Announcer: It's a fact, when it comes to those who most positively affect out lives, today's innovators and entrepreneurs top the list. During the next hour, we will turn the spotlight on people who make businesses happen with their creativity, determination and inspiration. This is The BusinessMakers Show, with your hosts Russ Capper and John Beddow, a publisher with American City Business Journals.
Russ: Good morning. This is the BusinessMakers Show heard hear and online at thebusinessmakers.com. This is that show about the innovators and the entrepreneurs.
John: That's right, Russ. These people are the ones that keep the economy growing and going.
Russ: That's right.
John: But these people are the ones that you could say in the trenches 24/7 ya' know.
Russ: Right. And speaking of these people here's what we've got lined up today. First up for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback, we are going to roll back to a couple of weeks ago when when I visited with LaTanya Flix, the Executive Director of The Women's Resource of Greater Houston. A real cool group championing financial growth and responsibility, primarily with young women. And then for our featured guests; first up we have Kristen Johnson, Chairperson of the California Small Business Development Centers. And then she will be followed by Carol Kurimsky, senior Vice President of Brand Marketing with PC Mall. Both of this week's featured guests were interviewed at the State of California's Governors conference on small business and entrepreneurship. And there are video versions of both featured guests at thebusinessmakers.com. But first... That's right. It's time for the BusinessMakers School of Business and this is not your business as usual school.
John: No; it's not. It's several cuts above I would say what you would normally think a business school is.
Russ: That's right.
John: We're just here talkin' about capitalism.
Russ: That brings us to the quote of the day.
John: Yes.
Russ: Which is what we always kick off the school of business with. This morning we're gonna share a quote from Ronald Reagan.
John: Okay.
Russ: The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases. If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it and if it stops moving, subsidize it.
John: There ya' go. That's right. That's right.
Russ: Alright. And that brings us to this week in business history. What happened during this June week in business history, John?
John: Well, what happened, yeah, like this week in business history in 1742 Benjamin Franklin invents the Franklin stove.
Russ: Oh yeah; right.
John: Good way to keep people warm. Before that they didn't have very good ways of keeping people warm -
Russ: We might be headed for using the Franklin stove once again in the future ya' know -
John: I know. I know.
Russ: But we probably can't burn wood in it anymore though.
John: No; it's against - so it's not ecologically friendly.
Russ: That's right.
John: I guess they'll be printing dollars at such a rate ya' know -
Russ: We could burn those in it -
John: Burn the dollars; yeah.
Russ: Right.
John: This week in business history in 1847 the Chicago Tribune begins publishing.
Russ: And how are they doing these days?
John: Not so good.
Russ: Okay.
John: A lot of daily newspapers aren't.
Russ: Yeah; tough business.
John: Yeah; tell me about it. Okay; this week in business history in 1876 Harriet A. Scandevil of East Saugus, Massachusetts was granted a patent for combined skirt supporter corset.
Russ: Wow; that's interesting. I wonder -
John: A multi-use corset.
Russ: Boy; no kiddin'. I wonder how that fared. I don't think people still wear 'em do they?
John: Well, ya' never know.
Russ: I don't. Do you?
John: Well they call 'em girdles now -
Russ: That's right.
John: Not too many people wear them.
Russ: That's right.
John: I mean, not too many men I know wear them.
Russ: Just a few that I know.
John: Just walking down the street you can see not a lot of women are wearin' 'em either.
Russ: Right; that's right.
John: But I guess this was a combination corset which hid some of the unseemly flab -
Russ: Right.
John: -- the women and molded it into a very appealing shape and -
Russ: And it combined it with a skirt kind of -
John: With a skirt, kind of held up the skirt. Kinda' like suspenders -
Russ: There ya' go. It'd be like a combination suspenders and pants for a guy.
John: Yeah. This week in business history, in 1850 Levi Strauss finally gets around to making his first blue jeans -
Russ: Cool.
[Music: "Blue Jean"]
John: This week in business history in 1882 the electric iron was patented by Henry W. Sealey from New York City. At the time it was called the electric flat iron.
Russ: Interesting.
John: Yeah.
Russ: I guess people didn't look real fresh and crisp before then -
John: Yeah; they just were all wrinkly.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Yes; wrinkly; yeah. Okay.
Russ: Wow; lots of patents this week.
John: Lots of patents. 1903 patent 701,839 was granted to Americus F. Callahan of Chicago, Illinois for the window envelope.
Russ: Wow. I had no idea that that would have been patented.
John: I know. But it's a great idea 'cause you don't have to retype the address on there.
Russ: Yeah; no tellin' how much productivity he enhanced by creating the window envelope.
John: I know; I know.
Russ: Probably had a spike in the economy back then.
John: I wonder if the envelope crashed without warning every now and then.
Russ: Why would that be?
John: Like the windows we're now using.
Russ: And you had to reboot every once in awhile.
John: You had to reboot your envelope.
Russ: Right; probably.
John: Okay. This week in business history, in 1934 was the first showing of a Donald Duck cartoon.
