Having Imaginary Friends Is Good For Business

Changing Business In A Single Bound

I recently read an article in Forbes Magazine that focused on our education system and its lack of teaching or fostering innovative thinking.  It suggested we are focusing on knowledge but knowledge is not what is needed. 

In the article, Harvard Innovation Education Fellow Tony Wagner states; “Today knowledge is ubiquitous, constantly changing, growing exponentially… Today knowledge is free. It’s like air, it’s like water. It’s become a commodity… There’s no competitive advantage today in knowing more than the person next to you. The world doesn’t care what you know. What the world cares about is what you can do with what you know.”  Read the entire article by clicking here.

I believe that we need to allow children to play by using their imaginations at least a little bit every day.  By doing so, it exercises the imagination “muscle” and that is where the seeds of innovation germinate.  I had an imaginary friend when I was growing up and maybe I need to thank him for helping me be creative enough to find unique solutions to problems that businesses face.

I am not going to offer an opinion on our education system today but the article reinforced my thinking about a common theme recently in my business blogs.  Turning Things On End To Achieve Results!  We need to be different and we need to be able to stand out in the crowd from the rest of our competition.  Some of you have heard the business adage; “If we do what everyone else is doing we are in a low margin business.”  Who wants that?  People will pay for different as long as your version of different is better in some way.  Take some time to read or re-read the following blogs from the past two months and start innovating your business to higher profitability.  Click on the links below:

Peanut Butter And Jelly And Other Great Combinations

Bean Counting And Much More

Pizza And Pi(e) Or Who Moved My Cheese (Pizza)

Have a great week transforming your business while playing in the sand box with your imaginary friend.

2011 New Year’s wishes and…jalopies!

Trash or Treasure

At this time of year it is traditional to do a look back on the past year or a look forward to what the coming year will bring.  I will bore you with none of that nonsense and instead will bore you with a specially brewed batch of nonsense cooked up just for this occasion. 

I thought I would share a particular personal complaint that has become an annoying burr under my saddle.  It may be a surprise to some of you but I do a lot of reading of blogs and message boards of various sorts.  Mostly they are software user groups, alumni association discussions, sports forums, chamber of commerce and industry specific blogs.  The biggest complaint I have is the incorrect use of the English language.  I will be the first to admit that I have my fair share of errors floating around cyberspace.  It is easy to make errors even with spell check (especially if the word you incorrectly spelled is a word).  I am talking about repeatedly using words that sound alike incorrectly in a sentence.  When I say sound “alike” I really don’t mean homonyms such as the words; would and wood.  I mean words that are now casually and lazily pronounced incorrectly to the point that when a phrase that contains such word is written, it is spelled wrong.  And… it ticks me off.

Most of these errors are occurring in arena that once would expect a certain amount of educational attainment.  I will cite two instances and then sign off for the year. 

Instance one:

When expressing regret in making a purchase before getting expert advice someone may correctly use the following sentence:

I should have taken that jalopy to my ace mechanic to look at before buying it.

Many times I have seen the new incorrect English version of this sentence as follows:

I should of taken that jalopy to my ace mechanic to look at before buying it.

Perhaps if the person was smart enough to correctly use “have” he would have also been smart enough to seek counsel with his trusted ace mechanic. 

Instance two:

When expressing the fact that your new car is in superior condition to that of a jalopy you may correctly use the following sentence:

My shiny, new Buick is better than your old rusty jalopy built in 1963.

Many times I have seen the new incorrect English version of this sentence as follows:

My shiny, new Buick is better then your old rusty jalopy built in 1963.

Perhaps if the person was smart enough to correctly use “than” he would have also realized that jalopies from 1963 are turning forty-eight this year and if cared for properly could be turned into a marvelous antique.

As promised, this jalopy is signing off for 2010, see you next year.  Have a great week.

Are you investing – In yourself?

Today’s topic comes from a question I received this week from someone asking my opinion about the value of the CPA credential.  He told me he was interested in pursuing the certification but wanted to know if I felt it was worth doing given his limited “free” time.   I think this is a good question and very relevant as we all are busy making ends meet and meeting demands in our personal life. 

 Below is a summary of the answer I provided:

 If you look at it strictly as cost vs. benefit it will probably be worth it to invest the time.  If you invest 150-200 hours over 15 or 20 weeks to study at a $50/hr “cost” plus the cost of the study materials ( I assume self study) and the exam cost;  I think the payback might be 2 years.

That also assigns no value of having the CPA designation in your title or on your business card – what is that worth? To some it is worth little to some a lot. The CPA designation does increase your value in the market place and will increase your billing rate to clients or your salary from an employer.

I am only guessing 10 hours per week is what you will need to study perhaps you are able to cut that down if you are a fast learner.  If you have the discipline to tough it out for 3-4 months you will reap the benefits for the rest of your career.

Good luck!

 When responding, I could have done a little more research to determine the estimated increase in salary that a CPA earns over a person without the certification.  For this discussion, let’s use $3,000 per year as the premium for being a CPA.  The present value of that over the course of a 20 year career as a CPA would yield a $21,782 return AFTER deducting $10,000 for the present value of investing 200 hours of study at a cost of $50 per hour. (I used a discount rate of 7%) 

 In my opinion, the value of investing in yourself is worth it.  For anyone who is studying for the CPA exam perhaps this will give you that extra incentive to hit the books.  In this case I used a very modest premium of $3,000 per year.  It is estimated that having the CPA certification is worth a 10% premium.   In my response I guessed that the payback would be 2 years.  I would say that using a baseline salary of $60,000 (this was a person with over 10 years of experience) a 10% increase would probably be about right to break even after 2 years.  That may not be instant gratification but it is pretty close to it.

 Whether you are in the skilled trades, the medical profession or anything in between and you want to get ahead or stay ahead of the competition in the workforce – hit the books!  In today’s economy it is good insurance to increase your value.  In addition to the monetary rewards, you will have the satisfaction of bettering yourself.  Good luck to everyone out there studying and trying to improve your skills.

 Have a great week.