"I need to get organized."

On a business opportunity conference call tonight, one gal said her problem was, "I need to get organized."

Me: "What does that mean exactly?"

Pause.

She: Well, actually, I need my people to get organized. I need to know how to help them get organized.

Pause.

I've signed up about 20 people, and no one is doing anything, so I want to know how to help them get organized.

"Need to get organized" sounds like a euphemism for nobody's doing anything. What can I do?

I told her this.

Of the 20 folks you've signed up, choose two. Two who 1) made at least an initial product order for $500, and 2) who have the most life force and upbeat disposition. Call them up. Try language like this:

Lulu, I know we haven't talked much, but I'm calling you because when we first got connected with this business you said you wanted to do it so that you could...[send your girl to private dancing lessons]

FILL IN why she said initially she wanted to do the business.

Anyway, I called because I wanted to know if there's anything I can do to help you make that thing happen. If your life is too busy now, no problem. But since you have so much life force and charisma, I wanted to check, in case there's anything I could do to help you make that happen.

Wait for the response. If she's shy about calling people because she's not sure what to say, show her the language to use that ends with, "Do you know anyone who might like to know about a product like that?"

It's a start. If folks don't know what to say, they'll be forever looking for ways to 'get organized' when what they mean is, they need some language they can use without feeling like they're pressuring their friends, or worse, looking foolish to their network.

Why I'm not hiring

In case you're waiting for small businesses to start hiring again, don't hold your breath. The reason might surprise you. It did me.

A small business owner (89 employees) reports in the Wall St Journal today...WSJ PDF.

"Meet Sally...Sally is a terrific employee, and she happens to be the median person in terms of base pay among the 83 people at my little company in New Jersey, where we provide audio systems for use in educational, commercial and industrial settings. She's been with us for over 15 years. She's a high school graduate with some specialized training.

"She makes $59,000 a year—on paper. In reality, she makes only $44,000 a year because $15,000 is taken from her thanks to various deductions and taxes, all of which form the steep, sad slope between gross and net pay.

"Before that money hits her bank, it is reduced by the $2,376 she pays as her share of the medical and dental insurance that my company provides. And then the government takes its due. She pays $126 for state unemployment insurance, $149 for disability insurance and $856 for Medicare. That's the small stuff.

"New Jersey takes $1,893 in income taxes. The federal government gets $3,661 for Social Security and another $6,250 for income tax withholding. The roughly $13,000 taken from her by various government entities means that some 22% of her gross pay goes to Washington or Trenton. She's lucky she doesn't live in New York City, where the toll would be even higher...."

More on this jaw-dropping perspective here (WSJ PDF).

He won't be hiring new employees any time soon.

"I can be quite sure that every time I hire someone my obligations to the government go up. From where I sit, the government's message is unmistakable: Creating a new job carries a punishing price."

The good news: more folks may be turning to a business of their own. That could be a very good thing.

The End of Conspicuous Consumption?

Most popular piece in the New York Times today:

"SHE had so much.

"A two-bedroom apartment. Two cars. Enough wedding china to serve two dozen people.

"Yet Tammy Strobel wasn’t happy. Working as a project manager with an investment management firm in Davis, Calif., and making about $40,000 a year, she was, as she put it, caught in the “work-spend treadmill.”

"So one day she stepped off.

"Inspired by books and blog entries about living simply, Ms. Strobel and her husband, Logan Smith, both 31, began donating some of their belongings to charity. As the months passed, out went stacks of sweaters, shoes, books, pots and pans, even the television after a trial separation during which it was relegated to a closet. Eventually, they got rid of their cars, too. Emboldened by a Web site that challenges consumers to live with just 100 personal items, Ms. Strobel winnowed down her wardrobe and toiletries to precisely that number.

"Her mother called her crazy.

