June 2023 - Page 2 of 12

The Definition of a Short Story

I’m a writer. I write short stories. They generally fit into the genre of science fiction. That sounds pretty simple, right? No wiggle room or anything. Before reading any of my stuff, you probably have a pretty good idea of what you’re getting into. Generally, a you would expect my stories to be prose fiction running from 1500-7500 words. But what if that isn’t what you got?

A few months ago, I wrote a story that was meant to be read as a transcription of an interview. It looked like a script with dialogue and some short “stage direction”-like description in [brackets]. It was not prose. It was effectively a script. But was it a short story? I think most people would agree that it was. It wasn’t a very good story, but that’s beside the point.

The point is that you can play around a bit with form in a short story. You probably won’t have much luck trying to sell a 400-page avant garde experimental novel, but you might find a magazine willing to print a few thousand crazy-as-all-get-out words that the editor thinks passes for ‘artistic’ writing. So, yes, there is a bit of wiggle room to that side of the short story definition.

What about word count? The range I gave, 1500-7500 words, is not by any means a standard thing. At the low end, someone somewhere will make the argument for your story being ‘flash fiction’. At the high end, you start getting into the grey area of a novella. What really counts is what your publisher says. If you are trying to get a story into a magazine that defines a short story as 1000-5000 words, then that is what a short story is. You don’t get a say. But still, different magazines have different standards. So again, wiggle room.

I think the best way to define a short story is by what it DOES rather than what it IS. What do I mean by that? I’ll explain by way of a story.

Back at Christmas, my father-in-law was talking about his recent trip to Spain where he stayed with an old friend/colleague. While there, they talked a bit about the definition of an essay. The friend defined an essay as ‘an attempt’. An essay, in this definition, is an attempt to explain, express, or convince. I love this definition. It’s concise and to the point and completely perfect.

The concise, to the point, perfect definition I have come up with for a short story is AN IDEA WITH CONSEQUENCES. A short story should start with a single idea and explore it somehow. It shouldn’t delve too much into character, plot, or setting. It should just focus on a single idea and the consequences of that idea.

I had an idea a while ago: What if spontaneous genetic duplicates of humans started appearing? Put another way, what if you were walking down the street one day and you ran into your clone–someone with identical DNA who was completely unrelated to you, someone who had turned out just like you as a completely random biological event.

So that’s my idea. Now what are the consequences? What would a reality like that mean for politics, religion, science, and just basic human interaction?

I could probably develop this idea into a novel by adding compelling characters, a gripping plot, and a dynamic setting, but I’m not interested in that right now. Right now I want to write short stories. I have an idea, and I’m going to explore it. If the short story is successful (as a story, not commercially), maybe I will develop it further. But first, I need to see if it works on the small scale. I guess a short story, like an essay, is really just an attempt. Go attempt something.

Technical Writing – Definition of Copyright and Copywriting

Definition of Copyright and Copywriting

You can apply for a copyright or you can apply for some copywriting, but they’re totally different things. In the first case, you’re asking for a document that gives you the right to publish something. In the second, you’re asking for a writing job. Writers often get them confused.

Copyright

A copyright is a legal document issued by the Copyright section of the United States Patent Office. It states that the person named on the document as the author owns the right to publish the written material designated in the document. That doesn’t mean that the person named actually wrote the copy, only that he or she has the legal right to publish it.

It’s not necessary to copyright anything. Legally, as soon as a person commits words to paper, they’re protected by a copyright whether a government document has been acquired or not. Practically, if you write something, and I apply for and get a copyright on it, it’s going to be tough for you to prove that you wrote it.

From the tech writer’s POV, it’s a little different. The law says that work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment, or a work specially ordered or commissioned is a “work made for hire” and the employer is considered to be the author. If you get paid to write something for someone else, you don’t have a right to it.

In its correct forms, the word is:

– copyright: the right to publish

“She owns the copyright to that book.”

– copyrighted: the condition of being covered by a copyright

“You can’t publish that because it’s copyrighted material.”

– copyrighting: the act of obtaining a copyright

“I’m copyrighting this even as I write it.”

There is no such form as copyright or copywritten correctly associated with this definition even though the Microsoft Word Spell Check accepts copywritten as a correct spelling (but doesn’t say for what), and copywritten shows up all over the Web in place of copyrighted.

Copywriting

Copywriting is the act of creating copy or content. Generally, the term refers to writing in the sense of creating non-technical material. It’s different from the kind of writing tech writers do. Some jobs that call for copywriting are marketing brochures, magazines, newspapers, and consumer-directed communications. If you’re a writer, you might be a copywriter.

Bonus

Here’s another comparison to be careful of. If you want to write plays, you want to be a playwright. Yes, that’s right. You have to write wright when you’re writing about writing plays. We almost never use wright by itself. It’s used mostly in compound words such as wheelwright, millwright, or wainwright. We do see it a lot as a name; Frank Lloyd Wright or Wright/Patterson Airbase.

Wright has the same history as Smith. A smith was anyone who worked some kind of metal with a hammer; blacksmith, tinsmith, silversmith. A wright was a craftsman who made something. The name of the occupation became the name of an individual.

A person who makes plays is a playwright. True, he may write them, but he’s not a playwright. I guess you could argue that a person who writes copy is a copywright, but it’s not used that way.

What Is a Megapreneur?

Megapreneur? Seems like a big word that would have a complex definition. Not so. The definition is actually simple. A megapreneur is a performance enhanced infopreneur.

What separates the typical infopreneur from the megapreneur is the magnitude of the online publishing world.

