2008 Flooding in Iowa

Finally I am able to get back in the office and establish some sense of normalcy. For those of you who were wondering what was going on, here's the scoop. Pretty much the entire state of Iowa has had massive flooding. In fact, 83 (at last count), of the 99 counties in Iowa have been deemed disaster areas. I didn't think I had anything to worry about. Heck, I didn't even think we were in the flood plain. However, the levee up the street failed and started dumping water into our street and the surrounding neighborhoods.

I need to say that we were lucky! The poor families in the neighborhoods behind us didn't fare as well. There has been some unprecedented loss of property. Our surrounding area was the first hit followed by complete devastation in Cedar Rapids. Tens of thousands of people are now homeless and the last I heard, CR alone was expected to hit the $800 million mark in damage.

Here are some pictures of our building.







Here are some pictures from the town of Waverly, Iowa, also one of the first to be devastated by the floods.





Iowa really has been getting hammered this year. From devastating ice storms and killer tornadoes to floods. I think the only thing we are missing this year is famine and plague. Even though we are currently occupied with flood waters and flood clean up, we can NOT forget the people of Parkersburg, Dunkerton and other areas devastated by the F5 tornado. Also we can't forget the Tornado that hit the Boy Scout camp killing 4 and injuring 50. Granted, Iowa doesn't have a monopoly on suffering, but this is the worst series of disasters to hit the tall corn state since the mid 1800's.

The one thing I take away from all of this pride. I am very proud of the people. When volunteers were needed, people came. When neighbors suffered loss, people helped. When families lost their home, others opened theirs.

In a local town hall meeting a director from FEMA said that there was a difference between this disaster and New Orleans. It seem that in New Orleans some people sat on their front porch with their hand out and bitched. The people here, dropped what they were doing to volunteer, help their family, friends or neighbors and gave what they could to help those in need. The volunteers and their sandbagging efforts are actually what saved the downtown area of Cedar Falls. Here are some pictures of Cedar Falls near downtown.





And finally, this is one of the most amazing pictures from the Cedar Rapids area. This picture was taken before the bridge collapsed. Just look at the houses piled up against that bridge.



Even though the clean-up is going to take a while and it's going to be quite some time before businesses and residents are able to resume a normal life, I want to say thank you to all the people who volunteered and served. I have always been proud to say that I am from Iowa and now it means a little bit more for me.

Welcome to a new week.

UPDATE: Here are some additional pictures a friend emailed me.

 

We Are Suing OPEC?

This just released from Reuters. Wait till you feast your eyes on this.

By Tom Doggett

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.

The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.

The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto.

The legislation also creates a Justice Department task force to aggressively investigate gasoline price gouging and energy market manipulation.

"This bill guarantees that oil prices will reflect supply and demand economic rules, instead of wildly speculative and perhaps illegal activities," said Democratic Rep. Steve Kagen of Wisconsin, who sponsored the legislation.

The lawmaker said Americans "are at the mercy" of OPEC for how much they pay for gasoline, which this week hit a record average of $3.79 a gallon.

The White House opposes the bill, saying that targeting OPEC investment in the United States as a source for damage awards "would likely spur retaliatory action against American interests in those countries and lead to a reduction in oil available to U.S. refiners."

The administration said less oil going to refineries would limit available gasoline supplies and raise fuel prices.

Foreign investment in U.S. oil infrastructure has declined in the last decade. But the state-owned oil companies of several OPEC nations are owners of U.S. refineries, and those investments could be affected if the legislation becomes law, said Arlington, Virginia-based FBR Capital Markets Corp.

The bill also requires the Government Accountability Office to carryout a study on the effects of prior oil company mergers on energy prices.

The Senate would still have to approve the House measure.

The Senate previously approved similar legislation as part of a broad energy bill. However, the OPEC-suing provision was removed after White House opposition in order to get the underlying energy legislation signed into law."

What is going on here? How can we win from such an action?

Holy cow, you think the prices of oil are high now, wait till they decide they don't like us enough to sell us oil. AND with foreign ownership of US refineries and oil fields this could get ugly. Foreign ownership of any land or interest in the US should be banned. There are NOT a lot of countries that would let me, as a US Citizen, own land in their country. Why can't we just drill for oil in Alaska.

What do you think on the subject?

 

So You Want To Start An Internet Business

Have I got an opportunity for you. I know that sounded like 1970 car salesman, but this is a serious opportunity. AND it will literally cost you nothing. No this isn't a get rich quick scheme or a "no money down" real estate program.

This is a legitimate online business selling a valuable and reliable online file storage product.

And it's called...



Stockade is a company that provides online file storage, data restoration and disaster recovery services. But here's the best part. For those of you interested in starting a business online, you can do it with Stockade. All you need to do is become a reseller and add this service to what you are already doing and you will earn 30% on all sales. AND you don't have to spend a dime to do it. You heard it right, it doesn't cost you anything. They will set you up with your own branded site, give you all the tools you need and they will do all the marketing for you. Folks, it doesn't get much better than that.

Not only are you making money as a reseller, you are providing some real value to the end users. This can be a revenue stream that supplements your existing services or you can work it full time. Either way you cut it, there are some real benefits of becoming a reseller.

• Provide a valuable service for your customers
• Generate a subscription-based, recurring revenue stream for your business
• No capital outlay for your business to get started
• Customized client software embedded with your reseller ID
• Stockade website and unique url for your new offering
• Easy to sell
• Easy for your customers to deploy
• Great profit margin
• Provided infrastructure and technical support

Every company, big or small, needs to have a off-site electronic file backup plan as part of a bigger disaster recovery program. Too often as a company grows, the need for a data restoration solution is often forgotten. This is where Stockade can help.

• Backups are stored off site in a secure, world-class data center
• Redundant copy stored in a second data center over 500 miles away
• Reduces human error through automation
• Eliminates the frustration associated with handling tapes
• All stored data is encrypted using 256bit AES encryption – only your customer has the passphrase to un-encrypt the data
• Addresses HIPAA, GLBA and Sarbanes Oxley offsite data storage compliance
• Easy restoration of data
• Economical

Stockade takes the worry out of backing up critical data. The Stockade solution takes the human element out of the process by automatically sending the compressed and encrypted backup files off site to a secure, world-class data center via the Internet. From there a customer has total control of their files. AND as an added bonus, stockade offers a risk free trial at no charge. Don't like it? Pay nothing. The customer has nothing to loose.

To find out how to become an online backup reseller, click the ad at the right and sign up for more information today.

 

Why Businesses Fail

As I was going through some old papers here in my orifice, I ran across a document called "Why Businesses Fail." I knew there was a reason I hung onto it. It was if I ever decided to start a blog and write about business stuff. Yeah, right. Actually I remember hanging on to it because it had a really simple yet profound list of things that contribute to business failure.

Businesses fail because of:

Lack of Planning
Undercapitalization
Poor Management
Lack of Discipline
Lack of Effort
Poor Execution
Lack of Focus

Some fundamental advice - If you are going to start a business seek the council of people that are more experienced than you.

I can't tell you how many business plans I've read that forget something major like estimates for marketing. They have the competitive analysis done, the mission, projections, the costs associated with rent, equipment, furnishings, etc., but they forgot to include dollar figures for marketing and advertising.

This simple oversight immediately puts the potential business owner in an undercapitalized position. How much does it take for a new retail establishment to advertise for the first 2 years of business. It depends on the market of course, but one thing is sure, this is a very critical time to market your new business. You are probably going to spend more in the first 2 years than you typically would over subsequent 2 year periods.

Take a look again at the list above, make sure you have all you ducks in a row, including your marketing dollars.

This has been a public service announcement from The Big Bald Blog!

 

Business Cards

Well, someone did it to me again. They gave me a perforated, print it yourself, designed on Microsoft word, ink jetted business card. Oh man I really can't stand that. I'm sorry, but this is one of my pet peeves. For a business owner to care that little about that initial impression, I find that sad.

If you are going out and asking people to buy from you, shouldn't it be OK to hand them a nice business card? Seriously even if your business card cost an expensive $.20 cents each, or $200.00 per 1000, isn't it worth it if you are asking someone to spend 3 or 4 thousand with you. There are all kinds of places out there that will let you can get really nice card for about $125.00 per 1000.

I keep collecting these home ink jetted cards as a matter of curiosity. To date, I have 2 of this type from attorneys, 1 from a travel agent and 1 from a professional organizer. All professionals who normally charge handsomely for their services.

As I was writing this, I went digging through my business card stash and found a couple that really stood out.


The scanner didn't do them justice. The first one pictured is a card that I received from a plastics company, and YES the card is on translucent plastic. Clean, simple yet creative. It just makes sense right?

The second one is a deputy sheriff's card. It embossed, gold and black foil stamped. I kind of had mixed emotions on this when I found out that the card cost $.50 cents each. But then I guess I would be hypocritical if I said that tax payer dollars shouldn't be spending that much on business cards for officers. My point is, they are 2 out of the ordinary cards that made me pay a little bit closer attention.

Out of all the business cards I had in my file, these were the only 2 that seemed to be a little more "special." In the interest in making my point, I set out on the Internet to see what kind of business card designs were out there. The creative I found, made my 2 examples look like photo copies on card stock. I ran across a site called Creative Bits that had all kinds of great concepts and design work in the form of business cards. The images below are just a few examples that are shown on the site.


