Business advice and interesting stories about business.
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Welcome
Ever notice that the world is full of experts who have never actually done what they are "experts" at?
Many a business professor has never actually managed a business.Most business courses stress defining business terms but never actually teach the concepts of running a business.
This blog hopes to teach some of the terms and, at the same time, give some examples and lessons on running a business.
There will also be reviews of books on business listed here. Sometimes companies give me books to review. Regardless of where I get the book to review, I will give my honest opinion. If I was given the book to review I will always disclose that in the review.
I seek to start posting on 02 January 2012. Some of the posts will be recycled from some of my other blogs.
The reader should know that there is no one “Right Way” to conduct business that will apply in all situations. This blog is meant as a place to start. It is hoped that you will perform further research and consult professionals experienced in your particular business before making any important decisions.
Many of we baby boomers see the Millennial Generation as a bunch of work-brittle, entitled, lazy, people who expect to be paid for not working. Many of us have experienced this first hand.
So, the question here is, do you trust what you see and experience or what an author tells you is the truth?
Readers are also told why we should adapt our way of looking at this generation. The tone of the book appears to be, “Just deal with it”. We are given a lot of WHY we should just deal with it and only a little of HOW to deal with it.
There may be a little truth to what the author teaches. The fact remains that we are in a job seekers’ market because this generation switches jobs often and expects to be paid well while being trained. This book could well make the case that we have developed a new career, “Trainee”. Meanwhile, more and more jobs go overseas to places where people WILL work.
The book is well written and does provide some excellent advice. However, reading this book won’t solve your problem. What it will do is make you feel a lot less empowered and, if you are the owner of a company, will probably make you want to close up shop or move to another country.
In the book, the author speaks of how ethical this generation is. There may be some validity to that but, readers should trust what they see in the real world and not what they read in a book. This is the same generation that often cheated on tests in college and also expected good college grades for very subpar work.
We can only give this book a mediocre rating and very little in the way of recommendation. This isn’t so much because the writing is flawed; it isn’t. We give it an average rating because the premise is flawed.
We were sent a complimentary copy of this book. We are under no obligation to write any review, positive or negative.
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Shortly after Suzanne and I began to work for my father full time he said to me that he
really would like to start selling R. C. Cola. He had grown up with R. C. Cola and loved it as a boy. He had seen in around but the sales people never came to his store so he did not have an opportunity to start carrying it. He told me that if I could get in touch with the route salesman to have him stop by the store that he would like to talk to him about carrying the R.C. brand of drinks.
A few weeks later I ran into the R.C. route salesman and one of the stores in town. Back then the salesman did everything. They drove a truck load of product around, checked the inventory for each store and then immediately delivered what they thought that store needed for the next week. It works differently now and not as well, I might add.
I told the route salesman that before he left town for the day we would like to talk to him at Western Auto about selling his product. He said he would stop by on his way out of town. He never stopped.
Several months later I encountered a different route salesman in town and told him the same thing. The man said he was new to the route and R.C. and had not set up new accounts yet but he would stop by the store and see what he could do.
Well, he did actually stop by the store and my father asked him about the price of soft drinks. At that time we sold Coke products out of a machine that never worked and that was it. The sales man told him what he could sell him a case or two for.
My father then asked the salesman what the least price we could sell two liter drinks for would be. The sales man told him that we would have to buy 300 cases of two liters, and that each week we would have to buy enough two liters to build back up to 300 cases and if we did we could sell them at 69¢ each. My father told him to set him up. Then my father asked him what was the least we could sell canned drinks for. The salesman told him we would have to buy 300 cases of those as well and buy back up to 300 cases each week and then we could sell a six pack for about $1. My father told him to go ahead.
The route salesman brought in those cases of soda and we built a display and put up signs and went to selling the soft drinks.
Meanwhile back at the R.C. warehouse the route salesman has been chewed out by his district manager because of how they were going to have to eventually buy back all those soft drinks from us. The district manager told his salesman that that was the stupidest mistake that he had ever had a new salesman make and that when they did have to buy them back that the total cost was going to come out of his commission.
My father loved to sell. He could sell ice to an Eskimo if he wanted to. He wanted to sell R.C. so everyone that came in the store was told about the R.C. price. We sold out of the R.C. drinks in less than two days.
That next week the route salesman with his district manager came to the store at the end of his day. They salesman had been listening all day to how the district manager was going to have to go in and explain to us about what a mistake was made and that the company would like to apologize to us for the hassle.
When the salesman came in the store he looked like he had lost his last friend. He was dragging lower than the ears on a Bassett Hound. The first words out of the district manager’s mouth were “Where are all my drinks?” I told him, “We sold them!” He said well what about the drinks in the back room, why aren’t they out here?” I told him that we did not put anything in the back room. I went on to tell him that Bruce was upset with R.C. because we ran out of drinks in less than two days and we did not know how to get in touch with them to get more drinks.
My father had a special way of dealing with “know it all district managers.” He hated them. He made it plain with this district manager that we would continue to sell the product as long as this salesman were on the route and that the district manager left the salesman alone. By the time Bruce was finished the district manager had a change of heart and apologized to the route salesman and then arranged for us to get a brand new R.C. drink machine and that they would pay to install an outdoor outlet for the machine so that it could be outside the store on the sidewalk.
Learn from this story what you will. I think the important points were:
1. The original route salesman, the one that did not come to the store, let a lot of business pass by that should have been easy to get.
2. The new salesman approached the new business in an honest straightforward way and got what became the best stop on all the routes in the district manager’s district.
3. District Mangers and other supervisors need to observe and actually see what the facts are before they try to correct the actions of their people.
4. Just because a mom and pop place is a mom and pop place does not mean that it can’t be very profitable for all concerned.
Disclaimer The opinions or advice listed in this blog or website should be used as a place to start only. It is not a substitute for the use of a professional.
Please be sure to consult your attorney and/or accountant with any specific questions.
There is no one right answer to any business question that will cover all circumstances. Please Visit McClendon Enterprises
My father used to tell stories of when he was working for National Cash Register. This is one of those stories.
He called on a man who owned a large company of stores who was a prospect for buying cash registers from my father.
It turns out that the man had not been bowling in a while and really wanted to go bowling soon. My father agreed to take him bowling while they talked over the possible purchase of cash registers.
While they were bowling, the man partook of many beers which my father paid for. The man became a little drunk and signed the largest order my father had ever had in his life. All my father had to do was mail that order and the man was obligated to purchase the cash registers. After all, he had a signed contract. This was the 1960’s and the fact that it was signed while intoxicated was not a matter the court would take up anyway.
Well, my father thought about it all that night. The next morning, bright and early, he went to see the man at his office.
My father handed the man the contract and told him that he was legally obligated to purchase the cash registers but that he, my father, thought that it would be much better if they tore up that contract and started over.
Well, the man was very happy and tore up the contract. He and my father then sat down and negotiated a much smaller order.
My father lost on that sale, but for the rest of the time my father was with
National Cash Register, he would get a purchase order in the mail for every single cash register ever purchased by that company and every paper product, ribbon, and other accessory related to any product that National Cash Register offered that the store needed.
Years later, that act of honesty paid off for my father in a way he did not expect.
Many of we baby boomers see the Millennial Generation as a bunch of work-brittle, entitled, lazy, people who expect to be paid for not working. Many of us have experienced this first hand. 
