Marcellus Lesson 6: What Can You Do Until Marcellus Heats Up?
Filed under: Business Growth, Marcellus, Pittsburgh, Profitable Growth, Uncategorized
When was the last time you’ve heard the old adage, “It takes 20 years to become an overnight sensation?” Lately I have been feeling this snappy line really applies to the Marcellus Shale boom! The inflection point when Marcellus really takes off won’t take a whole generation, but whenever the shale boom explodes, it will probably surprise many of WPA businesses just as any overnight success would. So, if you take this attitude, I suggest that waiting for a clear sign of when to invest your time, money and energy to grow your Marcellus business is a waste of your time and passion. Why? Because, just like all the breakthroughs we dream of and love to see, they never come exactly when or how they are expected.
For every positive sign like the new $1 billion Shell cracker plant, there are equally dismal predictions that the price of natural gas will never rise to make it profitable.
But I am an optimist (and there is far more evidence supporting an inevitable economic boom) so, as in all other parts of our lives, let’s be realistic and accept that we can never control the timing or the actions of others, but we can control our planning and our reactions to an expected boom.
So what reactions to an uncertain timing of the Marcellus Boom can we as business owners plan and control?
We can be deliberate in our planning and execute our intentional reactions, which, we should be doing anyway! So, if you want to know if you should grow your business when the shale gas boom hits, please ask yourself the following questions:
Do I have experience doing business in WPA?
- Do I need to find new markets and customers to grow my business?
- How many new customers have I met and sold in the last three years?
- Has my business reinvented itself under my leadership?
- Have my employees and I changed responsibilities and accepted new duties in the last five years?
- What new expertise have I recently gained in selling to the energy sector or any new industry?
I believe that energy money flowing into the WPA economy can mean opportunity for my business. I am growing convinced that the timing and the nature of the opportunity is not the real challenge that we as WPA business owners face. Instead it has much more to do with whether we can seize the moment, will we seize the moment and finally how will we seize that moment? Having these questions answered will make Marcellus work for you and your business, whenever it comes and whatever it looks like.
Comments
One Comment on Marcellus Lesson 6: What Can You Do Until Marcellus Heats Up?
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Paul Race on
Mon, 16th Jul 2012 11:59 am
Andy,
This is really a follow-up on your video “Businesses Either Grow or They are Sold.”
One thing that occurred to me in your Grow or Sell discussion was how many small businesses were started with the premise of providing offspring with an income stream. I have friends who are second or third-generation “co-owners” of a “family-owned” business, whose families have destroyed themselves and – eventually – the business over internal feuds and disagreements. Often one sibling is satisfied to sit on his/her “laurels” while the other siblings do all the work, while demanding an equal income. A local golf course that should have been worth millions has been run into the ground because nobody wants to put time in on a facility that is probably going to go to whoever has the best lawyers anyway.
Another kind of dysfunction occurs when NO ONE in the next generation wants to work, but everybody wants to cash in. The business winds up paying hired managers to do the work the owners should be doing, while the owners still demand an income stream (and use of the family yacht or penthouse). Costs of supporting the owners AND the real managers become too topheavy and the whole house of cards collapses. (A well-known toy company in German was a victim of this syndrome about four years ago.)
Finally, there’s the diligent parent who starts a business that becomes profitable, but requires dedicated hands-on leadership to keep going. Then the kids all want to do something else. Instead of eventually passing the reins to at least one of the offspring and enjoying the fruits of his or her labor, the founder finds that no one is willing to take over, and the business isn’t worth the value of its own real estate without “Dad” or “Mom” at the helm. So the loving parent works well into old age, instead of cashing in and retiring, and the business dies of neglect soon after the founder.
I realize the topic of dangers faced only by family-owned businesses could be the “third rail” of small business consulting, but wonder if you’ve ever come up with a list if “indicators” that would serve the same function as your “grow or sell” indicators.
Just stirring the pot, I suppose.
Keep up the challenging articles!
Paul Race
Breakthrough Communications
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