Apr
16
Taxation without Representation
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2007 was the first year since 2001 that Flag and Banner has shown a decent profit and I had every intention of reinvesting that profit into my business, my employees and ultimately, the American Economy. “But, noooo, the tax man cometh.” So instead of reinvesting in my community, I sent the extra money to Washington, where it seems like they just toss it in the air or maybe toss it towards each other. Our politicians just don’t get it… Small business is to our economy what the middle class is to our society. We pay the highest taxes, bear the biggest burdens, and while small business does not literally “die” for our country as the middle and working classes often do, it seems Washington has no qualms about trying to tax us to death.
When the government needs money, we are the first group of people they go to for higher taxes (can you believe Exxon just asked for a tax break, they’ll probably get it). And then when we (the middle class or small business) complain, we are the ones accused of being unpatriotic. I’m not the most well read person in the world, but one quote does come to mind, from Alexis De’Toqueville’s “Democracy in America…” “America is great because she is good. When she ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.” It’s awfully hard to be good for too long when things aren’t fair. And the tax burden in this country has been unfair for far too long. Not surprisingly, when discussing this blog with one of my friends, he mentioned another lesser know quote from Alexis De Tocqueville, “A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.” Go figure.
I started wondering just how well we compare with the taxes of other countries and so I did a Google search. Low and behold, the only super powers with taxes higher than ours are China and Germany, one a communist and the other a socialist.
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Feb
19
My Arkansas Journey
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You know, sometimes it’s the little things in life that give me the most satisfaction. Sure, a twenty-percent jump in sales would be really nice about now, but something that happened recently has given me almost as much pleasure.
In a new Arkansas History textbook, The Arkansas Journey, my story and that of Arkansas Flag and Banner are profiled in a chapter entitled “Making A Living in Arkansas.” The piece, which is used to illustrate “The Entrepreneurial Spirit” of Arkansas, tells a brief history of Flag and Banner, along with a picture of our building, and one of myself with then governor Mike Huckabee. How cool is that?
I mean, a lot of people can say they work for themselves, but not so many are pictured in history books. No matter what we accomplish in our lives, we sometimes tend to ask ourselves, “What if…” we had done something else, as if the work of our life might not be good enough. Things like this make me feel just fine about what I’ve accomplished. To top it all off, I noticed that on the first page of the chapter, under the heading “People to Know,” six names were listed, and of those, Sam Walton of Wal-Mart, Charles Murphy of Murphy Oil, and William T. Dillard of Dillards Department stores were mentioned with that of little ol’ me, Kerry McCoy. Not bad. Not bad at all. Now I’d better get back to work before my entrepreneurial spirit gets lost in my gloating.
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Feb
15
On November 12th, I wrote a little blog entry called “Married to My Employees.” After yesterday, I need to change it to “Marrying My Employees.” That’s right… on Valentines Day, we had a wedding right here at Flag and Banner.
It all began during the Monday morning meeting, when our purchasing agent, Jeremy, informed us that he would need to take a half-day off on Valentines Day to marry Ashley, his partner and mother to his son. Hearing that they intended to get married at the Justice of the Peace, our accountant, Sandra, flatly rejected the idea, saying “The Justice of the Peace is for ending marriages and not starting them!” She then immediately got on the phone to her Baptist Preacher husband and before we knew it, we were planning a wedding on the fly. 
It was decided that the Ceremony would take place in the Dreamland Ballroom and the reception would be held afterwards, downstairs in “Doc’s Pool Hall.” The women of Flag and Banner brought in arches, balloons, rose petals, banners (of course), a wedding cake, champagne, mints, chocolate strawbery fondue, more flowers and, of course, the Wedding Cake. As Ashley walked the red nylon runway, we all hummed “Here Comes the Bride” and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Overcome with emotion, Ashley almost fainted while saying her vows.
After the ceremony, everyone moved downstairs to Doc’s Pool Hall for the reception. The cake was cut and Champagne flowed. Meanwhile the men of Flag and Banner crept off to decorate the getaway car. As Jeremy and Ashley drove away, I couldn’t help but smile. It was such a blessed day.
