The 7 Wastes of Business

 

There are 7 wastes that every business should be looking at to try and reduce or eliminate as they influence the efficiency of your business. The 7 wastes were first identified by Taiichi Ohno who was a Japanese industrialist and father of the Toyota Production System also known as Lean. The 7 wastes that were identified by Ohno are:

  1. Transportation
  2. Inventory
  3. Motion
  4. Waiting
  5. Overproducing
  6. Over-processing
  7. Defects

This can be remembered by using the acronym TIMWOOD

What does this all mean? We will break them down and give a summary of each of the wastes.

Transportation

Any form of transportation that does not add value to the process is considered a waste. Therefore, processes should be as close together as possible so that material flow can go from process to process without any significant delays. Poor layout tends to be the main contributor to transportation waste which includes multiple storage locations.

Inventory

Inventory waste is classed as all stock and work in progress that is more than the requirements necessary to produce goods or services. Excess inventory can be usually recognised by the amount of work in front of or after the process. This needs to be changed to a ‘Just In Time’ (JIT) requirement where inventory is produced as it is needed, and always work on FIFO (First In First Out) basis. This will help get the workflow through the processes quicker.

Motion

The waste of motion is basically any non-value-added movement by people or equipment that does not increase value to the product or service. This waste usually comes from a poor layout of the work area or station so there is excessive walking, reaching, bending etc. The term here is to work smarter not harder.

Waiting

Waiting is the idle time in between processes so people are standing around or work slower whilst waiting for the next job to come in. This waste comes about from poor synchronisation of the processes, incapable processes or not enough time is available to perform the work.

Over Producing

Over Producing is classed as the worst of all the 7 wastes as it causes other wastes and prevents the need for improvements. Overproduction is caused by producing things faster or more than is required. Therefore, batch sizes need to be reduced and the processes need to be made more reliable and the work needs to be done to demand not to forecast.

Over Processing

Over Processing is about putting more into the product or service than the customer demands. An architect, for instance, may call for all doors to have four hinges as it looks ascetically pleasing whereas three hinges would be practical, and the cost would be reduced. To avoid overprocessing standard work instructions should be produced so that people know what is required and should not deviate from it.

Defects

Defects is a waste where additional work is required for a product or service due to it being wrong. The cost of a defect may be low if caught at the start of a process but will be significantly higher if found by the customer as this can lead to warranty claims or court proceedings. This waste is usually caused by poor or non-existent work instructions or specifications, poor training, incapable process, or incapable supplier.

As many people work in an office or run their business from home we can see how these wastes can be applied to this environment.

Transportation – Interoffice Mail

Inventory – Full inboxes, Lengthy To-Do lists, long work queues

Motion – Walking to the copier/printer

Waiting – Delaying a meeting because someone is on holiday

Overproducing – Excessive email CCs

Over-processing – Documents going to different people for approval

Defects – Documents containing spelling and grammar errors

 

Summary

The 7 wastes can be seen in any business regardless whether it is office based or manufacturing the scale may be different, but they are still there if you look. By eliminating or reducing the 7 wastes you will find that your business will become more efficient therefore saving you time and money.

Is your property investment area in a buyer’s or seller’s market?

How many people really understand their property investment area? Quite often they are told to go where the housing stock is cheap, offer below market value and build up their portfolio of buy to let houses. So off they go and put in offer after offer without understanding the local area and whether they’re in a buyer’s or seller’s market. So how can you find out if the property that you are interested in will potentially accept your offer especially if you are looking to put in a low offer? You can use easily obtained data to help you make an informed decision on your potential target property.

You start by looking at how many houses of the same type including the number of bedrooms that are within a ¼ mile radius of the property that you are interested in. This information can be found through the property search engine RightMove. Once you have this number write it down. Then within the same search engine, there is a tab called house prices, then from the drop-down menu select ’Sold House Prices’ then enter the postcode of your property. Then filter the information so that you are looking at property within a ¼ mile radius of your, and set the filter for sold in the last year. This will give you the number of houses sold, again make a note of this figure.

