M Cuban - Blogging on Success, Motivation etc.

Success and Motivation, Part 1
Apr 23rd 2004 9:37AM

Success and Motivation

I did it too. I drove by big houses and would wonder who lived there. What did they do for a living? How did they make their money? Someday, I would tell myself, I would live in a house like that. Every weekend I would do it.

I read books about successful people. In fact, I read every book or magazine I could get my hands on. I would tell myself 1 good idea would pay for the book and could make the difference between me making it or not.

I worked jobs I didn't like. I worked jobs I loved, but had no chance of being a career. I worked jobs that barely paid the rent. I had so many jobs my parents wondered if I would be stable. Most of them aren't on my resume anymore because I was there so short a time or they were so stupid I was embarrassed. You don't want to write about selling powdered milk or selling franchises for TV repair shops. In every job, I would justify it in my mind � whether I loved it or hated it � that I was getting paid to learn and every experience would be of value when I figured out what I wanted to do when I grew up.

If I ever grew up, I hoped to run my own business some day. It's exactly what I told myself every day. In reality, I had as much doubt as confidence. I was just hoping the confidence would win over the doubt and it would all work out for the best.

I remember being 24 years old, living in Dallas in a 3-bedroom apartment with 5 other friends. This wasn't a really nice place we all kicked in to move up for. This place has since been torn down. Probably condemned. I didn't have my own bedroom. I slept on the couch or floor depending on what time I got home. I had no closet. Instead I had a pile that everyone knew was mine. My car had the usual hole in the floorboard, a '77 FIAT X19 that burned a quart of oil that I couldn't afford every week.

To make matters worse, because I was living on happy hour food, and the 2 beers cover charge, I was gaining weight like a pig. My confidence wasn't at an all time high. I was having fun. Don't get me wrong. I truly was having a blast. Great friends, great city, great energy, pretty girls. Ok, the pretty girls had no interest in my fat and growing ass at the time, but that's another story....

I was motivated to do something I loved. I just wasn't sure what it was. I made a list of all the different jobs I would love to do. (I still have it.) The problem was that I wasn't qualified for any of them. But I needed to pay the bills.

I finally got a job working as a bartender at a club. A start, but it wasn't a career. I had to keep on looking during the day.

About a week later I answered a want ad out of the newspaper for someone to sell PC Software at the first software retail store in Dallas. The ad was actually placed by an employment agency. The fee was to be paid by the company, so I gave it a shot.

I put on my interview face, and of course my interview suit, which just happened to be one of my 2 polyester suits that I had bought for the grand total of 99 dollars. Thank god for 2-fer, 2-fer, 2-fer madness at the local mens clothing store. Grey Pinstripe. Blue Pinstripe. Didn't matter if it rained, those drops just rolled down the back of those suits. I could crumple them. They bounced right back. Polyester, the miracle fabric.

I wish I could say the blue suit and my interview skills impressed the employment agency enough to set up the interview with the software store. In reality, not many had applied for the job � and the agency wanted the fee � so they would have sent anyone over to interview. I didn't care.

I pulled out the grey for my interview at Your Business Software. I was fired up. It was my shot to get into the computer business, one of the industries I had put on my list!

I remember the interview well. Michael Humecki the Prez, and Doug (don't remember his last name), his partner double-teamed me. Michael did most of the talking to start. He asked me if I had used PC software before. My total PC experience at the time was on the long forgotten TI/99A that had cost me 79 dollars. I used it to try to teach myself Basic while recovering from hangovers and sleeping on the floor while my roommates were at work. They weren't impressed.

I was trying to pull out every interview trick I knew. I went through the spiel about how I was a good salesperson, you know the part of the interview where you are basically begging for a job, using code phrases like "I care about the customer", "I promise to work really, really hard" and "I will do whatever it takes to be successful". Unfortunately, I was getting that "well if no one else applies for the job, maybe" look from Michael.

Finally, Doug spoke up. He asked me. "What do you do if a customer has a question about a software package and you don't know the answer?" All of the possible answers raced through my mind. I had to ask myself if this was the "honesty test question" � you know where they want to see if you will admit to things you don't know. Is this some trick technology question and there is an answer everyone but me knows? After who knows how long, I blurted out that "I would look it up in the manual and find the answer for them." Ding, ding, ding...Doug just loved this answer.

Michael wasn't as convinced, but he then asked me the question I was dying to hear: "Would you not go back to the employment agency at all, so when we hire you we don't have to pay the fee?" I was in.

What does all this mean? Nothing yet. It was just fun to tell. You have to wait till part 2, if you care, and if there is a part two. Right now, it's much more important that I go play with my daughter.




Success and Motivation, Part 2
Apr 25th 2004 3:41AM

So my career in Dallas begins. I'm a software salesperson with Your Business Software in Dallas. $18k per year. The first retail software store in Dallas.

I have to sweep the floor and be there to open the store, but that's not a bad thing. When I tell my future ex-girlfriends that I sell software and am in the computer biz, I'm not going to mention the sweeping the floor part. Plus, I had to wear a suit to work, and the 2-fer madness specials looked good at happy hour after work. Better yet, the store didn't open till 9:30am, which meant if I had a fun night, I had at least a little time to sleep.

I bet right about now you are questioning where my focus was? Where was my commitment to being the future owner of the Dallas Mavericks? Please. I was stoked I had a good job. I was stoked it was in an industry that could turn into a career. At 24, I was just as stoked that the office was close to where the best happy hours were and that I might finally have more than 20 bucks to spend for a night on the town.

Since I'm talking about partying, I do have to say that my friends and I were very efficient in that area. Beyond living off bar food and happy hours, we literally would agree that none of us would bring more than 20 bucks for a weekend night out. This way we all could pace each other. At least that was the way it was supposed to work, and it did until we figured out the key to having a great night out on the cheap. They key was buying a bottle of cheap, cheap champagne. I can't even spell the name, but it was a full bottle, and it cost 12 bucks. Tear the label off and as far as anyone knew it was Dom. Each of us would grab one, and sip on it all night. It was far cheaper than buying beers or mixed drinks all night, and we never had to buy a drink for a girl, we just gave them some champagne! Of course the next day was hell, but since when was I responsible enough to care about a hangover...

But I digress. Back to business. As fired up as I was about the job, I was scared. Why? Because I have never worked with an IBM PC in my life. Not a single time, and I'm going to be selling software for it. So what do I do? I do what everyone does: I rationalize. I tell myself that the people walking in the door know as little as I do, so if I just started doing what I told my boss I would do, read the manuals, I would be ahead of the curve. That's what I did. Every night I would take home a different software manual, and I would read them. Of course the reading was captivating. Peachtree, PFS, DBase, Lotus, Accpac... I couldn't put them down. Every night I would read some after getting home, no matter how late.

Of course it was easy on the weekends. After drinking that cheap champagne, I wasn't getting out of bed till about 9pm, so I had tons of time to lie on the floor and read. It worked. Turns out not a lot of people ever bothered to RTFM (read the frickin' manual), so people started really thinking I knew my stuff. As more people came in, because I knew all the different software packages we offered, I could offer honest comparisons and customers respected that.

Within about 6 months, I was building a clientele and because I had also spent time on the store's computers learning how to install, configure and run the software, I started having customers ask me to install the software at their offices. That meant I got to charge for consulting help: 25 bucks an hour that I split with the store. That turned into a couple hundred extra bucks per month and growing. I was raking it in, enough that I could move from the Hotel (that was what we called our apartment) where the 6 of us lived, into a 3 bedroom apartment across the street, where instead of 6 of us, there were only 3. Finally, my own bedroom!

I was earning consulting fees. I was getting referrals. I was on the phone cold calling companies to get new business. I even worked out a deal with a local consultant who paid me referral fees, which lead to getting a $1500 check. It was the first time in my adult life that I was able to have more than 1k dollars in the bank.

That was a special moment believe or not, and what did I do to celebrate? Nope...I didn't buy better champagne. I had these old ratty towels that had holes in them and could stand on their own in the corner, they were so nasty I needed a shower from drying off after a shower...I went out and bought 6 of the fluffiest, plushest towels I could find. I was moving on up in the world. I had the towels. Life was good. Business was good and getting better for me. I was building my customer base, really starting to understand all the technology, and really establishing myself as someone who understood the software. More importantly � no, most importantly � I realized that I loved working with PCs. I had never done it before. I didn't know if this was going to be a job that worked for me, or that I would even like and it turns out I was lucky. I loved what I was doing. I was rolling so well, I was even partying less... during the week.

Then one day, about 9 months into my career as a salesperson/consultant, I had a prospect ask if I could come to his office to close a deal. 9am. No problem to me. Problem to my boss, Michael Humecki. Michael didn't want me to go. I had to open the store. That was my job. We were a retail store, not an outbound sales company. It sounded stupid to me back then too, particularly since I had gone on outbound calls during the day before. I guess he thought I was at lunch.

