Published in the Independence Daily Reporter, June 28, 2017

I really like the QuikTrip model. When I’m traveling, I will go out of my way to stop at a QuikTrip store. They are clean and inviting, the gasoline guaranteed and the employees are noticeably different. QuikTrip has become a destination for millions of travelers and locals across the United States each year as they opened their 700^th store in 2014. Also in 2014 the company made “Fortune” magazine’s list of ‘100 Best Companies To Work For’ having made the list for 12 straight years. They are different and they originated and are still based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 2006, I called the corporate office to see if I could get someone to visit my entrepreneurship class. That didn’t happen but the human resource director spent about an hour on the phone with me explaining their philosophy and some of their strategies for making such great employees and stores.

QuikTrip sets the standards all other convenience stores should strive to meet or exceed. Casey’s seems to be stepping up to the plate, but in many of the smaller markets, standards are not so high. When people get fuel at a convenience store, they expect a basic level of convenience and cleanliness; a fuel dispenser (industry people dislike the word ‘pump’) that works correctly and prints the receipt so you don’t have to go inside. We expect paper towels in the dispenser along with fresh window washing solution. Inside, we expect a clean store with employees that act like they are happy to be there serving customers and restrooms that are clean and well attended. I have my own personal three strikes you’re out rule I call the convenience store triple whammy. If any combination of three of the basic standards are not met, I do everything I can to avoid the store in the future. Sometimes the triple whammy happens right at the pump, oh, dispenser with no paper towels, nasty or no window cleaning solution and no receipt. In these cases, the triple whammy occurs before I even see what standards are not being met inside the store. There are stores that I’ve driven by day after day, year after year without stopping.

There are lessons we can learn from the convenience store experience. Customers have their own triple whammy rules for any kind of business even though they may not articulate them. They’ll just quick showing up. In any market and in any type of business, there are certain customer service standards that must be met to even be in the game. Even meeting the basic standards will only last until a competitor decides to step up the game and wildly exceed the basic standards. Those are the businesses that will thrive and grow despite recession or high unemployment rates. The tough times weed out the poor performers and reward the exceptional. Many aspect of becoming exceptional are not terribly expensive. After all, how much does it cost to keep the paper towel dispensers supplied or to keep the floors or restrooms clean? For the most part, becoming exceptional is a matter of mindset. The good news is that in many business segments, customer service levels of the competition are below or just barely meeting the basic standards. This includes the dreaded “box stores” and Internet businesses. Operating in a sea of mediocrity makes it much easier to decide to be exceptional.

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu.

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter, June 24, 2017

It’s happened several times over the last few years or so. Someone comes along with the idea or even a dream of having a downtown retail business and think the first step is to buy a building. A few have even been in the middle of a building purchase contract when they first come in to talk about their business idea.

Society over the years has given us a message that paying rent is a waste of money. Ever heard or read an advertisement that says something like “Stop wasting your money on rent when you could own.”? We’re conditioned to think that property ownership is always the best route. With very few exceptions new and aspiring retail business owners are better off renting retail space rather than taking on the headaches of building ownership in addition to the challenges of starting a new retail business.

No matter how much or what kind of planning we do there’s really no way to tell if a business idea is a good one until you actually enter the market to see if customers want your product. In a retail business, this means figuring out how to start the business with as small a risk as possible. Owning the building adds a huge risk to entering the market. If the retail store doesn’t work, it may mean you have the wrong product or service for the current market. Sometimes the product or service might be good, but the location is not right. Ever heard the adage “The most important thing is location, location, location.”? In retail you have the get the product mix and location right to be successful. It is not uncommon for new businesses to figure out that either or both their product mix or location need tweaking. If your location ends up being wrong and you own the building, it is like a hundred concrete blocks around your neck, greatly hindering your ability to be agile.

Brian Hight and Ryan McDiarmid started what is now Magnolia Scents by Design in 2008 in the middle of that recession. At the time, they were not in a position to consider building ownership. Although ever-positive about the prospect of the business, they would have chosen not to own even if it were possible. Magnolia now has two locations; downtown Independence KS and Greenville SC. They rent both locations and would not have it any other way. Brian says “Only if aspiring retail business owners have plenty of cash should they consider buying a building.” Aspiring retail business owners almost never have plenty of cash.

Successful building owners are happy to work with their tenants do whatever is needed to prepare their property for a new business. This is usually in exchange for a lease commitment of a few years with an “escape clause” in the event the business doesn’t work and has to close. The lease should never be verbal or month to month. The lease should be crafted in a way to benefit both owner and tenant.

Building ownership should be treated as a real estate venture entirely separate from the retail establishment even if the retailer and building owner are the same person. The best advice is to only buy a building if you want to be in the commercial real estate business, complete with the challenges of maintenance, upkeep and finding good tenants with successful businesses to rent your space.

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu.

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter, June 14, 2017

Part of our Fab Lab ICC mission has to do with inspiring and nurturing business start-ups. Our intentioned method is through an initiative we call our Growth Accelerator. The Growth Accelerator includes a set of start-up and small business management tools. After our new building is finished, it we’ll also include incubation space in what we’ll call the Entrepreneurs’ Bullpen.

