I usually keep politics out of this blog, but I’m writing this piece not to change your political views as much as challenge how you think about the relationship between business and politics. Many years ago I was a member of a small business lobby group called NFIB. They poll their members on every position they should take. I couldn’t believe how short sighted the majority was and how ultimately harmful to business their positions were. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, If there weren’t a lot of short-sighted business owners there wouldn’t be much need for my coaching services. I didn’t renew my membership in NFIB.

So here are some typically pro-business political positions and my questions about how they miss the point.

Taxes are Bad for Business
Would zero taxes be better? Can you imagine doing business in a country where there were not enough taxes to pay for a working court system? To keep roads and bridges safe? Where most of the population were not educated? Is inflation good for business? Is it possible that a slight tax increase on certain people might eliminate inflation and improve your business prospects? Didn’t the economy do better 10 years ago when taxes were just a tad higher? Maybe it’s about who gets taxed and what the taxes get spent on rather than whether taxes go up or down. Where do you draw the line?

Government Regulation is bad for business
What about regulations that keep your competitors from cheating? What if stronger regulations were placed on cheap imports so that goods sold in your country could compete on a level playing field – one where safety costs and such were the same no matter where something was made? What if you could compete only on quality and execution not on which country lets people pollute more?

Minimum Wage Raises are Bad for Business
If people can’t afford what you sell, isn’t that bad for business? Henry Ford once famously doubled the wages at his factories. As a result, more people could afford his cars. Is the market for what you sell better in third world countries with no minimum wage?

Universal Health Care is bad for Business
What does your business pay in health care costs? Do you compete with companies that pay zero because they are in countries that provide universal health care? How many good employees might work for you but can’t leave their jobs because they have a pre-existing condition? How many customers can’t afford your products because they spend too much on medicine?

Smaller Government is Better
Do you get any government contracts? Do any of your customers work for the government? Did the US government spending to put people on the moon have any spinoffs that benefited American business?

Democrats = Tax and Spend. Republicans = fiscal conservatives
Then why does inflation and unemployment do better under Democrats? Why has something like 2/3 of the entire US national debt been rung up under the last 3 Republican presidents?

Environmental Protection is Bad for Business
Did the Prius hurt Toyota’s prospects of becoming bigger than GM? Haven’t a lot of companies found unexpected profits or cost savings when they cleaned up their acts? If you could get your power from the sun would that be bad for business? If the taxes spent on supsidising the oil companies had gone toward making solar and wind power affordable and plentiful would that be bad for business?

Takeaways:

• I’m not saying these positions are always wrong or that the opposite is always right. I’m saying the devil is in the details.
• Maybe you should look at the specifics and the longer term ramifications before you vote.

[tags] politics and business, tax increases, environmental protection, small business, health care [/tags]

I got this idea from a client – Thanks, Kendra.
In meetings when they have an topic on the agenda they allot a certain amount of time to it. Then they set a timer at the start. It keeps the meeting on schedule.

We also talked about the benefits of spending 15 minutes at the start of the day planning the calendar and developing a plan for the day. Many people have a hard time sticking to a routine like that because when they walk in, there are people wanting to talk to them, voice mails wanting to be listened to (it could be that big deal that you were waiting for and if you don’t get to it in 15 minutes it’s sure to disappear – really it could.) and emails screaming READ ME! READ ME! But usually those same people will keep appointments with another human, they just can’t keep the appointments with themselves to schedule their day. DAMHIKT – (that stands for Don’t Ask Me How I Know This meaing I learned it by personal experience).

Enter the assistant and the timer.
Make an appointment with your assistant every morning first thing when you arrive (or you could do it last thing before you leave to plan for the following day). By “your assistant“, I mean any other person in the office. If you don’t have an assistant, just pick someone and make this part of their job. When you first arrive, they are to drop what they’re doing, and come have a 10 second meeting with you. At the meeting they say: “I’m going to set the timer for 15 minutes. You’re going to do nothing but plan your day. I’ll call you when the timer goes off.” Then they go back to their regularly scheduled job and set a timer. In 15 minutes they call you. You spend that time planning your day. The end.

What’s weird about the timer.
What’s so funny is that all this use of the timer sounds so contrived and artificial. It’s true. It is. Don’t be afraid to say so and to laugh about it. But use one anyway. Do you work out? Don’t you measure your time on the tread mill? Your reps on the weights? Your miles on the bike? Would you eat in a restaurant where the cooks didn’t measure the ingredients? And of course you track the money in your company. Why are we so squeamish about measuring our most precious resource – time? I don’t know but we are. Acknowledge it and get over it.

Takeaways:

• Use a timer.
• It will feel strange. Don’t ignore this. Talk about how you’re using the timer and how strange it feels. That will make the power of the strangeness disappear.

[Update - I didn't fall off the face of the earth since the last post, we had a death in the family. But I'm back now]

[tags] entrepreneur, small business, business owner, time management, productivity [/tags]