And no, it wasn’t very encouraging news.

But it wasn’t all bad news, either.

Their quick, candid assessment was that my item might be too big (it’s a table top item), too expensive, and customers would have to store it between holidays. They are seeing a trend away from buying holiday decor pieces that have to be put away for the rest of the year. Their customers tend to buy smaller, less expensive holiday items. Mine was not something these buyers would stock in their stores. Not very encouraging,

They did say, however, that there probably was a niche market out there for customers who would pay the money for this product, and the success of selling it would depend on being able to find and tap into that market. It was just not their market.

The good part of all this information is that because they were so specific, it gives me a chance to re-think how I was going to make my item and how I was going to market to women in my target market. And of course the other part of the good news is that they may have saved me from spending a whole bunch of money developing an item that might have gone nowhere.

I have two more appointments with buyers coming up so I realize that yesterday’s was one opinion among three, but I value it highly, nevertheless. When I put the information from all three interviews together, I think I’ll have a good representative sample of store buyer opinions on my item – from the kind of stores where I thought I would see my item. As is so often the case, good research leads to more questions:

-Can I take my basic product idea and make it smaller, cheaper to buy, yet still unique?
-Should I keep the basic design, make it really high-quality, and shift my target market to more upscale customers?
-Is this an indication that I should abandon my business idea, or that I should adapt my idea?

As I meet with other buyers, the answers to these questions may become apparent.  Surprisingly, I was not saddened by the reaction from these buyers, but felt incredibly grateful and relieved that I got that feedback now, rather than later. More than ever, I appreciate what Jill Johnson said about “minimizing my risk.”

I would love to get opinions from you readers – about how you decorate for seasons and holidays, or about what I’m learning from these buyer interviews.

1) I have an appointment next week to meet with my SCORE counselors about the proposals I’ve received.

2) I have met with 3 bankers to find out more about financing options. Pretty much the straight scoop is that as a brand, spanking-new startup, there is little chance of getting an SBA-backed loan. If I can get – and responsibly be able to pay back – a home equity line of credit for the amount needed to carry me through a year or so, then I can create some history and then be in a better position to get more financing. That, my friends, is what is meant by “bootstrapping.”

3) I have done some research to find out if there’s a market for my product at the JJ Hill Library, and need to do more. But feeling frustrated at being able to find numbers to prove or disprove my market, I thought, “Can part of my research be asking the merchants who would actually stock my product in their stores?”

I had this thought before meeting with the third banker. So I asked her when we met if it would be valid research to ask some store buyers their opinion on my product. Her reply was, “Absolutely. Yes.” She said that if I got positive feedback that mine was an item they would buy for their stores it would be very compelling information to put into a business plan, and very valid. So tomorrow I have a meeting set up with all 3 buyers of a local chain of stores that I think would carry my product, to ask their opinion of it. The buyer I spoke with on the phone was extremely open, understood exactly what I meant about getting input on my product before I spend the money to get it developed, and said she thought it was terrific that I was doing this research.

I am absolutely prepared to get a thumbs up or a thumbs down opinion of my idea from these buyers. In fact, I hope they will be totally candid in their discussions with me. I’d rather hear the bad news now.

If, however, they think my product has promise, I hope to get more information as to the pricing they’d expect to pay for it, as well as other information that might help me get it to market. I have contacted several different store owners/buyers to arrange meetings for this research, to get a representative sample of opinion. You can’t imagine how much I look forward to getting their opinions. And yes, I will let you know their reaction, even if it’s not good news.

This was sent out yesterday by the Office of Advocacy of the Small Business Administration:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Office of Advocacy today announced the 2008 Top
10 Rules for Review and Reform.  The Top 10 are drawn from over 80 rules
nominated by small business owners and their representatives as part of the
Regulatory Review and Reform (r3) initiative.  The recommendations have been
transmitted to the appropriate federal agencies for their action.

“The strongest and most compelling cases made our Top 10 list of rules,” said
Thomas M. Sullivan, Chief Counsel for Advocacy.  ”These rules, nominated by
small business, need to be reviewed by federal agencies to determine if they
are outdated, ineffective, duplicative, or overly complex.  Streamlining and
updating these regulations will help ease the disproportionate federal
regulatory burden placed on small business.”

Advocacy created the r3 initiative as a way to address the cumulative burden
of federal regulations that now costs our economy $1.1 trillion per year, which
is more per household than the cost of health insurance.  The smallest of
businesses bear the brunt of regulations.  According to Office of Advocacy
research, they annually pay 45 percent more per employee to comply with
federal regulations than big businesses do.

