The Miracle Posting

We search the Internet because we're looking for solutions to our problems. We find an interesting blog posting, somewhat thought-provoking, that we really enjoy reading. Our day continues normally and when it's over we fall asleep, still concerned about our situation. While asleep a miracle occurs. The underlying issues creating our problems resolve themselves. The problems will begin to go away once we wake-up; but there's still one thing wrong. We're asleep and have no idea the miracle started by the blog posting has happened.


How do we find out about the miracle the next day? What could we do differently that would show us indicators? What would those indicators be and what could we do to nurture and speed them along?

 These are the questions asked by Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) practitioners, a practice commonly used to help those struggling with personal issues that has equal value in an entrepreneur's life. The Active Investor doesn't get a free pass. That investment in our own business or professional career comes with significant problems along with the freedom and financial benefits. It's our business. How do we wake-up in the morning and deal with it?

Frequently the best answers are not in the language of the problem. They are hard to see because you have to look in non-problem places to find them. That's a lot of places, so we need to narrow this down! We do that by looking in solution places instead. That is, try to imagine finding an answer that is already out there. What would that look like?

Sometimes, simply a solution-based way of looking at things brings sudden, dramatic insights. Other times, it doesn't. Now what? 

Badness comes in degrees. Some days have moments that are much better than others. What happens that allows those better moments? How can we capture more of them? The solution begins to unfold itself for us incrementally as we learn how to do this. The trick is to be looking for it.

Could each of us have a miracle bog posting somewhere? Perhaps.  Maybe for someone it's this one. Tomorrow morning, how would I know if a miracle has happened?

Photo Credit: angelofsweetbitter

Franchise Rage: Keeping it too simple

I get to meet with Texas business owners trying to decide if they should grow or sell their business. The answer generally lies in knowing how to value the business and deciding if that's sufficient for future plans or not.

If growth through franchising appears to be attractive, we then get to work preparing the business for it. This involves defining and documenting their proven and successful business model. We also represent the most successful franchise operations, so in time we are able to bring qualified operators to the business and the operation grows territory by territory.

It would seem to be a simple thing, just follow the proven plan and success will be yours. This should be a KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid, approach to making money; however, life proves success is never that simple. The danger in a franchise strategy for growing a company is the potential for an adverse relationship to develop between the  franchisor and the franchisees. Here is how it can happen.

A franchisee's operation is struggling and the franchisor recognizes that they are trying to operate  outside the proven plan. Warnings about this issue are repeatedly given; however, the operating problems persist and eventually the new franchisee begins to attribute the problems to the franchisor's inability to help them. The two sides continue to blame each other creating a vicious cycle of further bad business. What we have is an example of a sound system being destroyed as a result of the fundamental attribute error.

This everyday error occurs whenever we think an action is being caused by the actor instead of the stage. In traffic a car suddenly cuts in front of us. Our reaction is to think that happened because there is a bad (or rude) driver in front, when in fact that driver could be skilled and polite and narrowly averted an accident by quickly changing lanes to clear a road hazard. As long as all the driving incidents are the cause of other bad drivers, better driving skills that anticipate road hazards are never developed. Instead, we develop road rage.

Blaming problems on fundamental personal attributes of either the franchisor or franchisee is not a simple answer, it's a simplistic answer. Oliver Wendell Holmes said "I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity." It is the difficult responsibility of both sides to go one step deeper into the situation and ask "Why is the proven method being altered?" What if the issue is not personal character but is the situation? It means a willingness to suspend judgment and get deeper into the complexities of the specific situation and how the model applies to it. Only after passing through this complexity it is reasonable to get back to keeping it simple.

In our process of guiding Active Investors into purchasing a new franchise, we have them contact other franchise owners to learn about their experiences. The alert Active Investor is going to ask how they handle difficulties that might make them question the plan. Is there any evidence of franchise rage?

If you are considering franchises, you want a successful system; but you also want a happy family.

Photo credit: star5112

A Puzzle or a Mystery?

Malcom Gladwell's What the Dog Saw is the source for this post, although anything by him can be equally inspiring. Malcom asserts there is a difference between a puzzle and a mystery. And what a difference that makes to the Active Investor!

I love Sudokus, especially when trying to relax. They are classic puzzles. As you work with them, more knowledge is developed which leads to the solution. That's how all puzzles work. You keep developing more information until the solution emerges. A mystery is the opposite. You may have all the information up front. You're unable to solve it because of the way you are looking at it. More data only further obscures the answer because there is now more being incorrectly viewed. A mystery is only solved by finding the correct way to look at the existing situation.

