21st Century Family Business Success

Tomorrow Our New Blog Launches

2006-10-22T19:28:00.000-04:00

Greetings!

This is my last post on the Blogger system. I have spent a lot of time considering how we can use blogs and since we were making so many changes it made sense to switch to a WordPress powered blog.

Just go to http://www.FamilyBusinessStrategies.com and you'll see the progress we're making.

See you there!!!

Wayne

Profile: Griswold Special Care

2006-05-01T21:19:00.000-04:00

In the costly and competitive home care industry, quality is of paramount importance. Perhaps that´s why GRISWOLD SPECIAL CARE is such a success story.

Their insistence on quality through controlled growth and a commitment to their business philosophy has won them true customer loyalty as they provide high-quality and consistent service.

Here´s their story. http://www.familybusinessstrategies.com/profiles/griswold.html

Now, we are beginning with another batch of business owners who want us to tell their story.

We are asking them some of the same questions I asked the nice folks at Griswold Special care, to help us tell the stories of Main Street companies developing strategies for continued success in the 21st Century.

The new profiles will also be posted on our web site and some of them will be selected as part of the content in one of the two books we have in process.

Please refer to http://www.ibizresources.com/submit_profile.html if you know someone whose story will appeal to our readers.

Profile: Kevin Rosen of Junior's Cheescakes

2006-04-27T09:28:00.000-04:00

Junior’s, The World’s Most Fabulous Cheesecake, is a household name in New York City. For over 50 years, Junior’s has been selling its desserts from its flagship store in downtown Brooklyn, and recently opened a second location in Grand Central Station.

Junior’s re-launched a revised version of its e-commerce site, www.juniorscheesecake.com, so that true connoisseurs (and new fans) can get a piece of the action even if they’re far from the Big Apple.

The rest of the story is here: http://www.familybusinessstrategies.com/profiles/juniors.html

Wanted! Success Stories From Main Street I interviewed over 50 successful long established Main Street companies like Junior's Cheesecake, asking many of the same questions that I asked Kevin.

I was looking for the common denominator, two or three reasons that all of them mentioned for taking their otherwise successful traditional company online.

In addition to having their story published on our web site, where it receives consistent traffic from Web searches every day, they were used as an example of " best practices" in the book "Doing It Right", Realizing Your Company's Potential that we published in 2003 and whose content we recently made available on our web site at no charge.

Now, we are beginning with another batch of business owners who want us to tell their story.
We are asking them some of the same questions I asked Kevin, to help us tell the stories of Main Street companies developing strategies for continued success in the 21st Century.

The new profiles will also be posted on our web site and some of them will be selected as part of the content in one of the two books we have in process.

Please refer to http://www.ibizresources.com/submit_profile.html if you know someone whose story will appeal to our readers.

Profile: Tom Johnson, Johnson Commercial Agents

2006-04-24T18:22:00.000-04:00

Tom Johnson, CEO of Johnson Commercial Agents, may not be using the Internet to grow his business per se, but he knows it´s a crucial tool for client support.

Tom, one of the creators of MAFSI´s Technology Certification program, talked to us about the MAFSI program, and about the way the Internet supports his 2nd generation family business..

The rest of the story is here: http://www.familybusinessstrategies.com/profiles/tomjohnson.html

Wanted! Success Stories From Main StreetI interviewed over 50 successful long established Main Street companies like Johnson Commercial Agents, asking many of the same questions that I asked Tom.

I was looking for the common denominator, two or three reasons that all of them mentioned for taking their otherwise successful traditional company online.

In addition to having their story published on our web site, where it receives consistent traffic from Web searches every day, they were used as an example of " best practices" in the book "Doing It Right", Realizing Your Company's Potential that we published in 2003 and whose content we recently made available on our web site at no charge.

Now, we are beginning with another batch of business owners who want us to tell their story.

We are asking them some of the same questions I asked Tom, to help us tell the stories of Main Street companies developing strategies for continued success in the 21st Century.

The new profiles will also be posted on our web site and some of them will be selected as part of the content in one of the two books we have in process.

Please refer to http://www.ibizresources.com/submit_profile.html if you know someone whose story will appeal to our readers.

The Family Business – Achieving Consensus about the Future

2006-04-20T19:47:00.000-04:00

There are armies of professionals who work with family businesses.

There are accountants, lawyers, financial planners, mediators and business and family counselors.
And there are designers, Internet strategists, marketing and management consultants.

The successful ones seem to have one thing in common.

They take the time to understand the owner´s and the family´s problems and concerns on every level, not just from their own professional perspective, in order to help make decisions that will directly impact the success or failure of the enterprise.
http://www.familybusinessstrategies.com/profiles/achievingconsensus.html

How Can a Drug Store Founded in 1838 Survive in The 21st. Century?

