Following is an excerpt from a panel discussion hosted by iConcept Media in New York City.

Pull Out Quotes,

If it's not core, Ship it off-shore.

If your business is growing more than 20% a year, you must buy some debt or sell some equity -- this is the only way to fund receivables, unless you have a cash business (or a Dell business model...).

In marketing run the numbers down the funnel: how many touches going in at the top, to an action, to a sale at the bottom of the funnel. Work that sale backward up the funnel to learn the size needed for your marketing budget. (And remember: Half your marketing budget will be wasted. You get paid to figure out which half. Apologies to John Wanamaker.)

Your job in business is to create a customer and make a profit. If you are not doing this, you do not have a business; you have a hobby.

Your Business Blogger(R) is honored to be speaking in Baltimore on March 26th; in Washington DC, on April 3rd and in New York City on May 29th.

For more Solutions To Your Management Problems please visit Management Training of DC, LLC

Visit USAToday Columnist Steve Strauss.

See Birol's Blog for Advice, Assistance, Attitude

And while in New York City, go visit the Indian Bread Company.

If you are looking for the perfect gift, go visit NYCSubwayLine. Your Business Blogger(R) did all his Christmas shopping on-line and got the coolest backpacks, clutches, hoodies and shirts for the Penta-Posse. The hoodie is The Dreamer's favorite. The cutting edge, high quality products are the brain-child of actress Lynne Lambert,

One day, while waiting for her train, Lynne found herself staring up at the subway signs with its big colored circles with the letters and numbers inside and thought "Why hasn't anyone ever done anything with these quintessential NYC icons? I bet people would wear them if it was done right!" And so the NYC subway Line was born. Licensed from NY State's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the tees have appeared in movies like "Bring It On" and "Prime," on MTV, BET and VH1 by artists and their audience, and worn by celebrities such as rapper "Fabolous" and President Clinton. Recently, Ms. Lambert was awarded the Make Mine a Million Business award that was founded by Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence along with OPEN from American Express where she received financing from OPEN, one year of intensive business coaching and mentoring from a dream team of successful women entrepreneurs, business software and training from Intuit, discounts on shipping and business services from FedEx, marketing assistance from QVC, and assistance on work/life issues and financial security from AIG.

Posted at 8:22 AM | Permalink
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FOX News Charmaine recently appeared on FOX News Sunday to discuss the data and wisdom and public policy of day care.

She is debating a professional who loves day care.

Charmaine reviews the data that confirms the mother's intuition that the more time a mother spends with her child, the better the child will be. The better the world will be.

Moms know best. Who knew?

Child care liberal feminist activists take the other side. So that women can make money. Because money, to feminists, is the most important thing in the world...besides sex. And power.

(Money, Sex, Power. Liberal feminists would do well to remember a Democratic President who warned against this trifecta: Harry Truman.

Three things ruin a man

power, money, and women.

I never wanted power.

I never had any money,

and the only woman in my life is up at the house right now.

He also dropped the Atomic Bomb...my kind of guy.)

Anyway. Charmaine's short clip is available here. Please forgive the extra click thru on the Family Research Council site.

Thank you (foot)notes:

See: Emptying the Nest: Does Day Care Work?

Lauren Bacall and Harry Truman
As a child, Truman would wake at 5am to practice Chopin.
The piano player can get the girl, as I tell my sons,
Practice chop-sticks and get the chicks. Also see: Women's Work: A journalist warns women that once they leave the career track, they may never get back on, in The Washington Post.

Posted at 7:36 AM | Permalink
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Hillary Clinton has well known positions on daycare. In this presidential political season, we can see where she'd take the country based on what she influenced the last time a Clinton held the national bully pulpit.

EMPTYING THE NEST: THE CLINTON CHILD CARE AGENDA

I spent eight years in getting the child-care bill passed in Congress,
and at its zenith, there was never a child-care movement in the country.
There was a coalition of child-advocacy groups, and a few large
international unions that put up hundreds of thousands of dollars,
and we created in the mind of the leadership of Congress
that there was a child-care movement -- but there was nobody riding me.
And not one of my colleagues believed that their election turned on it for a moment.
There wasn’t a parents’ movement.

