In This Issue.. Teaching Your Kids About the “M” WordInvesting... Save Your Sanity: Turn Off the TV The Five F’s of Management

Issue II

A Letter to Our ReadersKenny Watts

A Taste of Success

Maureen Lofton

The Smell of MoneyKatie Teague

If Money Was an Object

Clay Hamilton

TPOMThe Purpose of MONEY

Teaching Your Kids About the “M” Word

Timothy Karsten

You’d Think 18 Years of Preparation Would be Enough

Cat Owen

Save Your Sanity: Turn Off the TV

Timothy Karsten

The Five F’s of Management Al Gaston

“What is the purpose of money?” sounds like a rhetorical question. Everybody knows the purpose of money…right? But do we really? Is money a means to an end, and end unto itself or perhaps a measure of our value? When do we have enough money? Is there such a thing as too much money? Ironically, while the issue of money permeates our daily lives and has a profound impact on our decisions and life choices, very little discussion or dialogue is ever dedicated to serious exploration of the myriad complexities that envelop it.

The Purpose of Money is a publication dedicated to developing a framework for successful living that incorporates the wise use of money as a tool in achieving objectives; to create a forum for honest discussion about money and its value in our lives; to foster independence and creativity; to promote ambition without excess, excellence over quantity and growth without waste; and to identify meaningful strategies for living a life of dignity and grace.

The Purpose of Money was developed independently by a group of professionals representing diverse disciplines. Its publication is underwritten by Beyond Capital, a financial services firm; however, it is not intended nor will it ever be used as a sales tool for investments of any kind. All opinions expressed in TPOM are those of the writer or interviewee and are in no way subject to revision or editorial control by Beyond Capital or any other firm or agency.

Editorial Staff: Kenny Watts, Maureen Lofton, Katie Teague, Clay Hamilton, Doc Braswell. Administrative Coordinator: Nikki Doyal.Designer: Sharlyn Burton

The staff of TPOM strongly encourages the submission of articles, proposals and ideas for articles. All articles should be limited to no more than 3,000 words and should be accompanied by a brief explanation of the writer’s background and expertise as well as pertinent contact information. Articles cannot be returned; however, the authors will be notified if their submissions have been approved for publication by the editorial staff. Articles and story ideas should be sent to Beyond Capital, 2211 5th St. Suite 107, Meridian, MS 39301, Call Nikki Doyal @ 601-693-3007 or email Kenny Watts @ kenny@beyondcapitalinc.com or Nikki Doyal @ nikki@beyondcapitalinc.com

To our readers,

Our first edition required cooperation in design, a little prodding, persistent encouragement, and a shared vision. Time and energy were at a premium. We were not sure where the conversation might take us, but we knew the mission was a journey worth taking.

This time around, a mood of necessity is in place as our contributors are at it once more, continuing the conversation. Just what is the purpose of money? This step in our journey was no easier, but clearly more satisfying.

“I’d rather be an optimist and wrong; than a pessimist and right” Zig Ziglar

The subject is maybe more difficult than ever. In 2011, major media has succeeded in getting us upset! We cannot look past the impact of political discourse, as our emotions raged and decisions were driven by fear and uncertainty. Our elected officials appear to posture and grandstand. Let’s insist they get on the bus.

For many of us, the political process has been nauseating. Still others are just fed up. Most of us are somewhere in between. Bipartisanship does not occur in a world where cooperation only exists if one side is required to agree, completely, to the other. Something has to give. What this year, perhaps, has given is our patience. I feel we are stymied by the lack of leadership. As is the case so often in American history, individuals must look to themselves and their peers, working together toward productive and sustainable solutions in our local economies, which will lead us to financial solutions. Perhaps these solutions are simpler than we may have previously believed. We are in this together.

As you pass through these pages, we wish to thank you for taking part. Equally important though, we wish to ask for your participation as a contributor. Our next edition will be January 2012. We ask that you encourage others to do the same!

“If you don’t know where you are headed, any road will take you there.” Satchel Paige

Satchel Paige wasn’t just a terrific baseball player in his day. His fame has grown long after his achievements in the field of play were legendary. We can see from his words he was quite practical.

