Jay's 3 legged stool

[Greg Gomon]

Really found Jay's commentary in PFM this month extremely enlightening. Sometimes reminding me of a business metaphore brings everything into perspective. Business really is a 3 legged stool. And if you aren't adapt at each or fail to recognize your weakness(es) and compensate for it, you are destined to fail. I think it is healthy to assume as a small business person we can't possibly be adapt at all three. The key is to 1.ask for help or seek out those more capable in the area we are weakest and 2.to listen to them, and 3. act on their suggestions. In years past we have been very agressive with marketing and daily practice proactive customer service, but our weak area was the finance leg. I hate to borrow money so I decided to attack the money issue from a few angles instead of relying on just one. We established a line-of-credit as a cushion, put an Imac computer at the front counter for pricing, and gave ourselves a healthy raise. All this was fully functional February 1st. We haven't looked back except to say, "we should have done this along time ago." Realize, we did all this about the time all the economic forecasts were predicting a recession, the stock market was/is bloodied, the real estate market is soft, the "California Energy Crisis", brainless Republican Administration etc...(the list is endless). We decided to follow Jay's lead and not participate in this "recession". As I look back on the past 6 months, I am extremely thankful to have made these decisions and acted on them. If we had maintained the status quo, our finance leg may have buckled under the strain.
We didn't do anything revolutionary, we just took a small leap of faith and finally acted on the advice of those in our industry who are "making it." Thanks again to Jay and the cadre of caring Professional Picture Framers.

P.S. we aren't sitting on our laurels, but are agressively strengthening the other legs.
Recession? What recession?

 

[Bob Carter]

I, too, enjoy Jay's column. You can't argue with measured success. But I was even more tickled that to see the Three Legged Stool analogy again ( See LJ Prices, May 30). It's very flattering to see someone of Jay's status and I agree on this principle.

By the way, you can use the same analogy on many other components. It just highlights the need for integration of ideas and how the blending of the components creates a stronger dynamic.

With due reference to AL, I'm still giving authorship to this concept to my daddy (especially right before Father's Day)