Interesting and sad story of a small business owner

If your small business is not doing well maybe the problem isn't the economy, maybe it's you.

Please read Small Business Nightmares.

Relatively unknown but a star none the less

I've been listening to a lot of Alejandro Escovedo ( www.alejandroescovedo.com ) lately. Really good stuff. As the great Townes Van Sant said, "it can't be a good song if it's not a good poem first."

Smart music done very well. Give it a listen if you have the opportunity.

The beat goes on

Back in September I wrote a post about the health care reform. Here we are 2 months later and the issue is still a huge controversy and the source of significant and deliberate obfuscation. If anything close to the bill passed in the House turns into law you will see a dramatic and sudden reaction from small business owners.

The biggest problem is the small business owners who are currently trying their best to support their employees are the businesses that will be punished the most. The small business owners who currently cheat on their taxes and abuse their employees won't feel a thing when the law is passed.

The good business owners will get squeezed and the good employees will feel the pain.

It's a shame. Too many politicians are clueless as to the real world of the small business economy.

The Healthcare debate and small business

I am fascinated by the politicians approach to the whole health care issue. There are 4 competing forces, all of whom think they're right and all of whom are partially correct.

However, there are the rest of us. Many small business owners like myself who do provide health insurance for employees. I have no idea of the outcome of this tug of war except I KNOW that small businesses will get the dirty end of the stick, as always.

Here's what I want out of the health care debacle (it's long past a debate):
1. No higher costs
2. No higher taxes
3. No required minimum policy

That's it. The rest is between me and my employees. I've been able to keep my employees happy until now and I don't want any politicians imposing their vote counting machine on my employees.

Government Regulations and Self Defense

I own a small business that does business sales consulting and I am finishing up my process of getting a securities license as issued by FINRA. The reason this is interesting is that FINRA is the government agency that regulated (or was supposed to regulate) Bernie Madoff. Based on recent reports that didn't work out so well for FINRA.

I am now going to get my securities license. Why? Because I haven't the slightest idea how the regulators will apply their rather foggy regulations. I have a small business that deals with business sales. I don't think I need a FINRA securities license but I'm not willing to take the chance so I'm doing it.

So there goes about $3,000 and about 100 hours so that I can be regulated by FINRA, who couldn't catch a guy performing a $20 billion fraud even after someone had turned him in!

Priceless.

Sleep, Time Management and iffy assumptions

I have decided to start getting up earlier and get more done before I head to the office or appointments. There are many joys in running a small business and flexibility is important but so is effective time management. So in order to get something done that requires undivided attention, I'm taking one of the long honored time management tips....get it done before work!

Now getting up earlier sounds easy, except. I have to do it without using an alarm clock. You see, my wife is a light sleeper and in general has a difficult time sleeping. The last thing I want to do is startle her awake if she happens to be sleeping when I want to get up. She doesn't need any more sleep deprivation than she already suffers from.

As background, I haven't used an alarm clock in about 15 years. I get up at a predictable time and go to sleep when I'm tired. My guess is it will take a while to train my body to get up earlier, and my body might not like it. My normal time now is about 6:30a. I'm about a week into this new 5:30a project and so far, I think it's going o.k.

My tools? I put a clock on my side of the bed that I can see easily during the night. Much to my surprise I do (and I assume I did before) awaken at some point during the night. I guess I just didn't realize it since there was no mental time stamp (the LCD readout on my clock!).

My strategy? Here goes.....if I awaken any time near my target time to get up, I jump out of bed. My target time is 5:30am. If I see the clock at 4:40a, I get up (4:30 is the earliest, if it's 4:29 I'm back to sleep). When I do get up earlier guess what, I'm ready for bed earlier the next night and so I will be more likely to not sleep past 5:30a. The last 5 mornings have been 4:40a, 6:10, 5:10, 5:40 and 5:50. I think I'm getting it narrowed down.

I figure I've got two more weeks of calibration and I'll be hopping out of bed at 5:30a (give or take 10mins) on a regular basis...and no alarm clock, and the wife gets to sleep. How's that for time management in the workplace?

Uhhh, I'll let you know if it actually works.....

Fly Fishing trip Santa Fe, NM

I recently had a little adventure on a fly fishing trip. If you want to read about it here it is. Hope you get a laugh... http://bit.ly/nlZDl