Decision time. It's always the little decisions that have the biggest impact. We all have to make that "make or break" call to follow orders or do what you know is right. I followed my first instinct: close the sale. I guess I could have rescheduled the appointment, but I rationalized that you never turn your back on a closed deal. So I called one of my coworkers to come in and open up, and closed the deal. Next day I came in check in hand from a new customer and Michael fired me.



Success and Motivation, Part 3
May 7th 2004 1:48AM

Fired. Not the first time it's happened, but it reinforced what I already knew; I'm a terrible employee. I just had to face facts and move on. So rather than getting back on that "how the hell am I going to find a job" train, the only right thing to do was to start my own company.

My first act of business? Pile into my buddy's 1982 Celica, nicknamed Celly, and drive to galveston to party. Of course we stayed in only the best $19.95 a night, plug the hairdryer in the wall and the circuit blows, motel. Nothing but the best as I prepared for my journey into entrepreneurial territory again. I could say I was preocuppied with how to get my new business off the ground. That while my friends got drunk, did stupid tourist tricks and ate at greasy spoons, I sat by the pool on the 1 chaise lounge chair with rust on the clean side and wrote up my businessplan. I didn't. I got just as drunk and ate the same disgusting food. Then we faced the road trip terror that everyone knows exists, but refuses to admit, the ride home. It wasn't until we pulled up to the apartment that it hit me. No job. No money. No way to pay the bills. But I had nice towels.

Fortunately the hangover didn't last too long, and I realized I had to get off my ass and make something happen. First day, first task, come up with a name. This was the start of the microcomputer revolution, and I wanted a name that said what the company was going to do, which was sell personal computers and software and help companies and individuals install them. I was going to offer microcomputer solutions. So after struggling with different names for about 30 minutes, I chose MicroSolutions Inc.

Now came the hard part. I had to call all the people I had done business with at my last company, and let them know that I had been shitcanned and ask them if they would come do business with me at MicroSolutions. I got the expected questions. No I didn't have an office. No I didn't have a phone yet other than my home phone. Yes it was just me. No I didn't have any investors. The only question I dreaded was whether I had a computer to work with. I didn't. Fortunately, no one asked.

I made a lot of calls, and got some decent response. We love you Mark, we want to give you a chance. A lot of lets stay in touch. I got two real bites. One from a company called Architectual Lighting and the other from a company called Hytec Data Systems.

Architectual Lighting was looking for a time and billing accounting system to allow them to track the work with clients. I don't remember the name of the software package I told them about, I think it was Peachtree Accounting, but after going out to meet with them it came down to this. I offered to refund 100 pct of their money if the software didn't work for them, and I wouldn't charge them for my time for installing and helping them. In return, they would put up the 500 bucks it would take for me to buy the software from the publisher, and I could use them as a reference. This was my "no money down" approach to start a business. They said yes. I had a business.

My 2nd call Hytec Data, was run by Martin Woodall. I met with Martin at the S&D Oyster House on a beautiful June day, and I remember sitting there and him telling me, "I graduated in Computer Science from West Virginia University. I have 50k in the bank and I drive a brand new Cadillac. I know technology better than you. We can work together". I had a customer, and now with Martin's help, I had some hope. Hytec Data sold multi user systems. The old kind that used dumb terminals. He bundled it with accounting software and he and a contractor named Kevin, would make modifications to the Cobol source code. They were the hardcore geeks that could help me when I needed it. I was still just 10 months from my first introduction to PCs, and had zero clue about multi user systems. If I came across prospects that could use their system and software, I would get referrals. That was good.

Even better was Martin's offer of office space. He and Kevin shared office space with the distributor of the computer systems he sold. They had this one office, that when the CEO of the distributors son wasn't using it to study his spanish, I could use it to make calls, and keep my folders and paperwork. Still no computer, but hey, I had an office and phone. I was bonafide...

At some point I'm going to have to go back and look at my appointment books that I kept from those days to remind myself of who my 2nd, 3rd and on from there customers were. They were small companies that I got to know very well. People that took me under their wing and trusted me, not because I was the most knowledgeable about computers, but because they knew I would do whatever it took to get the job done. People trusted me with keys to their offices. They would find me there when they got in in the morning and I was there when they left. I made 15,000 dollars that first year. I loved every minute of it.

As time went on, my customer base grew. I got my friend and former roommate Scott Susens to help with deliveries. Scott was working as a waiter at a steakhouse at the time. I remember asking him over and over, would you please help me out. I have a customer that had bought a bunch of Epson dot matrix printers from me, and I had to sell Scott on how it wouldn't be hard to learn how to hook a parallel cable to a pc and printer, and how learning all of this would be a career move compared to working at the steakhouse. Unfortunately, I couldn't pay him as much as the steakhouse. My good fortune was that Scott worked nights and weekends and decided to take some time in the afternoons to help me out. Not long after that, he was working fulltime installing PCs, learning whatever he had to figure out before an install.

Martin also began to play a larger and larger role. His company was growing, and he was watching my company grow. I would get the PC based stuff, he would get the accounting system stuff. It was a nice split. The better part of the relationship was based on Martin being the most anal retentive person i had ever met in my life. While I covered my mistakes by throwing time and effort at the problem, Martin was so detail oriented, he had to make sure things were perfect so problems could never happen. We could drive each other crazy. He would give me incredible amounts of shit about how sloppy I was. I would give him the same amount back because he was so anal he was missing huge opportunities. We complemented each other perfectly. It would only be a matter of time before we both knew we had to be partners and work together instead of seperately.

That first year in business was incredible. I remember sitting in that little office till 10pm and then still being so pumped up, I would drive over to the gym I belonged to and run 5 to 10 miles on the treadmill going through that day, and the next in my head. Other days I would get so involved with learning a new piece of software that I would forget to eat and look up at the clock thinking it was 6 or 7pm and see that it was 1am or 2am. Time would fly by.

It's crazy the things that you remember. I remember when my accounts receivable got up to 15k and telling all my friends. I remember reading the PC DOS manual (I really did), and being proud that I could figure out how to set up startup menus for my customers. I remember going to every single retail store in town, BusinessLand, NYNEX, ComputerLand,CompuShop, all those companies that are long gone, and introducing myself to every salesperson to try to get leads. I would call every single big computer company that did anything at all with small businesses, IBM, Wang, Dec, Xerox, Data General, DataPoint (remember them?), setting meetings, asking to come to their offices since I couldn't afford to take them to lunch. I didn't need a lot of customers, but my business grew and grew. Not too fast, but fast enough that by the time MicroSolutions had been in business about 2 years, I had 85k dollars in the bank, a receptionist/secretary, Scott helping me out, and a 4 room office that I moved into along with Martin and Hytec Data Systems.

Then I learned a very valuable lesson. Martin had done a great job of setting up our accounting software and systems. I got monthly P&L statements. I got weekly journals of everything coming in and everything going out, payables and receivables. We had a very conservative process where Martin would check the payables, authorize them and then use the software to cut the checks. I would then go through the list, sign the checks and give them to Renee our secretary/receptionist to put in the envelope and mail to our vendors.

One day, Martin comes back from Republic Bank, where we had our account. He had just gone through the drive through and one of the tellers who he would see every day dropping of our deposits asked him to wait a second. She comes back and shows him a check that had the payee of a vendor, WHITED OUT and Renee Hardy, our secretary's name typed over it. Turns out that in the course of a single week, our secretary had pulled this same trick on 83k of our 85k in the bank. As Martin delived the news, I obviously was pissed. I was pissed at Renee, I was pissed at the bank, I was pissed at myself for letting it happen. I remember going to the bank with copies of the checks, and the manager of the bank basically laughing me out of his office telling me that I "didn't have a pot to piss in". That I could sue him, or whatever I wanted, but I was out the money.

I got back to the office, told Martin what happened at the bank, and then I realized what I had to do about all of this. I had to go back to work. That what was done, was done. That worrying about revenge, getting pissed at the bank, all those "I'm going to get even and kick your ass thoughts" were basically just a waste of energy. No one was going to cover my obligations but me. I had to get my ass back to work, and do so quickly. That's exactly what I did.



Success and Motivation P4
May 25th 2004 11:01AM

You never quite know in business if what you are doing is the right or wrong thing. Unfortunately, by the time you know the answer, someone has beaten you to it and you are out of business. I used to tell myself that it was ok to make little mistakes, just don't make the big ones. I would continuously search for new ideas. I read every book and magazine I could. Heck, 3 bucks for a magazine, 20 bucks for a book. One good idea that lead to a customer or solution and it paid for itself many times over. Some of the ideas i read were good, some not. In doing all the reading I learned a valuable lesson.

Everything I read was public. Anyone could buy the same books and magazines. The same information was available to anyone who wanted it. Turns out most people didn't want it.

I remember going into customers or talking to people in the industry and tossing out tidbits about software or hardware. Features that worked, bugs in the software. All things I had read. I expected the ongoing response of "Oh yeah, I read that too in such-and-such." That's not what happened. They hadn't read it then, and they haven't started reading yet.

