Business Advice Via Texas 3-Step
The Texas 3-Step is presented as part of the Northeast Texas Small Business Development Center's web site. It is intended to be a fun look at a serious business -- your business. Even those of you who have the misfortune to be someplace other than the Great State of Texas can benefit from this advice, so don't go away.
Howdy Y'all! My name is Bobby-George. I live down here in the piney woods of East Texas. It is sometimes mighty hot down here, but as they say, “if you don’t like HOT you shouldn’t be in Texas.
We Texans have been known to brag. Not sure why that is. Maybe it's a tradition with us -- or maybe it's because we have a lot to brag about. But this story is not about Texas and it ain’t about braggin’. It’s about dancin’.
We have a dance down here called the "Texas 3-Step." That’s right, the 3-Step. You have probably heard of the Texas 2-Step. It is a popular dance that has been around a long time. The Texas 3-Step is different. It goes somethin’ like this:
One step forward; one step back; hop, hop, hop; one step up.
It is not a difficult dance to do, but it does take a little practice. It is one of those dances that you don’t do very often, but when you do it you need to do it right or folks will point at you, laugh out loud, and slap their thigh. That’s embarrassin’.
To do this dance, you first put your hands on your hips with the palms facing out. Cowboy boots are usually worn for this dance down here in Texas, but sneakers are O.K. too. You can click here for more details about the dance, but DON'T DO IT NOW. I want you to finish my story first. You can come back later.
The Texas 3-Step is a dance that naturally leads into another dance called the "Rollin’ Along Waltz."
Now I know what you’re a thinkin’: "They don’t do the waltz in Texas." Oh, but we do. The Rollin’ Along Waltz is danced by a lot of Texans. It goes like this:
1,2,3; 1,2,3; glide,2,3; glide,2,3; 1,2,3; 1,2,3.
The nice thing about this dance is that it is smooth and easy, especially if you learned the Texas 3-Step first. You can click here for details about this dance. BUT NOT YET! Let me finish my story first.
I will tell you about another dance we do down here that I personally don’t care much for. Some folks have said that this dance was brought in by the Yankees from up East, but I don’t know about that. I have seen many a Texan dancin’ it and some of these folks ain’t never talked to or seen a Yankee, except on the tele-tube.
Anyway, this dance is called the "No-Cash Jitterbug". This jitterbug is a wild and crazy kind of dance with a lot of jumpin’ and spinnin’ around. Folks dance it fast and have a crazy look in their eyes as they twist, spin, duck and jump up and down. As I say, I don’t cotton much to this dance, but I will tell you how it goes if you click here . BUT WAIT! Do it later. Let me first tell you about a type of break-dancing we also do down here.
Some Texans like to blame this dance on Yankees and Californians, but so many Texans dance it that old Bobby-George thinks it might have its roots right here in Texas. This version of break-dancin’ is not ethnic, ‘cause all types of folks do it. It is called "Didn’t Know Break-Dancing". It goes like this:
I didn’t know, I didn’t know;
I didn’t even know I didn’t know;I wish I’d known, I should have known;
But I didn’t know, I didn’t know.
You do this dance standing in one place, but shifting your weight from one foot to the other. You keep your arms at your side, elbows bent and hands loose. Some snap their fingers with the beat and some really good dancers will spin around a couple of times on one foot if they want to show off. It’s especially important that you bob your head out and in with the beat. Here, you try it:
I didn’t know, I didn’t know;
I didn’t even know I didn’t know;I wish I’d known, I should have known;
but I didn’t know, I didn’t know.
Don’t like this dance either, but I’ll tell you more about it when I'm finished with my story.
There is one more dance you gotta know about. It’s a dance that folks sometimes do after the "No-Cash Jitterbug" or the "Didn’t Know Break-Dance". This is a s-l-o-w shuffle of a dance with the head down, shoulders drooped and arms limp. Some don’t even call it a dance, but it is. It is slow danced to any old blues music. I’ll fill you in in a minute. But first, one more thing.
I have told you this yarn to help you learn about dancin’. You can copy it, download it and use it any way you’ld like -- except you can’t sell it or make no money from it. For you see, this is Bobby-George’s story and he and his lawyers, Bubba and Harley, won’t like you doin’ that.
Matter-of-fact, this would probably really rile him up. As the offensive line for the Dallas Cowboys will tell you, you don’t want to upset old Bobby-George.
Just one more thing: If you don’t want to take Bobby-George’s word on this dancin’ business, just talk to old Ross over there in Dallas. Old Ross has done the "Texas 3-Step" a few times and he is really good at the "Rollin-Along Waltz". He has been dancin’ that for years and years.
NOW you can pick one of these dances to learn how they go:
Texas 3-Step
Rollin’ Along Waltz
No-Cash Jitterbug
Didn’t Know Break-Dance
Bankruptcy Boogaloo
That’s my story. Y'all come see us.
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Texas 3-Step
This dance is easy for some folks and darn hard for others. It’s a dance you should learn before starting any business. It goes like this:
One step forward: Define your idea, your customers and your competition.
In this first step, you want to sit yourself down and do some thinkin’ -- some serious thinkin’. You may have a good idea, but will that idea make a good business? Will it make a good business the way you want to do it? Does it make good sense in the community where you plan to start it? How about customers? Are there enough of them out there to support your business? Do you know or are you just guessin’? Will they pay the prices you plan to charge? Do you even know what prices you will charge? Who else is already servin’ these same customers with the stuff you plan to sell? Will this competition give you fits or will it be easy to overcome? How will you convince customers to buy from you instead of some other business? What will be different about your business? Why should the customers care about you?
Questions, questions, questions. This one step forward raises a whole lot of questions and requires a whole lot of thinkin’. It pays to check around and talk to folks who know somethin’ during this one step forward. The folks at the SBDC know somethin’.
One step back, hop, hop, hop: Find out what it will take.
All this thinkin’ might fry your brain some, so take one step back and figure what it will take for you to start this business. How much money will it take (hop)? How much time (hop)? How much skill (hop)?
If you ain’t got no money and can’t get some, you can’t dance. Findin’ out how much money you will need means makin’ a list. On this list you put down what you will need to start the business and what you will need to run the business once it is started. Thinkin’ about how much time it will take will help you keep from blowin’ your mind once you start. Take it from old Bobby-George: runnin’ a business takes more time than you first think. You gotta do this and you gotta do that. While you are doin’ that, someone is yellin’ at you to do this. What you think will take an hour takes a day. Little jobs turn into big jobs. You never seem to have enough time to get anything done.
The last hop in this dance step is skill. What learnin’ will you need to do your business? Learnin’ is about both the technical skill to do what you want to do and the business skill to know if you’re doin’ it right. Folks usually are smart enough not to start a business if they don’t know the technical part. Only a dummy would open a car repair garage without knowin’ something about cars. Those same folks, however, might not think of the business skills they need. The business skills I am talkin’ about are record keepin', marketin', cost control, plannin’, problem solvin’, and things like that. Poor business skills will do you in faster than poor technical skills.
One step up: Let’s Pretend
This last step of the dance is the toughest. It means steppin’ up where there ain’t no step. I call this step the "let’s pretend" step because you have to pretend you are already in business. You have to pretend your business is open and dealin' with customers. You are taking in money for things you are sellin’ and payin' it out for things you need to buy. You are makin’ decisions and handlin’ problems. At the end of each month you are makin’ some profit or you are losin’ money. You can use a spreadsheet divided into months to figure this let’s pretend profit or loss or you can use one of those new computin’ machines.
Two things happen after you do this step. One: you see if what you are pretendin’ will give you the profit you want. Two: by pretendin’, you force yourself to live with the business before you actually start it. Bein’ let’s pretend, it’s only play. You can’t get hurt, but you can find out some good stuff about what might happen when you do start.
The "Texas 3-Step" can be danced over and over until you get it right. When you get it right it will let you do your business thing with confidence -- the confidence that comes with knowin’ what’s happenin’ and what might happen.
If you don’t do it right, folks will point at you, laugh out loud and slap their thigh. Now, you don’t want that, do you?
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Rollin’ Along Waltz
Like the old fashioned waltz, this dance goes:
1,2,3; 1,2,3; glide,2,3; glide,2,3;
1,2,3; P.D.C; 1,2,3; P.D.C.
The P.D.C. stands for Plan, Do, Change. Folks who dance this smooth, gliding dance constantly plan, do and change.
They plan what they are going to do in their business. Then they do it. Then they look at what they did and they change it. If they did not like what they did or they didn’t do it right, they change it to fix it. If they liked what they did, they change it to make it better. But they change it either way. Doin’ the "Rollin’ Along Waltz" in this day and time means that your business must constantly change. To stay the same is to fall back because everyone else is movin’ forward.
Some folks think they can dance this dance with just the 1,2; P.D. They want to shorten the dance by just plannin’ and doin', plannin’ and doin'. Times were when this wasn’t a bad dance. A business could go on doin’ the same thing year after year and get by just fine. Those old times are gone. Today it is 1,2,3; P.D.C; 1,2,3; Plan, Do, Change.
This dance is much easier if you learn the "Texas 3-Step" first. When you start doing the "Rollin’ Along Waltz" without first learning the "Texas 3-Step," you will often digress into one of the nasty dances of the "No-Cash Jitterbug," "Didn’t Know Break-Dance" or "Bankruptcy Boogaloo".
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This nasty dance will wear you out! You will think you just got done wrestlin’ a dozen pigs in a pool of mud. When we have no cash in a business, we dance around in a frenzy. We dance to pay bills that are overdue. We dance to make payroll just in the nick of time. We dance to find the money to buy replacement inventory. We dance to scrape together cash for new machinery and equipment.
