Yes, Virginia, there are business success stories, even in this dark day.

That’s what The Gazelle Goal is all about – decoding the DNA of successful small business. Today, we bring you a smashing business success story from the world of retail.

It goes without saying that retail is suffering.
The auto parts store on the corner that was there yesterday is gone today.
The local young & hip fashion shop across from the high school that was mobbed when it opened four years ago has to engage in suicide sales to keep the doors open.
Already, in September, retailers are starting to roll out their plans to light a fire under consumer spending for the Christmas holiday season.

There’s a palpable fear that December will not right a sinking ship, competing schizophrenically with a frail hope that maybe this year it will be better.

Remember when Christmas didn’t start until the day after Thanksgiving? That was in the Stone Age, I believe.

Anyway, although retail overall is suffering, there are some bright spots. You can find them listed in Inc. Magazine’s Special Report on America’s Hottest Entrepreneural Superstars. Five hundred made the list. Among them , the number one place goes to online fashion retailer ideeli. Over a three year period – the same three years the world has dwelt in the ever-present specter of economic doom – ideeli has grown 40,882 percent.

That is not a typo.

How did ideeli do it? We don’t know the whole story, but one thing jumps out at us. The site offers a “curated” selection of constantly updated limited-time sales.

In the information age, curation is an important hard trend because it helps people sift through the mass of information, products, and services now available at our fingertips.

Anyone who has shopped online for a little black dress, or a pair of boating shorts that don’t sag, or some size 13 EEEE men’s tennis shoes, gets the value of curation. After about fifteen minutes of surfing the web, the sheer variety of products on offer even in these rather narrow categories makes shopping overwhelming.

We’re not likely to wake up tomorrow and discover that we have access to less information and less stuff; quite the opposite. Hence, curation is here to stay. People with great taste, who have a knack for spotting trends, and who listen to what the public wants make great curators.

Constant updates are another critical hard trend. Information moves at the speed of light, and online shoppers don’t want to see the same products and the same page from day to day. Change is it. And tomorrow, we aren’t going to find ourselves wishing we could just see the same unchanging home page on a retail site day after day.

To that end, ideeli co-founder CEO Paul Hurley, quoted in Inc. Magazine, says: “We put up a new store every day.”

So that’s how ideeli makes retailing relevant even in an economic downturn. It leverages the power of the internet to attract buyers.

• It offers not just fashion, but curated fashion.
• Not just curated fashion, but sale-priced curated fashion.
• Not just sale-priced, curated fashion, but constantly updating sale-priced curated fashion.

Could they make it any easier for people to decide to spend whatever money they have available at ideeli? (If they can, we bet they will.)

And that, friends, is how a retailer becomes a business success story, growing over 40,000%, even during a 3-year period that will go down in history as the most damaging economic downturn of our day.

What do you sell? Why and how do you sell it? And how’s that working for you? Leave a comment below.

 

Here is another dose of Leadership by Best Seller.

Seth Godin’s post today focused on being in front – leadership with intention.

What would have happened if Gladys Knight had fired one of the Pips? Or if Booker had had a falling out with one of the MGs?  I think Gladys would have found another way to get to Georgia.

The problem with being a sideman is that you make it (or not) at the whim of the front man. In exchange for the intellectual comfort of being handed a chart, you give up control and your ability to lead.

Most of all, instead of having a relationship with the audience, you merely have a relationship with the front man.

You have heard the saying “do it by design or by default” – usually applied to small businesses in these ways:

• Leadership and management strategies
• Initial and ongoing budget and cash management
• Defining your company’s customer service standards
• Building a marketing segment strategy

Think of a recent situation where you had a chance to lead.

You were making an important decision about the direction of your company.  You had to deal with an angry client who wouldn’t let it go. You find out a chronically late employee has a drinking problem.

Insert your own ‘business growth de-railer’  here.

How did you handle it?  With all that is going on in the world today, its easy to let things slide or pray that the universe will take care of it.  How often have you done that, knowing in your gut it was wrong – and then some time in the future, look back and say “if I had that to do over again, next time I would….”

Remember, the business is a reflection of you, by design or by default.  If you choose to be un-intentional about your leadership choices, your passive process will most certainly hurt your business growth and damage your reputation in some way.

What will you do the next time a leadership opportunity shows itself?

