Turning  Threats into Strategic Opportunities:

Most small businesses conduct strategy in their businesses, but they are just not consciously organized and deliberate in planning what class of strategic actions they end up engaged in – is your strategic focus on Managerial leadership? Knowledge capital? Resources? Operational fit? Business environment or industry? In most small businesses strategic decisions and actions are usually the process of crisis management. If you understand that strategy is the ability to for the business to manage opportunities and threats in the environment. But sometimes the wisdom is in the ability to turn your threats into opportunities. Give yourself time to reevaluate what’s going on inside and outside of your business environment. Small businesses are agile, quick to adapt and respond to threats at less cost and seized opportunities in the environment.

Elements of Strategic Success:
In closing I share with you that for your strategy to succeed there are other elements that need to be in place, and they play a significant role in whether your strategy results are great or average.

1. Leadership – be present in your business
2. Know your company’s DNA
3. Know your business environments
4. Know your customers
5. Have a strategic consciousness
6. Act deliberately and boldly.

Leadership – be present in your business. Sometimes running a small business can be exhausting and overwhelming, and its always great to delegate. However, one function you can not delegate in your business is decision making. As the owner of the business, you need to be present at all times even when you have employees doing some of the functional tasks in the business. Provide direction, guidance, oversight but you have to make the decisions necessary to drive your business. It’s difficult to transition from chief operating office to chief executive officer as your business grows but your business tells you when you are ready to make these transitions

Know your company’s DNA - Knowing your business model is critical to business success. Many business owners fails to realize that as the business grows, the business model shifts or sometime completely changes. It is imperative to reassess and redefine your business model in order to meet the growing pains and challenges of scaling the business. This takes knowing that this business’s revenue formula is equivalent to your business DNA! Your business model is how you create consistent value and meet customer/needs regardless of how big your business grows!

Know your business environments – Your business environment is always changing and you as the business over have no control over it. However, you can always reasonably anticipate change if you are constantly scanning the environment, planning, tracking trends, regularly informing yourself about what’s happening in your industry or marketplace, networking and attending conference. Building your knowledge base is important for you as a business owner to manage change in the environment.

Know your customers – Customers are everything, and they are also the best informants to tell you whether your product or service is what they need. Creating interactive systems for customer engagement, feedback of monitoring customer behavior is some of the strategies you can implement to know your customers and your prospects.

Have a strategic consciousness – Strategic behavior is crucial to strategy management in a small business. It’s always starts with the question Why? Follow by How? If you can always ask these questions when analyzing what you are currently doing in your business or what you plan to do in the future, you are already being strategic. Make it a habit. Don’t just jump to implement ideas without first processing the reason for doing it and understanding your capacity and capabilities to do it successfully. In addition, define what success looks like because if you do not have a vision of your return on investment you can not measure the success of your strategic endeavors.

Act deliberately and boldly. – Have an action plan and implement it. Most small businesses will create the plan and shelf it! You might as well have never bothered to put the plan on paper, You action plan whether it’s a business plan; strategic plan; growth plan is a living document! It changes with the reality of execution. This is the test or proof of your concept. You can only learn the feasibility of your plan from experience, therefore, just be bold and do it. Business is a contact sport© . All the bruises and cuts you get are a testimony of the lessons learned as an entrepreneur. Thefore act deliberately and boldly to ensure business success.

Republished May 2023; Copyright @ February 2011 Dr. Tendai D. Ndoro (DocNdoro) – CEO, EDCTrainers, LLC dba /SLIPPA; https://www.linkedin.com/in/docndoro/

 

Insights from Small Businesses onthe COVID-19 Pandemic

Insights from Small Businesses on the COVID-19 Pandemic

By Dr. Tendai Ndoro

CEO – SLIPPA (Strategy Leadership Institute in Private & Public Affairs)

@ June 2020

This study was conducted by Dr. Tendai d. ndoro as Regional Director of the NJ Small Business Development Center at Rutgers-Newark, Rutgers Business School. The small business research was to guarge the sentiments as well as determine the needs and concerns of Essex County small businesses given the economic injury that has been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately 650 anonymous small businesses in Essex county were targeted and 10% of the businesses responded.

The survey was conducted for 5 weeks from May 15 to end of June 2020. The number of years in business varied with mostly established and mature businesses providing feedback in the survey.  Profile of businesses that responded to the survey were  from startup to established small businesses.

Survey Result Insights of Small Businesses:

Businesses were asked specific questions to guarge their emotional sentiments they were experiencing; access to capital; needs and concerns about COVID-19 pandemic. The results were as follows:

Business Current Sentiments About COVID-19:

Surprisingly, businesses expressed very positive sentiments. Important key sentiments were as follows:

1.      Positive sentiments toward Continuation of Business Operations: The business responded were determined to keep their businesses open. 95% of businesses sought to continue with their business operations. 4.69% said maybe and none of the respondent were at the time thinking of closing their businesses.