Our western educational systems present the world as a big puzzle and they offer the promise that if we just get enough education we would be able to solve our  problems with the data we would now be smart enough to collect. There is no doubt to the value of an education; however, it's not this simple. Life is a mystery not a puzzle.

Sherlock Holmes solved mysteries. It wasn't only that he collected more data (which he did). In the Sherlock Holmes stories, he connected all his observations to solve the mystery. These connections catch most readers by surprise because we are still collecting more data in our minds when Sherlock has been eliminating dead ends and arriving at the unseen answer. Perhaps the single Sherlock quote that best sums up all of these time-honored tales is his comment to Watson, "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

In a mystery, we quickly get to a point where more data only causes more confusion.  A solution only begins to evolve when we disregard our training to collect more information and begin to realize the problem is that we are looking at it the wrong way. When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.

Business is also not a puzzle and more analysis often leads to more frustration. Like life, business is a mystery. The successful business owner or professional doesn't need more information than the competition. The successful Active Investor needs insight. The key to the information age isn't more information. It's developing better ways to connect what we may already know.

As an example, we still hear of business people viewing sales and marketing as a numbers games. There is goal setting that encourages mindless activities repeating a minimum number of daily "fishing" activities. The idea is that if any number of data points get high enough, success will be forced to happen. Success can never be forced. Look at what's already going on. Eliminate the impossible and whatever remains, however improbable, must be your truth. That is, the truth of what you are about, where you need to take your enterprise. Actively invest in those things. Success evolves from those activities that are working and that you believe in.

How can you determine if you are seeing a possible solution to your mystery? One clue is if the resulting activities are in harmony with the Active Investor blog theme: growth follows activities that are repetitive, powerful, and gentle. If they are, you may have your insight.

Developing business insight is the mystery. There is no puzzle.

image credit: Egan Snow

Related articles by Zemanta

• What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell | Book review (guardian.co.uk)
• This much I know: Malcolm Gladwell (guardian.co.uk)

Crystallization - Beauty Built On Imperfection

Things are never right. That's what ultimately creates order and beauty with a system. The story of crystallization is a remarkably accurate metaphor for how that happens in a natural system that an Active Investor can readily apply to understanding social systems such as their business.

The orderliness of a crystal begins with the random movements found in liquids. Crystals are created when molecules of a substance, normally solid at room temperature, are dissolved in a solution. These molecules will sometimes be attracted to each other for short periods, only to become attracted away by other molecules over time. Everything remains chaotic and fluid until a "seed", a point of imperfection, is introduced into the solution. The seed has a slightly higher attraction to nearby molecules, so they are drawn to it. If this initial attraction is strong enough, the group grows until its size is such that the group becomes consistently more attractive to other molecules than the surrounding solution. This is the "critical size" and when reached the protocrystal is now "in business" and continues to grow.

All of this is similar to a business during its start-up phase. For a business, the solution is not a liquid, it's the answer to a market need. A good business solution can be replicated and the company providing it begins to experience some repetition of sales. Orders will be slow and random at first; but they will grow with greater consistency over time.

This is not the end of the story. There is another step in the crystallization process. The protocrystal continues to grow ; but eventually it gets to a point it can no longer remain "dissolved" and it falls out of solution. Now the original imperfection appears to have been transformed into the beauty, order, and attractiveness of a visible crystal. The visible crystal continues to grow, gaining more molecules from the solution, until it reaches an equilibrium with its environment.

A growing business will face a second step as well. Meeting more market needs will begin to overwhelm the founding staff and another decision, as difficult as the one to initially start, has to be made. An investment must be made in building internal systems and structures if continued growth is to be nurtured. This is hard for the financially struggling team who have sacrificed for the sake of building their solutions; but out of the internal systems and structures come the power to sustain long term growth.

It's now a different business, one that is building lasting values.  Those values will allow it to reach far beyond its initial products and services that brought it to life. A visible legacy drops out of solution.

Image credit: wlodi

Creating Products from Services

An objective of The Active Investor blog is to inspire the thinking of small business owners and professionals to create greater lasting value in their business. There is perhaps no better way to do this than to find ways to create products from services.

A product without services eventually becomes a commodity with business going to the lowest cost provider. Selling only services is a bit like selling air. You can't really sell time. You can only rent your expertise for some time. Expertise is intangible and difficult to either prove or differentiate and in the end the amount that can be sold is always capped by a time limitation. If you want to sell the enterprise, because it's your expertise and you're leaving, the residual value is relatively small. However, when the business offers a deliverable solution that can be named plus is easy to understand and refer, you have hit a "value-added" sweet spot. Here is a personal example.

Names are important. They give the offering tangibility. As a Texas business broker, I create marketing plans for my clients, as do many other business brokers. Since most small business buyers come from the internet, this plan includes multiple internet directory listings, which again, other brokers do. So far, we're still at the services level. I've then created a unique product offering on top of these services named Business Opportunities Bulletins (BOBs). With some creativity and technology, each client listing can appear on the first Goggle results page of significant search terms used by potential buyers. If a client wants to be found by potential business buyers, here is a product, a BOB, that does exactly that.

A BOB is easy to understand. The art of selling your business is to be presented to interested parties and still keep the sale confidential. Prospective clients can see how this is already working for existing clients. They "get it" immediately.

In this example, the product's name is a take-off of my own name. If a need for my business broker services gets touched upon by someone in my network, it's easy for them to explain and refer my product (my service).

Building BOBs takes time,  expertise, and technology but their existence adds critical value both to immediate marketability and to the ultimate value of the brokerage practice. A product has been created out of services common to the industry. How many products can be developed from your services? Something with a name that is easy to understand and refer. I can't image anyone who can't develop at least one more.

Image credit: EraPhernalia Vintage (catching up)

The Fair "Quantum" Value of a Business

Edwin Schrodinger used a famous thought experiment to try and explain part of Quantum theory. The experiment placed a cat (now known as Schrodinger's Cat) in an unobservable place where after some time there was a 50/50 chance the cat would be either dead or alive. Quantum theory considers the cat to be in a state that is both 50% alive and 50% dead until an observer sees the results. At that time, the probability fields collapse and the cat is either alive (although quite annoyed) or has forever passed on.

This finally answers the ancient philosophical question if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear does it make a sound? We now know that the answer is "probably".

The IRS has defined a term Fair Market Value in Revenue Ruling 59-60 as:
"... the amount at which property would change hands between a buyer and a willing seller when the former is not under and compulsion to buy and the later is not under any compulsion to sell, both parties have reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts."

Such a simple definition creates many probabilities. The least useful are a seller's hope of how much it could be worth and a buyer's hope of how little. There are 3 reality-based paths to approaching the problem:
1) Asset Approach - the replacement cost not considering earning power
2) Income Approach - a discounted estimate of future cash flows
3) Market Approach - comparisons of similar businesses which have sold in the past.

Each of these methods have multiple methodologies which all yield different results and all of them have their appropriate application for specific buyer and seller circumstances. It is the job of the evaluator to accurately assess values based on all of them and then create the combination of probabilities that best represent the scenario described in IRS 59-60. They have to value the state of Schrodinger's cat before the observation. It's a professional opinion that needs to be done by a CPA Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) or a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA).

A survey by Inc magazine concluded the 75% of privately held businesses listed for sale do not successfully change hands. The culprit is generally the price. The seller has one probably in mind and the buyer another and they cannot agree. A certified Fair Market Value creates a common anchor for both parties to use in coming to an agreement. Having this common anchor creates the quantum Probably Field that almost always leads to agreement and a successful business sale.

What has happened is the intense observations already done during the valuation pre-collapse the quantum probably fields to a region known to be acceptable to the seller and limiting to a buyer. It's interesting how the intricacies of sub-atomic particles mirror the intricacies of complex business transactions, yet it's all the same universe always acting in the same way.


Image Credit: skuds

Risk and Reward

Every investor, active or passive, has in mind a financial risk/reward relationship. They have to decide exactly what degree of risk they are willing to accept in exchange for higher rewards. Passive investors generally see single digit returns these days which is one reason why there is so much interest in the much higher returns of your own business.

So why doesn't everyone want to jump on higher returns? Passive investors (people who invest in someone else's business) only concern themselves with financial risk. Running your own business also creates another form of risk, personal risk. When you're in charge, not every effort is going to work the way you planned. You can be rejected (or more accurately, you will be rejected). You are subject to frustration and self-doubts. These are just some of the personal risks each Active Investor much face.