The typical infopreneur has to work harder to achieve a lower income than a megapreneur does to achieve a higher, recurring income. If you are a typical infopreneur, you should want to learn how to build a business based on doing work one time that pays you for life, than doing one one-off promotion after another.

The basic idea of being a megapreneur is to work less while achieving a lot more. You want that, don’t you? Now, it doesn’t mean no work at all. There will be work, but not all the time. The work is mostly in the beginning, getting it set up. Modern technology makes it easier once you learn how to use it the “smart” way. Do that, and you will be able to build a huge business with relatively little work. The payoff is much, much higher than running the 9 to 5 rat race while working less.

There are five key megapreneur traits that you need to learn and implement to work less and achieve more. These are all very important, so read carefully.

The first Trait of a megapreneur is his or her focus. The megapreneur has a narrow beam focus on everything concerning the business. So many people jump from opportunity to opportunity without really focusing on anything. They haven’t yet gotten serious about building an online business. When it comes down to it, there really is no such thing as an instant, turn-key business. They all take massive amounts of work constantly. The megapreneur is wholly focused on building the business. You need to take the time to build a solid, high income producing business.

Doing every promotion in a huge way is the second trait of a megapreneur. Big promotions can easily result in 5 and 6 figure results of each campaign. If you are making only 1 to 3 sales per promotion, that is not getting you where you want to be. Becoming a megapreneur can change that. With a few adjustments and smarter moves, you can get 4 to 5 figure incomes literally overnight.

The third trait of a megapreneur is to have a huge following. Now this is not the same as having a huge list. You can have a huge list (200,000+) and not have much of a following. It is the quality of the subscribers, not the quantity that counts. So many people fail because they simply do not recognize the importance of quality vs. quantity. A huge following results in many things, more than just getting name recognition, such as higher sales and high responsiveness. You don’t have to rely on just your own list to build a huge following. With a Megapreneur Millions System, you will be able to create huge followings from the resources of other people.

The fourth trait of a megapreneur is an attitude. A do-it-once and reap the benefits for life attitude. This is a very important trait. Work once and have income now and in the future from that same work. If you are working hard on one promotion and then starting all over again for another, you are working way too hard for too little results. A megapreneur will take a couple of days to write a very good sales letter that he or she can then use over and over with a few adjustments for each new promotion, perhaps testing headlines, fonts, etc.

It belongs to the megapreneur for life. Concentrate on important things, things that will pay off continually into the future. That is key to working smart. Using a Megapreneur’s focused attitude, a one time action will result in recurring income and benefits for a lifetime

The fifth and final trait of a megapreneur is the ability to adopt the internet lifestyle in the fullest way. So many infopreneur fail to do this and find themselves working constantly just to keep making an income. They have little time for anything else. As a megapreneur, you will be making money 24/7 so you will have time to spend time with your family, go to a movie, do things you like to do and things you want to do.

Work hard and play hard. Wouldn’t you like to have the time to play? After all, besides having your own business, isn’t that one of the main reasons you became an infopreneur in the first place? Be a megapreneur and do it!

For more information, click here: [http://www.megapreneur-million.com]

The Importance of Residual Marketing

These days it seems all anybody ever talks about is using the internet to promote their business. Obviously, I don’t have to tell you that using the internet to promote your business can be effective however let’s not forget that offline marketing can be just as effective if not more effective. An excellent method of offline advertising is the use of promotional products.

Promotional products are a cost effective and low cost way to get your message across, these items can help you get in front of your customers and more importantly stay there. In this article we will look at the importance of residual marketing.

First, I think it will be helpful to define what is meant by residual marketing. Residual marketing is a way to continually market from a previous effort. That means you receive benefits from your marketing long after the event (tradeshow, outing, conference etc) is over. This is similar to how an actor receives residual income each time his movie is played on TV or a song writer receives income each time her song is played on the radio.

This lingering effect is what gives residual marketing its power and why it is so important. Think about it, you only have to do the work one time however you reap the benefits of your work over and over again. One of the easiest ways to market residually is by using promotional merchandise.

In fact, one of the reasons why promotional products are so cost effective is because of their residual marketing benefits. Let’s say for instance that you send a letter to a prospective client introducing your services. This is the first step in marketing, getting in front of your prospect. The challenge becomes creating a strategy to stay there? What better way to do that than through the use of a fun and functional promotional product that will be used over and over again.

For example, instead of just sending a letter to a prospective client why not include a letter opener or luggage tag or keyboard calendar or jar opener?.

Now, each time they use your item they are gently reminded of your business. They feel good about you and your company, after all who doesn’t like to receive a free gift right? Especially one that is useful.

Now, when the prospective client has a need for your service, they will be more inclined to call you instead of your competition. You see, you only had to market to your prospect once but you received residual benefits because you included a promotional item with your letter. That relatively inexpensive add-in was working for you over and over again without any effort on your part, sort of like a silent salesperson.

Technical Writing – Definition of Demographic

Definition of Demographic

Frequently, a client will specify a target audience by talking about the customer profile. This is a way of talking about the demographics of the people in a consumer group. One purpose of a demographic is to find out what specific consumer segments exist in the overall population. Another is to have enough information about a typical member of a group to provide a kind of mental picture of an individual within the larger group. This information allows for the development of a marketing strategy and a marketing plan.

In ordinary use, a number of variables are taken into account when we talk about a group’s demographics. Commonly used variables include:

race
age
income
disabilities
type and number of designated products in the household
education level
housing status: own, rent, condo
employment status
geographic location
recreational preferences
buying habits

Each of these variables can be given more or less weight depending on the product or service involved. For example, a magazine publisher might consider a marketing campaign aimed at a demographic that includes single Asian men between the ages of twenty-five and twenty-eight employed in the aero-space industry living in Northwest US. This is potentially a large segment of the population.

