The Profit Prophet

This is a sad tale of technology that I hope you will enjoy? An unemployed man is desperate to support his family of a wife and three kids. He applies for a janitor's job at a large firm and easily passes an aptitude test. The human resources manager tells him, "You will be hired at minimum wage of $5.35 an hour. Let me have your e-mail address so that we can get you in the loop. Our system will automatically e-mail you all the forms and advise you when to start and where to report on your first day." Taken aback, the man protests that he is poor and has neither a computer nor an e-mail address. To this the manager replies, "You must understand that to a company like ours, that means that you virtually do not exist.. Without an e-mail address you can hardly expect to be employed by a high-tech firm. Good day." Stunned, the man leaves. Not knowing where to turn and having $10 in his wallet, he walks past a farmers' market and sees a stand selling 25 lb. ...

With times being so tough, most companies feel that the only way to attract new customers is to lower their pricing. While doing so in some cases will generate a short burst of activity and increased revenues, as a standard, long term course of action, it is not a wise thing to do . The first reason why it is not a good idea to lower your prices is that your associated costs have not been lowered, and in order to make the same amount of profit, you have to sell a higher percentage of product just to stay even. A case in point, if you lower your prices by 20%, you need to increase your sales volume by 25%. If you reduce your prices by 30%, then you need a correspondent increase in sales VOLUME of 42%; a 40% discount needs a 67% increase in sales. I think you see where this is going. Unless there is a huge amount of elasticity in your pricing (where volume increases appreciably more with a price reduction), that without corresponding lowering of your costs, a reduction in price is ...

Having to do a job search under any circumstance is absolutely no fun. Sending out your resume again and again over the internet onto job sites populated by thousands of people just like you is draining at best and a total waste of time at worst. How many times have you rewritten your resume in the hopes of landing one or two interviews for the hundreds of job openings you find? Every day your self esteem is being destroyed by a process you have absolutely no control over. Would it not be better to try and create something of value and where you are directly benefiting from the effort, skills and talents you put into it? Seize the Day As a talented or skilled professional, searching for a job is actually a very shortsighted endeavor. We are all aware that gone are the days when people worked at the same company for twenty to thirty years and retired with a pension large enough to sustain a comfortable retirement lifestyle. Since the mid-1980s, most professionals have cha...

This video piece features the late great Bob Hope (maybe one of the best comedians ever). The delivery is spot on, and it is amazing how things that come around go around. For some, this piece of political humor is just as relevant today as it was 50 years ago, and for the others, well sorry if it offends. Sometimes, the truth hurts (wink, wink). In any case, I hope to all there is a chuckle! Warmly, The Profit Prophet.

This piece maybe a little sexist so to all my powerful female friends forgive me; but for most guys out there this is unfortunately true! Some things woman are just better at than men. Enjoy and I hope it brings out a smile! I sent this out as part of my weekly email mailing, and many suggested that I add it to this blog. Dan was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the family business. When he found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he decided he needed a wife with which to share his fortune. One evening at an investment meeting he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her natural beauty took his breath away. 'I may look like just an ordinary man,' he said to her, but in just a few years, my father will die, and I'll inherit $65 million.' Impressed, the woman obtained his business card and three days later, she became his stepmother. Women are so much better at financial planning than men.

As I go from network meeting to network meeting during these very uncertain times, I notice two types of people. One type is hoping, praying, and desperately searching for a job. The other type is looking to start a new endeavor or more precisely create their “own” job. As I have been fortunate to be associated with a number of successful entrepreneurs and some successful start up endeavors, one theme keeps recurring: Entrepreneurs are the closest thing to God on Earth! Why? Well, as the story goes, God said “Let there be Light!” In small words, God had a thought, and that thought manifested itself into reality. Essentially, God created something that was not there earlier. So too, an Entrepreneur has an idea and then goes about creating a product, service, company, system or whatever. Essentially, there was nothing and then “poof” there is something! I believe that my background as an engineer, entrepreneur and American it is my duty to create new ideas, companies, jobs, p...

I was watching the movie "Dune", by Frank Herbert the other day and there is a very famous line known as the Litany against Fear that goes like this: “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." The reason why this is so important is that most people do not make the right decisions about thier careers or companies MOSTLY out of fear. They are afraid of being wrong, of failure and rejection, or making themselves better, of growing, or of the unknown, or of having to start over, or of really getting the success they deserve. Right now the Economy is in the grips of FEAR. Companies are afraid to hire employees, make purchases, create new products, start new ventures. Governments are afraid of doing somethi...