Ready?  Okay, here it is:  be available.

If the phone rings, answer the darn thing.  At a minimum, don’t let it go into voice mail unless you – or someone else on your team – absolutely, positively will call back within a specified time.

During a recent interview for my upcoming book on late blooming entrepreneurs, one successful business owner had this to say:  “Always answer your phone and say yes –then do what you said you would do.”

Another said he picked up a nice chunk of new business simply because he answered his phone.  That didn’t happen when the customer called four other companies.

Ever called a business to place an order — and got a recorded message saying the phone mailbox is full and not accepting messages?  Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

On the opposite end of the spectrum are companies like L.L.Bean, which receives top service ratings in part because it strives to answer most calls within 20 seconds and always with a “live” person.  Granted, L.L.Bean has a bigger budget than many businesses, but its service philosophy isn’t that difficult to adopt, is it?

The same principle applies to email, of course.  Sure, most business websites have a “contact us” section – but many times, you won’t find the name of an individual who can help with questions or problems.  More often than not, the listed contact is something warm and personal like “info@companyname.com.”  The name alone leaves doubts about whether you’ll receive any response at all.

Having been customers all their lives, people who start businesses later in life tend to appreciate the “be available” approach to customer service.   In an era of automatic communications, it’s become unusual to call or email a business and reach a human being on the first try.  Why not make your business one of the few, special places where that happens?

By the way, if you have any comments on this post, please let me know.  I’ll get back to you in a few weeks.  Maybe.

In an interview with BusinessNewsDaily, Joe Vogel, author of ”Man in the Music: The Creative Life and Work of Michael Jackson,” says one of Jackson’s greatest qualities was “his ability to envision something in his mind – something bold and different and innovative – and then have the willpower and work ethic to realize it.  He was constantly challenging himself and those around him to push beyond the ordinary.”

Vogel tells BusinessNewsDaily that Jackson often had friends and collaborators read “Jonathan Livingston Seagull,” which is about refusing to conform and striving for excellence.  “You see, even with his “This Is It” concerts at the age of 50, he wouldn’t accept mediocrity,” Vogel says. “He wanted the shows to be unlike anything people had experienced before.”

In addition, Vogel says he thinks Jackson “was a lot like Steve Jobs in that each new product – whether an album or video or single – was an event.”

You can read the full BusinessNewsDaily interview here.

As pointed out in a CNNMoney article, a plug for entrepreneurship during the Super Bowl may seem out of place at first.  The ad, however, is part of a broader Kauffman Foundation campaign to inspire everyday Americans — including nacho munching football fans — to launch their own businesses.

You can learn more about the ad from CNNMoney’s article or from this Kauffman Foundation news release .

Bill McKechnie

Want to know the secret to entrepreneurial success?   Pick one or two products to offer your customers and do them well.  Really well.

Okay, there may be more to it than that.  But not much, says Bill McKechnie.

“I subscribe to the mantra that success can be found in simplicity,” says McKechnie, who owns 5G Holdings, LLC, the Nashville, Tennessee franchisee for Five Guys Burgers and Fries.  “If you divide your success too much, you will degrade the quality of your product.”

It’s a view that mirrors the philosophy of the Five Guys organization, which began in 1986 as a carry-out burger joint in Alexandria, Virginia and now has 969 locations (and counting). According to the company’s website, owners Jerry and Janie Murrell and their five sons attribute Five Guys’ phenomenal growth to “their passionate and often fanatical focus on Quality Service and Cleanliness and their continual effort to keep things simple.”

Since acquiring Five Guys’ Nashville territory in 2006, the 54-year-old McKechnie has opened four stores in the area and plans to open eight more, including three this year.  In 2004, he got his start in the hamburger business by purchasing the rights for the Five Guys territory in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he operates three locations.

In one sense, McKechnie returned to his roots by acquiring the territory in Charlottesville, his current hometown and the site of his alma mater, the University of Virginia. In addition to his undergraduate degree from UVA, he has an MBA from the University of Chicago and a master’s from the London School of Economics.

Finding a Passion

After finishing school, McKechnie went to New York and became a security analyst – a job he didn’t like (“I was spending more time with analyses and less with people,” he says). He moved to the Washington, DC area to accept a position as director of finance and administration for a defense electronics firm in Fairfax, Virginia.

During that time, he got his first taste of entrepreneurship when he became involved with a startup that provided training and logistics support for the defense industry.  “I enjoyed the mechanics of starting something from scratch,” says McKechnie.

Still, McKechnie says he wasn’t enamored with his industry, which dealt with intangibles and “lacked a sense of identification with the product.”  He began searching for a new opportunity that would give him a passion.

That search led him to Great Harvest Bread Company, a specialty bakery franchise company based in Dillon, Montana.  In 1993, he opened his own Great Harvest Bakery in Alexandria, Virginia, where he embraced the company’s mission to “be loose and fun, bake phenomenal bread, run fast for customers, create exciting bakeries and give generously to others.”

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“Quality requires focus and focus requires discipline.” – Bill McKechnie, 5G Holdings 

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Eleven years later, McKechnie sold the bakery and moved back to Charlottesville, trading DC’s hectic pace for the more laid-back atmosphere of a mid-sized city.  He thinks his transition from Great Harvest to Five Guys wasn’t overly difficult because of the commonalities between the concepts.

“Hamburgers and bread are almost like commodities where the customer has many choices and differentiation is blurred,” he says. “If you stand for quality, you need to set a clear, recognizable standard to distinguish yourself — so that when it comes time for that customer to make a choice, only one name comes to mind.”

While this strategy may sound simple, executing it properly isn’t.  “Quality requires focus and focus requires discipline,” says McKechnie.  “Whether you are talking bread or hamburgers, you have a much greater ability to control the quality of the product when you only focus on a very limited number of offerings.”

“If I de-simplify and offer additional products in an effort to gather additional customers,” he asks rhetorically, “how much does that take my eye off the ball and risk losing my core customer and what I do well?”

Working Smarter

For McKechnie, who was 46 when he bought his first Five Guys franchise, being an older entrepreneur has advantages and disadvantages.  “With my age, I’ve acquired skills and experience that run the business gamut,” he says.  “I have an understanding of demographics, which enables me to support and defend the development side of what I do.”

“On the other hand, it’s the restaurant industry and a 24/7 business,” he adds.  “I’ve probably lost a step, but I try to counteract that by working smarter.  I wish I had the same energy I had at 20 but would not trade the experience I’ve gained.”

Part of that working-smarter approach is getting sufficient rest.  “I have a life outside of work – family, kids, wife, friends,” he says.  “Balance is key.  For me, that means being able to refresh with things that are important to me.”

Between opening more Five Guys locations and overseeing his current ones, McKechnie knows his workload won’t lighten anytime soon.  But he’s having a good time.

“Any entrepreneurial endeavor requires large amounts of time and energy,” he says.  “You had better be willing to make those commitments if you want to enter that environment.

“Otherwise, you’re better off staying out of it.”

As a result, the Georgia resident’s early dreams of entrepreneurship have come true.

The 57-year-old Block owns JustPaperRoses, which he founded around 1999.  For the first three years, he only did paper roses for first anniversaries.  Today, Block’s mostly Internet-based company not only sells roses made of paper but also out of wood, leather, lace, steel, silver and other materials that fit traditional wedding anniversary gift lists.

As he explains in a recent macon.com article, Block became interested in origami — the art of making designs out of folded paper — after a friend showed him how to make a rose with a cocktail napkin.  Eventually, his hobby led him to found JustPaperRoses.  He now does about 5,000 orders a year, mostly for anniversaries.

“My objective was to never again have a boss,” he says in the article.

You’ll find macon.com’s full story about Jeff Block and JustPaperRoses here.

“I think that what I have gone through the last couple of years, a normal person would have gone through a long time ago,” Evert says in the article. “When you’re a famous, successful person at 16 years old, the rules change for you. Everybody is doing things for you to make life easier so you can go out and play. And I think you miss out on lot of growing up and a lot of reality checks.”

