Announcer:Our business is business, and business is good on The BusinessMakers Show. Get ready for an hour of conversation, determination, and motivation with your hosts for The BusinessMakers Show, Russ Capper and American City Business Journals Publisher, John Beddow.

Russ: Good morning. This is the BusinessMakers Show heard here and online at theBusinessMakers.com. That's T-H-E BusinessMakers.com and I stress makers 'cause we're talking about people that make it happen.

John: That's right and these are the people who not only make it happen, but they keep the happening going and growing.

Russ: Yep.

John: Okay, it's not something that's static.

Russ: That's right.

John: Oh, here we're gonna start a business that's gonna do $5 million.

Russ: Right.

John: They grow that $5 million - I mean if the plan is faithfully executed, they keep growing it and growing it and growing it. While they're doing that, they're innovating. They're employing more people. They're helping out the economy and it just keeps going up and up and up.

Russ: You bet. And here's our lineup for this morning.

Russ: First up for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback, we are going to do another one of our segments of advice for entrepreneurs from entrepreneurs. Where we feature cool excepts of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs from notable entrepreneurs. And this morning we will hear advice from Janet Gurwitch, founder and former CEO of Laura Mercier Cosmetics. And then she will be followed by Doug Erwin, the chairman and CEO of the largest privately owned web hosting service, that's The Planet. And then he will be followed by Brett Hurt, the founder and CEO of Bizarre Voice. And then for our featured guest today, Esther Steinfeld will sit down with the author of The Mirror Test and former rockstar CMO at Kodak, that's Jeffrey Hayzlett. And a video of this interview is being offered at thebusinessmakers.com. But first... That's right. It's time for The BusinessMakers School of Business and this is the School of Business where John and I go out and spend the entire week putting together curriculum, real world curriculum, that makes sense and helps our audience. And we kick off the School of Business each Saturday morning with a quote of the day.

John: The quote of the day.

Russ: And staying with that same guy that we had last week, Ronald Reagan.

John: R.R. Okay.

Russ: You bet. Here it is.

John: All right, yeah.

Russ: "The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away." Now I like that. I don't know if it's true anymore.

John: Yeah.

Russ: 'Cause the government pays so much and has so much power.

John: Well the government is in the business now.

Russ: It is.

John: I know and it's -

Russ: That's what changed, and all - mixing it all up.

John: And this is a good exercise.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Assuming this doesn't bring the whole country down to its knees.

Russ: Right.

John: But the government operating automobile companies and all that -

Russ: Right.

John: - we're gonna get to see -

Russ: How well they do.

John: - how well they do.

Russ: Yeah.

John: And it's gonna be a pretty easy way to find out.

Russ: You bet.

John: Yep.

Russ: Good point.

John: Okay.

Russ: All right. And that brings us to This Week in Business History. What happened during this June week in business history, John?

John: Well, this week in business history in 1215, the year 1215 -

Russ: Wow, going way back.

John: - if you saw the Robin Hood movie -

Russ: Yeah.

John: - the recent one that's come out.

Russ: Yeah.

John: This didn't happen in the Robin Hood movie -

Russ: That's right.

John: In the movie, King John refused to sign the Magna Carta -

Russ: Right.

John: - but there was so much pressure put on to him by the English nobles that by 1215, King John signs the Magna Carta at Runnymede, England.

Russ: Wow. Okay.

John: Thereby putting into motion the notion of liberty and justice -

Russ: Right, kinda people, people's rights and stuff.

John: - people's rights. Although back then it applied mainly to the English nobility.

Russ: Right, right, right.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1775 the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought - actually it was Breed's Hill -

Russ: Okay.

John: - but I think Bunker Hill sounded better for some reason.

Russ: Yeah. [Laughter] For branding purposes. Yeah, yeah.

John: And - for branding purposes. The Continental Army hadn't been formed then.

Russ: Right.

John: These were revolutionaries from Boston.

Russ: Okay.

John: Yeah, kinda like a militia.

Russ: yeah.

John: And they held off the British for quite some time but they eventually ran out of ammunition and had to surrender the high ground.

Russ: Yeah.

John: The British.

Russ: Okay.

John: So, okay. This week in business history in 1777 Continental Congress adopts the stars and stripes, replacing the Grand Union flag.

Russ: Wow.

John: Okay. This week in business history in 1783, the discoverer of morphine is born.

Russ: Okay.

John: Freidrich Wilhelm Adam Ferdinand Serturner.

Russ: Okay.

John: Serturner.

Russ: Also known as Freddy, right?

