by Daria Steigman on August 11, 2010
There was a sound bite on the evening news recently about how a lot of fishermen on the Gulf Coast will be sorry to see BP pull out as they have grown used to the big pay days. (Now, whether this is true is for a different post–and one I’m not going to touch.) It made me think about how I, as a small business owner, handle shifting cash flows.
I have been doing this stuff a long time, so I know that consulting is a feast or famine business. Sometimes I get big pay days; other months might be quite lean. I’m pretty conservative, so I tend to assume the worst and spend very frugally. A good friend calls this “stashing the cash.”
Do you stash the cash?
Photo by Daniel Borman (Flickr).
Tagged as:
Business,
Entrepreneurship
by Daria Steigman on August 10, 2010
Mark Hurd is a very stupid man. With all the money he was earning from Hewlett-Packard, don’t you think he could have paid cash (his cash) for dinner if he didn’t want a paper trail?
You don’t have to pay me $12 million or $10 million or even $1 million. It doesn’t matter the salary, commission, or project fee. I simply pledge today not to cheat on my expense account.
It’s not a sacrifice.
It’s business ethics. And, of course, reputation.
Photo by Justin Baeder (Flickr).
Tagged as:
Business,
Ethics,
HP,
Mark Hurd
by Daria Steigman on August 3, 2010
Sometimes being a small business owner is easy. You have a To Do list–and you execute it to perfection. Then there are times that remind you to have a sense of humor and roll with the punches.
I have a killer post on my first impressions of the real-time Web. Trust me, it’s really good. But for 3 days (and still counting), WordPress has decided to go all glitchy on me. Apparently the software’s not fond of real time. So WordPress 3.0.1 keeps failing to update. One great post is in limbo. I’m getting random “gnarly 404″ messages.
I’m working on it, and hopefully I’ll have the back-end functionality fully restored soon. Meanwhile, I’m going to make progress on some of the other items on my To Do list. And maybe go for a run.
Photo by Fluid Forms (Flickr).
Tagged as:
Business
by Daria Steigman on July 22, 2010
This recession has not been kind to marketers and other communications pros. Especially at the senior level.
Frankly, I’m not surprised.
Just look at how we typically refer to ourselves. Marketer. Public Affairs Specialist. Writer. Editor. Media Relations Manager. Videographer. It’s all task-based.
IABC has the word “business” in it, but our titles rarely do. And too often we haven’t made the case that storytelling is key to selling widgets (or sneakers, politicians, goodwill, or support for your cause). That communications is a core business function, as necessary to organizational success as product designers and the sales team.
We talk about transparency and authenticity. Our bosses care about sales, opportunity costs, and ROI.
I’ve heard a lot of hand wringing about how communicators don’t have a seat at the table. Yada, Yada, Yada. Feel better?
Now, what are we going to do about it?
The comments are yours.
Note: This post originally appeared on IABC’s Communication World blog.
Photo by Randy Son of Robert (Flickr).
Tagged as:
authenticity,
Business,
Communications,
IABC,
marketing,
PR,
Strategy,
Transparency
by Daria Steigman on July 9, 2010
Mike Greenberg said on ESPN Radio this morning that “you need to separate the decision from how it was done.” (He was talking, of course, about LeBron James.)
He’s absolutely right.
My friend Justin Goldsborough has a terrific post on James, Joe Mauer, and brand legacies in sports. His key point:
If he was still hoping to be the biggest brand in the world or the biggest brand ever, that chance is gone. In fact, he won’t even be the biggest brand in Miami. That’s Dwayne Wade’s team.
I agree, but I think–disappointment in Cleveland aside–we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that James made a business decision. And it was a fascinating one.
1. We’ve known for several years that James, Wade, and several top NBA players took shorter deals in the past in order to time their arrivals on the free agency market. It was a (then) subtle way to level the playing field a bit in a sports world dominated by team owners.
2. One man cannot be responsible for the economic well-being of an entire city. I’m very sympathetic to the people of Cleveland, especially the small business owners who have benefited from great pre-game crowds. But let’s step back and recognize that a business model dependent on one person, one client, or one product being an unending success is a bad business model.
3. One player cannot be responsible for an entire franchise. Plus Dan Gilbert’s classless response on losing his star player tells me he’s the last person I’d want to work for.
4. James is taking less money to work with people he likes and admires. (While we don’t know yet what he’ll earn in Miami, there’s no question it will be far less than the max contract he’d have had in Cleveland.) Isn’t this the type of decision we’d typically be applauding?
What do you think?
Photo by David Shankbone (Flickr).
Tagged as:
Brand,
Business,
Dan Gilbert,
Dwayne Wade,
LeBron James,
Miami Heat