So if you are one of my customers that tried to call the office between 2 and 3 pm, central time on Valentines Day and got the voice mail, I apologize. I have been the Mother of the Bride before, but this is the first time I have ever been the Boss of the Groom. And it feels good. But just like being the mother of the bride, it is a little hard on the pocket book. Next time, if there is a next time, we will do it after 5 p.m.
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Nov
15
Stop the Bleeding
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FlagandBanner has had the best year. Our sales are up, our stress is down and our bills are all paid. Man it feels good.
And then it happens. Just when you think you’re sittin’ pretty, Boom–everything changes. Thank goodness I am an eternal optimist. I like what one of my employees, Jason, just said, “Think Big.” And why not? But right now my big thoughts are about Big Losses.
This November’s sales are slower than I have seen them all year. And you’d think it is because of all the fears of recession we keep hearing. But, historically, the economic trends of the country haven’t applied to the flag business. In fact, sometimes they even go in the opposite direction. When people are feeling poorly, they rally around the Flag and the Cross because, emotionally, they can believe in State and Church to see them through. And when other businesses see a slump in sales, they tend to advertise more. And given that Banners are a relatively inexpensive way to advertise, we sell more banners. Maybe I need to buy a banner.
So what gives? I have revved up our advertising and still nothing. I don’t know the answer. What I do know is that come this Friday, if things don’t change, I am going to have to scrub up and get my hands dirty. After 33 years as chief surgeon at Arkansas Flag and Banner, I have learned that you have to stop the bleeding if you want to save the patient, and the faster you do it the better. Dang it. We still have ’til Friday. Maybe we’ll have a great day today(that is my eternal optimist speaking).
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Nov
12
Married to my Employees
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Everybody has to answer to somebody and usually it is their spouse, boss and mother. But I answer to spouse, boss, mother, kids and employees. And employees are like marriages: some are good, some bad, and all have to be dealt with on a daily basis. Some old employees keep coming back. Some I’m glad to see again and some I would like to forget.
Through the years I have gotten a lot faster at hiring and firing employees. I used to try to fix everyone. But now I have become calloused. After several exhaustive attempts to help someone, I say, “That’s it!” and stop. Maybe I have lost my idealism or faith in the human race. Perhaps I just don’t have enough energy for the crazy ones. No, I just finally accept the fact that you can’t help someone who is unwilling to help themself. There are too many good people/employees that need attention to waste it on the ones who aren’t serious.
This year, my primary account manager,”Captain Kirk” Wygal, gave me a book on management and it was an eye opener. It said 80% of your management time was spent on your bad employees and only 20% went to your Stars. Every time I fire a bad employee or discipline one of my kids, they say “That’s Not Fair.” And they are right. It’s not fair… to those who deserve more of my time.
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Oct
31
I Love Change
Filed Under creative stories, my business | 1 Comment
I love change, almost to a fault. But not just any change. Positive change. I learned a long time ago that reinvestment is the best way to improve a business. I also learned to listen to my accounting department before moving forward with any “improvements.” And so this year I waited patiently to see if Flag and Banners’ sales streak was going to last. With the bills paid and a little money in the bank, accounting finally gave me the green light to remodel our kitchen.
For 15 years we have been eating our lunches in a 10 x 20 ft. kitchenette, located in earshot of the retail sales floor. We at Flag and Banner are not shy people. We laugh alot. We speak our mind. You can imagine all the things shoppers must have heard.
Well, not anymore. With the help of a non-denominational Youth Group that meets here on Monday nights, we demolished the old kitchen and moved it to the area of the warehouse once known as “Doc’s Pool Hall.” Now our employees have a much more comfortable place to eat and our customers do not have to hear anything that might turn their stomachs. And “Doc’s Pool Hall” is now a party room which is great for small events. I can’t wait for the Youth Group to see the completed kitchen. They are coming tonight for a spoken word performance led by DJ Jennifer, from 6-7:30. I think they are going to love it.
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Oct
18
Flag Convention 07′
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Yep, even flag dealers have an association: the NIFDA, National Independent Flag Dealers Association. We met in Scottsdale, AZ this year. If you don’t golf or shop, there is absolutely nothing to do but lay around the pool and drink in Scottsdale. Not all bad, just boring. Scottsdale is one place I can check off my list. Thank goodness I don’t have to visit that city ever again.
