The sad death of Steve Jobs has brought to mind some words of one of their marketing gurus or evangelists, Guy Kawasaki.
Guy was pretty clear in stating if you are in business for money you probably won't be successful. However, if you have a purpose in your business you are likely to both make money and be successful, a clever conundrum.
The corporate mission for our PGS machinery group is to supply the best StandUp pouch machines from around the world.
This past month, as we started planning for an endeavor to raise money for future growth of Redi-2-DrinQ ShotPaQ LLC, I was asked by the investor what our mission was? Pausing for a moment, I replied, "Drink differently and have fun moments doing so." He seemed stunned at the reply that had no money making plans.
So let's think for a moment: neither of our mission statements mentions making money or the next sale -- only customer satisfaction objectives.
Pressed for more information by the investor, I reacted by saying we are leaders in what we are doing in a tough, heavily regulated business run for decades by the same families.
The questions never stopped and finally I came up with the summary that seemed to fit:
Our machine group is number 1 in its machine segment in the USA and Redi-2-DrinQ ShotPaQ is number 1 in its market segment and will grow tenfold.
Seems our mission is working. Let me know!
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
Staying on course ...
when all hell breaks loose around you!
Most entrepreneurs like to do things themselves rather than delegate. People skills for entrepreneurs are not very high. Micromanaging the jobs delegated often takes place especially if the job goes wrong. Result, a 24-hour day suddenly becomes 30 hours! Two jobs at once. Yours and a few others because you become fearful that all hell will break loose if you are not involved.
Our PGS machine group have introduced as part of their five year plan new high speed machinery. A quantum leap from 40 to 100 pouches per minute. So the worries start, how are we telling the engineers and customers about this achievement? Do we have enough internet contacts? Will potential customers read about this and suddenly you are involved? To prevent chaos from breaking out the entrepreneur who led the disruptive change in technology has to leave the slog work to the professionals and move on to the next earth shattering event. Tough but that is the truth.
Our Redi-2-DrinQ ShotPaQ™ company is having huge success with 12 states open and another 4 on the way. Welcome South Carolina, Colorado and Connecticut customers. Same problem here for the entrepreneur who designed the successful market plan and is now concerned who is telling the liquor stores, nightclubs, golf clubs, bars and boat clubs that we have 7 types of packaging available? Do the stores know that the BrandPaQ™ has one six pack from each of the 10 products available or that bars can buy a CocktailPaQ™ of 60 loose pouches [15 per cocktails type] for mixing in-house cocktails. Each pouch makes two drinks. Do we use twitter to tell followers that the ShotPak® Hummer is on the way to Texas to a huge weekend party with music and fun girls and guys. The entrepreneur is keen to educate the consumer with the vision of the product and often can't wait for what seems to be forever.
So the advice to entrepreneurs is stay the course and avoid all hell breaking around you as you try to micromanage the professionals you put in place to handle the mundane work. Keep moving forward for the next great idea.
Our PGS machine group have introduced as part of their five year plan new high speed machinery. A quantum leap from 40 to 100 pouches per minute. So the worries start, how are we telling the engineers and customers about this achievement? Do we have enough internet contacts? Will potential customers read about this and suddenly you are involved? To prevent chaos from breaking out the entrepreneur who led the disruptive change in technology has to leave the slog work to the professionals and move on to the next earth shattering event. Tough but that is the truth.
Our Redi-2-DrinQ ShotPaQ™ company is having huge success with 12 states open and another 4 on the way. Welcome South Carolina, Colorado and Connecticut customers. Same problem here for the entrepreneur who designed the successful market plan and is now concerned who is telling the liquor stores, nightclubs, golf clubs, bars and boat clubs that we have 7 types of packaging available? Do the stores know that the BrandPaQ™ has one six pack from each of the 10 products available or that bars can buy a CocktailPaQ™ of 60 loose pouches [15 per cocktails type] for mixing in-house cocktails. Each pouch makes two drinks. Do we use twitter to tell followers that the ShotPak® Hummer is on the way to Texas to a huge weekend party with music and fun girls and guys. The entrepreneur is keen to educate the consumer with the vision of the product and often can't wait for what seems to be forever.
