From Greg's Head

Last week, the Small Business Administration started distributing deferred payment loans to 10,000 small businesses facing immediate financial hardship. 

These loans were made available as a part of the 2009 American Recovery Capital Program.  The economic stimulus bill passed by Congress earlier this year earmarked funds for this purpose.

As you know, I am a big supporter of entrepreneurial business owners.  I think this is an important program to assist these owners through this time of economic uncertainty. If we are going to get our economy back on track, we need to support the businesses that can get us there.

The SBA has many different resources and tools available on their website geared specifically for entrepreneurs.

I can definitely see the short term benefits of this emergency loan program.  Do you think this type of stimulus will help businesses in the longer term?  What can we, as business owners, do to help the economic recovery process?

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Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the PKF Texas - Entrepreneur's Playbook® page of the PKF Texas website.

Recent studies by several outstanding research firms like: Forrester Research, McKinsey & Company and MIT have found that spending wisely in today’s economy will have significant paybacks to the Companies that can choose their projects wisely.  In fact McKinsey’s survey of 1,000 mostly global companies that weathered the 1990-1991 global recession, emerged from the recession as winners based upon a refocus of their spending, not just cutting it.

The McKinsey survey showed that the successful companies actually spent more in IT, SG&A and Advertising.  And  recent research by MIT Professor Erik Brynjolfsoon also indicates that organizations wishing to climb the productivity curve understand the importance of IT in the future.

Learning to do more with less, using technology to leverage personnel and provide greater coverage of expertise can bring positive results to your financial success. If you can reprioritize your spending, you will see gains in the turnaround and excellent your business immediately.

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Joel Spolsky wrote an interesting piece in Inc. magazine recently, comparing the cultures of Microsoft and Google.

Spolsky was meeting with both companies to discuss his website, StackOverflow. His site was developed for programmers to ask each other highly technical programming questions.

He draws some interesting conclusions. As a former Microsoft employee, he noted the culture shift that has happened within the company since his time there in the early ‘90s. It has become a large corporation with a large corporate culture. Which isn’t a bad thing, it’s just different.

Other observations include, both companies are filled with smart people on the cutting edge of technology and they have the resources to turn ideas into reality. Both gave Spolsky advice on the direction he should take his company and ideas on how to improve what he currently offers.

His key take-away was the difference in the scale of their operations to his own. At PKF Texas, we find that distinction to be true as well. The technical aspects of what we do mirrors what the Big Four, for a variety of reasons, most importantly the regulations that we are all required to follow. Our operation is just on a different scale.

Different scale means to us that we can, in many cases, move quicker and provide solid advice or assistance on a variety of projects or issues. More importantly than quickness is our ability to draw from many resources, friends of our firm, and business partners in the community. What happens then is that because of our knowledge, we can extend ourselves vertically and can you more timely and cost effective advice and consultation.

As a business owner, do you look to firms larger than your own in your industry for guidance? What parallels can you draw between your business and theirs?

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Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the PKF Texas - Entrepreneur's Playbook® page of the PKF Texas website.

I am constantly reminded that while many highly effective and sound decisions concerning the acquisition and implementation of a Enterprise Resource Planning System take place.  A series of fundamental flaws consistently provide feedback as items that are significantly important in the assessment of the final ROI, but are rarely considered.

So, what are they?

The abilities of your end users who will use the system and execute the procedures you said were the way you did business.  Can the users execute transactions in a way that are effective?

Experience shows that if fail to capture the users attention, you will not have success from your investment.   Training or the lack thereof, is probably the single most important element followed very closely by users accountability and acceptance.

Remember your end users must:

• Accept and use the application (no side systems)
• They must understand their specific role and how to effectively execute key processes
• Execute at level of proficiency for the role, with little or no support.

One of the procedures we recommend for post ERP implementations at the 6-12 month post go live timeline is an efficiency review as compared to the original specifications of the project.  This will help bring into focus what corrective action will be necessary to make sure you achieve your ROI.

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Well I have been back a week and have had a chance to reflect upon my recent trip to London and the UK.  First, it’s a shame the distance is so far, because I think more folks should visit the UK and get a better understanding of its history and the culture that arose there over the past 2000 years.  There were so many interesting things to see and do.  I am already thinking about my return trip.

Second, while we are an ocean apart, as a people, we are a lot closer to each other than probably either government would want to admit.  I think we share a common bond, interests, and pursuit of the same things in our personal and professional lives. 

