On the show today, we talked about how do you handle a business crisis. I talked in my first two books about how the folks at Johnson and Johnson (think tainted Tylenol) and Perrier (think, it may not really come out of the ground just that way) handled their crisis very differently. These are PR nightmare. Today’s show is a bit more personal, – what happens when your bank pulls your line of credit, what happens if your spouse or business partner gets ill? What happens when you lose your largest customer?
How do handle it? How do you make it through to the other side?
My first guest was Donna Childs of Prepared Small Business. She is the author of Prepare for the Worst, Plan for the Best: Disaster Preparedness and Recovery for Small Businesses ( John Wiley & Sons, Inc., second edition, 2008). Donna is herself a small business owner and, in 2007, was named the “Woman Business Owner of the Year” by the National Association of Women Business Owners. She was in the World Trade Center when it was hit on 911. We talk about:
1. How the 911 experience tested her small business preparedness skills.
2. When managing a crisis, you either recover quickly – or you don’t recover at all.
3. We all want to recover quickly- so what does that take?
5. Why we should not worry about major catastrophes.
7. Examining your emotional response to a crisis.
My next guest was Susan is the CEO and co-founder of SBTV.com – the first and only video news and information site for America’s small businesses. She is also the author of “The Girls’ Guide to Building a Million Dollar Business,” and “Reinvent Your Career: Obtain the Success You Desire and Deserve.” As an award winning small business journalist, former news anchor, licensed attorney and marketing executive in a Fortune 100 company, I am first wondering, what the heck is she doing on my show? Having started her first business when she was just 15 years old, Susan has a passion for helping entrepreneurs start, grow, manage and protect their enterprises.
We talked about what happened when after alot of success in her business, her two partners became ill. She learned that:
1. Document, document, document. You never know when you’ll get hit by a bus.
2. You can’t build a great company if you are an island.
3. How core values can’t be compromised.
4. Passion doesn’t make payroll.
5. Create a BUS book.
My next guest was Ian Aronovuch is President of GovernmentAuctions.org, a bargain-hunter Internet portal providing information about government auctions of seized and surplus property. Ian has been a featured guest at CNBC’s Power Lunch and on the Entrepreneur Magazine Radio. He has appeared in numerous media and publications including eBay talk radio, BusinessWeek, Barron’s, and Realtor Magazine.
Ian talks about how his company survived the current economic crises by innovatively avoiding any layoffs, but how there is no free lunch!
My last guest was Monique Haywood who is the President & CEO of Nouveau Connoisseurs Corporation, which she founded in April 2004 and operates the award-winning Dessert Noir Café & Bar in Beaverton, Oregon. She has appeared on CNN and in The Oregonian, Entrepreneur, Black Enterprise, and Restaurant Startup & Growth. She was a winner in the 2008 Make Mine a Million $ Business program and for the Portland Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” award.
She talks about:
1. There’s nothing like getting sued to make you take a long, hard look at the deficiencies in your business operation.
2. Sometimes it pays to listen to yourself before seeking too much advice from outside experts.
3. A big mistake doesn’t have to be devastating to your business if you learn the right lessons and implement them.
4. Her debut book, Divas Doing Business: What the Guidebooks Don’t Tell You About Being a Woman Entrepreneur. The first 10 listeners who visit her web site at http://moniquehayward.com and send her a message to say they heard this interview on your show will get a free e-version of the book.
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