Steve Hoffacker's Sales Quips

Borders was hoping for a satisfactory resolution - a shark - to bail them out so they could stay in business or transition to a new owner. The deadline for an answer was last night. Nothing came today either.

They had hoped another book retailer would want at least some of their locations and business. It's not to be.

Beginning as soon as this Friday, Borders will begin liquidating their holdings and cease operations.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com, or go to my other bloghomesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. Listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

Steve Hoffacker - Consultant, Coach, Author, Blogger, Photographer, Motivator, Teacher, & Strategist - for Realtors, Real Estate Sales Professionals, Home Builders, New Home Salespeople, Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, and Independent Sales Representatives.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2011. All Rights Reserved.

The beauty of the free market system - capitalism - is that people enter the market at will and leave the same way. In the middle they offer a product or service that people deem to be worthwhile or not. The price has a lot to do with how well it is received and esteemed by the public.

One business that should be the epitome of free enterprise sold out years ago, and now they are crying because they are being treated unfairly. I'm talking about farmers. What is more entrepreneurial that taking a piece of land (possibly even unfriendly), planting seeds, watering and fertilizing, hoping for enough rain but not too much, hoping for warm weather but not scorching heat, hoping that insects are kind to the plants, and then hoping that there is a sufficient yield to harvest and turn it into a profit for him and his family - and be able to repay the loan from the spring?

This is pure free enterprise, but it has been corrupted. Price supports, parity, subsidized crop insurance.

Some farmers are paid money to hold land out of production. Some are paid for shortfalls. They are paid to preserve environmentally sensitive land.

Now farmers are complaining that an estimated $30-35 billion in subsidies may be cut from the federal budget (over the next 10 years) and they are afraid that they'll see their artificially high crop prices fall.

Did you know that you were supporting farmers who should be letting the market dictate what they can grow and sell - and for how much?

Farming is a fantastic business and career. It does not need the government intervention (regulation or subsidy) to survive.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com, or go to my other bloghomesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. Listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

Steve Hoffacker - Consultant, Coach, Author, Blogger, Photographer, Motivator, Teacher, & Strategist - for Realtors, Real Estate Sales Professionals, Home Builders, New Home Salespeople, Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, and Independent Sales Representatives.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2011. All Rights Reserved.

Looks like the giant retailer Walmart can learn from online retailing giant Amazon.

Walmart has begun a pilot program of having people order groceries, sundries, and cleaning supplies online and then having them having them delivered to their customers' door. Sort of a throwback to the days when the local grocer or meat market would deliver.

Walmart apparently is concerned about losing market share to Amazon which now stocks a fairly complete line of nonperishable items and can deliver them to your door in as little as overnight. Walmart is also seeing competitonm from other local discount stores and online retailers.

We'll have to see how this pilot program - currently available just in San Jose, CA - works out and if it expands. Don't know how Walmart will control its costs for fuel and delivery, but it makes the grocery wars interesting.

This is why competition and free enterprise are the best market system in the world.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com, or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. Listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

Steve Hoffacker - Consultant, Coach, Author, Blogger, Photographer, Motivator, Teacher, & Strategist - for Realtors, Real Estate Sales Professionals, Home Builders, New Home Salespeople, Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, and Independent Sales Representatives.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2011. All Rights Reserved.

Jay Markanich has a fantastic insight into history and economics. His "Tuesday Free Enterprise Quote" feature each week is a must-read. This one is especially good.

This is the quintessential quote that describes our modern society.

Is this really the America we want?

Jay's Tuesday Free Enterprise Quote

"Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone."

                                                 Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)

French economist Bastiat's thinking was very important to free market economic thinking.  His authorship of The Law is something everyone should read in school.  It is small enough that a 6th grader could read it without losing interest.

In our era of entitlement thinking, not new by the way, and gimme, gimme, gimme "economics," nobody seems to remember this teensy thing:

IN ORDER TO GET FROM THE GUBMENT, THE GUBMENT HAS TO TAKE FROM SOMEONE ELSE.

Yes, the word is TAKE. 

How many people would walk around their neighborhoods, knocking on doors, and asking their neighbors to just give them money for whatever the purpose?  Most people would never do that.

But they would line up all night for the proverbial gubment cheese.  Or to sidle up to the gubment sow and start suckling.  Not everyone is good at doing that either!  But a lot do!

Bastiat's idea that the gubment lives at the expense of everyone is so well said it can hardly be added to.

But consider this:  there are a couple of classes of entitlement in our society. 

There are those who think they don't need to work to receive.  That group is growing in number, percentage and in sound.  These are the gimme, gimme, gimme types.  They are becoming more and more forward and more and more demanding.  They believe in the cliche FREE LUNCH.

But there is another more insidious, and very burgeoning entitlement class.  This group is also growing in number and percentage, but they are being very quiet.  This group is composed of our "royalty."  I define our "royalty" as those who have "served" in gubment and think that doing so should afford them a retirement and every benefit under the sun for the rest of their lives.  Not only them, but their families too! 

To the first group I would say, as did Bastiat, that there is no such thing as a FREE LUNCH.

To the second group I would say that there is no such thing as a FREE LIFE.

TELL ME, WHICH GROUP BOTHERS YOU THE MOST?

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com, or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. Listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

Steve Hoffacker - Consultant, Coach, Author, Blogger, Photographer, Motivator, Teacher, & Strategist - for Realtors, Real Estate Sales Professionals, Home Builders, New Home Salespeople, Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, and Independent Sales Representatives.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2011. All Rights Reserved.

This past Monday, Delta and American announced a fare hike of up to $120 roundtrip on routes favored by business travelers - figuring that they wouldn't complain about what they had to pay.

They counted on the other major carriers joining in so that an across the board fare increase would ensue, and there would be no competitive advantage for anyone.

