American Prudential Capital, Inc.

I just read an article by By Scott Anderson, Director and Senior Economist, Wells Fargo Securities.

Usually big time ECONOMISTS just don’t have much to say about small business that a small business owner would believe.  But this guy gets us.  Big Time.

Among the relevant things he said were the following comments:

“The Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business sentiment index hit a record low in the third quarter of 2010, as small businesses continued to struggle to grow revenues and manage their financial condition.

Their future expectations plunged in the third quarter and many reported scaling back on hiring and capital spending plans over the coming year. Anecdotally, many remain uncertain about the economy, bank credit, taxes, and healthcare expenses, and thus do not feel comfortable aggressively expanding their businesses.

Small businesses historically have created almost half of all net new jobs in the United States, so their lack of participation at this stage of recovery is a big deal.”

The condition of small businesses is a Very Big Deal and Mr. Anderson has plainly stated why:

1.   Small businesses create AT LEAST one half of all new jobs.

2.   Small businesses are scaling back because they are concerned about the coming tax increases to small businesses, the increase in the cost of health insurance, the lack of available financing, and the chance the economy will tank, again.

3.  Small businesses are struggling and as long as they do the economy will hang from a cliff.

If Small businesses are not hiring, and they are not, then who is?  According to Mr. Anderson,

“…this recovery is already the mother of all jobless recoveries, and many of the jobs created over the last year, being temporary in nature, could disappear as quickly as they were created.”

The jobs that have been created have been “temporary.”  Mr. Anderson went on to say, “employment declined by 8.4 million jobs and the U.S. unemployment rate peaked at 10.1%, and increase of 5.7 percentage points from May of 2007.”

If small business is responsible for one half of all new jobs created, historically, and small business is not creating new jobs, then it follows that any recovery is going to be jobless.

If you are unemployed, this is not good news.  It sounds so impersonal, unless you are unemployed.  Then it IS personal, very personal.

So….Stop Looking For A Job.

Let me say that another way.  Chances are the job you got layed off from still needs to be done, by someone.  Why not you?

You have skills and importantly you have insider knowledge about what could be improved in your former industry.  So why not take that knowledge and start your own business?

We are working with a new client who is doing just that.  Is she scared to death?  You bet.  But she is surrounding herself with advisers and helpers who will guide her along the way.

The personal solution to the jobless recovery is to recover from being an employee and get out there and build, buy or start your own business.  What have you got to lose?  Chances are you have already been looking for that invisible job long enough.

If your business is what they call B2B, (business to business), then we can even show you how to get your business to pay its own way.     We can show you how to buy competitors out of cash flows.

If you want to meet other like minded folks…well, you now who we are.

Brenda Standlee

Kevin McCarthy has been a friend of mine for many years.  He is the author of The On-Purpose Person and The On-Purpose Business.  In a recent email to his network Kevin dealt with the eternal question of FEAR.  You can hear what Kevin has to say at:

http://www.kevinwmccarthy.com/my_weblog/2010/07/is-fear-avoidable.html

Kevin lists the number two fear that entrepreneurs face as the Fear of Success. Now that may seem strange to those of you who have never owned a business.  After all, one would think that personal success is a prime motivator for entrepreneurs and that is true.  But….

What entrepreneurs have to face every day is the possibility of success.  Sure they face the possibility of failure.  But, success has a set of problems that can imobilize and entrepreneur.

What if you actually get that great big contract?  What if you have to suddenly hire a bunch of people you have never even met?  What if your client likes your proposal and wants to “roll it out” nationwide…this year?

Believe it or not, these are the very things that have caused many well intentioned entrepreneurs to fail.  Success can bring failure and failure hides within every success for the entrepreneur.

Then there is the real fear of being a fluke.  Truly, entrepreneurs frequently fear not being able to “keep up appearances.”  That is, they fear not being able to come up with the next success.  This is the fear of not being able to repeat a success.  This fear can keep the entrepreneur from reaching for the success in the first place.

I once knew a wonderful lady who had become a very successful business owner while still in her 20′s.  She came from a family of entrepreneurs so she knew the ropes.  Her business really exploded.  She was written-up in national magazines.  She was beautiful, brilliant and young.  But her business failed.

When I asked her what happened she replied, “It all just came too easily and too fast.”  She had not been taught how to handle success.  Unfortunately, she did not “get back in the saddle” because the fear of success was very real to her at that point.

My advice is to talk to your trusted advisors about how to handle the success before it hits.  Put in place the processes and procedures that will serve you well when that client finally says “yes”.  Do it now.

Get the financing in place to help you make payroll every week; meet the recruiters who will give you the kind of service you will need to hire and train the right people quickly; and talk about where you will give.

In our family, talking about where we want to give the next windfall is our favorite conversation.  You see, knowing that your success isn’t just for and about you…that it has a higher purpose, can take the wind right out of those fears.