You must know what you wish to accomplish before taking the first step. You must also know where you have been. Be a part of our conversation and let’s create new paths, open new doors, and continually encourage one another toward a brighter future-- a future we may reach sooner than later.

When you visit our website (www.thepurposeofmoney.com), I hope you will subscribe. In our next edition, become one of our contributors.

Finally, thanks for being a part of this exploration. I look forward to our future.

KennyKenneth Watts

Kenny Watts is president & owner of Beyond Capital Financial Management Group, Inc., a full- service financial planning service firm. He has pursued a career in financial services for more than 26 years, making his home in Meridian, MS. Beyond Capital offices are located in Meridian at 2211 5th Street, Suite #107. Beyond Capital sponsors this publication, “The Purpose of Money”.

Katie Teague is an independent documentary filmmaker working in the growing field of transformational media. In 2009, she founded Intentional Films, now Storm Cloud Productions, LLC, for the purposes of bringing forward Money & Life, a feature-length documentary film exploring the nature and potential of money and the possibility of leveraging the global economic crisis as our greatest opportunity for realizing our greatest human capacities. Storm Cloud Productions is committed to bringing inspirational educational media to the social change process.

Katie's post-graduate background is in developmental psychology. Prior to filmmaking, she had a counseling practice in Seattle, Washington, where she worked primarily with individuals in the realm of personal growth and finding a deeper fulfillment in their lives.

Katie brings years of study in psychology and human development from an array of orientations to her work as a social and spiritual change agent.

I was 10 years old and my parents were having a Super Bowl Party--the Steelers vs. the Rams, if I remember correctly. The evening involved some high-risk betting and my parents were kind enough to let me gamble at such a young age. We each threw a dollar in the pot in hopes that ours was the winning prophecy on the outcome of the game. I put my money on the Steelers, on a whim more than affection or analysis, and assigned some random numbers to the final score.

I was nearly asleep by the end of the game when a rush of endorphins quickly aroused me. I had won the bet! It was a case of 10-year-old luck, and it felt good. After the guests had left, I took my stash of 50 one-dollar bills up to my room, enclosed safely in a small wooden box. I shut the door behind me and pulled out the stack of bills to stare in amazement. Raising my arms above my head, I released my grasp on the bills, and I stood, for a brief moment, under a shower of money. It was my first memorable smell of money and it absolutely gave me a buzz.

31 years later, in recounting that sweet and innocent shower, I wonder what that small stack of bills must have represented to me as a child. I can imagine it was mostly an independence from others (“the others” being my parents) and a freedom that gave me access to stuff (more toys). In short, I am certain it gave me a sense of power, as though I had gained the world.But what had I truly gained? Had I really gained anything that I didn’t already have? With 50 one-dollar bills littered around my feet, I was no more or less Katie than before. The $50 could buy me a bike, but it couldn’t make me magically run faster on my own two legs. But the smell of money intoxicated

The Smell of Moneyby Katie Teague

“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

~Matthew 16:26

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me with its scent of power. And since then, the scent of money has wafted strong in the collective air, as though released from the wand of Lord Voldemort. The financial crash of 2008 brought into clear light the excesses to which we as a culture have been disturbingly under the influence. Considering that 95% of the currency transactions today are motivated by speculative profit, and less than 5% for actual goods and services, we could say that Planet Finance has become a cancer on the real productive economy and is overshadowing Planet Earth itself.

My Super Bowl windfall is p e r h a p s a s i l l y , b u t nonetheless useful, anecdote to explore the intersection of money and power, to which the Biblical admonishment from Matthew 16:26 speaks. Indeed, the timeworn wisdom of human traditions all share references to this warning of the pursuit of short-term gain over lasting value. Yet, despite the teachings of the ancients, why is it so often we lament with Paul that “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”

Sure, the “greedy bankers” have got ten understandable and necessary publicity of late in taking blame (not that they have been held accountable; rather that we are beginning to get a

peek behind Oz’s curtain). But greed is not a condition for the bankers alone, nor is it true that every investment banker is just in it for the opulent taking. That’s too easy an out for the rest of us.