At the flag convention I learned some stuff, got rejuvenated and networked with old friends. The flag business is a small group of friendly competitors. Some of us buy from each other, some of us compete against each other.
Every year the same old topics come up: buy American, keep the mass merchandisers out of the flag business, and keep the government out of the flag business. If you think about it, it is silly for the government to buy flags out of tax dollars just so the legislators can give them away to their constituents. It’s kinda like buying votes. Some states even have the prisoners sewing American flags. That is almost like buying from China ’cause it takes away jobs.
Our first speaker sounded like Paul Harvey and looked like Grady’s dad (my father-n-law). He was a little behind the times… he kept talking about the importance of sending ‘thank you’ cards. It’s true, but that is old news. And to keep us till the end, the old codger had the nerve to keep us all dangling for the big bang that will revolutionize our business: Jesus Christ. OMG! We had Jewish people in the crowd!
After the sleepy shift (lunch), the Internet lady came and gave a big talk on the internet. What I learned was the importance of incorporating You Tube into your website. After this we put our “How to Install a Flagpole” commercial on You Tube.
The heart breaker of the convention was the man whose son died in Iraq. He made a commemorative flag for his son, and Valley Forge is producing the flag. The act of getting a large company like Valley Forge to manufacturer and sell a flag made by an individual is not an easy thing to do. He cried through his whole presentation and every dealer there bought some of his flags. Here is his flag
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Oct
8
Jason’s Blog
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Wow. These days, it seems, all I do is human resources. Today a rather interesting guy applied for an entry level position with my company. He is a friend of a friend. I kinda felt like we should switch places and he should be interviewing me. In fact the more I get to know him, I think he is.
Anyway, his resume is unusual, he has been a script writer for several very notable prime time TV shows, i.e. Touched By an Angel. Why is he sitting in front of me applying for an entry level job? Midlife crisis he says. I can certainly identify with that.
With all this said, look for Jason’s Blog, next to mine. He is fun to read and doesn’t really care what I think, which should make him even more fun to read. Get Jason’s macabre view as he learns the flag business and writes from the inside out about the industry and more specifically about the cast of Flag and Banner.
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Sep
21
Bucket Brigade
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Last week after 45 days of absolutely no rain in Little Rock, we had a flash flood. The ground was so hard it could not absorb the water fast enough, so rain rushed into my warehouse. Moments before we noticed the warehouse was flooding, lightning struck the cell tower across the street knocking out my telephones and computers.
Since nobody in the offices could work, we all gathered in the warehouse to start bailing water. The water was just an inch from reaching the bottom shelves of our inventory, so we were bailing fast. At first I had everybody with Rubbermaid trash cans scooping and running to the front door (the water was coming in the back door) and throwing it in the street. We were barefoot, pants rolled up and the concrete floor was wet and so slippery, I was just waiting for someone to slip and crack their head open.
Then words of wisdom from Kirk, an ex-Navy man, “Form a line to the front door and start passing buckets of water. You on the end start scooping water and passing it. When you get tired move to the other end of the line and the next guy moves up to scoop.”
Glory Be! We drained the warehouse so fast, efficiently and with distributed work effort. Thank you Captain Kirk.
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May
17
Female Bosses
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What is the stigma about “notoriously bad female bosses?” It has been said that women bosses have something to prove so they make up for it by being hard noses. Well lets hear from the other side.
For 32 years I have been a female boss. Unlike most men, my door is always open and I am sympathetic to single mom’s needs. I listen and give advise to my employees on their spouses, boyfriends, children, aging parents and health problems, my employees feel free to call me at home, and the list goes on. I guess because I am a woman, my employees tell me things that I might just as soon not know, I seem to evoke this openness in people.
In some ways this is good. My employees feel connected and a part of the team. They feel how important they are.
In some ways this is bad. When it is time for me to be a boss and enforce rules for the good of the company, some of them get their feelings hurt. Professionalism goes out the door. They begin to react to me emotionally and this can be very draining for both of us.
My husband came to work with me in my company 15 years ago and was shocked. So now whenever an employee becomes too emotionally connected my husband has to sit in on discussions with the employee. He doesn’t have to say or do anything. Just his presence as a man seems to make people tighten up and act like it’s a job instead of a party.
So to all you other women bosses out there, I recommend having a man present when you have to act like a boss.
Posted by kerry
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