Here are the top 10 rules for review and reform:

• Update Air Monitoring Rules for Dry Cleaners to Reflect Current Technology
• Flexibility for Community Drinking Water Systems
• Simplify the Rules for Recycling Solid Waste
• EPA Should Clearly Define “Oil” in its Oil Spill Rules

• Update Flight Rules for the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Area
• Eliminate Duplicative Financial Requirements for Architect-Engineering Services Firms in Government Contracting
• Simplify the Home Office Business Deduction
• Update MSHA Rules on the Use of Explosives in Mines to Reflect Modern Industry Standards
• Update OSHA’s Medical / Laboratory Worker Rule
• Update Reverse Auction Techniques for Online Procurement of Commercial Items

Of greatest interest to me is the Home Office Business Deduction. Here is the specific
Q and A about this rule:

Internal Revenue Service – Simplify the Home Office Business Deduction

Q. What is
the nominated rule change?

A. The nominator suggests that the IRS should
revise their rules to permit a standard deduction for home-based
businesses. Similar to the Form 1040 standard deduction, the home
office business deduction should be optional. Taxpayers who wish to
claim the home office deduction could choose to continue to follow the
current home office deduction rules, or they could choose the new
standard deduction.

Q. What is the anticipated benefit of this nominated
rule change?

A. Small business owners who have a home office would have
a simplified, less burdensome method to take the home office business
deduction.

Q. Why was this tax-related r3 nomination chosen as a top-ten
nominee over other tax-related r3 nominations?

A. There are several reasons why this r3 nomination was
chosen as a top-ten nominee. First, 53% of all small businesses are home-based
businesses. Thus, revising the rules related to the home office business
deduction would benefit a great number of small businesses. Second, small
businesses frequently identify the simplification of the home office business
deduction as an area of great concern for them. This r3 nomination was formally
submitted by several groups or individuals. Additionally, a number of small
firms informally have been in contact with the Office of Advocacy to advise of
the importance of this nomination. Third, other r3 tax-related nominations
involved Federal laws that would require Congressional action to reform the
laws. The r3 initiative is designed to identify and address existing Federal
regulations that should be revised.

How many of us take advantage of the home office deduction? How many would like to see a simplified standard deduction option on our taxes? You can read more Q and A on all the rules above, you can see the list or learn more about the SBA Office of Advocacy.

RECESSION-PROOF INDUSTRIES

As economists and other pundits dance around the “R” word, workers and investors worried about their future security have several directions in which to look for protection from a potential recession in the United States, according to workplace trend watchers Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

Among the most recession-proof industries offering new job and
investment opportunities are energy, security, health care, and
education, according to the firm. Meanwhile, retail and manufacturing
industries are more vulnerable. In places such as Michigan, where auto
manufacturing appears to be on the skids, new jobs are likely to be
created by wind turbine and solar manufacturing projects.

SOURCE: Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.,
http://www.challengergray.com

INFERTILITY MAY BECOME COMMON

Future generations already have a problem: There may be fewer of them,
as infertility becomes common, according to recent research published
in the BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL.

In affluent countries, infertility affects approximately 15% of couples
trying to conceive; up to 6% of children are conceived through assisted
reproductive technologies in some countries.

A complex array of factors underlie fertility and fecundity, from
social and economic choices that reduce the number of children desired
to environmental risk factors that impair childbearing, such as those
associated with reduced sperm counts in young men (the
endocrine-disruption hypothesis). More direct markers of fecundity
trends are urgently needed in order to identify public-health concerns,
the researchers warn.

SOURCE: British Medical Journal (16 February 2008), http://www.bmj.com

ENGINEERING’S GRAND CHALLENGES

How can future engineers make the world a better place? The U.S.
National Academies have issued a set of twenty-first-century challenges
designed to inspire engineering students toward creative problem
solving and “game changing” projects that could dramatically improve
life. Among the Grand Challenges are:

* Make solar energy affordable.
* Provide access to clean water.
* Restore and improve urban infrastructure.
* Engineer better medicines.
* Reverse-engineer the brain.
* Prevent nuclear terror.
* Secure cyberspace.
* Advance personalized learning.

“Tremendous advances in quality of life have come from improved
technology in such areas as farming and manufacturing,” says Google
co-founder Larry Page, a member of the Challenges committee. “If we
focus our effort on the important grand challenges of our age, we can
hugely improve the future.”

SOURCE: National Academy of Engineering, National Academies:
http://national-academies.org or http://www.engineeringchallenges.org

GOAL-DRIVEN TODDLERS

Children learn to act toward achieving specific goals at about the age
of 3, basing their behaviors on expected, valued outcomes, according to
researchers at the University of Cambridge. This developmental skill is
what sets the 3-year-olds apart from kids in “the terrible twos”–the
age at which toddlers’ inability to get what they want causes sleepless
nights for parents.

