small business growth strategies

Small Business vs Entrepreneurship vs Capitalism

If you are trying to get a handle on The Tycoon Playbook as some still are, I think this may help.

Think of the business world as having three separate rungs. At the bottom you have the small business rung. The consensus definition of small business is that it’s primarily about having a steady pay-check for oneself with a little extra left over, hopefully, for the Golden Years. As a result, typical small business owners are concerned with playing it safe, taking as few risks as possible, and basically maintaining the status quo. Once a small business owner has reached a certain level of income their focus shifts to merely maintaining it rather than increasing it. Many small businesses can be found along the proverbial “Main Street.”

On the next rung up is entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is an entirely different game. It’s about marshaling resources and taking calculated risks to create something new that will hopefully reward the founders with substantial wealth. Entrepreneurship has no allegiance to the status quo. Rather it’s about starting from scratch and disrupting the marketplace. Most entrepreneurial ventures will be found in emerging industries and fast growth markets.

Continue reading

Planet Popcorn and the Case of the Missing $400,000

The Profit episode about the popcorn business brought back memories from my years in selling businesses. Let’s just say that some business sellers are less than forthcoming with the facts.

Planet Popcorn sells a variety of popcorns at fairs and farmer’s markets across southern California. However, its main cash cows are two stands at Downtown Disney.  As you may have already guessed,  this is a cash business and that means a challenge for anyone interested in getting a clear picture of just how well it’s doing,  as we will see.

Things get off to a shaky start for Marcus and the owner. Initially she wants to use Marcus’s money to open a creperie. Marcus wants nothing to do with a new venture. When they later go to scout potential locations for a permanent popcorn store, she reveals that she is still fixated on opening a creperie.  I don’t know how Marcus could have made his feelings any clearer on the subject: No freaking creperie!

Continue reading

The Profit: Jacob Maarse Florists

The second episode of The Profit about Jacob Maarse Florists of Pasadena, CA ends with one of the most unforgettable displays of immaturity (and worse) that you can ever expect to witness. While Hank Maarse isn’t the first or the last person to try to weasel out of an agreement, he certainly made the situation far worse by doing it on camera for a nationally televised reality series. People who renege on deals usually attempt to do so in private with minimal witnesses in case it ever ends up in court.

In a nutshell, Hank inherited the family florist business after his entrepreneurial father Jacob died in 2010. The business quickly turned into a money loser under the lackadaisical leadership of the 49 year old man-child. The only thing that has saved the business to date are a number of substantial cash infusions by Hank’s long-suffering mom. She does this not so much for Hank as for the legacy of her late husband.

Continue reading

The Profit’s Marcus Lemonis explains how he makes his money by acquiring and fixing up troubled businesses.

Marcus drills down into the details here. Listen carefully as he uses shorthand.

By the way, he’s a true rags-to-riches story having started life in an orphanage in Lebanon. He moved to the USA at age 12.

This is what this site is all about.

Click for video:

Continue reading

Here are a few additional articles on Marcus Lemonis

From the NY Times: A Savior Taking the Reins
On ‘The Profit,’ Marcus Lemonis Rescues Small Businesses

What Gordon Ramsay is to floundering restaurants, what Tabatha Coffey is to hair salons on the fritz — that’s what Marcus Lemonis aspires to be for any number of small businesses. Mr. Lemonis is the chairman and chief executive of Camping World, but also a jack-of-all-enterprises, spotting and stomping out inefficiencies in pursuit of profit.

Profit that Mr. Lemonis shares, naturally. “The Profit” is an extension of reality television’s long-running charitable impulse, but like the cheery moguls on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” Mr. Lemonis has skin in the game. He writes checks and takes temporary control, makes significant changes, then hopes his new partners can make him money.

His practices are politely predatory, feasting on small businesses that don’t have the resources to advance or to save themselves from eventual collapse. In the first two episodes, there’s an additional twist: the companies are run by the founders’ children, who are finding it hard to continue their parents’ legacies. These are enterprises ripe for takeover, and owners looking to fill an authority vacuum. (source)

Continue reading

Your First 100 Million

I am ready to build something great. Where do I start? Right here.

Your First Million

Not ready yet for the big leagues? Then go work on your first million instead. Click here.

Send Me More Info

Tell me more about how I can grow my business faster with acquisitions and the occasional special offers.

Click here.

Categories

Protected by Copyscape Duplicate Content Check