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Sweet marketing music

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 Beth Ewen
March 2003

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2-minute meeting

How to fix lax financial controls, and other funny topics

By Beth Ewen

Who says accountants don’t know how to have a good time? They laughed long and hard at the January meeting of the Institute of Management Accountants.

The line that brought down the house? A turnaround expert was describing the lax internal controls that he found when examining a company’s operations.

“When I started working there the salespeople were calculating their own commissions,” said John Schuerman, the evening’s speaker.

OK, so non-accountants would only nod wryly at that statement, not belly-laugh as did this group of heavy-duty financial gatekeepers. Schuerman nonetheless offered valuable information on what any type of business person can do if a company runs into financial trouble.

Do not wait too long, because losses pile up, reputation gets damaged, strong players leave, and money slips through the cracks, Schuerman said. Do not accept bad behavior, rely on cost-cutting alone, or operate without a plan.

Do take action, cut costs immediately, improve processes, policies and procedures. And do identify key players and communicate with them so they will stay. “Tell the truth,” Schuerman said. Do tighten internal controls with “great vigor,” make decisions and take calculated risks, set expectations and uphold them, and create a sales and marketing plan.

Bonus quote: “The trick is to make more than 50 percent right decisions,” Schuerman said.

Try to make it to: The April 24 meeting features an update from Best Buy Co. about how the electronics retailer financed its move. Contact Gwen Bimberg: 612.373.2693; gwen.bimberg@ prostaff.com

Next economic boom will be bigger than last, speaker says

Two people were flying on business, and one was complaining loudly about the yucky airline meal. “This is a bad sandwich,” he kept saying. “I mean, this is a really bad sandwich.”

The exasperated flight attendant finally grabbed his sandwich and gave it a hard slap. “Bad sandwich,” she said. “Bad sandwich.”

That’s what business owners would like to do to the economy, said Barry Asmus, PhD, give it a hard slap and say “bad economy, bad economy.” Feel better? We should, Asmus said, because the next period of business expansion isn’t far away and it will be much bigger than the last.

Asmus was the keynote speaker for real estate company Coldwell Banker Burnet’s annual kick-off event in January. He’s on the national speaker’s circuit and writes and consults on political and business issues.

Asmus ticked off several reasons for optimism.

• The stock market has dropped 40 percent or more six times in the last century, and in all cases the market grew in the next five years at 9 percent. “It’s going to do that again,” he said.

• The election cycle is behind us, and the election “cleared some things off the table. We’ve got to get rid of the death tax. We’ve got to cut capital gains taxes and the marginal tax rates,” Asmus said. (See warning below.)

The most important reason for global optimism is the fact that more and more countries are abandoning the “non-workable idea of commanding- heights government,” Asmus said. “Now it’s like the world stepped up to a lightbulb. Private ownership and capitalism is the precursor of freedom, and freedom is the mainspring of economic prosperity.

“Let me ask you — when was the last time you washed a rental car? When you own it, when you own it, when you own it, that’s what leads to prosperity,” Asmus said.

Warning: People who are not Republicans would not believe every word that Barry Asmus utters.

Try to make it to: Coldwell Banker Burnet sponsors occasional events on financial topics. Contact Realtors Dick and Gleni Sprague: 612.827.9474; gsprague@cbburnet.com

St. Thomas forum tackles hot topic of governance

“We need an independent, outside board member that isn’t influenced by Mom or Dad or brother or sister.” That was the conclusion of a group of women who work in family-owned companies.

They were discussing the idea of independent board oversight, a hot topic these days after the collapse of Enron and World- Com, said facilitator Mary Daugherty. It was one of the University of St. Thomas Women in Leadership Roundtables.

How to form a board?

First, write down all the characteristics that a board member should have, and start brainstorming for names.

Approach the brighest names in the business; there’s no harm in aiming high. And offer compensation. An hourly rate of perhaps $200 an hour may suffice, although one company in attendance pays $100 per meeting.

When do you start a board of directors? Certainly one is needed when you start passing the business to the next generation of family. “You need more formal structures,” said one participant.

Daugherty recommended forming a board much earlier. “I’d say from the very get-go you need to have someone to bounce things off of.”

The truth: After all the discussion of how and when to form a board, one woman said what every business owner has probably thought: “I just want a board to say, ‘Yes, do what you want,’ so why should I go to all the trouble and expense of forming one?”

Try to make it to: The U of St. Thomas Morrison Center for Entrepreneurship hosts the roundtables in Minneapolis, part of an ongoing, formal program: 651.962.4400; www.stthomas.edu/entrep

‘Profits’ publisher: Get there early when selling to youngsters

Savvy salespeople scan business publications in part to find out who’s raising money. Once owners land the financing, they’ll be prepared to buy products and services.

But the savviest start building relationships long before the money’s offered, according to Dale Kurschner, the publisher of Profits Journal in Minneapolis. “These companies do business plans. They calculate to the cent how they’re going to spend the money, so they can tell investors,” Kurschner said. And to find out how much everything costs, they talk to vendors to get quotes. Thus relationships begin.

Kurschner was the speaker at Frontline Forum, a monthly gettogether for technology sales executives to swap ideas.

Try to make it to: Frontline Forum, now part of the Minnesota High Technology Association’s offerings, meets every month in Bloomington: Ken Thoreson; 952.944.7438; ken@acumenmgmt.com