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Presented by Tom Shay of Profits
Plus Solutions
727-823-7205
tomshay@profitsplus.org

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We have experienced multiple times
500 year…
Event of the century
Like nothing we have ever seen
Biggest drop in the history of…
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The purpose of the media today
Not to provide news
Captivate your attention
Arouse your thought process
Sell advertising
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Things that caused all people to
rethink how they function
1950s Suburban strip centers
1960s Mass merchants
1960s Enclosed malls
1971 FedEx
1994 Internet
9/11/01 – attack on USA
2008 – the great recession
2020 – Covid-19 virus
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Those that ceased to exist
Those that stagnated
Those that grew
Those that were just plain lucky
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 Is the business growing?
 Or just riding along with the
economy?
 When the pandemic becomes an
endemic, what is the business
going to do?
 Increased revenue is not a sign of
increased profits or increased
management skills

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“Second down”
We aren’t playing by the same rules
anymore
Do they disrupt business or prompt
businesses to do things differently?
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If everyone is doing it one way, there’s
a good chance you can find your niche
by going exactly in the opposite
direction - Sam Walton
Look at retail; where do you see
unique within that format? How many
look and act exactly alike?
That could be why so many chains fold
The US has more square footage per
person than UK, France, Spain, Italy,
Germany, Japan combined
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 Why should a business consider
making changes?
 If sales are challenging because
of the business environment, it
became a matter of survival
 If business is good because of the
business environment, why settle
for what occurs naturally?
 A business should consider
change because the customer has
changed and that provides
opportunities for businesses

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The cornerstones of any successful
small business
A written business plan; financial
plan; business adaptability; all
written and understood by the
owner; revisited semi-annually
Marketing and products/services
are components but not
cornerstones
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When written in Chinese, the
word “crisis” is composed of two
characters – one represents
danger and the other represents
opportunity.
John F
Kennedy
What do your clients see?
What do you see?
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 In leadership the expression is:
 “If there are five of us in the
discussion and we all agree, there
are four too many in the meeting”
 In small business the expression is
 “If all the businesses work alike or
look alike, somebody isn’t
thinking”

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 Two organizations, on a local
basis, that could utilize your
services
 Individual decides to open a small
business in a community
 Is there a need?
 Is there an opportunity
 Is it someone that just wants to
do what they know how to do

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 Observations of two businesses
 One is experiencing tremendous
growth
 The other is experiencing reduced
revenue
 Greater concern is for the one with
the tremendous growth because of
the tendency to not closely watch
margins and expenses
 This free online calculator shows
trends over three full years plus
year to date; multi-year analysis

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 Another free online calculator to
help show what will happen when
expenses decrease; increase
margin; improve A/R collections;
dead inventory removed and
improved inventory turn
 Notice what each does to improve
the net profit and Return on
Investment

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 Chris Zane
 Reinventing the Wheel
 Sells more Trek bikes than any
dealer in the world
 Originals
 Best Practices are
Stupid
 Crazy is a
compliment
 Seth Godin – The Big
Moo - “They say I’m
extreme”

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 Changes in consumerism since
March 2020
 Many goods are in short supply
 Shortages prop up prices
 Many employees not returning to
work; change; incentivize – not
pay
 Grocery stores and drug stores
immediately eliminated their off
pricing

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As Gary Larson of Far Side cartoon
said when the fishing buddies saw
the mushroom clouds in the distance:
Know what this means?
No size restrictions!
Screw the limit!

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We have seen three groups of
businesses
First group (homers)
Shut down
This disrupts our business model
Let’s see what happens
An opportune time to call it quits

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Second group (plow hands):
Keep doing what we have always
done
Business grew; why change?
Item and price advertising continues
to be our mainstay
We are OK

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Third group (hold my beer):
The world has shifted because of this
This is an opportune prompt for our
business to disrupt our industry
People will shop differently
People will spend money differently;
both necessity and discretionary
Recreation time will be different

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March 2020 -
Local hotel promotes
Hotel rooms
Meeting room
Breakfast buffet
March 2021 –
Converting rooms to
offices for those who
struggle to work from home
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Asking for a faucet in a high-end
cabinet business
What do they ask for that a
business sends them elsewhere to
get?
What else could be sold?
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Blue Ocean Strategy & Blue Ocean
Shift
Competition becomes irrelevant
because they do not allow the
current “rules” to apply to their
business
Most unique concepts are created
within an existing concept
He who becomes a commodity last is
the winner
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108 companies studied
86% of launches were simply
extensions and changes
14% of launches were “blue”
The “blue” produced 38% of the
company’s revenue and 61% of the
profits
Wal-Mart and groceries; customer
frequency; open in pandemic
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Many small businesses need a crisis
to become creative or learn
management skills
Restaurants added consumables
Appliance dealers put products on
parking lots
Drive thru hair cuts
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 Businesses that have changed
Batteries Plus (Bulbs)
Boston Market (Chicken)
Dunkin (Donuts)
Domino’s (Pizza)
Netflix
Dyson ventilators (Vacuums and
hand dryers) – pandemic prompted
Some grew with item expansion;
others grew with technology usage
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Businesses that make it easy to do
business with can expand their
offerings
Selling who and not what; these
are outdoor people; disc golf, bikes,
hiking; power equipment; grills
This business could add lawn tools
and pool chemicals
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Key factors:
Innovation alone is often too
futuristic; however Covid-19 has
brought lots of “future” quickly
Value alone is too often price driven
“We can offer more and sell for less”
Offer more and sell for less is an
indicator of a lack of business
knowledge and/or lack of confidence
in the business plan
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 When new categories or areas of
business are added…
 Suggest changing the income
statement to reflect the income
and expenses of each addition so
client can know what amount of
profit it is producing
 Calculate the cost of additions; can
the business afford a failure of the
addition?

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People have many new and
different aspects to their lives
Are your clients taking advantage
of the differences?
Disrupting or prompting; Does this
affect how you approach business?
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Even if you are on
the right track, you’ll
get run over if you
just stand there.
- Will Rogers
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Help yourself to all the free tools
and information on the
profitsplus.org website
Tom Shay
tomshay@profitsplus.org
727-823-7205
888-529-5907
www.profitsplus.org
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