2.      Positive Sentiments toward Resilience by adapting to the pandemic: Despite the severity of the pandemic with the ensuing shut down, businesses owners were positively optimistic and were determined to be resilient. Most businesses were seeking to pivot to adapt to the new environment despite the pandemic challenges.

Businesses were asked: What are you experiencing currently as a result of the pandemic challenges? (Check all that apply), Most of the business owners expressed a positive resilience sentiment consistent with the attitude that they were looking to continue operations despite the disruption created by COVID-19. Most of their responses were surprisingly showed resilience factors despite the severe economic injury they are suffering due to the pandemic as indicated below:

# Field                                                                                                             Percentage

---

1 Economic loss                                                                                              15.25%

2 Food insecurity                                                                                            1.36%

3 Housing insecurity                                                                                       2.71%

4 Traumatized                                                                                                 2.03%

5 Anger                                                                                                            2.37%

6 Anxiety/Panic                                                                                               5.08%

7 Confused & Helpless                                                                                    3.73%

8 Sadness                                                                                                        4.41%

9 Overwhelmed                                                                                              7.80%

10 Adjusting                                                                                                    11.53%

11 Coping                                                                                                        9.49%

12 Cautiously Optimistic                                                                                 9.49%

13 Pivoting                                                                                                      4.75%

14 Recovering                                                                                                 8.14%

15 Resilience                                                                                                   10.51%

16 Other                                                                                                          1.36%

3.      Negative sentiments toward anticipated high cost of doing business: Due to the situation being a public health crisis, businesses were anticipating high cost of doing business which would have a significant impact on recovery and sustainability.

Access to Capital:

The most salient needs businesses had was access to capital although 25% of the respondents indicated that they opted to use their funds to keep the business going during the initial shutdown. In addition, businesses were looking for ways to diversify their revenue earnings as well and mitigate business liquidity by finding ways to manage cash reserves. Responses to the concerns predominantly focused on ability for business recovery and sustainability; the length of economic recovery and length of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Business Consulting Needs:

Businesses were asked: Which of these CARE Act consulting services do you need most assistance with? (Check all that apply) the results indicated that the top 4 technical assistance needs were: (a) sales and revenue diversification assistance; (b) Digital marketing & general marketing assistance; (c) budgeting/Accounting/Cashflow management assistance; (d) other assistance which predominantly mention the needs for sourcing and affording PPEs (personal protection equipment)

# Field                                                                                                             Percentage

---

1 Cybersecurity systems                                                                                 3.33%

2 IT/Cloud Computing                                                                                     4.67%

3 Intellectual Property protection                                                                  4.67%

4 Supply Chain management                                                                          2.67%

5 Sourcing PPEs                                                                                               3.33%

6 PPE needs assessment                                                                                 4.67%

7 E-Commerce                                                                                                4.00%

8 Sales & Revenue diversification                                                                  11.33%

9 Digital Marketing/General Marketing                                                         10.00%

10 Business model pivoting                                                                            8.00%

11 Human Resources management                                                               5.33%

12 Establishing Telework/remote working systems                                       4.67%

13 HR Performance/production measurements                                            2.67%

14 Risk mitigation                                                                                           4.00%

15 Credit Counseling                                                                                       6.00%

16 Budgeting/Accounting/Cashflow Mgt.                                                      10.00%

17 OTHER: What other assistance should we be offering that would help with your business RECOVERY?                                                                                                             10.67%

 

---

Business Concerns about COVID-19

Businesses were asked: What other concerns do you have about Your Business and the Economy right now? (check all that apply) most of the small businesses indicated that the top 4 conferences they had are (a) business recovery and sustainability; (b) Length of economic recovery; (c) Length of COVID-19 pandemic; (d) maintaining payroll

Field                                                                                                                Percentage

---

1 Business recovery and sustainability                                                           17.51%

2 Maintaining payroll                                                                                      11.28%

3 Employee retention                                                                                     3.50%

4 Consumer confidence                                                                                  6.23%

5 Adapting to new consumer behaviors                                                         8.95%

6 Higher costs of doing business                                                                    10.89%

7 Maintaining Health, Safety & Sanitation in the business                            5.84%

8 Sourcing and finding PPEs for Employees/Clients                                       3.50%

9 Length of economic recovery                                                                      14.40%

10 Length of COVID-19 pandemic.                                                                 14.01%

11 OTHER: Any other concerns you would like to share                                3.89%

---

Conclusion:  

Since this research was conducted around the May/June time frame, it is worth noting that concerns about the length of the pandemic and length of economic recovery would predetermine business recovery and sustainability. If the pandemic continues beyond a reasonable or bearable time for small businesses it would compromise the hope small business have be feeling that they can adapt and survive the pandemic, public health crisis and economic disruption it has caused. For the small business, some of these positive sentiments may not last long.

ROOTS & WINGS…Connecting the Dots in Retrospect

The other day I heard a mother saying to her daughter, the 2 best things that a parent can give her child is give them Roots and Wings. I gave them to you so go do your thing, I got your back. I loved it. It was so simply succinct and truly encapsulated my unarticulated parenting philosophy and aspirations – giving my children roots and wings! I have always preached about the importance of giving our children S.E.E. – socio-economic exposure…. and every time I said S.E.E. I felt it always sounded so “academic”. But when this mother said it – it was so plain yet so complete!  I remember telling my daughter that there are five ways of gaining knowledge. We learn through: a) formal education; b) cross-cultural immersion; c) multi-religious tolerance; d) multi-language immersion; e) travel and food exposure; not necessarily in any order of priority.

Once, I took her and her baby brother to an Afghan restaurant on 9^th Avenue in New York City when she was about 9years old. She started protesting that she wanted hamburger and chips! I told her this was not a McDonald occasion, so she needed to try something else or stay hungry. She was hungry so she had no choice but to eat the couscous. Now she loves it. The other day she remembered and requested that we visit the restaurant again. I am not even sure if it’s still open. Then I sent her to a South African International School for two and half years straight from 8 years in American parochial school. The first year was tough. Really tough. She cried and called every weekend! But now she is a global citizen with cross-cultural competencies of discerning subtle cultural nuances that positively differentiate us, yet at the same time make us one. She is grounded and has gained some self-discipline for African boarding school is like military school, if not worse. Above all else she has social capital -made friends from all over Africa and Europe as a result.

Recently transferred back to the US for junior high, she was placed in a Music workshop class that teach studio production and engineering. While some kids in her class were complaining about how they hated the class, she loved it. On the other hand she was complaining about how she hated her music theory class because she felt so unprepared! I worked hard to get her into that class. So I shared with her my own story about hating courses in high school but taking them anyway. I told her that when I was in boarding school, I remember hating a class called “Domestic Science” where they taught us cookery and sewing. We universally hated it because we believed that it was meant to prepare us to be maids (in case you failed the rigorous British Cambridge ‘O’level exams). It was the colonial era of my high school days! Roll up 10 years later I am in Grad school in America, the economy of my homeland is spiraling down so was the currency rates. I have no money, no fellowship, never could do those waitressing jobs, let alone I did not have the stomach for working as a nurse’s aide and dropping out of school was not an option. I needed a way to pay tuition so I decided to a fashion designing company. I designed my own custom made contemporary African couture. It was a thriving business and I made enough money to pay my tuition and rent!!!! Still hated sewing, but I got great at designing averaging $250/outfit. In addition, because of domestic science I turned out to be a great cook! Thanks to my teacher, Mrs. Malaba!!! Who knew?

At the time of telling her this story I did not even realize I was building on her roots and wings. I was just trying to help her in appreciating that the dots have a way of connecting somehow! I did not even know this either till I stumbled on a YouTube video of Steven Jobs giving a 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=D1R-jKKp3NA). He was sharing his story about how he dropped out of college because he could not bear the thought of his adoptive working parents spending their hard earned savings for college tuition he could not see the value of. Once dropped out he continued sneaking into classes and stumbled on a calligraphy course and he loved it! Roll forward 10 years later he started Apple in his garage and designed the Mac to have the most beautiful typography than the PCs. In a nutshell he said that he could not connect the dots while taking these risky decisions, but in retrospect he is able to connect the dots. Had he not dropped out of college he probably would not have started Apple, given it the best typography. When he got publicly fired from the company he started he would not have started PIXAR, the best animation company of the 21^st century.

Sometimes when one door closes, there is a reason why you are being detoured to your true destiny. As human beings, it’s in our nature to get in our way. But then again is it? Does all this structured “socialization” do more harm than good? I really don’t know. I am just trying not to get in my own way or my kids’ way. Its every parent’s responsibility to give their children roots and wing, but it’s the child’s responsibility to trust and tap into their roots and wings! They need to understand, with globalization geography is irrelevant. Spread your wings far and wide child!

Copyright @ October 18, 2011 by Dr. Tendai Ndoro (DocNdoro) – Founder, SLIPPA (Strategy Leadership Institute in Private & Public Affairs); Brighten The Corner Foundation; CEO EDCTrainers, LLC.

The Kangaroo Plan & Other Analogies

The Kangaroo Plan & Other Analogies

The other day I was talking with two former small business clients of mine just catching up. Then we started talking about my new business ventures. At the end of our conversation, one of them asked if he could be a part of my business. I said sure – if his had a half of million dollars to purchase the license, why not. He laughed and suggested that how about he sign-up to get the license and when the business picks up he can then give me the licensing fee. I smiled in turn and said “Sure, that’s what I call in business a ‘Kangaroo Plan’, so keep on hoping!”  The other guy asked me what a “kangaroo plan” is. I explained that as you know the Kangaroo has a pouch it carries its baby, so a “business kangaroo plan is when you carry someone in your pouch and you do all the hopping work! We all burst out laughing. He like the term and was going to use it from then on. The Kangaroo plan is an expression I use often in my business training and conversations with small business clients. However, up until then no one had ever asked me what it meant so I had not really articulated the meaning of it. I just assumed that whoever heard me say it understood what I meant.
I recalled that a very dear friend of mine once said to me, I used a lot of animal analogies in my conversations. As it happens she was venting about her eldest brother’s mannerisms and I told her he is “a damn Rooster”. She asked me why I had called him a Rooster. Well, I explained that from what she was saying, all he does is stand on the family pedestal suggesting ideas and ordering everyone around, but he never steps up to the plate to execute solutions or contribute funds to the family problems – well that’s a Rooster! It gets up at the crack of dawn to give its crow, waking everybody else then spend the rest of the day doing nothing else but posturing in the yard or chasing the hens! She laughed so hard because she said it was so befitting of his mannerism. Then another time we were debating, more like disagreeing over something and I said she was acting like a goat (being stubborn and silly at the same time)!  She called her mother and told her I had called her a goat! Her mom thought it was hilarious, and agreed with me –she is a country girl who grew up in Louisiana – she knows how goats behave. From then on every time we got into our heated debates, I would accuse her of being a goat again and we would just burst out laughing and the difference of opinion would dissipate.

Growing up half my childhood life on a commercial farm owned by my paternal grandparents involved living and interacting with a lot of farm animals, as well as some wild ones too. We had cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, donkeys, dogs, cats, etc, encountered hyenas, vultures, rabbits, deer, monkey, baboons, snakes, lizards and all sort of insects!  The stereotype that in African people are living happily with lions, elephants, cheetahs, zebras and the like is not true. The ‘real’ wild animals don’t come near human habitats unless they get desperate for food. Anyway the experience of living on a farm taught me a lot about animal behavior. Over the years I unconsciously related these behaviors to human personalities and habits. It wasn’t till my friend made her observations about my analogies that I realized how often I make these parallels.

I have seen a lot roosters, goats, hens, bulls, cows, pigs goats and sheep in many of us! Hens fuss a lot for no apparent reason like damsels in distress and seemingly on the brink of hysteria, donkeys just take it and take it and then one day they just go rouge in public without warning; bulls always take charge stay cool and take their sweet time, sheep just follow each other in a bunch and if one gets separated it becomes so frantic like it missing its body parts, prigs are dirty, sloppy greedy and act like there is scarcity, monkeys are always needing something and when they can’t get it they will steal it and they are cunning at it too, baboons are very territorial, bullies and swagger around with a sense of entitlement and authority over what I don’t know. However cows are the most interesting because they have such diverse mannerism and behaviors. This I learnt from herding cattle.

Although we always had farm workers, my grandfather believed that ownership comes with responsibility and  a disciplined work ethic. When we visited on school holidays all the vazukuru (grandchildren) had to participate in some of the farm chores reserved for the grandchildren, like cattle herding, sheep and goat herding, weeding my grandmother’s groundnuts fields and occasionally going to the dip-tank, a system to combat cattle disease. The duty I liked most was going to dip-tank, because all I did was eavesdrop on conversations between my father, grandfather and uncles catch up with the other farmers and watch the cattle resist getting in the chemical water, but once they were in the barrack line resistance was futile! It was not a frequent chore as the cattle only went there once every six months or so. From this experience I learnt about what I now call the ‘dip-tank management style’ in organization management. However, of the herding chores sheep were easiest…they always stay together like jello! Cattle herding, which was the most frequent duty we did, was better than goats which were your worst nightmare. You got the goat herding chore instead of time-out. With experience, having cattle duty became easy - all you needed to do was keep the heard together in a contained spot till they were done grazing, then take them to the water hole  in the paddock. Thereafter, the sun would be too hot and once they had grazed and drank they usually go under the tree shed to sleep or just get away from sun..

 So one day, my cousin and I had the duty of herding cattle instead of going to the groundnuts field. It was one of those holidays close to harvesting season when all the maize (corn) is nice and green in the fields. The first rule of thumb in herding cattle was one had to watch them at all times. The second was making sure that the cattle don’t go into the maize field. My cousin and I had done this a million times. It was better than going to plough weeds in my grandmother’s ground nuts fields. Anyway on that day when we were herding cattle my cousin and I were supposed to drive the cattle to the paddock for their grazing, but we didn’t feel like it. Besides there were parts of the paddock that gave us the creeps when the vegetation was green and thick, so we were scared of being in there in the mornings because the cattle would have more energy and enthusiasm to wonder than later in the day when the sun is too hot in the afternoon and we could control them easier. She and I decided we were not taking them into the paddock but were going to keep them in another part of the farm with a grazing field near the house. All morning we managed to do this, and then to keep ourselves entertained we started playing hide and seek. After much  running around we decided to sit on the flat expansive granite rock (ruware) to enjoy the sun, tease some lizards while eating some wild berries we had pick up and continue our endless chatting. Then we fell asleep in the warm sun only to be awoken by loud yelling and screaming going on from the workers. From the direction where the noise was coming from, we knew instantly the cattle were in the maize field! We were in trouble. Our next chore would certainly be goat herding! It was. We were relegated to goat herding till my grandmother protested on our behalf.

Usually cattle are domesticated well and they know they were not supposed to go into maize fields. But in this particular herd there was one unruly naughty cow called “Milka”, so named because she always gave lots of milk, and she is the one we all knew had to watch. Milka could lead the entire herd astray and unravel your day with one move. Keep her in check and the whole heard would also be under control.  Due to her notorious tricks Milka wore a bell around her neck because she was known to wander off into all sorts of places and trouble and you could hear her comings and goings! I can never forget that damn bell of hers. Whenever it rang faster, you knew she was up to no good. Afterwards she would have such a look of contentment and satisfaction from her mischief. She was so boldly unruly that it was like dealing with a conniving, manipulative female human being. She would watch you all the time and the moment she realized you were not paying attention she would be at her shenanigans – whatever her flavor of trouble was for the day. I think she resented humans for taking her milk every morning.
I remember another incident I had with Milka. My cousin and I had been on cattle duty again, and we had had a great day in the paddock with the cattle. As we were heading home she broke away from the head and made a run for this thicket in the paddock. This thicket always gave me the creeps because it was a dark cluster of these big bushes, trees and vines all clumped up in this area. You could see through it but it was so dark, you did not know what might be lurking in it.  When she got into it, Milka just stood in the middle of it watch my cousin and I throwing stones at her trying to get her out. Two hours later she was still standing there, we were almost in tears as it was getting late and dark. It was like she was getting even with us, taunting and mocking us. We felt powerless. Finally by some miracle one of the bulls called Masvivi (named after my great grandfather) just got tired of it and went into the thicket and started thumping her with his horns till she got out. I was so angry at her I threw sticks at her all the way home.  As it got late, my grandfather got worried and had sent the workers to look for us because they did not know why we had not shown up. Being late usually meant that the cattle may have gone into the neighboring farmer’s fields and he would hold the cattle hostage till a ransom was agreed on. That was how disputes were resolved among the farmers.

The day of the maize raid, we knew Milka had orchestrated it. For a while we were not allowed to have cattle duty till my grandmother’s protest and also my brother and my cousin’s brother left the cattle to go into the neighboring farmer’s maize field. That was worse. They had been swimming in the paddock pond and lost sight of the cattle. Of course who had taken the lead into this trouble – Milka. I don’t remember what eventually happened to Milka but she certainly left a lasting impression on me. In school and at work I have encountered lots of female Milka’s too!

Copyright @ June 18, 2011 by Dr. Tendai Ndoro begin_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highl(DocNdoro) – Founder, SLIPPA (Strategy Leadership Institute in Private & Public Affairs); Brighten The Corner Foundation; CEO EDCTrainers, LLC.

URBAN Entrepreneurship: Challenges & Solutions

Attended the White House Urban Entrepreneurship Summit at Rutgers-Newark today....what an eye opener!!! I urge all Africans to take their development best practices and repackage them for developed emerging markets, for this is intellectual property capital bar none!!! Our breakfast keynote speaker was Russell Simmons with his latest book, Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All. The first thing he said was integration destroyed minority entrepreneurship because it destroyed self sufficiency and innovation in the black neighborhoods. I expected to hear gasps in the room there were non so I took it as concurrence. It sounded like a social capital argument; I am not a fan of Putnam. Then he redeemed himself in my mind by saying in his conclusion forget just being friends with just people of your own race or ethnicity – make friends outside your comfort zone, network, invite diversity to your dinner party, because business is about embracing and knowing people of all backgrounds. He gets it.

The essence of the Summit was discussing ideas on how we can best promote urban entrepreneurship? Many ideas were generated from this conference. Of interest was the first panel of practicing entrepreneurs that gave their testimonials – challenges with people management, motivation and incentives;  payroll taxes to worker’s compensation; business liability insurance; building a business that’s scalable; operations management; need for more entrepreneurship training to CEO personal development and giving back through mentoring.