On the other hand, if a company has a product that is expected to appeal only to Serbo-Croatian females between the ages of eighty-five and ninety who hold doctorates in Antarctic Economics and live with their parents, a demographic study might indicate that the potential market is too small for a major marketing initiative.

Let’s Get Picky

Every word has a specific meaning and that no two words ever mean exactly the same thing. And we still believe that’s true – except when it isn’t.

The word psychographic, technically, includes all the information in a demographic plus a lot more. A good marketing dictionary will define psychographics as a way of dividing consumers into groups based on attitudes, beliefs, values, personality, buying motives, lifestyle, and a number of other attributes.

Technically, demographics is a sub-set of psychographics that measures only age, income, and occupation. Practically, though, you’ll very seldom hear the word psychographics in a meeting because most people in marketing either don’t know or don’t care that there’s a difference. Demographics has become the industry shorthand that encompasses all of the elements of psychographics.

What’s the Best MLM Business For Seniors?

…Let’s define BEST and Seniors. BEST first – definition: Most excellent, top, finest, greatest, unsurpassed, paramount, preeminent, superlative. WOW That’s a tough bill to fill.

Now Seniors – definition: Older, Higher, Higher Ranking, Superior, Leading, Chief, Major, Most Important (of course).

How to find the BEST MLM business for Seniors: Start by answering these questions: What are you interested in?

Do you LIKE to sell? What? Phone equipment/plans, Jewelry, Plastic-ware, Cleaning products, Nutritional products, Exercise programs/equipment, Water systems. Do you need a weight loss product? Do you like drinking shakes and dieting, taking fat burning pills, or something easier like just changing brands of something you are already using?

I could go on for two pages at least, but you get the idea. Just get on the Net and look up MLM businesses and keep clicking until you find something you LOVE. Next check out everything about the company and products to be SURE it isn’t just infatuation. Now… JOIN… OR… complete the process in the NEXT paragraph FIRST so you are SURE you’ll be comfortable with your choices. Remember not to get sidetracked by the “shining stars”. What I mean is, if you want people to join YOUR program pick a sponsor who is on the way up… not already at the top. If everyone goes with the Top Dogs, how will anyone new succeed?

Next (or first) is a little bit more difficult task: Find a coach or program you think you can work with. Someone or something that motivates you because you are going to need that motivation to do what is necessary to grow your MLM business. Go about this the same way you found your niche company. Get on the net. Now you can look up programs, trainers, coaches and you can even go to article directories like this one and check out authors who write about what you want to do. Many of them list their training sites if they have one. They even give you free training in their articles. Avoid the Top Dogs here, too.

While you are there, remember to leave a comment on the articles you’ve read. It doesn’t have to be much, even a “Thumbs-Up” will be appreciated. Most MLM on-line businesses will require you to do article writing to build up contacts for yourself, so treat others as you would like to be treated. And don’t let Article Writing scare you. There are PLENTY of programs to teach you to do that, too, if your coach doesn’t already have one built into his/her program. There are also people who can be hired for a song to do this for you.

Now you can sign up with the coach, trainer or program that suites you, and that you can afford. Follow their instructions to the letter. Stay Focused. Put as much time into it as you can manage; the rewards will come, but it does take work up front. Tackle one task at a time so you don’t become scattered. Stay on track!

Being a senior myself, I’m not too crazy about the idea of an MLM business that is BEST for Seniors (we don’t ALL want to sell rocking chairs do we?)! Because Seniors have more experience, patients (for the most part), money (well, maybe not these days), wisdom (you gotta give us that) and Moxie (when was the last time you tried to “put one over” on a senior?)!

Consequently, ANY MLM Business would fit because it isn’t the business, it’s the way it’s MARKETED. So more importantly, what is BEST for YOU? And THAT shouldn’t have anything to do with whether or not you are a Senior. Is there a BEST MLM Business for teenagers?

I’m not trying to get out of fulfilling my commitment of telling you which MLM business if Best for Seniors, but I think you can see: there is no ONE answer to that question… Other than: Everyone is different with different interests, so no matter what social structure you fit into YOU need to find the RIGHT MLM BUSINESS for YOU. As a Senior, you have more wisdom and insight than you did years ago, use them to answer the above questions and find the Right MLM Business for YOU no matter what your age!

Another point, of course, is Seniors may be even MORE suited to an MLM business than the youngsters out there. Providing you aren’t “stuck” in your ways. Seniors can be young in a lot more ways than one can imagine. Most of us look in the mirror and wonder who we are seeing because we don’t FEEL that old!

So an MLM business could be just the perfect set up to keep us Seniors Acting even younger; by giving us hope, excitement, anticipation, the chance to help others, and something to dream about again. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone more determined than a Motivated Senior! Now Start Looking!

Careful Implementation of AB 32 Legislation is Critical

To be truly effective, AB 32 or the Global Warming Solutions Act needs to be carefully implemented. Although its stringent implications would be justified by the consequent reduction of overall global warming in the US, companies might be pushed away and do business elsewhere.

There is a chance that unless California’s administration and regulatory bodies assuage the worries of both existing, domesticated organizations and those seeking to do business in the state, new initiatives could stall or be reversed. As always, education is key and as the AB 32 legislation approaches some of its more important benchmark targets, this is more necessary than ever.

If the Global Warming Solutions Act, code-named AB 32, is to be truly effective, it must operate within a number of carefully defined objectives and principles. The AB 32 could bring stark challenges to the economic growth of California, being the most populous country in the United States.

