Archive for September, 2009
Saturday, September 26th, 2009
Dave reminisces about the business world of the 1980s, where the most technology a business encountered was a fax machine. As we all know, things have changed, and now information technology is required for every business venture.
In this week’s “Getting Down to Business,” Dave talks with IT expert Mark Mathis of Arctic Information Technology who will help you determine if your business needs a server. And what is a server, anyway?
In the news, Dave highlights the optimism index and forecasts some sign of recovery on the horizon.
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Do you need a server?
Posted in Getting Down to Business® Podcast, Technology | No Comments »
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
The month of September begins with the celebration of a great holiday, Labor Day. On this day we celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit and hard work that has produced the greatest nation and economic system in the world. The holiday was first celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City. There is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday.
One story has Peter J. McGuire, the general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners as the originator. McGuire suggested a day to honor those “who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.” However, many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, proposed the holiday in 1882. Regardless, by 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed.
Unions historically represented skilled workers and craftsmen evolving from the guilds of the past. These guilds were associations based on trades, carpenters, carvers, glassworkers, machinists, masons, printers, typesetters, and textile workers. Each guild closely guarded and controlled the skills, technology, and training needed to become a master craftsmen. The founders and leaders of these guilds were free and independent master craftsmen carefully imparting the skills of their crafts and maintaining rigid quality standards.
Recently, I read an article entitled “Unions: No laughing Matter.” This article did not make me laugh. It was a vain attempt to paint a smile on unions and belies the fact that most unions no longer represent and promote skilled workers. Having strayed from their core purpose, this union, like many others, still relies on tired old counterintuitive rhetoric that “it is the interest of big business to increase the bottom line and corporate America does this at the expense of workers who are producing the country’s wealth.” They miss the point almost entirely. It is not simply “the interest of big business” to increase the bottom line; it is the only reason to run a business either large or small. Wealth is created when the entrepreneurial spirit, risk-taking, is combined with capital and labor which then successfully produce a profit. A profitable business produces jobs and wealth with no losers.
The idea that profits result from the abuse of the worker fails to explain why workers in the technology industry and most of the private sector today remain happily union free and well compensated. This same notion fails to adequately explain why union organizing focuses on public employees. Do local, state, and federal governments exploit their workers? Do these workers need to be protected from greedy owners? Wait a minute! The public sector is owned by taxpayers and supported by their tax payments. Unions simply exploit these public workers by extracting large monthly payments (dues) at the expense of the middle class taxpayers.
My father was a skilled craftsman represented by a union. His union provided all of his medical and retirement benefits as a simple deduction from his paycheck regardless of which company employed him; portability back in the 50’s and 60’s. Companies that hired workers from this union knew they were getting a skilled craftsman who would work hard and provide a high quality finished product while the laborer was assured of getting a good wage and benefits. This is the kind of partnership that most often exists between business and labor which produces benefits for all. This win/win is also responsible for producing our great economic system.
We have a culture that celebrates risk-taking; believing also that those entrepreneurs who work hard, take-risks, and combine capital and labor should reap the rewards (i.e., profits). These entrepreneurs create small business and 60% to 80% of all jobs. Profitability allows them to grow and become big businesses creating even more jobs. It is appropriate that we as a nation pay tribute to the creator of so much of the nation’s strength, freedom, leadership and wealth: the American employer and their employees.
Posted in Small Business | No Comments »
Sunday, September 20th, 2009
In this entertaining “Getting Down to Business,” Dave talks with international consultant Geoff Burch about his sales management book, The Way of the Dog: The Art of Making Success Inevitable. Dave finds this book very motivating, compelling and full of useful information. Geoff proves to be a lively guest who tells great stories.
In other news: We also learn that Dave is broadcasting during International Talk Like a Pirate Day!
Listen or download below:
Sales: The Way of the Dog
Posted in Getting Down to Business® Podcast, Sales | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
In the September issue of Business/News & Views®, David Weatheholt sees signs in the economy that the recession may be nearing an end. He also writes an op-ed about the relationship between small business and labor.