Russ: Wow. Now you're always the cartoon expert, but I liked Donald Duck maybe more than anybody.
John: Yeah; and he had the Scrooge McDuck ya' know, his uncle, his rich uncle.
Russ: Yeah.
John: But my favorite cartoon duck was Daffy Duck. Yeah; he was much funnier, but Donald Duck was good. I liked him.
Russ: Right.
John: And Goofy was pretty good.
Russ: Yeah; no kiddin'.
John: Okay. This week in business history, in 1953 Amos and Andy, TV comedy last aired on CBS -
Russ: Oh yeah.
John: Getting a lot of pressure from the politically correct crowd claiming that that show unfairly presented stereotypes of average Americans.
Russ: Yeah; but I thought it was a great show.
John: It was pretty funny.
Russ: I thought the acting was good and it was funny -
John: The acting was good and it was funny.
Russ: I didn't think it was racist. Just like I don't think some of those dufus White honky shows are racist either.
John: There's a heck of a lot more honky White shows around that are sort of stereotypical.
Russ: My only problem with the TV show Amos and Andy, which I really enjoyed was that the real star was not Amos or Andy. It was Kingfish.
John: Kingfish; yeah.
Russ: And I couldn't reconcile that. I was very young, but I was goin' why isn't his name Andy or Amos, not Kingfish -
John: I know -
Russ: -- or why don't they change the name of the show.
John: The Kingfish was always trying to come up with a scam -
Russ: Yeah; he was. He was creative.
John: Right; I know. Very unsuccessful.
Russ: That's true.
John: Okay; this week in business history, in 1960, one of my favorite rock and rollers, Roy Orbison releases Only the Lonely.
[Music: "Only the Lonely"]
Russ: I really like that song.
John: Yeah.
Russ: I don't know why. I was real young when it came out, but I just like the way that it - even the title, Only the Lonely.
John: This week in business history, in 1963, man, we've gone from patent 178,000 in 1876. Now it's 1963. It's patent number 3,093,346 granting the Maxima Faje and Andre Je Mayer, Jr., of Newport News, Rhode Island for the space capsule. That was the Mercury manned space capsule seen in The Right Stuff and John Glenn and all these guys went up in it. So that's -
Russ: Cool.
John: He got the patent for it.
Russ: Cool; alright.
John: Okay. This week in business history, in 1966 Beatles record Rain and it was the first attempt to use reverse tapes.
[Music: "Rain"]
Russ: Wow. And you've always been a fan of playing it backwards and hearing all those secret messages -
John: Oh, it's amazing. There's all kinds of secret messages. In this case, a secret message was 44 years from now there's gonna be an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Russ: They predicted it.
John: They predicted it.
Russ: The Beatles did. Were they released --
John: They really did; yeah.
Russ: We should go listen to all of those reverse -
John: It's a British band, ya' know, British Petroleum.
Russ: Yeah.
John: They musta' had a -
Russ: I see the connections clear as glass -
John: Alright. There ya' go. This week in business history, also in 1966 Janis Joplin's first live concert.
[Music: "Me and Bobby McGee"]
John: This week in business history, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy dies from his wounds after he was shot the previous night.
Russ: God man, I just so remember that that it just seemed at that period of time like anybody that was in any prominent position was gonna get shot.
John: Well, ya' had ya' know his brother assassinated, what, like in 1963 was it?
Russ: Yeah.
John: And then you had -
Russ: Martin Luther King.
John: Martin Luther King.
Russ: Yeah.
John: And then it's just sad. Those three great leaders -
Russ: Yeah; gees.
John: -- whether you agreed with them politically or not, they were people who changed the world.
Russ: Oh absolutely; yeah. Well.
John: Speaking of changing the world, this week in business history in 1985 Coca-Cola announces they've made a huge mistake. Huge mistake -
Russ: Huge.
John: -- and they bring back their 99 year old formula back into mass market production.
Russ: Thank goodness.
John: I know.
Russ: Man.
John: I know. It's -
Russ: Wow.
John: They called it Classic Coke -
Russ: Yeah; yeah.
John: They still did not wanna admit defeat.
Russ: Right.
John: They still had the other recipe out there -
Russ: This'll be Classic Coca-Cola; yeah.
John: Right; but that's the only Coke there is.
Russ: Sure; absolutely.
John: Okay. This week in business history, in 1991 Boris Yeltsin elected president of the Russian Federation, the true patriot, the true -
Russ: Yeah; well that felt like democracy was happening. I kinda' liked Gorbachev, but boy it was this guy -
John: Well Gorbachev, see, Gorbachev is still a Communist. It wasn't gonna change. What he was tryin' to do was liberalize the Russian economy. Make it more free market oriented, but still preserving the Communist Party.
Russ: Yeah; and Yeltsin -
John: Keep control of the government.
Russ: And Yeltsin won -
John: Well ya' can't, it's very unsuccessful.
Russ: Yeah; ya' can't do both; right.