Most people won't put in the time to get a knowledge advantage. Sure, there were folks that worked hard at picking up every bit of information that they could, but we were few and far between. To this day, I feel like if I put in enough time consuming all the information available, particularly with the net making it so readily available, I can get an advantage in any technology business. Of course my wife hates that I read more than 3 hours almost every day, but it gives me a level of comfort and confidence in my businesses. AT MicroSolutions it gave me a huge advantage. A guy with little computer background could compete with far more experienced guys just because I put in the time to learn all I could.

I learned from magazines and books, but I also learned from watching what some of the up and coming technology companies of the day were doing. Its funny how the companies that I thought were brilliant then, are still racking it up today.

Every week a company called PCs Limited used to take a full-page ad in a weekly trade magazine called PC Week. The ad would feature PC peripherals that the company would sell. Hard Drives. Memory. Floppy Drives. Graphics Cards. Whatever could be added to a PC was there. What made the ad so special was that each and every week the prices got lower. If a drive was 2,000 dollars last week, it was $ 1940 this week. For the first time in any industry that I knew of, we were seeing vendors pass on price savings to customers.

The PC Limited ads became the "market price" for peripherals. I looked for the ad every week. In fact, I became a customer. I was in Dallas. They were in Austin.

I remember driving down to pick up some hard drives that I was going to put into my customers PCs. I had no idea up to that point, but it turns out that they had just moved from the owner's dorm room into a little office/warehouse space. I was so impressed by this young kid (I was a wise old 25 at the time), that I actually wrote a letter thanking him for the great job he was doing, and...I'm embarassed to say now, I told him that if he kept up what he was doing he was destined for far bigger and better things.

I kept on doing business with PCs Limited, and Michael Dell kept on doing what he was doing. I dont think he really needed my encouragement, but i have since told him that I thought his weekly full page ads with ever declining prices, changed the PC industry and were the first of many genius moves on his part.

Michael wasn't the only smart one in those days.

One of the PC industry's annual rituals was the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas. Every November, it was the only 3 days I knew I would get away and get a break from the office. It was work during the day. Visiting all the new technology booths. Trying to get better pricing from vendors. Trying to find out where the best parties were. If you could believe it, back in those days, the number one party was the Microsoft party. I sold some Microsoft products, so I could get in.

One particular year, I was on my way to having a memorable night. I had met some very, very attractive women (I swear they were). Got them some tickets to come with me to the big party. All is good. I'm having fun. They are having fun. Then we see him. Bill G. As in Bill Gates dancing up a storm. I'm a Bill Gates fan, so I wont describe his dancing, but he was definitely having fun.

At that point in time, Microsoft had gone public and Bill Gates was Bill Gates. If you were in the business you knew him or knew of him. The girls I was with were in the business. Long story short, I went to the bar to get some drinks for all us, I come back, they aren't there. Come to find out the next day, Bill stole my girls. As I would learn later in life, money does make you extremely handsome. :)

Bill G also taught me a few things about business. Put aside how he killed IBM at their own game by licensing PC DOS to anyone that wanted it. What MicroSoft did to knock Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect off their thrones was literally business at its best.

At that point in time, software was expensive. WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 both sold for $495 and their publishers were proud of that fact. In order to be able to sell Lotus 1-2-3, you had to go to special training to become authorized. How crazy does that sound now � going to a special class to be able to sell a spreadsheet. WordPerfect wasn't quite as bad, but they had their own idiosyncrasies as well. Meanwhile, Microsoft was on the outside looking in. Excel, Word, Powerpoint were all far down the list of top sellers � until lightning struck.

Microsoft decided to go against industry protocol and package those 3 programs as a suite and offer them as an upgrade to competitors' products for the low, low price of 99 dollars. Of course you needed to have and use Windows for it to work, but in a time when people were buying new PCs with every dramatic increase in power and decrease in price, it was a natural move for us at MicroSolutions to sell the bundle. It made the effective price of the PC and software together far, far lower. We loved it. It also taught me several big lessons.

Always ask yourself how someone could preempt your products or service. How can they put you out of business? Is it price? Is it service? Is it ease of use? No product is perfect and if there are good competitors in your market, they will figure out how to abuse you. It's always better if you are honest with yourself and anticipate where the problems will come from.

The 2nd lesson is to always run your business like you are going to be competing with Microsoft. They may not be your direct competitor. They may be a vendor. They may be a direct competitor and a vendor. Whatever they may be to your business, if you are in the technology business, you have to anticipate that you will in some way have to compete with Microsoft at some point. I ask myself every week what I would do if they entered any of my businesses. If you are ready to compete with Microsoft, you are ready to compete with anyone else.

Watching the best taught me how to run my businesses. Along the way I taught myself a few things � those come next blog.

Success and Motivation, almost Part 2
Apr 25th 2004 2:42AM

This isn't quite a continuation of part 1, but I happened to stumble across an interview I did last year for Young Money Magazine that covers a lot of the things that I probably would have included in part 2. :)

YOUNG MONEY TALKS TO CUBAN: During an exclusive interview with YOUNG MONEY, billionaire Mark Cuban shared his thoughts on using the fear of failure as a motivator, beating the competition, and why investing in the stock market may not be such a good idea.

YM: What is the key to recognizing a profitable business opportunity?

CUBAN: Knowing the industry very well. Most people think it's all about the idea. It's not. EVERYONE has ideas. The hard part is doing the homework to know if the idea could work in an industry, then doing the preparation to be able to execute on the idea.

YM: What personal characteristics should a person possess in order to become a successful entrepreneur?

CUBAN: Willingness to learn, to be able to focus, to absorb information, and to always realize that business is a 24 x 7 job where someone is always out there to kick your ass.

YM: Did you set career goals for yourself while you were in college? If so, what were they?

CUBAN: To retire by the age of 35 was my goal. I wasn't sure how I was going to get there though. I knew I would end up owning my own business someday, so I figured my challenge was to learn as much as anyone about every and all businesses. [I believed] that every job I took was really me getting paid to learn about a new industry. I spent as much time as I could, learning and reading everything about business I could get my hands on. I used to go into the library for hours and hours reading business books and magazines.

YM: Do you consider yourself an innovator? Why?

CUBAN: No. I don't really have new ideas, but I manage to combine information in ways most people hadn't considered. They aren't new ideas, it's just that most people don't do their homework about their businesses and industry, so there is usually a place to sneak in and do something a little different. You just have to make sure what you want to do can sustain a business and make it profitable rather than be a niche that can be crushed [by the competition].

YM: What advice would you give young adults just struggling to move up in the business world?

CUBAN: There are no shortcuts. You have to work hard, and try to put yourself in a position where if luck strikes, you can see the opportunity and take advantage of it. I would also say it's hard not to fool yourself. Everyone tells you how they are going to be"special," but few do the work to get there. Do the work.

YM: What types of opportunities would you pursue if you were starting over today? CUBAN: I just started a business called HDNet. There never is one area that has a door open to everyone. Try to find an area with something you love to do and do it. It's a lot easier to work hard and prepare when you love what you are doing. YM: What would you tell entrepreneur hopefuls who are afraid of failing?

CUBAN: It's good [for them]. I'm always afraid of failing. It's great motivation to work harder.

YM: What is the most important piece of advice you could offer someone who's just starting a business?

CUBAN: Do your homework and know your business better than anyone. Otherwise, someone who knows more and works harder will kick your ass.

YM: Did you have to sacrifice your personal life in order to become a business success?

CUBAN: Sure, ask about five of my former girlfriends that question... I went seven years without a vacation. (from the time I got fired from a job, and started MicroSolutions) I didn't even read a fiction book in that time. I was pretty focused.

YM: Do you have any general saving and investing advice for young people?

CUBAN: Put it in the bank. The idiots that tell you to put your money in the market because eventually it will go up need to tell you that because they are trying to sell you something. The stock market is probably the worst investment vehicle out there. If you won't put your money in the bank, NEVER put your money in something where you don't have an information advantage. Why invest your money in something because a broker told you to? If the broker had a clue, he/she wouldn't be a broker, they would be on a beach somewhere.



Success and Motivation - You only have to be right once!
May 30th 2005 1:46AM

In basketball you have to shoot 50pct. If you make an extra 10 shots per hundred, you are an All-Star. In baseball you have to get a hit 30 pct of the time. If you get an extra 10 hits per hundred at bats, you are on the cover of every magazine, lead off every SportsCenter and make the Hall of Fame.

In Business, the odds are a little different. You don't have to break the Mendoza line (hitting .200). In fact, it doesnt matter how many times you strike out. In business, to be a success, you only have to be right once.

One single solitary time and you are set for life. That's the beauty of the business world.

I like to tell the story of how I started my first business at age 12, selling garbage bags. No one ever has asked if I was any good or made money at it. I was, and I did...enough to buy some tennis shoes :).

