The Alpha Dogs Blog

While I'm working on my new book, Upstarts! How the Entrepreneurial Generation is Rocking the World of Business, I'll be posting regularly on my new Inc.com blog, The Entrepreneurial Generation. Check it out!

It's official! I now have a contract from McGraw-Hill (new publisher for me, but the same fabulous editor) to write a book about young entrepreneurs.So far, I've interviewed almost 100 people under the age of 30 who have started their own companies and have achieved an impressive measure of success. Soon, I'll need to tear myself away from the research stage and start putting it all together. This is what I hope will emerge: a protrait of the most entrpreneurial generation in our country's history and how their generation-specific methods of starting and growing companies can inspire and instruct not only their peers, but everyone who aspires to entrepeneurial successs. Throughout the process, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject and, of course, I'd welcome introductions to anyone who might provide great material for the book.

Labels: entrepreneurship, Generation Y

I'm still collecting string on young entrepreneurs and just recently had the pleasure of working with the Inc.com staff on their annual "30 Under 30" feature. We unearthed and profiled some incredibly creative and dynamic young entrepreneurs: Sam Altman, the CEO of Loopt developed GPS sotware for cell phones; former college basketball star Kathryn Kerrigan sells gorgeous shoes to tall women; Ben Kaufman is transforming his iPod accessories company, Mophie, into a community-base product development company; and Bo Menkiti sells real estate to the underserved urban middle market. You can meet all 30 at Inc.com and you can read my introduction to the package here.

Alpha Dogs is now out in paperback! It’s been almost 18 months since the book was first published, and I’m more convinced than ever that I chose a fabulous group of companies to write about. A few updates:
 Zane’s Cycles is now a $9.5 million company (up from $6.1 million when I wrote the book) and Chris continues to make amazing headway in the special markets industry.
 Dorothy Lane Markets hit $72 million (up from $60 million), and managed that revenue growth without adding employees!
 Deb Weidenhamer grew Auction Systems to an amazing $29.8 million (up from $11.5 million) and the company just made the Inner City 100 list for the sixth time.
 Amy and Steve Simmons (Amy’ Ice Creams) launched Phil’s Ice House, an incredible burger joint, and posted $1 million their first year.
 Trish Karter’s Dancing Deer Baking Co. is now up to $7.6 million (compared to $4.8 million when I wrote the book).
 Mike Schwartz of Mike’s Famous Harley Davidson bought a Chrysler-Dodge dealership and has continued to grow his company to a whopping $90 million (up from $47.8).

I’m so proud of them all and thrilled to have them in my “pack”!

Are young entrepreneurs really so different from their more mature counterparts? Yep, folks, they are! It’s something I’ve been taking note of over the past several months and a new survey by OPEN, the small business division of American Express, confirms what has been gradually seeping into my aging Baby Boomer brain: the businesses that people in their 20s are starting now look very different from the ones I’ve been covering for the past twenty years. And no, it’s not all about technology – it’s about attitude and strategy. 72% of Generation Y entrepreneurs (age 18-29) say they like to take risks, compared to just 53% of Baby Boomer entrepreneurs; and 59% of Gen Y says they plan to be serial entrepreneurs (that jumps to 67% for men!) while only 33% of baby boomers said they plan to own more than one business. Those characteristics have a tremendous impact on how people start and grow their companies, and how those companies look. It’s something I’ll be examining closely over the next few months and I’d welcome your observations. What exactly is the DNA of the Generation Y Alpha Dog? Stay tuned! In the meantime, you can read more about the OPEN/Amex survey here

Kudos to Alpha Dogs pal Traci Fenton, founder of WorldBlu, a Washington, DC-based organization that promotes and celebrates workplace democracy. Using a proprietary scorecard developed over the course of ten years, Traci has created the world's first list of Most Democratic Workplaces, which she released today. Here's the best part: included on the list of 34 companies is Trish Karter's company, Dancing Deer, one of our nearest and dearest Alpha Dogs! There were a few other companies on the list that we know and love: Zingermans, Motek, Linden Lab, SRC Holdings, and Rite Solutions. Congratulations to all of them and especially to Traci, who is on to something very big!

Yesterday, the House approved a $2.10 increase in the federal minimum wage - a move that has many small business owners fretting. My own opinion: it's been nine years since the last increase, folks, and it's about time we gave low-wage workers a raise. As for the argument that raising the minimum wage will put the squeeze on small businesses, I just don't buy it. Take a look at today's New York Times where there's a front page story that talks about Washington state's high minimum wage ($7.93) and how business owners feared its negative impact. As it turns out, higher wages had a positive effect on businesses since better pay frequently results in better retention and more highly engaged employees, which in turn fosters better service and customer loyalty. Sure, businesses often need to raise prices to finance higher wages but guess what? Consumers have more tolerance to price hikes than you think they do, particularly if you're giving them other reasons to do business with you. So I'm rooting for Senate approval, and while I'm hoping that small businesses also get some tax breaks in this bill, my support of the minimum wage increase is unequivocal. What about you?