Now for some simple maths. Take the number of housing sold in the last year and divide it by 12 to give you an average. E.g. 36 houses sold in the last year, 36/12 = 3, then you take your current number of houses for sale and divide it by your average figure, e.g. 7 houses currently for sale, 7/3 = 2.33. This figure of 2.33 represents your current month’s supply of housing stock, if it is less than 6 then it is a seller’s market, so there is no point in you putting in low offers, because unless it is a stressed owner, the seller will know that their property will sell quickly at on or very close to the asking price. If the figure is 6 then it is a balanced market, so you have a 50-50 chance of having a below-market offer accepted. If the figure is above 6 then it is a buyer’s market, therefore you can put in a below-market offer with a good chance of having your offer accepted because the market has a lot more properties that are up for sale.

In summary, using data is the best way of making an informed decision that can make a big difference to finding the right area and property. You will not only save time but also money, therefore it is wise to spend a little time checking the data before adventuring out to put in offers.

Risk Managing your Business

Introduction

So you have built up your business and things are going well when all of a sudden you are hit with something unexpected that has an impact on your business could you deal with it? Most entrepreneurs will fail at this point and maybe have to rethink their strategy and lose time and money implementing the changes. Most problems can be managed if you take the time to consider the risks to your business and have processes and procedures in place that kick in when there is a problem. As property investors or entrepreneurs we are considered risk takers or chancers by people that will not take the same risk as us. Let’s consider that for a moment, did we just take a risk without thinking things through and hoped for the best or did we do our due diligence and analysed things first? Although there are some people out there who did things on a wing and prayer, the majority of people analysed things first, so it is a risk, based on thought and data. By doing our due diligence we can decide what is an acceptable risk before taking the plunge. Therefore the perception of being risk takers and chancers is wrong, what we have become is informed business people. People associate risk with negativity, this, however, is incorrect as we can also use risk in a positive way because we have identified what it is and where possible we eliminate it.

Tools for Risk

There are a number of ways that we can look at risks to see if they are acceptable depending on the type of investment we want to undertake, these can range from a simple SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) analysis to a more sophisticated PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental) analysis. There are also a number of other tools that can be used in conjunction with the above analysis tools such as Pareto analysis, FMEA (Failure Modes and Effect Analysis), Fault Tree Analysis, Is – Is Not, etc. The main thing is that the tools are there to be used and failure to do so could result in you making the wrong decision which in turn could lead to losing money on your investment. However if you have taken your time to consider and manage the risk then if a problem arises it will not catch you out as you will have been prepared and a plan to mitigate the risk will then come into play.

If you are looking at property then you need to analyse the area for comparable properties in price, to see what the is the maximum done up value is for the property. You would also look at what the maximum rent you could charge, as both price and rent have a ceiling. You would also use one of the above tools to analyse the area to see if there are some plans or issues that could affect the price and rental of the property.

Conclusion

Due diligence should be the norm for an entrepreneur or property investor, and analysing the risk should become second nature. Failure to do so will eventually catch you out as there are only so many roles of the dice where you will be lucky. Failing to plan is planning to fail, therefore get acquainted with the tools that can help you understand, manage and mitigate risks, do not be afraid to ask questions and get into the detail of your planned investment, and get it right first time.

Recommended Reading

Identifying and Managing Project Risk: Essential Tools for Failure- Proofing Your Project

 

Learning about property investing from Wolves

It may seem strange to think that we as humans could learn something from animals after all are we not the top predator due to our creative minds. Wolves are always the bad characters in stories, myths and legends, nothing could be further from the truth, as wolves are very sociable, who work as a team and are highly intelligent. If we observe wolves we can obtain some insight on how to use some of their habits when it comes to investing in property. This may seem improbable, but before you dismiss it out of hand keep reading and have an open mind.

Teamwork

For wolves to succeed in nature they have to work as a team, it is the only way to survive. A lone wolf does not last long as they are social animals and need help from the rest of the pack, so they with very few exceptions soon starve, or become victims to other predators.

For an investor to succeed they have to have a team as they cannot do everything themselves. So an investor will have his power team such as Accountant, Solicitor, Broker etc. Without this team, the investor will not last as the investor will be starved from deals and other investors who are organised with teams will become predators who will take the deals away from the lone investor as they can act quickly.

Territory

Wolves know their territory intimately, nothing will happen in their territory without them knowing about it. By knowing their territory in this way the wolves know where their prey is likely to be and they also know how to use the terrain to surprise and attack their prey.