I like to tell the story of how I started up a bar, Motley's Pub when I wasn't even of legal drinking age the summer before my senior year at Indiana University. No one really asks me how it turned out. It was great until we got busted for letting a 16-year-old win a wet t-shirt contest (I swear I checked her ID, and it was good!).

No one really asks me about my adventures working for Mellon Bank, or Tronics 2000, or trying to start a business selling powdered milk (it was cheaper by the gallon, and I thought it tasted good). They don't ask me about working as a bartender at night at Elans when I first got to Dallas, or getting fired from my job at Your Business Software for wanting to close a sale rather than sweeping the floor and opening up the store.

No ever asked me about what it was like when I started MicroSolutions and how I used to count the months I was in business, hoping to outlast my previous endeavors and make this one a success.

With every effort, I learned a lot. With every mistake and failure, not only mine, but of those around me, I learned what not to do. I also got to study the success of those I did business with as well. I had more than a healthy dose of fear, and an unlimited amount of hope, and more importantly, no limit on time and effort.

Fortunately, things turned out well for me with MicroSolutions. I sold it after 7 years and made enough money to take time off and have a whole lot of fun.

Back then I can remember vividly people telling me how lucky I was to sell my business at the right time.

Then when I took that money and started trading technology stocks that were in the areas that MIcroSolutions focused on. I remember vividly being told how lucky I was to have expertise in such a hot area, as technology stocks started to trade up.

Of course, no one wanted to comment on how lucky I was to spend time reading software manuals, or Cisco Router manuals, or sitting in my house testing and comparing new technologies, but that's a topic for another blog post.

The point of all this is that it doesn't matter how many times you fail. It doesn't matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and either should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because...

All that matters in business is that you get it right once.

Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are.

Self Promo Package

A package:

Resume, CD / DVD & Website

The website includes:
Pictures
References
Greater detail ~ experience etc.
Examples of work
Books read
Philosophy
How this (a deal) might work - or not
Testimonials
Other

Yellow pages review

Take a phone book and start pouring through the yellow pages. Pick out what looks like a bad trend category and what looks a good one. Hey - who knows?

The mug?

"Do what you like. Like what you do."

It's on my mug. Is it - in fact, a formula?

What do I like? I'm not sure I really like anything all that much.

I like golf - sometimes - Buy or lease a golf course

I like...?

Audio / Video "stuff" Tech tools and such - Start a chain of AV stores

Food - Open a Restaurant

Verne - Build a temple to the Empress V

Sports - Buy or manage a sports franchise / team / league / thing

AAA

Agenda. Every morning in those days, I woke up and asked myself a question: What should I write a book about?

Assets. I had all the tools I needed to write and sell books. I had a great team, access to the publishing community, a brand... I figured my job was to leverage those assets.

Assumptions. I assumed that the world would stay pretty much the same while I leveraged my assets and completed my agenda.

Markets move. If you don't figure out how to set aside or forecast your A, A & A, you can't possibly grow. You can't take advantage of changes and opportunities. You snooze, you lose.

Real Estate concept

Spacious 1 and 2 bedroom condos (loft style - Art district). These units include a retail location below.

See MLS in Maine: 867719

Compliance Office - An outsourced remedy?

You know there is a business in the packaging of regulatory compliance help / safeguards / training and the idea that a client's efforts (participation in the program) does indeed matter should something blow up. Like environmental issues and employment practices, this is something that - should it go bad - can be fatal.

Create a proposal to form such a company. Its solutions and sales platform seem right on the surface. Hmmm...

Forecasting Tomorrow's Compliance and Regulatory Environment
By Jennifer Reed, Editor
December 06, 2007

MINNEAPOLIS and BATON ROUGE, La. — Top executives from Wolters Kluwer Financial Services and AppOne recently looked ahead to some of the challenges that will face the indirect lending arena and dealers in 2008.

When asked what the biggest regulatory and compliance issue that the auto finance industry faces today, Lee Domingue, chief executive officer of AppOne, told SubPrime Auto Finance News, "The biggest obstacle facing the auto industry is the sheer complexity of the various legal and regulatory requirements.

"Ensuring compliance can be a time-consuming and difficult task, especially for small- and medium-sized lenders, such as community banks," he said.

As for Kevin Kopp, director of indirect lending with Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, he indicated, "With a complex legal and regulatory environment, dealers and lenders need to make sure they are interpreting and implementing new requirements correctly, which takes education and training, as well as additional time and resources.

"However, outside compliance sources can help," he pointed out. "Dealers and lenders need to look for those that can provide key benefits, such as early fraud detection and complete compliance loan packages, while helping to maintain an expeditious funding process."

Looking ahead at some of the challenges that may face the industry next year, Kopp went on to say, "Our federal and state governments continue to consider and craft consumer-oriented legislation related to auto finance and particularly the indirect lending process."

Basically, he stressed that lenders and dealers need to take specific actions. They must not ignore the potential risk and liability that comes from being passive with regards to compliance.

"During the past year, the industry has seen a definite trend toward federal and state consumer protection law enactment relating to the auto finance process. For example, there are currently several states that are, at a minimum, considering Consumer Bill of Rights legislation, which could mean greater disclosure requirements for dealerships," Kopp indicated.

Another hot topic he mentioned was documentation fees, saying, "In some dealerships this will have an effect on their bottom line. Based on recent activity, it appears this trend of introducing consumer-focused legislation will not change soon."

Domingue characterized the current regulatory environment as "very volatile," saying he doesn't see this trend ending any time soon.

"It's only getting more intense. While there are a growing number of requirements affecting the automotive finance industry, they will likely not serve their purpose, which is protecting the consumer, if there is no real enforcement," he explained. "Little or no enforcement sends a wrong message and only offers a false sense of security."

Particularly at risk from compliance and legal issues are independent dealers, Kopp noted.

"Compliance and legal issues continue to have a weighty effect on the business of independent auto dealerships. A good example of this is the recent steps some states have taken to cut down on fraudulent titles, which impacts disclosures," he said.

"This increases the risk of error, which could slow the sales and finance processes," Kopp added. "It also adds time to the administrative process at the dealership, which leaves less time to market and sell vehicles, which is the dealership's primarily business purpose."

Domingue brought to light the issue of more lenders passing increased costs onto as the compliance and regulatory burden grows.

"The direct effect on dealers is added documentation, but more indirectly is the never-ending compliance burden placed on the lending community," he explained. "The increased cost and exposure has caused some lenders to charge more and require more information from the dealer, which puts operational pressure on the dealer to be productive in an area where they typically have little or no expertise."

Returning to the topic of Consumer Bill of Rights legislation, the executives voiced their concern for the future.

"I think the general consensus is that the California Car Buyers Bill of Rights will set the standard throughout the country for the next three to five years. But this is another example of consumer-driven regulation that will only work if there is true enforcement at the state level," Domingue said.

Kopp was a bit more specific, saying that two states have passed or are considering legislation similar to what California has implemented — Minnesota and Massachusetts.

"Minnesota passed a less stringent version of the California Car Buyers Bill of Rights recently," he reported. "Meanwhile, Massachusetts has proposed Bill of Rights provisions in the past that would cap dealership markups and compensate dealers by replacing the markup with a fee of 0.5 percent of the loan amount, or $150 (whichever is less)."

He went on to say that Massachusetts is looking to require more detail in contract disclosures, particularly itemization of trade-ins.

"This type of legislation requires lenders and dealerships to be more diligent and educate themselves, which can take resource time away from their core business purpose," Kopp indicated.

In conclusion, Domingue said, "When looking ahead at the regulatory environment, it really comes down to preparation and protection. Dealers and lenders can benefit greatly from relationships with strong compliance partners who can help them avoid potential legal and regulatory land mines.

"There also needs to be better collaboration between dealers and lenders, and continuous improvement in finding ways to monitor and streamline industry requirements," he concluded.

V-Dealer

Specialize: Eco-cars (Green Dealer?), Lexus Only, Toyota Only, Honda Only, Camry Only, Convertibles, Work Trucks... Represent these specialties to define your expertise.

Find a non-retail location (industrial money) where vehicles can be stored inside in a controlled environment. Pay for the facility with related services performed by partners... or not.

Inventory management is strict with limits on dollars and age. Replace anything that sells in < class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">AutoTrader, Cars.com and Ebay Motors. These are the primary sources and major advertising expense.

Wild value proposition supported by web experience.

Maintain a stream of wholesale appearance recon flips.

Created from thin air

Create a company; incorporate it, and loan it money - enough to garner your own attention (silly but useful - stay tuned).

This obviously is a pointless act unless the company is charged with a purpose.

Q. Even then, why go through all the crap about setting it up and such?

A. The entity now exists...

Eye tracking rules

(some of which are made to be broken).

Tim points us to a terrific summary of lessons learned from eye tracking studies.

