3 steps to your own Cinderella story

Being the son of a coach, I am naturally a basketball freak. I’ve probably watched more basketball over the past 40 years than Tiger Woods… (won’t go there). For a basketball nut, the pinnacle of the year is March Madness, where 64 teams duke it out (no pun intended) to be the last one standing and take the national championship.

In an effort to not be completely lazy while watching this year’s tournament, I tried to draw some life lessons from March Madness that hopefully you can apply to your business. So what do promos and hoops have in common? Here are three ways you can pull off a business slam dunk.
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Some business inspiration

Those who know me can tell you without hesitation that my favorite reality TV show is “The Biggest Loser.” This show is inspirational on many levels, but I’m most inspired by the fact that the trainers, Bob and Jillian, give people hope. It sounds corny, but it reminds me that no matter how big the challenge, whether it’s business or personal, if you want it bad enough and are willing to work for it, you can accomplish anything you want… and I mean anything.
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Lessons learned in 2009

We’ve all heard it before: in 2009 the economy had a big impact on the promotional products industry. And although the industry as a whole took a hit, individual businesses experienced the recession differently. Some people sank, losing up to 50% of their business. Some treaded water, surviving but not thriving. And some people swam, taking market share and growing their business despite the stormy economic climate. What did the swimmers do that the sinkers didn’t, or vice versa?

I asked hundreds of sales professionals what business decisions they made and strategies they used in 2009, and what they are changing for 2010. Their feedback was invaluable. I was able to identify four strategies that were successful in pre-recession times but lost their effectiveness in ’08-’09 when the economy went south.

Four strategies that should have been left in 2008:
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‘Tis the season

‘Tis the season for celebration, and I wish each of you a great holiday break full of reflection, relaxation and new resolutions!

Reflection…
As we close the book on 2009, I think we have many blessings to be thankful for in both business and family. Granted, this year was exhausting. Some say it was the worst 12 months in the history of the promotional products industry. But you can take pride in the fact that you survived the storm and are prepared to come out stronger in the upcoming years. Give yourself a big pat on the back. I think many times we lose perspective on how blessed we really are.

Relaxation…
During the next few weeks, take some time to recharge the batteries and enjoy the most important part of life – your friends and family. Hopefully during the Christmas/holiday break you’ll have a chance to just be still and let your brain relax. Watch some football, drink plenty of eggnog and root for the Texas Longhorns in the championship game. If you find yourself getting bored, send me some e-mails and I will gladly respond, as I will be equally restless.

Resolutions…
Next year is going to be great. All of the industry and customer dynamics are working in your favor. Be sure to take time to make some business resolutions for next year. Most of all, be bold and dream big!

Have a happy, safe and relaxing holiday.

See you next year,

-JB

Bike or plane?

If you had to travel from Dallas to Chicago, what mode of transportation would you take?

1. Walk
2. Ride a bike
3. Drive
4. Fly
5. Private Plane

According to MapQuest the total distance from Dallas to Chicago is 969 miles.

*Walk – 10 miles/day, Bike – 100 miles/day, Drive – 20 miles/gallon, Fly – Direct flight on commercial, Private – Net Jets

There’s no wrong answer to this question (except maybe the walking thing). How you get from point A to point B is a personal decision based on your own preferences; the important thing is that you make it to point B somehow.
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Worth a thousand words

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s a picture made of words worth? I found this tool that lets you create some really attractive “word clouds” based on terms you frequently use on your blog or in a bunch of text. It shows you what you’re actually writing about the most.

This is mine… the fact that it’s football-shaped is very appropriate for me. (Hook ‘em horns!)

Check it out at wordle.net, and send me yours.

-JB

New $5 Million Investment in Boundless

The vision of Boundless Network was conceived more than 10 years ago, with the goal of being #1 within the $20B promotional products industry. The company was launched in 2005, and it’s hard to believe we’re already four years into this. Reflecting on those years, I’m certainly pleased with our progress–but not satisfied.