 

In my prior life, I was an employee for someone else’s business. I have two different kinds of memories of that time:  Those that I look back on fondly, with excitement or promise.  The other times, I’m angry, cringing, or regretful.

Those “other” memories always centered around another employee or manager that made my life miserable.  Yeah yeah, i know that no one can make me feel any way without my permission – understood.  But when you are knee deep in despair, feeling oppressed day after day – its easy forget where the power lies.

When I got out I swore I’d do it different.  When it was time, I’d build the creative office environment the right way – so to get ready, I started reading everything I could – with a commitment to learn from the best.

Robert Sutton is the author of many books – one of my favorites is “The No Asshole Rule – Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t.”  In the preface of this book, he makes a case for using such a strong word – knowing it will offend some – and if you are offended, it’s possible you’ve never experienced a work environment with an asshole.  He tried some watered down versions like “the no jerk rule” and “the no bully rule” but he felt it was inauthentic and lacked emotional appeal.

“The no asshole rule” is simple.  All businesses can have a creative office environment - and it’s always a reflection of the employees and the managers who lead them.   In the very first chapter he sets a list of common every day actions that assholes use:

1. Personal insults
2. Invading one’s personal terrirory
3. Univited Physical Contact
4. Threats and intimidateion (verbal and non verbal)
5. Sacrastic jokes and teasing used as insult delivery systems
6. Withering email flames
7. Status slaps used to humiliate someone
8. Public shaming
9. Rude interruptions
10. Two faced attacks
11. dirty looks
12. Treating people as if they are invisible

He also defines two types of work place assholes.

• The temporary asshole – situation or single-episode based.  A somewhat “normal” person that can fly off the handle or resort to these actions in their own defense or safety;  and,
• The certified asshole.  This is a person who displays a persistent and consistent pattern of the above actions, with a trail of victims in their wake.  And, they don’t seem to care about that, either.

Is your mind racing now, quietly selecting some of those people in your work past that were assholes, by any definition?  Yep.

Assholes have impact on the work culture.  Sutton goes financial when he creates the “TCA” indicator – the “Total Cost of an Asshole” – by telling the story of Ethan, a hot tempered, highly competitive producer who burns through assitants every few months, and sends scathing emails to co-workers in off hours to enrage or frighten them.  Not the model employee.

They figured out that the total annual cost for dealing with him – based on disciplinary meetings, hiring and training new assistants and his various anger management classes – was close to $160,000.  When Ethan was told by Management that 60% of his year end bonus would be held back to ‘reimburse’ the company for his asshole impact, he went nuts, blamed everyone and everything else and even threatened to quit (but didn’t).

Just as worse, there are intangible indicators that impact the culture too.  These are a bit harder to measure, because they are more psychologically damaging.  De-motivation, increased stress and fear- the impact on his coworkers have a direct cost with their production as well.

Remember, true assholes never operate in a vacuum.  Ever.

What impact have assholes had on your creative office environment?  Can you measure that impact, tangibly or intangibly? As the owner, how do you handle these people to minimize their impact?

 

What’s needed is a redefinition of effective leadership.  Owners, managers – self leaders – listen up.  This may be a new way of thinking for you – and listen anyway.

Today’s insight is lifted directly from the blog post of leadership and change management expert Shawn Murphy of Achieved Strategies.  He says, 

“Leaders, you can influence the mood in your teams. You can do this by making peace.

Making peace is a way for you to open conversation. It’s a leadership act to neutralize negativity and fear. How? Here are three ways.

• Make room for dialogue. Let your team blow steam and wax optimistic. Let people talk about concerns. Be a voice of reason and share what you know about any company responses. If you don’t know say so. If you know but can’t say, say so. Manage the sting of the reality by facilitating a thoughtful, honest conversation with your team. Don’t let water cooler gossip be a substitute for dialogue.
• Healing. Now don’t roll your eyes. New Era Leaders recognize the importance of dialogue. It unleashes what would normally be bottled up as unmentionable in the workplace: fear about the future of the company, one’s job, even other’s job. It’s too common in times like today. Leading to avoid bottled-up emotions or concerns lets healing from losses happen naturally instead of constrained because they’re not discussed.
• Draw a line in the sand. Quite simply, as a leader draw a line in the sand today. Don’t allow anxiety or fear control how you connect with your staff during difficult times. Establish a precedent that unity is more important than divisive silence or protocol or outdated cultural norms that prevent people from gathering to discuss, connect and support one another.