Is it worth it for just the financial rewards? That will depend on the circumstances. What is always true is that overcoming personal risk produces personal gains of enormous benefits. In countless biographical examples, people with great satisfaction from their lives have all overcome personal challenges. Active Investors assume a double risk and receive a double reward. Both their financial and personal net worth evolve.

So what can we do about Risk Management when the topic is Personal Risk as opposed to Financial? As I was writing this posting (talk about JIT) I meet with Jeff Weaver, a Texas serial entrepreneur who spends a great deal of his time coaching and mentoring others in addition to developing his own businesses. His strategy is to move out of judgment and move into curiosity.

We worry about that last phone call or meeting. Did we say the right thing? Were we weak, or were we offensively pushy? Are these the right people? Are we doing the right thing? Every one of these internal questions comes with an implicit self-critical negative answer. That's our humanity (Ego) at work. It's what Jeff means by judgment. What if that changed to personal curiosity? We can be equally curious about that last encounter. We can review it with a sense of wonder about what will happen next. Who will we meet as a result? What will they tell us now? What new opportunities have started to emerge?

When we learn to think this way instinctively, Personal Risk converts to Personal Adventure. That's a good thing.

(For those with an interest in how this works out on a theological level, try applying it to the Kingdom Parable in Matthew 18:23 -35. An attitude of curiosity encourages a spirit of forgiveness.)

Image Credit: thegoldguys.blogspot.com/

Choice of Entity

Image by Raymond Yee via Flickr

Anyone wanting to become an Active Investor, that is invest in their own enterprise, has to choose a legal form for the business. Making the best choice will require discussions with a lawyer on liability issues and a tax professional on tax exposure. In spite of all this advice, the Active Investor needs to make some personal decisions before consulting either.

A lawyer will seek to aggressively protect their client, including recommending a business form that will provide the best shielding for personal assets. While this is prudent, you should never fall into the illusion that a chosen entity type adequately protects you from potential legal actions. Many attorneys have been successful in proving an entity has not been maintained according to state law and this has exposed the owners personal assets to their complaint. Be aware of the liability protection a business entity can provide; but never depend solely on that. There are two things every business should maintain to protect the owner from liability - a passion for excellence (quality) and insurance. If these are not both built into the heart of any business plan, then there is an argument that the best choice of entity is employee.

Before discussing tax ramifications, there is also an issue the potential Active Investor should consider. It's been said 85% of the workforce are employees, 14% are self-employed, and 1% are business owners. Are you changing from employee to being self-employed or to being an owner? If the goal is to build and own an organization, tax considerations are somewhat different from trying to minimize a self-employed professional's tax exposure. Working out of a normal (C) corporation can create double taxation for the self-employed, which is very undesirable. Some type of "flow through" entity is often recommended. However, if the objective is to build an organization, the funds to grow the business need to come from future company profits. The C corporation has a low (15%) tax rate for it's first tier. This allows the small business to retain some earnings at that low tax rate for growth. If the profits would "flow through" to the owner to avoid double taxation, those funds for growth are effectively taxed at the owner's tax rate. Different intentions create very different tax strategies.

There are many more considerations that need to be considered with an attorney and tax professional. Successful business people often attribute much of their success to having a winning team of trusted advisers who have guided them through these and other issues. However, the secret of the adviser's success is having a client who has thought through what they really want and can give those advisers clear directions.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Be Your Own Boss (jobsearchingblog.com)
• Startup: Clock Starts When You Incorporate (startupprofessionals.com)
• Keep Lawsuits Off Your Back (usnews.com)
• You Know You're An Entrepreneur When... (tokitover.com)
• 4 Questions To Ask Before Starting A Business (myventurepad.com)

Sellers Remorse - The Greatest Exit Ever Told

This diagram summarizes many Exit Planning strategies. We've all experienced the fact that nothing goes on forever. There are limits to growth. This is due to the effect of Balancing loops as explained in System Dynamics. The diagram shows business growth leveling off as some limit to a resource is ultimately reached.

The optimal time for a business owner to move to their next challenge is before that happens. It's the "X" on the chart marked "Time to Exit." From this earlier position a Potential Growth possibility exits. A new ownership will change parameters and frequently delay the Balancing forces that result in the Actual Growth curve. The big issue at this point in time is that it feels like selling now is too soon. This is strange; but that's the wrong feeling you may get at the right time.

We can never know the future and can never know the exact time selling our business will yield the optimal result. What we can know is when it's time to move on to the next thing in our life, in spite of financially-based feelings.

The timing of the Easter story is striking when seen as an Exit. The crucifixion Christians celebrate on Easter is preceded by Palm Sunday. This day celebrates the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, by all political and social standards the peak of His ministry to date.

Imagine the feelings that might have been experienced by Jesus and His followers as He Exits at this point. Everything seems to be going so well! Yet His mission is completing and He knows this is the right time. Unlike every other Jewish Prophet or King before Him, death will not limit the growth of His ministry. Defeating death will enable the greatest growth cycle of all history.

In the Garden of Gethsemane it may have felt to everyone like leaving too soon. That's not always a bad thing; it can be what the right timing feels like.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Infinity--they keep making more of it (myventurepad.com)

Constellations are our Motivations

Image via Wikipedia

There is always a special moment when my younger daughter and I look up into the night sky together and see the bright cluster of 3 stars that form Orion's belt. I first showed her Orion over a decade ago and each time we see it a part of that father-daughter moment returns. It's what being alive is all about.

But in reality, there really is no Orion. These are unrelated stars light years apart that happen to form a pattern only when viewed from our planet.

Any social enterprise, like a business, can be understood as a constellation. It first takes an Active Investor, a business owner or owner-to-be, to see a new pattern that can meet people's needs. Previously unrelated resources flowing together in new ways.

Orion has a story. In mythology Orion, the Hunter, was in love with Merope, one of the Seven Sisters who form the Pleiades stars. She would not return his love and his already tragic life was ended when he stepped on a scorpion. Feeling sorry for him, the gods placed him in the sky near his faithful dogs, adjacent constellations, and on the opposite side of the sky from the deadly scorpion.

Each business has a similar story. Something that inspired the founder to start. Often a picture that could only be seen from their perspective. To everyone else, it was just a group of unrelated elements.

It's sad when this constellation story gets reduced to a just "mission statement". The inspiration of the story gets objectified as financial statements and business plans. When trying to value a business we deal in these valuable instruments; however, they only represent the passive side of any business investment. What makes the organization successful is the power of its invisible but very real story.

Being a part of a powerful story is also a part of what being alive is all about.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Orion Dominates Winter Night Sky (space.com)

Forces around us

In a Lewin Force Field Diagram, like this one, an organization is pictured to be at a certain level because that is where the Driving and Restraining forces acting on it come into balance. This diagraming technique helped the US Government during World War II to more effectively mobilize the civilian population in supporting the war effort.

 As an analytical tool it often gives an insight into understanding our current situation. We are often guilty in making the fundamental attribute error where we believe things are a certain way because of the personalities of the people involved. While success in anything requires personal dedication and effort, when that is coupled with positive circumstances, things happen.

American is a land of opportunity for every individual. That makes us quick to make our circumstances about the individuals rather than the forces involved. Look at how we become more obsessed during elections with politicians personal characteristics rather than their understanding of the nation's problems.

Leigh Hilton, a Texas attorney specializing in asset protection, brought this national disposition to light recently when she told me she asked clients to think about what they wanted to happen "if" they should die. They had too much trouble thinking of what to tell her if she asked them to think about "when" they die. Our Egos just have enormous difficulty imagining life not centered on us personally.

An advantage of being in corporate America is that our responsibilities are generally on things we don't personally own. In those circumstances it's much easier to be process oriented and systematic. Our thinking frequently changes when we choose to own our own business. 

More than most, Active Investors need to get over their American Ego dominance. We need to understand and believe in the dynamics of the vast forces around us. Try a Lewin diagram next time you're about to assign blame to yourself (or anyone else) for what is happening. Forces can be family, health, the market, competition, industry, legal, the economy, spiritual or from any number of sources that constantly affect us.  Are there any that are being ignored?

The Acorn and Divine Intention

the oak sleeps in the acorn
Originally uploaded by Norma Desmond

An acorn will always become an oak tree. It will never grow into a tulip, a WhatABurger, or anything else. There is an inescapable destiny evident in nature, which we'll label Divine Intention.

An unavoidable aspect of Divine Intention is that it cannot be completely known in advance. Look at any number of acorns. You'll never find a tiny oak tree inside. The oak tree "emerges" out of the acorn and a fertile environment.

