Business in General blog

Yesterday I attended an Advisory Committee Meeting for the local Business Development Center office (also known to many as the SBDC office), and although I have been working with them for the last 20 months, I gained a deeper appreciation and respect for what they do day in and day out.

In the last 9 months, the Lane Community College Business Development Center has helped spawn over 10 new businesses, create 218 new jobs, and retain 91 jobs in Lane County. They did all of this while juggling budget cuts and employee lay-offs in a slowing Oregon economy. I was impressed. And these numbers might be low (due to variances in reporting, varying definitions of “new business”, etc) which is even more impressive. I just wonder if those in the community truly realize what their Business Development Center (BDC) can offer them.

Clearly, with numbers like the above, many entrepreneurs take advantage of the resources the BDC provides, but just think of how many more new businesses or jobs we could have in Lane County if more people took advantage of their services and resources. I won’t do the BDC justice with listing all the resources and services they offer, but with free counseling services, workshops and training on business planning, financial plans, marketing, etc, and an abundant library of books, software and brochures, how can a local business, especially an early-stage entrepreneur or a start-up, not utilize the BDC?

I would highly recommend that any entrepreneur who is looking for advice, assistance, resources and success check out what his/her local BDC office has to offer. Take advantage of what you may not even know is right in your backyard!

Kristen Langham
Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software, Inc.

Posted under Business Information, General Business Planning, Small Business, Startup Business on May 9th, 2008 | No Comments »

At this years New Venture Competition, members of the Palo Alto Software team had the pleasure to not only read the business plan for Klymit Technology, but see their management team present to the judges.

Their presentation was energetic and solidly put together and we left the event feeling that their team and the company had very bright futures ahead of them. Palo Alto Software awarded Klymit with the award for Best Written Plan at the NVC.

We asked Nate Alder, the President and CEO of Klymit Technologies, if he would answer a few questions about taking his business to the business planning competition circuit for funding and exposure.

The Klymit technology was invented by Nate, an undergraduate student at BYU with past successful experience in inventing and taking a disruptive technology to market. Alder has now organized a management team of graduate students with the right training and experience to take this new disruptive Klymit technology to market.

PAS: I know you are very busy these days, so I appreciate your time in virtually sitting down with me and talking. I’d like to get right into it and start first with, what exactly is Klymit?

Nate Alder:  The Klymit Technology – hailed as “The Holy Grail of Insulation” by Tom Berry, former President of Salomon – is warmer, thinner, and more adjustable than current products and promises to revolutionize the way the world thinks about insulation. Klymit  replaces fabric insulation in jackets, pants, boots, gloves, sleeping bags, tents, Special Forces gear, body armor, etc. with its revolutionary form of adjustable insulation technology, which utilizes noble gases. This technology is licensed to major brands in the outdoor gear and apparel industry. Klymit’s technology is five times more effective than fabric insulation and the hand-adjustable dial allows the user to determine the amount of gas (the insulating component) in each product, to provide customizable Warmth on Demand. These gases are 100% eco friendly as you will never see them in a landfill because they are extracted from the air we breathe, and released back into it. The gases are safe being non-flammable, non-toxic, colorless, and odorless.  Isn’t it about time you Kontrolled the Elements?

The technology is priced to replace the cost of existing fabric insulation and generate a residual income for both Klymit and its partners through the selling of proprietary refill gas canisters similar to the printer industry. The Klymit technology is just a few months away from finalizing agreements with a number of tier one OEMs and top brands of outdoor gear and apparel.

PAS: I have to admit, when I first read your executive summary, I immediately thought, “who in their right minds would want a jacket full of gas?!” But the idea and the science is sound and you’re getting quite a lot of buzz about it. Which brings me to my next question, you’ve been hitting a lot of business planning competitions; are they terrifying or exciting? How do you get ready to present your idea to the judges? Any kind of “good-luck dance” you do before hand?

Nate Adler: At first we were very concerned going up against such prestigious schools as Harvard, Yale, Duke, MIT, Cambridge, etc. but as we started winning competition after competition, each new one we would arrive to the name Klymit preceded us and many teams started to view Klymit as the Goliath of each competition but with lots of positive support and enthusiasm of all other schools as they would always tell us “this is actually a product I want to buy, not just a sales pitch on biomedical devices”.

In preparation for each event we would spend our nights at the hotel refining our presentation based off of practice round judges feedback and stay up rehearsing our presentation as opposed to going out late drinking with the rest of the students from other schools.

We have always treated this as a serious business from the beginning and not just an extracurricular activity we do for fun on the weekends but we have sacrificed a lot of personal time, social life, entertainment, grades, and even other job opportunities to make this company a success.

We just have so much fun with it that it makes up for all our other sacrifices. Before each event we always made sure we had gotten plenty of sleep, ate a health meal, always avoiding alcohol, tobacco, or any other substance that could impact our minds or bodies. All these things combined really helped us stay relaxed and focused to perform well and have a lot of fun doing so.  

PAS: Your business plan has really been key for starting your business, both in guiding where you’re going and gathering funding via business planning competitions. What would you say was the best decision you made regarding writing your plan?

Nate Adler: Committing the necessary time to get it done well and face the cold hard facts, analyzing every detail, having a complete SWOT and addressing every elephant in the room. From there it was how to make it stand out, the whole “WOW” factor, like a sales document.

PAS: Any advice for someone out there who is teetering on the decision point of writing a business plan vs. not taking the time to?

Nate Adler: Either commit and go big or go home. This is not a job for those of simple mind or weak commitment. You need to be willing to make some of the biggest sacrifices to become successful otherwise you are just wasting yours and everyone else’s time. Part of evaluating a good business idea is analyzing it through from start to finish and that is part of business planning.

My thanks to Nate for taking his time to talk with us about his company and journey so far. Everyone here at Palo Alto Software looks forward to hearing more about Klymit’s successes down the road!

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software

Posted under General, Success on May 9th, 2008 | No Comments »

There is a lot of business uncertainty at the moment (May 9, 2008) with much talk in the media of an ‘impending economic downturn’. While the phrase ‘recession’ seems to be close to many people’s lips, it is being muttered in hushed tones rather than being shouted from the rafters. In the U.S. they are ‘not in a recession’ according to the U.S. Commerce Department (April 30^th), in an ‘awfully pale recession’ according to Alan Greenspan (May 5^th) and in a ‘recession’ as Warren Buffett defines it (May 5^th). For now, in the U.K., at the very least, we are experiencing a downturn/slowdown/worsening of economic conditions. (You can take your pick as to which euphemism is most applicable.) Regardless of the word play, one thing is clear; most economic indicators are predicting flat or negative growth for the next year.

Click here to read some of my top tips to ensure you are prepared to weather the storm!

Alan Gleeson

London, England

Posted under General on May 9th, 2008 | No Comments »

Here are another two stories about the importance of good customer service.

I’m heading back to Illinois to move the last of my mother’s furniture from her newly sold house to her new place in Ohio.

We were searching online for moving van/truck rentals and price estimates. One place we looked was Penske.com. The next day we received an email from Penske, following up on our inquiry and asking why we hadn’t booked with them. The email gave us a toll-free phone number and a promise of a discount.

I called them back and the customer care rep helped me make the reservation. Gave me the discount from the email, and a Web discount, checked on the return location, confirmed times and the whole lot. In all we saved over $175 over the competitor’s best rate.

Now, compare this with the tale of my Physical Therapist. She went to the local Eugene Honda dealer to buy a new hybrid sedan. She was a loyal Honda customer coming back for another car. The salesman she was dealing with showed her the car. The color was not even close to the one she’d ordered. After badgering her a bit he walked off to do some other business.

While she waited, thinking he was going to return, another salesman harangued her with “You’re only buying the hybrid for the gas mileage. What does it matter what color it is?”

Hey, even the car company founded by Henry Ford (of “you can have any color you want as long as it is black” fame) realized early on that customers wanted cars with colored paint, and they wanted the color they liked.

Well, my Physical Therapist was so angry at her treatment that she chose to drive an hour to Salem to a different Honda dealership to buy a car in a color she liked.

Here we see again the difference that customer service can make to your business. In one case we have a good program that followed up a contact, and with a friendly and knowledgeable phone representative, clinched a sale for the company.

In the second case the badgering, condescending, and dismissive sales staff lost what started out as a sure deal of $25,000+. Now, maybe $25K is a throwaway deal to these guys, but many businesses can’t afford to cavalierly lose returning customers.

Steve Lange
Palo Alto Software, Inc.

Tags: customer care, customer service, lost sales, sales
Posted under General on May 7th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

An article running on the US News and World Report today quoted our own Tim Berry about partnering with family and friends in their article.

The mom and pop business is the stereotypical image of a small business, and the trust that comes with working with someone you know on a personal level seems comforting. But new risks come up when you take a personal relationship and make it business. “There are many cases where trying to build a business relationship on top of a personal relationship can ruin both,” says Tim Berry, an entrepreneur who founded Palo Alto Software and speaks and teaches on small-business issues. Berry recently named one of his daughters CEO of his company. He says that partnering with family members can work as long as you carefully delineate the business relationship and personal relationship and make it clear that the way you interact with them in the first will be different from in the second.

