The opposite of too big to fail is not too small to matter. Growing our own did not become obsolete with medical marijuana. Home-grown, human-owned businesses of fewer than 50 employees make or break the Colorado economy. Luring much larger companies to relocate to Colorado, however, traditionally dominates our economic development plans.
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper’s “number one priority is to build an ‘Economic Development Plan’ from the bottom-up and chart a course for economic revival county by county in Colorado.” I know this because I have his memo telling me so, and because I attended one of his nine “Bottom-Up” work sessions.
The Bottom-Up initiative is supposed to mark a new approach to economic development involving local business owners in the process. At the session I attended, however, the usual suspects—politicians, big business lobbyists, and the economic development experts behind our traditional lure-them-here-with-tax-breaks plans—dominated the room. The folks who work for or own the smaller companies that will lead the state out of this mess, just as they always have, were not well represented.
A business that will move for one tax incentive will move again for a bigger one. Taking an even bigger view, moving companies from one state to another is a zero sum game for our country. If we don’t add new jobs, we all lose. The engine of job growth is small business—President Obama acknowledged that again yesterday in Ohio. I don’t have the strength to tackle our nation’s small business efforts (the SBA thinks a company with 500 employees is a small business, for crying out loud), but I think I have a chance to help Colorado.
That why I am asking my readers, friends, and clients to tell Governor Hickenlooper what you think Colorado should be doing to better support small to medium companies. The Bottom-Up plan includes a survey that will be closing soon. Please go to the survey now, or now later than month’s end, and participate in the process. Take advantage of the open-ended questions and the “other” blanks to tell the State what it needs to hear. We can add more jobs helping established small to medium Colorado companies than we ever will chasing big companies.
Last year I saw “In the Heights” at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. At the center of this musical, set in New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood, are three small businesses. The owner of one, a bodega--a convenience store, has to decide whether he should leave and start a new business elsewhere, or stay and work to improve his business, and thus his neighborhood. Ultimately, he chooses to stay because, as he says, “I’m home.”
So it is with Colorado’s human-owned business.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
No Revolution Required: Celebrate Washington’s Birthday, Not Presidents Day
Our hope for the people of Tunisia and Egypt, having overthrown entrenched leaders, is tempered by knowledge that too often one dictator is merely replaced by another. This did not happen in the American Revolution; that is why today is a legal holiday celebrating George Washington’s Birthday.
George Washington’s Birthday, February 22, had been a popular, but unofficial, holiday long before it joined New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day as our country’s fifth legal holiday in 1879. A century later, the Monday Holiday Law shifted the observance to the third Monday of February, but no law changed the George Washington’s Birthday holiday to Presidents Day. Advertisers, interstate politics, and popular neglect did that.
Whatever happened to “first in war, first in peace and first in the heart of his countrymen?” The sentiment of Henry Lee’s eulogy of Washington didn’t survive the Monday Holiday Law. After all, if you aren’t celebrating Washington’s actual birthday, then it’s an easy step to lump in Abraham Lincoln, whose February 12th birthday was always close enough to Washington’s to confuse school kids anyway. From there it’s a slippery slope all the way to down to Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, Warren Harding and your pick of a contemporary worst President.
Since there is no official Presidents Day federal holiday, it is impossible to tell if Presidents Day refers to Washington and Lincoln, or if it is meant to include all of our Presidents. While I greatly admire President Lincoln, we do ourselves a tremendous disservice when we forget why Washington deserved, and continues to deserve, his own holiday, even if he is no longer first (second, third or even fourth as a recent Gallup poll indicates) in the hearts of his countrymen.
George Washington created our model, the world’s model, of a democratically-elected, republican chief executive. He had no precedent, no guide other than his character. Following his 1783 defeat of the British in the Revolutionary War, Washington could easily have become the king or dictator of America, but he did not.
Instead General Washington, following the principles he and his Continental Army had fought for, surrendered his sword, the sword in the following photograph, to Congress, the elected representatives of the people.
Then, after becoming the first President under the Constitution adopted in 1789, Washington did it again. Following two terms, Washington willingly relinquished his office when he could have been President for life. Our infant Constitution and the notion of republican representative democracy had taken root. The model of the American Presidency and peaceful transitions of power was cast. No other President can make that claim: that is why today is, and should always be, not Presidents Day, but George Washington’s Birthday.
George Washington’s Birthday, February 22, had been a popular, but unofficial, holiday long before it joined New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day as our country’s fifth legal holiday in 1879. A century later, the Monday Holiday Law shifted the observance to the third Monday of February, but no law changed the George Washington’s Birthday holiday to Presidents Day. Advertisers, interstate politics, and popular neglect did that.
Whatever happened to “first in war, first in peace and first in the heart of his countrymen?” The sentiment of Henry Lee’s eulogy of Washington didn’t survive the Monday Holiday Law. After all, if you aren’t celebrating Washington’s actual birthday, then it’s an easy step to lump in Abraham Lincoln, whose February 12th birthday was always close enough to Washington’s to confuse school kids anyway. From there it’s a slippery slope all the way to down to Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, Warren Harding and your pick of a contemporary worst President.
