The most interesting thing about the story was a University of Arizona paper entitled “Underwater and Not Walking Away: Shame Fear and the Social Management of the Housing Crisis“  (Typical University title for a paper!)

It’s a fascinating read if you have some time.  We can debate all day long the ethics of home owners walking away from their obligations, but the fact that it’s happening isn’t in dispute – and real estate agents, investors and other professionals should be thinking through the ramifications of it for their business.

Most home owners don’t realize (or maybe don’t care) that there are many alternatives that are much better than a foreclosure – a loan modification or short sale are all much better alternatives to giving up and walking away.

Here is the 60 minutes segment

On November 19th, Entrepreneurs’ Organization will be holding an event to celebrate EO24 and Global Entrepreneurship Week – to inspire entrepreneurial activity in Dallas and around the globe.

Our event will bring together prominent Dallas area business leaders and entrepreneurs for a panel discussion on entrepreneur activity in Dallas, the economy and other topics of interest to business leaders.

They hosted our event at their corporate headquarters, including a tour of their amazing logistics facility, from which any item that is in one of their stores originates.

A true entrepreneurial story, Kip has grown The Container Store from a single 1,600 sqft location in Dallas to 43 locations throughout the country, that average 25,000 sqft in size.

The big take-away from his talk was over-communicate to your staff, your partners and your vendors.  If you put your employees first – revenue and profits will follow.

The Container Store philosophy is that 1 great employee = 3 good employees, and 1 good employee = 3 bad employees.  So only hire great employees and over-pay them compared to the market.

Kip also says he gives the same power-point presentation on the company’s status to his board of directors and his employees.  Employees feel they know what is going on in the business and won’t be surprised.

Maybe that is why Fortune has named them one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For – 10 years in a row.

Plus, it’s not a bad bit of ‘viral marketing.  Enjoy.

Here is the basic outline of our business plan:

I.    Executive Summary
II.    Business overview
a.    Description of Business
b.    Company Goals
c.    Market Overview
d.    Management Team
e.    Competitive landscape
f.    Strengths/Weaknesses
g.    Key Differentiators
III.    Products
a.    Products offered
b.    Pricing structures
c.    Future products
IV.    Marketing Plan
a.    Market overview
b.    Target customer
c.    SWOT Analysis
d.    Marketing strategy
V.    Financials
a.    Sources of financing
b.    Income Statements
i.    12 month projections (monthly)
ii.    3 year projections (quarterly)
iii.    5 year projections (yearly)
c.    Cash Flow
i.    12 month projections (monthly)
ii.    3 year projections (quarterly)
iii.    5 year projections (yearly)
VI.    Technology
a.    Software development
b.    Infrastructure
c.    Patentable technology