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software

Posted under General, Palo Alto Software News, Startup Business on May 6th, 2008 | No Comments »

I had a little disagreement with a palm tree in our rental car while we were on vacation in Hawaii.  First Day - what a bummer!  Then I remembered that if you rent a car with a Platinum VISA card , they have extra insurance coverage that is automatically included.  The application is conveniently online. I had to FAX in the paperwork from the rental agency and my primary insurance.  Within 2 weeks, I had a check that covered my deductible, and the “loss of use” charges from the rental company, and $100 of their admin fees.

This coverage would work for business travel, too, and every little bit helps the bottom line for any business.

Vie Radek
Controller, Palo Alto Software

Posted under Cash Flow, General Business Planning on May 6th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

On the Google Operating System blog (yes, I know, I’m a geek) I read a post about employee’s leaving Google and their testimonials on why they left.

This particular quote from Mike Tsao, who worked in the Google Gears department, caught my eye.

What makes Google unique is its culture of respect. The tough interview process means that engineers are treated with respect from their first day. In such a supportive environment, even the most timid person works with self-confidence, which is marvelous to witness. This element of the company’s culture was the biggest difference between Google and every other place I’ve worked in the past. I hope to take it with me throughout the rest of my career.

What an awesome thing to be able to say about your company!

I know that as an employee, I will work harder for a company who values my opinion over a company that ignores me. No matter what perks are thrown into the mix.

‘Chelle Parmele
Happy and valued employee of Palo Alto Software

Posted under Small Business on May 6th, 2008 | No Comments »

I don’t think a company starts out to give bad service. They don’t generally have a space in their business plan that says, “Do things really badly”. I’m sure, well mostly sure, that most companies start out wanting to be the best out there and produce the best product and be the top of their field.

So where does this all go wrong?

Over the past several weeks my housemate and I have been trying to find a new lawn service. Our old lawn service, aka our lawnmower, broke - so we’re trying to find a company that can come out every other week and mow the lawn, pull the weeds and in general stop us from killing our rose bushes.

You would think this would be a fairly easy task to accomplish. You would be wrong.

We have, to date, called 9 different lawn companies.

6 failed to show up to evaluate our lawn,

2 came out - gave outrageous bids and never returned our calls and

1 came out, actually did the work, broke our window, left the garden door open so the dog could get out and then, surprising no one, never came back.

So we’re back to square one, looking for someone who will actually come out and talk to us about our lawn.

I don’t understand why this has been so difficult. We picked all of the businesses out of the yellow pages, I’m guessing each one of them wants to have a successful and prosperous business, and yet I couldn’t and wouldn’t recommend a single one of them to anyone who asked. Why?

Because they didn’t show up.

Half the battle is won right there. Showing up, showing that you care enough for someone’s business that you’re there to pick up the phone, there to make the bid, there to answer questions and in general are available to your customer.

Start and run your business with consistency, dedication, pride in a job well done.

And if you have a recommendation for a good lawn service in Springfield, Oregon? Let me know!

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software

Posted under Marketing, Small Business on May 6th, 2008 | No Comments »

Sanjay Anandaram at The Starup Journey has a great article on why a business plan is so important.

A plan is a guiding light. A plan is not something that is done once a year to develop a fancy report. And then forgotten. In fact, a plan is a very live document undergoing constant change and revision.

The always interesting Liz Fuller at Business and Blogging has a great story about a business that recognized it was in trouble financially and reached out to the community to help keep the doors open. The owner of the business reached out through their business blog and found the help they desperately needed.

Katie’s story is a heartwarming example of the power of community and connection that can be built through blogging. Customers genuinely want to help your business and will reach out if they know you are in need.

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software

Posted under Business Information, General Business Planning, Small Business on May 5th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Writing a good blog post can take an hour or more. Having spent the effort, you don’t want your hard work to fall on deaf ears, which is why most people avoid blogging on Sunday afternoons.

Well, that and because you have more important things to do on Sundays — like planning to start your new business with our business plan software!

To get the most out of your blogging time, take a look at the results of a new study on the most effective days and times to publish your best posts. The short answer is, weekdays from 1 to 3 p.m. Pacific Time are best, and Thursday is the best day, though not by much.

ReadWriteWeb has the full rundown.

Josh Cochrane
Director of Online Marketing
Palo Alto Software

Posted under Marketing, Small Business on May 2nd, 2008 | No Comments »