Ediam blog
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novThe Value of Listening
Posted by John17 comments
In the age of the internet and smart phones virtually unlimited knowledge is at our fingertips. Just about any question we imagine can be instantly researched in a matter of moments.
With so much information there in the cloud that we can tap, one might be tempted to think that we are ready to untether ourselves from having to talk to other people or much less engage in a conversation to learn.
Yet the value of person to person learning is not diminishing. I would argue that the need to talk, to converse, and to listen is greater than ever.
I have recently observed this on two occasions. The first occurrence was at a symposium for business women I organized recently in Pocatello, Idaho. Targeted to women, as the organizer of the event, I was one of the few men who got to attend.
As the attendees tackled the busy program of lectures and seminars geared to business topics, I watched their reactions carefully.
I saw presenters who were expert at communicating information. They had prepared topics of considerable interest and developed methods to share valuable information to a group. As the attendees listened, I saw their eyes light up and their attentions focus.
Yet the deeper value seem to come as attendees made time to speak with each other and communicate one on one. I saw them sharing stories of their own successes and challenges.
At the symposium, the women were tasked to not only converse about themselves, but to listen carefully to others and to find ways to ask deliberate questions. As they practiced this skill, I watched as strong new connections were developed and the network became charged.
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octGoing Global
Posted by John12 comments
This past week I spent time learning more about the business of exporting. I attended a conference to speak on marketing and jumped into a session on exports.
Jim Foley, an export expert, came in from Illinois to share the dos and don'ts of exporting. Jim has written books on the subject and helped hundreds of business go global. He has worked oversees for companies and consulted many more back here in the states.
I thought some of the concepts he shared are worth restating here in this column. First, how do you know when you are ready to export? On some scale, many small businesses would love to truly tap into the global market. How is it done? What are the regulations? Where are the right markets? Which countries should you target?
While the internet has opened the gate to increased opportunities for globalization, it is not as easy as you think to start doing business outside the United States.
Thomas Friedman has claimed in his book, The World is Flat, that exporting began in a 1.0 world of government to government trading. Then in a 2.0 world, trading moved directly into business to business exchanges. Now, he claims we are entering the world of 3.0, direct individual to individual trading.
As I learned this past week there are trade agreements, tariffs, shipping issues, financing, customs, and many other details that are all regulated by international laws and rules. All these rules try to keep trading and exporting in a 2.0 environment and sometimes even back in a 1.0 world.
Questions to consider for exporting are the right markets for your product or service. Which countries are ripe for your business and which should probably be avoided? There are ways to answer this question with a great degree of information, market data, and understanding. I learned of international databases of market data that address the critical questions of marketing, if you know where to look and which questions to ask.
Another important issue with exporting relates to languages and cultural barriers. How business operates in Idaho is not the same around the world. Understanding the cultural nuances often takes a local partner.
The question of distributors or agents is also important. Do you hire a local distributor for your product in the country you select, or an agent to represent your company? It can make a big difference in your business planning.
I also learned that fortunately, we have our own exporting experts here in the state. I met an SBDC consultant in our office in northern Idaho who is very knowledgeable in all exporting issues. We also have qualified export experts at the department of commerce. Such experts are critical. Doing things the wrong way can lead to financial losses, headaches, and even criminal charges.
One thing that I took away from the training is that most business need assistance when they are preparing to export. If you come to the SBDC, we can offer free consulting to get you started in the process.
If you think you are ready to go global with your company and tap into the vast market of new customers, make sure you are ready, make sure you know what you are doing, make sure you choose the right opportunities, the right partners, and above all get help.
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octField of Dreams
Posted by John14 comments
For many the American Dream involves taking a risk and doing what you truly want to do rather than doing what you have to do to make a living. A modern allegory of this vision was captured in the 1989 film, "Field of Dreams."
Since the film is over twenty years old, perhaps a short synopsis is needed. The main character in the film, played by Kevin Costner, feels driven by a vision to build a baseball diamond in his Iowa cornfield. At the risk of complete financial ruin, he does so. The field is soon used by ghosts of famous baseball players to have games. In the end of the film a long line of cars leading off to the horizon is seen coming to the cornfield to watch the games.
Many misquote a famous line from the movie, "If you build it he will come." This phrase has turned into a common quote, "If you build it they will come."
This quote is often interpreted to mean that if you build a monument or a place or a business based upon your own personal vision, people will by mystically drawn to it and it will be successful.
I have seen this philosophy applied in small business development time and again, sometimes leading to real life financial ruin.
I am talking about those who have a dream of a starting a small business that burns so strongly it becomes a singular vision. At great financial risk, a person will invest in making their store or shop or business come into reality.
They often bet the proverbial farm on their idea or vision. These individuals have faith that by simply bringing their vision into existence, people will magically come to visit or shop.
Often, the visionary faith of these entrepreneurs inhibits them from doing real life market research and business planning. They will often spend all their start up capital in the building of their cornfield and save none to let people know of its existence. They trust to fate or magic the job of filling their cornfield with patrons.
In the real world, people have to actually learn of creative new stores, products, and services in order to purchase them and to use them. There is no inner voice that announces to your target market the existence of the best new idea ever invented. There is only the voice of marketing.
So in real life, business dreams only come true when we employ successful planning and useful strategies to get the word out. Building our field of dreams is only the first half. The second half is letting our audience know it is there.
By an ironic twist of fate, the actual cornfield used in filming the "Filed of Dreams" movie soon became the very place it was imagined to be in the film. With the success of the film, the diamond became a popular tourist destination as people who were captivated by the message of the film came to Iowa to connect with the actual field in real life.
However, it was the film that brought awareness of the field, not a magical inner voice.
The lesson is that when we follow our own inner voice to do something visionary, we have to back it up with a real life plan. Hollywood can create a fictional vision, but even movies must operate on real life business plans.
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