The highlights, in alphabetical order:

Ads in the top and left portions of a page will receive the most eye fixation.
Ads placed next to the best content are seen more often.
Bigger images get more attention.
Clean, clear faces in images attract more eye fixation.
Fancy formatting and fonts are ignored.
Formatting can draw attention.
Headings draw the eye.
Initial eye movement focuses on the upper left corner of the page.
Large blocks of text are avoided.
Lists hold reader attention longer.
Navigation tools work better when placed at the top of the page.
One-column formats perform better in eye-fixation than multi-column formats.
People generally scan lower portions of the page.
Readers ignore banners.
Shorter paragraphs perform better than long ones.
Show numbers as numerals.
Text ads were viewed mostly intently of all types tested.
Text attracts attention before graphics.
Type size influences viewing behavior.
Users initially look at the top left and upper portion of the page before moving down and to the right.
Users only look at a sub headline if it interests them.
Users spend a lot of time looking at buttons and menus.
White space is good.

Consider the theoretical disadvantage

Okay, it's a simple idea:

If you're a real estate broker, you work in an industry where everyone used to charge the same fee: 6%. Now, though, discount brokers are turning up the heat on fees. Lots of brokers are unhappy with this.

The challenge is... what if you had to charge 7%. What if you had to charge more when everyone else was charging less?

What would you do? How could you make it worth it?

Now, just imagine what would happen if you did that at 6% or even 5%? You'd be unstoppable.

Similar idea, inspired by the crazy pricing of the Kindle: What if, when everyone else's blog was free, you had to charge money for yours? What would you do? How would you make it worth it?

By creating this theoretical disadvantage, you find yourself looking for ways to differentiate yourself and be better / offer more / deliver better value. Hmmm...?

That BeachPunk Idea

This BeachPunk entity often creeps its way into my head. So here is a ramble of content, direction and revenue notions.

Live streaming webcam of the beach and surf:
It is interesting etc to look at. It also shouts that this is current and actively managed. So many sites that seem useful / interesting are static and appear to have been the same for months. The site and its contents need to be current. People may visit occassionally just to see the ocean. Or not

Section about natural resources with links and articles that are "beach relevant".

Section about life on the coast; restaurants, homes, activities.

Section that is a social place? Can the beach be enough of a common ground to start such activity?

What else? Sex, music, surfing?

Ad space:
Would restaurants pay?
Would Real Estate Agencies pay?
Who would?
If Google Adwords or some other method of monetizing the site is all there is, it is a hobby, not a business.
What is the scope? Local? Regional? National?

Web site - good enough

Link to Seth Godin's piece

How to create a good enough website
For most people, that's all you need. A website that's good enough. Not that breaks new ground, establishes a new identity, discovers new ways for people to interact online. Just a good enough website that didn't kill you to launch.

To be clear, the following advice assumes that:

You're not trying to reinvent the idea of a web page--that the page is a means to an end
You work with other people
So, here's what you do. First, realize that traditionally, the job of designer has been linked with the job of programmer. There were very good reasons for this. Designing a page that can't work is silly, and changing the design every time you change the way the page works can be time consuming and expensive.

As a result, web design became a sacred art, one done only by the blessed few, in caverns far away from where mortals tread. In addition, it became expensive, because design changes (which marketers love to make) got in the same queue as programming changes.

We need to start by divorcing the two practices. There's no longer a really good reason for the two to be so closely linked, especially since disciplined use of CSS and testing pays such dividends.

Start with design. Don't involve the programming team until you're 90% done with the look and feel of your pages. It's cheap to change design if it can't by supported by programming, and cheaper and faster to have design done in Photoshop before you commit to cutting it up and coding it.

I'm going to go out on a limb and beg you not to create an original design. There are more than a billion pages on the web. Surely there's one that you can start with? If your organization can't find a website that you all agree can serve as a model, you need to stop right now and find a new job.

Not a site to rip-off, but an inspiration. Fonts and colors and layout. The line spacing. The interactions. Why not? Your car isn't unique, and your house might not be either. If you've got a site that sells 42 kinds of wrapping paper, why not start by finding a successful site that sells... I don't know, shoes or yo-yo's... something that both appeals to your target audience and has been tested and tweaked and works. No, don't pick a competitor. That will get you busted. Pick a reasonably small but successful site in a totally different line of work. Say to your designer: "That's our starting point. Don't change any important design element without asking me first. Now, pull in our products, our logo and our company color scheme and let's take a look at it."

At this point, some people are aghast! Shouldn't the web be a design contest on top of everything else? I don't think so.

Now, take your finished Photoshop pages and get every single person who can possibly veto your project to say okay. THEN give it to engineering to make it work.

[Boy, am I in trouble. People hate posts like this one. They read all sorts of things into it that I don't intend. I'm certainly not against bespoke design, or designers. I certainly don't believe that all engineers are bad designers or even difficult to deal with. The point of the post is most definitely not to encourage you to commit copyright violations or even ethical ones. It merely works to recognize two things:

1. If you are unable to agree on an existing site, you are sure going to spend a lot of time and money trying to agree on a custom one.

2. The process of design and user interaction is best done separately from the process of server speed, database structure and uptime.

Forgive me!]

Seasonal Business

I do not see (Amazon) a book about seasonal business. The topic is puzzling. This might be a good subject. Seasonal Business and the broader subject of Seasonality.

Some pieces are on the web:

Running a Seasonal Business

Find out what smart tactics these entrepreneurs use to ensure the success of their seasonal businesses.

By Rich Mintzer | March 16, 2007

URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/management/operations/article175954.html

No matter what industry they're involved in, most businesses have seasonal highs and lows. Yet like Santa, some companies--summer camps, ski schools and Christmas stores, for example--depend heavily on the revenue generated during a single season to carry them through the year.

Typically, seasonal businesses fall into one of two categories: those that can shut down in the off-season and those whose owners have to find another way to maintain cash flow during the rest of the year.

Scott Stillings' business firmly falls into the first category. Owner of Winter Sports School at Nub's Nob ski resort in Harbor Springs, Michigan, Stillings says his business is a model of great cash flow. ''This is such an open-and-shut business," he says. "We balance our books every week, pay every bill and everybody each week, and when we close the door at the end of the season, we know right where we stand. There's no carryover.''

The staff begins preparing in September for the ski and snowboarding season, which begins on Thanksgiving weekend. Stillings says opening day is the school's busiest, followed by the days around Christmas and then President's Day weekend. "Then we stay at a manageable cash flow level [the rest of the season],'' he adds.

Because there's not much inventory and no permanent staff--Stillings hires more than 100 instructors each season--the doors close the second weekend in April each year. ''In April, we try to finish everything for the year and hash out what we should do for next year while it's fresh in our minds," he says. That includes updating literature, brochures and the website, so people can always access the next season's information.

"Then we don't do squat until August when we stuff brochures into envelopes,'' says Stillings. ''Most years, I can take the whole summer off if I wanted to. If it hasn't been a good year, I can always strap my guitar to my back and go off and perform as a soloist or in a band.''

Pinching Pennies
''Obviously, in a [seasonal] business, you need to budget carefully to make sure you don't overspend or extend yourself past your capabilities,'' says Dennis D. Vourderis, who, along with his brother Steve, owns Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park on the boardwalk in Coney Island, New York. ''Maintenance, taxes and equipment financing all need to be based on a 12-month year, so you need to know you'll have enough funding to cover those expenses during the time you have no cash flow.'' Having good credit, he adds, is a necessity in a seasonal business.

For the Vourderis brothers, whose parents purchased the amusement park and the Wonder Wheel--a Ferris wheel built in 1920 and declared a New York City landmark in 1989--the busy season runs from April to October. ''We face the beach, so we're 100 percent driven by the weather," Vourderis says. "If the sun comes out, people come to the beach, the boardwalk and the rides. If it's raining, it's not even feasible to open." Since a year's worth of business gets squeezed into six months, every sunny day counts. Vourderis uses July 4 as a benchmark for being in the black.

During the off-season, Vourderis stays busy, as he, his brother and their trained staff dismantle the seats and other parts of the rides and store them in a warehouse where they're painted and undergo maintenance, repairs and inspection.

Maintenance, repairs and painting also occupy the winter months for Jay Kandle and his family, who run Lake Kandle Campgrounds and Swim Club in Sewell, New Jersey. ''We like to winterize in October, right after we close," says Kandle. "We also take care of the pool, put away the rescue equipment for the lifeguards, do landscaping maintenance, rebuild old picnic tables and so on. We prepare for the coming year like farmers.'' Kandle dedicates his entire year to the business, despite the fact he's only bringing in money from the campsites and swim club for close to eight months of it.

From tax planning to hiring staff, Kandle spends October through March gearing up for a season that will involve approximately 2,000 swim club members and campers visiting the 150 camp sites on nearly 20 acres. One thing that helps keep the Kandles in the black is the additional income they generate from renting out 40 additional acres of farmland, which, along with the campgrounds, have been in the family since 1892.