Often in life, from many sources, we are told develop the plan, and then focus on the plan. The problem with too much planning and focus is that we often miss unexpected opportunities due to the blindness caused by the too narrow focus on the plan. No one will ever accuse us of over-planning. We do some planning but we try to keep our eyes wide open and cast a net for unexpected opportunities. There have been many in our short two and one-half year history, but few as unexpected as the development and growth of Fab Lab Divas.

Good friends April Whitson and Laurie Rutland began coming to the Fab Lab early this year. Their focus was to develop something they could sell together even though both have rewarding careers in full-time, demanding jobs. One of their first product ideas was to reinvent some of the classic board games, like Chinese Checkers, in cool new packaging to reintroduce family game-playing. We observed and helped as they learned quickly about cutting things like game-boards on our computerized routing table.

One evening, I sat down at a table with them as they told me they might have a change in their goals. They decided that it should be their mission to show other women how to use the Fab Lab. They envisioned holding class in the Fab Lab that would be fun for women while showing them that the technology is not that difficult to learn, especially if it’s needed for a project of great interest. Their last words to me on this night were “Are you sure you’re ok with us taking and running with this idea?” I told them it was exactly the kind of thing we needed. That signaled the beginning of a new totally unexpected but fabulous opportunity for Laurie, April and Fab Lab ICC as well as a growing community of women from throughout the area.

Doing business as Fab Lab Divas, the two have hosted six class sessions covering two topics; wine glass laser etching and wooden wall art and chalking. They tried to cap the sessions at about 12 participants each. Most sessions sold out and were over-booked. In one session there were nearly 25 women in the lab working intently on their wooden wall art. They had planned to suspend the classes during summer to work on their own projects as well as fall classes. After all, summer is such busy time and no one wants to do indoor activities, right? Not so. Women were so disappointed at the thought of having to wait until August for new classes that the Divas will be holding at least couple of classes before fall.

April and Laurie could have been so rigid in their planning and focus that they missed the opportunity to share the self-confidence of the Fab Lab experience with other women. We could have been so rigid and focused in our planning about how we would deliver Fab Lab classes that we missed the opportunity for a member-driven effort to include a whole class of new Fab Lab ICC users. This story will continue to unfold for the next couple of years so we don’t know exactly what will happen. One thing is clear, by the time another year or two goes by, hundreds of women will be introduced to the boost in self-confidence resulting from making things in the Fab Lab.

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu.

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter, June 7, 2017

Everyone learns in different ways—some scientists say people learn in as many as ten different ways. Traditional education models for K – 12 and higher education have not been very good at discovering those differences on a personal level in each student, much less figure out how to support each student’s best way of learning. This has been especially true since the turn of the twentieth century when we began sorting kids by age putting them in classrooms where everyone experienced the same lessons presented in the same ways to all students. Those that happened to learn by that one method did very well while the academic performance of the others ranged from average to poor. The ones that do not learn well by this one-method-fits-all model are branded as slow learners and many times trouble-makers.

I guess I was one of the fortunate ones. I functioned well in the academic, book-learning environment. I was valedictorian in my high school class of a whopping twenty-eight students. When I really learn best is when I do a little bit of reading and then a little bit of related doing. Back to read some more then do some more. Maybe this is because my mother was very academic and my dad could make almost anything with his hands and some tools. Learning in my formative years was from academic school work, the lessons of the farm and tinkering in our home work-shop. Today, I hesitate to use the term “work-shop” due to the lack of organization. Nevertheless, we had tools and I learned to use them to make all kinds of stuff. Some worked, some didn’t but at the same time I was learning things from books, I was learning things at home tinkering; a powerful combination.

For me, the learning continues. I’ve been reading a book, “Inventing To Learn-Making, Tinkering and Engineering in the Classroom” while at the same time observing, and helping with, the goings-on of our Fab Lab ICC boot camps. This year, we’ve partnered with the Greenbush Education cooperative to allow us to host up to twenty-four young students in each of the six week-long day-camp sessions. (Monday through Thursday from 9:00 to 11:30.)

From the book I am learning that since the 1970’s and 1980’s there have been people at places like MIT and Stanford that have discovered the power of learning that takes place when making, tinkering and engineering all occur in the classroom. Essentially everyone can learn by making. When I walked through the Fab Lab yesterday, observing twenty-four youth, grades four and five, planning, designing and beginning to make a project created in their minds, the atmosphere was electric. Kid after kid was absolutely beaming as they learned to draw dimensioned shapes in a program or to use a jig-saw or table saw for the first time.

These are NOT projects from a book with the exact instructional steps laid out. They are not so-called experiments in a book for which the outcome is known. They are projects created in the minds of each boot camper. The learning magic happens when kids are engaged in making something that is their creation of deep interest to them. A young camper wants to build steps so her little dog can climb into bed with her. The self-confidence she gains in using a table saw for the first time will last her the rest of her life. Imagine how many adult women lack the self-confidence to use a tool like that and she’s built it at age ten. The magic taking place in these camps goes far, far beyond the current fun the kids are having while they work on their projects. The magic will be there for the rest of their lives.

Some really smart people, forty years ago, discovered the learning power of making, tinkering and engineering in the classroom. It’s time we incorporate maker spaces and fab labs in all schools everywhere. That’s how our young students will again attain global prominence in science, technology, engineering and math. Some of these kids will become the greatest innovators and inventors of their generation.

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu.