Bob Foster's Blog » entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs and the Super Bowl

Bob Foster — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:10:10 +0000

Super Bowl viewers in San Francisco, Kansas City, New York, and Washington DC got to see an ad that other viewers across the country did not see. It was a 30-second public service message produced by the Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurial Activity.

The ad is part of the Foundation’s “Will it be You?” program that challenges viewers to turn their ideas into new businesses. The message was in Kauffman’s popular “sketchbook” animation format and was shown at the Super Bowl to honor entrepreneurs and encourage new viewers to take the entrepreneurial step.

Here is the actual ad that was shown:

(email subscribers need to view the video at my blog site—here)

The Kauffman Foundation wants viewers to visit their “Will it be You?” website, to view the resources and programs offered by the foundation to help people start and grow their new small businesses.

If you are thinking of starting a new business, or growing one you may already have, it should be well worth your effort to check out Kauffman’s website.

If any of you saw the message, did you also check out the “Will it be You?” website?

The New Normal

Bob Foster — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:03:53 +0000

“The New Normal—GET USED TO IT. The legacy of the financial crisis will be overregulation and slow growth.” These are the words of Mohamed A. El-Erian, CEO and award winning author of When Markets Collide, in a recent article in BusinessWeek. El-Erian went on to say; “…some may want to deny the new reality. That’s a mistake. But being caught in a regime shift with backward-looking beliefs and operating models, is much worse.”

Without a doubt, things are going to change dramatically over the coming years and we will be doing business within major new concepts. It can be exciting, or devastating, depending on how well we adapt to change.

So, because it is the weekend, I thought I would include something from one of my favorite entrepreneurs, Mark Johnson. This is one of the first performances Mark and his crew put together after he brought some of the “Playing for Change” musicians to the U.S. for a tour.

(email subscribers can view on my blog)

Change is a stimulus, and it can create tremendous opportunities for creative thinking and new innovations. The time has never been better for entrepreneurs than it is right now.

Armageddon vs. Business-as-Usual

Bob Foster — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:00:05 +0000

With all the whining, hand-wringing, and economic trash talking by pundits everywhere, I thought it might be interesting to look at something a little more substantial—like some historical facts maybe? I’ll bet most people don’t even know the last time our country lost almost 3 million jobs. How quickly we forget.

About all we see and hear in the media is the tragedy of Wall Street and the exorbitant paydays for the CEOs, plus the excesses of the oil industry—and rightly so, because these people certainly did not EARN their big paychecks.

On the other hand, many of these same pundits are saying our country must protect these large corporations, because they are the people who pass down the corporate wealth so workers can have jobs.

So, considering that, in general, American large corporations have traded off our country’s manufacturing base to foreign manufacturers, for fat paychecks, let us see how well the big corporations do at providing jobs during and immediately after a recession.

(The following data are from the U.S. Census Bureau.)
Our last economic downturn was 2001 to 2002 when we lost about 2.7 million jobs in the U.S., and all of these people were put back to work by 2004. Total employment in 2004 was almost identical to total employment in 2001, so I picked these two data years to see who put these 2.7 million people back to work.

Here is what I found:

From 2001 to 2002, large corporations (over 500 employees) lost 1,643,373 jobs, and small businesses (less than 500 employees) lost 1,017,157 jobs for 2,660,530 total jobs lost.
In 2003, large corporations lost an additional 83,889 jobs, while small businesses created 1,081,278 new jobs.
In 2004, all the jobs lost in 2002 were replaced, with large corporations adding back 443,110 net new jobs, and small businesses added 2,232,160 new jobs.
It would be 2006 before large corporations replaced all the jobs they lost in 2002.
Do not assume that the small business jobs were just service or fast food jobs, because small businesses hire 40 percent of all high tech workers (scientists, engineers, and computer workers), and produce 13 times as many patents per employee than large patenting corporations. (Office of Advocacy, Small Business Administration.)

Therefore, during the last major economic turndown, it was the small businesses of America that turned it around and put people back to work. My conclusion is that, it will be the small businesses of America—the real entrepreneurs—who will turn us around again…and create the jobs to put people back to work again. The big corporations just cannot do it.

Will it happen quickly? Of course not—emotions control our economy, and it takes time for emotions to stabilize. But, it will happen, and it will happen regardless of what Washington does…it may even happen faster if the government minimizes their involvement.

I only wish our politicians would realize this.