Maurilio Amorim

Category: business

  • Are We Working too Hard?

    “If you work too much you make yourself and your boss look bad.” That is certain not the American way! Recently I spoke with a friend whom works for an European-owned publishing company. It has taken him a while to acclimate to their working environment where more work hours doesn’t mean more credit from your supervisors.

    My friend was gently reminded that he was working too much, and, therefore, making his boss look bad. What?! Yes. According to the company’s thinking, if you’re working past 5 p.m. or before 9 a.m., you’re not being effective and not managing your time well. If you work too much your productivity drops and your work quality suffers. According to the French, you make yourself and your supervisor look bad–effectiveness before busy work.

    And, by the way, they close their offices from December 23 until January 2nd and that’s doesn’t count toward the month’s vacation you must take during the summer. Oh, yes, I almost forgot this one: in the next few weeks they’ll be closing the offices at noon on Fridays. I’m thinking about applying for a job there. The Immigrant I work for is definitely not French.

    All right, I think I’ve said enough. What’s your take on the American work ethic? I’ve subscribed to being the first in and the last out because that’s the way you get ahead, right?

  • The Business Generosity Principle

    “Why are you being so generous with a total stranger?” asked the young entrepreneur sitting next to me on a recent flight. Once he found out I owned a similar business, his questions became very strategic and somewhat personal. After spending the best part of two hours giving him an “MBA” crash course, as the business man on the other side labeled our exchange, I gave him my information in case he had more questions. He was bewildered with my apparent generosity in sharing some of my businesses practices and lessons. The big question was still looming: why would I share business practices with a potential competitor?

    coaching mentoring business

    My response was simple but not simplistic. In all my years, I always receive more in return than I give away. It doesn’t mean I’m ready to give valuable consulting for free or undercharge for my company’s services. But every time I have felt compelled to help someone who seemingly did not have a way to reciprocate, I have been blessed for it.

    It’s counter intuitive, specially in the business world, and counter cultural, but it has somehow worked for me.

    From time to time we are all faced with an opportunity to share, mentor, bless someone who needs our help. If you’re like me, you’re already over committed and the last thing you need is spend time with someone new that might not have a way to ever repay your generosity.  I want to ask you to consider pouring some of your time, knowledge and even resources into that person. I believe you’ll be better off for it. I really do.

    What’s your experience with those in your field that are ahead of where you are?

     

  • Beating the Start Up Odds: The A Group Turns 10

    According to the statistics from the Department of Labor and Commerce my business was not supposed to last this long. This month, The A Group turns 10 years old. Only 29 out of 100 new businesses that started 10 years ago are still in business today. Not only we are still open for business, we are having our best year yet both in revenues as well as in the quality of work we produce. While there’s no miracle formula, there are a few things we got right from the beginning that allowed us to still be here today.

    10th anniversary The A Group Beating the Odds While I credit God with all that’s good in my life, including my business, I also know that God often gets blamed for poor decisions and misguided business practices of businesses that fail. There are a lot of factors that dictate the success or failure of any given business, some of them completely out of our control. However, there are a few critical things we got right over the past 10 years.

    Passion for the work. For me and my entire team, money is often a distant secondary motivation. Yes, we want to do well, but we all love what we do and want it to be the best product it can be. Our entire team, account managers, programmers, and creatives, cares about what we do and want to see our clients succeed. We believe what we do truly matters.

    No short cuts. The only thing we have at the end of the day is our integrity. Being trustworthy, delivering what we promise and doing business with integrity is not easy but it’s always the only way to go. If you cut too many corners, your entire organization will crumble. It’s just a matter of time.

    The team matters. Nothing has had a greater impact on my business than those whom I hired. Poor hires have cost a lot of money and equity with our clients. Great hires have returned way beyond the resources invested in them. Best hiring advice I’ve ever had: hire slow, fire fast.

    Adapt. Adapt. Adapt. In my professional world, communication and technology, the operative word is change. The pace of change has accelerated exponentially in the past decade we’ve been in business.  Asking “what do we have to do to continue to serve our clients?” is a much better question than “what do we have to do to sell more of our product.”

    Cash is king. If you learn to manage your cash flow, especially during the fat days, you’ll have a better chance to make it through the lean times. The problem with too much debt is that it forces you to focus on making money and not on delivering the best product or finding your best clients. Excessive debt squeezes the fun, creativity and growth out of an otherwise good business. Sometimes the allure of debt-for-fast growth can kill a good thing.

    What survival lessons have you learned in your business?