And that brings us back to Kevin McCarthy.  If you want help sorting out the idea that your success has a higher purpose, Kevin is your man.

If you want help meeting that payroll…well, we have an application for that.

Brenda Standlee

We at American Prudential have credit lines of up to 6 million available for companies working on the Gulf Clean Up.  Right Now!

Already we are working with several companies supplying workers to the area to do the job of cleaning up the oil.  For these companies this means a real strain on their cash flow.

In some cases the clients have seen their accounts receivable balloon up by 2 to 4 million dollars overnight.  Now, that is a cash flow problem.  It will take 45 to 90 days for them to be paid and they have payroll to make every week.

They are thankful for the work but would not be able to take it if it were not for the funds we have available for them.  The good news is that we have plenty more available and the best news is that we are not ratcheting up the price because of the demand.

These are times when it pays to know who you are doing business with.  Our rates are a flat discount off the face value of the invoice and we never charge “hidden” fees.  There are no fees for applying for our services and no fees for discontinuing our services.

Our clients always get a fair price and excellent service.  So, if you have an opportunity to do some good for us here in the Gulf but you are wondering how you will fund your operation, give us a call.  We care about out Gulf states and the companies who serve here.

We will take care of you and treat you right.  You have our word on that.

Brenda Standlee

You are probably not an elitist.  But you may have innocently been supporting a profit-making elitist concept without even knowing it.

The pitch goes something like this:  ”pay me $20,000  to $200,000 and I will let you join my club where you will meet only the most important movers and shakers around.”

When invited to attend one such event I was told over and over how very important the other people in the room were.  There was only one problem…I had never heard of any of those folks.

Come to find out they probably had been told that I would be at the meeting and that I was “really important.”   Needless to say someone was selling elitism but I was not buying.

The identifying mark of truly great leaders and statesmen over the years is that they meet people on level ground.  I think Senator Kerry lost his bid for the Presidential nomination because he was perceived as an elitist.

John McCain, who went to school with Kerry and moves in the same circles, did not get labeled an elitist.  Neither of them won the office.  Possibly they are both elitists.  I don’t know.

What I do know is that I make conscious decisions to avoid elitist circles.  My clients are not elitists, my prospects are not elitists, my friends are not elitists.  So, I see no practical advantage in being elitist.

But every so often someone tries to convince me that I should move in elite circles.  Why?

I believe that elitism as a business model may work if you are selling 30 million dollar houses in River Oaks.  For the rest of us, the Internet, email, Facebook, Linked-In, Twitter and all the rest have taken us into the business model of egalitarianism.

So, put on your best marketing face but make it your real face.   Tell people the truth and treat folks with respect.  Don’t “think more highly of yourself than you ought.”

Meet prospects on level ground and avoid groups that leverage off your “importance” to sell memberships or anything else.  Sure you will have to meet some folks who cannot use your goods or services.

But, you will never know who they know who knows someone who does need what you have to offer.  And that referral will be more than a warm lead, it will be a real deal.

Brenda Standlee

If you grow up poor it is easy to have  a defeated/helpless attitude.  That is, it is easy unless your parents do not have a “poverty mentality.”

I once knew a family, and you probably know one too, who came here from Vietnam with nothing.  The parents worked constantly mostly at the local gas station/food mart.  The children all did well in school and the parents helped them go to college.  They graduated and went on to become Pharmacists and Doctors.  How did this family succeed in getting out of poverty where so many others fail?

I think they succeeded because of their investments.  The parents wisely understood that they would not be leaving any great legacy of stock earnings to their children.  What they would leave them with was an education with which their children could pull, not only themselves but their parents as well, out of what could have been hope-crushing poverty.

The parents invested in their children.  They stayed the course through all the really tough years of raising children.  It was not easier for them than other families but harder; they worked all the time.  Older children had to supervise younger children.  Homework had to be checked and curfews enforced.

They were frugal, yes and they lived on what they earned.  They did not own a house which they could not afford. They did not own a house at all.   Yet, they ended their poverty in one generation!

You see these parents had internalized the concept of  ”servant leadership.”

You have probably heard the story about the man who visits Heaven and hell.  In hell people are sitting around a pot of stew with spoons 5 feet long strapped to their arms.  They are starving because they cannot get the spoons back from the pot to their mouths; the spoons are too long.

In Heaven folks sit around a similar pot of stew with the same 5 foot long spoons strapped to their arms.  But in Heaven everyone is fat and happy because they use the spoons to feed each other.

If one poor Vietnamese immigrant family can end their poverty in one generation, why can’t one town, one city, one state, one nation?

Brenda Standlee

When I was a senior in High School my English Civilization instructor was Dr. R. Lawrence Dowell, as best I recall.

President Kennedy had just been assassinated.  We lived in a suburb of Washington, D.C.  As you can imagine, we were young and distraught.  This was a world-changing moment for all of us.