Please join me on Wednesday, December 20 at 12 pm EST, when I'll be the guest speaker on the Microsoft Office Live seminar series. Just click on the link to register and, from the comfort of your desk (wearing your fuzzy slippers, if you like), you can listen to me talk about Alpha Dogs, participate interactively, ask questions, and see some cool pics of the people in my book (no charts and graphs, I promise). Susan Solovic of SBTV will be the host, so I'm looking forward to a lively conversation. Come join us! P.S. If the time is inconvenient for you, you can always access the presentation via the site's archives.

Three cheers for The Nobel Committee for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus, the Bagladeshi economist who founded the Grameen Bank. Grameen makes small loans (the average is $130) to rural Bangladeshis, most of them women, who use the funds to start their own small enterprises. Yunus has an ambitious mission: to end world poverty by helping the poorest of the poor improve their lives by creating sustainable businesses. So here's to Yunus for his grand vision, and here's to The Nobel Committee for recognizing that peace is intricately related to economic independence!

I want everyone to check out a great new small business resource: www.work.com. It's a site that features How-To Guides on everything from Managing Customer Relationships (written by yours truly) to Choosing the Right Domain Name. The guides (there are over 1,000 of them) leverage the knowledge of business experts experts in virutually every discipline. Users can comment on guides and even create their own guides. I'm the community leader of the management channel, so come visit and tell me what you think!

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the New York Times Small Business Summit – a conference that’s only in its second year, but that nonetheless attracts more than its fair share of small business luminaries. It was organized by small business guru, Jane Applegate, who managed to book 1-800-Flowers CEO Jim McCann as the keynote speaker. What a treat! Jim owned 14 flower shops in New York City before he acquired the 1-800-Flowers number in 1986, then moved his business onto the Web in 1995. He was kind enough to speak to me today about a story I’m working on for Inc. Magazine, and I was struck once again by his wisdom and his humility. “The best business ideas are already invented,” he told me. More often than not, for small business owners that means “stealing great ideas and adapting them to fit your business.” Jim got the idea for his own “Fresh Rewards” loyalty program from a donut. “I was at Duncan Donuts and I got a card that said buy nine donuts and the tenth one is on us,” he recalls. He tweaked the concept for his own business, giving customers a powerful incentive to keep coming back. Have you ever “stolen” a great idea? Let’s hear about it!

Last week severe storms hit St. Louis, MO knocking out power for more than 500,000 people including thousands of small businesses. My company, SBTV.com, (www.sbtv.com) was one of many that had to shut down operations for several days. And while this was disruptive for us, it did not have the impact it had on other companies who depend on daily business transactions. For example, one of my good friends owns a hair salon. No power meant no business which meant a significant loss of revenue. The same is true for restauranteurs whose doors were closed for four to five days. Of course, the situation in St. Louis is nothing compared to what business owners in the Gulf States have experienced. But think about what you would do if your business had to shut down for a few days. Would you be prepared to deal with it? I simply ask you to take a moment and think about it.

Hi, everyone,

One of the new things I've been up to for the past several years is co-owning and entirely managing a commercial building (9 tenants) in Santa Cruz, CA: everybody from Urban Outfitters to a 9-screen cineplex (another big national), to Peet's Coffee, to some local favorites, including a restaurant and medical clinic. This is a small family business that we've owned for some time, but have only managed for the last 3 years. Yesterday, May 1st, it was quiet, quiet, quiet there. The restaurant opened for drinks and appetizers only, and street traffic was light as I've ever seen it.

I loved the comment about execution. Not only is execution strategy, it's everything! That, and a kind word, and answering the phone in the middle of the night because a tenant has a problem...well, Woody Allen was right: 80% of success IS showing up.

Because today is "A Day Without Immigrants" and because my 16-year daughter, who I constantly encourage to "get political" is now nagging me to do the same (ah, we reap what we sow!), I thought I'd post some thoughts on the subject. A few weeks ago, I read an editorial in The Washington Post called "A National Built on Immigrant Genes," by John D. Gartner, an assistant professor of psychology at John Hopkins University Medical School and author of "The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (a Little) Craziness and (a Lot of) Success in America." As someone who is both passionate about entrepreneurship and who is the granddaughter of Polish immigrants, what Gartner had to say really resonated with me. "The secret to America's wealth is that we were settled by restless, driven, overconfident, risk-taking dreamers," he says. And then he goes on to site a study by The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor that puts some meat on the bones: The four countries with the highest per capita creation of start-up companies -- the United States, Canada, Israel, and Australia -- also happen to be nations of immigrants. Coincidence? I don't think so. Consider that in the 90s, the total number of U.S. businesses grew by 12% but the number of Hispanic-owned business grew by 144% and the number of Asian-owned businesses grew by 176%. So before we close the borders, let's remember that the immigrants we let in today may begin their working lives in America by performing manual labor, just like so may of our grandparents did, but that their courage, tolerance for risk, and work ethic is the foundation for the next generation of entrepreneurial companies.