It’s too early to know if companies will need to pull out the machete again. I hope not. You can be there for your team.”

That’s what a Gazelle Business would do.

What will you do?

 

The Gazelle Goal is all for that. When we talk about sustainable profit, we’re talking about that very thing.

Not just the quick sale, or this month’s volume, or a transient customer, but about a steady stream of meeting people’s needs and wants in return for a steady stream of revenue.

Not just cash flow, but a balanced exchange of value and profit. Not just doing what has to be done to survive today, but doing what is good for the business and the economy that supports the business.

So what does it take to stay in business forever? We don’t have an exhaustive list, but here are some ideas.

1. Become and remain conscious that whatever product or service you sell is not ultimately what your customers buy. What they buy is the experience your product or service delivers. Design the experience and you’ll design sustainability.
2. Pin your vision to a hard trend. Read Flash Foresight to find out how.
3. Don’t let your business be dependent on you. You won’t live forever, so if you plan to stay in business forever you’re going to have to think about a succession strategy, and build it into your business culture.
4. Zero base your business, and be willing to do it again and again. Zero basing means examining the assumptions and beliefs behind everything you do, and reconsidering whether they’re really appropriate or productive. Throw out unfounded beliefs and assumptions, and all the rules that are pinned to them. Start fresh with new, better assumptions.
5. Become a steward. Be consciously aware that all resources are finite and that replenishment is your responsibility. This goes for natural resources as well as human resources.
6. See opportunities, not problems. Problems are externally focused and often outside our control. Focusing on problems feels hopeless. Opportunities, by contrast, are internally focused and within our control. That’s empowering and engaging.
7. Cultivate business and individual self-awareness. What is the impact you’re having, and how do you know? Are you asking for productive feedback, or relying on assumptions (see #2)? Are you choosing your impact and then measuring whether you’re achieving it or not?
8. Build trust by giving away true value with no marketing message attached. Not loss-leader value, as in, buy 4 12-packs of soda and get 2 free. Not clumsily hidden marketing message value, as in give me your e-mail address and I’ll give you this absolutely free 60-minute podcast advertisement on why you should buy something from me. But real value. Something that you used to think you had to charge for.
9. Build your company’s social network credentials. Audience is the new currency, and in the coming months and years we will all see just how critical social capital is. Without social capital, there will be no sustainable cash flow.
10. Be willing to change, no matter how hard it seems. Learn how to lead people toward productive change. Learn how to motivate yourself to make needed changes. Learn how to let go of the familiar when it no longer serves you.

That’s our tentative list of rules for a business that can live forever. We think Gazelle Businesses intuitively or consciously know them to.

How about you? Leave a comment below and tell us how your business plans to live forever.

 

We’ve all been there. Sitting in the back seat of the family wagon on the dreaded summer road trip, sick of playing I Spy With My Little Eye. Hot. Thirsty. Squirmy.

And every five minutes or so, somebody asks the age-old question:

DAD. Are we there yet?

That’s what the debt ceiling debate feels like to me.

The President and the Congress have got me crammed into the back seat with the rest of the American people. They seem to be arguing over whether the map is right side up, and whether we should be heading east or north, and whether we need to stop and let the kids get out and stretch, or whether it’s better to just push on through to the bitter end.

Dad, I’m begging you. Are we there yet? Are we going somewhere in particular? Will they at least have a swimming pool when we finally get there?

And no, I do not want to sing 99 Bottles of Beer on the wall. Again.

I scanned the social networks today and found some quotable tidbits. First up: the New York Times.  Jacob S. Hacker and Oona A. Hathaway, editorializing in “Our Unbalanced Democracy:”

Legislative obstacles like the debt ceiling are a source of mischief, not precaution. They aren’t found in the Constitution; they were put in place by previous Congresses seeking to tie the hands of their successors. Far from encouraging more responsible governance, they often have the opposite effect.

Next, from @dceiver via Twitter:

So, will the unemployment crisis be over by Friday night, or is it more of a mid-August thing?