In the midst of this,  my instructor asked me to stand up to answer a question.  What he asked me was this:  ”Would you be willing to die for the President of the United States?”  Or, “would you be willing to die for the Presidency of the United States?”  I chose the Presidency, the institution…not the man.

So, at this time of remembrance of wars present and past, what makes me so proud of our armed forces is that they will not only die for the preservation of our institutions but they will die for the man, the President, the Vice President, the Chief Justice and the janitor who cleans their offices.

You see, they are willing to die for me individually, for you, for your children, for your grand children.  They are willing to take the bullet, to step in between me and certain death.

This may come as a surprise to you but it does not come as a surprise to them.  They are committed to protecting us.  They protect our insane right to be wrong, our right to disagree, our right to be politically “left” or “right. ”

They protect the institutions AND the individuals.  They are willing to die to protect even those who despise them.

Since most of us are not willing to die for the man as well as the office, perhaps the least we can do is honor those who do, who have, and who always will…Our national heroes!

Banks turn to American Prudential Capital and Hal Means to assist their commercial customers with alternative funding.

(May 12, 2010 ) Houston, TX – H. F. Hal Means is a 37-year veteran of Texas banking, having served as president & CEO of banks in Wharton, Houston, & Tyler, TX. Following retirement from banking in 1996, he helped individuals & small businesses solve their financial concerns as a Houston financial planner with AXA Advisors, LLC, a Paris, France-based worldwide financial services firm for 11 years, retiring in 2007. In January, 2008, Means joined & now serves as an independent representative of American Prudential Capital, Inc., a 20 year-old family-owned commercial factoring firm headquartered in Houston. His focus here is on working with startups & referrals from banks.

His extensive experience includes upper general management, finance, marketing, staff leadership & on boards of directors. He was the founding president of the Houston bank & organizing manager of several key bank departments, including the acquisition of accounts from over 100 East Texas banks.

He is a Life Member of both the Texas Association of Business and the Greater Houston Partnership. Means co-created a national award-winning bank television advertisement & served as president of the Henderson County, TX United Way campaign, on the founding board of directors of the Regional East Texas Food Bank, East Texas Area Boy Scouts of America, several other bank boards & on the National Board of the Bank Marketing Association.

Prior to his career in banking, Mr. Means served as a Captain in the U.S. Army Artillery. He and his wife of 44 years have two children and two grandchildren.

For Release:
May 10, 2010
0500hrs CDT

For more information contact:
Eric Standlee, 281-377-6296, eric@americanprudentialcap

I have to confess that I have a hard time imagining who you are reading this post.  There is much you could be doing and many pages you could be reading, but here you are.  Isn’t that the way life is?

There are so many voices you can listen to,  many self-styled “experts” telling you what they want you to hear.  It makes them feel better, I suppose.

But as an entrepreneur, what do you really need to hear?  Imagine that you had a very good father and he passed out of your life at a very early age.  Odds are you would really benefit from hearing him say, “Well done.  You did a good job; you were faithful and you helped others.”

Run your business with that comment as your main goal.  Do what is right, keep faith with what you know is the truth, give your very best, help others along the way.

I recently had the very sad experience of seeing what was reported to be the charitable giving record of our Vice President.  I hope the report from their tax return is wrong.  I mean this with all my heart.  I am not sure I would want my giving record made public.  How about you?

The same can be said of our “truth-telling” record, or our “forgiving” record, or our “patience” record.   Before I rush to condemn the record of another person, I need to examine my own, study it and see if I have lived up to my own beliefs.

What I know about your business (and mine) is that, if you are the boss, what you do will be evident in the behavior of your employees.  Before you listen to the next business guru, take a look at what your Father would say about your example.

Run your race to hear, “Well done good, and faithful servant.”  There is no higher praise.

In an address delivered Friday March 19, 2010, by Sheila C. Bair, the Chairman of the FDIC, Ms. Bair said, “Small businesses create two thirds or more of all net new jobs.  And they overwhelmingly rely on credit provided by community banks.”

She went on to explain that while “overall bank lending is down” by the largest decline since 1942, “the smallest banks…actually increased their loans by more than half of one percent.”

We agree with Ms. Bair on this; community banks are essential to our economy and they ARE doing their share and more to provide credit to our small business community.

“The worst excesses”, according to Ms. Bair, “that led to the credit crisis were not generated by community banks.”  Most of  the subprime and nontraditional mortgages were not in the community banks.

Ms. Bair is correct that “While so many big banks keep pulling back, (Community Banks) are hanging in there doing (their) best to support the credit needs of our struggling economy.  That deserves recognition in Washington, and all our thanks.”

So, I suggest you thank a community banker today in a way he/she will really understand, do your banking with them!  Vote with your feet.  What you deposit with them they loan out to businesses in your community which creates local jobs for your friends and relatives.

If you don’t know a good community banker, give me a call at 713-690-8877 x 211 and I will hook you up with a community banker in your area.  I will call the banker personally and introduce your company.