So the advice to entrepreneurs is stay the course and avoid all hell breaking around you as you try to micromanage the professionals you put in place to handle the mundane work. Keep moving forward for the next great idea.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Focusing on Our Core Competency
At a meeting last week I was amazed to learn that Florida's biggest trading partner is Brazil. A staggering $16 billion passed between Florida and Brazil in 2010. This is twice the next partner, Columbia. What was the next surprise is that Brazil is now the world's number 5 economy and is predicted that their GDP will pass Germany in a dozen years. What a success story.
Henry Ford once said, "Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." In the light of today's global economy and our own problems at home with both parties in congress undecided in what to do, one thing for sure is the outcome will not be successful. It seems we have taken success out of our business vocabulary hoping just to get by and stay afloat.
On our side ignoring the turmoil around us as much as we can, our three companies are looking at ways to find strong long term partnerships and investing in the future so we can bring meaningful solutions to them. Companies are reinventing themselves and thus partnerships are going to be needed to ensure growth and success.
We believe we have to stick within the core competency of the three businesses to ensure that it's hard for competitors to imitate what we offer. We offer our partners a market advantage and finally our products must satisfy the purchaser.
For example, at PPi Global Sales, our core competency is StandUp pouch machinery. We offer all speeds and all types of pouches and today we offer intelligent machinery with our SmartSource™ electronic systems that tell the customer if the machine is running out of specification and if necessary will shut the machine down. We still sell machinery, but we present the sale in a different way. We patented many of these systems to give our customer an edge and the technology ensures the consumers buy a pouch with no defects. This makes for a successful partnership.
Our Beverage Pouch Group competency is to provide beverages always in a sustainable low carbon dioxide footprint pouch. You can buy our water pouches with spill proof spouts, small juice pouches from South Africa and France, wine from countries where we support local co-operatives [who buy from small farmers] and bring container loads of wine back and then fill and pack into USA patented BarrelPaQ® pouches in Florida. This means we support friendly countries, small farmers and also have American labor to pack a resource we don't have in Florida. This competency is very hard for a competitor to follow. The consumer gets a new taste in wine with pricing that reflects small company purchases.
Finally ShotPaQ™ and its ready-to-drink ShotPak® cocktails and the premium global STR8UP® spirits continue to grow and can be found at many liquor stores, bars and over the internet. It's the same product delivered in a variety of ways and the consumer can drink it in the pouch or as part of a mixed cocktail.
So you can see we consider partnering with our end user as the reason for our success.
Henry Ford once said, "Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." In the light of today's global economy and our own problems at home with both parties in congress undecided in what to do, one thing for sure is the outcome will not be successful. It seems we have taken success out of our business vocabulary hoping just to get by and stay afloat.
On our side ignoring the turmoil around us as much as we can, our three companies are looking at ways to find strong long term partnerships and investing in the future so we can bring meaningful solutions to them. Companies are reinventing themselves and thus partnerships are going to be needed to ensure growth and success.
We believe we have to stick within the core competency of the three businesses to ensure that it's hard for competitors to imitate what we offer. We offer our partners a market advantage and finally our products must satisfy the purchaser.
For example, at PPi Global Sales, our core competency is StandUp pouch machinery. We offer all speeds and all types of pouches and today we offer intelligent machinery with our SmartSource™ electronic systems that tell the customer if the machine is running out of specification and if necessary will shut the machine down. We still sell machinery, but we present the sale in a different way. We patented many of these systems to give our customer an edge and the technology ensures the consumers buy a pouch with no defects. This makes for a successful partnership.