The other panel I had a chance to sit through was on public-private partnerships for urban entrepreneurship development made of all the local, federal, and not-for-profit dignitaries. I have been in this conversation before. They were selling PR. How much cash infusion (really AID) is “invested” into minority and women businesses and urban entrepreneurs to get them on a level playing field; what resources are available; all the initiatives coming out of Washington that will be so great for this business constituency; how much we finally got it in this administration or the other; initiatives and programs to promote young entrepreneurship – the catch them while they are young approach; how we love our urban entrepreneurs and how we feel their pain and suffering and we are trying to do everything we can to get them started and going. This is a common narrative! Frankly as an administrator in small business development, I am fatigued by this narrative and sometimes feel hopelessly defeated! Its well meaning sounds good, if not great at times even inspiring. But is inspiration what we need in this era of globalization? Sometimes they get it and sound like they are on point (like today) but sometimes they are completely disconnected from reality.

No one on this panel talked about technology competiveness and global competitiveness. We are living in the first developed wealthy country of the world with everything available in excess yet access to internet technology is inaccessible to most residents and microenterprises of the urban community. It should be free because, even if they wanted it they couldn’t afford the monthly premiums. For the businesses, they come for business plan training and they have no typing skills, writing skills, analytical skills – forget research skills – that we can teach, but one has to know how interpret that data! They do not know how to download basic information or use social media functionally to grow their businesses at no cost at all even if they have access to online technology. It’s unnerving to say the least and there is lots of work to be done.

My question to the public-private partnership panel was: “How come no one at the local, state or federal level had ever thought of putting an application demo or simulation that would help the federal or state contracting procurement process; such as  having the online business registration process demos; or the licensing and permit application demo; or the copyright, trademark registration process demo; or the minority, woman and veterans business enterprise certification application demo so that we can teach small businesses about completing the application form, demystify these application qualifying processes thus more businesses will gain access to these government procurement opportunities, instead of having only a live online protocol process that is accessible one business at time?” I have a PhD in research capability and even I sometimes find the process daunting when I have to do it for a small business! They looked at me strange – maybe it was my accent – who knows. Its common sense! I was clear at the implications of my question - if you want to get urban entrepreneurs to access opportunities you need to remove the barriers we all know are preventing them from getting it. Such as complicated application processes and certification requirement and buddle contracts that they cannot access because they have not yet mobilized the capacity and capability yet they are potentially successful small businesses.  You can’t put a big piece of T-bone steak in from of a baby and wonder why they are not eating it – they need to grow teeth first before they get bite into that steak. How do small businesses grow teeth, by trying out small contracts and fulfilling them so that as they grow they gain experience and capability to enable them to manage big ones. It was a similar question I asked to the White House Ex-Im Bank delegation to Newark about why they did not have different export-import financial funding packages based on business size that would enable different small, medium and big businesses to benefit from their services, like fishing nets with different hole sizes that enable a fisherman to catch different size fish if he so chooses. If we really want small businesses to participate in export initiatives we have to give them incentives that fit their sizes and gradually graduate them to medium then big business. Another aha moment!

As a public administrator, I know that too much customization or specialization of programs increases the cost of doing business, but the benefits in the long run outweighs the costs.  If reduces the income disparities. The Minority Business Development Agency notes that the quantity of minority businesses does not match the quality of revenue earnings from this business community given their numbers in the economy. The US Census Bureau study in 2002 of large minority businesses ($1million+ in revenue) vs. small minority businesses (under $1m) showed that 2% of large firms grossed 64% of revenues and had 58% paid employees whereas in comparison 98% of the small firm grossed 36% of revenues and had 42% paid employees! Clearly the difference in job creation was small yet the gross revenue disparity was much bigger. The implications are that wealth in large firms is in the hand of a few, yet they are benefit from exclusive government contracts that the smaller firms cannot access at their under 1 million dollar levels of capacity yet they are producing comparable job creation in the economy. The benefits of letting small firms take a bite of the pie certainly will outweigh the administration cost of introducing programs that they can access in the mean time. Using this data, the MBDA concluded that “while smaller in number, minority firms with receipts of $1million or more generate a much larger percentage of all minority revenues and paid employment than firms with receipts under $1 million.” What they do not mention is that at these gross revenue levels the percentage of paid employees is too low given that the opportunities are only open to a significant few – 2%. My conclusion, urban entrepreneurs and small firms are marginalized from access to procurement opportunities by government policy design!  

Copyright @ June 6, 2011 by Dr. Tendai Ndoro begin_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highl(DocNdoro) – Founder, SLIPPA (Strategy Leadership Institute in Private & Public Affairs); Brighten The Corner Foundation; CEO EDCTrainers, LLC.