It poses a big challenge to still maintain a neutral environment with the implementation of the Global Warming Solutions Act as companies which are based in California might be pressed hardly by this law? The very regulation requires that regulations introduced to reduce emissions be both “cost-effective and “technologically feasible.” This is surely easier said than done. It’s important to maintain this philosophy however if jobs are going to be safeguarded in the interest of consumers and business.

Many view changes as threats, but they must always be viewed as opportunities by the forward thinking business man. As the ultimate aim is to hasten energy efficiency, AB 32 legislation introduces several market-based caps and other incentives, including a number of restrictions. A company that goes further than the letter of the law and becomes even more energy-efficient will by definition reduce its carbon emissions and become more competitive in its marketplace anyway.

Should there be a nationwide cap and trade and market driven legislation that will be introduced, the California Global Warming Solutions Act definitely holds together. AB 32 in California was signed into law in 2006 and is thus quite far ahead of the game, while nationwide legislation is only now being considered in the US Senate and will likely take many years to “crank up”.

In the United Kingdom, countrywide cap and trade programs are now being introduced. Many believe that this form of market manipulation is the most equitable way of forcing down energy use and carbon emissions and that ultimately, a globally linked network of similar schemes will be necessary to achieve the lofty goals that groups of environmentalist project.

As written, AB 32 legislation seeks to reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. This represented a 25% reduction when the law was introduced in 2006. Fast forward 2050, a reduction by 80% on carbon footprint is seen as attainable with the more aggressive action anticipated with the Act.

Business leaders should ensure that they are as educated as possible in the intricacies of AB 32, most especially if they have operations in the state of California. Forward thinking leasers must pay attention to how organizations start preparing for the expected effects of this Act.

Serious And Funny Construction Definitions Contractors Enjoy Reading

Over The Past 30+ Years -I have accumulated a variety of terms to describe the construction industry. Some of them are intended to be funny, some are serious and the rest are entertaining. Please feel free to share them with your friends, relatives and most importantly contractors as they will appreciate the humor and perhaps find value in the words of wisdom we are sharing.

If You Have Any Others You Would Like To Be Added Please Leave A Comment On The Right

80/20 Rule – of a contractor’s wealth and wellbeing comes from 20% of their activities

24 Hour Bookkeeper – Bookkeeper that sits in your office quietly, no watering, no feeding, available to work around the clock, never wastes company time surfing the web or chatting on cell phone

Aggravation Box – Computer with construction accounting software operated by a trainee

Auction – End result of working in the business, focusing on the wrong stuff and bad financial reports

Auditor – Person who goes in after the war is lost and bayonets the wounded

Assets of Company – Cash / Receivables – Payables / Trucks / Tools / Equipment / Material

Assets of Firm – Cash / Business Process / Sales Process / Client List / Predictable Cash Flow

Bad Bookkeeper – Wealth prevention tool keeping contractors from earning more than bookkeepers

Bad Bookkeeper Thinking Patterns – Some of the reasons they do what they do to drive contractors crazy

Bad Bookkeeping – Saving money in the wrong place and making decisions on garbage reports

Bad Numbers – Lead to bad decisions / cash shrinks / business unstable / bankruptcy or failure

Bankruptcy – Result of saving money on bookkeeping and making decisions on garbage reports

BCA Business Coach – Someone who helps you raise your level of thinking and income

BCA Staff Member – Cheerful, well paid, thinking, responsible adult, Mastermind Team member

BCG Matrix – Graphical representation of Cash Cows / Rising Stars / Question Marks / Dogs

Belly Button Accountability – The one person who is responsible for a deliverable on a construction project

Bid – A wild guess carried out to two decimal places

Bid Collector – Customer looking for cheap contractor

Bid Opening – A poker game in which the losing hand wins

Black Box – Computer with construction accounting software operated by a trainee

Bookkeeper Training Contractor – Bookkeepers, who train the boss to let them come in late, leave early, call friends and relatives, take long breaks, get paid more and do less and less.

BPM – Business Process Management for construction company owners to grow passive income streams

Budget Bookkeeping – Listing all deposits from the bank statement as sales income and leads to contractor paying too much in taxes.

Business Failure – No meaningful financial and project management records in the calendar quarter preceding the failure

Business Life Cycle – Start small / grow big / lose shirt / shrink back to small business

Business Plan – A plan to have accurate financial reports to base long and short term decisions on

Business Process Management – Develop a construction business that generates passive income

Business Roundtable – Little round table in tavern with pitcher of beer and four contractors strategizing

C.P.A. – Someone who is qualified to do tax returns and we refer a lot of business to the ones that only do tax returns.

C.P.A. Construction Consultant – Someone who has seen a bunch of tax returns and thinks they know how to run a construction business. They are generally more dangerous to the contractor’s financial health than a drunken car salesman on a backhoe at a gas station, in the dark, digging up live fuel lines.

C.P.A. Involved In Construction Bookkeeping – QuickBooks setup to make doing tax returns easy while greasing the rails for the contractor to go down the tube and go broke by focusing only on making the C.P.A’s job easier and not on increasing cash flow and profitable jobs.

Change – The only people who want change are wet babies! Everyone else hates change!

