Florida Small Business Development Center

OMG! Has it really been a month and a half since I posted my last blog? How did that happen? Where did the time go? Could it have fallen into a “black hole?” Somehow I had lost track of time (a cardinal sin for someone of German descent). As penance, I will focus this blog on a discussion of time and time management.

John Archibald Wheeler (1911-2008) was a native of Jacksonville, Florida, an eminent theoretical physicist who collaborated with Albert Einstein, and interestingly the originator of the words “black hole” and “wormhole.” In his studies of space-time continuum, he mused, “Time is what prevents everything from happening at once.” I will propose adding a corollary to that phrase, “Lost time is what prevents anything from happening at all.”

Small business owners have many demands on their time; they usually fill the CEO (Chief Executive Office) role of planning strategy for their company, which is not an easy task in an uncertain economy. They also wear the COO (Chief Operating Officer) role of overseeing day-to-day operations. There are also the roles of Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer, and they usually administer the functions of human resources, advertising and marketing as well. Then there are the needs to be a worker or perhaps the delivery driver if an employee is absent.  Continue reading here

Speaking of Business Blog by Dr. Philip R. Geist, Area Director, Florida SBDC at UNF

Filed under: Small Business Blog by Small Business Resource Center Wednesday, September 19th, 2018
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Mindy Barker CEO of Mindy Barker & Associates is just one of our featured speakers at our 8th Annual Nonprofit Conference on Friday, October 5, 2018. She will be speaking on financial sustainability for nonprofits.  Here’s a summary of how she will be helping nonprofits at our event: 

In an environmental context, “sustainability” generally means finding a way to use resources in a manner that prevents their depletion. For charitable nonprofits, the phrase “sustainability” is commonly used to describe a nonprofit that is able to sustain itself over the long term, perpetuating its ability to fulfill its mission. Sustainability in the nonprofit context includes the concepts of financial sustainability, as well as leadership succession planning, adaptability, and strategic planning.

In order for a nonprofit to be sustainable, the nonprofit’s leaders need to know how much it costs to deliver the nonprofit’s programs and services, so that the nonprofit can raise enough money to cover those costs. When a nonprofit is always catching up, but never has enough resources to cover its costs AND invest in its own infrastructure

This session will help nonprofits gain insight into the techniques they can use to get a handle on financial activities within their organization to help raise more money. By adapting processes and infrastructure appropriate to the size of the organization, you can effectively manage financial information.  

Mindy Barker is the CEO of Mindy Barker & Associates. In this role, she works with not for profits and business owners to empower them with tools and financial information to improve company value, profitability and cash flow. Prior to founding Mindy Barker & Associates, Mindy was the chief financial officer for OptaComp, a workers compensation company and subsidiary of Florida Blue. She also served as controller of Kemper Services Group and was principal and chief financial officer of Chartwell Capital, a private equity firm. Mindy’s diverse background also includes management positions in the industries of property and casualty insurance, distribution and manufacturing and consulting. Mindy began her career in public accounting with Price Waterhouse Coopers and Ernst and Young.  Mindy holds a Bachelors of Arts degree in Accounting from Converse College and is a certified public accountant in Florida and North Carolina. She is a member of the American Institute of CPAs, the Association of Corporate Growth, Women Business Owners and the Jacksonville Women’s Network. She also serves on the board of directors of the Children’s Home Society.  Click here to learn more and to register for the conference.

Filed under: Non-Profits, UNF Small Business Blog by Small Business Resource Center Thursday, August 30th, 2018
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Many business owners are so focused on running their business and putting out daily fires, they often don’t consider the long term ramifications of a few small decisions. What might seem like a quick fix today, could end up destroying the value of your business!

As we review small businesses (under $10M sales) to sell, here are 3 of the most common ways that business owners have devalued their business.