Third, London like many large cities in our world is indeed a multi-cultural city.  And more importantly I never felt for my safety or had concerns about it in any way.  While there were some interesting characters I saw on the tube and traveling about the city, staying alert and focusing on where I was going helped me immensely. 

Finally, public transportation when reliable can and does work.  While I am not quite a newcomer to London, my last trip was probably in 1997, and I was very quickly able to adopt to the tube, bus, and taxi system of getting about London.  The only negative thing I encountered was a two day tube strike the last two days I was in the City.  If you are there and that is about to happen, get out of London fast.  The city doesn’t function well when the tube is not working…..

In closing, I think PKF UK and PKF Texas will be doing much more work together and pursuing common prospects and clients more frequently.  Cheers!

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The Greater Houston Partnership has just released Tad Brown, Luis Scola and Dikembe Mutombo's promotional video for the 2009 World Trade Soiree. I've embedded the video above, or you can click here to view it on the Soiree site.

Karen Love, PKF Texas Director of Practice Growth, the Working Chair of this year's Soiree, reports that plans for the evening are coming together. A special thanks to Seliece Caldwell-Fulweber, Vice President, Ticket Sales & Business Communications for the Houston Rockets.  She is the liaison between the team and the Soiree committee.  The subcommittee chairs are as follows: Becky Thomas, CEO, BizDev Strategy – Sponsorship Committee; Lupina McMains, President, McMains & Associates, LLC – Silent Auction Committee; Adam Gibson, Business Development Director, Rottet Studio & Janis Schmees, Executive Director, Houston Sports Authority – Marketing Committee Co-Chairs; and Deanea LeFlore, Executive Director, Houston International Protocol Alliance – Consular Corps/International Dignitaries Committee.

In a new twist this year, several Houston Young Professionals have come together to form a Soiree subcommittee called the Jet-Set. Chaired by Leslie Farnsworth, President & CEO of Frog-Dog Communications, they will be encouraging other Houston YPs to get involved with the Soiree and the GHP. The committee members are Adam Gibson – Rottet Studio; Jen Lemanski – PKF Texas; Bridget Boggess – DressMarie; Dawn Hodges – PKF Texas; Kirsten Davis – World Affairs Council of Houston; and Daniel Travis – PKF Texas. Adam Gibson is the liaison between the marketing and Jet-Set committees. Stay tuned for more from the Jet-Set.

The Soiree will be held Saturday, August 29, 2009 at the Hotel ZaZa. For more information about the event contact Kristin Smith, Manager, International Business & Economic Development Events, Greater Houston Partnership at ksmith@houston.org or 713-844-3694. 

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Tuesday morning started with some networking with some investment bankers, private equity personnel. Met with the following individuals:

Donald Maclennan of Foresight Group

Andy Steel and one of his colleagues from HIG Capital

Clive Calver who represents an Investment Banking group doing a deal in Las Vegas at the moment.

All of these personnel were very interested in our efforts within the emerging markets group within Houston.

Later in the morning, I met with Richard Weighell who leads the Business Risk Services sector. He outlined his group’s activities and I learned about the work that they do.

The rest of the PKF NAN mission went to Frankfurt and I stayed behind to meet with some clients here in the UK.

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Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the PKF Texas - Entrepreneur's Playbook® page of the PKF Texas website.

We have commented in many earlier editions about the need to continue refocusing your IT spending and not get movement towards retrenchment. One example of a successful refocused effort is UPS.

During the 1990s and through the dot com growth, the Atlanta based delivery company continued to invest heavily in upgrading their processes and making the organization more digital allowing its customers to see more deeply into the supply chain process. Rajv Kohli an associate professor at the College of William and Mary says, “UPS has gained significant competitive advantage and is now IT Company that happens to deliver packages.”

Kohli has additional research in which he really brings home a significant change in thought leadership concerning the ongoing world of IT investment. He states, “In today’s global economy, technology is pervasive and intertwined with business processes that companies cannot just function without. If you cut IT spending, the business will shut down.

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Monday morning started with a group PKF NAN breakfast at the hotel Zetter. Representatives were from the following offices:

Houston - PKF Texas: Kenneth Guidry, Frank Landreneau, and Gregory Price
Atlanta - Frazier & Deeter: Sean Lager and Seth McDaniel
New York City - PKF New York: John Haslbauer
Birmingham - Dent, Baker & Company LLP: Michael Baker
Detroit - Clayton & McKervey P.C.: Kevin McKervey
San Diego - Hutchinson & Bloodgood LLP: Hanne LeLoup (Hanne’s daughter is playing in International Women’s Lacrosse tournament for Denmark next week in Poland. Good luck to her!)

