It was almost two years ago at a cocktail party, when I was surprised to see none other than, Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez, walk through the door. Though I am a person that generally rides the “left” side of the street, I have a lot of respect for the guy. Not being shy, I walked up to him and introduced myself. He asked me about my business and if I did any international business. I said yes, that about half our business is international; and that we have representatives headquartered, and selling our products in some 88 countries. He was intrigued because, although a lot of small businesses export, in his experience, they only export to one or two countries because they have a friend or relative living there. His next question was: “How did you get started and how did you get our name out there?”

We started building wind generators in a small garage in 1987 with a few credit cards, a tiny bit of family money and the absence of fear in our hearts. We knew that we had a great idea even though, at the time, the Regan administration had just put the last nail into the renewable energy industry’s coffin.

Without much of a marketing or advertising budget, I thought the best way to get the message out was to first understand what would excite people about our product. Of course, a few of the things that spark interest in people are health, wealth, sex, happiness and yes, sex. I felt being able to produce free electricity with a wind generator would bring people a feeling of health, wealth, happiness and well… the sex part was tough, as our first machine was very ugly. Undaunted by our ugly duckling, I went to the library (the web works well today) and went through every volume of “Standard Rate and Data.” This is a publication that tracks all magazines and what they charge for advertising. I copied down every magazine that might be interested in talking about our product. Many magazines do “editorial mentions” on products. In Popular Science, it is the “What’s New” section. I took a picture of our wind generator with a cheesy camera, made several dozen duplicates, and attempted to write a 75-word description that hit all those emotional triggers.

The results were shocking. In about three to four months, some 20 magazines had written up our product and my mailbox was filled with requests for more information. My success gave me the confidence to tackle the international magazines in the same way, using the country desks at the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington to identify European publications.

Today, we have an entirely new product – the Skystream – and it is even pretty sexy (as much as a wind generator can be), but we still use similar strategies. Our marketing group supports our dealers and when they install a Skystream in a new area, together with our PR firm, we contact the local media, including all the magazines in the state, and get them out to the site to watch the machine startup. It is almost always the thing to watch on the evening news and generates some buzz in the community. What does it cost? A little bit of time and effort.

How to produce your own buzz:

1) Look at your product, ask friends to do the same. Find the emotional triggers that get people excited.

2) Write up a short piece on your product and be sure not to sound like you are trying sell something. It has to be a newsworthy piece that speaks to the emotion of the reader.

3) Go to SRDS and start searching for magazines in all categories that may have an interest in running your product. SRDS may charge you a fee online but many libraries still offer the books for free.

4) Take a great picture and then begin writing letters. Make each one personal. Contact the magazine first and find out who does “Editorial Mentions.” Write to that person directly. Many people prefer email, so be sure to confirm how they would like to receive the information.

There are countless ideas to get your product or service out into the world. Much of it comes down to how much money you have. Hopefully, my experience, with no marketing or advertising budget will be helpful. If you want to know more, send me a note.

Have you ever found yourself on the opposite side of an argument, unable to get your message across? Or worse, you know you are right and your opponent is wrong, and yet, you can see the audience siding with your opponent. Enter the “Art of Persuasion.”

One of my goals this year is to read at least 15 new books – five of them business-focused. To this end, I was recently in a bookstore, wandering the aisles, trying to decide what to read next. All of a sudden a title jumped out at me – “Thank You for Arguing” by Jay Heinrichs. Great title, right? But it was the subtitle that really sold me: “What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson can teach us about the art of persuasion.”

“Thank you for Arguing” is about the ancient art of rhetoric, made popular by Aristotle. Essentially, rhetoric is not as much about being right, as it is about winning the argument. It is about presenting your argument – finding the right form to deliver your message (Pathos, Ethos or Logos) combined with the right timing. What is most important is doing a little thinking up front, so that you can be sure that how and when you deliver your message it will win over your audience.

Much of today’s argumentative society seems to have lost, the forgotten art of rhetoric. Our talk shows are full of people like Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity who take a position and then proceed to verbally crush their opponents into submission. Our government is no different – the Democrats and Republicans go after each other on the Senate floor and in the press. Many people say our country is more divided now that we have been since the Civil War. I agree with this sentiment and believe most of the division can be attributed to communication.