The full Washington Post article can be found here.

If you’d like to throw your hat in the ring, you can check here for more details about the awards program.  Good luck.

Sharon Dillard

By Lynne Strang, Late Blooming Entrepreneurs

Sharon Dillard, 56, is the president of Get A Grip, Inc., a family owned and operated franchise company based in Albuquerque.  Prior to starting the company in 1999, Dillard spent 17 years in Dallas as a cosmetics executive.  Get A Grip, which refinishes kitchen countertops and bathtubs, has been featured on Entrepreneur^®’s Franchise 500^® list of franchise companies in the United States and Canada since 2007, currently ranking #316.  In this Q and A with Late Blooming Entrepreneurs, Dillard discusses her company’s achievements and challenges as well as what it takes to succeed at entrepreneurship.

Why did you want to start your own business?

I’d reached a point in my career where I was looking for something to challenge me and engage my curiosity. In 1998, my son, Ryan, visited family in Albuquerque. During his visit, he discovered resurfacing – where you could restore worn bathtubs and countertops without removing them. Recognizing the growth potential of this unique business, he told my husband and me we had to look into it.

So I went to Albuquerque– and I saw that I could take a patent and process and market it. It was never about the money.  It was about the challenge and the accomplishment.  I began dividing my time between Dallas and Albuquerque. Six months later, I left my executive position to begin concentrating on marketing and advertising for Get A Grip.

That was the tipping point – having Ryan present the opportunity. Then my husband, Cub, brought his 30 years of sales and finance experience. Eventually, our other son, Austen, joined the company as well. Today, Get A Grip leads the resurfacing industry in over 30 locations across the country.

Was your relatively late start in business ownership a positive or negative factor?

Certainly, being older brought with it the wisdom that comes with age and work experience. It also brought a sense of realism in terms of setting and achieving goals. My long career in the fashion industry taught me that keeping things fresh is necessary to survive. Fashion and remodeling aren’t that far apart, really.

I also had learned the importance of ensuring quality, safety and excellent customer service, as well as the value of a win-win attitude when interacting with vendors, suppliers, employees and customers.

What’s enabled you to succeed when so many entrepreneurs haven’t?

Our innovative franchise program continues to grow even in these trying times, primarily from word-of-mouth referrals from existing franchises and dealers. The program set up, which is low cost to enter and royalty free, allows the franchisee to benefit from its growth far more than the headquarters. We work hard, especially in a struggling economy, to control the costs of supplies for franchises and dealers. Without them, we have no business.

What principles did you follow to build your business?

We’re very deliberate and consistent about decision making, whether it relates to researching and developing new products or buying a building for our headquarters. There’s no manual for success, so each step we take is thoughtful.  We constantly reevaluate everything we do.

Whenever we were over our heads, we found the right experts, such as attorneys who specialized in franchising, public relations/marketing experts and accountants. Leveraging the expertise of others is key to any successful business.

How would you describe your customer service philosophy?

It’s all about providing quality service each day because word of mouth gets out very quickly. Part of good customer service is finding good quality people who want to work for us because of our reputation. Our employees now look for us instead of us looking for them, and many have been with us for years.

How do you “live” your key principles?

We could have gone anywhere in the country to build the Get A Grip business. We chose Albuquerque as our home because it provided a smaller market to introduce our concept, test ideas and products, and grow at a comfortable pace. In addition, Albuquerque provides a training environment for our franchises and dealers that doesn’t overwhelm them or us, as larger cities could.

We love and appreciate the New Mexico lifestyle – relaxed and with an emphasis on quality of life, plus great weather. Work/life balance is important to us as a company and something we emphasize with all employees. It is also part of the reason for our steady growth, low employee turnover, and our ability to purchase a new headquarters building in the middle of a recession.

What obstacles did you encounter as your business got off the ground?

