What is the secret of small business?
"You've given us vital information - you've saved us time, energy, frustration and money. We'll be consulting you further!
Jan Dean, Bothell, WA"
A. Customers: Compete on design, not price. Your main customer base is always local, see item B, paragraph 3.
B. Product or service: Those businesses you see thriving started with the owner experiencing a problem. All economic activity starts with dissatisfaction. Your market activity starts with your dissatisfaction. Everyone talks passion, which is Greek for “to suffer.” But passion is not enough, people forget the other half to success: joy. The winning combination is suffering and joy together. This makes you unbeatable in your chosen field.
This proves to be tricky, so we take you through this process, so you can know and understand it. Once you have that down, you can proceed. In fact, get that right, and the rest is fun or easy, and sometimes both.
From there, as an overview, you will employ the sunk cost of excess production capacity with its attendant management, rather than raise capital and invest in the means of production. Check everywhere in the world for the best source. If you find it overseas, you import and sell locally. if you find it in USA, you make it here and sell it here. And since you have found the best place locally, you export it as well. Either way, small business is mainly local, and has an international dimension.
Those businesses you see thriving know these two secrets. And keeping these principles central, they get going sooner, fecund, better at lower cost.
There is a difference between big business and small business. practices and principles You need to know and understand these to save time and money (you can learn them on your own, but it takes time to relearn what others have already taught for thousands of years. Here the teachings are gathered for you, and laid out in a logical progression from where you are now to business startup.
For example?
"I ran global product management, marketing and sales operations for several Silicon-Valley based, high-tech companies. Even with that experience, I learned more about international trade in your one-day course than in the last 25 years. It was fantastic!
Keith Blackey, San Mateo. CA "
1. You saw above we compete on design. You’ll learn where to find the designs, and to stay away from where most failures start. Big business competes on price, so we trade with specialty business, which do not compete on price.
2. Entrepreneurs never take risks. Bankers introduced this lie to get you to take the unnecessary risks necessary to employ the excess credit the voodoo economics of Keynesianism affords. Letters of credit are no security in international trade, but they are often necessary. To know what they are is to use them properly.
Entrepreneurs militate against risk by gettting customers before we get product. It is actually easier than the other way around.
3. Money is gold and silver, everything not gold and silver is a derivative, no matter what they call it. Most market activity is contract based, not money-based. We grow balance sheets, not bank accounts. At any time we can sell out for money, but while working, money is a small part of the game. Understand this, and you learn how to “trade” as well as make money.
4. You can self-finance. Working capital is savings, not debt. Debt is slavery, savings is liberation.
5. It’s not true that for every liability there is an asset, or more specifically, that the asset equals the liability in value. Often there are no assets behind the liability (this is why banks need bailouts). Knowing this keeps you out of trouble, and allows you to spot opportunities, once you know what your business is.
6. You need no licenses or legal form until people are sending you checks. Forget about what lawyers and licenses you may need, get your customers first. Then you get only what you need to serve your customers.
7. You cannot do a market study that matters, but you can earn money on a proof of concept, which obviates the need for a market study.
8. Our largest trading partners, import and export, are countries as rich or richer than USA. Sales of Chinese goods in USA is less than 3% of the economy. And even there, we trade with the rich parts of China. Don’t assume anything about China. The internet is less than 5% of retail sales in USA. Don’t miss the other 95% by focussing on the 5%.
9. Never mind labor rates, it’s management skill that matters.
10. Never mind intellectual property rights. Markets, not monopoly, is where success lies. Don’t get fooled by the “sun rises because the cock crows” pro-IPR talk. You’ll learn to manage business based on design, not bog down trying to control others. Relationships with customers, not barriers to entry, are what matter.
11. Never mind what something costs, or how difficulty or complexity may contribute to costs. If the customers will cover the costs, then you need not concern yourself with such issues.
12. You are likely a poor salesperson. Embrace that. Happily there are excellent salespeople who will gain you paying customers if you do your part, that is develop the worthwhile product, working with your first customers.
13. The customer is the most important thing in business. The product is the most difficult thing in business. The only thing you get paid for is the product (or service). Focus on this, farm everything else out.
14. All products are solutions to problems, according to Drucker. There is no solution that cannot be improved upon. Bankers want you to believe wealth is how much currency you hold. But the word wealth comes from weal (commonweal) with the sense of what range of goods and services do as many people as possible have access by their own means. Self-employment creates wealth, in the proper sense of the word.
15. Lifestyle trumps income. You want an income to support a lifestyle. Business expenses take time and people to spend. It’s your lifestyle to have a business where you spend your time and money on solving problems that pain you and finding joy doing so.
All of these points take explaining, and may foster a desire for more reading. You’ll get both.
A good start is my book:
"Two years ago I bought this book and have re-read it 30 times since. Mr. Spier's book (and online class) steered me away from some bad ideas to good ones and now my business is up and running, and growing. "How Small Business Trades Worldwide" is a phenomenal resource!
Mary Morrison Coral Gables, FL"
John Spiers und Mary Dietrich
Saigon, April 2010And I have classes as well, linked to on the upper right of this page.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