Excellent use of a debossing die.


This happens to be one of the coolest cards I have seen. Someone emailed this to me several months ago. I would imagine that this is a pretty expensive card to make and the laser cutting or die stamping shop would require quite the run to tool up for it. I don't know too many locksmiths that would spring for this, but someone obviously did.


How about a scratch off business card. Very nice.


This one is pretty funny. I am not sure if this was a real card or if this was just a mock-up. Clever nonetheless.


This is probably the THE coolest business card I have seen. Slightly beating out the locksmith card. The concept is amazing. You have to stretch the card, as if you were working out, to see the full information.


Another great concept. Print your information on the little envelopes and put some grass seed in it. How appropriate for a lawn care company. (I put this one up there for you Allyn.)

Make sure you stop by Creative Bits and check out the other creative ways to get your information across in a business card format.

Because I love my readers so much, here's I am going to do to. If you have a great concept on a business card or your card is a bit out of the ordinary, send it to me and I will post what I receive on Fridays. Send your cards to TheBigBaldBlog AT impactmt dot com. What should we call that feature? "Show me your cards?"

Thanks again for stopping by and have a great weekend everyone!

 

When and What to Cut

For quite some time I have subscribed to Seth Godin's Blog. I just read a post called "Fall into the Gap." It talks about Gap stores and the recent struggles they've been going through. Seth's post addresses the inappropriate cutbacks that the Gap has been making and he is right on.

Often times when a company is struggling, all they know to do is cut expenses. It's a nasty cycle. You become under-capitalized, cash flow begins to suffer and the owner turns to the only thing they feel they have control over, operational costs. But what is an appropriate cut? Do you cut sales people, close locations, eliminate advertising, what? When a company cuts back on their sales force or customer service, you know they are in a world of hurt and the end may be near. Sales people are the lifeblood of any organization, without them how do you retain and acquire new business? You need to identify your profitable markets, understand what you do best, market effectively, and understand the value of your key people.

I have a friend that owns a business. His one-track minded approach to revenue building is raising prices (regardless of market demand) and trying to figure out how to cut employee salaries. Declining any help that I have offered and after years of this approach, he now has the most expensive product in his market segment and continues to struggle with poor service and bad employees. Sales have continued to decline. I fear the damage that has been done is irreversible and he will never be able to climb out of the hole.

One of the most humbling things that a business owner can do is realize when they are out of their league and can't handle it any more. Once you realize that you don't know it all and you need help, you can surround yourself with people who "know more" than you do. This is when the healing can begin. Too often an owner will ride their pride into the bankruptcy sunset.

Seth said it best: "When your current strategy isn't working, doing the same thing, but just a little less of it, doesn't make a lot of sense..."

 

How Many Computers?

Forrester Research has reported that there will be over 1 billion personal computers in use by the end of 2008. 186 Million of which will have high speed Internet. It is estimated that 2 billion PCs will be in use by 2015. Still say you don't need a website?

I wonder how yellow page and newspaper publishers are preparing themselves for the death of their traditional media?

 

The Best Part Of Dealing With Clients...

One of the best things that any business owner gets to do is deal with clients. I just discovered my new favorite website that deals with relationships between service providers and their clients.

http://www.clientcopia.com - Make sure you click on the "Top 20"

 

People still buy from People

Sales people still have the impression that they are buying a product or service from their company. Not true. People are buying from you, the sales person. You can have the best service or product available but if the customer doesn't like you, trust you, or understand you, it is over before it begins.

I know sales people that have called on companies for years before the needed trust was established. Once you have the rapport, once you have their confidence, once you have their trust, then and only then, can you have their business.

Customers perceive your worth based on results and the value that they feel they are getting. I have dealt with companies that could give me their service free of charge and I still wouldn't use them.

Lawn care companies are always calling me in an attempt to get me to relinquish my lawn care. However, what they never bother to ask about and what they don't know is that I like to do it myself. Still they continue to call every year and I say no. Now, if they came to me with a consultative plan that outlined the proper fertilizer, seed and aeration schedule, I may purchase their services and potentially some product from them given that it was priced competitively.

When dealing with prospects, make sure you do your diligence in research, fact finding. If you are not asking the right questions or you are not digging deep enough. You can never be a true solution provider. Establish yourself and your company as the authority in your industry and position your self as a "go-to" person. If people like you, trust you, and see value in what you do, your have conquered one more step in building your business.

For more information on how you can take your business to the next level contact Impact Marketing Technologies at 319-232-4332 for more information.