John: Ya' can't give someone economic freedom without giving them political freedom. It doesn't work.
Russ: Right; right. So Yeltsin, he was the real deal.
John: Well, yeah, obviously and he was quite successful there for awhile.
Russ: Yeah; cool.
John: Okay. This week in business history, in 2005 the first broadcast of the Businessmaker Show.
Russ: Oh my goodness. What a monumental event --
John: June 6th; was it June 6th?
Russ: Yeah. And that wraps up this morning's history lesson?
John: Hey, that's enough man.
Russ: I agree.
John: All those patents.
Russ: I agree.
John: Good Lord.
Russ: Good lesson.
John: Very, very creative week in business history -
Russ: Absolutely. Good lesson as usual. Okay. That brings us to the jargon challenge round.
John: Yes.
Russ: Also known as our vocabulary lesson.
John: Every school's got one.
Russ: You bet and we do it in kind of a real-time, real world contest format.
John: Yes, we do.
Russ: Yeah; where I get to select a word, or as John always like to [Inaudible] me, I get to make up a word if I want to.
John: Right; sure. Yeah; it's a free country.
Russ: That's right. And I say the word. And that John -
John: Guesses the meaning.
Russ: Absolutely.
John: 'Cause I do not know what the word, phrase or acronym or whatever it is.
Russ: He doesn't.
John: I don't know.
Russ: And today it's a noun -
John: And we're not makin' that up.
Russ: No; we're not.
John: Alright; okay.
Russ: And today it's a noun. It's a one word noun.
John: It's always a noun.
Russ: Yeah; it usually is. No wagering, please.
John: Yeah; void where prohibited by law.
Russ: This morning's word is exoneree.
John: Exoneree.
Russ: Yeah.
John: Hm. Exonerate's when you take someone who's guilty or suspect and completely reverse the verdict or accusation or whatever -
Russ: That is correct. That's the definition of exonerated.
John: And so an exoneree is someone who has that happen to them. They have -
Russ: Ladies and gentlemen, hold your calls. We've got a winner.
John: There we go.
Russ: That's a good word though, isn't it? Exoneree. Good job. Alright. That brings us to dumb moments in business. Do you have a story for us?
John: Yeah. Ya' know California's in a lot of trouble.
Russ: Oh yeah. You can say that -
John: Would you admit?
Russ: You can say that; yeah.
John: I mean gees. Well, here's one of the reasons. Sacramento is sitting on thousands of dollars of checks they could be cashing, but they don't have the personnel to process them and hundreds of businesses are operating with expired licenses as a result. But the manager of the revenue division says, 'Well they need to restructure in order to keep up with the business. It's not the first department in the city to admit that the status quo isn't working. Now there's a restaurateur, Nancy Martis, manager of Ink Restaurant and said she never, ever received a bill from the city and she's one of the 100 restaurants listed as expired. So she went ahead and copied her expired business permit and wrote them a letter and sent them a check. She's -
Russ: Right. She's concerned. Wants to be in step.
John: And Brad Wesson who runs the revenue division responsible for processing the thousands of checks coming in, says he's been falling further and further behind since losing over a third of their employees to budget cuts. My answer is has he ever heard of a lock box.
Russ: Yeah; right.
John: 'Cause you get the bank to set up a holding facility and the checks go straight into there.
Russ: Right.
John: And they were cashed right, then you get a print out of the checks and who they're made out for and for what reason, right.
Russ: Well I gotta tell ya'. My rule number one on any company I've been involved in is let's make sure when we get the money we put it in the bank.
John: And if you're in the revenue division, you walk in and there's checks layin' around, put 'em in the bank.
Russ: See ya' in Sacramento.
John: How long does it take someone to take a bunch of checks and walk 'em down to the bank and put 'em in the bank?
Russ: Good point. Perfect point. Alright. Before we wrap up this morning's school of business, it's time for the very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's playbook.
John: Now here's a guy that knows what to do with a check when you get it to him -
Russ: He does, man.
John: That's right. Yeah; he puts it in the bank.
Russ: Mr. Greg Price.
John: And here he is.
Russ: On the piano. A one, and a two and a -
John: A one, and a two and a.
Greg: This is Greg Price with PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook.
How do you evaluate the trends in your industry or city to best position your company for success? Today's business environment can change in the blink of an eye. What are you doing to stay at the forefront of that change?
Taking the pulse of your business environment can help you know when to beef up certain areas of your business. Have you seen an influx of international companies in your market space? What can you do to increase your international footprint?
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Russ: And that wraps up this mornings School of Business. Stay tuned in for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback, where I share my visit with the women leading the cause for finacial management, knowledge, and finacial responsibility in Houston Texas. And that would be LaTanya Flix, the Executive Director of The Women's Resource of Greater Houston. And then for our featured guests; first up we have Kristen Johnson, Chairperson of the California Small Business Development Centers. And then she will be followed by Carol Kurimsky, senior Vice President of Brand Marketing with PC Mall. You're listening to the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at thebusinessmakers.com.