PKF UK is a quick 10 minute walk from the hotel and is located at Farringdon Place, 20 Farringdon Road, London, EC1M 3AP

We were welcomed by Chris Clay, UK Business Development Director and Richard Brint, Audit Partner who provided us with a tour of the offices and a briefing on the PKF UK practices. The UK firm has offices in approximately 20 locations within the UK and employs approximately 1,200 people and has revenues in the range of $375 million. They are very well known and have great coverage within the UK. The UK firm is led by Martin Goodchild, the Managing Partner.

Next, we were briefed by Jon Hills and the Tax Advisory team. I tried to keep up with all the introductions, so if I misspelled a name or forget someone, apologies in advance. Jon went first and provided an overview of the tax capabilities of the firm and the requirements to practice tax in the UK. Jon was followed by John Cassidy who reviewed tax investigations. Katherine Brown then led an overview of the Corporate International Tax, Due Diligence and UK-US tax matters. Patrick Harrison was next and presented topics on privately held businesses and resident related activities. VAT expert Debbie Jennings presented an overview on VAT matters. Given our NAV practice and the involvement we have with clients in the UK, I have previously worked with Katherine and Debbie and they were in a word … Brilliant! The tax briefings ended with Phillip Howell and Matt Couch making presentations on their areas of specialization.

A working lunch followed, or networking lunch I should say. PKF UK has their own kitchen facilities and the staff prepared a wonderful lunch for us. We were able to meet additional PKF UK folks and focus on meeting some additional personnel.

After lunch, the various PKF NAN offices made presentations about their firms, offices, and capabilities to serve clients. Kenneth Guidry made the presentation about PKF Texas and did an outstanding job. I think many PKF UK personnel were impressed with the City of Houston’s International capabilities and our cost of living, which is 35% less than London. I think many were ready to transfer when they saw those friendly numbers. Houston, Texas is a tax friendly city/state and is well received by all.

The PKF UK Energy team presented to Kenneth, Frank and I along with other representatives from the PKF NAN group. The UK team was led by Stuart Barnsdall and Jeff Harris. They have started working on a Global Energy Brochure that they want to start using soon in the UK. We had a great discussion about adding some US clients to the list and also how we might start to position ourselves as a global branded firm.

Last stop for the day was the Corporate Finance Group led by Mark Lister, Patrick Potter and Anthony Appleton.

We also had a side meeting with the Forensic team in the UK as well… What a day!

At 6:30 PM we went to the law firm of Pinsent Masons and met several of their partners. I met one partner, Mark Lane who actually has a client in Houston. They had a great reception for us and I want to thank our PKF UK friends for the introductions.

The reception was over for me and I headed back with some folks to the Zetter. I needed some dinner so I went to the Zetter restaurant and found PKF NAN Executive Director Terry Snyder.

It was a very long day indeed, but I think the impact will have long term and far reaching implications.

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Hello from the United Kingdom

Well I arrived on Friday morning after a 2 hour delay on Continental Airlines.  Boy they sure are having some trouble with their on-time metrics.  I have flown a 777 on Continental three times in the past three years and not one of them has ever left on time.  I find that more than a coincidence.   I sure hope that they get it figured out.

Day One included some jet lag adjustment and related activities.

Day Two I woke up early about 7 AM and had a full English breakfast on Saturday morning before embarking on my day’s tourist activities.  I had done some internet checking the day before, visiting with some locals in the hotel pub and laid out a plan of action.   My first challenge was the local tube station is closed on the weekend while they have construction activity.   Not to worry, our outstanding receptionist at the hotel Zetter (BTW it’s a very nice hotel, trendy, but not too bad) said I could take a bus for 2Pds to Oxford Circus and then I could walk down to Piccadilly Circus to start my bus tour of the city.  Well as I started my trip, the rain started, so when I arrived at Oxford Circus I found myself in the middle of an English rain.

Undeterred, I continued down Regent Street to reach my tour starting point.  I used the Original Open Bus London tour, the Yellow Route.  Cost was 17Pds for the trip and I bought an excursion to the Tower of London for the same price.   Both events were well done and I thought were excellent ways to see some of the city to get my bearings.