Curiously enough, the word for money comes from the Roman goddess Moneta, known as “The Warner.” It was in her temple that the first Roman coins were minted. And Moneta herself came from

t h e G r e e k g o d d e s s o f memory Mnemosyne. Taken together, what is the warning that money brings us today? What is it that have we forgotten?

What then is money, that she sounds her siren to the tune o f a l i g h t n i n g - s p e e d globalized, interconnected financial network teetering on the brink of sovereign-debt col lapse, tr ickl ing down suffering, not wealth? That we unwittingly kneel at the altar of perpetual growth, caught like hamsters in the

heart-numbing wheel of forever needing to produce and consume beyond what we need and beyond what the biosphere can support, as we are beginning to now understand? It’s the matrix we all live in as our lives have become more dependent on money than in any other time or culture. And it’s a matrix that manipulates us to serve an agenda hurtful to our authentic happiness, slaving at jobs we hate, for example.

More money and all it enables us to accumulate --beyond the level that grants us to live dignified lives-- does not increase our well-being.

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But the evidence is now in: more money and all it enables us to accumulate --beyond the level that grants us to live dignified lives-- does not increase our well-being (as evidenced by robust research and intuited by any down-to-earth person). And the planet will have the final say on how long we can continue to dominate and disrupt it to our shortsighted ends.

Never mind that we are poisoning our brethren by the toxic runoff of ‘more is better and cheaper is best.’ Never mind that we are rendering our social health tragically ill. You cannot call over 20% of the children living in poverty in the richest country on the planet or over 2 billion people living on less than $2 a day while the average CEO collects $11 million per year in aggregate compensation a clean bill of health. In a culture where our well-being --rich or poor alike--is given over in servitude to the making of money, where money makes the world go round, we have reduced our relationships to their commercial value, treating each other as commodities and nature as a never-ending exploitable resource. In so many ways, we have become more impove r i shed - -phys i ca l l y, psychologically and spiritually--as we have become so-called richer.

It seems we have forgotten what money is. It’s a human artifact used for the transference of value. It’s a measure of value, not the value itself. In other words, money is not wealth but an invention for exchanging, measuring and maintaining the flow of wealth within a community, be it local or global. It exists in a communal context by the magic of human intention. Alone on a deserted island, my 50 one-dollar bills would have been meaningless. And, without the human agreement or intention to make those dollar bills mean something in our social web, they would have been as useless as my scribbling on a napkin, “IOU $50” for the bike you just gave me.

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Maybe money is on everyone’s mind these days because the goddess is a Trojan horse breaking in where we are most vulnerable. Her urgency is hardly overstated by the ravages of climate change, biodiversity loss, soil depletion, global poverty, water shortage, and so on. In an inescapably interdependent world, the crises are convergent and related in a complex web of systems to which money harkens us to reconsider Business As Usual, to restore well-being to our systems, to remember who we really are. Maybe she is warning us that the real wealth of nations, that is, the real wealth of who we are as human beings, is not defined by artifacts or outer things. Show me one tombstone that reads, “He was a great man whose net worth was...”

Money was once a means whereby balance within the human economy was maintained and restored. It supported the flow of life force in the body collective. The further we have distanced ourselves from her original impulse to serve our well-being, the further it seems we have lost our soul and impoverished our relationship to the truth of who we are as humans, always on the path to becoming more fully human. It is a good time to ask of us again “for what has a man profited?”

Her warning is our call to find again this original purpose for money that seeks not to gain the world, but rather to heal our souls and our fractured communities, that situates money as rightful servant to the bounty and goodness of our relationships with one another and to the infinite beauty of this exquisite Earth. In the process, we will rediscover what makes us truly wealthy and give our lives to preserving and regenerating the abundance of existence for every 10- year-old to come.

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It is that time again when the yellow buses begin to be visible, and older students are off to college.

This being the case, I thought I might share some thoughts about children and money.

I have talked with many a parent who struggles in figuring out how to address the issue of raising healthy children with a strong financial literacy and money skill-set.

Few schools teach kids about money. Too many parents avoid the topic altogether and/or give mixed messages to their children. And, many parents do not have healthy financial skills and/or literacy themselves.