With or without a religious background, this sense of Divine Intention can be felt. How do we learn to co-operate with it? To carry the metaphor further, our efforts cannot be focused on planning to be a tree. At any point in time we're an acorn without a clear picture of what an oak might be. Our focus has to be on finding the fertile environment where we can grow into our Divine Intention.

The conventional word for environment in business is "market." Active Investors are obsessed with their markets. They are concerned more about them than anything else. Free time isn't spent on process improvement, that's allocated time. It's spent imagining how roots can grow deeper into the environment. There is a simple trust that our "oak" will happen if we can just develop the roots.

This is the primary drive of the successful business owner or professional. There's nothing wrong with a primary passion for your craft instead; however, that's an employee, not an Active Investor.

Getting to "what's next"

There's always a "next thing' in life. Change is so persistent we sometimes just ignore it or allow ourselves to become overwhelmed by it. Change is also where we find a great need for outside help. It's wonderful to find a mentor we can trust who has been through the change we're facing many times before.

Many professionals fit into this mentor category. As business brokers, we mentor individuals whose "next thing" is to have their own business, or a different business, or perhaps a long sought retirement. In working with our clients, the real objective is to get them to their "next thing". It's not the purchase transaction.

The process of getting safely to the "next thing" is the same, regardless of what area of life is involved. We first need to determine objectively where we are. Objectively probably means a second, third, or even higher opinion. This shows us our "as is" state, which is sometimes hard to see without the outside help.

Now the problem is not an unknown change. It's having to navigate a Gap between the "as is" and our "what's next." A Plan, or Gap Analysis, should make intuitive sense to us, even if it involves new and novel activities.

This is being written on Easter Sunday. The Resurrection , a plan to navigate the Gap separating God and man, is now celebrated by over 2 billion Christians around the world. I have to believe that closing Gaps and moving forward to "what's next" is the inherent pattern of all creation.

Mapping Successful Habits

Steven Covey's 7 Habit's of Highly Successful People made the connection between business success and individual habits. This week Mary White of WTC Performance Group introduced me to the simple map on the left. It's an approach to looking at how those successful habits are formed.

We sometimes find business owners who are personally ready to sell their business; however, the business isn't ready to be put on the market. It's current value isn't as much as the owner knows it could be worth. Consultants, like Mary, work with these Active Investors to close this gap.

A common mistake made by consultants and coaches is to jump in with their expertise. On the map that's moving from Step 2 to Step 3. Often, the real need is to start at Step 1. The most immediate contribution a business value consultant brings is the ability to see an issue outside of the owner's awareness. This takes daring on both the part of the consultant and the part of the owner to allow it. That's what the #1 box in the map is all about, our Unconscious Incompetence.

Once aware, it's a process to move to the Conscious Incompetence awareness in Step 2 and then the Conscious Competence of skill in Step 3. The new skills are ultimately "ours" when we finally move into Unconscious Competence, Step 4, which is Habit. 

It's all very systematic once past that first step. Having the insight and courage to know when to take that step is the hardest part.

Spring

February is the beginning of Spring here in North Texas. My grandfather would have been plowing fields in Chilton to plant winter wheat. I'm over at Foreman's Hardware getting ready for another growing season and I feel like Tim, the Tool-man, Taylor, enjoying that unique feeling of being a traditional hard goods store. It's great to be here in the Spring!

We can't see the growth that's happening beneath our feet; but we can believe in it. In nature, we've seen it happen every year, so that's the basis of our faith in the coming growing season. 

Not everyone is a Spring person. Spring people love the feeling of possibility. They can work in their yard, or work on their business, without having to see instant results. Their immediate payoff is in their imagination. They can see how good the yard is going to look or how successful the business initiative will become. When you talk to them, they can't resist telling you how great it all will become. It's a happy conversation as you get carried by their enthusiasm.

In business, Spring exists all year long. Dr. Jeffery Lant popularized the "Rule of Seven" which tells us the first six contacts with a prospect are for awareness. Only after 7 or more do we see results. The email autoresponder industry suggests the following:

2% of sales are made on the 1st contact,

3% of sales are made on the 2nd contact,

5% of sales are made on the 3rd contact,

10% of sales are made on the 4th contact,

80% of sales are made on the 5th - 12th contact.

Both views are about a growing-only season we're going to experience.

To really enjoy a business, we first learn to see and enjoy the possibilities during it's Spring.