The Era of the New Migrant Worker

The other day I had my book club meeting with my sisters, M; L & K. It was great getting together again after such a long time. We were discussing our reading of the season: The Good Daughter by Jasmin Darznik. It was a lively discussion for about 2 hours. The discussions brought out the feminist in each of us. We all agreed Iranian women had the real power especially the power to impact other women’s destinies - though on the face of it, one would not think so.

Usually our book discussion last all of 2 hours and the rest of the 5-7 hours are spent discussing hot socio-economic; socio-political issues. The fun of it is we are passionate about our opinions, each bringing a potpourri of our personalities, world view, socio cultural values, our woman experiences (which are so diverse…) and above all else each our own convictions. This diversity makes for interesting heated conversation. I am a lover of looking at the world in parallels merging different lenses into similarities of the human condition. So when we were discussing jobs and layoffs, the concern was how we could stay employed or at least survive the current waves of recession retrenchments. Being an entrepreneur by nature I already have a paradigm shift on the classical employee/employer model, therefore when one of my sisters was lamenting about getting another job, I commented that maybe she needs to forget about “getting another job if she gets laid-off” as we are moving to a world where we are all migrant workers, so she should thing of repositioning herself as a migrant worker! What an uproar it raise. Rebellious L quickly interjected that she in no way is a migrant worker! To her, “migrant workers” are those people portrayed by the media jumping the fence, toiling in the commercial farms of America, and with no health insurance!  M gave me her “here we go again”  look, then smiled as she tried to explain to L that in actuality I was right given the context of my definition of the metaphor (M and I have had this conversation before).  So I explained to L that that when you take the expression out of the conventional meanings or label that media gatekeepers we listen to have attached to it, actually we are all becoming migrant workers. M then asked L to consider the concept independent of the negative mainstream media connotations and labels. L shook her head vehemently, repeating that she was NOT a “migrant worker”, then adding “I live in Florida and I know migrant workers!” K on the other hand was sitting watching us calmly one by one enjoying the unfolding debate drama, and reflecting on her position on the issue before she answered – she always weights her position on things before she comments.

Ironically L, who happens to be an untenured contract Professor, symbolizes the typical, new era professional migrant worker I was referring to! I pointed this out to her further explaining that it not a question of geography where the migrant workers we know of works, moving from one field to another. But then again, I retracted, the only difference in geography is being in an office, but we are all moving from employer to employer without guarantees of eternal job security till retirement or at best some long term permanence! I have accepted my fate of the new world order – and frankly, I also do not want to be an employer’s dependent anymore. For a moment, I thought I sounded like a republican, but God forbid!

As usual L and I being academicians, love debating these heavy duty intellectual conversations so the heat of the debate was now left between us. Still she objected. Not so much that the reasoning did not make sense but the idea of looking at her occupational circumstances as a migrant worker offended her prestigious status as an educated professional. I objected to her reasoning and pointed out that were all migrant workers already. The fact that she was not a tenured Professor working from contract to contract each semester; I was a contracted Director working in small business economic development, K was already self employed and M was looking to change into another career from the one she has been for the last 20 years, WE represented the classic definition of the new professional migrant worker. Thus we were!. Just because we had professional positions, did not mean that we were not migrant worker! We were all selling our intellectual properties to the highest bidder with no guarantees of longevity in these employment capacities! Our contract could be terminated at any time, and we would be all hitting the pavement looking for the next contract. I noted to L that we all have three things to sell – our minds, our physical labor or our bodies. At this point K – who was enjoying the conversation with engaged amusement -retorted that she would sell everything else before she sells her body! We all agree on this one – acknowledging that it was the oldest business model ever! By this time we were jumping out of our sits with excitement of the debate. Heck the migrant worker, despite the toil and hardship of their working environment, because they are selling their physical labor, they were better off than most of us

 In the meantime L was tallying her employment fringe benefits and above all else valuing her health benefits the most.  On the other hand, I urged L to take a pause and think about it – what’s making us all sick these days? The stress of our stressful jobs! I encourage L to imagine a day when you work when you want to work because you live within your mean, without the con-games of the mortgage industry  (which as it turns out we all bought into and as a result have them hanging around our necks), no real estate taxes, no home depot home improvement escapades, or the  need for shaving off chunks of our hard earned income on  credit card interests and payments incurred when the economy was in a bumper harvest, and vacation when you needed to vacation – that’s the life of a migrant worker! They work seasonally, accumulate their minimum wage and take time off during low seasons! That’s having ownership of your time, that’s ultimate freedom. That’s the future. At this point L took a pause, then reflected and finally conceded that indeed despite all her interesting exotic vacations the year before to all the unusual places of the world most of just dream about, the stress level of her college job instantly wipe off her rest the moment she got back to her job! We all laughed. Still I could see she was making her mental calculus about the cost/benefits of her current professorial occupation and having difficulty equating it to the image of a migrant worker.

