Clarion Communications

How do you measure success?

In business, there is only one way. You measure the success of the business with its touchstone.

Think of a builder who uses a plumb line. What’s the purpose? To see if the targeted idea of having the building remain upright has a chance of success.

To have the chance of success, the builder needs something to measure his work by, hence the plumb line.

But what is the plumb line — or touchstone — for measuring the success of the business overall?

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Why do so many small businesses fail? Here are some suggestions how to avoid failure.

It is not always easy to balance theory and practice, yet that is the challenge of business. At the end of the day, we may theorize as much as we like, about prices, markets, the quality of our goods, or our selling skills. But if our business is to survive, we must take our theorizing and fuse it with practical realities.

Management as a necessary practice in every business, but especially small business. If a business has grown beyond a certain size it has already learned that management in some form is essential. What smaller businesses need to realize is that management is the key to growth and without it the business is usually
retarded.

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The numbers are in: as the business environment has become more difficult, senior management in many companies has had to take a very serious look at every possible cost-cutting exercise. In this environment, every facet of American business at large has come under cost reduction scrutiny. And as recent unemployment numbers show, the employee is not exempt from this investigation.

In many instances, management has found it difficult to justify the employee’s salary. In many organizations it is difficult, if not impossible, for a firm to assess the true value of a worker. As they have attempted to determine costs and consider cheaper alternatives, outsourcing work to independent contractors has become a viable option. Since it is difficult for a company to assess the real value of its employees, it never knows whether it is getting value for its money. Nor does the employee know if he is being paid his true market value. By forcing staff to compete as contractors against all other suppliers in the marketplace, then, the business firm is better able to gauge the value of the people it hires. And the workers gain by being able, first, to assess the value of their contribution by comparing with their competitors, and second, by being able to take on additional contracts.
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The copyright in music debate creates an opportunity to re-think the purpose of copyright and similar laws, such as patent protection. Neither copyright nor patents had an illustrious beginning. Used by the powers in authority as an attempt to either limit free speech or raise money, the laws had a purpose to protect the position of those in authority. In other words, they were used to protect a monopoly.

More recently laws such as copyright, patents and trademarks are used to create monopolies not of political power but of economic power. Music writers sell their compositions to music publishers who invest
the time and money in print and marketing to create sales. The publishers and shareholders want a return on their investment. They are clearly not happy if someone gets access to the same product without paying for it. Book writers do the same.

So do hamburger makers. Read the rest of this entry »

Around the world, governments big and small have reduced their subsidies to the arts as a means of reducing deficits. Not surprisingly, the beneficiaries of those subsidies are trying hard to retain as much taxpayer money as they can.

For some of us, the arts world has become politicized. Artists of various kinds are often at the forefront of social change, such as Wagner was in his attempt to create revolution through music. (See the book, Dionysus Rising , by E. Michael Jones for details). Christian moral standards are challenged in the form of shapes, form, sounds and sight. The result is that the arts have contributed to the breakdown in Christian culture.

A consequence of the art subsidies has not been better art, if we judge art by its public acceptance. The mere fact that subsidies exist is evidence that some artists cannot operate in a voluntary marketplace. Whereas Abba or the former Beatles made it big without government aid, other artists would starve or find another profession without subsidies.
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In 2005, Spain was in the news, again. It may be of little interest to us, except it raises a moral dilemma that plagues the world: copyright.

I can think of no topic that gets people’s backs up so quickly. The idea that people should actually own something and protect it by law is under challenge. Especially if that property is “intellectual” property.

Imagine for a moment that you wrote a song, a popular one at that, and you’re making good royalties from the recording company who had contracted with you to market the product. But there are some individuals who reject the notion that you and the record company should make such a deal. Read the rest of this entry »

Psychopath!  What picture does that word conjure in your mind?

Too often we associate the idea of psychopath with Anthony Hopkins brilliant portrayal of Dr. Hanibal Lecter.  Lecter is a psychiatrist with an eating disorder: He’s a cannibal.  So you see him on the screen apparently eating someone’s brains.

Now that picture is not one of a business consultant.  But neither is it a picture of a real psychopath.

There are  number of identifiers of a psychopath, and his near-twin brother, the narcissistic personality disorder.  They share some common traits.  One of the identifiers is a continuous attempt to manipulate people and outcomes.
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Being self-employed is the dream of many. But as one self-employed person quipped, “I used to work for a boss; now I work for a tyrant.” Or, as another put it, “When you’re self-employed, you’re the first one hired and the last one fired.” That’s true, but you may also be the last one to get paid. Undaunted, people launch themselves in various self-employment projects.

In recent years, the choice of self-employment has not been an option; it became an imperative as business after business has shed its workers for a variety of reasons. In the midst of the business down turn, Read the rest of this entry »

In the life of a business, advertising is an area that can make or break many. Nothing eats up money like advertising costs, so it is vital that the business gets an equitable return from its advertising dollars. In spite of this fact, many businesses still make the same old mistakes in advertising, thereby failing to get maximum value from their expenditure. Here`s a list of some of the more common mistakes in advertising.

1. Failure to Identify Customer Needs
Given that our goods and services are purchased to satisfy some need, it is surprising to see just how much advertising fails to meet the test of telling customers how this particular product or service will meet a perceived need.

The needs of customers are not that many, so it is difficult to understand why so much advertising fails Read the rest of this entry »

Whoever said business was easy was either a liar or a fool. Business is a challenge. That’s why it pays well.

But nothing challenges so much as the ethics of business. I have written on this before, but in this instance I’m going to explore some ethical challenges. They occur frequently in business, and there are no glib answers.

The first ethical challenge was created by Charles, excellent business manager and engineer. He began working as a business consultant but took a dislike to his employer who he felt did not carry enough integrity in their business dealings. Read the rest of this entry »