Cheap – Not enough time or money to do it right first time; but plenty of time and money to do it over

Chaos – Always on the dollars coming in; never on the money going out

Client – Someone who buys construction services and is more concerned about quality than price

Comfort Zone – Success you have now since that is what you feel you deserve no more / no less

Company Bookkeeper – Expensive luxury for construction companies that do not know about outsourced contractor bookkeeping

Completion Date – The point at which liquidated damages begin

Contractor Not A Banker – Student of Business Consulting And Accounting who has mastered the art of managing cash flow properly

Contractors – The people who makes civilization possible by building and maintaining structures

Contractor Gambling – One project away from making it big or going broke

Contractor Chaos – Contractor netting <$100K doing everything his way; especially the bookkeeping

Contractor Cheap – Amateur with customers from Hell and host of the game show “Low Price Leader”

Contractor Income – The average income of the six people they spend the most time with

Contractor Rich – BCA client earning $100K-$200K by building a client base to sell and service

Contractor Student – BCA client net <$100K learning how to get Rich then Wealthy

Contractor Successful – Contractor using timely accurate financial reports to base their decisions upon

Contractor Volume – Loses money on every sale and tries to make it up with a volume of new work

Contractor Wealthy – BCA Client earning $200K + Investing 50K with 100 clients to service

Construction Accountant – Someone who turns piles of numbers into meaningful trends

Construction Accounting – System that combines construction bookkeeping with Quarterly Tax preparation and payroll processing and presents the annual tax preparer with the information for them to prepare the annual income tax return. Construction accounting does not prepare annual tax returns as that is a profession and specialty of its own

Construction Bookkeeping – System for setup and maintaining construction bookkeeping

Construction Bookkeeping And Accounting – System for setup and maintaining construction bookkeeping and accounting together in order to develop and maintain the Key Performance Indicators that when viewed daily and understood leads contractors to accumulate wealth

Construction Worker Thinking Patterns – Insights into the mind of a typical construction worker

Construction Worker Fully Burdened Labor Cost – Cost of having construction workers on your payroll

Critical Path Method – A management technique for losing your shirt under perfect control

Customer – Someone who buys construction services and is more concerned about price than quality

Delayed Payment – A tourniquet applied at the bank balance of any contractor who will allow it

Delusional – Contractor going to learn to use QuickBooks effectively in a few months

Developer – Company looking for a few, good, low priced, high volume contractors they can school

Displaced Aggression – Being angry at someone because of past events or circumstances which are resulting in ongoing issues. In some cases contractors have hired cheap or bad bookkeepers without realizing the consequences of not having useful financial and job cost reports

Dog And Pickup Truck – Contractor with a dog and a pickup truck one of the four types of contractors

Emergency Accounting – When taxes, payroll or paperwork piling up causes contractor to seek help from someone to get the “books” caught up, tax reports prepared, payroll processed or other issues

Emergency Bookkeeping – When taxes, payroll or paperwork piling up causes contractor to seek help from someone to get the “books” caught up, tax reports prepared, payroll processed or other issues

Emerging Contractor – Someone who is moving to a little less hands-on role in their contracting company you could be an Emerging Contractor.

Engineer’s Estimate – The cost of construction in heaven

Expensive – Goods or services that no matter how cheap they are; do not work

Experience – What you get, when you get, what you don’t want

Failure – A few errors in judgment repeated everyday

Fear – What initiates change or stops progress

Five For Five At Five – The five reports at five o’clock for five minutes that tells you how your business is doing

Fifteen Minutes Too Late – If you think you should fire somebody, you’re already 15 minutes too late

Fully Burdened Rate -Includes all the costs of keeping an employee on the payroll, not just wages

Hard Work – Expressway to Retired

Hustle – The expectation of getting 40 hour of work done in 20 hours

Income – Working for daily money

Insanity – Hiring and firing cheap in-house bookkeepers over and over and over expecting useful reports

Inexpensive – Goods or services that do work beyond the warranty period

Key Performance Indicators (KPI) – Reports if viewed daily and understood leads to wealth

Lawyer – Person who goes in after the auditors to strip the bodies

Leveling – When two or more people spend time together the group will level to the strongest personality

Listening – Contractor who asks their client what materials and results they want and give it to them

Little Leaks – Sink the construction business because they are easy to ignore

Liquidated Damages – A penalty for failing to achieve the impossible

Low Bidder – A contractor who is wondering what he left out

Mastermind Team – BCA Staff and Clients who mentor BCA contractor clients

MAP – Marketing / Accounting / Production / formula for success

Maximize – The process of building and running your construction business to generate highest possible profits for short run so you can spend it all quickly and go broke. Similar to running your pickup truck on the race track as fast as it will go without proper maintenance so it lasts for about ten hours and 1,000 miles before it is destroyed

MR>MC – Wherever marginal revenue exceeds marginal cost do the job

No Financial Reports – Driving on the highway, at night, windows blacked out and being surprised by the crash

Non-Construction Accountant – Dim-bulb want-to-be bookkeeper without any construction bookkeeping skills trying to jam retail accounting methods into construction accounting

Not Listening – Contractor who gives their clients what the contractor likes not what the client wants

Optimize – The process of building and running your construction business to generate normal and economic profits for the long haul and provide you with a substantial income for current living expenses and a comfortable retirement. Similar to running your pickup truck on the roads and highways at normal safe speeds with proper maintenance so it lasts for ten years and 200,000 miles or more

OSHA – A protective coating made by half-baking a mixture of fine print, red tape, split hairs and baloney

PAM – Production / Accounting after checks bounce and letters for back taxes / Marketing word of mouth

Personal Assistant – Someone who works part time with big red “S” on back of their cape (Superman / Superwoman) able to run personal and business errands, answer phones, make deliveries, clean restrooms, take messages, memorize a verbal list of to-do items from contractor without writing any of them down, schedule jobs, listen to customer and staff complaints, babysit children and pets, wipe runny noses, clean up spills, make and serve coffee, pay bills, open the mail, go make bank deposits, work on tiny desk, no air conditioning in summer, limited heat in winter, bad lighting, fix broken computers and printers and do the bookkeeping for multiple companies

Pioneer – Contractor with flaming arrows in the back from asking the construction bookkeeper for accurate reports

Poor Contractors – Have hundred dollar conversations with their mentors and attend the business round table

Process – Part of a system to produce predicable quality results and reap dividends for the owners

Process Development – Do it, Document it, and Delegate it

Professional Contractor – Serious construction business owner with construction strategy and definitely in construction business to earn a worthwhile profit. One of the Four Types of Contractors

Purpose Of Your Construction Company – Acquire clients, satisfy their needs and repeat as often as possible to increase cash flow and profits.

