Early in the morning, I met with JSmith of the SBDC. Great meeting, lots of ideas and suggestions. JS will send me a list of recommendations based on the criteria I gave him. We also discussed some possibilities for future research and ideas for offering seminars / workshops aimed at furthering business success. John agreed to create a list of businesss and send a letter of introduction letting them know that I'll be following up next week for an appointment.
Mid morning, I met with Charlotte of the Chandler Chamber. She was very excited about the project and saw all kinds of possibilities involving additional research that would benefit the chamber. We discussed possibly publishing the results and maybe joining a discussion where we would share the findings. We spent a good deal of time reviewing chamber membership for some good candidates that I can interview. She and I developed a nice list of excellent local businesses that she feels confident would be willing to participate in the study. I now need to wrap up the research instrument and plan for collection of the interview data.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Day 3 - Great contacts made
It's been a hectic week but I've made some excellent progress. I've identified a number of key players in the business community that are eager to contribute to the project. It's interesting to note that small businesses are indeed supported and respected by our local chambers and municipalities. Something that Dan Henderson told me is starting to make alot of sense. His staff spends a a majority of their time assisting small businesses. However, assisting a small restaurant or manufacturing company obtain capital financing isn't necessarily "newsworthy" so no one really knows what's going on behind the scenes. What gets newspaper coverage is obviously landing a large corporation that employs hundreds.
As I plan for interviews in the upcoming weeks, it will be interesting to hear from small business owners whether they feel supported by their chambers and economic development agencies.
Late this afternoon I met with my first small business contact, a financial planner formerly with Merrill Lynch. He's on his own, still associated with ML and now BofA, but in his own agency. We discussed a number of topics but one item in particular is worth nothing. When we started talking about business success, he told me that he is actually doing better this year than he did last year while many of his counterparts have stuck their head in the sand and have done everything wrong. So what did he "do right" to do better and thrive in what one would expect would be a dead business (investing in the stock market, financial planning, etc). What this fellow did was step up his efforts and started to increase contact with his clients. He told me about one of his clients who called and said, "I just lost $40,000! The market is crashing and I'm in a panic." Clearly the blame was the financial planner-- it was his fault this particular client has lost what appears to be a great deal of money. After some refocusing, calming down and lots of reassurance (basically hand holding), the client realized that he had in fact not lost more than $2300.00. The point was that his method of dealing honestly with clients, calling them and explaining what was happening and by working with them to reprioritize their portfolio, not only did he keep all this clients, he picked up 5 or 6 new clients, valued at several million dollars. While the other financial planners avoided their angry and scared clients, this guy did just the opposite-- he made himself available and worked closely with each of them to let them know that "things will be fine." Another interesting side note is that he actually instructed his clients to stop watching the daily bad business news that kept reporting that "this is the worst day in the history of Wall Street."
Tomorrow, I'm meeting with an SBDC Consultant and with the Chandler Chamber of Commerce.
As I plan for interviews in the upcoming weeks, it will be interesting to hear from small business owners whether they feel supported by their chambers and economic development agencies.
Late this afternoon I met with my first small business contact, a financial planner formerly with Merrill Lynch. He's on his own, still associated with ML and now BofA, but in his own agency. We discussed a number of topics but one item in particular is worth nothing. When we started talking about business success, he told me that he is actually doing better this year than he did last year while many of his counterparts have stuck their head in the sand and have done everything wrong. So what did he "do right" to do better and thrive in what one would expect would be a dead business (investing in the stock market, financial planning, etc). What this fellow did was step up his efforts and started to increase contact with his clients. He told me about one of his clients who called and said, "I just lost $40,000! The market is crashing and I'm in a panic." Clearly the blame was the financial planner-- it was his fault this particular client has lost what appears to be a great deal of money. After some refocusing, calming down and lots of reassurance (basically hand holding), the client realized that he had in fact not lost more than $2300.00. The point was that his method of dealing honestly with clients, calling them and explaining what was happening and by working with them to reprioritize their portfolio, not only did he keep all this clients, he picked up 5 or 6 new clients, valued at several million dollars. While the other financial planners avoided their angry and scared clients, this guy did just the opposite-- he made himself available and worked closely with each of them to let them know that "things will be fine." Another interesting side note is that he actually instructed his clients to stop watching the daily bad business news that kept reporting that "this is the worst day in the history of Wall Street."
Tomorrow, I'm meeting with an SBDC Consultant and with the Chandler Chamber of Commerce.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Day 2- more initial contacts and blog
I have appointments with a counselor from the SBDC, John Henry Smith for Friday. I've asked for his assistance in identifying potential small business owners who might be good candidates for the project. Right away, he came up with a few names that he thinks would be good to study.
The blog is up and running and I'm thinking how I'll incorporate this in my Small business classes in the fall. I do plan to make this blog available to students along with the findings from my research. It is my hope that they'll follow the research model I'm creating with this project.
I've also made contact with our Workforce Development Director, Dr. Romano for her input. She has valuable contacts in the business community and will be able to also provide input that will help with the study. Additionally, I've made contact with Charlotte at the Chandler Chamber to enlist her assistance in identifying good candidates for the study.
At home, I've contined to work on refining the set of questions I'll be using to interview business owners. The more contacts I make, the more exciting this project becomes. I'm really looking forward to the actual interviews and the results of the study.
I was able to confirm my appointment with Charlotte at the Chandler Chamber. I'm eager to meet with her to discuss the project and get some recommendations for folks to interview.
The blog is up and running and I'm thinking how I'll incorporate this in my Small business classes in the fall. I do plan to make this blog available to students along with the findings from my research. It is my hope that they'll follow the research model I'm creating with this project.
I've also made contact with our Workforce Development Director, Dr. Romano for her input. She has valuable contacts in the business community and will be able to also provide input that will help with the study. Additionally, I've made contact with Charlotte at the Chandler Chamber to enlist her assistance in identifying good candidates for the study.
At home, I've contined to work on refining the set of questions I'll be using to interview business owners. The more contacts I make, the more exciting this project becomes. I'm really looking forward to the actual interviews and the results of the study.
I was able to confirm my appointment with Charlotte at the Chandler Chamber. I'm eager to meet with her to discuss the project and get some recommendations for folks to interview.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
First steps --- making contact with networks
I'm utilizing contacts I have in the Chandler and Gilbert areas to identify at least 20 small businesses that would be willing to participate in the study. I met with Dan Henderson, Economic Development director for the Town of Gilbert. We had a very productive meeting where we outlined a number of steps I'll be taking in moving the project forward.
Tomorrow I plan on making initial contact with the folks in Chandler.
Tomorrow I plan on making initial contact with the folks in Chandler.
Welcome to my Blog
This is an MCLI grant funded project that will allow me to learn more about how the economic recession has impacted local small businesses. In particular, I am studying how some small businesse have managed to remain in business while others have failed. I'm looking to identify strategies successful businesses use to retain current customers and attract new ones.
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