Going into a male-dominated business, I had to make sure that I knew what I was talking about. Also, I had to change my appearance when calling on accounts. At first, I wasn’t getting business because I dressed like I was still in the fashion industry. I bought a pair of jeans and cowboy boots, went back out and picked up several accounts.

It was good to start slow and build the business to a place where we needed a showroom. We started in a garage, which meant we lost customers because we couldn’t show them what the product looked like after application.  When we bought a new headquarters building, we moved into an office with a showroom. I was worried about paying for the building, but the move was a good decision. We picked up additional business because of the showroom.

We also took a big leap to become a franchise company. It required finding financing and the right advisers, as well as stepping up our internal operations.  It was definitely the right move for us.

What are the pros and cons of owning a franchise?

Everyone hears that buying a franchise is expensive, that the headquarters doesn’t support you, etc. As we developed our franchise program, we saw how it could be different and benefit both headquarters and the entrepreneurs who wanted to be franchises. Except for a few business elements (branding and product/technique use), our franchises operate very much like independent businesses.

Get A Grip began offering franchises in 2007, and now offers a home-based opportunity with low start up costs and franchise fee, a two-week hands on training program, a complete system for running the business, and exceptional ongoing support. Our network of 30 franchises and dealers is in 17 states around the country.

Do older franchise owners tend to do better than younger ones?

Our most successful franchise owners come in all ages. The things they have in common are great business sense, great networking skills and the knowledge that they don’t have to do everything themselves – that they should rely on experts to help them with the things they aren’t good at.

What advice would you give to someone who’s over 40 and wants to start a business?

The same advice I’d give anyone: If you’re considering starting or becoming part of a service business, you must do your research. Talk with business owners in the field in which you’re interested, talk to franchise owners. You’re not an island.  Take advantage of opportunities to learn from the mistakes and triumphs of others.

Also, get organized and find the best people for your business. Those two things have helped me the most.

“Our interest in the moon came because we think it’s a great business, not because it’s a great hobby,” Jain tells the Times.  “My whole thinking really is, how do we use science and entrepreneurship to solve the big problems?”

“The MoonEx project came about because we started thinking:  There are a tremendous amount of resources that are available on the moon, and the moon has never been explored from the perspective of an entrepreneur,” says Jain.

In addition to bringing rare elements back to Earth, Jain’s plans are to build a platform that will allow people to send messages and other precious items (like family pictures and the ashes of loved ones) to the moon — which Jain describes as “the best time capsule you could ever find, because nothing gets destroyed there.”  MoonEx is shooting for late 2013 to launch its hover craft.

You can read the complete Los Angeles Times interview with Jain here.

Seventy six posts later, it’s been quite a journey.  Coming from the communications field, I knew a little about blogs, but I didn’t understand or appreciate them until I began writing one myself.  For the benefit of any other newbies out there, here are a few things I’ve learned about blogging:

•   It helps your writing.  If your posts are short, that doesn’t matter since most people don’t have much time to read these days.  What does matter is consistency.  Writing on a regular basis is the best way to get better at it.

•   It makes you a better proofreader.  Not wanting to embarrass myself with some glaring typo, I find I review my words carefully — a habit that carries over to non-Internet writing.  “Better” isn’t the same as “perfect,” however, so it’s entirely possible that you’ll find a mistake or two somewhere in this post!

•   It instills discipline.  Posting once or twice each week forces you to follow a schedule.

•   It keeps you in the loop.  The loop will vary, depending upon the subject of your blog.  To write mine, I try to stay reasonably informed about what’s going on in business circles.

•   It’s a community activity.  Blogging is about reading and commenting on other people’s posts, not just writing your own. For me, the give-and-take nature of blogging didn’t sink in until I’d been at it for awhile.  Now, I’m finding that meeting other bloggers and/or reading their work is the best part.

You know what else I’ve learned?  With blogging, the more I know, the more I realize I don’t know.  But I guess that’s okay, given that it’s always changing anyway.

It’s been a fun first year.  I look forward to sharing more entrepreneurial success stories and welcome your comments.  Thank you for reading — and all the best for 2012.

Lynne