Project Manager – The conductor of an orchestra in which every musician is in a different union

Project Management – Combination of skills and construction project software

QuickBooks For Contractors – Accounting software for construction companies

Rain Maker – The person in the contractors firm that acquires new clients

Remodel House Process – Forming (Honeymoon), Storming (demolition), Norming (Rough-In), Performing (Paint)

Retail Bookkeeper – Worked at store somewhere, thinks all accounting is the same, expensive lesson for contractors

Retired – Means you got tired of them, or they got tired of you

Rich – Income exceeds outgo

ROI – Risk of Incarceration; in most cases the business owner is responsible for unfiled taxes and missed payments, not the bad bookkeeper

Salt Of The Earth Contractor – Has up to three employees and is one of the Four Types of Contractors

Salesperson – Amateur sorter

Sales Process – Documented system for acquiring new clients for the Firm

Solution – Properly setup and maintained QuickBooks For Contractors file

Sorter – Professional Rain Maker

Strategic Bookkeeping Services – Bookkeeping services for construction that understands and applies principles of profit and growth strategies

Strike – An effort to increase egg production by strangling the chicken

Success – A few simple disciplines practiced everyday

SWOT – Knowing the company’s Strengths / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats and what to do about it

Tax Preparer Doing Construction Bookkeeping – QuickBooks setup to make doing tax returns easy while greasing the rails for the contractor to go broke focusing only on reducing taxes not cash flow and profitable jobs.

Tenant Improvement – Bid, award contract, work day and night, pressure, pressure, pressure, done

The Contractors Cash Management Mentor – Shares keys to peace of mind by showing you how to optimize your cash flow by properly managing receivables, payables, payroll, payroll tax reports, 941 quarterly returns, 940 annual returns, W-2 and W-3 returns in your construction business regardless of the economy, Sharie DeHart

The Contractors Profit And Growth Accountant – Shares the keys peace of mind by showing you how to optimize your bottom line profits by spending five minutes a day reviewing the Five Key Performance Indicators (KPI) of your construction business performance. And by regular phone and/or in person strategic consulting sessions where we focus on what your company needs to do to help you achieve your definition of success, Randal DeHart

Unlicensed Contractor – Someone who thinks they can save their customer money by scamming the system with supposedly lower overhead than likened contractors. All too often they provide FREE labor and material because they cannot sue customers for payment.

Warranty Work – The project that never ends

Wealthy Contractors – Work on building relationships and innovating (faster/better/cheaper)

Wealthy Contractors – Have million dollar conversations with their mentors

Wealth – Not working because you have enough cash to live the rest of your life

Working On Wrong Stuff – You can’t get rich with your head in the ditch

Define Your Position: Values, Ethics & Leadership

Some call it wearing one’s heart on the sleeve; others call it wearing their emotions. If the discussion is of values and ethics, leaders must wear them openly, constantly encouraging, mentoring, and coaching others to operate within values-based and ethical standards the leader expresses. Values and ethics exist in a philosophical arena and often mistaken as the same. Values explain that who you are is what you were when. Ethics demonstrates values through behavior. This paper takes the position that values exist on a higher plane than ethics.

Dr. Gyertson6 shares an insight on value and ethic sources. He says throughout human development, there are socio-cultural influences in family and tribe. In the time of prehistory, these values meant survival and extended family. Exploring present value development offers a very different view of family and tribe. Family is nuclear now and connection to extended family is often limited to the July Family Picnic. Tribe, community, is multifaceted people have small neighborhood tribes, work tribes, social tribes, and others. They move among tribes and behave differently in different settings. While core values remain, behaviors shifts when moving among groups. Interacting in work groups is an example. Consider a group of university administrators working to satisfy the needs and desires of applicants and students. Administrators work to put applicants and students at ease as they enter classes. Faculty works with students lecturing, and facilitating to grow students knowledge. The student is the same person yet is interacting with the different elements of the university.

Value deals with the worth, utility, moral virtue, aesthetics, and, may be singular or a collective of each. Values are at the core of what a person believes. In June 2006, article in USA Today, Colorado Rockies pitcher Jason Jennings tells the reporter that players for the ball club hear the value of character and good living from the top of the organization all the way down. In the locker room, one does not see pornographic pictures or magazines. There are sports magazines, racing and car magazines, and prominently seen throughout the locker room are bibles. This ball club believes in Christian values and Christian ethical behavior. A fan tells of not hearing the usual trash talking or player showboating among members of the Rockies. The leadership in the Rockies organization provides evidence of expected behavior in the clubhouse, on the playing field, and among players of other teams. The Rockies are not the “winningest” team in major league baseball; however, they display the near the highest behavioral ethics.

Ethics comes from the Greek ethikos, meaning arising from habit. Ethics is a study of living, a study in which we discover things as being right or wrong or true and false based on how we know things. Therefore, ethics is the outward manifestation, the acting out of a belief.

Values versus ethics

Values and ethics do not exist separately from each other. However, they may develop differently over time. A child’s values grow from the values of parents. A child’s ethical behavior develops from observing what parents do. Trust in parents’ grows as a child sees their parents obeying their beliefs (values) through their ethics (what they do) consistently. It is a leader’s responsibility to an organization, workers, and her- and him-self to do no less. Followers of a leader will loose trust quickly if they observe attitudes and behaviors that do not match expressed ethical standards and values.