Saturday evening I met an old friend of mine, Scott Halliday and his wife Jenny, their son Ben and an additional couple friends of the Halliday’s, Rick and Holly.    Scott is the Managing Partner of Ernst & Young and he and I first met in 1993 when he moved to Houston.    We ate at a local Mexican restaurant Wahaca in the Covent Garden area.  I know a Texan flying to London to eat Mexican does not seem cost efficient but Scott’s been looking for a Mexican place for two years.  The food was not bad…not quite to Pappasito’s level, but the Coronas were excellent.

Sunday morning I spent clearing out some emails, catching up on some back home news via the Internet versions of the paper.  Kenneth Guidry and Frank Landreneau arrived from Houston Sunday morning.  Fortunately for them, they had no delays on Continental.  After a quick hello to them, I was off to tour Westminster and St. Paul’s.

BTW, Gordon Brown, PM for the UK seems to be in a spot of trouble with his party.  Just about 85% of every newspaper for 100 miles is talking about his “issues” of the day.  Most of it centers around two issues, some expense reimbursement scandals and his ability to work with his cabinet members.   They say the over the weekend he will either be forced out of office or survive.

I visited the entire Westminster area and then went over to Covent Garden.  Both were outstanding places to visit and the sun was shining and the day was just great.  Had lunch at a great Italian bistro in the Covent Garden mall.  Outstanding.

Next stop was St. Paul’s all I can say is WOW!  Words don’t do justice to the beauty and the sheer size of the church.  The spot has had a church for over 1400 years.  Now that is back in the day.

Sunday evening was saved for a dinner with the PKF NAN representatives and Stefan Schmitz of McDermott,  Will & Emery UK LLP.  Schmitz talked with us about Renewable Energy projects in Europe and the possibilities in the US. 

BTW the entire trip was coordinated for PKF NAN by Job Dieleman, International Business Development Director based in Atlanta by PKF International.

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The most recent e-bulletin from the Rice Alliance alerted me to the latest rankings from BusinessWeek.  Houston is ranked number 10 for the world’s most inventive cities based on the number of patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  Not surprisingly San Francisco/Silicon Valley was ranked number one.  Below is what BusinessWeek said about Houston:

“Houston is the capital of the American oil industry, with ExxonMobil, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, and Halliburton all headquartered there. But the biggest city in Texas doesn't rely on petroleum engineers alone for patents; it derives them as well from medical researchers at Rice University and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.”

It’s good to see Rice and M.D. Anderson mentioned.  Houston is about more than just energy and I’m glad we’re getting national recognition for that.  In case you’re wondering Dallas and Austin also made the list at numbers 18 and 21 respectively. 
 

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Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the PKF Texas - Entrepreneur's Playbook® page of the PKF Texas website.

For businesses looking to secure private equity funding, Texas is a good place to be.  Investors are looking at the Southwest as an area with interesting opportunities across a diverse group of industries.

Take the overwhelming turnout for the 2009 Texas Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) Capital Connection earlier this year, for example.  The conference saw its largest attendance in six years.

Connie Mahmood, Vice President/Secretary Treasurer of Allegiance Capital Corporation in Dallas, and a member of the National Board of the ACG, says, “Private equity backing has remained positive, even during these challenging economic times. The criteria and structure of the funding is changing, but the capital is still available for the right investment.”

Events like the Capital Connection bring all the right players together and help get the parties involved early-on in the process.  Attending these types of events will assist you to make the right connections to secure funding for your business.

Visit acg.org for more information about events or chapters in your area.

Allegiance Capital Corporation is a full-service investment banking firm specializing in the middle market (companies with revenue from $20 million to $500 million), with offices in Dallas, New York, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Vancouver, Shanghai, Tel Aviv, and Madrid. Through its worldwide network, Allegiance Capital assists companies in every aspect of selling and financing a business, including debt restructuring, mezzanine financing, buy out management, strategic partnering, consulting and other related services. Through its newly created Special Situations group, the Company handles financial restructuring and distressed mergers and acquisitions.

For more information about Allegiance Capital Corporation, visit allcapcorp.com.

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I want to give everyone a heads up that I will be heading to London for a week (leaving tomrrow!) for a trade mission with PKF North America Network and to check in with several UK based clients.

I’ve got a jam packed schedule but will be live blogging, and tweeting my observations during the trip. I’m really looking forward to spending some time in the UK, I haven’t been there in several years. 

Stay tuned to my thoughts coming to you from across the pond!

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