Dr. Taylor interviews with Tom Crann

Minnesota Public Radio

Link to interviw: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/08/30/business/economic-lookout-scott-taylor/

This doesn’t happen every day.  I was working peacefully at my desk when the phone rang. “Hi, I’m Alex DiPalma, producer for National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” I understand you are an expert in small business and we’re interested in having you on our show.”

We did a “pre-interview” for about half an hour. I guess I passed because Alex announced that she would look forward to having me on the show…just as soon as she checked with Tom Crann (the person who would actually be conducting the interview). Ten minutes later I got the call.

“OK, Mr. Taylor, you’re on.” Great. When? “Tomorrow at 2 p.m. We’ll record you for about 20 minutes and use about four.”

I will say that MPR treated me well. I got a reserved parking place by the front door of their offices in downtown St. Paul, a special visitor guest badge and free drinks in the green room.

Tom exuded warmth and comfort. We started the interview with some warm-up questions about what I do and what I see happening in the economy for small businesses. Then the curves came. What about the policies of Obama and Romney concerning small businesses? What about the “we built it phrase” the Republicans are using at the convention? Yikes. Alex had told me to be ready for questions about how small businesses are faring in this economy—not to be snappy and conversant on policy.

I sidestepped the political query and punted. Regardless of who wins the election, I said, the US needs to invest in issues that matter most to small business…a strong infrastructure, streamlined regulatory policy and a tax code that makes sense. Enjoy the broadcast. What do you think?

The Minnesota Mentors will again “predict” the coming year for Small Businesses.

Last year, the Minnesota Mentors (instructors in the MNSCU program of Small Business Management) predicted the 2011 future for small Businesses.  Looking back at their predictions, they did fantastic in only missing on one of their many predictions.  Not only did they give some great predictions but also did several seminars on skills business owners needed for 2011.

Duane HoverstenDr Scott TaylorDr Scott Taylor

Dan Sprague

Chad Oudekerk If your communDan SpragueDr Scott TaylorDr Scott Taylor

Dr Scott Taylor

If you would like the Minnesota Mentors to put on their predictions for Small Businesses for 2012 in your community, contact Duane Hoversten at 320-282-1677 or email duane.hoversten@southcentral.edu

Scott Taylor

Dan Sprague

Chad Oudekerk

Deb Munsterman

Duane Hoversten

Your Minnesota Mentors

Duane Hoversten

I have worked with a number of businesses through business succession in the last few years.  It has been a rocky road in most cases. The business succession I am talking about is the succession where a business owner is selling on passing the business on to an employee or is passing it down to one of his family. 

Why the rocky road??  Probably the biggest problem is the expectations of each side of the succession process.  What do I mean? Typically the current owner has the expectation that he/she will sell their business and it will be exactly the same as before they sold it.  They think it will stay the same especially if they are going to continiue to work in the business.  They think they will still be making the decisions or be involved in the decision making. In most cases, this will NOT be the case!!!  This needs to be understood by the selling owner.  He/She will see mistakes that they think are being made and want to just “take over”.  GET OVER IT!!!  You have sold the business. 

Take it from one who has been there.  I co-owned a software company at one time.  A company came in and offered an amount of money that we could not turn down.  I was to work for the company for 2 years.  I only lasted a year BECAUSE I COULD NOT GET OVER IT!  You are going to see errors – live with it UNLESS asked.

The other issue is that the NEW owners feel they KNOW EVERYTHING and WANT TO DO IT THEIR WAY IN THEIR TIME FRAME.  Many times they were not trained in all areas of the business by the previous owner.  The owner did not share EVERYTHING as they went through the Succession process. 

In all of the situations that I have worked with, we ended up with good to GREAT outcomes.  But it took a lot of work on all of our parts to get good outcomes.  Most of these outcomes were NOT where we initially set out to go- but nevertheless it ended up being good.