I. THE CHILD CARE “CRISIS”

Daycare DataTo kick off the sixth year, and home stretch, of the Clinton Administration, in January 1998, the President and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, a long-time children’s issues activist, announced an historic initiative: $20 billion in increased federal spending for child care over the next five years. This, they said, would address a silent child care crisis afflicting the nation.

Given the size of this initiative, we might do well to examine the underlying assumptions and common perceptions used to buttress such an expansion of federal involvement in day care. Is there a crisis in America today over child care? If so, is day care the answer?

To answer those questions adequately, the issue must be framed appropriately. Accepted as true is the modern myth that most families have two parents working today and are desperately struggling with day care.

This, it turns out, is not true.

Is there a child care crisis in this country? To answer, we need to know what parents really want, and most essentially, we must know what children need.

Continue reading at the jump.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Full Disclosure: Originally published by the Family Research Council in 1998.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:26 AM | Permalink
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Lipsticking WriterIf it's not core
Ship it off-shore.

A big challenge for business is to determine what's core. And what's critical.

Paying the rent is critical. But it's not core to your business.

Paying accounts payable; collecting receivables is critical. But not core.

Writing a company blog is critical. Unless your business is blogging, blogging is not core.

If a task is not core, consider outsourcing. An outsourced professional writer can blog faster, better, cheaper than most small business owners.

Consider Yvonne DiVita. To check out her writing samples visit her blogs at:

http://www.wmebooks.com

http://www.lipsticking.com

http://www.ahablog.com

http://www.wmeblogs.com

http://blog.thirdage.com

Good stuff.

Alert Readers will remember that Your Business Blogger has had a number of gigs as a ghost writer for a Presidential Candidate. Writing to women, with the woman's touch, is much better when done by a woman.

If you're looking for a writer with a woman's perspective, go Yvonne.

BlogHer Conference Or watch her in action. She'll be speaking at Blogher -- with another of my favorite woman writers, Anita Campbell -- my editrix at Small Business Trends.

Blogs should be a part of your marketing. Get Yvonne to help.

Was this helpful? Do comment.
Consider a free eMail subscription for this site.

Thank you (foot)notes:

Full Disclosure: Yvonne interviewed Your Business Blogger and Charmaine for her 11 May issue.

Your Business Blogger has interests in a number off-shore outsourcing companies.

This is an unpaid (powder) puff piece.

Posted at 10:51 AM | Permalink
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In the late 80's Your Business Blogger was part of a medical device start-up. With no money.

We were launching new products, with new technology, teaching new surgical techniques, new medicine.

Conventional wisdom dictated hiring a half-dozen advanced-skill nurses to teach around the country. Our Board of Directors said no budget. This was a problem. Our product required extensive inservice training.

With a product that was 100 times the cost of its nearest competitive substitute.

So what's a thinly capitalized company in trouble to do?

1) Throw a party.

My boss, John Harper, came up with the solution. Conduct training seminars. If we can't go to the clinician; bring the clinician to us. (John Harper said something about mountains and Mohammed.) We would outsource the training to temping Nurse Consultants. We expanded his idea making the classes into events. Food, flowers, contests, framed certificates, lapel pins. More fun than a TupperWare party. Avon calling. Our mostly female nurses loved it.

This list of 10 steps provides a case study. Of brilliance in hindsight after the fact. And desperation and frustration before the fact.

2) Independent Contractors. Identify, recruit, train and motivate per diem consultants. 1099 not W-2. No fixed costs. Easy to hire. Easy to fire. I could make a lot of mistakes. And did.

3) Advertising. Small ad in local trade journals -- ad buy was for multiple exposures, not size. Limited ad budget turned out to force creative thinking. I also learned that these thought and opinion leaders also were contributors to text books -- and were looking for the latest technology -- and wrote new chapters on advanced clinical techniques featuring our products.

4) Talent. Hired thought and opinion leaders who happened to be users. I simply hired my current customers. In setting up seminars the customers conducted the classes. Our instructors were typically 'nurse of the year' award winners for their organizations with advanced practice suffixes. These were smart women and everyone knew it. I hired 24 of the best.

5) Invitations. Snail-mailed and faxed personally-addressed invitations to thought and opinion leaders who were not customers. And phone calls. To attend our training seminars. A fax machine was hi-tech at the time. Hi-tech. Hi-touch. A personal invitation always sells.

6) Partners. Linked with local chapters of professional nurse organizations. Who were our key influencers and decision makers. Attended every industry trade show possible -- I was less interested in the attendees as in the booth space buyers next to me -- who were my channels of distribution.

7) Segment. Smallest, targeted market segment. We thought we would be selling to the 6,000 hospitals across the country. Nope. Not yet. It was the new home health care market. Which also was demanding performance over price. This tiny market segment was less price sensitive than hospitals.

8) Love. Appreciate the customer. Whenever a nurse passed (inserted) one of our catheters, I awarded her the coveted Landmark Nurse lapel pin. And a large framed certificate signed by the bosses. And corsages. Coming to our seminars was like going to the prom. I really loved my nurses. Still do.

9) Heeeeeree's Johnny. Your Business Bogger acted as the Master of Ceremonies introducing the instructor and guided the logistics. There was no sales pitch. I openly disclosed that the Nurse Consultant was an instructor on the payroll. (At $500 a class -- a lot of money at the time. Goodness, a lot of money anytime.) This Full Disclosure had an unanticipated consequence: Every nurse attending wanted to teach part time and would approach me later to get in on the $500 per gig action. Who knew?

10) Visit. Follow-up with a face-to-face visit. So here was my pitch: Buy the frightfully expensive product, I'll train you, bring you roses, guarantee your happiness and patient outcomes. Or your money back.

So.

The seminars were conducted at a fraction of the cost of hiring a team of clinicians full time. And we were able to bury the expense under the travel & entertainment budget. Which, as it happens, the seminars were. delectare et docere

So what?

I collected baubles for sales numbers.

And then what?

The company was sold to Johnson & Johnson. A profitable experience for the investors and stock holders.

Need to market with no money?

Throw a party.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

I had some terrific bosses at Menlo Care, Inc.: John Harper, Dave Maupin, Chuck Schreiber.

Read more on Menlo Care, Inc. after the jump.

Basil's Blog has good content and links.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:36 AM | Permalink
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Gandhi on Indian Rupee bank noteIf it's not Core,
It's going off-shore.

Every business has Core functions and Critical functions. It is the smart knowledge worker who knows the difference.

Start with this:

Does my job add value face to face with Benjamin's?

If not, your job might soon be replaced with Gandhi's.

Geek SquadFor example, I outsource all my tech needs to Geek Squad at Best Buy. An "Agent" comes to my office or home, eyeballs my pilot errors, walks around, makes recommendations, and sells me stuff. And bills me Benjamins for the service.

(Yes, Your Business Blogger once had CIO duties at a billion dollar enterprise. Which means I can really, really screw up a network.)

Anyway, if you are in a cubicle and never see a check writing customer, leave. Somewhere, someone in your company is shaking hands with a client, at this very moment. You must physically touch that customer, too.

And I don't mean a phone call touch. I got a call center in Bangalore that does that. You must press a pound of flesh, not the pound button.

eMail me with your situation and I might use it as a case study. Or not. But you will get some Free Consulting as an Alert Reader.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Geek Squad 24 Hour Computer Support Task Force

The Melting Thought has a first hand post on Best Buy management.

Diatribe Net has more.

Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger has consulted with outsourcing companies in India.

Posted at 10:41 AM | Permalink
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