''My father and mother had the dream of opening a swim club and campground,'' says Kandle, who has taken a slightly different approach to running the campground than his parents did. ''In my parents' day, January would have been a lean time of year. But by marketing the swim club to attract more business and taking deposits now, we're able to increase our cash flow during the off-season.''

The off-season is also a time for seasonal business owners to handle the important decisions that'll affect business the upcoming season. ''From a managerial standpoint, I try to break the business into two interrelated areas, the business side and the operational side,'' says Ron Weinhold, general manager and head of operations at two Cal Ripkin baseball camps and tournament facilities in Aberdeen, Maryland, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. "The height of activity on the sales side is between October and June, and the height of activity on the operations side is between March and October. So even though our business is considered seasonal, it's very much a year-round operation, with key decisions made during the winter months."

The camps are also slightly different from some other seasonal businesses because of increased cash flow during the months preceding the camps. While the official camp season is visibly the busiest, off-season registration generates the bulk of their income.

Switching Gears in the Off-Season
Although many seasonal business owners are able to ride the revenue wave through the off-season months, some owners opt to switch gears. Whether it's to maintain more consistent cash flow, better utilize a retail location or create a little peace of mind, some seasonal business owners have alternate plans for the off-season.

The Christmas Dove stores in Barrington, New Hampshire; Ogunquit, Maine; Boston; and New Orleans, don't close down after the holiday, but instead undergo a transformation, capitalizing on consumers' interest in decorating for other holidays throughout the year.

"Halloween has become huge with people decorating their homes inside and out, going to parties and giving gifts," explains Garth Svenson, who now runs the family-owned business started by his parents. "People also decorate for Valentine's Day and put up lights for St. Patrick's Day and the Fourth of July."

Supplementing the biggest annual shopping holiday without straying too far and losing the Christmas store following has been a balancing act. But by taking advantage of consumer demands, they've been able to turn what was primarily a Christmas business into a year-round celebratory store.

Jan Axel, a long-time sculptor who took to landscaping after moving from Manhattan to South Salem, New York, supplements her Delphinium Design landscaping business with holiday decorating services. ''As a landscape designer, I found it got very slow in the winter, so a colleague and I started doing holiday decorating,'' Axel explains. Together, the two started Cirque de Botanica, a separate holiday design business. ''It was a natural spin-off, and the immediate gratification makes it very appealing. A lot of what we do as landscapers takes so much time; sometimes it's years before we see a finished product mature.

Besides filling a creative niche, Axel's off-season business also bridges the gap between the planning and design phases--which can take place in the fall--and spring and summer, when her planting crews are out in force, sculpting a wide range of residential gardens and landscapes.

The Year-Round View
With 13 stores in seven Eastern states, selling outdoor patio furniture peaks for retailer Patio.com during the spring as warm weather approaches. Then, as the weather cools and entertaining moves inside, there's a drop in sales.

To avoid having to lay off any of its full-time employees during the slow season, 10 years ago the company began offering top-of-the line pool, ping pong and foosball tables, as well as bars, barstools, and bar tables and chairs in their store showrooms during the fall and winter, transforming a seasonal business into a year-round enterprise.

In fact, the off-season pool table business has become so successful that Patio.com has become the world's largest Brunswick Pool Table dealer. ''It's taken a tremendous amount of work and a lot of training, but we've been able to turn Patio.com from a seasonal company into a successful year-round business,'' says the company's co-CEO Mitchell Ross. "All the salespeople have become experts in both patio furniture and pool tables. Our entire delivery staff now knows how to do pool table assembly and repair." In fact, they've been so successful at blending patio furniture and pool tables that Ross has wondered whether they should now call the business ''PatioandPoolTables.com.''

Whether your seasonal business is one that sustains you through the year or requires an off-season transition, it can provide great diversity--and even a little downtime--if you master the art of careful planning, scheduling and pacing yourself for the full calendar year.

Case study: How I manage my seasonal business

WHO: James Mekin-Hewitt of H2O Sports

WHAT: Poole-based watersports equipment retailer

THE ISSUE: Surviving year-round when running a seasonal business

THE SOLUTION: "We sell clothing and equipment for watersports such as surfing and diving. Our busiest time of year is between April and October, and on a typical Saturday in the summer around 500 people pass through our shop. In the winter, this figure will drop to just 50. We have two permanent members of staff who work all year round, but during the summer we take on a part-time employee to help us deal with the workload.

"We start preparing for the summer months well beforehand. We order stock early to take advantage of discounts and we organise payment plans of between four and six months. Most of the stock has arrived by Easter, but we usually receive our deliveries in three drops because we don't have lots of storage space. Once we've sold the stock from the first drop, we've usually covered the costs of the entire order so everything we make on the next two drops is pre-tax profit.

"We have a good overdraft facility with our bank, which we can dip into before the summer season. We may need it if one of our suppliers doesn't offer a payment plan or if we can make greater margins with a single stock purchase.

"Our rent is the same throughout the year and we put money aside in the summer to cover our rent in the off-months. We make extra money by subletting space to a sail-repair business and a wakeboarding school. We charge them more in the summer and this helps pay the rent later in the year when sales have slowed.

"Our three company vans are leased. Buying them outright would have tied up too much cashflow in the beginning, and leasing gives us flexibility; we can either buy them at the end of the leasing period or upgrade them.

"We earn extra money in the off-months by running watersports coaching holidays abroad. It takes us out of the country for free, which is a bonus, and it's very good for business because lots of customers buy our equipment to use on the trip. The surf clothing business is seasonal, but we also stock regular casual clothing which sells year-round. At the moment we're improving our website, which we hope will boost winter sales."

LESSONS LEARNED: "Cashflow is very important in a seasonal business, so don't get carried away and order too much stock. For some of our larger equipment, such as kites and boards, we'll sell and replace them as we go. Last year, we finished up with a little too much stock, which we had to sell at reduced prices. So be flexible when ordering things, otherwise your cashflow will be as unpredictable as the weather."

For Every Tourist Business There Is A Season

January 28th, 2007

All businesses have a seasonal ‘ebb and flow’ to their year, some kind of fluctuation in sales or activity that can be tied to the different times of year.

For those of us with tourism-based businesses located along the Blue Ridge Parkway, Winter is generally our ‘down time’, our slow season. Most Parkway businesses close officially on October 31st each year, although I don’t know anyone who can’t be persuaded to stay open an extra week or so if Autumn leaf season has been long or delayed, due to cold and resulting color changes. Parkway businesses will keep their doors open for, and keep taking money from, the droves of visitors driving our back roads during the Fall - as long as they keep coming. Some with strong holiday mail order businesses stay open through Christmas, and then close down. Still others stay open year round, but with reduced hours.

And then there are other businesses around here that only come to life for Christmas or Winter season only, like the Christmas Tree industry or Skiing. “Pick and Choose’ or ‘U-Cut’ Christmas tree farms are more popular than ever here in western North Carolina in November and December. I can’t say the same about skiing though. Although some areas of Appalachia were at one time historically popular during Winter as ski areas, more recently ’ski season’ has pretty much amounted to a few weekends of weather cold enough to manufacture a few flakes of snow. Any time I mention the movie, ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ it’s amazing how quickly people seem to change the subject or get quiet. I guess no one wants to consider the affect of climate change on seasonal businesses in the Blue Ridge mountains….so we’ll save that for another time. And another post.

Sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway at the highest elevations are often closed during Winter months due to ice that rarely melts under areas shaded by pine trees. These sections of the Parkway are especially treacherous, all those beautiful overlooks beyond scary curves without substantial safety barriers. So from November through April, most people couldn’t get to their favorite tourist businesses even if they wanted. But since so few families travel the Parkway during Winter months, there simply aren’t that many people inconvenienced by the closings.

And so an economic slowdown is imposed on all of us along the Parkway.

Years ago, when we started our handmade soapmaking business, this slowdown time of year was a time to panic. A time to be fearful. Few people - and few businesses - have to learn to endure months with little (or no) income, and also learn to view that seasonality as ‘normal.’ And it took me a while, because I used to worry and wonder: Would our customers come back?

But after nine seasons, we know that they do come back. Year after year after year. And so we’ve also learned it’s especially important to use our down time to prepare for our customers’ return in the Spring.

These days, slowdown season is really only a slowdown of in-store visitors. We don’t shut down and go to Florida or travel cross country for a few months, like many of our neighboring tourism businesses do. Our website sales are year round, as is our wholesale business, and so packing and shipping of orders is part of our daily routine all twelve months of the year. Although we’re not open daily with regular hours during the Winter months, we are happy to open the shop to customers for appointment shopping.

Without question, the most important part of slowdown season is that it is a time of special projects. A time to focus on making decisions that require careful consideration and time to ’sleep on it’ - like changes in product packaging or price increases. Time for projects that demand concentrated energy and creativity in planning - like getting this Backroads Business blog up and running. Time to offer related services that that can be offered in different forms - like week long and weekend handmade soapmaking workshops. These intensive sessions are impossible to facilitate uninterrupted during busy peak season.