For an investor to succeed they need to know their investment area extremely well. Nothing should happen in the investor’s investment area without them knowing about it. The investor needs to know when there are changes and use their knowledge of the area to take advantage and make a potential gain.

Travel

Wolves are hunters, therefore, they travel long distances to find their prey and they search far and wide. They may travel fifty miles or more each day in search of food they can travel tirelessly for hours on end with no energy wasted.

The investor may have to travel long distances to get to their ideal investment area. Due to either the local property prices, the stock available or strategy the investor may not be able to invest in the area where they live, so it will be necessary to travel to different parts of the country. They must do this without wasting energy thinking that they have to get up early, they may have to drive for hours, etc. travel is part of investing so the investor must learn to accept this.

Hunting

Wolves are incredibly patient animals, they will carefully watch and wait to pick out a suitable prey. They are looking for a weakness that they can exploit, such as a slight lameness. Wolves will keep an eye on their potential prey by constantly checking on them to see if anything has changed that has made them weaker. Wolves may trail a herd of elk, caribou etc. for days before making its move. During this time, they are assessing the herd, looking for an animal that displays any sign of weakness, and this is just the beginning. Wolves also factor in other conditions that will affect the outcome such as weather and terrain that can tip the scales in favour of the wolves or its prey. Once a prey has been picked out the wolves become totally focused on it until they can bring it down.

The investor must also be patient, they must search out the right type of property, put in their best offer and wait and see if it will become accepted. At first, their offer may be rejected, but the investor must stay focused and keep watching and waiting and if they see no movement the investor will remind them of their offer. Once the vendor comes back with a counteroffer that they are prepared to accept then the investor will begin to negotiate and find a weakness until an agreement is reached. The investor must remain totally focused until the deal is done and contracts have been exchanged.

Conclusion

As can be seen, there are similarities between wolves and investors. Investors can learn from wolves because wolves are sociable animals that understand their territory and are fully focused as this is the only way that they can succeed in nature. The investor needs to be a sociable person that understands their investment area has the same focus and commitment if they are to succeed with their property investment journey.

 

Rental Yield

When investing in property you should always look at the Return On Investment (ROI), as you are buying the property to make money. Therefore you need to calculate the rental yield to ensure that the property that you are interested in will make you the most money on your investment. Yield uses the rental income over the initial cost of buying the property and it is expressed as a percentage. There are several ways of calculating yield, but for buy to let (BTL) we will use the most common one known as rental yield. This is calculated by the rent minus the running costs and dividing it by the total amount invested to purchase the property. This will give you a percentage, the higher the percentage the better the deal.

So our formula would look like this:

 

Yield = (((Monthly Rental – Running Costs) *12) / Investment)*100

 

Let us do a simple worked example:

Suppose that you have found a couple of potential properties that you are interested in but now you have to decide which one to choose. Property one costs £175,000 with a potential rental of £650 per month. Property two costs £200,000 with a potential income of £800 per month.

 

Property 1.

Monthly Rental Return = £650

Investment = £175,000

£650*12 = £7,800 (Annual Rent)

£7,800/£175,000 = 0.044

0.044*100 = 4.4% Yield

Property 2.

Monthly Rental Return = £800

Investment = £200,000

£800*12 = £9,600 (Annual Rent)

£9,600/£200,000 = 0.048

0.048*100 = 4.8% Yield

 

Although property two costs more to purchase it gives a higher yield, therefore a better return on investment.

 

The above examples is a simplistic version, as it does not include things like voids which can skew your calculations, so you may want to stress test the calculations by using a figure of 10 months annual rent instead of 12 months. You also have to obtain accurate information which includes the following:

  1. Cost of property
  2. Stamp Duty
  3. Mortgage
  4. Mortgage arrangement fees
  5. Building Insurance
  6. Survey Fees
  7. Legal fees
  8. Tenant acquisition fees
  9. Refurbishment costs
  10. Maintenance Fees
  11. Voids running costs (Council Tax, Utilities etc.)

There may be other items that you need to add to the above list e.g. for HMO you may need to include a licence fee and furniture, so do your due diligence and be as accurate as possible.