The experiment tested the behaviors of children ages 18 months to 4
years old who were trained to touch a red or a green butterfly icon on
a computer display in order to see different cartoon clips. One set of
cartoons was repeated frequently in order to bore the children and be a
less-valued outcome of touching the correct butterfly icon. The
researchers found that at age 3 the children were better able than the
younger kids to choose the right butterfly for the more-interesting
cartoons, even when the cartoons weren’t immediately shown.

Goal-directed behavior is not something we are born with, but something
we develop as we grow up. The researchers conclude: “This capacity [to
internalize one's control over the environment] is an important
component of becoming a fully autonomous intentional agent.”

SOURCE: American Psychological Association,
http://www.apa.org/releases/childrengoal0208.html

******************

THE FUTURE: PASS IT ON (IT’S FREE)!

FUTURIST UPDATE readers are encouraged to forward their copy to family,
friends, students, clients, and colleagues!

Did you receive this copy from someone else? Sign up for your own free
subscription at http://www.wfs.org/futuristupdate.htm

On the surface this doesn’t seem like a business book, but it most definitely is. Even more, it defines a business philosophy that a company can become a best-version of itself if its employees are becoming best-versions of themselves.

The setting is Admiral Janitorial Services. The company struggles with high employee turnover and low employee morale, costing the company more to combat each quarter with no solution in sight. Business is becoming increasingly difficult and less enjoyable, even for those in management dedicated to the company.

They seriously begin to ask: what would keep people in a job cleaning toilets and picking up trash?

“As best I can tell, there are two things that keep people interested in a job; the sense that they are making a difference, and the sense that they are progressing or advancing. Now, we are under no illusions here at Admiral, we are a janitorial company. We are not curing cancer and we are not organizing the cancellation of Third World debt. The sense that we are making a difference is limited, so we have to give our employees an abundance of the latter. We have to give them an opportunity to progress and advance. When people feel they are progressing, they are much less likely to start looking around for another job. It is when they don’t feel that they are advancing that they start to get restless…I think we can help our employees build a bridge between their NOW and a better FUTURE. We need to convince them that this is not a dead-end job, and the only way to do that is to demonstrate that working here can help them get to where they want to go.”

This leads them to creating a new position called “The Dream Manager.”  Employees who wish to can meet with the Dream Manager once a month to outline their dreams and develop a plan to make them happen. Since many dreams – like owning a home, going on a big trip, going to college – often have a financial component, the Dream Manager works with these employees to teach them basic financial planning as well.

This story spins out in many unexpected ways – all of them unanticipated positive consequences of having a Dream Manager. Although this scenario is fictitious, there are many aspects of it that ring true. From your own experience, can you imagine how you’d feel if your employer actively worked to help you achieve your dreams? Chances are you’d feel pretty grateful.

Considering the real consequences of the retiring baby boomer generation from the workforce, the book emphasizes:

“BusinessWeek reports that over the next ten years, 21 percent of top management and 24 percent of middle management positions across all functions, regions, and industries will become vacant. In the areas of unskilled labor, we all know that the statistics are much harsher and the shortages more drastic.” 

This book claims that a business that invests itself in fulfilling its employees dreams will reap an engaged, invigorated and loyal workforce, which will have an enormous positive effect on company profits. In other words, creating and maintaining employee loyalty may become the defining asset of a successful company in the not-so-distant future.

Since reading this book I haven’t been able to keep from asking myself the question: what are my dreams? My heart quickens to think about some of the exciting things that I would put on my list of 100 dreams, as the author suggests doing. Almost as exciting is how happy I would feel to help someone else fulfill their dreams. Imagine the vigor that would infuse a company where everyone was that excited and fulfilled?

Check out www.thedreammanager.com and read the book. Dream a little. Ask your friends, family and co-workers about their dreams. Maybe – just maybe – it will start you down the path of becoming a best-version of yourself.

                    Cabin Fever

                    The white snow is lovely at first-
                    So pretty I feel I could burst.
                         But by February
                         I am climbing a tree
                    And feel nothing but wretched and cursed.
                                                      
                                                                                  Anne Florenzano, 2008
                                                                                  Photo by Gregory Scott Clarke

She spent a lot of time talking about minimizing risk. As I am about to enter the development phase of the product I hope to sell, she made it clear that I have more work to do before I start this phase. If I can get information NOW about whether I’ll be able to proceed AFTER product development, I will be able to make better decisions.

To get the critical information I need, I left our meeting with 3 jobs to do:
Job #1. Continue to meet with the SCORE counselors I’ve been seeing. They have many years of experience. Ask them their opinion of the product development proposals I’ve received.

Job #2. Visit 3 commercial lenders and explain to them about the business I’d like to start, tell them I’m working on my business plan, doing my due diligence, and about to enter into product development. I need to ask them, “What can I do NOW to make sure I’m eligible for financing LATER, when I’m ready to start the manufacturing phase of my business?”