Our Beverage Pouch Group competency is to provide beverages always in a sustainable low carbon dioxide footprint pouch. You can buy our water pouches with spill proof spouts, small juice pouches from South Africa and France, wine from countries where we support local co-operatives [who buy from small farmers] and bring container loads of wine back and then fill and pack into USA patented BarrelPaQ® pouches in Florida. This means we support friendly countries, small farmers and also have American labor to pack a resource we don't have in Florida. This competency is very hard for a competitor to follow. The consumer gets a new taste in wine with pricing that reflects small company purchases.
Finally ShotPaQ™ and its ready-to-drink ShotPak® cocktails and the premium global STR8UP® spirits continue to grow and can be found at many liquor stores, bars and over the internet. It's the same product delivered in a variety of ways and the consumer can drink it in the pouch or as part of a mixed cocktail.
So you can see we consider partnering with our end user as the reason for our success.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Entrepreneur or CEO ... you decide.
Last month I received several comments on the entrepreneur blog. It is so difficult for others to understand that most entrepreneurs make bad CEO's. Every now and then I wonder as the company grows if I am the right person to take it to the next level and if I can be called an entrepreneur or a CEO in order to do this?
For example, our plans for the PPi Global Sales Machine Group are to be the leader in the supply of 50 high speed pouch machinery systems a year. For the ShotPaQ™ LLC products our plans are to be in 30 states and 10 countries with sales of 100,000 cases a year. That's the NEXT LEVEL of growth….
Now rising to the blog requests for more news on entrepreneurs and how to grow a new company to the next level, read on.
It appears that the best entrepreneurs are those that are able, through experience and training as well as some luck, to succeed in their endeavors. What is important to them is what stage of development the Company is at when the risk is taken.
The South African golf player, Gary Player once said "The harder you work, the luckier you get." Probably applies here.
It is often said that entrepreneurs always move quickly as they plan to produce profits from the ideas they implement. After efficient execution they begin again with new ideas and then back to the revised plan to grow even more. They make plans and they work them, but are not dedicated to them. Always moving forward could be the theme.
Most entrepreneurs work nights, weekends, sometimes way over 18 hour days and even if they are ill. Nothing stops the machine that is an entrepreneur looking for success. Good entrepreneurs attract and empower good people and develop support teams. These teams are motivated to understand the dream and learn quickly.
Some entrepreneurs are focused too heavily on ideas and don’t subject them to the marketplace, thus failure is common. If we look at some well know entrepreneurs out there, we find that they are considered true risk takers and their goal is not to run a business forever. Interesting they are not big personal spenders. In fact wealthy lifestyles are frowned upon. They are driven from the 'Success of the Risk' and the huge financial rewards from this action.
Again, if you look at the top 50 entrepreneurs we find some that are often too slow to react to fast-changing technological conditions and miss other opportunities. They depend on information and plenty of it. They enjoy the electronic world and make sure they have a 'geek' on board to keep them ahead and task-focused. They understand that great businesses are inspired by ideas, but their success is counted in cash. They are, in essence, "idealistic capitalists," believing that the best ideas, the best products, and the best services are also those that make the most money. It is here where the difference between Entrepreneur and the CEO starts to enter the picture.
First difference is the CEO has for sure the ability to see around corners and make sure the business is leading and not following.
The CEO has another quality that is important in his leadership; watching the business grow by leading the team rather than telling the team. The CEO is also very capable of solving problems and not leaving them for others to fix. The CEO always puts the Company first rather than the problem and this means he is often not seen to be solving the crisis.
Using the above points Entrepreneurs run successful businesses every day. However, businesses run by CEO types are normally financially sound and the CEO is capable of seeing trends or problems and solving them so that the Company can continue.
So what am I an Entrepreneur profit seeking type or a CEO who worries about the success of the Company?
Daily enthusiasm continues…
For example, our plans for the PPi Global Sales Machine Group are to be the leader in the supply of 50 high speed pouch machinery systems a year. For the ShotPaQ™ LLC products our plans are to be in 30 states and 10 countries with sales of 100,000 cases a year. That's the NEXT LEVEL of growth….