"Today, three years after Ms. Strobel and Mr. Smith began downsizing, they live in Portland, Ore., in a spare, 400-square-foot studio with a nice-sized kitchen. Mr. Smith is completing a doctorate in physiology; Ms. Strobel happily works from home as a Web designer and freelance writer. She owns four plates, three pairs of shoes and two pots. With Mr. Smith in his final weeks of school, Ms. Strobel’s income of about $24,000 a year covers their bills. They are still car-free but have bikes. One other thing they no longer have: $30,000 of debt.

"Ms. Strobel’s mother is impressed. Now the couple have money to travel and to contribute to the education funds of nieces and nephews. And because their debt is paid off, Ms. Strobel works fewer hours, giving her time to be outdoors, and to volunteer, which she does about four hours a week for a nonprofit outreach program called Living Yoga.

“The idea that you need to go bigger to be happy is false,” she says. “I really believe that the acquisition of material goods doesn’t bring about happiness.” More here.

Many people have spent their money in order to demonstrate their social status. Many have borrowed it in keeping with the "fake it till you make it" syndrome. Ending mostly in crushing debt. It's happened to me, too.

Maybe 'having it all' is not such a great thing to strive for. The "all" seems to make most of us slaves to the expense of it, the upkeep and maintenance of it, the worries about the possible theft or loss of it, and worst, the trepidation of leaving it when that final moment comes. After which the children and other relatives spend years and thousands wrangling over who gets it. Sigh.

What if like Ms. Strobel's little family, you decide to want and need so little that you have no debt at all anymore? And for the time being, you add no more? I'm doing that too.

Wanting less is another way to be independent, isn't it? That's how Gandhi ended up. Over 20 years, he slowly gave up all the social trappings of his fine English legal education and his very high social status that came with it. Over the next 30 years of his life, he truly did more with less.

Of course, this won't work for everyone...

Silly me.

Wells Fargo Loses Ruling on Overdraft Fees

Well it's about time a judge (obviously not on the bank payroll) had the nerve to speak up.

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Wells Fargo to pay California customers $203 million in restitution for claims that it had manipulated transactions to maximize the overdraft fees it charged.

Instead of processing transactions in the order in which they were received, Wells Fargo put through the largest to smallest, a judge in San Francisco found. In a stinging 90-page opinion, United States District Judge William Alsup wrote that the practice was unfair and deceptive.

“The bank’s dominant, indeed sole, motive was to maximize the number of overdrafts and squeeze as much as possible” out of customers who spent more than they had in their accounts, the judge wrote. The ruling comes after a two-week trial in the spring heard by the judge. More here.

Delicious news for all small business owners and entrepreneurs especially.

Excessive overdraft charges are a very big source of profits for the banks, though. Wells Fargo collected $1.8 billion in overdraft fees in California alone from 2005-2007. You can bet who paid. Hint: not the big people.

Honest or cynical?

"The power of accurate observation
is often called cynicism by those
who have not got it."
— George Bernard Shaw

We sell unhealthy, didn't you know?

Coke: Gosh. We thought EVERYONE knew that Vitaminwater was unhealthy. How could you ever have thought it would be healthy? Silly you...

"Coca-Cola is being sued by a non-profit public interest group, on the grounds that the company's vitaminwater products make unwarranted health claims."

No news there. It's the company's response that made the news:

"Lawyers for Coca-Cola are defending the lawsuit by asserting that "no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage."

Yet, says the reporter,

"they spend hundreds of millions of dollars advertising the product, saying it will keep you 'healthy as a horse,' and will bring about a 'healthy state of physical and mental well-being.' More here.

And of course the very name "vitaminwater" suggests that the product is simply water with added nutrients, disguising the fact that it's actually full of added sugar. See here.

It's probably not a good idea to rely on a soft drink company for your vitamins and other essential nutrients.

Filtered (honest) water, anyone?

In a controversy, what are we striving for?

"In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves." Buddha

Boy, that's a reminder I'll keep pasted right on my computer screen 24/7.

"Missed more than 9,000 shots in my career."

"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
-- Michael Jordan

Here's the video...