1. Not reporting cash.
We had a bar owner that would take the cash out of the register every night. It was his “pocket” money. He didn’t see anything wrong with this. It was “his” money. Sadly, when that is not the way the IRS or buyers look it at. When all the revenues are not reported to the IRS, a buyer become suspicious of how the seller is doing their books and starts to question what else is not being reported. A buyer will often say to us, “If they are willing to lie to the IRS, I am sure they will lie to me.” Since many businesses are valued based on a multiple of profits (or sometime revenue), when both values are artificially low from cash being removed. This reduces the value of the business and can make the business unsellable at any price turning it into a liquidation of assets, sold for pennies on the dollar.
TIP: Report ALL income in the business on your P&L and tax returns. It is better to pay the 30 cents in taxes, than loose the $2.50 that the buyer would have given you!  Continue reading here.

By Kimberly A. Deas, Murphy Business & Financial Services, Exit Stage Left Trusted Advisor

Filed under: Small Business Blog by Small Business Resource Center Tuesday, August 21st, 2018
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If your sales are slow at this time of year, you may want to blame the “Dog Days of August,” with their heat, humidity, and occasional torrential rain. As apparent temperatures (how they actually feel to our bodies) rise into the triple digits, many businesses just bide their time until milder weather arrives and sales activity picks up again. This does not have to be the case; your business can be proactive in attracting customers during this period.

The term “Dog Days” was coined by the Romans, who called these days “Caniculares Dies,” which translated to “Days of the Dogs.” Originally the days when Sirius, a star in the constellation Canis Major, literally the “greater dog” constellation, and commonly referred to as the Dog Star, rose at sunrise. The Romans sacrificed  a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease  Sirius, believing that the star was the the cause of hot sultry weather. The ancient heliacal (sunrise) rising of Sirius would be from July 3 to August 11. With precession of the universe, those times now correspond more closely with late July to the first week in September.  Continue reading here.

Speaking of Business Blog by Dr. Philip R. Geist, Area Director, Florida SBDC at UNF

Filed under: Small Business Blog by Small Business Resource Center Wednesday, August 8th, 2018
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This July in Florida has been extremely humid, with almost daily rains. When I drive someplace and get out of my car my eyeglasses almost immediately fog up. On a few occasions when I tried to look over them rather than wipe them, I have stumbled over parking buffers and once walked into a mailbox. Just as I would be safer if I cleaned them before setting out, business owners who can clearly see the environment around them will enhance their probabilities of prosperity and sustainability. Additionally, if they can see what may lie ahead, as one might with binoculars, they will be in a position to react and respond faster than their competition.

Some of the factors that might cause business owners to stumble are:  Continue reading here.

Speaking of Business Blog by Dr. Philip R. Geist, Area Director, Florida SBDC at UNF

Filed under: Small Business Blog by Small Business Resource Center Friday, July 20th, 2018
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One of the biggest challenges for an entrepreneur is to determine if they are growing or scaling their business. Sometimes owners aren’t fully aware of the difference but there are a few key questions you can ask yourself that will help you determine which path you are on.

1. Am I free? Do I freely control my own time and schedule?
2. Do I regularly work on strategy for my business instead of day-to-day activities?
3. Am I removing myself from core systems and key processes – sales/lead generation, billing, collections, product/service delivery, etc.?

If you answered NO to any of these questions, it may be time to rethink your approach to revenue generation and how your business is managed.

Though there are a number of non-negotiable factors that must be considered when scaling a business, the products and services you offer are the foot soldiers in the effort. Not all companies, and certainly not all products and services can scale, but thinking outside the box and defining yourself by the benefits you provide, not the products and services you sell is one way to help you consider additional approaches to revenue generation that is scalable.

So what makes a product scalable? The simple answer is the cost of each incremental unit you sell should be decreasing rather than increasing or remaining constant. In accounting speak – the marginal cost to deliver each additional unit must be declining.

Some products can do this relatively easily – products and services that are delivered electronically is a simple example. Once the infrastructure and platform are built, the cost to sell one or a million units declines as the cost is spread across an increasing number of units. Think Amazon and e-books.

But if your product or service does not fall into this category, how do you make this happen? It usually requires stretching your idea of what it is that you offer.

When I had an idea for my first book, I learned that it was going to be very expensive for a small business to print, pack and ship individual books to individual readers. I also learned that as a small publisher with only one title, no traditional book store would stock an individual title.