Communicating should not mean a shouting match with the objective of pulverizing the opponent; the objective of communication should be delivering the right message.
I won’t spoil the details of the book but I do highly recommend reading it. And then reading it again.

OK, back to winning the argument in your office. Here are some quick tips to consider:
Arguments almost always come down to one of three issues:

1) Blame: Who did it? – Generally what occurs in the past. Rhetoric threatens punishment.
2) Values: Often a belief in a specific issue (abortion or same sex marriage) – Present thoughts and beliefs at this moment.
3) Choice: Should we dance or not dance? – What could happen – in the future – promises a payoff.

You can’t change the past so don’t argue about it (blame). The rhetoric of the present handles praise and condemnation, separating the good from the bad, distinguishing groups from the other groups and individuals from each other (values). So always try to focus your argument on what’s ahead – always try to make your argument about choice.
How to win an argument:

1) Set your goal: What do you want to accomplish coming out of this discussion? If there is no outcome, there is little reason to argue in the first place. Don’t argue just to be right. Argue to win.
2) Change your opponent’s mind by taking the anger out of the argument: Agree with them first; then use that point to change their mood and/or mind. Change the mood by softening them up with your agreement. If you resist instantly they will resist back. It is just human nature.
3) Create the desire to act on the idea: It is not just about showing them how you are right. It is also about how to get them to take action on your belief. Only then – when behavior is changed – will you know you have changed them.

Rhetoric tends to finish with people bonding or separating. The goal should always be to find what bonds. The most productive arguments use choice as their central issue and keep the argument in the right tense – future. Pick up a copy, you won’t be disappointed.

PS: A great movie is “Thank you for Smoking” – It highlights many of the same truths.

The dream of owning your own business should not be out of reach of anyone with some savings and decent credit. The key to your acquisition success is the concept of OPM – Other People’s Money.

In particular, you want to find a situation in which you can pay for the purchase of the business by using cash from the business itself, using a loan from the person selling it.

The good news is that for most small businesses, the seller is willing to finance your purchase.

If you are looking to purchase a business you will find plenty listed with the national franchises of business brokers such as Sunbelt or VR Business Brokers. Each site allows you to search by your preferred industry or home state for a business for sale.

I have worked with brokers from both of these franchises, in addition to many other business brokers. One of the key things I’ve learned is that a great majority of Main Street businesses (with sales of say, less than $5mm annually) are sold using a seller-financed note.

Before you make an offer, be aware of how eager the seller is to get a deal done. The more eager they are, the more the seller should be willing to carry back a note.

If they object to taking back a note, remind them that they should be showing confidence in the cash flows of the business.

If the seller is not confident in how the business cash flows, perhaps the business is not worth the price they are asking. You see how the negotiation goes.

What is a reasonable down-payment vs. seller-financing? Probably 50% of the purchase price of the business. If you can get a bank to finance part of your purchase, however, you may be able to buy with for example only 25% in cash, 25% from a bank, and 50% in a seller-financed note.

PCs, the internet and wireless technologies are promoting flex-time and spreading work time across the 24/7 spectrum. Companies and their employees who go with the flow of these realities will reap the benefits. However, this new world requires a higher level of trust on everyone's part, while allowing people to enjoy more freedom and be productive in new ways.

Freedom, expressed as time and place - where I want to be when I want to be there - has to do with:

1) flexible time to take care of other life chores as needed
2) experiencing more of the joys of family, friends and new challenges
3) the flexibility to work from virtually any place at any time
4) being connected to families and communities more than ever before.

We can have that flexibility now, because technology finally allows us to sever the tether from our offices, yet be productive and stay in touch with our teammates.

Knowledge workers are often thinking about their work challenges in the shower, on the freeway and, too often, when they should be listening to their mates or children. They have the potential to work around the clock. This is a far cry from the "leave it all at work when the whistle blows" mentality of the factory workers and, to a great extent, many of the white-collar workers of modern day bureaucracies.

The combination of this desire for freedom, the flexibility made possible by communications technologies and the "always on my mind" mental work calls for new organizational system design. The"always in your face" pyramidal hierarchies invented for factory work are simply outdated. The answer is to organize around the customer and hire smart, self-starting people. The challenges are finding the best ways to do that!