Cigar Guy: The Best Candidate for Small Business

As midterm elections draw near, many small business owners like myself are faced with daunting challenges that are affecting the future of the companies we run. Rising taxes. Out of control spending. Uncertainty over health-care reform. We have some big decisions to make. We have to choose the right people to represent our interests in Congress.

I’m not worried. That’s because I’ve found my man. The one who, in my opinion, is most qualified to represent my interests. And that man is Cigar Guy. (You who I’m talking about right? He became famous when a photographer snapped a photo of him smoking a cigar while watching Tiger Woods play golf.) Why am I wowed by him? Because when I vet Cigar Guy on critical questions that every business owner should ask their congressional candidates, he passes with flying colors. Hopefully the candidates you’re considering are just as worthy.

To start, has your candidate ever run a business himself or had profit and loss responsibility? Cigar Guy may not be a business owner, but he has had significant management experience nonetheless. His operational efficiency in not just one, but two major wars has won him the admiration of our most respected leaders. Not only that, he played a crucial part in the management of our country’s successful space program. Has your candidate ever had that kind of managerial experience? You want to know if your congressman has actually been responsible for generating a profit for an organization. Because if he has, that means he should know all about balancing a budget and matching expenses with revenues.
Paying for Luxuries

Another question: Could your candidate stop working today and live comfortably from his savings? Sure, Cigar Guy appreciates a little R&R like anyone else. He likes biking, golf, and travel. Even so, he needs to work hard to afford these luxuries. He’s not one of those congressmen living off his trust fund or a giant Internet stock portfolio. He’s one of us.

Has your candidate ever had to fire anyone? It takes someone tough to make those decisions. And Cigar Guy is tough. Getting rid of an employee is probably the toughest thing a business owner or manager has to do. When we hire someone, it’s generally a significant investment in time and money. We don’t take these decisions lightly. These are people’s lives. Cigar Guy knows that firing someone is not easy. But he knows he can’t afford for one person to drag down the efforts of others. Will your congressman be able to make these kinds of tough decisions? Will he be able to vote to cut spending on a program, even if that means that some people will lose their funding or their jobs?

Ask your candidate about the last time someone didn’t pay him. Cigar Guy runs his own business. He knows what it’s like to collect money. Has your congressman ever had this experience? Does he know what it’s like to not be paid? Does he know the pressure of collecting receivables to make next week’s check run? Has he experienced the panic of not having a guaranteed flow of cash? Or has he collected a paycheck his entire life? A congressman who says he understands what small business owners need has to understand our struggle to collect cash in the face of rising taxes and government regulations.
Within a Budget

If your congressman can’t afford to pay for something, does he just buy it anyway? Cigar Guy wouldn’t do this. He has lived through a war and domestic and international tragedies. He understands the value of saving and paying only for what he can afford. I know a lot of business owners who would love to purchase a new piece of equipment. Or refurbish their office space. Or scoop up that empty warehouse that just became available down the street. But here’s the problem: They can’t afford it. They have just enough to operate their companies. Owners of profitable businesses are like Cigar Guy. They’re prudent about the money they borrow. Your congressman should be, too.

Here’s another question: If your congressman were running his own business, and the government offered a tax break to hire more people, would he go out and hire more people? Cigar Guy is as patriotic as anyone else. But even he wouldn’t hire a new employee unless he needs that person to do some kind of work that will generate profits for him. The government doesn’t tell us when to hire. We decide. Of course, if there’s a tax break available at that moment, we’ll take it.

Finally, ask your congressman where he buys his health care. Cigar Guy cares deeply about how the cost of health care is affecting his family. He’s concerned about how rising deficits are going to affect the future of his young friends. Does your congressman care as much? Or is his family covered by the congressional plan that’s funded up to 75 percent by the government and contains perks not available to most of us. Ask him if he’s ever paid for his employees’ health care. Ask him if he understands what it feels like to pay double-digit premium hikes every year. Or how lousy it feels to cut benefits and increase what an employee has to pay just to keep profits intact. If he doesn’t know what any of this is like, then don’t vote for him.

For me, Cigar Guy is the only candidate who understands these issues. He has the answers to the questions every small business owner should be asking. What about your candidates?

