Vlad Mazek – Vladville Blog

Assert confidence.

Pick on those less fortunate and snag the solid clients who are looking for something more stable.

As discussed before, businesses are built on relationships. People don’t head into relationships with companies that look like they won’t be around in a few months. Or ones that are cutting down their services. Or ones that are running knock-them-out-of-the-ball-park promotions to make numbers look good. Or the ones that seem to have a new temp person to talk to every time you contact them.

Business is about making money.

That is the one thing that has not changed with the times.

What has changed is the perception of the reality and the attitudes of solid companies and savvy business managers. They know that this is the time to strike deals. This is the time to bend over the service suppliers and dangle the carrot of opportunity in front of people who cannot see the stick or the rope. Do you want to know what they are thinking?

Hiring a consultant full time?

If s/he was any good, would she be looking for a job?

That is the reality.

The water is rising and the rats are running to the big pieces of wood.

If you run your marketing and solutions correctly can you imagine what you’ll be able to do once things start looking better?

Everywhere you look it seems its between despair and disaster. Between our service industry struggling as everyone tapers their euphoria for things that really aren’t making money or saving money you will see things get a lot uglier than they are now and a lot tougher than they are now if you aren’t doing the right thing. How do you know if you’re doing the right thing? You probably won’t like my answer to that question if it’s on your mind.

Off topic: Last week I got the pleasure of Schragging my buddy Dave, recommending that he get the highest yield credit card and max it out 😉 That was really only partially a joke but allow me to explain. Much of our economy works and trades on vapor. For example, financial institutions count “available money to lend” as those ridiculous credit card limits they offer. With the pullback that the financial industry is being forced into, you will shortly see those lofty limits shrink. And if you’ve run a sound business you likely have 0% APR for a very, very, very long time. Banks are just dying for people to start doing business so they can at least get commissions going. And in tough times, cash is always kind.

Point is, business is fantastic. If your business plan isn’t yielding the results you want because of the economy then you change your business plan. You don’t bang your head against the wall and do the same thing that is failing.

You get out there and ask some very simple questions:

What is it going to take to earn your business?

What would you be willing to pay for this?

And then you get to work.

I am really starting to get sick at this “too big to fail” crap that I’ve been hearing as of late.

Nothing is too big to fail. And if something is likely to fail, what kind of a reasonable person would ever consider making an investment in it? From a particularly interesting article about the auto industry:

“The companies are resisting calls for bankruptcy, arguing that no one would buy a car from an automaker that may not survive the life of the vehicle.”

Bzzzt. No one should invest in a company that is unable to remain alive on it’s own.

That’s sort of the foundation for capitalism. When times are good, your ramp stuff up and collect the money. When times are bad, you downsize or move, you go for the areas of the market that are responsive to your message or build products for the markets that are unfulfilled. You don’t sit back and ask for a loan to help doing the same thing that you are doing right now – business as usual that does not generate revenues to meet your obligations.

You are never too big to fail. If you think you are then you should give your job to someone else.

Remember what I said the other day? You can read the actual introduction below or better yet sign up for the first one due out on Thursday:

I know many people out there are probably shaking their head in disbelief: why put forth the effort towards something that isn’t going to going to directly drive measurable revenue? The long and convoluted answer can be summarized under: there are several intangible qualities to business ownership and leadership that indirectly benefit both the business and its clients without exchanging money.

When you look and ask about what people find the most valuable in the business or in the IT community, the answer is always the personal interaction. The only problem is, 99% of the people aren’t going to talk to you. At least not honestly. In a remote case that you actually engage in an open conversation with someone out of the blue there are very good odds that A) You are a very attractive female and/or B) They are trying to sell you something. That 1% of C cases are actually going to change the way you think about your business.

Let’s see what happens when a newsletter isn’t built around a blatant slimy vendor whore ™. I’m damn proud to be one, don’t get me wrong, but for a change I’d like to hear what everyone else thinks.