Entrepreneurial Advisor: May 2010

Thursday, May 27, 2010

What Not to do When Using Social Media for Business or Profession

There are certain things that should be left for your personal life. If you are using social media simply for social purposes and your still in school, retired or independently wealthy this article does not apply to you. Otherwise, listen up!

1. Stay away from Discussing Political Issues:

If you have connected with me on a social media site through our common interest in business then you should not discuss politics. I see this in normal conversation, as well. There is an assumption that if one is in the same business or profession one also shares the same political beliefs. This could be no farther from the truth. People that know me well know that my views on one topic can be on one end of the spectrum and on another it can be at the other end. Very few people have the exact political views as you.

I believe business is business and usually do not let someone's political beliefs cloud my decision as whether or not to engage in business with them. There has been that exception where someone seems to be unbalanced to the point where I believe it will cloud business decisions, however.

Many other people are turned off by anyone who holds different beliefs. There have been numerous times people have told me something to the effect of, "I won't do business with that right wing ... or left wing .... " Why take the chance? Leave politics out of it.

It's fine to let people know your a Democrat or Republican or to follow your favorite candidates but don't get in my face about controversial issues. In otherwords, don't be a zealot and expect that it won't hurt business.

2. Don't Play Games With Me:

Are you serious about running your business or about your profession? If you hooked up with me to obtain business advise then don't ask me about Farmville, the Mafia or your virtual garden. I'm amazed at the number of so called entrepreneurs that seem to have so much time for such foolishness.

I have the utmost respect for most people that work in government. My first 15 years of professional life was in state and local government, but there are many out there that have disdain for government employees. That's why I was aghast at one such employee who during office hours would continually update me on their farm, gemstones or garden. What message does this send? Are they working or playing?

I don't care if you want to play these social games but if you are trying to impress me with your work ethic or if your profession is publicly srutinized, don't do it during office hours and don't clutter my "Notifications" site with eggs, vegetables and gemstones that you have gifted to me.

3. Don't Burn Bridges:

I have seen people harangue about their former employer or boss ad nauseum on Facebook. I'm sure the feeling is, "I'm out of there what can it hurt?" Well how many people that read your posts are still connected with that company or boss? What does your current employer think about it? If you trash your former employer what are you saying about your current one or what will you say when you eventually leave?

The other part of bad mouthing anyone publicly is that it just generally reflects badly on the person doing it. I, and probably many others feel it demonstrates, pettiness and a lack of maturity. This is better left in a private conversation with your best friend, sibling or parent.

4. Do Let me Know Appropriate Feelings and Special Events:

Social media is, after all meant to be social. I know there are business people out there that have no time for your children's pictures, birthday parties or your mood. My feeling is that this is an opportunity to get to know those I conduct business with on a deeper level and the more you know about a customer, supplier or business partner the better you can serve them.

Of course, by now everyone should know that there are inappropriate personal things I should not know about my business associates. Keep those to yourself please!

The entire time I was writing this article, it seemed I was missing a "Don't" that I wanted to include. I imagine over the next few months I may discover others. Do you have some "Don'ts" that I missed? Let all of us know by commenting below.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Is It Time for Economic Development to Move On?

I was sitting at an economic development conference recently listening to the speaker talk about business climate in terms of incentives to recruit or retain businesses, cost of labor and tax structure. His conclusion was that five states in the Southeast United States and another five in the Great Plains/Mountain region were the most “Pro Business.” But when one looks at these states there seemed to be no clear correlation between these states and economic growth. It wasn’t that there was a negative correlation. Some of the states were growing faster than the national average and incomes were quite respectable but others were not. Certainly there were states that were doing better even though some of the states had landed on the top ten for five years running!

Two things hit me. Why should a state strive to be “pro business? Isn’t it better to be “pro” economic growth? Aren’t businesses just a vehicle to attain this growth? When we think in terms of “pro business we lose sight of what it is we are really trying to achieve. When we think of things in terms of pro business others get hurt. Tax credits get abused, Enron pops up or the environment suffers.

My second thought was, “pro” what business? For decades we have known that incentives to one business can be damaging to another. We also know that a tax code that may be advantageous to large corporations can place a burden on small businesses. In fact, study after study has shown that large incentive packages to select businesses have little or no impact on the long term economic growth of a state or region. It may have a significant local impact but is that what we really maters?

What we do know is that the vast majority of new jobs created in the United States are created by companies with less than ten employees and with companies that are less than ten years old. We also know that as technology and the service industries have become dominant in the U.S., traditional economic development practices have become less effective. Land and building costs, tax structure and infrastructure costs have given way to access to capital, educational services and quality of life.

In the past, it was thought that while new businesses accounted for most jobs, there was little an area could do to affect the formation and growth of these businesses. In the past decade or two this has changed dramatically and we know that states and regions that have emphasized this have grown at a much faster rate than those that have not. In fact, some of the states that have recently moved off the “Top Ten Pro Business” list referred to above, have done so intentionally, deciding instead to emphasize entrepreneurial growth.

During the recent economic downturn many economic development professionals tried to move toward assistance to entrepreneurs. In most cases, this has been ineffective because the ground work was not completed first, adequate financial resources were not provided and the economic development professionals did not have the proper training to deal with the entrepreneur.

Why has it taken so long, especially in certain areas of the country for the economic development community to adopt a new paradigm? It has been widely accepted for years that the old model was out dated. First of all, it is easy to keep doing what is comfortable, especially if every few months one can hold out the possibility of a big plant opening, how ever remote. Secondly, there are limited resources. To implement an entrepreneurial growth strategy resources must be re-directed from traditional economic development to the new strategy. Those that have taken advantage of the old system have fought this tooth and nail.

Finally, and probably most importantly, entrepreneurial development is a long term strategy. It’s kind of like using your farm system in baseball as opposed to trading for players, or waiting for underclassmen to mature in a college athletic program instead of brining in junior college transfers. One has at least the allure of a quick fix while the other is more sustainable.

Is it time for economic development to move on - To move from a 1960’s model to a 21st century model. I believe it is. What do you think?