And it’s also a time for property renovations. Because what self-respecting vacationer comes to the mountains to ‘get away from it all’ and wants to deal with all that noise and dust and mess caused by construction and renovation? If they wanted to deal with drywall dust and the smell of stain and paint drying, they could stay home and renovate themselves.

And so what’s one way we can show our customers how much we love them?

We can schedule our renovation projects during OUR vacation time!

Tomorrow we begin renovation to expand our web order packing and product packaging area. This will also allow a ‘re-assigning’ of other rooms’ to various business functions. As any business grows, your procedures and processes change. In order to stay efficient (and sane), the physical layout has to change too. And in our case, as our web & mail order operation has grown, we need more space to store product, pull and pack orders, and ship. Yet we still need enough retail space for our drop-by customers to browse and select products when we are open full time during tourist season, May through October.

Next month we’ll see a reshuffling of the current retail area. I’m thankful all the soap is still made out in The Soap Shed, and we’ve got plenty of room out there to continue expanding as needed. But in the meantime, I’ve got two rooms of displays and furniture sitting out on our wraparound deck, taking the place of all those rocking chairs that customers were lounging in just a couple months ago. When it was about 40 degrees warmer!

I think we’ve got it rough sometimes juggling our seasonal business, but then I read about a fireworks factory whose product is only in demand certain days of the year! I don’t usually find much discussion about running a seasonal business and coping with its challenges. But I did find an interesting article on learning to budget year round and survive seasonal sales slumps.

Downtime or slow time for a seasonal business can also truly be a wonderfully creative time. What about thinking of how you might diversify the products you offer? How about brainstorming to see what other markets might be able to use what you make? Maybe there’s a new niche out there that would be able to use your product, if you made minor or cosmetic changes to ‘fit’ that new niche?

Asking these questions makes me realize that there is much, much more to say about running a seasonal business. So I will explore more - but in another post!

Seasoned Pros

Operating a seasonal kiosk keeps these partners on their mistletoes.

By April Y. Pennington | Entrepreneur's StartUps - September 2004

URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneursstartupsmagazine/2004/september/72328.html

Everyone knows the crazed nature that takes over gift givers during the holiday season. No one knows it better than Michael DeAcosta and his three partners, who staff their Santa's Pen kiosk from November 1 through Christmas Eve at the Park City Center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. For seven weeks, their seasonal kiosk, offering personalized ornaments, stockings and frames, opens for business inside the mall and takes full advantage of the shopping frenzy that erupts every year.

Running their business during the busy holiday season requires staffing the kiosk during the mall's extended holiday hours. That makes Santa's Pen an extremely time-consuming commitment for the partners of Diversified Investment Group—DeAcosta; his wife, Theresa; and Rick and Shelley Bortz. Rick, 45, owns a construction company, and Shelley, 40, owns a hair salon, so they're already juggling entrepreneurial ventures. Theresa, 36, a stay-at-home mom, must balance caring for her children and working at Santa's Pen when the holiday season rolls around. Michael, 36, a full-time teacher who also has a DJ business, finds that during the time Santa's Pen is open, he's putting a total of 110 to 120 hours per week into all his jobs. "[The holiday] time of the year is when most people are gearing down and goofing off," says Michael. "We don't get to do that until Christmas is over."

Despite the long hours, the partners feel strongly that it's important to their success to have one owner at the kiosk with the employees at all times. In addition to staffing the kiosk during the seven-week sales season, the four partners begin preparing for the holiday season in October, ordering stock and gearing up. The actual holiday rush can be hectic, yet Michael points out that when it's over, "we can take a deep breath, relax, do inventory, and close the doors till [next season]."

Diversified Investment Group, which began operating its Santa's Pen kiosk in November 2002, had approximate sales of $85,000 for the 2003 holiday run. Their kiosk carries some 500 personalized ornaments that span hobbies, sports and professions, as well as personalized stockings.

In deciding to launch the business, Michael and his partners relied on their gut. Michael knew the company's founder and trusted her instincts. That trust has paid off, and today, the company is expanding beyond merely seasonal sales. This past year, when someone approached them about attending a big cheerleading competition, they attended as vendors. They were a huge success, ringing up sales for their large assortment of cheerleading items, as well as other sports-themed and Christmas items.

"Every woman who heads up a cheerleading competition was throwing cards at us and saying, 'We want you to come to ours,'" Michael recalls. Now they've been asked by a T-shirt silk screener to accompany him to a soccer tournament and sell their soccer-themed items.

That success has proven to Michael and his partners that demand for their products isn't limited to the holidays. "Depending on what you're selling, with a kiosk business, there are so many opportunities if you're willing to put forth the effort and time."

Film 1a

My First Movie: Taking Those First Steps
Part One: An Introduction
an article by Rob Lohman
They say the beginning is never easy. This seems to be at least partially true. It has taken me a long (and winding) road to get me to making my first little short (a short little movie). When I was in high school there where two things interesting to me: acting (which turned out to be a love of things visual instead of acting) and computers. Somehow I rolled into the computer branch and began my career as a computer programmer.

Move forward a few years later and this is what I am doing professionally at this very moment. How this all relates to my first movie? Well, the love of things visual never went away and by 2001, the year I was mostly 23 years of age, my collection of DVD's had grown quite large. I saw every "making of," if you get a chance rent the El Mariachi DVD disc. Watch the movie, then watch it again with Robert Rodriguez's commentary track and play his 10 minute film school extra. Now if this is too your liking I suggest checking out his book Rebel Without a Crew) and got more interested in making movies. All these years reading internet sites, books and magazines about the subject suddenly caused an electronic charge in my brain that I needed to do something. Why was I not doing anything with my information and love? No clue.

The Beginning
I am a firm believer in preparation and doing things the hard way. Learn a lot, do a lot, fail a lot and get good at what you do. I immediately decided things were required: books, camera and ideas. Bought myself a pile of books about directing, lighting, digital movie making, etc. A while earlier I already had begun writing down movie ideas, scene ideas, character ideas. Anything and everything that could come in handy some day (even things I thought would never come in handy). I encourage anyway who wants to make movies to start the habit of writing things down. In about a year's time, eight ideas have been written down by me, what I call large ideas (a movie, a TV show or a short movie). Next to that there are also numerous ideas that are committed to paper about all sorts of things. It might never get used (some if it already got used now), but there is a lot of stuff for me to fall back on later!

While reading all the books (and still continuing to read the articles on the Internet) my mind started thinking about a camera. After a month or two the choice had been nailed down to the Canon XL1S camera (PAL edition since I live in Europe). Why this one? good preparation! This is one important piece of it. The camera is well known for its beautiful picture, extendibility (different lenses, third party support etc.) and support from Canon. The only thing against it was the price. Everything in Europe is expensive, cameras included. Fortunately for me there was a heavy project at work during the last months of 2001. This allowed billing overtime to the company, in turn allowing me to buy the camera (together with some savings of my own). First week December 2001 I picked up my camera: happy day in my life!

After some two months of experimenting (December 2001, January 2002) I bought myself the Canon filter set containing the following: ND (less strength then on the manual lens), UV filter (filters out UV light and protects your lens from dust, scratches etc.) and a Circular Polarizer filter (this filter can be rotated so that you can remove reflections etc. on surfaces like glass and water. On a car window you can rotate it so that you see through the window into the car or that you see the reflection instead). All of these filters have been used on my little short movie, they came in very handy! The UV filter is on my lens permanently to protect it. Also bought myself a case for the camera (not a real camera case but a toolset case) which has room for cables, tapes, batteries and all sort of things that need to be dragged along for the ride (this turned out to be a very wise thing to buy as well, it protected my camera and allowed me to bring everything with me in an easy to move case). At this time there was no money left to spend so the tripod had to be borrowed from a friend, a Manfrotto (no fluid head unfortunately).

The Movie
The feeling came that I needed to do a movie. What about was the question. Some ideas where already on paper (as described above), but I wanted to start small and easy for a number of reasons. My friends and myself all have jobs or school, so time is limited. Furthermore it usually is wise to begin small (and thus also making small mistakes), which has some nice side effects: it will be much cheaper, easier and faster too make! While looking around in my country for film schools I might wanted to attend (there are only 2), one required a movie to be submitted (on a very tight deadline, but we will get to that later). This was interesting. It gave me an opportunity to make something that could also be used if deciding to apply for this school, also giving me a deadline in which to work to stimulate me further. Splendid! The deadline was 3 weeks away (that is a very short period of time). What was needed was a simple idea, easy to execute: a story about a burned out business man. It wasn’t a very big interesting story, but it allowed me to make the following shortcuts:

Easy access to locations:
Since I am a business man myself (where did you think part of this story came from?) there was direct access to all of my sets without needing to dress them. If asked gently we would be allowed to film at my own work. This was granted (swell). The other location was my own house (and my lead characters house) which was easy to use as well.