2006-04-17T09:09:00.000-04:00

When my daughter and I meet for lunch in Greenwich Village, we always pass by Bigelow's Apothecary. I asked her if she shopped there, and she remarked that their Alchemy mascara is the best ever. (I had to take her word for it.)

I spoke with Bigelow´s current proprietor, Ian Ginsberg, and the Bigelow´s story is both a fascinating piece of New York nostalgia, and a demonstration of the importance of change in business.

The rest of the story is here: http://www.familybusinessstrategies.com/profiles/bigelow.html

Wanted! Success Stories From Main StreetI interviewed over 50 successful long established Main Street companies like Bigelow Apothecaries, asking many of the same questions that I asked Ian. I was looking for the common denominator, two or three reasons that all of them mentioned for taking their otherwise successful traditional company online.

In addition to having their story published on our web site, where it receives consistent traffic from Web searches every day, they were used as an example of " best practices" in the book "Doing It Right", Realizing Your Company's Potential that we published in 2003 and whose content we recently made available on our web site at no charge.

Now, we are beginning with another batch of business owners who want us to tell their story. We are asking them some of the same questions I asked Ian, to help us tell the stories of Main Street companies developing strategies for continued success in the 21st Century.

The new profiles will also be posted on our web site and some of them will be selected as part of the content in one of the two books we have in process.

Please refer to http://www.ibizresources.com/submit_profile.html if you know someone whose story will appeal to our readers.

A Family Company is Delivering Its Peanut Butter Meltaways Through Cyberspace!

2006-04-12T13:58:00.000-04:00

The sweet taste of success! Blair Candy Company, a third generation family business, has taken their company from Altoona to Fargo - through cyberspace.

Blair Candy came to our attention through Dave Dadurka, a staff writer for Distribution Channels, a publication of the American Wholesale Marketer's Association.

Dave knew that Blair Candy exemplified exactly what we were looking for: a family-owned brick-and-mortar company that has added an Internet component to grow their business.

Blair Candy is a wholesaler and distributor of candy, tobacco, and paper products in Altoona, PA. Patrick Dandrea, who eventually enlisted the help of his sons Ron and Terry, established it in 1940.

The impetus for getting the company online came from Pam Macharola, who was in charge of PR and did much of the company's buying. She offered to work with the design firm to oversee the production of the site, and now serves as the site's webmaster, in addition to the other hats she wears.

For over half a century, the company had been thriving. Why, then, were they interested in expanding on the Internet? What did they want the Internet to do for them and their business.

The rest of the story is here: http://www.familybusinessstrategies.com/profiles/blaircandy.html

Wanted! Success Stories From Main Street
I interviewed over 50 successful long established Main Street companies like Blair Candy, asking many of the same questions that I asked Terry. I was looking for the common denominator, two or three reasons that all of them mentioned for taking their otherwise successful traditional company online.

In addition to having their story published on our web site, where it receives consistent traffic from Web searches every day, they were used as an example of " best practices" in the book "Doing It Right", Realizing Your Company's Potential that we published in 2003 and whose content we recently made available on our web site at no charge.

Now, we are beginning with another batch of business owners who want us to tell their story. We are asking them some of the same questions I asked Terry, to help us tell the stories of Main Street companies developing strategies for continued success in the 21st Century.

The new profiles will also be posted on our web site and some of them will be selected as part of the content in one of the two books we have in process.

Please refer to http://www.ibizresources.com/submit_profile.html if you know someone whose story will appeal to our readers.

21st Century Leadership Empowers Leaders at Every Level

2006-04-09T16:18:00.000-04:00

Historically a new-hire moved from learning the required tasks of their particular job to eventually understanding the goals, strengths, and weaknesses of the business in an orderly way - often having as much to do with their getting older as with their getting better, smarter, or more capable.

They were then promoted from being a productive part of the organization (worker) to supervising others who are on their way up.

Much later, if the politics (of birth, etc.) were right he moved from telling selected people what to do, to the head of the business where he now taught what he knew to the people who were telling the others what to do.
That went on until it was time or past time for him to be let out to pasture.

That was then - "Doing it Right" is now - and the future.

"Doing it Right" is based on the principles of right action, the right people doing the right things in the right way and for the right reasons.

For instance, in 2006 a new-hire may know as much or more about the right way as the old man.
The right way to do things is only the right way if it results in pushing us in the right direction.

The old man has valuable insights the new-hire needs to understand - sooner rather than later - about what really is the right direction. And the people in the middle add value to those below and above them.

Contributions to future success come from all levels of the enterprise - and its not just the boys any more.
The problem in many companies is that everyone has their picture of the right ways, the right, directions, and the right reasons - and they assume their picture is what everyone else is seeing.