Recently my industry has been faced with some possible government regulation that would prove to slow down our operation and create a revenue stream for the local municipality. We are currently priming for a fight with our city officials and just wonder if others have been impacted by local regulation and any effective means you have found in fighting the same.

- Deb

I just returned from Bellingham, WA where I had the privilege of speaking at the Sustainable Connections 3rd Annual Spring Business Conference. Sustainable Connections is an alliance of more than 500 businesses in Northwest Washington whose goal is "sustainable business practices that lead to a healthy environment, meaningful employment, strong communities and buying local first as commonplace in our region and a model for the rest of the world." Lofty stuff! But the group's programs are so effective that many of them have been replicated nationwide through its affiliation with BALLE (Business Alliance for a Living Economy), a national network of small business alliances. And what amazing CEOs I met! Here are just a few: Atul Deshmane, who has a biodiesel company called Whole Energy BioDiesel Fuels; Trudy and Joe Scherting of Moka Joe (great coffee!); Greg Aanes, who makes stunning furniture; Rud Browne whose company, Ryzex, is involved in recycling handheld electronic devices; Pete Nelson of Bellingham Business EView; and Inc. 500 CEO Anne Marie Faiola, whose company, Bramble Berry, sells soap making supplies. Last of all, I was honored to share the podium with Zingerman's honcho Paul Saginaw, who opened the conference by telling us all about the incredible company he founded with Ari Weinzweig. Zingerman's started out as a humble deli in Ann Arbor, MI and is now a $28 million company with 450 employees, 15 partners and seven businesses! If Inc. magazine pal Bo Burlingham hadn't claimed the company for his new book, Small Giants, Zingerman's would have been an Alpha Dog company, for sure. In fact, Paul and Ari, consider yourselves honorary Alpha dogs!

Props to Alpha Dog Norman Manye, CEO of Dorothy Lane Market, who was the subject of Keith McFarland's column on BusinessWeek online today! Keith, who is now working on his own book, wrote about Norman's incredible commitment to hiring, training, and promoting great employees. Thanks to Keith for helping get the word out about a great company and one of my all time favorite CEOs!
Speaking of favorite CEOs, Alpha Dogs great friend, Jack Mitchell, CEO of Mitchells and Richards, hosted a lovely party for us last night at Richards in Greenwich. Chris Zane donated a Trek bicycle that we raffled off and Trish Karter sent us some delicious cookies. But what we liked best of all was meeting some of Jack's employees, some of whom had been with the company for 40 years! Mitchell's is a family-owed business, with the third generation preparing to take the helm. In a company like that, it's often tough to properly prepare the next generation for leadership and foster loyalty and a sense of emotional ownership among non-family employees at the same time. But Jack has done exactly that. It's why he was my nominee for Inc. magazine's "26 Most Fascinating Entrpreneurs" list last year.
Let's hear more about what others do to "get the right people on the bus" and keep them there!

Hi Alpha Dogs and Alpha Dog Lovers: In the name of authencity, here I am, happy to be invited into this ongoing dialogue with y'all. And thanks, Donna, for linking everyone together, a much needed service in this day and age of fragmentation, isolation, and way too much competition. 1+1=11. We're all in this together. Hey, how about a national "Bring Your Alpha Dog Book to Work Day"?

The most common question that people ask me about Alpha Dogs is "what do all of the companies in the book have in common?" I've been thinking about that a lot lately, and I'm consistently drawn back to something very flattering that George Gendron wrote in his foreword: "Alpha Dogs has that alluring quality that's just so damned scarce these days: authenticity." If the book is authentic, it's because every company in it is also authentic -- that's one of their most important shared qualities. So what is an authentic company? It's a company that lives by its values, that keeps the promises it makes to its employees, its customers, its vendors, and its partners, and that looks the same whether you are on the inside looking out, or on the outside looking in. Some examples: the incredible guarantees that Chris Zane makes and keeps to Zane's Cycles customers, even when it's expensive and difficult to do so; the commitment that Trish Karter makes to putting only all natural ingredients in Dancing Deer's baked goods, even when compromising could result in huge revenue increases; the promise that Norman Mayne makes to sharing information with Dorothy Lane's employees in good times and bad. Being authentic isn't always convenient, but I think it's something that the American public recognizes and appreciates more and more.

For more than twenty years, I've been writing about entrepreneurs and small business trends, and I've had the privilege of visiting hundreds of small companies. While I'm occasionally wowed by a cool new product or service, my real passion is what I call ordinary, or "real world", businesses - the kinds of companies you'll find in virtually every big city or small town in America. That's what inspired me to write Alpha Dogs: How Your Small Business Can Become a Leader of the Pack (Collins, Dec. 2005).

What does it take for these businesses to achieve spectacular success? How do they become Alpha Dogs, moving far ahead of their competitors to become leaders of the pack?

Here's a hint: their genius lies not in what they do, but in how they do it. And because they're so focused on strategy and on differentiating themselves in the marketplace through superior execution, I think the lessons they can impart both to other small companies, and to much larger ones, are priceless.

Join in and get feedback from the Alpha Dogs. Enjoy!