And to round it out, Senator Harry Reid (quoted in Shushannah Walshe’s story on The Note) puts the baby doll nighty and some red lipstick on one ugly hog:

“People on the right are upset. People on the left are upset. People in the middle are upset. It was a compromise,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “Today congress has a unique responsibility to show the world we can achieve not in spite of our divided government, but because of it.”

What else can a person say when it’s all been said so perfectly well?

 

Eh, kinda.

As a born and raised and semi-trapped Californian for 44 years, I had a little reason to smile today.

In a state that is notorious for absence of true weather seasons, bad public school administrations, and the highest movie star to illegal immigrant ratio in the nation, we are finally being seen for something positive when it comes to rebuilding the new economy.

An article on Market Watch Online stated that the two states making the most progress on paying off consumer debt are Hawaii and California!

Here’s how it read:

Residents of California and Hawaii are the most indebted individuals in America, but they’re also among a group that are making the most progress in paying down the amount they owe, according to a MoneyWatch analysis of state-by-state debt statistics.

Overall, debt — and particularly credit card debt — is dropping appreciably as the country is swept by two complimentary trends: a new commitment to fiscal responsibility and lending restrictions that are generally keeping credit out of the hands of people who aren’t committed to using debt responsibly.

On fiscal responsibility:  That’s on us, the people.  We need to rediscover (or even learn for the first time) good spending and saving habits, and taking responsibility for our own emotional relationships with money.

On lending restrictions: that’s up to them, the financial institutions who set the criteria for credit lending – not much we can do to influence that, other than to stay on the path of good credit habits so the trust and predictability (or whatever it is that they look for) can be reestablished.

Here is a link to the full article if you want to see where your state ranks in relationship to others on its consumer debt reduction.

At The Gazelle Goal, we think a zero-based re-thinking of the role of credit in the economy is a good thing. After all, making, buying, and selling goods is the most basic definition of an economy. For awhile there, consumption got out of whack with reason. Now we have an opportunity to reset healthy boundaries.

Every business owner should be thinking about this in relation to its own sales and revenue, and its own internal business practices.

How would a Gazelle Business respond to the cultural shift toward less credit and more saving?

How will you?

 

Still, I can’t help feeling that the manifesto as a whole somehow misses an important point. The point is this: instead of begging government to make it easier for businesses to survive and thrive, maybe it’s time for us to stop relying so much on government and instead find some workarounds.

Maybe it’s time for us to zero-base our assumptions about what we expect government to do for us.

Nothhaft points out a number of governmental failings when it comes to business. The one I like best (or, more accurately, least) is the underfunding and understaffing of the US Patent Office. Nothhaft says it should be called The Department of Innovation. He claims it could be “the biggest job creator you’ve never heard of.”

He also says Patent Office anemia is one of the major impediments to business growth. What business is going to invest in innovation, he argues, if it can’t be assured that someone won’t come along at an opportune moment and steal the innovation and its attendant profitability out from under?

For me the assumptions underlying this argument are glaring. Here’s what I get from it.

Assumption #1. A patent in and of itself is an impediment to the theft or misappropriation of innovation.

My response: Pshaw. I happen to know of an entrepreneur who paid a patent attorney almost $15,000 to secure a patent on her product, then learned from said attorney that having a patent probably wasn’t going to protect her. If some other company steals her idea, she’ll have to enforce the patent in court. So, tell me again – what kind of impediment is that? And what did she really get for her $15,000?

Assumption #2. The government is the best and/or most appropriate entity to protect the ownership of ideas.

My response: Pfft. I don’t know that any government agency, with any level of staffing and funding, can really safeguard the ownership of ideas.  Instead of waiting for that to happen, if we really feel that the ownership of ideas is critical to business success, then we need some kind of workaround.

There are some things the government can no longer afford to do, and some things that should evolve beyond government stewardship. As a matter of fact, I have been on a personal rant on this topic for the last week, following my recent camping trip to the California coast. In our cash-strapped state, 25% of our state parks are scheduled to be closed. This seems dumb to me. Just because the state can’t afford to run the state parks the same way it always has does not mean there’s no other alternative.

As a people, we’ve gotten so locked in to the way it’s always been that no one is thinking about ways to work around the government. Instead we’re stuck on a seesaw between raising taxes or cutting costs. Those can’t possibly be our only alternatives – not for state parks, or patents, or for any number of other traditionally government-funded services.

Assumption #3. Ideas and innovations must be treated as property, or profitability won’t result.