Gene Marks, CPA, is the owner of the Marks Group, which sells customer relationship, service, and financial management tools to small and midsize businesses. Marks is the author of four best-selli

 

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Many of the people think they are not meant for regular employment and do not want to work under any boss. It is very much possible that these people may not be of sound financial background and they may want to get ahead with Small business and gradually want to reach at medium level and then big. But do you know most of the business people do not get sufficient revenue to get onto the next step and some- times results into shut down of the firm. The common reason is that they start running the business without proper thoughtfulness. There are many things which a person should consider before getting ahead with his venture.

Interest level and capability: – Let’s start like this. Firstly, the person should check his interest level as his new business totally depends upon his dedication and commitment to the business. If the person is not that much interested in that field, it is very much possible that he may lose some very good opportunities. At the same time person should match the nature of the business with his capability. He should be skilled enough to run such kind of business.

Proper Market Research:– Second thing, the person should do the market research and check the facts like culture and mentality of the targeted prospects which decides the feasibility of the business success in the planned market area. As it is very much possible that Business can do wonders if it is operated in the right market and vice versa. Most of the business which make success stories can prove to be a failure in different culture or different geographic and demographic location. So market can decide the faith of the business and success of the business heavily depends on the same.

Budget and Cost Factor: – A new small business starts with risk. So, the person should not invest heavily in a new venture and a safe budget should be invested. It is because in case of loss, the person will still be having the money to survive with. At the same time person should also look to save the operational cost. As “every penny saved is every penny earned”. There are a lot of things where a business man can save good amount. Few of them are:-

1) Minimum Staff: – As a small business cannot afford to have large salary bills the owner should start with minimum staff. He should give regular employment to only those people which are required to perform the main operation. Apart from that, other things should be outsourced to the specialist/Professional who will provide the same quality in less cost. For ex: – To maintain the accounts one can outsource it to a CPA who will come on monthly basis and will charge according to the work. There is another example where one can take the tech support from tech support specialist companies on the monthly subscription rather than giving heavy salary to the tech support employee who is occasionally required. Most of the tech support companies are providing 24*7*365 support with the amount which is only 10% to 20% of the salary of a tech support guy. It really saves a lot of cost of the small business.

2) Infrastructure Cost: – Undisrupted Infrastructure plays a very important role in the success of a business. Many of the businesses which are running on Knowledge and technology rather than physical labor uses infrastructure which can be divided into two parts:-

IT Infrastructure: – As most of the businesses are dependent on Information technology, it requires a costly infrastructure even if a businessman cannot recover the cost invested in it.  It is better if Small business owner do not invest heavily in IT infrastructure. Rather than that he/she should go for the outsourced services like Cloud Computing or Application Hosting which removes the requirement of hefty investment in IT infrastructure. One can avail these services on sharing basis as these services are available on lease on per month subscription. There are other benefits like free data backup, free tech support on the hosted applications, multi user access which creates the desire in the mind of the small business owner to go for this. This service also removes the system dependability and location barriers.
Telecommunication investment: – One should avoid traditional PBX telephony system which requires a web of wires in the office and quite likely to be disrupted physically. Has it happened with you that you are required to call a client on very urgent basis and your telephone system got down. You must have lost the deal in that case. Every opportunity is crucial for the survival of a small business and losing them just like that is not affordable at all by a small business owner. The small business must opt for services like hosted PBX system for telecommunication rather than going for traditional PBX. By this, A small business owner not only gets “always on” telecommunication system but at the same time he saves a lot of money as hosted business PBX system comes in cheaper package without requiring any hardware to be installed in the office premises.

Continuous Return on Investment: – A small business owner should regularly monitor the ROI to have a fair idea about the position of his business. He should also maintain the data which will give him regular update about the health of his business and its progress.

Alternatives should be readily available: – A small business person should always have alternatives which could be used to combat the sudden loss in the business. The business man should not take the things for granted and should avoid speculations or assumptions. One should go through the facts regularly and should make the action plans accordingly. All the steps should be taken on consolidated facts and any sort of assumption is recommended to be avoided.

These may not be the only things which are crucial for the business but these are few of the things which may help the small business to grow and reach to the next level.