 

Be wary of yield figures that are given by agents and developers as they are often based on the basic cost of the property so that it makes the deal look more attractive. So do not be afraid to ask questions and ask how they have come up with their figure and use your list as a checklist to help you. Also, do your own due diligence and do a comparable check of local property prices within a ¼ of a mile of the property that you are interested in and what they sold for and also do a similar local search for the rentals in the area.

 

I’m in business; why do I need to know about the law and regulations?

Introduction

I know that this can be a boring subject and most of you would rather watch paint dry than read through a set of regulations, but bear with me as I am just going to pick out a few and try to show you that in reality, you need to understand which laws and regulations apply to your business, as the consequences of not doing so can be very costly.

Consumer Law

‘Caveat emptor (buyer beware)’ still reads true even though this is slowly being eroded away with the introduction of consumer law that is put in place to protect the consumer. It has long been argued that ignorance of the law is not an excuse; however, consumer law is not clear either for the consumer or for the providers of goods or services. According to the government’s Department for Business Innovation and Skills, there are twelve separate pieces of legislation that covers the key consumer rights within the UK. For those that need to enforce the consumer rights, there are sixty pieces of legislation that cover the investigatory powers. This makes things confusing for both the consumer and providers to understand their rights and responsibilities.

“To prosper, companies need satisfied customers, but the expectations of customers are growing. Well-informed consumers, able to make discerning choices, put pressure on businesses to provide better goods and services, tailored to the needs of their customers and sold at competitive prices… The revolution in shopping via the internet and digital highways will enable consumers to compare prices and product quality not only against those available in the other Member States of the European Union but elsewhere in the world including the US. I have no doubt that this will change forever the ways we judge whether and if we are getting a good deal… We are also working on proposals to ensure that consumer law is consistently enforced and that traders who cheat consumers are quickly stopped” Said the former Minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs Dr Howells in his speech to the Yorkshire Fiscal Group (Woodroffe and Lowe’s Consumer Law and Practice (2013))

However this speech does not reflect the reality of internet shopping as the majority of people sign up for goods and services without reading the terms and conditions, this was proved by an investment company called Skandia Investment Solutions who conducted a survey to prove that it was easy for consumers to sign up for products and services on the internet without really knowing what their consumer rights are. 43% said that they did not read the terms and conditions as they were boring and difficult to understand. 58% said that they would rather read an instruction manual or utility bill and 12% said they would rather read the telephone book. Because consumers did not read the terms and conditions the survey revealed that 21% of consumers had suffered because of it and that one in twenty consumers had actually lost money. Whilst consumers may try to contest contracts using the Unfair Contracts Terms Acts they will find that it will not apply because they had simply failed to read the terms and conditions.

At present, anyone can set up a business and start trading with the minimum amount or no knowledge of consumer laws and regulations. This is especially true for online internet businesses such as services that you may offer e.g. building a website, sourcing, etc. or selling a few items on a website such as eBay or Amazon and then dedicated more time to it and expanded the business until it has become a source of income. People are often not aware that the Distance Selling Regulation applies to them. This and other laws and regulations do not even come into mind when the time comes to developing a business plan as it is not high up on the agenda or has not been considered. Furthermore, consumer law is not generally discussed when the business plan is presented to a body such as a bank or business advisor. Knowledge of consumer law may be raised to a higher status once they

  1. a) begin trading,
  2. b) caught out by an unhappy consumer who has purchased a product or service and has quoted a law that they believe gives them protection,
  3. c) or if they have fallen foul of the law when they have been visited by one of the enforcement agencies.

To try and simplify the law the UK Government has developed a Proposed Consumer Bill of Rights The government believes that the bill will help both consumers and businesses will understand their rights through a simplified framework of legislation. The idea is to empower the consumer and promote growth in the markets by reducing regulatory burdens for businesses. It is also hoped that it will increase competition as it is believed that open competition is good for the consumer because it will result in lower prices, increased quality and more choice of products or services.

Health & Safety

For those of you that are property investors, you need to be aware of a regulation that affects you directly, but I bet that very few of you know of it. The regulation is called CDM 2015, Construction Design and Management which is a regulation that was brought out in 2015, hence CDM 2015. The regulation is about health and safety and how it is applied in the construction industry. You may be thinking that this does not apply to as you are not in construction, however, this regulation applies to any building except your own personal private resident, so this does affect you and your business as you will be carrying out refurbishments. Here is a taster of the regulations, however, I strongly suggest that you download it and become familiar with it.