Values must identify or embody who a leader is. Values are the bases upon which leaders make judgments on what is important. Ethics identifies a leader’s moral compass, the leader’s understanding of good and right. Ethics are a set of moral principles.

Leaders must commit to personal values and organizational values seeking a fit between both. Moreover, leaders must manifest values in a way that leaves the observer fully aware of the leader’s commitment.

A leader studies the community in which an organization exists to know what the community values. Another consideration is the ethical behavior that leaves a leader questioning whether the community acts as it believes. These observations of what a community believes and how it behaves tells a leader the scope of normative order within a community. However, organizational leaders must operate on a higher plane.

A consideration for leader examination when establishing a code of ethics is that ethics and values do not fit a neat categorization into specialty areas. Melissa Ingwersen1 of JPMorgan Chase Bank supports the foundation of ethics at home and school before applying them to business. She says JPMorgan Chase does not want to compromise it banks or bankers by doing business with questionable clients. Therefore, JPMorgan Chase selects clients carefully attempting to maintain their reputation and the reputation of their clients.

What does the above example tell us about values and ethics in an organization? For Chase Bank, the value is honesty, integrity, and character building of clients by selecting clients who have similar values as the bank. Chase Bank does not compromise their core values for the sake of gaining business. Another view of this provided by Brenda Joyner, et al2, is a sense of corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR includes such elements as economic, legal, discretionary activities and ethics. She says these exist within what are the values of the public.

Working standard – values and ethics

Stated above, ethics is the outward display of values. In some organizations, leaders are content to accept the ethic of responsibility to shareholders. Although this was the generally accepted behavior in economic boom years, most long-life businesses recognize that the bottom line is not an ethically symbolic way to engage.

Joyner, et al, relate the work of Paine (1994). In this, they attempt to put a value on following the letter of the law versus following spirit of the law. While obeying the letter of the law is legally and ethically correct, seeking the higher value to obey the spirit of the law propels a leader to higher trust, reducing cynicism, ultimately adding value to the ethical standard. The ethical standard is a leader and organization’s integrity strategy and values are the core beliefs driving the strategy.

Ray Coye3, writing in 1986 saw the need to differentiate values and ethics. In his view, there are no values for an organization separated from the collective values of leaders and members. He provides a definition of values as, “… serv(ing) as the authorities in the name of which choices are made and action taken.” In greater depth, this 1986 definition is one based on the prevailing attitude toward values and ethics considered correct – at that time (Coye, 1986)

• A value is chosen freely after consideration of alternatives and consequences

• Publicly affirmed, cherished, and prized

• Pattern of action that is consistent and repeated

Conclusion

Values exist at the core of our nature; they are our core belief system. Ethics, our behavior, reveal our values within an operating environment. If we say we cherish (value) our children but behave abusively, value and ethical behavior are incongruent. Within a leadership role, the same is true of our attitude toward workers. Recent history of organizational failure adds to common knowledge of how personal greed over the expressed organizational values ruin business and, worse, the faith workers have in the business and leaders.

Not all organizations are the Colorado Rockies Baseball Club, but trends start one person and one organization at a time. Be a trend setter.

Works Cited

1. Nightengale, B. (2006, June 1). Basball’s Rockies seek revival on two levels. USA Today. Retrieved September 20, 2006 from [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/nl/rockies/2006-05-30-rockies-cover_x.htm].

2. Cook, J. R. Interview: Melissa Ingwersen, Central OH President, JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA. Ethical Leadership, Council for Ethics in Economics (1,1)

3. Joyner, B. E., Payne, D. & Raiborn, C. A. (2002, April). Building values, business ethics and corporate social responsibility into the developing organization. Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship(7,1), pg. 113.

4. Coye, R. (1986, February) Individual Values and Business Ethics. Journal of Business Ethics (5,1), pg. 45.

5. Watson, S. (2006). Personal Values in Business: How successful businesses underpin their success with clear values. Retrieved September 20, 2006 from [http://www.summitconsultants.co.uk/news-detail.asp?fldNewsArticles_ID=126].

6. Gyertson, D. J. (2006). Ethical Frameworks. Presentation at Regent University DSL Residency September 13 to 22, 2006

Using Kaizen to Lower the Risk of Mergers and Acquisitions Failure

The number of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) that end in failure is a matter of conjecture but it’s commonly estimated that over 50% of all M&A deals fail to achieve their intended goals. If true, that represents an astounding loss of investment dollars as well as the lost time, energy, reputations and everything else that goes along with closing an M&A deal. Lowering the failure rate by even a small amount has the potential therefore to save billions in lost dollars. While specific reasons are usually cited for individual failures, it’s difficult to generalize about a root cause of the failures that would allow investors to avoid or at least mitigate their investment risk. To find a global means of lowering the risk of an M&A failure we need to look for systemic causes of the problem.

By M&A failure I am referring to failures that occur after an M&A deal has been closed, not a failure to close the deal (a subject all to itself). The specific reasons cited for M&A failure usually include target business issues such as the lack of anticipated or promised performance, culture clash, management team and key employee loss, changes in the market… and on and on. But again, while these may be the cause of a specific failure, citing the cause of an individual failure doesn’t help us identify the systemic causes. For our purpose then, we will need to use a more generic definition of an M&A failure. To accomplish this, we can simply define an M&A failure as a merger or acquisition which, after 2-3 years, the investor wouldn’t do over if given the chance. I limited it to 2-3 years because after that there is a good chance the business failed for other reasons.