Since there is no official Presidents Day federal holiday, it is impossible to tell if Presidents Day refers to Washington and Lincoln, or if it is meant to include all of our Presidents. While I greatly admire President Lincoln, we do ourselves a tremendous disservice when we forget why Washington deserved, and continues to deserve, his own holiday, even if he is no longer first (second, third or even fourth as a recent Gallup poll indicates) in the hearts of his countrymen.
George Washington created our model, the world’s model, of a democratically-elected, republican chief executive. He had no precedent, no guide other than his character. Following his 1783 defeat of the British in the Revolutionary War, Washington could easily have become the king or dictator of America, but he did not.
Instead General Washington, following the principles he and his Continental Army had fought for, surrendered his sword, the sword in the following photograph, to Congress, the elected representatives of the people.
Then, after becoming the first President under the Constitution adopted in 1789, Washington did it again. Following two terms, Washington willingly relinquished his office when he could have been President for life. Our infant Constitution and the notion of republican representative democracy had taken root. The model of the American Presidency and peaceful transitions of power was cast. No other President can make that claim: that is why today is, and should always be, not Presidents Day, but George Washington’s Birthday.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Social Media Mistakes: Gettngslizzerd and Getting Sued
Bless the business that shares its mistakes so that others may learn from the experience. Such stories are some of the best uses of social media. The community learns from itself. This week, my community brought me two stories that bring to life advice I've given in some recent seminars and in this blog.
There are a number of legal landmines in social media; however, your social media is much more likely to embarrass your business than it is to get you sued. Stay on point to reduce the risk of errors, but be prepared, I tell my classes, because accidents happen.
Gettngslizzerd
The American Red Cross became, temporarily, red-faced this week when the following tweet appeared in its Twitter stream.
The tweet requires no explanation for anyone who has ever posted on Facebook without realizing he is on his teenager’s account, not his own. The social media person at the American Red Cross failed to notice that it wasn’t her personal Twitter account she was updating.
The misstep was first confessed in an appropriately funny tweet and followed by Twitter Faux Pas, a blog post so popular that traffic crashed the site. As of this posting, the site is still down, but it’s worth reading once the volume normalizes. Kudos also to Dogfish Head Beer whose response helped make this a happy ending.
Getting Sued
Not all endings are happy, of course, and businesses do get sued for their social media missteps, which makes the post of Webcopyplus—Legal Lesson Learned: Copywriter Pays $4,000 for $10 Photo—an invaluable lesson. Their mistake: they grabbed a beach photo, not bearing a ©, from the web and used it in a client’s travel blog.
Webcopyplus made at least two mistakes that I cover in my presentations. The biggie was not understanding that original creations on the web—photos, recordings, blog posts (but not Tweets)—are most likely protected by copyright, whether or not they bear the © mark.
Unless the work bears notice from its creator giving advance permission to reuse the work, get permission before using it in your business social media. You can see an example of such advance permission in the Creative Commons license at the bottom of this blog.
The second mistake by Webcopyplus was its assumption that simply taking down the protected material would be enough to resolve the situation.
There are a number of legal landmines in social media; however, your social media is much more likely to embarrass your business than it is to get you sued. Stay on point to reduce the risk of errors, but be prepared, I tell my classes, because accidents happen.
Gettngslizzerd
The American Red Cross became, temporarily, red-faced this week when the following tweet appeared in its Twitter stream.
The misstep was first confessed in an appropriately funny tweet and followed by Twitter Faux Pas, a blog post so popular that traffic crashed the site. As of this posting, the site is still down, but it’s worth reading once the volume normalizes. Kudos also to Dogfish Head Beer whose response helped make this a happy ending.
Getting Sued
Not all endings are happy, of course, and businesses do get sued for their social media missteps, which makes the post of Webcopyplus—Legal Lesson Learned: Copywriter Pays $4,000 for $10 Photo—an invaluable lesson. Their mistake: they grabbed a beach photo, not bearing a ©, from the web and used it in a client’s travel blog.
 |
| Daydreaming, but not about copyrights |
Unless the work bears notice from its creator giving advance permission to reuse the work, get permission before using it in your business social media. You can see an example of such advance permission in the Creative Commons license at the bottom of this blog.
The second mistake by Webcopyplus was its assumption that simply taking down the protected material would be enough to resolve the situation.
The lawyer responded that while they appreciated our commitment to remove the image from the blog, “removal of the image from the website will not relieve you from liability for damages arising from your past infringing use of the image on your commercial website.” The letter also stated that any further attorneys’ fees and costs incurred to resolve the matter would be added to the settlement demand.That mistaken assumption, among the uninitiated, is almost as pervasive as the notion that “fair use” will protect them if there’s a copyright problem. For human-owned business with limited budgets for paying infringement settlements (as Webcopyplus had to) or fair use defenses, asking for permission is always preferable to asking for forgiveness.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