Regulation 4 Client duties in relation to managing projects

(1) A client must make suitable arrangements for managing a project, including the allocation of sufficient time and other resources.

(2) Arrangements are suitable if they ensure that—

(a) the construction work can be carried out, so far as is reasonably practicable, without risks to the health or safety of any person affected by the project; and

(b) the facilities required by Schedule 2 are provided in respect of any person carrying out construction work.

(3) A client must ensure that these arrangements are maintained and reviewed throughout the project.

(4) A client must provide pre-construction information as soon as is practicable to every designer and contractor appointed, or being considered for appointment, to the project.

(5) A client must ensure that—

(a) before the construction phase begins, a construction phase plan is drawn up by the contractor if there is only one contractor, or by the principal contractor; and

(b) the principal designer prepares a health and safety file for the project, which—

(i) complies with the requirements of regulation 12(5);

(ii) is revised from time to time as appropriate to incorporate any relevant new information; and

(iii) is kept available for inspection by any person who may need it to comply with the relevant legal requirements.

(6) A client must take reasonable steps to ensure that—

(a) the principal designer complies with any other principal designer duties in regulations 11 and 12; and

(b) the principal contractor complies with any other principal contractor duties in regulations 12 to 14;

(7) If a client disposes of the client’s interest in the structure, the client complies with the duty in paragraph (5)(b)(iii) by providing the health and safety file to the person who acquires the client’s interest in the structure and ensuring that that person is aware of the nature and purpose of the file.

(8) Where there is more than one client in relation to a project—

(a) one or more of the clients may agree in writing to be treated for the purposes of these Regulations as the only client or clients; and

(b) except for the duties specified in subparagraph (c) only the client or clients agreed in paragraph (a) are subject to the duties owed by a client under these Regulations;

(c) the duties in the following provisions are owed by all clients—

(i) regulation 8(4); and

(ii) paragraph (4) and regulation 8(6) to the extent that those duties relate to information in the possession of the client.

Conclusion

Laws and regulations are the least understood area of your business as most people do not look at them and this can be a big mistake as it could cost you dearly. Be informed as this is your best defence. Some of you may be thinking that you have a solicitor that can keep you abreast of things, but they can’t know everything about your business, e.g. how many solicitors are aware that CDM 2015 affects you? Start to get discussions on laws and regulations going in your online groups and networks as this will help with research and understanding of what can affect you.

 

Further Reading

https://www.gov.uk/online-and-distance-selling-for-businesses/overview

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/pdfs/ukpga_20150015_en.pdf

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/l153.htm

 

 

The One Thing

Introduction

My mentor/coach Mark Dalton told me to read a book called ‘The One Thing’ by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan. If Mark tells me to read it I know it is for a reason, so I obtained a copy and having read it I know why he wanted me to read it. This book explains how and why you need to focus on the one thing that can make a difference to your business, life, relationship etc. This is about the focus and not the subject matter of what you want to apply that focus to.

Background

The authors explain that a tiny bit of focus can make a big difference; this is basically explained by the use of domino effect. ‘In 1983. Lorne Whitehead wrote in the American Journal of Physics that he’d discovered that domino falls could not only topple many things, they could also topple bigger things. He described how a single domino is capable of bringing down another domino that is actually 50 percent larger. This is an interesting concept and it was taken up by another physicist who created ‘eight dominoes out of plywood, each of which was 50 percent larger than the one before. The first was a mere two inches, the last almost three feet tall. The resulting domino fall began with a gentle tick and quickly ended ‘with a loud SLAM.’’

A demonstration of this can be seen Here.

What this is trying to convey is that by understanding and focusing on your one thing then you can make a big difference. The book looks at things that get in the way and comes up with a list called ‘The Six Lies Between you and Success’ the list is as follows:

  1. Everything matters equally
  2. Multitasking
  3. A disciplined life
  4. Willpower is always on will-call
  5. A balanced life
  6. Big is bad

The authors then go through each of these six lies and explains why they are lies.