To find a systemic cause of failure, we must turn our focus to the M&A process itself. Dr. W. E. Deming was a mid Twentieth Century scientist who did much of the original research on quality assurance techniques. In his work he demonstrated that product failures resulted from the manufacturing processes that were used to produce the product and that, by improving the process, it is possible to reduce the resulting failures. More recently, we have seen this principal demonstrated by Toyota when they adopted the “Kaizen” method. “Kaizen” is the Japanese word for good or positive process change. To improve the quality of their cars, Toyota uses “Kaizen” to remove systemic manufacturing defects. “Kaizen” is now being applied in many other industries. While the M&A process is not a manufacturing process it is a repeatable process and by analyzing that process, it is possible to identify the systemic root cause of some M&A failures. We can then use a “kaizen” approach to modify the process to lower the M&A failure rate.

Overall, the M&A process is a methodical, legalistic process embedded with activities tied to letters of intent, the definition of terms and conditions, the creation of an acquisition agreement and other documents needed to transfer ownership of the target business in a diligent manner. Activities like negotiating the terms of the agreement or preparing the transfer of document can be tedious but they have exacting results and are generally not the cause M&A failures.

Due diligence by contrast is the most subjective step in the M&A process. Many investors don’t fully understand the role of due diligence and begin with only a notional understanding of what they hope to accomplish. This gives us the first clue to the cause of many M&A failures.

To understand the problem, lets break the M&A due diligence process down a little further. To be effective, due diligence should assess three distinct facets of the business; legal, financial, and operations, and these should be performed with equal effectiveness. Most investors do a good job at legal and financial due diligence but fail to perform an effective operations due diligence. This is due to the fact that legal and financial due diligence rely on the frameworks of law and accounting as their guiding principles and, assuming that the investor has a competent attorney and accountant, there is little reason not to perform these assessments effectively. Operations due diligence is a different story. There is often confusion regarding exactly what needs to be assessed during an operations due diligence or how to measure and report on the results. To understand the nature of this problem, this would be a good time for the reader to take a moment to write down what you think constitutes an effective operations due diligence. Later we will see if your definition has changed.

While not totally accurate, it is fair to say that financial due diligence is primarily looking at the past performance of the business while legal due diligence looks at the current state of the business (at the time of closing). Operations due diligence on the other hand is trying to discover potential problems that could impact the future operations and sustainability of the business. If an operations assessment determines the likelihood of a negative future event occurring than, by definition, operations due diligence is a risk assessment. Specific failures, such as cultural mismatch, missing the market, and the loss of key clients are examples of events that have the potential to negatively impact the future operations of the business. If the definition you wrote down didn’t have the word risk in it than you have not fully understood the role of operations due diligence.

What about events that have a positive impact on the business? Is there, for instance, an opportunity for the business to improve its sales after the merger? Risk and opportunity are often described as “two sides of the same coin”. An operations due diligence should also be an opportunity assessment. Opportunity is the likelihood of an event that will positively impact the future operations of the business. If an operations assessment discovers that the business has a great product but sales are weak because the sales group is immature and the acquiring company already has a strong sales organization than an opportunity to improve sales has been discovered. Not capturing potential opportunities is also a cause of M&A failure because the business will fail to achieve its full potential.

Operations due diligence needs to be an enterprise wide assessment. When asked, most people name only one or two key functions to be assessed and fail to provide a holistic, enterprise wide answer. “Operations” is a very broad term and potentially covers a wide range of operating functions. Without an established framework similar to that of law or accounting, the enterprise framework tends to be an ad hoc list of functions. Standardizing a framework that defines the enterprise therefore is crucial for reducing failures. Processes that do not produce repeatable results are prone to error. Without a clearly defined, consistent framework the results are not repeatable and increases the chance of an M&A failure.

Investors rely on their CPA and attorney to establish the financial and legal framework but who do they rely on to perform an operations assessment? A CPA can tell you the financial maturity of the business but how do you determine the maturity of the operations infrastructure of a business? The tendency for most investors is to “go it alone” by focusing on only one or two areas. “It was a software company so we had an engineer look at the code”. The lack of a consistent operations framework, or established practice that defines one, re-enforces the potential that operations due diligence is the weak link in the M&A process due to the potential to overlook business functions during the assessment.

Operations due diligence needs to be performed as an enterprise wide assessment that spans the entire operations infrastructure of the business. There may be more understanding of the operational needs during a strategic acquisition over a purely financial investment but my experience is that a “go it alone” approach during a strategic investment tends to overlook key operations areas. Without a guiding framework, it is difficult to determine what constitutes “complete” and without a framework to use as a guide, the potential to miss an operations function is great and therefore so is the risk that you will overlook the potential cause of an M&A failure. An operations assessment must cast a wide net in order to keep potential risks from slipping through and the lower the risk of an M&A failure. Treating operations due diligence as an enterprise wide risk/opportunity assessment based on the development of a holistic framework and a constant M&A process improvement program is a clear way to lower the M&A failure rate.

Improving the way operations due diligence is performed demonstrates how “Kaizen” could be applied to the M&A process. “Kaizen” requires a continuous process improvement program that continues to remove defects over time. The examples given here are just a first step. Applying a “Kaizen” approach would mean continuously revisiting the operations framework to better identify latent operations risks and opportunities. To accomplish this, we would need to look at the specific causes of M&A failure and constantly ask, would this problem have been discovered during our operations assessment. If the answer is no, then the operations framework needs to be further improved. Continuous process improvement requires resources. Investors that are continuously involved in the M&A process will gain the most from this type of program. The benefits that this type of process improvement program provides by lowering investment risk should justify the commitment of those resources.