Many years ago when I was working with inheritors of wealth, I saw too clearly how adults who have not had healthy role modeling nor adequate education continue to struggle with money.

No matter how much you inform your children, there is no guarantee they will practice healthy money habits, but at least you will have provided them a foundation.

Teaching Your Kids About the “M” by Timothy Karsten

Timothy Karsten works with business and non-profit leaders, wealthy individuals and wealthy families who are change makers and thought leaders, but who are either in the process of transformation or are reaching for their greatest potential. Beyond graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Political Economics and International Relations and earning a law degree from USC Law Center, Timothy’s travels and interest in diversity of culture and customs have taken him around the world.For more than 20 years, Timothy has overseen family trusts, investment strategies and asset managers. Since 2000, he has managed the investment portfolio of the Karsten Family Foundation and driven its mission through grant-making focused on the environment, education, housing and empowering girls and women.He happily shares his home in Pacific Palisades, California with his wife, Karinna, and their Jack Russell, Sparky. When Timothy is not busy raising the bar of expectation and performance for his clients, you can find him entertaining friends and family, playing music, discovering unknown roads and mountain trails around the world and bringing magic to his organic gardens.

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Keep it

Simple

So, here are some suggestions for what you might do:

1) Focus on communicating love to your child, where love does not correlate to money. Share activities that have nothing to do with what you buy for them or how much you give them for allowance. This will help you to avoid confusing love with money (not easy but important).

2) Early on, start explaining the value of money. Discuss what it takes to make money, and make distinctions between items such as their costs, their value, their purpose.

3) Provide incentives for your children.

4) Teach them the nature of exchange; how money is one form of exchange for work. Also, give them the opportunity to learn how to barter or provide other forms of exchange.

5) As they become curious, children will inform you early on of their interest and/or acumen with financial

matters. Pay attention to this. Some kids are naturally drawn to money and financial matters. Others are less so and have interests in other areas. Honor the differences.

6) Keep it consistent. If you have more than one child, even though you will notice different tendencies, it is important to stay consistent. It is very important to have similar guidelines for each child, not playing favorites nor making it easier for some and more challenging for others. It is okay to acknowledge proclivities, but be mindful not to play favorites or stress one's strength and/or vulnerability around money and/or financial literacy.

7) Keep it simple. Strive for simplicity in all of your relationships pertaining to money and, in particular, when it comes to your children.

8) By nature, children are curious and will want to know how much money you have. Use words like we have "more than enough" or "We are very fortunate to have what we need and some in addition." You can also say things like, "Compared to others, we are comfortable and/or doing well financially." Or, you might say, "There are many factors that determine how wealthy someone is, including the nature of their friendships, the health of their bodies and minds, the strong bonds they have built with their family and their community, how they invest it and share it with others."

Word

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Provide Incentives

Cat Owen lives in Meridian, Mississippi with her husband, Dave and three children Brice, Camille, and Cooper. She is a graduate of Samford University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, and is also a certified yoga instructor. Cat is currently a Marketing Specialist with BlueSouth Publishing Company.

Mastering money management, though, usually comes at a more mature stage of life, long after the carefree teenage years, when money seems to grow on trees or flow from the bottomless well that is our parents' bank account. No, that maturity is reserved for the reality that ensues after the dreams of fancy cars and big houses wear thin on the salaries of our first jobs out of college.

We all want more than anything for our children to grow to become productive, happy adults. We assume because we've instilled (beyond an imaginative estimate) good and appropriate manners, the rules of playing fairly and the boundaries by which they can operate, that our children will automatically and inherently adjust to money management via the complicated math they've learned in high school. But have we fully prepared them? Do they really understand how to manage money beyond the simple addition and subtraction of checking-account math? Do we teach them well by gratifying every whim to make them happy? Do they have enough – or perhaps too much?

I was raised without any understanding of money, and it has taken painful decades (I’m still a work in progress, mind you) to really understand the nature of money and how to use it. I was raised in a family where the cost of things was never considered, and saving was never discussed. If you needed (or better yet) wanted something, you simply went and bought it. It taught me this lesson: Money is the only key to happiness.