So we started doing some brainstorming. Was I really writing a book? No – I was delivering information i.e. content, and the book was only a delivery vehicle for that content. That helped me recognize that in addition to hard copies and soft copies of the book, e-versions, e-courses, audio books, online workshops, video classes, podcasts, etc. were all viable ways to deliver the same content to different audiences through different formats and media. Each has an appeal to a slightly different audience, not based on interest in the content itself, but in the way it is presented.

This is an important point to keep in mind – the preponderance of media options now available to consumers allows them to choose which medium is most effective for them. Your customers can only take advantage of this if your product or service is delivered in that format.

How many times have you had an interest in something, only to let it go and fail to pursue it further because the only medium through which additional information and content was available was in some form that you didn’t really like? Maybe you aren’t a big reader. If the information and insight you are interested in is only available in the form of a book, newsletter, magazine or online article that you have to read, you may not have been motivated enough to invest the time to learn more.

But what if you learn that the same information is available in a podcast that you could listen to as you traveled to and from your appointments during the day? Same info, different distribution channel, and suddenly you are interested again.

Product development and product innovation are truly where scalability begins, so I challenge you to rethink what you offer your customers. Customers don’t buy things – they buy what those things do for them (entertain, educate, inspire) and/or how they make them feel. When approached from this perspective, how to continue to add to your pipeline of products and services becomes a little easier to think about.

The steps in the process are simple.

1. Define what it is that you truly offer – comfort, security, knowledge, insight, support, simplicity, peace of mind, entertainment, beauty, order, etc.
2. Consider all the ways you might provide this offering in different formats and from different perspectives
3. Pick one or two and try them out.
4. Get help working through the process if it becomes too cumbersome or if you can’t get traction because you need to know or learn more.

Here at the FSBDC at UNF, both of the previous Are You Growing or Scaling Your Business? workshops have sold out. The next will be held on August 14th from 9am to noon at our UNF office. Consider signing up if you have more questions about the concept of scaling. You can read more about it and sign up here: /register-for-workshop/?workshops_id=469.

If you would like to discuss your thoughts before that, feel free to contact me at l.t.kulka@unf.edu and we’ll schedule some time to talk.

by Linda Teza Kulka, Business Consultant, Florida SBDC at UNF

Filed under: Small Business Blog by Small Business Resource Center Monday, July 16th, 2018
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Pricing: something many business owners fret over. They worry about local competitors, big box stores, Amazon, and other online sellers. They sometimes set prices based on what others are selling for and don’t consider customer value. If you set your prices arbitrarily, it might be the same as letting the customer make you an offer. Unless you have calculated your price based on your costs and expected profit, your profit may not be what you anticipate. Setting the right price for your products or services can often make the difference between business success and failure, or profit and loss. There are many paradigms that can be used to set prices, choosing the right one for your business can be critical.

Proper pricing is critical to a healthy and competitive business environment, and remains one of the most important issues for businesses both large and small. How you price your products and services should communicate both values that you have to offer your clientele and the vision that you have set for your company. If you offer installation, training, off-season storage, free maintenance, or a myriad of other services that are valued by customers, they will be willing to pay a higher price for the convenience. Small businesses should identify what is of value to customers and build these services into their business model because they will never have the buying power of large companies.  Continue reading here.

Speaking of Business Blog by Dr. Philip R. Geist, Area Director, Florida SBDC at UNF

Filed under: Small Business Blog by Small Business Resource Center Friday, June 29th, 2018
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Have you been a customer in businesses where you noticed obvious inefficiencies or missed market opportunities? If you are among the millions of current or previously employed workers who have considered entrepreneurship as a means of independence, job security, and a way to build wealth; then buying an existing business and improving its performance may be a route to business ownership for you.

“Nobody Does It Better” is the ballad composed by Marvin Hamlisch with lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager and recorded by Carly Simon as the theme song for the 1977 James Bond movie, “The Spy Who Loved Me.” Its sentiment applies to entrepreneurs as well, especially those who can outperform the current business owners. Have you been a customer at a business where you thought, “I could do better than that!” If so, you may have identified a candidate business to purchase.