     

  • Uniqlo: A Lesson on Brand, Retail and Business Strategy

    This past weekend I happened upon Uniqlo on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. I must confess, I didn’t know anything about the brand, but after shopping in its brand new 90,000 square foot flagship store, I have become a fan. I’m enthusiastic not because I like their clothing, which I do, but because in a time where retailers are struggling to “make it,” Uniqlo seems to have figured out what we want.

    Uniqlo Manhattan store

    The best way I can explain the brand is by saying that Uniqlo is for clothing what Ikea is for furniture, but with better quality stuff. Uniqlo started in Japan and was once a men’s clothing store. Now it’s making a play as a global brand. Here’s what I think these guys have gotten right from a branding, marketing and business model.

    Uniqlo Manhattan Store
    3 Floors, 90,000 ft on 5th Avenue. The largest single retailer NYC has ever had.

    They design and produce their own clothing line. They are not competing with everyone else for the same product line or having their buyers buy the same stuff everyone else is getting.

    They aimed their design to the fashion forward but rooted in practical living. I saw people in their 20’s all the way to late 60’s shopping at the store. The décor is modern but there’s something there for everyone. After all a crew neck sweater or a great pair of jeans knows no gender or age group.

    They did not skimp on quality. Most of the items I saw were of good materials and excellent workmanship. I visited some designer stores with much more expensive merchandize that looked cheap even before I touched them.

    They made shopping both fun and high-end experience.  This is not your bargain basement store with crowed racks you have to sift to find something you would wear. As you enter the store, someone hands you a large mesh shopping bag with a smile. “I don’t need one. I’m not buying anything.” Wrong. That’s before I saw the cashmere v-neck sweaters in 12 different colors for $39. And their amazingly well-cut, Japanese engineered jeans on sale for $9. Yes, that’s 9 American dollars! It’s less than what I paid for a hamburger at my hotel. Not all items were this reasonably priced, but the sheer options of sizes and colors combined with good prices and the store’s brilliant modern design got to me. Soon I had my basket filled.

    Uniqlo Manhattan
    The lit stairs changed colors all the time.

    Economically challenging times create openings for entrepreneurs who are able to see opportunities where most only see problems. Uniqlo is betting that in a depressed global market, people still want to buy fashionable clothing, at reasonable prices in an atmosphere that says high design and fun instead of a utilitarian warehouse lit by noise fluorescent lights.  Who wouldn’t? By the crowds I saw shopping there, I think we’ll be seeing more stores opening in the US. I hope Nashville gets one soon.

     Think about what you do. In our current economic climate, has your business or ministry figured out what people want or need?

  • My Bad Parking Lot Experience: Why First Impressions Matter

    It’s hard to overcome a negative first impression. Your first gut reaction about a church, a business or even a person,  will determine how you feel about that institution or individual for a long time.  A while back I visited a well-known, fast growing congregation in Florida. I was not doing a secret shopper visit or a communication audit (some might find it shocking that I attend church without getting paid for), but I felt compelled to share with a staff member some of my impressions, specifically my run in with a parking lot attendant.

    yelling man in parking lot church first impression

    I was cutting it close to get to the church by 8:30 for their first Sunday morning service. As I tried to follow the serpentine of cones that led me around the back of the property and again back to the front, I realized that the cones were not there for the sake of the early crowd, since there were not too many of us. They were put down for the bigger crowds of the 10 a.m. service.

    When I finally found a “first-time-guest” parking spot on the front row, I was happy to park near the door and run in for the beginning of the service. But as I close the doors and began walking away from the car, a parking lot attendant, whom I hope was a overzealous volunteer, yelled from 20 feet away, “hey man, you’ve got to move your car two rows back.”  “Why?” I asked. “Because this row is for first-time visitors only,” he quickly added. “This is my first time,” I rebutted. “You’re ok then,” he replied and turned and walked away.

    A better greeting should have been, “Is this your first time with us?” I would have said, yes and he would have had the opportunity to be the first one to welcome me to the church. Had I said, “no, I’ve been coming here for a while,” he politely could have said, “that’s great, but we reserve these spots for first time guests so they’ll have an easy way to get in on time and hopefully have a great experience today.”

    Instead, I spent the first ten minutes of the service thinking, “that guy yelled at me from across the parking lot and didn’t even say hello.” Ok. Maybe I’m a bit sensitive to these issues, but if you going to serve people, the parking lot is the place where it starts!

    What’s your experience vising a new church or business? How was your parking lot experience?

  • 3 Reasons to Fire a Client

    Sometimes you have to fire your clients. That sounds almost wrong until you give it some thought. Early in entrepreneurial career, I would say “yes” to anyone willing to hire me. The reasoning was simple: I needed to eat and someone was willing to pay for what I had to offer. However, over the years I have lost a lot of money and opportunity courting and working with clients who were not strategically a good fit for my company. Until I realized the true cost of working outside my sweet spot, I continually jumped on every opportunity that came my way.