As I was leaving to go home at 1am, she chided at me laughing then said “Damn, you now I am going to be thinking of myself as a migrant worker on my flight home….you gave me a new appreciation!” We burst out laughing as we hugged goodbye!

Copyright @ May 5 2011 by Dr. Tendai Ndoro begin_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highl(DocNdoro) – Founder, SLIPPA/Brighten The Corner Foundation; CEO EDCTrainers, LLC.

NETWORKING: Success OR Are you working yourself into a "Net"?

Many small businesses these days are using networking as a business development strategy to either meeting potential strategic partners, find sales leads and/or as a vehicle for advertising their businesses services and products. At the heart of networking is increasing your business revenues, building strategic alliances and lucrative relationships. Keep in mind that people do not do business with business cards, therefore networking offers an opportunity for business people to develop a rapport with each other and cultivate long term relationships and friendships.

Pamela Small, Founder & Publisher of Refresh & Renew magazine, Refresh & Renew e-newsletter and RefreshandRenew.com says that “Networking is essential and there are so many ways or types of networking – speed networking, singles networking, membership (exclusive or inclusive) networking, business industry or activity oriented networking - however the first thing to do is to find a networking forum or avenue that you feel comfortable with and that also suite your personality and business objectives”

Given that networking is so popular, and as a small business, have you asked yourself lately - Are you networking successfully? Or are you Working yourself into a "NET"? Intuitively we know what success means – Getting the sale, deal or eventually signing the contract! The ultimate success indicator of networking is – increased business revenues from the relationships you cultivate.

But networking can also become a “net” that you could find yourself tangled up in! You know you have worked your way into a net when you find yourself networking 80% of the time and getting Zero to at best 20% success results. Many clients I have talked to admitted that their periodic networking efforts have generally yielded little results in terms of increased business revenues and they don't know what they are doing wrong!

Another way to work yourself into a net is when you find yourself spending too much time networking and not working for your business that it begins to compromise the daily operations of the business – not to mention the financial cost you are incurring! You definitely know you are in a net when you can not follow up on those business cards that you have collected and watch them as they keep accumulating on your desk! Any one of these symptoms will certainly be a red flag to warn you that something is not working and your business is in trouble.

So how do you take control of the situation and/or increase your chances of success when a networking opportunity presents itself? From a preparation stand point, I suggest that you come up with a follow-up strategy before you even think of embarking on a networking business development campaign. In terms of presentation, have your marketing material in order and have a rotation system of what to take to which networking events, otherwise you would just end-up giving the same people the same material.

In order to achieve greater success while in a networking situation, keep in mind that networking is:
(a) Not about ‘hunting’ so leave your guns and the shark approach at home - its about farming – nurturing, patience and as certainly remembering to calibrate your approach based on the weather!
(b) Its not about making a transaction on the spot; but making a relationship that could lead to a transaction, so stop selling and start serving;
(c) Always keep in mind that people can read through your eyes what you are up to, so stop prejudging and judging people before you know them.

People choose to do business with people they like, and networking is about a leaving a lasting positive impression.” Cheryl B. Walker-Robertson, Certified Etiquette Consultant with Protocol says “There are fundamental dos and don’ts business people should keep in mind in order to maximize a networking opportunity or be successful at it. The Dos are: “(1) Have an objective for the number of people you will help at the networking event; (2) Network with those who stand alone at or near the food table or bar. They are easiest to talk to; (3) Listen attentively, after you have asked an open-ended questions, through your network, you may be able to meet their needs and could open doors for you too;(4) Plan to spend time after the meeting to talk with fellow business people; (5) Look for ways to develop your business relationships, such as inviting Someone to breakfast, lunch or your office.

On the other hand, the following are definitely DON’Ts: “(1) Don’t monopolize the conversation by talking mostly about you, your product or your service; (2) Don’t stay with those you came with or approach people you know already because you are nervous or intimidated to talk to those you don’t know; (3) Don’t rush into a conversation about what you can do, without clearly understanding the prospect’s problems. Remember: A prescription without diagnosis is malpractice. (4) Don’t be a card dropper, handing out your own business card to each person you come in contact with, quickly moving on to the next! Its bad etiquette to hand out your card and not ask for the other person’s card in return; (5) Don’t let the cell phone get in the way – not knowing or practicing good cell phone etiquette can be a deal breaker.

So next time you are networking, I hope you will remember these wise recommendations to avoid working yourself into the Networking NET. Good luck!

Originally published in 2005; then in May 2009 on FB. Copyright @ 2005 Dr. Tendai Ndoro begin_of_the_skype_highlighting  end_of_the_skype_highl(DocNdoro) – Founder, SLIPPA/Brighten the Corner Foundation; CEO EDCTrainers, LLC.