You should of course, never purchase a business you don’t understand, so I am making the assumption that if you ‘see a better way of doing things,’ that you understand the business. There are a number of factors important to identifying potential businesses to purchase, but the most important is successful experience in the type of business being bought. That’s because it provides the buyer with knowledge of how to solve them.  Continue reading here.

Speaking of Business Blog by Dr. Philip R. Geist, Area Director, Florida SBDC at UNF

Filed under: Small Business Blog by Small Business Resource Center Monday, June 11th, 2018
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For those of us living in Florida, we are getting an early reminder that the Hurricane Season is about to begin. While it officially starts on June first, the National Hurricane Center is watching the first potential weather system of 2018. Today is Monday, May 14th, 2018, and a mass of weather in the eastern Gulf of Mexico has formed and is causing heavy rain over South Florida and slowly expanding to cause the entire state to be rainy for most of this week, with some urban flood watches already issued for the southeast part of the state. The National Hurricane Center (www.nhc.noaa.gov) as of 9:35 EDT this morning stated that the weather mass will remain over most of Florida for the week and currently has a 40 percent chance of developing into a tropical weather system within five days.

While at most it could develop into a tropical storm, as the center of the weather is close to land and the water temperatures are still relatively cool, it serves as a good reminder that businesses should prepare (for those that do not have them) or update their contingency and emergency plans. This alert also applies to those of you not likely to be affected by a hurricane, as every area has natural threats of some kind. Whether they are from earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, or volcanic eruptions does not matter. What does matter is that your business is prepared to protect its staff, mitigate any risks, regroup after the event, and sustain its operations.  Continue reading here.

Speaking of Business Blog by Dr. Philip R. Geist, Area Director, Florida SBDC at UNF

Filed under: Disaster Plan, Florida SBDC at UNF, Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of North Florida, Hurricanes, Small Business Blog by Small Business Resource Center Tuesday, May 29th, 2018
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Does your business have a customer or market niche? If so, you can conduct target marketing and focus your efforts directly on potential customers. If not, your business is functioning in a generic or commodity market where it is hard to distinguish your product or service from that of your competitors. Many businesses have products or services that can serve multiple niches. Finding the niches that your business can serve and marketing directly to them can reduce the cost of obtaining new customers and increase revenue at the same time, resulting in a higher profit margin.

Most large companies employ the Pareto Principle in their approach to marketing. They understand that 80% of their business comes from 20% of their customer base. By focusing the majority of their efforts on the niches in that 20%, they are able to maintain a high return on their marketing expenditures. Target Stores is a good example that begins with their logo. It exemplifies the company’s laser-like focus on meeting the needs of its niche customer. The typical Target customer, according to www.pymnts.com/news/retail, is young, affluent, and looking for products that are unique and stand out from the “run-of-the-mill” variety. Target’s customer demographics show the average customer is female (63% of total customers), between the ages of 18 and 44, and earning $12,000 more per year than their counterparts shopping at other stores.

Having determined that their niche customer prefers upscale unique products has allowed Target to develop merchandising programs with manufacturers who are willing to design specific products for the company that aren’t available elsewhere. Target also seeks out smaller manufacturers of boutique and upscale products that are not carried by their competitors. While small businesses don’t have the volume of sales to develop similar arrangements, they can take actions to attract niche customers to their establishment. The first step in the process is to identify the niches that your business can attract and serve. A photographer, for example, can have multiple niches: weddings, pet photography, real estate photos, classic and collector car photography, and so on. Each of those niches has customers with different characteristics. Those characteristics include the customers demographics, their geographic location, and their psychographic preferences.  Continue reading here.

Speaking of Business Blog by Dr. Philip R. Geist, Area Director, Florida SBDC at UNF

Filed under: Small Business, Small Business Blog, Small Business Development Center at the University of North Florida, UNF SBDC, UNF Small Business Blog by Small Business Resource Center Wednesday, May 9th, 2018
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