A few years ago there was a lot ink dedicated to the revolutionary idea of the "flattened hierarchy" style of management - where bureaucratic organizations were eliminating some if not most of the levels within their organization.

The idea was to get ideas, strategies, etc. from the top to the very bottom in 2-3 steps. This was supposed to enhance communications, efficiencies, innovations, blah blah blah. This was so obvious. What was the big deal?

The vast majority (90%) of all businesses already had that sort of organization in place. And they were not any better at doing things right - just because they did not have the money to have more levels of management.
Today companies are successful not because of their organization charts - but because of an internal attitude that supports the principles of doing it right.

The 21st Century version of the flattened hierarchy is to empower individuals wherever they are in the organization to step outside their defined boxes and contribute.

It is about an atmosphere of learning, doing, and teaching simultaneously by everyone to everyone - for the benefit of everyone.

When the machine operators, supervisors, managers, and owner/operators (you fill in your job descriptions) effortlessly pass information and respect up, down, across, and around the organization - they've got it.

If a new-hire thinks they know best about how things should be done - they should be taught why, in terms of the organizations mission - to help them confirm to themselves and others that their idea are valid.

Or to teach them more about the direction we are headed - to make sure their how will actually take them that way.

The old man needs to know what to look for when putting on more new hires and promoting more people into the roles of a successful 21st Century company. The more he knows about what is really going on out there - on the floor, in the community, and the industry - the better choices he can make.

The people in the middle, the supervisors and team leaders, traditionally being pushed from one direction and pulled from the other - need to learn how to effectively turn this pressure into steam that drives the organization.

So, what is my point? Well it is not your dads (granddads) business environment any more. And if that is true - how can everyone contribute as team members, cooperate as team players, to create a winning team?

First: An atmosphere free of traditional labor vs management must be present. In the 21st Century long-term interdependent relationships based on this old model will not survive. There is more external competition than we can stand already, we do not need it inside the organization too.

Second: The people at the top must admit that they do not know everything - and that just because their partner's daughter is twenty-three and has been there four months - does not mean she doesn't have excellent/valid input into the way things ought to be.

Third: Everybody else must admit that just because the boss is old (55+) does not mean he "just doesn't get it" and that he will "never change." Both groups have so much to offer the team and being able to offer it without fear of criticism is mandatory.

Finally: There should be a structured way of systematically reinforcing the right actions we understand, learning the ones we don't, and communicating them within the organization. Human nature keeps drawing us back to where we are comfortable - so we need a continual push until the new place is more comfortable than the old.

The introduction and reinforcement of right action strategies is the purpose of "Doing it Right: Realizing Your Company's Potential."

It dovetails with existing task oriented training to provide the framework for overall actions.

It provides a context for sponsoring organizations - trade associations for example - to better serve their constituencies by providing a framework around their existing educational programs.

The principles of right actions are vital for you personal and business success "Doing it Right" may offer you the best way to establish and maintain those right actions.

And now, its content is available online at no charge. http://www.ibizresources.com/doright.htm

You Can't Sell Antique Appliances on The Internet, Can You?

2006-04-05T08:49:00.000-04:00

When John Jowers went to work at his father's appliance company, he never thought it would lead to a sideline business restoring antique refrigerators. But now their "cool" appliances are doing a hot business on the web.

Those of us who are, to put it politely, in our prime, may remember a time when a refrigerator wasn't just a big, rectangular box in the kitchen.

It was a sleek, aerodynamic piece of industrial art. A Philco or Frigidaire looked like it had been designed with the same artistic flair as a ´57 Chevy.

Maybe we even remember the old GE generator top fridge at grandma's house. Those were the days!
In Clayton, Georgia, a town in the Appalachian foothills an hour and a half outside of Atlanta, John Jowers is doing a brisk business keeping a piece of Americana alive.

John and his team at Antique Appliances have expanded his father's appliance business, originally founded in 1958, to include the full restoration of vintage refrigerators and stoves for a growing number of customers who crave the style and nostalgia of a bygone era.

Clayton is a resort area, and the population base shifts drastically from winter to summer. And while he had never given any thought to restoring vintage appliances, John knew that he had to find a way to build his sales and keep his team occupied during the off-season.

"In the winter months, you have to keep your workers on board and busy. A couple of the guys came to me and said `hey, there's an old refrigerator in the back of the warehouse. Do you mind if we paint it red?´ and I said, if it keeps you busy, go ahead!"

"We put it in our front window as part of a Christmas display, and suddenly someone wanted to buy it!
Once it was gone, the phone began to ring off the hook - everyone wanted to know where the little red refrigerator had gone! So, we began doing one-off pieces for people locally. We dabbled in it for a couple of years, and someone convinced me that there really was a market for what we were doing, so I decided to build a web site."