Now rising to the blog requests for more news on entrepreneurs and how to grow a new company to the next level, read on.
It appears that the best entrepreneurs are those that are able, through experience and training as well as some luck, to succeed in their endeavors. What is important to them is what stage of development the Company is at when the risk is taken.
The South African golf player, Gary Player once said "The harder you work, the luckier you get." Probably applies here.
It is often said that entrepreneurs always move quickly as they plan to produce profits from the ideas they implement. After efficient execution they begin again with new ideas and then back to the revised plan to grow even more. They make plans and they work them, but are not dedicated to them. Always moving forward could be the theme.
Most entrepreneurs work nights, weekends, sometimes way over 18 hour days and even if they are ill. Nothing stops the machine that is an entrepreneur looking for success. Good entrepreneurs attract and empower good people and develop support teams. These teams are motivated to understand the dream and learn quickly.
Some entrepreneurs are focused too heavily on ideas and don’t subject them to the marketplace, thus failure is common. If we look at some well know entrepreneurs out there, we find that they are considered true risk takers and their goal is not to run a business forever. Interesting they are not big personal spenders. In fact wealthy lifestyles are frowned upon. They are driven from the 'Success of the Risk' and the huge financial rewards from this action.
Again, if you look at the top 50 entrepreneurs we find some that are often too slow to react to fast-changing technological conditions and miss other opportunities. They depend on information and plenty of it. They enjoy the electronic world and make sure they have a 'geek' on board to keep them ahead and task-focused. They understand that great businesses are inspired by ideas, but their success is counted in cash. They are, in essence, "idealistic capitalists," believing that the best ideas, the best products, and the best services are also those that make the most money. It is here where the difference between Entrepreneur and the CEO starts to enter the picture.
First difference is the CEO has for sure the ability to see around corners and make sure the business is leading and not following.
The CEO has another quality that is important in his leadership; watching the business grow by leading the team rather than telling the team. The CEO is also very capable of solving problems and not leaving them for others to fix. The CEO always puts the Company first rather than the problem and this means he is often not seen to be solving the crisis.
Using the above points Entrepreneurs run successful businesses every day. However, businesses run by CEO types are normally financially sound and the CEO is capable of seeing trends or problems and solving them so that the Company can continue.
So what am I an Entrepreneur profit seeking type or a CEO who worries about the success of the Company?
Daily enthusiasm continues…
Monday, May 9, 2011
Living the Dream:
A Vision for the Future!
Entrepreneurs usually build businesses around what they love to do. It’s sometimes described as, “Enjoying a passion while earning a living.”
The secret with entrepreneurs is that they love to innovate and this is the Holy Grail of business. Their success in the future is the vision they have of what they want to achieve. However, at all times in the back of their minds is the question, "Is the brand being leveraged to its full potential?"
Entrepreneurs like diversification as it spreads risk and allows brand promotion as long as that promotion matches the aim of the vision.
Our two businesses, the PGS Machine sales group which formed new partners and added patents as well as innovations to ensure they covered the total customer spectrum for StandUp pouches and ShotPaQ™ and its ready-to-drink ShotPak® cocktails along with ready-to-mix STR8UP® spirits created new products and a market niche and now has 10 “Zero Landfill Deep Green” six packs for the market place. If you look at our strategies, the old adage of not putting all your eggs in one basket rings true.
We have aimed at becoming a one-stop shop for our customers by offering all they need to be successful so they will return time and time again.
It might be boring, but at all times we have focused on what we know best, providing a top class products and top class customer service. So what is our vision, our picture of success at a particular time in the future? How big should our organization be? What are we known for? How many customers should we have? The greater the vision the more excitement in the organization, whether it’s just to beat budget or it’s to reach a long term goal. What we know for sure is that we have a reasonable shot at getting there.
