Letters

Inc. readers comment and question various topics and articles covered in past issues of the magazine.

A word or two on the language of nonprofits, the front line of customer service, moonlighting your way into business, and the importance (or not) of credentials for business coaches, as well as an update on the battery company formerly known as Power Express.

Moonlighting Becomes You

In a June letter (" I Will Survive," Focus) reader Roger Bebow, who was forced to take a full-time job while trying to run his still-unprofitable small business, asked for help. Readers responded with advice of the practical variety:

I've had the same problem with my own company. My solution has been to work through staffing services and hire myself out as a "temp." When I get desperately low on money I'll hire myself out for a while to pay my bills and build up a reserve. Of course, I continue to run my own business in my "spare time." Then I'll take several months off to dedicate myself to my own business full-time. This approach isn't perfect, but it's been working quite well for me.

Steven R. Gatke
President
Woodland Books
Hillsboro, Oreg.

...the analytical variety:

Separate what you need from what the business needs. That's hard to do in a start-up, because the business runs on passion before it gets cash to run on. On the personal side, look at why you need to own your own company. See if what you want is reasonable to expect from being the owner of the type of business you have. On the business side, I'd look to see if there's a mismatch between your services and the market. Are costs too high? Are expectations unreasonable? Do you have enough support help? Too much? Get an outsider to ask you the tough questions to help you set a clear course of action.

John Seiffer
Business and Executive Coach
Bethel, Conn.

...and the have-the-passion-to-act-on-your-convictions variety:

When you watch the high-wire or flying-trapeze acts at the circus, the only time a performer falls is when there is a safety net underneath him or her. You very rarely hear of a performer's falling when there is no net.

Just like the trapeze artists at the circus, Mr. Bebow, you must take down your safety net. Quit your full-time job. Dedicate yourself to your own company. Look at every prospect as a bag of groceries, a house payment, or a utility-bill payment.

Roy Pennington
Owner
Hi Pressure Cleaning Systems
Houma, La.

The Front Line

Norm Brodsky's June column, " We Have Met the Enemy, and He Is Us," shifted the blame for poor customer service from the cash register to the corner office. Many CEOs, including this letter writer, agreed:

Norm Brodsky was right on with his remarks that employees are not at fault for bad customer service. It's typically the employer who's to blame.

When businesses create an environment in which the people working on the front lines feel that they're important to the success of the company, they will feel less attached to the chains of limitations. Employees should be rewarded and encouraged to find intangible ways of achieving superior service. That doesn't mean throwing out the company's rule book or policy manual. But great customer service requires rules that are strong enough to bend.

Brian S. Dennis
President and CEO
Serviceworx
Salt Lake City

Taken for Granted

Heather R. McLeod lauded the entrepreneurial spirit of some not-for-profit executives in " Crossover" (State of Small Business issue), but one reader found fault with her approach:

While I normally overlook your simplistic comments about social issues, your latest diatribe against the nonprofit sector deserves reproach. I particularly take offense at the tone of the "glossary of the nonprofit world" in the sidebar to Heather McLeod's article, "Crossover." For instance, she polemically defines grants as "money raised in the form of handouts." I suppose her intent is to imply a correlation between grants and welfare, but the tie seems tenuous and uninformed. As with other venture "capital" outlays, grants are obtained only after extensive review of an organization's business plan detailing the grant's intended use, the expected return, and the management's likelihood of success.

Joel Freehling
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Anthropology
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Stony Brook, N.Y.

Heather McLeod responds: As the founder and former codirector of a national nonprofit myself, I know very well how grants are raised. But I also know how disempowering it is to live at the mercy of capricious funders rather than have a healthy, diversified funding base that includes some earned income with no strings attached. As an ardent supporter of the nonprofit sector, I also hope to be an advocate for progressive reform--which includes valuing nonprofits' assets and contributions to society in economic terms. I didn't intend the tone of the sidebar to detract from the more important arguments of the piece.

Credentials: Who Knows What

In his profile of executive coach Kay Stepp (" The Zero-Defect CEO," June), Joshua Hyatt explored the credential-earning process that's beginning to grow up around the coaching industry. One reader objected:

Joshua Hyatt's article provided for interesting reading, but it also raised my hackles. Why suggest that people can find easy credibility for becoming coaches through so-called university programs? Forget it! The best coaches have intuitive talent, have graduated with honors from the school of hard knocks, have solid business experience, and have phenomenal people skills--in addition to formal training. If folks are focused on easy dough rather than results, they will be found out and ridden out of town (I hope). Kay Stepp is as successful as she is because she provides insights from her accumulated knowledge and experience, not textbooks and practicums.

Susan B. Wilson, M.B.A.
Owner
Executive Strategies
Newton, Iowa

Update: Battery Replacement

Ken Hawk used to spend his days putting battery customers and manufacturers together electronically (see " The Matchmaker," September 1995), but his coverage in our pages brought forth an ideal match for his own company, then called Power Express. "I got a call from a businessman from Virginia," he recalls, "offering to sell me his 800 number and the trademark to its accompanying company name." The number in question was 1-800-BATTERIES, far more memorable than Hawk's own 1-800-POWER-EX.

The Virginia gentleman, who sells batteries locally, had been saving the 800 number in the event he took his company national. A New York City battery retailer was eager to buy the number, but the Virginian told Hawk that after reading about Power Express, he'd prefer to sell it to him. The two struck a deal after meeting at Comdex in November 1995.

Today Hawk's company, renamed 1-800-BATTERIES, is growing energetically, having relocated from San Jose, Calif., to Reno, Nev., to a 20,000-square-foot space nearly 10 times larger than the space the company occupied when we wrote about it. And Hawk boasts that 1-800-BATTERIES is exceeding the projections he provided in 1995: 1996 revenues were $4.7 million (versus a projected $2.1 million).

"Referrals have increased because it's easier to remember our name," notes Hawk. "What's more, it's impossible to write about us without mentioning our 800 number." -- Alessandra Bianchi

---

Inc. wants to know what you think. Please address all correspondence to Inc. Letters Editor, 38 Commercial Wharf, Boston, MA 02110, or call our editorial-commentary line at 800-238-1756. (Messages will be recorded.) Or, E-mail your letter to editors@inc.com or fax it to 800-335-3348. Include your name, address, and phone number for verification. Letters must be signed, and all correspondence may be edited for space and style. For help with subscription problems, call 800-234-0999.