at www.therestaurantninjas.com

You can subscribe to Rick's weekly email newsletter and his thoughts on business, life and everything in between at:
http://forms.aweber.com/form/05/1667819805.htm

The power of power

I thought that power over others was a negative connotation. Power was supposed to be bad. I can still hear my grade 10 history teacher, Mr. Olscamp scream, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely".

To not lose one's power is well...powerful.

Yoda said in the Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace, "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."

As one is lead to fear, they give up their power to that which they fear.

In a dark period of my life, I was angry. My friends advised to keep my power. At first, I thought they meant that I was using my energy for negative things. When in fact, I was allowing someone to exert power over me.

To keep my power, I couldn't be scared. But I was scared. How could I not be when someone was threatening me with absolute financial ruin?

Oren Klaff explains in his book, "Pitch Anything", that in any relationship someone controls the power frame and someone doesn't. The use of fear is a tactic . The person who allows fear to control their emotions allows the other party to have power over them.

In one of my business relationships, a colleague exerted his power over me by instilling fear. And I allowed it to happen by being the beta (and he the alpha) of the relationship. As long as I gave him my power, he ruled.

Until the last day of our relationship, when I no longer had fear of any consequences. My businesses were sold and I was riding away, no longer fearful of financial ruin. Twice that day, he tried to exert his power as he had done countless times before only to be met with an indifferent, more powerful foe. Fear, anger, hatred and suffering were no longer part of my landslide of personal detriment.

I was now in charge. And he knew it.

To watch him recoil and return to his hovel was pleasing. I had taken over the power frame. I was now the Alpha while he rolled over and showed his belly.

Funny enough as my fear filled body exploded with anger, I had seen him as much taller than I. The day the weight was lifted off my shoulders, as I stood next to my powerless partner, he looked shorter.

As the Alpha, the world looked much different. Suffering squashed. Fear destroyed. Three inches taller, I once again ruled my life.

Are you afraid of anything? If there's anything I learned from my experience it's this: "Fear will hurt your progress."

As hard as it may seem, you must not be afraid.



With a background in finance and marketing, Rick Nicholson owned two highly successful restaurants before selling them to start a consulting business. His current company The Restaurant Ninjas provides tools to the foodservice industry to become more profitable. His book, "The Art of Restaurant Theft" can be downloaded for free at www.therestaurantninjas.com

You can subscribe to Rick's weekly email newsletter and his thoughts on business, life and everything in between at:
http://forms.aweber.com/form/05/1667819805.htm

Interchangeable parts

December 1, 1913 was the day the business world changed forever.

Henry Ford started production on his Model T. The assembly line had been perfected using interchangeable parts. Now instead of taking four hours to build a car, Ford could do it in 93 minutes.

By increasing production, he could sell more cars.

Although the modern assembly line looks nothing like that of Ford's in 1913, there is one significant contribution.

Parts needed to be standardized.

Seems simple enough.

But the business world took this idea one step further over the next one hundred years.

Parts included people.
People needed to be standardized and interchangeable.

Ford started a revolution that was responsible for mass production, mass pollution and mass emotional abuse.  Emotional abuse wasn't defined by our early 20th century ancestors. It's effects were only dissected as the civilization looked for more humanity in work and life.

The saying "Anyone can be replaced", puts a low value on people in business. People are cogs. They fill a need until someone else comes along filling that same need who is younger, cheaper or prettier.

Unions protect cogs. And in a cog filled world, we need unions.

The industrial revolution gave us this thinking.

But what if people weren't replaceable.
What if we valued the contribution of the employee to the point that they weren't interchangeable?
What's the value of a union when companies treat people like we're supposed to be treated?

To not be a cog is difficult.
It's hard for us who grew up being told to listen.
It's hard for us who were taught to respect authority.
It's hard for us who were taught to go to school, get good grades and get a good job.

It's not as hard for our children.

The information age is upon us. The ability to think, the ability to bring immense value is now the new irreplaceable employee.

Interchangeable employees will be used, abused and eventually tossed out, just like that inanimate nut that you can buy at the local hardware store.

Interchangeable employees were taught to listen, obey and to not be disruptive.

There will always be a need for cogs. Cogs can be bought anywhere. Cogs can be found offshore. Cogs will get cheaper and cheaper.

The future of cogs is bleak. There's no future in it.

The time for the irreplaceable employee is upon us. And our kids will benefit greatly from it.

With a background in finance and marketing, Rick Nicholson owned two highly successful restaurants before selling them to start a consulting business. His current company The Restaurant Ninjas provides tools to the foodservice industry to become more profitable. His book, "The Art of Restaurant Theft" can be downloaded for free at www.therestaurantninjas.com

You can subscribe to Rick's weekly email newsletter and his thoughts on business, life and everything in between at:
http://forms.aweber.com/form/05/1667819805.htm

No longer employable - Another story

I knew the day I was no longer employable.

It was at a job interview.

I didn't want to be there. I felt sick to my stomach as it felt like I pimped my services to another John Incorporated.

I didn't want the job. I wanted money to pay my expenses until another business opportunity came along.

I teach new entrepreneurs about the transition from being an employee to becoming an entrepreneur every month. The mentality is very different.

An employee gets paid every two weeks. If they do good work, don't piss off management, are honest, respectful and get along with others they get to keep that job and its benefits as long as they want it or until the company is forced to make changes.

An entrepreneur gets paid only when their company makes enough money to pay them. Entrepreneurs can do good work, be honest, respectful and get along with others and there is still no guarantee of a paycheque at the end of two weeks.

Entrepreneurs only get paid when they perform.
Entrepreneurs only get paid when they learn how to sell.

For some, the risk involved in getting paid as an entrepreneur is too great compared to the perceived security of a bi monthly salary and two weeks vacation as an employee. And those people should remain employees.

For about 5% of the population, there is a deep burning desire to step out on the skinny branch. To move forward pursuing a dream of working for oneself. To report to no one but yourself.  For that small segment of the population, entrepreneurship is the only way they will ever find happiness in their work.

Someone recently told me about all the things they loved about their federal government job. I didn't want to offend my friend so I played along. I think his job would be one of the worst jobs in the world. But he's well paid and he said he liked it there. Like a cat with a string, I asked one simple question, "When do you think you'll be able to retire?"

He's living a lie. He serves up his bullshit everyday telling himself he loves his job, when in fact what he really loves is the lifestyle the high paying job has afforded him. No one who loves what they do would think about early retirement.

I know of one entrepreneur who's in his eighties and still goes to work everyday, even though his children have taken over the business.

I love my kids. I don't want them removed from my life.
I love my wife. I can't imagine living without her.

To love what you do, would mean that you can't imagine ever stopping doing it.

I love entrepreneurship. I will never retire from it. I may slow down as I get older, but retire I won't.

And that's the true difference between an entrepreneur and an employee.

The 7 reasons why businesses fail

There are many reasons why businesses fail. We know from statistics that 80% of businesses fail in the first five years of operations. After 10 years of running my own businesses and working directly with other entrepreneurs, I have discovered a pattern to failure.

Here are my seven reasons why businesses fail and what the entrepreneur can do to avoid them.


1. Failing to plan equals planning to fail
Extraordinary events like fire, flood or any other insurable claim can devastate a business which does carry ample insurance. Planning for disaster is not a fun exercise but it's necessary to plan for it just in case it happens. Insurance should include lost of profits, key employee wages and possibly management salary. Anything that could hurt the business as it rebuilds needs to be accounted for.

Some businesses are heavily reliant on staff. It is imperative to plan for problems with staff, customers, landlords. Is there a backup plan if an employee calls in sick? What happens if a customer has a bad experience and complains online?  Is there a legal lease agreement with the landlord that was reviewed by a lawyer? Lawyers are expensive by an unscrupulous landlord can take advantage of a poorly written lease contract to seize the leased premises for a more profitable tenant.

2. Lack of adequate capital
Getting into business the first time, is an exciting and scary time. Most new entrepreneurs leverage their homes, their savings, and their future earnings to invest in their new adventure, not leaving enough cash to help through the first two years of operations. As the business is building, too often there is little to no cash on hand to support day-to-day operations. If there isn't enough extra cash, the landlord could seize the space, the suppliers could cease deliveries, the customers could stop buying due to lack of inventory. All because there wasn't enough upfront capital.

3. Lack of mentor
Many new business owners get into business in an industry they are familiar with. Michael Gerber calls this the "Fatal Assumption" in his book, E-Myth Revisited. "Knowing the technical work of a business is the same thing as owning a business that does technical work". Unfortunately, in most cases, the new entrepreneur may be fantastic as a technician but doesn't know what she is doing as a business owner, and fails. Having a mentor to help guide the new entrepreneur through tough decisions is critical for anyone wanting to get into business.

4. Lack of business systems
McDonald's is the greatest business in the world run by 16 year olds. Systems make the business simple so kids can work there and still deliver the same level of consistency expected by its clientele. Backyard barbecuers make a better burger than McDonald's, but not nearly as consistent. Every business needs systems to do the same for its clientele. Receiving a remarkable burger followed by an average one on a second visit is worse than receiving an average burger all the time. The real objective in systemization is to offer something remarkable every time.

5. Personal issues cross the lines and affect business.
Some entrepreneurs take their business personally. Whatever happens away from work is brought to the office. These actions have an effect on the employees, the customers and ultimately the business. Some personal issues can include death or sickness of loved one, personal struggles with spouse and or children. It is important to separate work from home even if the entrepreneur takes the business personally. It's difficult to leave work at work when things aren't going well there, just like it's not easy to leave home at home when things go badly there. Mainly because many entrepreneurs live their lives through their work. The people they interact with most are employees. It's in the best interest of all involved to separate "Church from State" when dealing with these issues. The business depends on it.

6. Complacency
Too many entrepreneurs focus on the competition. Competition does not kill another business. It puts it out of its misery. Engaged entrepreneurs are motivated by increased competition. It helps attract more clients to the area and it ultimately grows the overall demand for the product. It's not competition that kills a business. It's complacency. Complacency attracts competitors who want to do a better job than the incumbent. Complacency drives customers to the competitor. Complacency creates employee turnover, pisses off customers, attracts competition and drives down profitability.

7. Lack of focus
An entrepreneur has to have laser focus. She needs to have clear, concise, SMART goals for the week, month, and year. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timeliness. With focus, the entrepreneur navigates the business through rough waters like a ship's captain, keeping the destination in mind. Without focus, the entrepreneur stumbles, riding the entrepreneurial wave like a surfer not knowing where they'll end up, just hoping they have enough skill to ride the wave long enough not to end up crashing into the rocks.



With a background in finance and marketing, Rick Nicholson owned two highly successful restaurants before selling them to start a consulting business. His current company The Restaurant Ninjas provides tools to the foodservice industry to become more profitable. His book, "The Art of Restaurant Theft" can be downloaded for free at www.therestaurantninjas.com

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My relationship with cigarettes

I've hate cigarettes.

In high school the "cool" kids walked up "the hill" to smoke on the designated pad while I hung out with my lame friends inside wondering what was so cool about freezing my fingertips to puff on a paper stick filled with tobacco.

The best stories were told on the hill while the cool kids huddled around each other to protect themselves from the windchill.

The best fights occurred on the hill while the innocent nerds waited patiently to hear about the latest battle.

I never smoked. My grandma smoked. So did my mom and dad.
That's a bit of a lie. There were a few nights in 1995 where some friends and I lit up in a bar thinking it was time for us to join the cool kid ranks. Into the mirror I saw a horrendous cancer stick in my mouth. I looked ridiculous. So my engagement with coolness ended that night.

My grandma died two years earlier from lung cancer. I saw the horrendous effects menthols could produce. Yet the desire to be cool on that smoke filled night was greater than the desire to not die like her.

Second hand smoke has been part of my life since childhood. My family were smokers on the most part. Smoke was in the car, the living room, the kitchen. As I got older, it was in the bars, the restaurants and designated areas of the office.

Within ten years, cigarettes were banned in bars and restaurants. Then they were kicked out of all public buildings. Then they were ostracized from the doorways of buildings. Now their vape cousins are treated with the same hatred as the cantankerous cancer sticks.

In 100 years, the cigarette has gone from being a symbol of sex, coolness to absolute detest and disgust. The banning of cigarettes in public is coming. Despite tax profits, and free economy, there is an anti cigarette lobby that is trying to obliterate the industry.

And I couldn't care less. Except for one thing.

Free choice.

When do government rules eliminate the ability for its citizens to decide what they want to put into their bodies?

Today it is cigarettes. Tomorrow it will be sugar. Coca Cola is banned in some schools following the same path as its unhealthy tobacco cousin.

The cigarette is a symbol of the industrial revolution. It was popularized as western nations became more industrialized. Pollution, lack of consideration for others and blatant disregard for our health is foundational to what happened with the industrialization of our civilization. Cigarettes are another example of what we created in that time.

As we move into the information age, factories are being shut down, production work is being transferred to less civilized nations and governments are imposing greater laws on the population.

Imposing further bans on cigarette consumption does not stop smoking. It just sweeps the problem under the rug a little further. People who want to smoke, will continue to smoke. People who want to freeze their nuts off while inhaling on a tumour stick will continue to freeze their nuts off.

Smoking will never go away. It doesn't matter how many government laws exist. The only way it will ever go away is because people don't want it anymore. After 80 years of the imposition of the marijuana ban, we have statistical information that shows that the legality of a product does not thwart its consumption.