John: Freddy.

[Laughter]

Russ: Yeah, right.

John: Son of Austrian parents, he was apprentice to a local apothecary now they're called pharmacists.

Russ: Yeah.

John: By 1803, he graduated to be an apothecary's assistant in another town.

Russ: Okay.

John: And that's when he discovered morphine.

Russ: Wow. Morphine is being used very well these days, I think. It's just a great reliever of pain.

John: Oh yeah, right.

Russ: Particularly for people that are towards the end of their life and -

John: Yeah right. This week in business history in 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte is defeated by the Duke of Wellington and Blucher. Blucher was a Prussian general -

Russ: Okay.

John: - at the Battle of Waterloo.

Russ: Wow. Okay, so that - and this was 195 years ago this week.

John: That's right. That's right.

Russ: All right.

John: This week in business history in 1834 the hard hat diving suit was patented by Leonard Norcross of Dixfield, Maine.

Russ: Wow.

John: Okay?

Russ: Going under water with [Laughter] -

John: With a hard hat? Well that was - you know it was a diving suit.

Russ: Yeah, right.

John: Okay, also this week in business history in 1834 sandpaper was patented by Isaac Fischer, Jr.

Russ: Wow.

John: In Springfield, Vermont.

Russ: Sandpaper in 1834. That's pretty interesting.

John: In Vermont of all places. You know -

Russ: Yeah.

John: - that and maple syrup, I guess.

Russ: Yeah, there you go.

John: Okay, This week in business history in 1837, three years later, Charles Goodyear obtains his first rubber patent.

Russ: Wow and he did okay with that, I think as history will tell.

John: And I think all the birth control advocates appreciated this patent.

Russ: Yeah, right. [Laughter] Right.

John: This week in business history in 1847, Robert Von Bunsen - here we go again - invents the Bunsen burner.

Russ: Robert Von Bunsen. Wow, yeah.

John: Von Bunsen. Yeah, yeah, right and he - that's the only thing he did as his career rather, you know, flamed out rather quickly after that.

Russ: [Laughter] The Bunsen burner wasn't a real complicated device, either.

John: I know, but it's one of those things that's kinda like the paperclip.

Russ: Yeah, use it all the time. Yeah, there you go.

John: There you go.

Russ: All right.

John: Okay, this week in business history in 1862, two New Yorkers with nothing better to do obtained a patent for a combination plow and gun. It was called the ordnance gun and if you've ever done - it was pa- it was a cannon attached to a plow, the blade of the plow. I guess if you're attacked by savages or -

Russ: While you're out plowing the fields.

John: - plowing the fields you can unhook the horses and -

Russ: Start firing away.

John: - fire away, yeah. Geeze. This week in business history in 1903 Ford Motors incorporates and the same time, Pepsi Cola Company forms.

Russ: Wow.

John: Yeah.

Russ: Same week in business history Ford incorporates and Pepsi Cola forms.

John: Right, okay. This week in business history in 1928 birthday of James Brown.

[Music: "I Feel Good"]

John: Pulaski, Tennessee soul singer and I'd say convicted felon. He got thrown in jail for beating his wife.

Russ: Yeah. Yeah, but I think we feature him here because he was also the hardest working man in show business and since we're, you know, focused on -

John: Well that was -

Russ: - work and labor.

John: - now wait, now wait a minute.

Russ: I mean, we wouldn't want just a softie. So -

John: Now - I know but wait a minute. He called - that's what he called himself.

Russ: Well yeah, it was a good branding move.

John: But I - but I know but the part thing I really -

Russ: You don't think he worked that hard?

John: Well there are other people that worked just as hard. Tom Jones.

Russ: I, I don't know man.

John: He sweated just as much as -

[Laughter]

Russ: I don't think anybody sweated as much as James Brown.

John: Okay. All right. This week in business history in 1942 Walt Disney's Bambi animated movie is released and they hired Thumper. It was his first job.

Russ: [Laughter] He got a job bunny.

John: Finally got it good. That poor rabbit was -

Russ: Yeah.

John: You know, what's a rabbit gotta do to get into show business?

Russ: No kidding. Good for him.

John: Yeah good for him. This week in business history in 1953 Elvis Presley graduates from LC Humes High School in Memphis, Tennessee.

Russ: Wow. I wonder if they knew, you know, that they had a star in their presence.

John: Well I'm sure he had - I'm sure he showed some musical prowess while he was in high school.

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: But who knows? This week in business history - this is three years after Elvis Presley graduates -

Russ: Yeah.