Being a Chartered Quality Professional myself I was delighted to see the Quality Guru Joseph M. Juran mentioned with regard to the 80/20 rule as ‘GM executives invited him to review research on management compensation that followed a formula described by a little known Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto. In the 19th century, Pareto had written a mathematical model for income distribution in Italy that stated 80 percent of the land was owned by 20 percent of the people. Wealth was not evenly distributed. In fact, according to Pareto, it was actually concentrated in a highly predictable way. A pioneer of quality-control management, Juran had noticed that a handful of flaws would usually produce the majority of defects. This imbalance not only rang true to his experience, but he suspected it might be a universal law – and bigger than what Pareto had observed might be bigger than even Pareto had imagined.’ The Pareto principle or the 80/20 rule as it is known by people outside of manufacturing can be applied to your business by using the smallest amount of focused effort or input (20%) to create the biggest return or output (80%). What the book conveys is take your 20% and keep reducing it until you get to the single most important thing, so in effect, you are now looking at a 1/99 rule.

The authors explains that you need a ‘Focusing Question’ to help you to identify your one thing. It does this by the use of a model that gives you four options to frame your question.

 

An example is given on how the model is used to obtain a great question

From this example you have found a great question ‘What can I do to double sales in six months?’ This now needs to be converted into the ‘Focusing Question: “What’s the ONE Thing I can do to double sales in six months such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”’

There are three possible categories that answers can come in:

  • Doable
  • Stretch
  • Possibility

The authors suggest that you should ignore the first two and concentrate on the third answer as this is what high achievers will look for, so you should too.

The authors have several more models that are useful to help you find and focus on your One Thing which looks at Purpose, Priority, Productivity and Profit. They also suggest three commitments ‘First, you must adopt the mindset of someone seeking mastery. Mastery is a commitment to becoming the best, so to achieve extraordinary results you must embrace the extraordinary effort it represents. Second, you must continually seek the very best ways of doing things. Nothing is more futile than doing your best using an approach that can’t deliver results equal to your effort. And last, you must be willing to be held accountable to do everything you can to achieve your ONE Thing.’

Conclusion

The authors of this book certainly make it clear that you need to find your One Thing to be able to obtain great results. They give you the theory and the tools so that you can understand it and apply it to your business, life etc. It is a clear and easy read that is aimed at practicality rather than academic theory, so it is up to you to take action and apply it to find your One Thing.

 

 

 

Make the Impossible Possible

Make the Impossible Possible: One Man’s Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary. By Bill Strickland

I came across Bill Strickland when I was browsing the TED Talks and was immediately struck by what he had achieved. So I did a search on him and found that he had written a book, so I sent off for it and I am pleased that I did as Bill’s story is really remarkable and this autobiography is well worth reading.

Background

Bill was born in 1947 and raised in Manchester, Pittsburgh, USA. This was a poor ghetto that was predominately black and he describes it as ‘The streets around me were lined with sad, sagging row houses in various states of collapse, their walls made of grimy, mismatched vinyl siding or bowed-out brick. Paint peeled from the rotting window trim. Torn curtains or shredded plastic blinds hung in many of the windows. Some windows had been busted out and repaired with cardboard and tape. Weeds grew wild in vacant lots, as high as my head, and yards and lots always seemed to be filled with junk – old tires, rusted kitchen appliances, automobile parts, mounds of garbage.’ From the description, you can imagine the despair of living in such a place and having to see it day in and day out. Bill describes the type of people that lived there ‘I passed ruined people in my neighbourhood every morning on my way to school. Some use to scare me – the scam artists, the drug dealers, the predators and small-time hoods. You had to give them a wide berth or they find a way to get a piece of your life. Others simply saddened me: people who were lost, frightened, hollow and used up.’ Bill’s mother was determined that her family would always act with respect and dignity as she told them ‘Just because we’re poor, we don’t have to live like defeated people’

