[good news]
“I DO NOT WATCH the news nor read the grim headlines. My personal news ?boycott? has worked well for these past 28 years, through up and down cycles.?
So reads the provocative missive in June from Kay Harris, owner of Kay Harris Real Estate Consultants in Minneapolis. And while this news junkie can?t recommend her method, any business owner should consider her message.
Do you feel bombarded? Every day brings more bad economic news, and I don?t know a business owner who?s sheltered.
Did your favorite company just go out of business? Mine was SimonDelivers. I was a huge fan of their grocery delivery service since its inception, and in July it announced it was done.
Is your industry in turmoil, with even the biggest players in trouble? MinnesotaBusiness, a competitor, is now in the hands of its formerly minority investor, with the future for its founder, magazines and employees uncertain.
Here?s how Harris puts it (www.kayharrisre.com is her Web site): ?In our market, I see brokers jumping ship, offices closing, businesses changing personnel (sometimes four times within a five-year period). There are a hundred reasons to be pessimistic.?
But she?s not, and I have to applaud her attitude.
?I am not a Pollyanna, but I certainly have found over the years that I could not afford to hang out with the doom-and-gloom folks with whom I worked at times, and that I thrived while they did not,? Harris writes.
She cites methods that she and business owners she admires are using: diversifying by adding a division and personnel; searching other markets, whether geographically or by industry; ?knuckling down? and studying the niches in which you have historically succeeded, and deepening those relationships.
Another owner I talked with this summer, Scott Grausnick of Harbinger Partners, says his 10-year-old company has operated in two tough economic periods, after the Sept. 11 attacks and now, and they?ve had a record year both times. He, too, suggests you ignore the bad news and seize the opportunities that always arise amid chaos.
Many other business owners in this issue of Upsize make the same point by their actions, if not their words.
One is launching a new product, the first for her service business. Another is gunning for 30 percent sales growth after the purchase of a ?tank-less? chemicals delivery system. He?s had to adjust his forecast down from 50 percent growth when materials costs rose, but still is upbeat. Another is specializing in serving fast-growing immigrant markets for buying and selling homes.
Harris sums up her point of view: ?I see vibrancy in this business environment that must be brought to the headlines. It does not serve us well to focus only on bad news. I know what we focus on grows!?.
? Beth Ewen
Editor and co-founder
Upsize Minnesota
bewen@upsizemag.com
