Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com November 30, 2015 • Hartford Business Journal 21 BIZ BOOKS Onyx Moonshine finds niche to revive an American spirit "L iving Proof — Onyx Moon- shine's Journey to Revive the American Spirit — Business Principles from the Mind of a Moonshin- er" by Adam von Gootkin (The Career Press, $15.99). Von Gootkin and Pete Kowalczyk, co- founders of Onyx, can trace their moonshin- ing lineage back to the mid-1800s in Con- necticut where "Yankee shine" was made from corn and malted grains, rather than sugar cane that South- erners used. It became a busi- ness for them in 2009 — even though they knew nothing about making liquor or distri- bution channels. Why'd they decide on moon- shine in an already-crowded beverage market? It was a unique niche that was under- served. How'd they start? They read every book they could find and scoured the Internet for infor- mation. Their networking found a guy who designed alcoholic beverages for Heublein Co., which brought Smirnoff Vodka to the U.S. market in the 1950s, and a seed investor. How'd they make it sell? In addition to calling on retailers to create awareness, they intro- duced their network to the product. People began calling retailers and asking if they car- ried the product. Retailers began calling them. What did they learn as they built their business? While partners need to have clearly defined roles backed by a partner- ship agreement, talk things through because what seems tiny to one may be seen as a game-changer by the other. When it comes to employees learn to delegate. You take time away from your important tasks when you try to do their jobs, too. Don't fear the F-word (failure). Investors under- stand that plans rarely go as planned. They want to see an entrepreneur who makes moves, not excuses and never quits. The message: Opportu- nity thrives on an attitude of "Any- thing they can do, you can do better." When you see a gap in the marketplace, move quickly to fill it. • • • "Zombies Ate My Business — How to Keep Your Traditional Business from Becoming One of the Undead" by Jamie Gerdsen (Greenleaf Book Group, $16.95). Mainstay neighborhood businesses have been under attack for quite some time from big-box stores and web-based shop- ping. Gerdsen, the owner of Apollo Home, an HVAC company, believes that many local businesses saw themselves as victims; they gave up and closed. The reason they gave up: Like the walking dead, they led a stag- nant, narrowly-focused existence. Their enemy wasn't really the bigger, multi-option competitors; the enemies lived within — sameness and maturity. The employees were the same; the prod- ucts/services were the same; the custom- ers were the same; the daily operations were run the same way. "This is what we do and how we do it" routines made the businesses one-trick ponies. The "zombie business" owner began bas- ing decisions on what's least disruptive, rath- er than "what needs to be done to make them grow." The owner forgot that creativity was the lifeblood of any business. Employees were infected; they became zombies by default because new ideas weren't wanted. They did their jobs with little enthusiasm. So how can you change the culture from sameness and maturity to growth? While new blood may be part of the answer, the owner must be willing to drive change. Where can he drive it? Gerdsen uses the example of the choices he examined as CEO of Apollo Home. Three didn't provide diversification of the core business: expanding locally, expanding regionally through acquisition and line extensions that would take the firm into new markets. While there would be new customers, the core business would remain essentially the same. One choice did provide diversification that could open up new markets and new customer doors: adding complementary business lines via startup or acquisition. Expanded offerings would appeal to a broader demographic. Apollo HVAC became Apollo Home as it added plumbing and drain cleaning, electri- cal, handyman and appli- ance repair. Service con- tracts and home warranties bundled many services. The business grew again. The bottom line: "Victim of circumstance" isn't a business strategy. Think about what you could do, then execute. n Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer. Jim Pawlak OTHER VOICES CT's biz climate is about more than corporate taxation By Ellen Shemitz A basic line learned by every first year law student is that "bad facts make for bad law." This maxim holds true in the legislature as well as in the courts. Take the oft-repeated claim that Connecticut should give big business tax breaks to remedy an allegedly "bad business environment." Before those claims drive any legal changes, let's look at the underlying data, which simply does not support the complaints of special interests. Fact No. 1: Most Connecticut busi- nesses reported a net profit last year. The percentage of Connecticut busi- nesses that record net profits has increased in recent years, and is higher today than at any point since 2008. Fact No. 2: Busi- ness in Connecticut benefits from a highly educated workforce. Nearly 37 percent of Connecticut residents age 25 and older hold at least a bachelor's degree, compared with a national average of less than 29 percent. Visualizations of the most recent U.S. Census data show that the proportion of state residents with degrees in higher educa- tion has more than doubled since 1970. Fact No. 3: Business in Connecti- cut benefits from a highly innovative workforce. Bloomberg Rankings ranks Connecticut fourth in business innovation, noting that STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) professionals com- prise 2.72 percent of the state's population with another 10.2 percent holding science and technical degrees. Fact No. 4: Business in Connecticut ben- efits from a high rate of insurance coverage and a healthy population. Health matters to business. According to the Centers for Disease Control, "indirect costs of poor health including absenteeism, disability, or reduced work output may be several times higher than direct medical costs." More than 93 percnet of state residents carry health insurance in Connecticut. The oft- cited Measure of America 2013-2014 awards Connecticut first place on its American Human Development Index, with a life expectancy at birth topping 80.8 years. Fact No. 5: Connecticut has yet to fully recover from the Great Recession, with its rate of recovery slowed by long-term changes in the state industrial base. While Connecticut has yet to recover fully from the Great Recession, its challenges have more to do with long-term changes in the econ- omy and with the aging of the state population than with tax policies. Indeed, the conflicting measures of business taxation cited by detrac- tors reach widely divergent conclusions, rang- ing from the Council on State Taxation's index comparing state taxes to productivity, which ranks Connecticut second best in the nation, to the Laffer-American Legislative Exchange Council's Economic Competitiveness Index, which ranks Connecticut 47th. Business climate does, of course, mat- ter. We need a healthy economy to assure gainful employment and economically secure families. But business climate is about more than taxes. A healthy business climate requires good transportation and a highly educated workforce, both of which depend upon strategic planning and pub- lic investment. For our state to thrive, we need to support a state budget that invests in human capital and regional infrastruc- ture — a budget that builds toward a shared prosperity and sustainable growth rather than growing wealth disparity and intergenerational poverty. n Ellen Shemitz is the executive director of the Connecticut Voices for Children. Ellen Shemitz ▶ ▶ Opportunity thrives on an attitude of 'Anything they can do, you can do better.' When you see a gap in the marketplace, move quickly to fill it. ▶ ▶ We need a healthy economy to assure gainful employment and economically secure families. But business climate is about more than taxes. A healthy business climate requires good transportation and a highly educated workforce, both of which depend upon strategic planning and public investment.

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