Bill was cutting classes and was cruising his way at school doing the bare minimum to scrape through, until one morning whilst walking down a school corridor he smelt coffee, so he followed the smell to a classroom where a teacher was working on a potter’s wheel whilst listening to jazz. Bill was intrigued and wandered in to get a closer look and ended up having a go at working the clay. He became hooked and showed up to every class and he was encouraged by his teacher Frank Ross who went out of his way by speaking to the other teachers when he started missing some of their classes because he was hiding out in the art class by telling them ‘This kid’s on fire, and I think he has potential. Can’t you cut him some slack?’ which they did. Bill became more focused, disciplined, optimistic and mature and he was soon asked to exhibit some of his work in a gallery. This was a turning point for him as he was asked to appear as a demonstration artist at the Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh where a crowd people soon appeared to watch him work and ask questions and as he puts it ‘These folks, most of them white, saw past all the labels they might have otherwise used to define me: Disadvantaged. Black. Poor. They were seeing me as a person with something unique to offer.’ Bill decided that he wanted to help his community by starting an art centre so he put a proposal together and it was presented to the bishop of the Episcopalian diocese of Pittsburgh. The bishop thought it was a great idea and to ensure that Bill did everything properly they sent him off to their lawyers who were the most prestigious law firm in the city to learn how to become incorporated. Bill called his centre the Manchester Craftsman Guild, and it wasn’t long before he began to hear from teachers of the public schools and parents of the kids that showed up to the arts centre telling him that the kids were showing signs of improvements in their lives.

It was not long before he took over the Bidwell Training Centre which was used for job training programs in Manchester but did not live up to its expectations. The centre was run down in a seedy part of Manchester where people were doing drugs and gambling. The rooms were cramped, bleak and dingy with windowless classrooms and where vandalism and theft were rampant. Bill got his staff together and told them that they were going to paint the place that weekend and anyone who did not show up would be fired. They thought he was kidding until one staff member did not show and he fired him. Bill made a statement to his staff ‘We aren’t going to live like this or treat our kids in this way anymore.’

There was a fire at the Bidwell Centre which was quickly contained by the fire brigade but when they looked around the building and found that there was no fire escapes, sprinkler systems that were just for show but did not actually work they condemned the building. Bill found a nearby warehouse to rent and moved the centre to it. Bill was now desperate for funding so he kept his eyes peeled for a sign that could help and it came in the form of the new IBM electric typewriter. He needed new typewriters at the school and the sales rep made the case for the electronic versions, so he told him that he would buy them on condition that he met with the regional operations director for IBM. After giving the executive a tour of his centre and talking to him they decided to collaborate on a training program that would turn out typists specifically prepared to master the new machines and the executive Ed Conrad joined Bill on the board of directors. The next big thing that was spotted was that Warner was putting in cable television, so Bill called the executive and after introducing himself asked who was going to build the cable system? The executive told him that they had not figured that bit out yet, so Bill suggested that they collaborate on a training program to train the workforce which was agreed. Although this helped the centre, the future was not really secure as finances were very tight and at one point knew they were going to miss the payroll and so had to let people go. Bill felt a sense of loss and as he puts it ‘How did you let this happen? You’ve been treading water for fifteen years. You let yourself become a miserable grant writer, going door to door with your hat in your hand. You let the powers that be define you, man, you let them decide what is and isn’t possible. You need to stand for something. You need to make a difference to people’s lives.’ At that moment he glanced out of the window at a barren plot of land and was startled by a vision. ‘I saw a sleek, hip, low slung building, earth-toned, honeycombed with windows and skylights and bathed in golden light.’ He remembered seeing a similar light before when he had visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s residential masterpiece Fallingwater. He knew that he had to build a centre bathed in that light that he saw in his vision to make a difference in his community.

A few weeks after his vision he was talking to a leading architect Tasso Katselas about his vision and mentioned Frank Lloyd Wright, to which Tasso showed him a framed photograph of him and Frank Lloyd Wright together, it turned out that he was one of Frank’s students. He produced a model of the building that Bill wanted which Bill then took on visits to corporations to try and raise the five million dollars that would be required to build it. On one occasion he was told ‘Come on Bill, Manchester doesn’t need the Taj Mahal’. Undeterred he continued to try and raise the money, so far each corporation told him that they would give him money towards his building on the condition that he found matching money. Bill had a friend called Diana Jannetta who was chair of the Pennsylvania Arts Council and she believed in Bill’s work so she arranged for him to meet the governor of Pennsylvania Dick Thornburgh in a private meeting. Bill describes the meeting that took place ‘When the door opened and they waived me in, I laid the model on the governor’s desk and let him look it over. He smiled approvingly and asked a few questions, but I sensed that he had already made up his mind. ‘You think you can make this place work’ he asked. ‘Yes Governor,’ I said, ‘I do’. ‘ Then stick out your hand’, he said, ‘you’re going to get your centre.’ They broke ground and started to build the centre in 1984 and began to get noticed by powerful people. One of the most important was John Heinz, a US senator and heir to the Heinz company who told him ‘I like what you are trying to do, and we want to be part of it. As you know we’re trying to improve our minority hiring efforts at Heinz. You can help us a lot if you’d include a food training program at your new facility.’ Bill at first was reluctant as he did not know anything about food, but the senator was persistent ‘What if we kicked in a million dollars and full time services of the head of our research department’ he asked. ‘Well Mr Heinz, ‘ I replied slowly, ‘ it looks like we’re going into the food service business.’ With Heinz help that put a training program together that almost guaranteed that graduates from the centre would get good paying jobs not only as food technicians at Heinz but also as chefs at restaurants throughout the city.