    What I did not understand for a long time is that for every less-than-ideal client or project we pursued as a business and took on, we gave up the ability to find and work on the projects that were the most enjoyable, most profitable and, therefore, most successful. The allure of the sale-at-any-cost mindset actually cost us business and kept us from growing faster and stronger.

    This frustration led us to develop the critical 3 P’s that we evaluate every ongoing and new opportunity that comes our way.

    Profit
    Some projects (even clients) are not profitable. In my experience the smaller the client, the more demanding and unprofitable they are. You usually spend the same amount of time and effort with less drama and more enjoyment on a larger project that’s much more lucrative. The best thing you can do for your business is fire unprofitable clients.

    Partnership
    It is important for us to be a partner and not just a vendor.  A true partnership is critical during large, complex or ambitious projects. It implies a trust between two parties and if we feel we don’t have that report going in, we usually don’t take the job. Some of our most successful projects have been true collaborations where there was a healthy give and take that made the final product the best it could be.

    Potential
    Not all of our clients are large. Some are small but with the right tools and guidance they  have the potential to grow and become very profitable for us. We love finding partnerships that have lots of potential and helping them grow. I rather partner with a client that has potential than with a large-budget client that’s not completely sold on the partnership. Enthusiasm infuses a lot of creative energy into any project.

    Have you ever fired a client in your line of work? What happened?

  • Text Messaging and Your Business

    Nothing has had a greater impact on how I do business than text messaging. Not long ago, I was on a conference call with someone in Texas, someone in Sao Paulo, Brazil and I was in a car driving through New York City. The conversation sounded clear in spite of the thousands of miles and time zones separating us. However, I believe nothing has revolutionized more the face of business in the last decade since the proliferation of email than text messaging.

    texting text messaging and your business

    Just a few years ago, text messaging was seeing as an annoyance designed for teens and not a serious tool for business professionals. But lately, I have seen a major shift in how my busiest clients want to communicate. Some, if not most, of my clients fit into the type A, let’s-get’em-done category. They value getting quickly to the bottom line. They prefer the succinct, and yet effective nature of the text message. I find myself texting more and emailing less. Most of my texts are couple of sentences, and I’m amazed of how much I’m able to communicate. Busy people love getting to the point without a lot of fuss.

    Gone is the need for “how are you today,” and “I hope you had a great weekend, blah, blah, blah.” Welcome to, “visuals look great. Need another option without logo.” I also know that a text is instantly delivered to the recipient, and I don’t have to worry about waiting until he checks his inbox or sits at a terminal to get my message.

    I’m not advocating that all communication should be this short, but text messaging forces us to get to the heart of the matter and be intentional in each word we use. After all, we only get a few (unless you’re the type who’s compelled to send out 8 text messages in a row on one subject. Yes, you know who you are). Even if I don’t abbreviate words, which I try not to do, texting helps me to say a lot quickly.

    As a matter of fact, I’m considering posting this blog in text-messaging format from now on. How would I compose this entire post on my phone? I guess it would be something like,

    “texting forces us to be intentional and focused. Goodbye verbosity.”

    How have your text messages change the way you do business?

     

     

  • The Opportunity During Tough Times

    We fear that Wall Street is still spiraling out of control, our economic system might in total chaos and the sky  might be falling as well. While I find myself very concerned about our financial future, there’s something about a shake down in the way we do business that excites me. In my experience, difficult times for the business-as-usual approach always opens up new opportunities for creative, nimble and entrepreneurial organizations or individuals to find a break that fat, entrenched and risk-averse big business cannot or will not pursue.

    I started The A Group in November of 2001, a few weeks after 9/11. Most people thought I was crazy because of the overall fear and paralysis in the marketplace. “Boy, I hope you’ll be ok; these are difficult times,” I heard over and over during the early days. And they did represented the reality of the day. People were looking around waiting to see what the tragedy really meant for our economy, our businesses and the future of our lifestyles.

    But while everyone waited for the proverbial “what’s next,” I was able to negotiate a great rate on an office space lease. Due to the overall fear in commercial real estate at the time, my landlord was willing to accept less money for the space as well as take a risk on an unproven, immigrant-owned, start up since his other prospects were suddenly gone.

    During that time the work force also swelled up since hiring slowed down tremendously. I was able to cherry-pick our first “Groupers” [a Grouper is a member of The A Group team and, no, they are not fishy] at reasonable salaries. I was also able to secure great payment terms with our strategic vendors as well since they were eager to land new accounts.

