Alpha Dogs is a book written by Donna Fenm published by Collins, New York, 2005. If you know the publication Inc, the magazine for small and medium sizes business, Ms. Fenn writes at the magazine. The chapter headings are Seduce your customers; Convert your employees into true believers; Transform with technology; Stake a hometown claim; Innovate the mundane; Market your brand; Build a village; and Embrace reinvention. You will need to do all of them – the first two chapters were outlined in part one.

The next chapters – Transform with technology includes using what is there for your advantages. At one time, this blog was written on a desktop, then a laptop and now can be done on a smart phone. The comfort maybe with the big screens, but to embrace technology is to see where it can lead you. One of the examples in the book is Auction Systems Auctioneers & Appraisers – the owner Deb Weidenhamer grew her business though technology which helped everyone – more bidders, possibly higher prices. Deb used ebay and videos before anyone else was doing it. It took time, some hurdles along the way, but she could she where technology could help and she tried. The important aspect with technology is to try a number of different things to engage your customers, to increase the number of customers and watch the early adapters.

The Stake a Hometown Claim is best if you believe local is better. In theory products come from around the globe, but you are local. Why someone wants to deal with you rather than someone else is part local – you live there. As a local you need to embrace what the locals do, and although everyone does similar things, there are variances in the local community.

Innovate the Mundane is a great example because Thor-lo makes sport socks. The reason the company is in the sports sock market because small businesses can not compete with the large companies in the commodity game. In all markets there are niche markets, they are small but the margins can be terrific. To do well you must serve it very well. The danger is everything can be commoditized within two years, which means you need to stay ahead of the copycats and not treat failure as a sin, but a learning experience. Innovations need to come from everyone – management, staff, customers – the trick is to try, if it works scale up and run with it. If it does not work, try something else.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, gaining ideas from Inc and the small and medium sized businesses is the place to go because they have to. Dividend paying companies try to stay in high margin, low risk ventures. The problem is nothing is static as it used to be, which means industries change, new ones emerge but there is a lag time and that is where dividend paying companies are vulnerable. The American economy is doing better, but it has taken 6 years to recover from 2008. As the economy recovers and gets better more ideas will be tried and work which makes the ability to continue to make profits easier. During the lag times, dividend paying companies learnt good lessons, they need to keep it up.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions