Entrepreneurial

Save the pelicans and small businesses

George A. Cloutier

Jun 29, 2010 10:33 EDT

– George A. Cloutier is the founder and CEO of American Management Services and the author of the bestselling book “Profits Aren’t Everything, They’re the Only Thing”. The opinions expressed are his own. –

For the last two months we have been inundated with photos of oil-covered pelicans and other marine animals victimized by the oil spewing forth from the ruptured BP well in the Gulf of Mexico. The spill in the Gulf is obviously disastrous, but it pales to the economic “oil spill” that has destroyed small businesses over the last two years.

Pelicans and small business owners are faced with surprisingly similar situations: they are victims of disastrous events beyond their control. They are faced with a life-threatening struggle for survival, in which many have already passed due to lack of assistance, or are facing an uncertain future with promises of government intervention.

Both groups are facing tough odds, but right now I’d rather be a pelican.

For small businesses, the Administration and Congress (both parties) have done little to mitigate the disaster; talking a lot about how much they care, but implementing only half measures and largely ineffective programs that only helped a few. Lending levels from commercial banks have seriously declined and have created a lending squeeze for small businesses at a time when they desperately need more credit.

Washington politicians passed a healthcare bill with provisions to aid small businesses in the payment of premiums, but forgot to mention, according to the Congressional Budget office, that only 11 percent of businesses with 25 or fewer employees would get some help. The eligible businesses will receive approximately a third of the total annual premiums back in the form of future tax credits. Why, as a business owner, would I add healthcare benefits for my employees when I will receive only 1/3rd of the additional costs?

The recent jobs bill allows for businesses to receive a $5,000 tax credit next year if they create a $40,000 annual job. This makes no sense. Why would a small business spend $40,000 this year to receive a possible $5,000 tax credit next year?

National Small Business Week: Who cares?

George A. Cloutier

May 25, 2010 09:14 EDT

– George A. Cloutier, a graduate of Harvard Business School, is the founder and CEO of American Management Services, one of the nation’s largest turnaround and management services firms specializing in small and mid-sized companies. He is also the author of the bestselling book “Profits Aren’t Everything, They’re the Only Thing”. The opinions expressed are his own. –

Certainly not the Obama Administration and Congress (both Democrats and Republicans) who have repeatedly failed small business at every opportunity with soaring rhetoric, empty promises, and adopting Lilliputian aid programs.

Most of the twenty-nine million small businesses and their fifty million employees’ won’t be celebrating National Small Business Week because they’re fighting the worst economic crisis in recent history. The twenty-five thousand plus small businesses failing every week, and the owners who have lost their life savings and depleted their 401k’s, will not be celebrating either.

There will be no joy in Mudville for 90 percent of the nation’s small businesses who have received no economic stimulus funding or have been denied credit, additional or otherwise, as well as those who have received no benefit from the stimulus or bailout programs. To be fair, some 60,000 small businesses (that’s .0002 of the total) received loans from the SBA last year, leaving only 28,940,000 who have received nothing but platitudes.

The Administration’s record of failure speaks for itself:

• Small businesses received only one percent of the bailout. ($800 million. Wow, when by recent accounts the automotive industry received $100 billion and only employs two million people.)
• Guaranteed loans from the SBA have only reached the levels of 2006 in the face of the worst economic crisis for small business since the Depression.
• The SBA runs out of loan guarantee authority periodically because of the Administration and Congress’s outright stinginess, while authorizing billions for their big donors on Wall Street and Big Business.
• The recent job bill is a joke, as to assisting small businesses. Small business can receive up to $5,000 over a year for hiring an un-necessary new worker at $40,000 annually. Spending $40,000 to receive a meager $5,000 won’t motivate most owners to hire a useless non-productive employee.
• The recently passed healthcare bill is loaded with provisions that will cost small businesses tens of thousands of dollars depending on their size. If a small business under twenty-five employees pays for insurance, it will receive back as tax credits one third of the actual cost. Unfortunately, according to the highly-touted Congressional Budget office only 11 percent of all small businesses will qualify for the program. An additional problem is small businesses which do qualify will not actually receive the tax credit until next year, while the remaining 89 percent of this category can go pound sand.

Once again the logic fails us. Why would a cash-strapped employee spend $10,000 to receive only $3,000 next year as a reimbursement a year later?

Is your business failing? It’s your fault

Lara Pingue

Sep 3, 2009 15:20 EDT

Brace yourself, because George Cloutier has some unsettling news: your failing business is your fault.

Cloutier is the no-nonsense CEO of American Management Services and author of Profits Aren’t Everything, They’re the Only Thing, a literary slap in the face to small- and medium-size business owners who wonder why sales are slipping and cash is tight.

Like the gruff boss he urges small business leaders to be, Cloutier doesn’t waste any time trying to get you to like him — he wants your respect, and his book fires off rules without apology: “Love your business more than your family”, “End your denial” and, perhaps most startling, “Give up golf – it’s a waste of time!”

Profits Aren’t Everything is peppered with real-life examples of businesses teetering on the brink of disaster because they invariably failed to put profits first. Of the hundreds of maxims Cloutier imparts, the profit rule trumps all others: “In the game of business, pure profits are the only prize,” he writes. The message is clear: fire your family members, skip your kids’ recitals. Do whatever it takes to bring your business to profitability.

The book offers a few surprises, too. When Cloutier’s not scolding readers for taking weekends off or phoning their spouse from work (both definite no-nos), he insists they stop underpaying themselves and take a big, fat raise. His logic? A salary demonstrates who’s boss and if you can’t pay yourself like one, there’s something wrong with your business. (So fix it!)

The endless barrage of rules would all seem like a bit much if it weren’t for Cloutier’s impressive track record. The so-called “Turnaround Ace” has made a successful career out of digging hapless businesses out of debt and mismanagement by demanding his clients fire dead weight, own up to their laziness and stop making excuses. And it works.