The "No-Cash Jitterbug" gets wild and crazy. The longer you dance it, the wilder it gets. It can be especially frantic around tax time. Uncle wants his money no matter what. He don’t really care how fast you’re a dancin’.
This dance is sometimes done in front of bankers. Bank folks are usually polite, but amused by it. The wild look in the eyes of the dancer sometimes frightens bankers. Some dancers have been known to sing along with their dance:
I need some cash, I need some cash;
Oh please, Mr. Bankerman;
Gimme some cash;
I had some cash, I lost my cash;
Oh please, Mr. Bankerman;
Gimme some cash.
Dancers of this Jitterbug seldom have learned to dance the "Texas 3-Step". They often evolve from doin' the "Jitterbug" into doin' the "Bankruptcy Boogaloo". Few people have the stamina to do the "Jitterbug" for very long. A really skillful "Jitterbug" dancer can sometimes turn this dance into the "Rollin’ Along Waltz," but this doesn’t happen very often.
Bobby-George has seen a lot of "No-Cash Jitterbug" dancers. He feels sorry for them because he knows they can’t last. The dance is a killer. That is why he likes the "Texas 3-Step". By learnin’ the 3-Step first, you usually can avoid doin’ the Jitterbug.
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Didn’t Know Break-Dance
This dance has to do with learnin’, or knowledge, as some folks would say. Actually, it has to do with the lack of it. It doesn’t much matter where you get your business learnin’, as long as you get it. Some get it in school. Some read books. Some get it from experience or just talkin' to others who have it.
Now, knowin’ about a lot of stuff may not be important to you as long as not knowin’ is not critical to your well-being. But if not knowin’ can cause you real harm, then not knowin’ is darned important. Being in business and not knowin’ stuff is darned important. The business owner who doesn’t know the stuff of his or her business often dances this dance.
I didn’t know, I didn’t know.
The dance usually starts with these words and a slow, steady beat of heavy music. "I didn’t know I had to pay estimated taxes." "I didn’t know my inventory was out of balance." "I didn’t know my marketing was poor." "I didn’t know my bank account was overdrawn." "I didn’t know my customers were unhappy." "I didn’t know I wasn’t making money."
I didn’t know, I didn’t know;
I didn’t even know I didn’t know.
Not knowin’ is bad enough, but not knowin’ that you don’t know is worse. A small business owner once told old Bobby-George that before she took some business courses at a college, she didn’t even know what she didn’t know.
I wish I’d known, I should have known.
This part of the dance usually comes after a meeting with the IRS examiner or your C.P.A. or tax lawyer. You dance it right after you hang up the phone with the banker who told you the consequences of writin’ checks when you ain’t got no money in the bank.
I didn’t know, I didn’t know;
I didn’t even know I didn’t know;
I wish I’d known, I should have known;
But I didn’t know, I didn’t know.
Now you have the beat. Remember to move back and forth from one foot to the other and keep your arms, elbows bent, by your side and your hands limp. Moving the head out and in, out and in with the beat of the music is important. When dancing in front of the IRS man, a one-foot, double spin is a good move.
The Didn’t Know Break-Dancer usually never learned the "Texas 3-Step", for if he had, he probably would be dancin’ the "Rollin’ Along Waltz" instead of the Didn’t Know Break-Dance. Just like the "No-Cash Jitterbug," this dance is very tiring. It is slower than the Jitterbug, but it gets you after a while. Some can dance it for a long time, but sooner or later they give up on it and start dancing the "Bankruptcy Boogaloo".
As a matter of fact, the "Didn’t Know Break-Dance" can naturally turn into the "Bankruptcy Boogaloo". It goes something like this:
I didn’t know, I didn’t know;
I didn’t even know I didn’t know;
Bankruptcy Boogaloo
Bankruptcy Boogaloo
I wish I’d known, I should have known;
But I didn’t know, I didn’t know;
Bankruptcy Boogaloo,
Bankruptcy Boogaloo.
The lively beat of the break-dance evolves into the s-l-o-w shuffle of the boogaloo.
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Bankruptcy Boogaloo
This is the last dance for a lot of businesses. Usually a short dance, it sometimes can drag on for months or years. It is a painful dance, for even though it is a slow shuffle danced to old blues music, it is sad and depressin’.
Personal dreams and ambitions fall by the wayside as this dance progresses. Months and years of dancing the "No-Cash Jitterbug" or the "Didn’t Know Break-Dance" become distant memories. Often while doing this slow shuffle, the dancer wishes to turn back the clock and learn the "Texas 3-Step," but it is too late. Some really tough Texans have learned the Texas 3-Step after doing the Bankruptcy Boogaloo, but it doesn’t happen often.
The Boogaloo dancer dreams of the "Rollin’ Along Waltz" and longs to dance that wonderful dance, but it is not to be.