    The opportunity during tough times

    While every crisis brings different challenges, I’m certain the challenges we face today will create new opportunities and exciting new businesses, products and ministries will be introduced by those who can quickly adjust to a new reality. If you’re able to look past what you might be losing and see how you can potentially gain, you could win big.

    In days like these, I think about the story I heard a few years ago where two shoe salesmen during the turn of the century were sent to Africa to open this new territory for a large shoe manufacturer. Not long after their arrival the home office received telegrams from both men. One said “Bad news. No market here. People don’t wear shoes. Coming home,” while the other read “Amazing opportunity. No one has shoes yet. Send more people.”

    I know I can’t do anything about the state of the current economy or how our government reacts or doesn’t to our nation’s challenges, but I can look beyond them and find out what hole will be left in wake of this storm for the nimble, creative and entrepreneurial guy to fill. Maybe my telegram back to headquarters will read something like: “Times are tough. Everyone needs our help. Great opportunity. Let’s expand”

    What opportunities do you see right now?

  • 5 Reasons Your Business or Ministry Might Not Succeed

    Your dream venture might never happen not because it’s not a good idea or it’s not needed, but because it might be under resourced.  Entrepreneurs in their zeal to get their dreams birthed usually shortchange the true cost of what it takes to create a sustainable business. Here’s some of the most common mistakes:

    Small Business ministry Failure

    You don’t pay yourself enough. In order to get the business going, entrepreneurs will often pay themselves very little or nothing at all. That’s not a sustainable model. If the business cannot pay you a decent wage in a short period of time, then rethink your model altogether.

    Your financials, income/expense projections are unrealistic. I was guilty of this for years. Being optimistic, I have always projected high on the income, and being very frugal, I default to thinking things cost a lot less than they actually do. Unrealistic targets can put too much stress on a new venture. If you are new at this, find someone whom you can trust with business questions and have that person check your assumptions. Assume the best case scenario but be prepared for the worst.

    You don’t have enough margins for error. Some ventures feel like the Apollo 11 mission to the moon: in order for it to survive everything has to go just right. That’s seldom the way things go. Contingency = good business.

    You don’t understand sales and marketing. A great service business, non profit, or product that no one knows about will put you out of business. A mediocre product in the hands of a great sales and marketing person or team has a much better chance to make it than something great without a champion to sell it.  And that’s even more true when it comes to churches and not for profits.

    You don’t have the right people around you. I have seen men and women with great vision, passion and talent whose dreams have never materialized because they did not have the right team, whether paid, volunteer or even advisory,  to pull it off. I wrote more about it here. The right people is critical to making it happen.

    Have you ever thought of starting your own business?

  • When is Your Project Ready for Launch?

    Whether you are ready to launch a new website, program, software, retail store, new product or even a new church campus, you need to know when it’s ready–not halfway and not overdone, but ready. I have coined a term for what the perfect launch stage, I call it “critical mass.”

    ready to lauch set go

    When launching something new, our tendency is to err on two opposite sides: too much or too little. Too much, or sometimes called “overkill,” can delay a project launch date, increase the budget and make it cumbersome and difficult to understand or navigate. I remember working on a software project that started out as a simple idea to solve a straight forward problem. During development it grew and by the time it finally launched, late and over budget, it was bloated and difficult to learn. Sadly, the extra features that cost the most and delayed the project were not as important to the users as the developers thought.

    Launching with “too little” is no fun either. If it’s not complete or finished enough to meet the need you set out to meet, then people will be disappointed. I remember visiting a retailer’s grand opening. I was surprised that the selves were half empty and they didn’t have any of the things I was looking for. “Come back next week, we should have a lot more stuff then.” Really?! Why didn’t you wait and opened the store with all your merchandize? Needless to say, I didn’t go back. They are no longer in business.

    So what’s the right balance? That’s the question on every project, or product manager or leader.  While it might be different in each case, here’s what it absolutely must do in order to survive:

     It must solve the problem it was created to solve, and do it well. Whether it’s software, product or a facility, it must do the very basic thing it needs to do in a way that grabs people and pulls them in. “This works great. I can’t wait to see what comes next.” Part of this is knowing the problem, how to solve, the audience and staying resolute on the scope. Trust me, this is hard said than done. Scope creep can slow you down, trigger-happy bosses can cause you to go out with less than you need. Remember you need critical mass, just the right amount of features, inventory, products, seats to make it work. For that to happen you better know the problem and your audience very well.

    Have you ever been part of a launch that was either premature or overdone? What happened?