Bottom line – get some outside help as you go through the Succession process.  Many times a cool outside head and mediator can be of great help through this Rocky Road to Succession.

Thank you Tim for the Article

A QR code (Quick Response Code) was first designed for use within the automotive industry in 1994. They were used to track vehicles during production. There are several standards of two-dimensional barcodes with the QR code being the most common.

The QR codes have been used widely in Japan and Great Britain for many years. We are just starting to use them for marketing in the U.S.

As with any promising technology it is copied and applied to other industries . . . like advertising. As the industry struggles to use this new technology, there are two main points of concern.

The Learning Curve

The consumer has to catch on to what they are . . . then learn how to use them.

Many smart phones now come with built in QR app’s. If your’s does not you can add an app to your phone. There are free app’s available as well as paid app’s.

Once you have the app installed you need to open the app and scan the image of the QR code. (using your phones camera) The app will automatically process the code. It may load a webpage, display a message or key in a phone number. That all depends on what the advertiser wants it to do for you.

As with any new technology, its use is dependant upon the end user learning and accepting it.

Get Creative

The second area of concern lies on the marketing industry. We must learn how to creatively use a QR code.

When they first arrived on the scene mobile devices either didn’t have keyboards or they were very awkward to use. Remember the days of texting using the number key pad on your phone?

The QR code was a very quick and effective way to gather contact information (vCards), enter a URL or e-mail address. Now people are accustomed to using miniature keyboards and can enter the data manually easier than opening the QR code program and capturing the image.

We need to find creative and engaging uses for the QR Code. Here are a few ideas.

• Deep Penetration of your website. Don’t just send them to the home page, those URL’s tend to be easy to type. Send them deep within your website to a specific page or to a page that can not be accessed other than through the use of the QR code.
• Prize Give-away. Consider printing select versions of the code that make the user a winner of a prize. The losing codes can display a polite “Sorry, this is not a winning code” message. Or, if you can not print different versions of the code, have it lead to a registration page where you can collect contact information.
• The Scavenger Hunt Place QR codes in different areas around your business or other participating businesses. Each time a code is read, it contains a clue that leads them to the next code. The prize can be just about anything, the important thing is to engage their interest . . . make it worthwhile.

The QR Code is a relatively new technology that will certainly grow and become more main stream as advertisers and consumers alike learn how to use it.

Businesses who are reactive and don’t follow a plan are never as profitable as businesses that are proactive.  Schedules and meetings and organization are a big part of that.

The first thing a business owner needs to control is his schedule.  It does not matter wether you use a calender or an electronic schedule keeper.  The key is to use something and be proactive on your scheule and time management. This will help your company’s profitability and your stress in running your business.

We are experienced small business owners!  All Minnesota Mentors have owned small businesses and many still do.

Classes start often and are available online.  All organizational planning classes include one-on-one assistance with your specific business planning questions.

For more information, or to register for a personnel management class, contact Chad Oudekerk at 507-514-0919 or Scott Taylor at 507-317-3047.

We are experienced small business owners!  All Minnesota Mentors have owned small businesses and many still do.

Classes start often and are available online.  All bookkeeping classes include one-on-one assistance with your specific bookkeeping questions.

For more information, or to register for a personnel management class, contact Chad Oudekerk at 507-514-0919 or Scott Taylor at 507-317-3047.

We are experienced small business owners!  All Minnesota Mentors have owned small businesses and many still do.

Classes start often and are available online.  All personnel classes include one-on-one assistance with your specific personnel issues.

For more information, or to register for a personnel management class, contact Chad Oudekerk at 507-514-0919 or Scott Taylor at 507-317-3047.

We are social media experts and we will help guide you through the numerous social media options to find which media is right for your type of business.

We are experienced small business marketers!  All Minnesota Mentors have owned small businesses and many still do.

Classes start often and are available online.  All marketing classes include one-on-one assistance to make sure your marketing efforts are on-track!