My response: Let’s re-think that one altogether.

In today’s world, it’s not the widget that creates profitability, it’s the experience that the widget delivers that creates profitability. Therefore, patenting the widget is not in and of itself a guarantee of profitability.

For example, if five companies produce Prozac in identical formulations, the thing that distinguishes one from another is not anything about the product itself, rather it’s about the experience delivered to the customer.

Maybe one company focuses on the experience of the prescribing doctor, and a second focuses on the experience of the patient. Perhaps a third company focuses on how the medication is actually delivered – the packaging and the instructions. A fourth might focus on affordability and availability. If the fifth excels at all of the above, that’s the one my money is on for the greatest profitability.

I once coached an entrepreneur whose biggest fear was that his intellectual property would be stolen by competitors. And what happened? The tighter he held on, the more he got ripped off. The more he got ripped off, the more he invented draconian protections and legal strategems to keep from getting ripped off. The more he maneuvered, the more he was out-maneuvered.

The truth was, it wasn’t the intellectual property that made his business great, it was the experience he delivered. After more than 20 years, his competitors were all out of business. He prevailed after all.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying government is entirely irrelevant. I want a government to fill the potholes in the road, support schools so all children get a great education, maintain the security and safety of the people, and provide leadership and justice for all.

I just think it’s time for us as individuals and business owners to stop assuming the government can fix our obstacles and roadblocks. What if we just skipped right over those problems? What would a Gazelle Business do then?

 

He would say to our clients,

Your business should be a game worth playing.  Do you have a vision of your game and the rules to play by?  Your employees should know the rules of the game, so they can play to their best every day.  Your customers should know the rules of the game, so they know in every experience that the promise you are making is being delivered upon.  So, Mr. Client, what’s your game?

I was always surprised at how our clients reacted to that question.  Some knew their game well and could talk about it for hours.  Others, it was completely opposite – and they would hold the silent pause to all new uncomfortable lengths of time.

I’ve since relaxed on the word “rule” when it comes to business – cause traditionally rules are hard, un-bendable and sometimes really dusty.

But using this analogy when we needed to focus on leadership skills was critical – because as the business owner in that game worth playing – that makes you (the owner) the Head Coach.  That means,

• Your team is a reflection of your leadership. Your players pay attention and notice, even when you think they aren’t.
• You manage the game every day, by design or by default.  If you aren’t “ready ” at game time, it doesn’t matter – the game goes on anyway.
• You know your rules and guidelines and you stand by them, even when the game gets icky.  Rules can be broken, though, and that is always your call.
• You teach, guide and mentor, but rarely take any of the shots yourself.  Let them shine and let them fail.  That’s how they learn and build confidence.
• If you don’t have an assistant coach, you get stuck making the snack schedule and carpool arrangements yourself.  One word: Delegate.

If someone asked you about your business, could you describe it as a game worth playing?

If you can’t you run the risk of confusion, frustration and drafting bad players for the team.  Your message will get lost, and commingle with the competition.

You will question your own leadership, and that makes winning consistently nearly impossible.

What would a Gazelle business owner say?

 

choosing an industry in which to work is often as important as choosing an occupation. And over the next several years, the best advice for some workers may be to choose an industry that sells advice: consulting.

Huh?

The snippet of the article went on to say

The management, scientific, and technical consulting services industry comprises businesses that offer specialized advice to other businesses. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment in this industry is expected to grow by 83 percent—representing a gain of more than 800,000 jobs—over the 2008–18 decade. And even during the recent recession, this industry has proven resilient, recovering nearly all of the jobs it lost in the downturn.

I’m not clear if the statistics are referring to only self employed consultants/businesses, or consultants trained and employed and paid with a W2 versus a 1099.

Having nearly 20 years of experience as a “consultant” I’d have to say that the last few years have not felt resilient at all.  Maybe I’m doing something wrong cause lately, the profession of coaching and consulting feels crowded, confusing, and close to a saturation point.

But if this prediction is true, its sounds like an important shift in thinking is necessary.

Coaches and consultants will need spend the next few years reinventing themselves to a new definition of what they do, so that what they have to offer will continue to add value to the overall goal of adding jobs, looking for hard trends, and increasing the overall survival rate of small business in America.

That’s how a Gazelle business would think.

What do you think?