So entrepreneurs know vision articulates where they are going and the organization follows the strategic plan that shows how they are going to get there. Having a vision makes decisions easier. So many opportunities appear daily and it takes discipline to follow only those that help attain the vision. In our case our vision is repeat business. We want to create value which of course makes it harder for customers to walk away from us. We want each contact to be an event beyond their expectations. Intelligent machinery and enjoyable cocktails, now that's “Living the Dream”!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Is the Sky Going to Fall?
We all run into unexpected obstacles and problems when launching a new business or home project.
Take for instance when we started our PGS Machine business 15 years ago, we were so confident we had the best and latest pouch machine solution for the market only to find no customers for the first three months and eight months before the first machine delivery. The struggle, the anxiety and the need to survive pushed us to another level we never knew we had and then to eventual success as customers started buying. Amazing what you can do in the event of possible personal failure.
Our ShotPak® brands business was so cool and so modern. A social pouch that is safe, secure and "deep green." We felt it was bound to succeed when we introduced it three years ago. What we found out was that we couldn't sell where we wanted to in the USA and our customers couldn't buy our product s in some states.
As an entrepreneur these unexpected setbacks made it fun and challenging to beat the system. My belief was to build both businesses as if they were going to be sold, even though we had little interest to do so. That meant all these years we have looked at the business as potential buyers would and that has kept us ahead of the game.
So we pushed creativity in both businesses, took several risks and created an invitation to customers to join us for wonderful beyond expectations experiences. Our daily theme was innovative machinery and parts backed by outstanding service and always available Ready-To-Drink cocktails made exactly to recipe using premium spirits. We were uncompromising in business deals, our integrity was never in question and we were accountable for all sales. Customers liked this approach.
We never had concrete goals, but targets that continually moved to another level. Our personal strengths and resources contributed to achieving customer satisfaction which was top of all goals. We made sure we could do it and then did 50% more. Our market plan was to make sure customers wanted our products and came back for more.
We don't believe in predicting the future, hence is the sky going to fall? We prefer forecasts and operate on ready, aim, fire then watch all the good things happen. We developed a tremendous rapport with engineers and plant personnel, while the ShotPak ambassadors concentrated on, "It's ready, it's safe and enjoy yourself by Drinking Different!"
We treat customers as investors in our business and now they become our best sales people. We operate on the fringes of both our machine and liquor businesses; we push Unique Purchase Decisions and entice partnerships with the products. We have always been eternal optimists and this has shown through all the challenges we have solved these past years including the bankruptcy of a major machine supplier last year and the ShotPak® challenge of finding new distributors. We never gave up and our customers never knew of these disturbances.
Now look at the world as the turmoil in the Middle East continues and we see oil prices increasing immediately due to the speculators. What happened to the oil pipe line, storage inventory etc.? When the oil price drops why does it take weeks for gas prices to decrease? These speculators are hurting the economy and the general public should speak out.
In my spare time, with a group of friends, the following conversation points arose and not all the answers were available as we discussed, if the sky is going to fall -- because of oil prices, money or stock market issues, how to take advantage of the best kept energy secret [natural gas] in the USA, food for China and the new Healthcare bill -- who knows?
Take for instance when we started our PGS Machine business 15 years ago, we were so confident we had the best and latest pouch machine solution for the market only to find no customers for the first three months and eight months before the first machine delivery. The struggle, the anxiety and the need to survive pushed us to another level we never knew we had and then to eventual success as customers started buying. Amazing what you can do in the event of possible personal failure.
Our ShotPak® brands business was so cool and so modern. A social pouch that is safe, secure and "deep green." We felt it was bound to succeed when we introduced it three years ago. What we found out was that we couldn't sell where we wanted to in the USA and our customers couldn't buy our product s in some states.
As an entrepreneur these unexpected setbacks made it fun and challenging to beat the system. My belief was to build both businesses as if they were going to be sold, even though we had little interest to do so. That meant all these years we have looked at the business as potential buyers would and that has kept us ahead of the game.
