Category: Op-ED

Until We Meet Again – Third in a Series | Peter Mehit

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imagesI remember one time when I was going to go do ‘stuff’ with my friends. You know what ‘stuff’ is, right? Anyway, as I was going out the door, my mom called out, “Take your brother with you!” The presence of my little brother made sure that we would have to substitute different ‘stuff’ to do, much to the consternation of my buddies.

The fact that I don’t have a little brother shouldn’t take away from the main point of my anecdote; the participants in an activity will determine its outcome. Meetings are no different.

When you’re building your agenda, consider the participants you need to make the meeting work and only invite them. How do you know if they are the right participants? If the agenda topics are related to their ability to perform their job, then they are the right people. If they only have minor involvement, they should not be invited.

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Until We Meet Again part 2 | Peter Mehit

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downloadYou’ve no doubt heard the expression that a person has a ‘hidden agenda’. We’re here to tell you the shocking truth. Everybody has a ‘hidden agenda’ and only a few people have an actual agenda. I know, I was scared too when I first heard this.

Are agendas important? You bet. Without one, meetings are unstructured discussions that will take longer than you expect and won’t deliver the results you want. With one, you’ll make millions and be ecstatically happy every day. Well, maybe not, but you’ll be happier than you would have been without one.

To be successful, agendas need to be:

Realistic – Can you really get to all the items on the agenda in the time you have? This is important because you always have to finish on time (more later).

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Until We Meet Again part 1 | Peter Mehit

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downloadWe all do meetings. We meet to status tasks. We meet to discuss strategy. We meet to make a decision. We meet to avoid making decisions. We…what? Meet to avoid making decisions? Yes, we do that, but that’s a different topic.

Meetings are part of business. They are among the most expensive activities a company can do, yet they aren’t viewed that way. Some simple math may convince you:

Weekly status meeting, 1 hour:

Position                                               Salary with benefits

President                                             $75/hour

V.P. of Operations                              $55/hour

Operations Manager                            $45/hour

Team Lead                                          $28/hour

Buyer                                                  $25/hour

Cost for one hour meeting:                 $228/hour

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Case Study: The Music Lovers | Peter Mehit

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imagesEverything that follows actually happened. I’ve changed the circumstances and identity of the people involved significantly, but the gist of the story is true. It’s at once proof of the old adage, ‘The truth will out’.

Sara and Tom have been friends since they worked on a successful advertising campaign for a major spirits producer. In their ten years as friends they’ve shared a lot: Holiday gatherings, the breakup of Tom’s marriage and their dreams of opening a music venue. Sara’s husband Bill was also good friends with Tom and supported their idea of opening the night club, up to the point pledging property he and Sara owned free and clear in San Francisco to secure start up money.

Because of their connections in the advertising and corporate worlds, Tom and Sara knew a lot of inside stuff. For example, they found out that a coastal city was pouring millions into a waterside development and had attracted several X Games type events to the area to take place in about two years time. Knowing this, the pair secured a lease on a large space in the heart of the development, negotiating a six month delay in rent payments.

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The Sharks Are In The Details | Peter Mehit

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downloadWe frequently review contracts for our clients. It allows them to get another set of experienced eyes on an important document without the expense of an attorney. We read the document finding clauses and language that may be gotchas, referring them to an attorney for further review if needed.

We’ve noticed a trend recently. Contracts are becoming onerous, in some cases, predatory. We see this trend in everything from leases to service contracts to partnering agreements. Many contracts are becoming one sided in favor of the party writing them. We’ve seen an increase in otherwise smart business people being stung by outrageous contract provisions. They sign these agreements because they are assured they are the same as contracts they’ve signed before. The behavior we’ve seen falls into a few basic areas.

Fee death: This is where you are nickel and dimed for every possible charge that the contract maker can imagine. A client’s recent partnership agreement had an 80 – 20% net profit split in the client’s favor. However, hiding in the paperwork was a 40% overhead fee, tens of thousands of dollars in marketing costs and a bunch of small, mostly unnecessary, charges. The true net profit to our client was 19%. The deal was exactly the opposite of what the client expected.

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Why Fraternities Have To Go | AskMen

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It’s time to end the Greek system on college campuses — even Will Ferrell says so.

In a public Q&A via the New York Times last week, the comedian said that even though he was in a fraternity — Delta Tau Delta — during his years at the University of Southern California, the racist behavior of Sigma Alpha Epsilon brothers at Oklahoma University is “a real argument for getting rid of the system altogether.”

I couldn’t agree more. What began in the late 1700s as a small network of secret academic societies, in which young men at a few select colleges on the East Coast could gather and discuss topics deemed inappropriate by their institutions’ faculty and administrators, has devolved into a culture that not only condones abusive behavior, but in many cases demands it.

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The Gift | Peter Mehit

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images (1)Sometimes I see people on LinkedIn who stayed in their corporate careers.  A lot of them are doing really well, but most stayed pretty much in the same job.  Eleven years on, I sometimes have moments when I wonder what would have happened if I’d stayed with the corporation, kept battling up the ladder.  Would things have been different?

The ’08 crash wiped us out, financially and emotionally.  Had we not had each other to hold onto, it could have done us in spiritually too.  There’s no guarantee I would have ridden out that hurricane from the safety of a corporate shelter, but I thought several times, as I traded my house for an apartment and continued to push my ancient Camrys to the breaking point, did I do the right thing striking out on my own?

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It’s Official – Google is Evil | Peter Mehit

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downloadWhen we moved to our new apartment, Cox cable gave us our new phone number.  We had only been in the apartment for a day when the phone began ringing almost hourly.  First, it was the silence of autodialers checking for sentient beings on the other end of the line.  This went on for a few days.  Next, we began getting twice daily pitches from Google’s call center asking us to claim our Google listing.  When we informed them that we were a residence, we were practically called liars.

“This is a dentist’s office,” said one of the call center jockeys, with a condescending tone.

“I can tell you, with all assurance, I am standing in the living room of my apartment,” I retorted.

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Finding the Perfect Location Part 2 | Lydia Mehit

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imagesPart I of finding the perfect location detailed your first step; identifying and profiling your customer.

In this part, we’ll discuss finding potential locations near your customer.  You want to make it easy for them to patronize you.  If they are likely to shop over lunch or on the way home from work you should consider locating near their work.  If they are likely to shop with you after dinner, you should consider locating near their home.  If your business involves their free time, you might want to locate near their entertainment options.  You know this because you have a profile of your most likely customer(s).

At this point, you might consider engaging the services of a commercial realtor familiar with the area.  An experienced realtor can save you time by only showing you properties that are within the demographics that define your specific customer.   Remember, the majority of your customers will come from 1 – 3 miles of your location, with a small percentage coming from 5 miles.

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Finding the Perfect Location Part 1 | Lydia Mehit

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imagesYou’re opening a retail business, selling direct to the consumer, and you are looking for a physical location.  What are some of the things you need to consider?  How do you choose one location over another?  Which criteria should weigh heavier?  You’ve heard the old saying of: “Location, Location, Location”, but what does that mean, exactly?  One of the biggest decisions you make, after the decision to start a business, is where to locate your business.

There are many possible locations for a retail business.  You could locate it in a shopping mall, a strip mall, a free standing building, or in a business district.  You can lease the space, purchase or sublet it.  What you choose can be based on several different factors, so let’s talk about some of those factors.

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