John: - John Lennon and Paul McCartney, barely teenagers -

Russ: Yeah.

John: - since Paul McCartney's only 13, meet for the first time at Lennon's rock group The Quarrymen perform at a church dinner.

Russ: Wow. You know and that was sort of the beginning - it's written about in Outliers written by Malcolm Gladwell, who was on the show -

John: Yeah.

Russ: - about how once they did start -

John: Yeah.

Russ: - man they worked like 10, 12, 13 hours a day for several years.

John: Right.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Okay, moving right along, here. This week in business history in 1965, Bob Dylan records "Like a Rolling Stone".

[Music: "Like a Rolling Stone"]

Russ: What a classic.

John: Man, I tell you - you know, he's not the best performer of his own music.

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: But he was a - he wrote some pretty amazing -

Russ: He was a poet.

John: - a poet.

Russ: You bet.

John: This week in business history in 1983, Sally Ride becomes the first U.S. woman in space. Her full name was Sally Kirsten Ride. Born in California. Thought she was gonna be a tennis pro but instead got into physics, you know, and then the rest is history because she went up twice in space.

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: And also was on the panel that investigated the Challenger accident.

Russ: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John: And then later the Columbia accident. So -

Russ: Yeah, an important astronaut.

John: It's important - yeah, very important person in -

Russ: Ride, Sally Ride.

John: - right, yeah, Ride, Sally Ride.

<[Music: "Mustang Sally"]

John: This week in business history in 1994 O.J. Simpson I guess kinda implicates his guilt in the murder of his wife by trying to flee the United States, you could say, 'cause he - you know, Mexico's right next to California -

Russ: Right, right.

John: - in his Ford Bronco.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Instead of giving himself up for the murder charges, he hops in a Bronco for half an hour, hour and a half driving all over Los Angeles and eventually gives up.

Russ: Yeah and it was seen live on TV -

John: Yeah.

Russ: - because it was during the NBA playoffs -

John: Uh huh.

Russ: - the New York Knickerbockers were playing against the Houston Rockets and they kept breaking away to watch the Ford Bronco.

John: Oh, I didn't know that.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Yeah, that's a -

Russ: It's kind of a strange chapter in U.S. criminal history.

John: In law enforcement history.

Russ: Yeah, yeah.

John: And of course, he was actually - actually he was - when he got back in he said he only wanted to go out and search for the real killer.

Russ: [Laughter] He hasn't found him yet, has he?

John: Hasn't found him yet, yeah.

Russ: Yeah.

John: He checked every golf course in the country for him.

Russ: Now he's looking for him in prison.

John: Now he's looking for him in prison.

Russ: There you go.

John: Okay. This week in business history in the year 2000, President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea meets Kim Jong Il, leader of North Korea for the beginning of the first ever inter-Korea summit in the northern capital of Pyongyang. Pyongyang.

Russ: Yeah and I think everybody was optimistic then, ten years ago.

John: Yeah, until the other day when they sunk a South Korean ship with a torpedo. Right.

Russ: What a - what a isolated, strange behaving country.

John: Yeah, but that would interrupt any air of good feeling between two countries, don't you think?

Russ: [Laughter] Yes it would. All right. Does that wrap up this morning's history lesson?

John: Man, I'll tell ya, that is - I - that was a -

Russ: What a unique one it was. [Laughter]

John: Yeah, geeze. It's all -

Russ: All for a while and some interesting categories there but -

John: Then we went off in some totally unrelated tangents.

Russ: Yes, we did.

John: Yeah, it's just a way out there.

Russ: We really did. All right

John: I think people really got their money's worth today.

Russ: I think they did.

John: All right.

Russ: All right and now it's time for the Jargon Challenge Round. It's our vocabulary lesson where I go out and find a brand new word or make up a brand new word.

John: Sure why not?

Russ: I will go ahead and admit today is one I found. I didn't make this word up. I keep it confidential. Nobody knows which one I've chosen -

John: Including me.

Russ: That's right.

John: Right.

Russ: And then I say the word and then John attempts to guess the meaning. All right. And are you ready?

John: Doesn't matter if I am or not.

Russ: That's correct.

John: Okay.

Russ: This morning's word is technosexual.

John: Technosexual.

Russ: Yeah.

John: Okay. Homosexual is type of sexuality -

Russ: Right.

John: - heterosexual is a type of sexuality.

Russ: Right.

John: Technosexual is that you have a love affair with your own technology equipment; with computers, software, whatever and you're not interested in any type of interpersonal relationship. You're just there in your basement with all your technology.