Bill said that he learnt a lot from John Heinz and is thankful that John embraced his vision that so many others had dismissed. The lesson to Bill was ‘Trust your passion, identify your dreams, and find the courage to share them with others, no matter how many times they call you a fool. If your vision has merit, no matter how impossible it may seem, someone will recognise it and help you make it come true.’ A day after the centre opened the pharmaceutical giant Bayer came and visited the centre and said ‘We hear that you’ve been training food technicians for Heinz, we need chemical technicians at Bayer. We would like to work with you on creating a program that would give us the kind of employees we’re looking for.’ This was soon followed up with visits from other labs and chemical companies, then hospitals and were soon training people for highly skilled jobs. This went against the norm where ‘Society has always seen poor folks as a social burden, people in need of charity and assistance. But we showed the poor people to be people of unlimited potential, assets to the community and valued employees to the companies that hired them. When corporations support us now, it wasn’t out of social obligation. It was because our programs worked – for the community and for their own bottom lines. We had found a point where the interest of capitalists and inner-city folks intersected. We had turned conventional attitudes about the poor upside down.’

Bill found ways to pay for his passion to help his community and turn it around and he also used it to help him become a part time commercial pilot by thinking out of the box. After his first ever flight as a passenger he decided that he wanted more of it and so when everyone was scrambling to get their hand luggage and get off the plane Bill hung back then met the pilot and asked him how could he get a job as a pilot. At first they chuckled but then saw he was being serious and told him that it would not be easy but the first thing he needed to do was to get a private pilot’s licence. So Bill found a local flying school and got his licence, now he needed to get his commercial flying licence, the other pilots as the flying school made jokes about it but Bill wasn’t going to let them dampen his spirits. To qualify for his licence he would need to log at least one thousand hours of flying time which he calculated would cost $50,000 which he could not afford. As he was driving past an open hangar he saw an aircraft for sale with an asking price of $50,000 ‘It struck me that my flight school might need another plane for training, so I called and asked the owner if he’d be interested in leasing a plane from me. He said he’d be willing if the terms were right. The next day, I took his willingness to the bank – literally. I told the loans officer I wanted to buy an aeroplane, then lease it back to the fight school for a monthly fee that would cover my loan payments. The maths added up, so they loaned me the money.’ Bill obtained his commercial pilot’s licence and went on to fly for Braniff Airlines.

 

Conclusion

Bill shows through his work that you don’t have to move away from your area to be successful, you need to understand your area and come up with solutions to the local problems. Bill also demonstrates that having a good network is important and that you should be politically neutral as it will open more doors for you. As he puts it, ‘No one accomplishes anything really worthwhile without the help of others. Learning to spot others in life who can help you to achieve your goals is a key component to success. But I’m convinced that knowing how to present yourself in a way that allows them to recognise you is an even more important talent to master.’ Having a dream that you can follow with passion is a must as ‘A successful life can be built – must be built out of the simple and profound experiences and values that make us feel most human and most alive.’ Throughout the book there are lots of golden nuggets that is useful and that you can learn from and apply to your business. Has Bill’s model worked? Well his model is now being exported to towns and cities across the world to help solve local problems. The centre has gone on to host Jazz concerts with the biggest names in Jazz appearing there and has its own record label that has won Grammy Awards, it has opened a large greenhouse which grows orchids and fruit and vegetables which it supplies to local markets and it is going from strength to strength.

To learn more about Bill Strickland you can visit his website:

http://www.bill-strickland.org/aboutbill.html