United, Continental, and USAir joined in. Southwest did not.

Then on Wednesday, USAir changed its mind and rescinded the increases. United and Continental did likewise.

Delta and American scaled back but keep some of the increase.

They are finding that the market is quite a bit more elastic than it used tio be, and people won't automatically accept price increases - particularly for what they get in return, which is absolutely nothing but a higher fee.

Isn't competition and the free market great?

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com, or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. Listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

Steve Hoffacker - Consultant, Coach, Author, Blogger, Photographer, Motivator, Teacher, & Strategist - for Realtors, Real Estate Sales Professionals, Home Builders, New Home Salespeople, Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, and Independent Sales Representatives.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2011. All Rights Reserved.

Anyone who needs to fix up their home - their own home, one they are flipping, a remodel or update, a foreclosure that they want to rent, or one they are trying to sell for themselves or someone else - here is a great resource. Anyone who has excess building materials from a construction or remodeling project can list their surplus here and sell it. It is South Florida based, but I suppose anyone could use it.

It's called "e-gravy" and it allows contractors to list their surplus materials and for consumers to get the small lots or specialty items for half-price.

Free enterprise at its best and a real service.

Congratulations, e-gravy. Much success to you.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com, or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. Listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

Steve Hoffacker - Consultant, Coach, Author, Blogger, Photographer, Motivator, Teacher, & Strategist - for Realtors, Real Estate Sales Professionals, Home Builders, New Home Salespeople, Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, and Independent Sales Representatives.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2011. All Rights Reserved.

So we didn't need the $8,000 tax credit after all. It was nice but it just artificially moved the demand from the past few months into the summer. Now the free market principles have allowed demand to move past that siphon and is once again showing a growth in sales.

According to NAR, existing home sales last month were the highest since June - underlining the point.

People need homes, and market manipulation is not the way to achieve it consistently.

This time of year people like to be in a new home for the holidays, to start the new year, and for tax reasons.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com, or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. Listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

Steve Hoffacker - Consultant, Coach, Author, Blogger, Photographer, Motivator, Teacher, & Strategist - for Realtors, Real Estate Sales Professionals, Home Builders, New Home Salespeople, Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, and Independent Sales Representatives.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2010. All Rights Reserved.

As we get ready to close the book on the 111th Congress - arguably the worst Congress in the last half century for egregious spending, excessive regulation, and moving us substantially down the road to socialism - we should reflect on a very simple premise offered by the 8th President of the United States, Martin Van Buren.

He said: "The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity."

I imagine if Congress were to be given a true-false or multiple-choice test on free enterprise and capitalism there would be a large failure rate. They don't understand that it made America great, that it keeps us strong, and that it is our future. Clearly they don't understand what we're all about. Now, if it's just a matter of them not believing in capitalism - whether they understand it or not, they should step aside and let someone else lead.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com, or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. Listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

Steve Hoffacker - Consultant, Coach, Author, Blogger, Photographer, Motivator, Teacher, & Strategist - for Realtors, Real Estate Sales Professionals, Home Builders, New Home Salespeople, Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, and Independent Sales Representatives.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2010. All Rights Reserved.

In a modern day story of free enterprise success - and one not needing any government supervision or money - the A&P grocery chain may throw off some market success to competitors while strenthening their own brand.

A&P filed for Capter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday. It is overextended and not performing well. This gives an opportunity for some of the other grocery lines like Food Lion, Stop & Shop, and Safeway to pick up some of the surplus locations, infuse cash back into A&P, and expand their own operations in a readymade location.

As a result, A&P will be less strapped trying to maintain so many locations and can focus on being more profitable in  what they have left.

Folks, this is free enterprise at it's best. The market is governing this orderly transition and redistribution of locations, assets, and potential - no government involvement at all.

As a result, instead of a struggling, on-the-verge-of-folding A&P, the market will have a leaner, stronger A&P and stronger competition from Food Lion, Stop & Shop, and Safeway through their strategic acquisition of A&P assets,

Everyone wins here - the retailers, the consumers, the localities, and the marketplace.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com, or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. Listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

Steve Hoffacker - Consultant, Coach, Author, Blogger, Photographer, Motivator, Teacher, & Strategist - for Realtors, Real Estate Sales Professionals, Home Builders, New Home Salespeople, Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, and Independent Sales Representatives.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2010. All Rights Reserved.

National Public Radio (NPR) - with emphasis on the word "public" - has created a firestorm for itself with the Juan Williams firing that has opened the eyes of America to the point where it may finally lose its taxpayer support. We don't need a publicly supported radio network. There are plenty of other radio stations and networks available, as well as other commercial outlets for news - all without taxpayer support.

According to Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), NPR receives about 13% of its budget from taxpayers. That is a whopping $420,000,000 annually. He introduced legislation this past summer to withdraw public funding from NPR, but Pelosi wouldn't let it proceed.

If NPR was truly a nonpartisan, unbiased network that it agreed to be in its charter, that would one thing. That still wouldn't justify such a huge expenditure of our tax dollars. The fact that it acts like a partisan news organization, competing with all other commercial news channels which do not get any federal money, means that the gravy train is over. No more tax dollars.

If they can't survive in a competitive news market without any tax dollars, that's too bad but the way it should be in a free market economy.

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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com, or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. Listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.

Steve Hoffacker - Consultant, Coach, Author, Blogger, Photographer, Motivator, Teacher, & Strategist - for Realtors, Real Estate Sales Professionals, Home Builders, New Home Salespeople, Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, and Independent Sales Representatives.

Photography displayed is original composition and artistic expression of Steve Hoffacker, and as such is copyrighted. Photos are as taken and have not been cropped, edited, or enhanced in anyway.

© Steve Hoffacker, 2010. All Rights Reserved.