Let's be honest, governments love smokers. Elected officials are not long term thinkers. They don't worry about future healthcare costs of smokers. They are short term thinkers. Elected officials only care about one thing: how to stay in power. They stay in power by getting votes. They get votes by passing popular laws, no matter how ineffective and ludicrous they really are.  Let's face it, cigarettes is big tax revenue for government. They are not going away, just like the stupid laws that pretend to limit consumption.

10 cases of cigarettes bought in another province is not treated with the same legality as 10 cases of chocolate bars for a reason - taxation.

I hate smoking.
I hate stupid laws that try to control us even more.

The biggest farce of this new law is that the government has asked the public to "rat" out any offenders. Cool kids don't rat out their friends, even if they do wreak of smoke and burnt tobacco.

It's time for government to leave the smokers alone. If they really want to stop promoting smoking, they'll make it illegal to buy.  That'll never happen...

"I know everything"

My friend Wayne says the day we know everything is the same day we can pack it in and accept death. Life will be but a bore after that day, so dying is the best option.

I introduced myself to a pizza shop owner recently who professed to know everything. I was blown away. He literally told me he knew everything and there was nothing I could help him with.

He was right about one thing - I cannot help him. He's closed his mind to anything new. I am not interested in hammering nails into cement blocks.

Pretty sure he's wrong about the first part though.

His passion and confidence was magnetic and retractive at the same time.  Observing him talk while waving his hands and moving his head was theatre. All kinds of drama and I left with a sense of awe.

A reasonable person would not openly admit"I  to knowing everything.
But how many of us think we know a lot about something.

Keep this in mind:
"Do you have 20 years experience or one year's experience repeated 20 times?"

My experience has brought me to where I am. And your experience has brought you to where you are. Two people can have similar experiences and arrive at a different location.

We're people. Not computers. Our experience gets interpreted differently by our perspective.

If you're hiring someone and looking for experience. What are you really looking for?

Experience doesn't necessarily mean the candidate can do the job.

Hire for attitude. Train for experience.

But you already know that. It's just a quicker fix to hire for experience and deal with the consequences of the potential poor hire later.

Let's defer the staff problem to some later date.

My best employee and worst hire was the same person. I hired him for experience. He made me money. But he killed my team spirit. He ruined the emotional capital I had worked hard to build with the employees and suppliers. I traded him the day I was forced to make a choice between my team and my captain.

The Golden Rule

My parents are hard workers. They were seasonal employees. Jobs were hard to find in my community. Work was not. My parents worked all year round but only got paid when they went to a job.

Work included cutting wood, growing a garden, clamming, landscaping, home renovations, pickling vegetables and fruits, fox farming, raising chickens, turkeys, and rabbits. None of which made them real money. It put food on the table and helped us survive.

I watched my two heroes go to the same factory for a dozen years. My dad was the foreman. My mom was a production line worker. When I was 15, dad got me a job with the crew. The work stunk. Working with smoked fish will do that. It was dirty, hard labour that put a sweat on your brow only to be covered by dust, smoke and stink. The worst part of the job was the way we were treated by ownership. I watched my parents work their tails off only to be pushed harder. I observed the lack of respect for the employee. I learned the lack of appreciation from ownership killed employee loyalty.

Dad told me he brought me to the factory to encourage me to go to school and not end up in a dead end job.

The factory job served as a reminder for what not to do.

Yet, when I graduated from university, I ended up in a white collar factory job.

I worked my ass off in my office chair. Stink, smoke and dust a distant memory.  The treatment of the employee was much the same. Job security was supposed to be directly correlated with hard work. I found out that job security was an illusion.

A safe secure job is a thought from the 1960's.
The only security in a job today is things change.
Today they change fast.

Don't get too comfortable.
Things will change.
Did I mention they change much faster than they used to?

My last corporate job, my employer gave me a raving employee review 30 days prior to escorting me out the front doors like a criminal. Although I wasn't in handcuffs, I was stripped of my pride. Humbled after getting kicked the curb by a company I had worked hard to gain its respect.

My parents were wrong. Working hard did not mean I always had a job...

Here's what happens when employees are treated as replaceable, interchangeable cogs in a wheel.

• Employees use the company the same way they are used. They treat their employment as a commodity.
• Decreased employee loyalty causes an increase in training expenses and a decrease in profit
• Constant training hurts customer service
• Decreased levels of customer service, lowers customer loyalty
• Decreased customer loyalty affects revenues and long term profits
• Decreased profits negatively affects ownership decisions like strategic shift, investment and growth

This slippery slope into obscurity can be averted by treating employees with respect and dignity.

My rule of thumb for human resources comes from the Bible, "Treat people the way I want to be treated".