Ph.D. Mike Chaet - Loops: the seven keys to small business success

LOOPS

The Seven Keys to Small Business Success

Mike Chaet, Ph.D. and Stephen C. Lundin, Ph.D.
with Vince Moravek and Mary Chaet

Copyright 2009 by Mike Chaet, Ph.D. and Stephen C. Lundin, Ph.D. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0-07-171329-0

MHID: 0-07-171329-8

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Mike and I have witnessed the remarkable courage demonstrated by a few of our friends and family. Sandy Griswold and Janet Hay contracted the most lethal form of leukemia. And Bill McClusky, Augie Nieto, Bruce Thompson, and Al Dykehouse contracted ALSa disease for which there is no known curein the prime of their lives. This book is dedicated to them and a portion of our income and energy will be directed to those who are working to cure the disease that has no alumnae association, ALS.

From Steve:

I want to acknowledge my wife and best friend, Janell, whose wisdom and serenity have touched many, including our six children, 10 grandchildren, and one great grandchild.

From Mike:

When I thought about writing my acknowledgments I was immediately struck by how many people it takes to bring a book to life. It is with great humility that I attempt to thank everyone who had a hand in this project. Before I name some of you I would like to apologize to those of who I have not directly named but have had significant influence on my personal and professional life and thus, on the final book.

I would first like to thank all of the TEAM LOOPS from McGraw-Hill who have brought this project to life. Ed Chupak for the guidance and leadership, Daina Penikas for her patience, Malvina DAlterio who did such a great job on the cover art, Jim Madru for his sharp pencil and well used eraser, Maureen Harper, Heather Cooper, and finally Herb Schaffner who first believed in the project.

Second, I would like to thank my great friends and mentors who have taught me so much, Duke Llewellyn, Stephen Covey, Mark Davis, Dennis Dallas, Alan Glick, Gloria Lambertz, George and Barbara Chaet, Patch, John McCarthy, Augie, Mike Van Diest, and all of my students at Carroll College. I would also like to thank Dr. Kim for introducing me to my great partner and coauthor Steve Lundin, for without him this book would never have been written.

And finally, for the support, love, and the contributions to LOOPS of my great and patient wife Mary she is the essence of LOOPSand to my four awesome Montana kids, they make it all worthwhile. To all of you a warm and grateful thanks.

Together, Mike and I have been engaged in business pursuits for over a hundred years, including his lemonade stand. We have started businesses, run businesses, invested in businesses, been employees of businesses, buried businesses, taught in business schools, conducted business seminars, made films about business, written numerous books and hundreds of papers about business, developed dozens of business plans, read thousands of books and articles about business, listened to hundreds of talks given by business experts, managed business schools, and generally enjoyed the world of business. We are a couple of business guys. While experience is no guarantee for wisdom, we do have a lot of real-world experience. It will be up to you to decide about the wisdom.

Business has permeated all parts of our life. When we took our young children to their activities, along the highway, we would drive by some businesses with corporate logos recognizable anywhere in the world and countless others much smaller in scope. We always made a point to tell our children that these businesses were not deposited along the highway fully grown. We would emphasize that at some time in the past, all these businesses started with an idea and hard work. We would tell them that not all good ideas came to life as businesses but that those that did were represented by the buildings and logos we passed on the highway Did I say we love the world of small business?

We have observed something about the business world. It was an easy observation because our businesses have been small businesses. Our observation is that most of what is written in business literature is written about big business, the global Fortune 5000. The CEOs of Disney, Mercedes, Boeing, and Sony are more likely to be pictured on the front of BusinessWeek than the owner of Bobs Steak House, Lundin & Chaet Accounting, or Melissas Meats. And when a well-known business speaker comes to town, you can expect the examples used in the talk to come from large businesses with global reach.