So we pushed creativity in both businesses, took several risks and created an invitation to customers to join us for wonderful beyond expectations experiences. Our daily theme was innovative machinery and parts backed by outstanding service and always available Ready-To-Drink cocktails made exactly to recipe using premium spirits. We were uncompromising in business deals, our integrity was never in question and we were accountable for all sales. Customers liked this approach.
We never had concrete goals, but targets that continually moved to another level. Our personal strengths and resources contributed to achieving customer satisfaction which was top of all goals. We made sure we could do it and then did 50% more. Our market plan was to make sure customers wanted our products and came back for more.
We don't believe in predicting the future, hence is the sky going to fall? We prefer forecasts and operate on ready, aim, fire then watch all the good things happen. We developed a tremendous rapport with engineers and plant personnel, while the ShotPak ambassadors concentrated on, "It's ready, it's safe and enjoy yourself by Drinking Different!"
We treat customers as investors in our business and now they become our best sales people. We operate on the fringes of both our machine and liquor businesses; we push Unique Purchase Decisions and entice partnerships with the products. We have always been eternal optimists and this has shown through all the challenges we have solved these past years including the bankruptcy of a major machine supplier last year and the ShotPak® challenge of finding new distributors. We never gave up and our customers never knew of these disturbances.
Now look at the world as the turmoil in the Middle East continues and we see oil prices increasing immediately due to the speculators. What happened to the oil pipe line, storage inventory etc.? When the oil price drops why does it take weeks for gas prices to decrease? These speculators are hurting the economy and the general public should speak out.
In my spare time, with a group of friends, the following conversation points arose and not all the answers were available as we discussed, if the sky is going to fall -- because of oil prices, money or stock market issues, how to take advantage of the best kept energy secret [natural gas] in the USA, food for China and the new Healthcare bill -- who knows?
- where to invest at this time? and be cautious with municipal bonds with your spare cash / stock market, possibly oil, beverage and food shares
- there is no doubt that oil at $100.00 a barrel is sustainable, but will that hurt the economy if it goes above this for long periods then call your Congressman
- The USA has lots of natural gas and thus cheap nitrogen needed for fertilizer production which will give us an edge in food production / China needs food
- The China food base was starch and is now becoming protein, based on the ratio of grain needed it is one starch at present to four starches for protein and starch based foods like wheat, corn etc.
- The new healthcare systems are going to be based on molecular medicine which will look at your genetics and individualize tailor made products which in turn will lower health care costs
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Getting Ahead in 2011
It's 2011 and there's ample reason to feel upbeat for the coming year.
Buoyed by a very strong holiday spending period we are very optimistic about 2011. Corporate earnings are up, there's growth in manufacturing and even investor confidence is up. What this means is consumer confidence is leading the rally.
What we plan is to introduce more digital support systems in our PGS Machine division concentrating on the highest efficiency production at the lowest cost. We have five new products and we are ready to offer solutions where ever needed.
ShotPak® ready-to-drink cocktails is launching in the UK with their Yankee Cocktail™ brand and the French market is up and running.
In the USA, the new original formula Margarita cocktail will be available later this month. The field tests were outstanding with the ShotPak® Margarita winning all the taste tests.
It's all positive, let's keep it going for the rest of the year.
Shotsational and happy digital regards for 2011.
Buoyed by a very strong holiday spending period we are very optimistic about 2011. Corporate earnings are up, there's growth in manufacturing and even investor confidence is up. What this means is consumer confidence is leading the rally.
What we plan is to introduce more digital support systems in our PGS Machine division concentrating on the highest efficiency production at the lowest cost. We have five new products and we are ready to offer solutions where ever needed.
ShotPak® ready-to-drink cocktails is launching in the UK with their Yankee Cocktail™ brand and the French market is up and running.
In the USA, the new original formula Margarita cocktail will be available later this month. The field tests were outstanding with the ShotPak® Margarita winning all the taste tests.
It's all positive, let's keep it going for the rest of the year.
Shotsational and happy digital regards for 2011.
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