We have built a great company with a solid national brand and a technology platform that gives us major leverage against our industry competition. Over the last six months, the company continued to have record months and record quarters.

Today we announced the closing of an additional $5.0MM investment by our strategic partners, Austin Ventures and Silverton Partners, to continue executing our vision of being the #1 platform in the promotional products industry. This funding will be used to continue providing our business partners, our sales professionals and their end customers, with a significant competitive advantage in accomplishing their goals.

As I say to our team on a regular basis, the best of Boundless is in front of us. We’re excited about our success, but we won’t rest until we accomplish the end goal. #1, here we come.

Cheers!

-JB

What’s your plan for 2010?

The year 2010 is a stone’s throw away.

In less than 45 days we will be welcoming in a new year. I’m sending this message to remind you that, in addition to stuffing your face with turkey and shopping for your loved ones, this time of year is great for defining next year’s plan of action. Checking this one more box in 2009 will greatly impact the next 12 months of your business.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “work smarter, not harder.” As a young’n it was constantly drilled into my brain by those who wanted to help me succeed, but it wasn’t until I was 10 years into the business world that I fully understood that first part of the equation – the working smarter side of things.

My definition of working smart is pretty simple, and it centers around one question: is each one of your daily tasks working toward a specific goal? Every day we do 100 different things; the tighter these tasks align with your defined goal, the smarter you’ll be working, and thus the higher the probability of accomplishing your goal. In Texas terms, you need to have a plan and work the plan.

At planet Boundless, our teams are deep into their business planning for 2010. In the interest of sharing some best practices, I wanted to forward our business planning four-step process to other industry professionals. This is a very simple exercise, so hopefully it will start the fly-wheel for your own business planning.

**Click here to check out Business Planning 101, our one-page guide.

Hopefully this will provide some value and assist your efforts in having a great 2010.

Best of luck!

- JB

Predictions: the Industry in 2010

I recently did a Q&A with Promo35, a new group that aims to bring together various generations of promotional product professionals. We talked about my predictions for how the industry will evolve in 2010. Take a look…

Describe what 2010 will be like for our industry in one word.
Bumpy

Will 2010 be up, down, about the same compared to 2009?
Overall, we should expect a slight uptick in the economy. But the fundamentals of our economy are still broken, thus I continue to remain very bearish. If there is a recovery, it will be at a slow crawl. Until we see growth within the small business sector, the economy will just bounce around. Right now, we are experiencing a lot of “false positives.” As a lot of people state, you cannot spend your way out of your problems and that is the current challenge our economy faces (short term and long).

Do you see major changes happening to our industry in 2010 and the next few years?
Yes. Here are a couple for you to chew on based on continued and emerging trends:
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A Game-Changing Adjustment

It’s halftime in the big game of running your business, and it’s time to think about what adjustments can be made to improve your game. Boundless recently called a new play, and we’re excited about this new adjustment to our business model.

We’ve decided to shift our operational strategy to focus 100% on driving our organic growth through our existing sales organization. Historically, Boundless has grown approximately 100% year over year through a combination of organic and strategic acquisitions that met our culture and regional growth strategy.

In this industry, growing via acquisitions is a viable strategy so long as you have a high level of visibility into the future revenue stream of the acquired distributorship. But this method of growth is trickier in an unpredictable economy, because your visibility into future sales is more limited.

I’m really excited about this game-changing shift because it accomplishes two key goals: it allows us to focus on supporting our existing team 100% of the time, and it gives our operations and support teams the ability to refine all of our business processes in preparation for the next big growth spurt.

Our team is excited about the shift in growth strategy; we’re looking forward to the opportunity to challenge many of our business assumptions.

My challenge for you as a business owner: what halftime adjustments can you make to improve your business? Are you being proactive and strategic, or are you content to be tossed around by the winds of a screwball economy?

Best of luck. Stay nimble and flexible, maintain your entrepreneurial spirit and always strive for excellence.

Carpe Diem!

- JB