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Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?

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by Andrew Tellijohn
March 2007

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Lessons from Floyd


Lessons from Floyd

by Beth Ewen   THE FAXES started coming in December, a few days before the nomination deadline for the Upsize Lifeline Awards. And they kept coming.

Each was from a different business owner, naming Floyd Adelman as their go-to person when problems or opportunities come up in their companies.

In all, nine people nominated Adelman, who owns and operates a local franchise of The Inner Circle, running peer advisory groups with these nine business owners, and many others, as members.

Each member of a group is from a different industry — by design so they do not compete — and they meet monthly to discuss their issues. Adelman, a long-time Twin Cities business owner, follows up much more often by phone.

Each person needs something a little bit different, Adelman says, although common themes arise. Indeed, the nine nominations were remarkable in that each featured a “best lesson” learned from Adelman that was different from all the rest. (Those lessons are quoted with the photograph, taken at Creatis Inc. headquarters in Minneapolis. Two of the nominators could not attend the photo shoot.)

“I see the big picture faster than most people,” Adelman says. “And then I work on both questioning and tough feedback.”

Adelman is an experienced business owner himself. “I grew up in the entrepreneur business, third generation” in his family’s auto parts company, Crown Auto. He knew everybody in the industry, he says, and for years wasn’t looking for something different.

“I thought I’d be doing that forever, but the business was changing,” he says. “Twenty-five years ago I was saying that there were only going to be four or five car companies in the world.” When his chance came to sell Crown Auto, he did.

He then joined The Inner Circle as a member, in a group run by Norm Stoehr, who’s still active in the organization. At the time he had purchased a Jenny Craig weight loss franchise, and grew that business until he was operating several stores.

By 1997, he was out of Jenny Craig and into operating an Inner Circle franchise in the Twin Cities. He has counterparts around the country, and he facilitates three groups here.

He says he finds it surprising sometimes that with members in his group from all kinds of industries, few if any are in his own comfort zone: retail.

He ticks off the variety of companies: One does cabling of cities, one installs water tanks, one runs a garden center. “About 80 percent of what we discuss is not the actual business,” he says. “We don’t mainly work on the day-to-day.”

Instead, talk centers around vision, “balancing work and the rest of your life,” generational issues, that business partner that you can’t stand. Maybe a group meeting is the only place a CEO can brag about a huge contract, without prompting all the employees to ask for a raise.

“It’s lonely at the top,” Adelman says. “We get people thinking.”

“Be slow to hire, quick to fire” is “Floyd’s regular standard,” writes Dodd Clasen, founder/CEO of Creatis Inc. in Minneapolis, and one of the nine owners who nominated Adelman for the Upsize Lifeline Awards.

Clasen has built his project management firm of creative professionals to 95 employees, so he knows that finding the right team is crucial.

“Be sure you need that person. Be sure they are the right person. Don’t be in a hurry to fill that position,” Clasen says is Adelman’s best advice to him.

The flip side applies as well. “If you have that person that is just not working out, and you know it in your gut, overcome your guilt and fire them immediately.

“It’s not going to get any better and they will continue to poison the good people around them.”

Ken Nater is president of Material Handling Solutions in Minnetonka, with five employees. He says Adelman helped him through the sale of his first company.

“Floyd is great at pointing me in a direction to direct my decisions by asking questions,” Nater says, citing three of the most effective in Adelman’s repertoire:

“What are you running to? Or are you running away from something? What drives what you are doing?”

David Foy found that being the top salesman isn’t the same as being the CEO. Foy was top salesman at his company, the David Foy Group, Counselor Realty in Maple Grove. He credits Adelman with helping him make the transition.

“Floyd has invested a tremendous amount of time and effort to reshape me from being a top salesman to being the in-charge CEO,” writes Foy. “He has taught me to take on the tough decisions.

Or expressed in Floyd-speak, says Foy: “I need to quit being Mr. Nice Guy only and drive the bus as a competent CEO of my company.”

Whatever the issue, Adelman says his method is to ask tough questions, especially the ones that nobody wants to hear. He cites a couple of examples of types of owners he has worked with, and what he has advised.

• The sales-averse CEO. “One of the key responsibilities of being a CEO is making sales happen, and you don’t know anything about sales and your company shows it,” he says. In such a case he worked with the CEO, who didn’t like being involved in sales and was too dependent on one person, on “how he can create a culture of sales.”

• Pigeon management. That’s where the CEO “has gotten to the point where you have someone do the day to day, but then you fly in and shit all over and cause more problems.” Adelman advises CEOs who are cutting back to truly do so.

• It’s not about you. At the beginning, business owners will do anything it takes to get the job done, but as the company grows, “It often takes more than you,” Adelman says. “Some people surround themselves with a supporting cast, so they can still dominate, so they can still be king or queen.” What everyone needs is a strong team that can help the company grow.

• Loyalty is overrated. Adelman often sees owners with key employees that “got us to where we are,” but who no longer are what the company needs. Recognizing those situations is the first step to fixing them, which he acknowledges must be done sensitively.

“We all have our blind sides,” Adelman says, which is why he thinks all business owners should join a peer advisory group. “If you were sitting in an Inner Circle meeting there are days there are light bulbs going off.”

Getting clarity is the mission for Danita Bye, president of Sales Growth Specialists in Long Lake, a consulting company that helps clients exceed their growth objectives.

Adelman tells her to get clarity about what skills and talents she brings to her clients, and the value her company provides.

“To grow Sales Growth Specialists, you need clarity,” Bye writes of Adelman’s advice, in her nomination form.  “Clarity about who you are and what value you bring to clients.”

A common character in entrepreneurial lore is the do-it-all CEO, and that’s how Ann Fleck saw herself. She’s vice president of Nimlok Minnesota and ABF Display Co. in St. Paul, with 18 employees.

“Floyd has made me see that just because I own my company, I don’t necessarily have to do everything,” Fleck writes. “If I make wise decisions and bring in the right people, I am serving my company better than attempting (and failing) to do it all myself.”

Adelman has helped her take a big step: creating a position and hiring a sales manager, “which will help us get to our next milestone,” she says.

Adelman’s advice for Irv Cohen comes in four parts.

 “Floyd teaches me to trust my skills,” writes Cohen, vice president of sales for Rosenbloom & Rosenbloom, an insurance agency in Minneapolis.

“Stay focused on the top and bottom lines. Communicate, communicate, communicate. And surround yourself with only the people that will help you achieve your vision.”

Adelman gives the credit for the success of the business owners he’s counseled to the business owners themselves. “We allow the members to grow themselves,” he says.  “I just listen well, and I care.”

When deciding whether an entrepreneur would do well in a peer advisory group, Adelman says he looks for two things: whether they hire consultants, “because if you’ve never used a consultant you just don’t want to listen,” and whether they care for their employees.

As for who will succeed in business, Adelman says listening to customers is No. 1. “If you don’t care about your customers or understand your customers, you’re not going to get ahead.”

Caring for employees has to come through as well. He believes the days of the old-style dictatorial boss are gone, even though many people cling to that style because it’s the only one they know.

“I’m proud to see men being more like women and women being more like men,” when they participate in his groups, Adelman says. “There’s a lot of nurturing that goes on by tough old women and men in Inner Circle.”

As for his future, Adelman has hired an associate, to whom he plans to sell his franchise during this year. Then he’ll run his three groups but be out of the administrative side.

He says by making that change he’s doing something he preaches to his groups all the time. “I’m telling the members I’m the poster child and I’m living my vision,” he says. He notes that one of his group members introduced him to the associate who plans to take over.

Adelman says he’s grateful to the nine business owners who nominated him for the Upsize Lifeline Awards. “I say, but not usually too loud, that I would do what I do for nothing, and this says why.”

Doubling company revenue, from $6 million in 2002 to $13 million in 2007, is the achievement of Tony Belden, president of Engineering America Inc. in Oakdale, with 43 employees. He credits Adelman.

“Floyd Adelman has a strong passion for helping small-business owners to navigate their businesses to growth, health and success,” writes Belden. “He does this unselfishly, with a sincerity that is seldom found in today’s competitive world.”

One key piece of advice from Adelman: “Do not just point problems out. As the leader of a company, take an active role and be part of the solution to the problem.

“This has earned respect from subordinates and has made me more effective as I direct activities of the business.”

Patrick Maloney cites Adelman for pushing him forward as president of Data Print Distribution in Edina, with 30 employees.

“With questions, challenges and facts Floyd forces me outside my comfort zone. Once he knows my goals and objectives he does not let go, even if I do.”

Maloney says he’s learned to ask higher-level questions as CEO, different from what he was asking before. His focus should be on: “What does the company need to grow and prosper? Who can provide that? What does the next level of growth look like and require?

He had been focusing on more mundane details: What do I need to do? How can I grow the company?

“It may not sound like much of a difference, but it is a huge one. My new set of questions has me look beyond me for company development,” Maloney writes.

Michael Lacey shares another Adelman mantra: “Work on the business, not in the business,” writes Lacey, CEO and president of Digineer in Plymouth, the information technology consulting firm. “That’s one of 30 different lessons Floyd has taught me that I’ve applied to Digineer.

Perhaps Lacey sums up the feelings of the group of nine nominators, and illustrates why Floyd Adelman was named Upsize Lifeline of the Year. “There is no way to briefly summarize the many lessons I’ve learned from Floyd. His experience, wisdom, patience and counsel have been, both personally and professionally, invaluable.”

[contact] Floyd Adelman, The Inner Circle, 952.935.5801; floydadelman@theinnercircle.com; www.theinnercircle.com. Tony Belden, Engineering America Inc.: 651.777.4041; tbelden@engamerica.com; www.engamerica.com. Danita Bye, Sales Growth Specialists: 612.267.3320; danita@salesgrowthspecialists.com; www.salesgrowthspecialists.com. Dodd Clasen, Creatis Inc.: 612.791.0428; dodd.clasen@creatis.com; www.creatis.com. Irv Cohen, Rosenbloom & Rosenbloom: 612.991.5896; irvc@rrinsurance.com; www.rrinsurance.com. Ann Fleck, Nimlok Minnesota/ABF Display Co.: 651.647.0598; afleck@abfdisplay.com; www.abfdisplay.com. David Foy, David Foy Group/Counselor Realty: 763.420.7080; david@foyhomes.com; www.foyhomes.com. Michael Lacey, Digineer: 763.210.2300; mlacey@digineer.com; www.digineer.com. Patrick Maloney, Data Print Distribution: 952.946.1397; pmaloney@dpd-info.comwww.dpd-info.com. Ken Nater, Material Handling Solutions: 763.694.9444;  ken@mhsionline.com; www.mhsionline.com.