Job #3. Do more research on the specific retail market closest to my product. Get every bit of information possible in relation to that, and similar markets.

Jill’s reasoning is absolutely spot-on. I can minimize my financial risk by doing these things now. On the down side, if I talk to the bankers only to find out that there’s no way they’d lend money for my manufacturing enterprise, well then I’d better find it out now before I spend the money on development. A better scenario would be to find out that I need to do A, B and C before they’d consider giving me a loan. If it’s doable, then I can be confident that I’m not throwing my money away to get ready for manufacturing, and I will know exactly what I need to do to proceed after that. Either way, I’d much rather find out before I spend the money whether I have any likelihood of seeing the whole thing through!

I’ve done a lot of research, but still I haven’t done enough. I have to arm myself with a lot more information to prove the market for my product. Not only to convince others – like bankers and buyers – but to prove to myself beyond doubt that there really is viability to my business idea. Make no mistake, I will be in this to make money, and if it doesn’t look like I can, I will not proceed. Like Jill and I joked, I may write a post someday titled, “10 reasons why I WON’T be starting a business!” Once again, better to minimize my risk by finding some answers out now rather than after I’ve spent thousands on a dead-end project.

I cannot thank Jill enough for the insights and advice she gave me. I cannot thank Sharon enough for the introduction to Jill.  I remain positive about my business, but I’m fully prepared to work harder to prove it. And I really hope that if there are any other entrepreneurs reading this blog, they can benefit from what I’ve learned; do your utmost to minimize your financial risk before you begin by researching every aspect of your business to prove its viability.

The importance of women consumers is no longer news, but for anyone in business who is marketing to women this book is a must-read. There were tremendously valuable insights for me, as my future product will appeal largely to women.

Barletta goes into some detail explaining how four inherent perspectives and priorities are different between men and women.

Social Values – Women put people first; are ensemble players, not soloists; are guardians of civilization; are warmer, not “winner”

Focus Strategies - Details, details; women integrate vs. extricate; seek the Perfect Answer when shopping for an item

Communication Keys – In conversation, women seek rapport; affinity link is “same-same,” “scoop” and “gift exchange”; like stories and personal details

Life/Time Factors - Women have a double day with work and home; multitask; place importance on milestones; tend to live long and prosper

Barletta then takes the full circle of marketing elements (like word of mouth, packaging, web marketing, etc.) and shows how they can be applied effectively to the above-listed factors. She does an excellent job making her case, as with the issue of product and packaging. Here are some excerpts of what she says:

“…And at the shelf is where the vast majority of purchase decisions are made. One way to do this is by featuring people on the packaging…when you’re tailoring your products for women – a cell phone, for example – think “tool,” not “cool.” Save money on the fancy features and put it into warranties, guarantees, and hotlines…Make certain your product and your packaging are as environmentally friendly as you can make them – and be sure to communicate that on the package itself…seek opportunities to create “suites” or “collections” of related products that can be sold together…[Women} will be more attracted, meanwhile, to pleasing styling, textures, sounds, smells and so on. Seek opportunities for sensory enhancement of your product, even if it’s only secondary to the product’s prime function…decisions and responsibility for product storage usually fall on the woman. Make sure you check your package dimensions and bulk for easy lifting and “fit.”

The author spends a portion of the book highlighting the importance and buying power of boomer women, or what she calls PrimeTime Women, which actually is the title of her new book. She calls women aged 50 and older, “…the absolute bulls-eye of the women’s market.” Because of the growing percentage of these PrimeTime women in the population, their growing wealth and their control of that wealth, the author says, “Follow the dollar signs, and they will point you to PrimeTime Women.”

As well as including staggering statistics and fine discussions of women as consumers, there are also a lot of telling examples of misguided advertisements and attitudes towards women described in this book. As a woman consumer myself, I strongly identify with the insights and observations arrived at by the author’s research.

In the end, Barletta strongly recommends taking a long-term outlook on marketing-to-women initiatives. “The ROI on women is higher than on any other target-based alternative. They deliver greater share of wallet, as they consolidate more business with you; greater loyalty, as they stand by you in downturns; and a much higher rate of referrals, as they tell their friends how great you are.”  There is much in this book to guide me in the future when I craft the marketing strategies for my own product.

Thanks, Christine! 

IS THERE A SITE TO FIND OUT ABOUT SPECIAL BLOG-WIDE POSTING CHALLENGES?

Like the day we were all challenged to post about what we could do for the environment, or like NaBloPoMo, the widely accepted “National Blog Posting Month” when bloggers are challenged to blog every day in November…

Who starts them? Is it different bloggers? Does one site propose a challenge and it goes viral and the whole blogging community seems to know about it? Is there a supreme blogging guru who issues, and every blog writes?

Would someone please tell me?