Nervous Laughter

In talking with businesses across the country, the singular moment in the conversation is when I ask, “If you changed nothing, what are your prospects for the next two years?”

Nervous laughter.

Some say they aren’t looking past the end of this year. Others say they just need to figure out how to get on the government gravy train. Oops. That was until ObamaCare. Now the train is heading toward them. Crap, I hate it when that happens. Still, it is common now to see people chuckle about their business prospects with eyes as big as saucers.

You could say the rules have changed and small businesses need to acknowledge and adapt to them. But if you said that you wouldn’t be close to the new reality- there are no rules any more, at least not the kind we were used to following. What we have now are fiats, dictates and directives, none of which will stay in place for very long. They will change with breathtaking frequency and your attorney and CPA may not be able to keep up. This new era for small business is a refining fire that has already consumed many.

The order of the day is to focus like a laser beam on anything that produces revenue. Everything else is way down the list of priorities. If you are a small manufacturer, you have to be focused on and driven by sales and profit margin. Period. If you have been steered by engineering, internal product development or customer service you are off course. Competitors with inferior products are outselling you right now because they figured this out. I know this because I have helped some of them in the past two years prepare to beat you.