Traveling time:
Driving from my home to work is only a 15 minute drive. This was handy because my 2 person crew (friends of mine) could sleep at my house. The only downside to this was they had to picked up from far away and dropped off at the end of the weekend (some money went into car fuel here). This tremendously cut down on the time to shoot this movie. We shot this movie in 3 days, 2 of which we where at work.

Even though things were looking favorable two more things where cut: sound and light. While one of my crew (the lead actor) is an audio engineer (and had brought professional audio equipment with him) I decided to not use any audio. My idea was to let the movie be told from the perspective of the character, as if he was looking back on his own live. To add to this feel the movie is going to use music and VO (Voice Overs) of the character talking about his own life). Second, we probably would not have any time to do extra takes if the audio was not correct. Besides this I also choose to not use any additional lighting, due to a number of reasons. Money (of which there was not much left), no time to buy any lighting gear or rent it (which cannot be done easily here), and again the time that would be required to learn how to light and place these lights. These two things together saved me days of time (really). If I had not done this all the footage that would was needed to be shot would never have been shot, no way!

Equipment
The following equipment was used to make this short movie:

Canon XL1S PAL (standard 16x II lens)
Canon filter set (ND, Circular Polarizer & UV filter)
Manfrotto tripod (no fluid head)
Dolly (a little car from work with big wheels)
2 MiniDV tapes
Some power extension cords
Firewire enabled laptop from work (comes with my job)
Windows 2000 professional
Adobe Premiere 6.01 for editing

Pre-production
The total project was supposed to last three weeks, one and half weeks where spend on pre-production (idea, script, planning etc.). Came up with my basic story idea in a couple of days, putting it down in a couple of sentences. The next thing I did was to write down the number of scenes the idea needed, describing and numbering them (came to 20). although I had started writing a true script there was no time to finish it (had no vacation during my pre-production). This was mistake number one. I should have taken the time to write at least a very basic script outline (this should not take too long if you already have a scene/story outline).

One thing that triggered my slow script writing (and therefore running out of time) was language choice and my choice to do voice over. Since my native language is not English I was debating with my self to make the voice over English or my native language (Dutch). This together with actually coming up with voice over lines was too much in the small time available. From my first thoughts voice overs did not seem that more difficult than "normal lines". I was probably wrong in my assumption. It is probably "easier" (not implementing that the craft is easy!) to write character dialog then voice over dialog, because you do not want the voice over to be cheesy, easy and tell the viewer everything. It must, however, grab an audience, inform them and keep them interested in what they are seeing as well. This turned out to be more difficult than I had initially thought. It really became a double cutting sword. On one side it was working in my favor (not having to record audio on set) and on the other side it was working against me (more difficult to come up with interesting lines). This problem must still be tackled this very moment. Wish me luck.

My second mistake in pre-production was to not storyboard, mostly out of time constraints. The other part was a little arrogance from my part thinking that I had the shots in my mind and that the movie would not need that many (since it was a little short movie). How more wrong could I have been. I realized there was a problem after the shoot was over and editing had started. Suddenly there were scenes that could not be put together. Let me explain this a bit more with an example from my movie:

My main character has entered his work and is walking down a hallway. The camera is following him with a dolly down the corridor as he turns into a office room. This scene needs to be cut to a scene where he is working. The problem here lies in that I do not have any footage to go in between these two shots. It feels very unnatural to see a person walking down a corridor (with his coat etc. on) and then suddenly working. Something needs to happen in between. Now if the jump in time was bigger, say from leaving his home to working, that would have been acceptable. An audience just simply fills in the blank here. In my case the jump is just too small. It does not seem to work.

If there had been an storyboard session (even if it was rough with pictograms or something) this probably would have been noticed before it was shot. I am currently thinking about drawing some pictures, shots and sequences that where in my mind before the footage was shot to help me in my final editing moments. It can be quite disorienting to have a pile of footage and no visual guideline other then a scene list! Not every movie will need a full drawn out storyboard, but I truly have learned that it is a good thing to really think about how scenes and shots will connect to each other both before it is shot (also handy while you are shooting).

One final thing I did in my pre-production phase was planning: calling all the people again to make sure everyone was ready to go, writing a second scene list in the order I was planning to shoot it (instead of the order they would appear in the movie). Planning all the shots around locations is a good idea, it allows you to go through your sets as fast as possible. You also ensure that important things do not change in the mean time. First day and half were at work and the last day and a half at home. We started out at work because this was the most important set where we could only be at specific times. My own house was available to us whenever we wanted. This list proved to be a very good thing to make because everyone knew exactly when we where going to be where and what we were going to shoot. It also allowed me to track everything while my mind was in a thousand different places (working with equipment, instructing actors etc.). I am going to drop the bomb here. Take half of the scenes of the first day of shooting and mirror them on the second day of shooting, moving everything half a day back. Why? Two reasons. You are not going to shoot everything within your chosen timeframe so over calculate. Reason 2, your very first day (ever! Remember this was my first movie and perhaps yours too!) will be chaotic, disorganized and above all very informative and learning. That last part is a very, very good thing. It takes a lot of time though, so double half of your scenes from the first day to the second day.

Production (the actual shoot)
There we were. At my work with a car full of people and equipment (it was a small car). It was end of the afternoon of a Friday. Out three day shoot was about to begin, boy, was I nervous! For the first time in my live I was embarking on creating something of my own (truly my own) with the help of other people. We unpacked our gear from the car and headed inside, some co-workers interested in what was about to happen. Luckily for me not much people were around. When you set up your very first scene to be shot in your live, I don’t need anyone to watch other then the people who I truly need (and trust around me).

Only one scene got shot from the 3 planned the very first day, luckily for me the most important one: my main character working during the evening. The scene was shot in about an hour. The rest of the time was spent unpacking, fiddling with the tools, discussing the scene, instructing the actors and repacking the equipment. although this scared me off a bit at first it turned out all right the next day when we shot a heck of lot more scenes. We had gotten our important scene which we couldn’t do any other time (we needed an evening scene and only had access to work the next day during day time). The other scenes where miscellaneous scenes which could also be shot during day time.

I learned an important lesson here: as with everything in live it takes a lot longer then you initially think (or perhaps hope). Later that evening, after dropping of equipment at home, I took my crew (3 people total, including myself) out for diner in a very nice restaurant. We had a nice time eating, laughing and discussing our first day of shooting.

Do not forget to feed your crew! Sounds simple enough, and it is. Everyone needs food and drinks to survive the day. Your actors and other crew will be happier with a full stomach (not too full) then an empty one! For my movie I needed to shoot a short little lunch scene where everyone was eating around a table. Knowing this when scheduling my scene and knowing that we needed to lunch ourselves as well on Saturday I planned this scene in the middle of that day. Just before we needed to shoot this scene we went off to a bakery to get all kind of things for lunch. When all the crew (including the actors) and myself sat around the table to eat our lunch letting the camera roll (and moving it around a couple of times). This worked out very well! Together with fuel for my car these where the only costs I truly had. Pretty doable.

While filming the second day I made my next big mistake: forgot to bring an important piece with me: the lead character’s laptop (actually my laptop from work). It was still at home. Instead of going back to get it (which would have taken at least 30 minutes plus the time to get everyone working again) we found some old unused laptops and used that instead. No-one will probably notice the difference anyway since the focus is not on the prop, but on the character using it! During shooting I was also very please with my earlier made decisions to not record audio or do lighting. In simulating working (and phoning for example) the characters just talked about anything they want (some pretty hilarious things like trading an old car tire for a mother-in-law). The sound will not be used, so it does not matter! Together with not having to set up lights, which I have never done (so removing lengthy testing and fine tuning), this turned out to be great time savers. Without these "restrictions" the shooting would have never been completed in 3 days!

Together with my crew I learned a lot of things: thinking about how to shoot a scene, moving the camera around, doing more then one take, different angles to shoot at etc. etc. Listen to what you crew has to say, in my case they had some very good ideas! My first shooting experience has certainly been an exciting journey! I can still remember the thrill of seeing your first footage on the TV, raw, just shot. Together with my crew we watched the "dailies". It was a fun experience. Some things worked and looked great, others did not. One thing we all noticed immediately where auto focusing problems. These where most evident during our dolly shots down a hallway (these could have been shot in manual focus since the character keeps the same distance throughout the "walk") and shots inside an elevator (here the auto focus had difficult focusing on a light surround a button). Next time I will try to shoot as many things in manual as possible, otherwise beautiful shots look now rather dull. Oh well, this was mainly a learning process anyway!

This is it for the first installment, I hope everything was readable and you did not got an information overload. Next time we are going to talk about the editing process, color correction effects work and a bunch of other things. I promise to include a whole bunch of pictures then to balance out the text some more. If you have any comments (positive, negative or any you want to share), ideas, suggestions, remarks or questions you can reach me at visuar@iname.com