Russ: I'm gonna have to stop you. I think you're a loser.

John: Oh.

Russ: Although I let you go as long as you did because sometimes you have a better definitions than the official one.

John: Well thank you.

Russ: You didn't. A technosexual is a male with a strong aesthetic sense and a love of technology.

John: Well that's what I - I just said that.

Russ: It's actually kinda - it's a - but you - no a love of technology. You were talking about a love for technology. This is like a metrosexual.

John: That's like Clinton says what's the - depends what the meaning of the word is is.

Russ: Well it does depend. All right. And that brings us to Dumbest Moments. Do you have a dumb business story for us this morning?

John: Well, imagine you're an employee, okay? And you're working for an airline that just reported a full net loss of about $611 million.

Russ: Ooh.

John: Okay?

Russ: Yeah.

John: So what do you do?

Russ: Well, I'd probably be looking for a job.

John: Well if it was British Airways, you already have a job but you're gonna go on strike -

Russ: Yeah.

John: - under unfair working conditions.

Russ: They didn't go on strike because they lost that much money. They just ignored that they lost that much money.

John: Well, yeah, they - yeah right. You just don't, you know -

Russ: Yeah, so what that's your problem.

John: If you're gonna go on strike for better working conditions, you wait 'til the company's doing exceedingly well.

Russ: That's correct.

John: Then you go.

Russ: But British Airways.

John: If a company's struggling, limping along, you think going on strike's gonna get you anything?

Russ: So this is what they did, you know, a couple of months ago.

John: Yeah, the cabin crews, yeah, right.

Russ: Yeah, right, right.

John: The cabin crews.

Russ: Right, yeah. Yeah, I flew on British Airways like one day before the strike.

John: How was it? How was it?

Russ: Well, you know, it was fine, you know?

John: Uh huh.

Russ: It was just perfectly okay.

John: Did they make you get your, you know, food yourself in the galley?

Russ: No, no I think they did that the next day. When I was there it was okay.

John: All right, yeah, all right.

Russ: All right and before we wrap up this morning's School of Business it's time for the very popular PKF Texas Entrepreneur's Playbook.

John: Oh, here he is. And here's a guy who never goes on strike.

Russ: You bet.

John: Because he's the man.

Russ: Mr. Greg Price.

John: Here he is. A one and a two and a -

Russ: A one and a two and a -

Greg: This is Greg Price with PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook.

I run across many business owners who don't fully realize or understand the impact that state and local tax credits can have on their business.

Incentives are everywhere and have the potential to make an enormous difference in the profitability of a company. For example, almost every state that imposes a sales tax has an exemption from sales tax for machinery and equipment used directly in the manufacturing process. This is an enormous incentive that many businesses do not understand or overlook.

Many states will exempt certain types of property from ad valorem property taxes. In Texas, for example, pollution control equipment qualifies for an exemption from property tax. These incentives are available to businesses without any special action on their part, and carry huge potential; even a small incentive can have a large impact on the business.

A business that qualifies for $10,000 of incentives does not just have an extra $10,000; it has the net profit of $10,000 which, on a business with a 5 percent net profit margin, represents a sale of $200,000. How hard would a business work for a $200,000 sale? If the incentive is larger, the net sale impact is larger.

A company should know when it has the right facts to make a significant investment in understanding its incentive profile. Typically, a company should review potential credits and incentives whenever there is a potential for significant capital investment (a new investment greater than $1 million), or meaningful job creation (the new hiring of 25 or more employees). Companies with significant headcount and training costs also should consider credits and incentives.

Credits and incentives are available to a greater or lesser degree to every company. Executive leadership and tax advisors should evaluate the potential for these incentives for the enterprise. Where necessary, include consultants who focus on credits and incentives. Always be mindful of the potential for incentives when significant capital investment or job creation may occur.

To read and comment on the PKF Texas' Entrepreneur's Playbook, visit my blog, fromgregshead.com. And be sure to check out the new mobile ready website at PKF Texas.com - PKF Texas, The Fit That's Right!

Russ: And that wraps up this mornings School of Business. Stay tuned in for the Aflac BusinessMakers Flashback, where we are going to do another of our very popular advice for entrepreneurs from entrepreneurs. And then for our featured guest this morning, Esther Steinfeld will be interviewing the author of The Mirror Test, the former CMO of Kodak, Jeffrey Hayzlett. And a video version of Esther's interview with Jeffrey is available on thebusinessmakers.com. You're listening to The BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at thebusinessmakers.com.