Amanda Cullen has some tips for small businesses on how to make websites more visitor-friendly, and the final article provides information on avoiding email scams.
Read now: Business/News & Views – September 2009
Posted in Getting Down to Business® eNewsletter, Marketing, Small Business, Technology | No Comments »
Saturday, September 12th, 2009
The recession is finally heading towards Alaska, but Dave doesn’t want you to be pessimistic. He wants you to be prepared. To help you with that, he provides advice on cutting expenses and unnecessary costs in your business.
In the news, Dave talks about the recession’s effects on Alaska’s tourism industry and some competition for the Alaska Pipeline. And Dave’s guest is Ralph Swan, sales manager for Swan Employer Services.
Listen or download below:
Preparing for an Economic Downturn
Posted in Getting Down to Business® Podcast, Recession, Small Business | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
Change seems to simply just happen. Malcom McLean, the trucking entrepreneur, revolutionized the cargo industry by introducing metal shipping containers. The barcode transformed inventory management; desktop publishing revolutionized the printing industry, and now Extensible Business Reporting Langue (XBRL) is about to transform the accounting profession.
November 10, 1494 is a significant day in the history of accounting. On this date, Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan monk and mathematics professor, published the first book on double-entry accounting. Friar Pacioli’s book described the financial transaction process used by merchants in Venice during the Italian Renaissance period. His book laid out the basis of the double-entry accounting system still in use today; the source of the beloved debits and credits.
The advent of computerized accounting software marked a dramatic shift away from paper and hand recording of business transactions-the first significant change and a big step in the automation of the accounting process. This shift, after 470 years, automated what had been an extremely labor intensive process by reducing the number of steps; the need for multiple bookkeepers, ledgers, and journals and, ultimately, the overall size and cost of an accounting department. While this automated process brought significant changes, the accounting industry still has not really deviated from the basic system described by Friar Pacioli.
August 1, 2009 is another significant day in the history of accounting. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) mandated that XBRL format be used for all quarterly reporting. The Electronic Data-Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (EDGAR) system website reported there were “no major complaints, though a couple of issues have understandably surfaced for companies filing for the first time in this format.” The use of XBRL represents a significant advancement and further refinement in the automation of accounting. This step in the accounting automation process still leaves Friar Pacioli’s system intact and will ultimately place control of financial reporting in the hands of management, owners, and investors-not just accountants or financial management. XBRL will open the door to imaginative and innovative refinements that empower entrepreneurs who will further define and drive changes in the accounting world.
XBRL is a computer readable format used for data tagging that is more easily understood by comparing it to the UPC labeling used for barcoding of products. Like barcodes, each piece of financial data is tagged and stored in a database for later use. Data mining will then retrieve financial data for use in financial analysis and reporting, opening the way for microscopic or telescopic examination of this information, thus producing the ability to “slice and dice” financial data for utilization in more informative and useful ways. The significance of this kind of change may not be readily apparent to all, but believe me it will have ramifications equal to that of containers on shipping or barcoding on inventory management.
The XBRL bonus for management and owners of all small businesses will be the ability to retrieve real time financial data in a management friendly format. This will eliminate many of the historical financial unknowns plaguing your current decision making process. How many times have you made important business decisions without the benefit of supporting financial information simply because accounting could not get you timely and useful data? We are on the precipice of big changes that will impact us all.
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Saturday, September 5th, 2009
Small business and labor have both been instrumental in building America’s success, and Dave takes the Labor Day Weekend episode of “Getting Down to Business” to explore the partnership between the them.
Dave’s guest, Paul Foutz, a walking encyclopedia of business information, shared important labor statistics with Dave and his listeners (appropriate for Labor Day Weekend, don’t you think?)
Listen or download below:
Small Business and Labor- A Great Partnership
Posted in Getting Down to Business® Podcast, Small Business | No Comments »