"I depend on the Internet. Without it I wouldn't have the antique business."

"If I were trying to market these items in a 100-mile radius, there simply aren't enough potential clients that want these products or have the money to spend to make it a viable business. 98% of the business I do with the vintage appliances comes from the Internet."

For the rest of their story, expanding their family business into Cyberspace, visit
http://www.familybusinessstrategies.com/profiles/index.html

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We have published over fifty profiles of established traditional family owned companies who are leveraging their companies online. And we will be interviewing fifty more as we complete two new books in progress. If you have a story you'd like us to tell, visit http://www.ibizresources.com/submit_profile.html And for cutting edge leadership strategies for your business visit http://www.ibizresources.com/doright.htm

Woman Owned Company is Covering Los Angeles and Beyond

2006-04-02T15:57:00.000-04:00

Nathan Kimmel´s business began in his garage and grew through hard work and a reputation for quality. His spirit of entrepreneurship, and his simple philosophy of how to do business, live on in his daughter Carol, who has taken this family business out of the garage and into cyberspace.

Thier story in its entirety can be found, among two dozen others, by scrolling down this page http://www.familybusinessstrategies.com/profiles/index.html

We are looking for business owners whose story to tell.

We are asking them some of the same questions we asked Carol, how are they leveraging their long term success online? We are looking for others to help us continue to tell the stories of Main Street companies developing strategies for continued success in the 21st Century.

The new profiles will also be posted on our web site and some of them will be selected as part of the content in one of the two books we have in process.

If you or someone you respect is interested in knowing more about the process, they will find the information they need here. http://www.ibizresources.com/submit_profile.html

Search Engine Strategies New York City, the event and why we attended

2006-04-02T15:48:00.000-04:00

The New York City Search Engine Strategies event provided us with fodder for a series of articles to help business owners increase their market share, extend their marketing reach, and dramatically expand their geographical reach into new sources and new markets. Search engine optimization allows a company's web site to defeat time and distance to maximize the company's potential.

The bottom line:
"We're all web marketers or we'd better be, because our competitors are!"

The full text of this story and many more - detailing the value of search engines strategies to mainstream businesses - offline companies developing their online strategies, can be found at.

http://www.ibizresources.com/seo_articles/index.html

Family Business as BIG Business: It's Not Just Mom and Pop Anymore

2006-03-30T13:02:00.000-05:00

Far too often, when people hear the phrase "Family Business," they immediately conjure up the image of a little Mom-and-Pop company.

Perhaps they think of family businesses as quaint reminders of an era passed, or see them as heroic little David's fighting the corporate Goliaths. Not so.

According to a recent study, 89% of all business in the United States are family businesses, including some of the largest publicly traded companies in the country. In fact, family businesses represent 64% of the Gross National Product!

For the whole story visit: http://www.familybusinessstrategies.com/profiles/fambizbigbiz.html

Can't Talk Here!

2004-10-27T20:14:00.000-04:00

After a presentation at a trade association people often come up, give me their card and ask me to call them. This time it was different. Bobby had a look of desperation when he asked me to call him that afternoon - before I left town.

As it happened I was not flying out the next day, so when he asked me to stop by their plant I agreed. Entering the building I located the secretary, who called him on the intercom. He asked her to send me back. At the end of the hallway I entered a pretty large room - with bookshelves along the walls that were full to the breaking point with manuals, parts catalogs, telephone and criss-cross directories. This was the center of knowledge for the company.

The room was divided using those half-metal half-glass dividers like we used to see in banks, sales bullpens, etc. My guy was sitting in the middle one. I found out later that his dad occupied the one on his left and his uncle Fred the one on the right.

As I walked in (still wearing my trench coat) he stood up behind his desk. In his hand was a 3x5 card that he stuck in my face. On it he had written, " Can't talk here - I'll give you a tour - We can go out for coffee." (I still have the card) So I quickly suggested that while I had my coat on - would he give me the 50-cent tour of their place.

The whole story: http://www.ibizresources.com/canttalk.html

Don't Look Toward the House

2004-10-14T13:45:00.000-04:00

Using a real life situation to better describe how the importance of open communication in solving family business problems provides you with a better understanding of the process than for me to explain it to you. So here it is, straight from my experience in working with family-owned businesses.
http://www.ibizresources.com/dontlook.html

Real-life success stories clearly demonstrate my value proposition to my clients and, as I have said many times - that if I can do it, anybody can. And if you have an example of how your presence has added value to an business, we want to publish it!
http://www.ibizresources.com/submit_bizstory.html