How was this possible? My grandfather was an extremely wealthy man, and my parents worked hard at keeping him happy so that they and their children could have whatever they desired. Sounds pretty great, eh? Not really. Step into my reality. The emotional roller coaster was almost unbearable. It was a game I watched played out on a weekly basis, and I was required to participate. I was groomed to smile at Gran, look cute in front of him, say something funny, mention my high grades and awards and basically perform the dog and pony show that was a far cry from who this blonde, Florida kid really was. Many times we were rewarded, and a few horrific times we were

You'd Think 18 Years of Preparationby Cat Owen

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punished -- which never went well. Was it worth it to get the money? The stress my grandmother endured to keep everyone happy must have been unbearable as witnessed by the amount of “anxiety pills” and alcohol it took to relax her. I thought--even as a child--that all this money couldn’t be worth the heartache she felt. My father's life revolved around keeping my mother happy, with the idea that all this money would one day be hers. It was a dilemma from which there was no relief, no escape. He battled depression and stayed a w a y, e m o t i o n a l l y a n d mentally, for many of my childhood years in a futile attempt to avoid my mother’s constant nagging about what money was coming next. If Gran was happy with us, the money flowed: houses, cars, shopping t r ips , jewel ry, whatever we asked for. If Gran was not happy, we might lose it all and the thought of that sent my parents into ugly fighting and blaming for the possible unfortunate future. Then the cycle would begin again. I hated every bit of it but it was my life and there it is.

So where did that leave me as an adult entering the world on my own? I was a financial idiot. If you’re wondering, Gran left me a few trust accounts, and I didn’t have enough good sense to leave it invested. It was gone before I was 32. The

only training I’d ever had with money was to look cute and buy whatever I wanted. So I did. I was fortunate that some events played out in my life that helped me start looking at and questioning my views on money and how I valued it. Changes didn’t happen overnight, and it’s taken years for me to realize that old habits with money are incredibly hard to break. To recover, I had to completely make

over my viewpoint and the incredibly intimidating force the almighty dollar sign came to be. I had to understand that , because I wanted something, I first had to have the bank account to match my heart's desire. These painfully hard-learned lessons came at a price. Instead of buying, I had to opt for something cheaper or nothing at all. I had to learn to look for happiness, not at the end of a credit card transaction, but in the simple bits of life that pass us by so quickly. Who could buy that beautiful flash of a smile on my 6-year-old son's face when he sees his mom after a long day at

school? What store-bought item could replace the happiness my 11-year-old gets from painting her mother's fingernails? This is what not having a ton of money has taught me: Happiness is found within, in the perfectly inaccessible place for any amount of money. And, if I teach my children anything, it will be that from a peaceful interior, all good things will flow.

Would be Enough.

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Cat at home with her family.

When Jamie Cater first approached Doc Braswell with her idea of opening a specialty foods market, Doc admits he was skeptical.

“I had my doubts,” he says. “She was a young lady and a doctor’s wife. She was excited but had never really managed any retail before. I asked her, ‘Are you sure you want this?’“

Jamie confirms that Doc “tried to talk me out of it,” but she had been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, something she says she inherited from her father, who went to work as a young man at a small insurance agency, gradually moving up to become company president and helping to make the business the thriving operation it still is today.

“I have a lot of his qualities,” she says and, while it’s true that she never had managed a retail venture, she had worked in plenty of them. As a student, she worked during the Christmas season wrapping gifts at a local men’s store and, over the years, did stints in a frame shop and several clothing stores. The highlight of her part-time career was an entire summer working at Disney World. After college, she worked as a pharmaceutical representative before opting to stay at home as her son was growing up. During that time, she was a familiar face and enthusiastic community advocate on the volunteer circuit. “I was a volunteer for years,” she says. “I was on about 10 different boards and was president of the Junior Auxiliary. It ran the gamut.” But Jamie was starting to get restless, and her final

EDITOR’S NOTE: In the premier issue of The Purpose of Money, we profiled Doc Braswell, a business development expert who guides fledgling entrepreneurs to successfully follow their dreams or, in some cases, to abandon them as unrealistic. In this issue, we follow one start-up business that Doc had serious reservations about but that has flourished, grown and even expanded to a second location in just five years.

Maureen Lofton is herself an entrepreneur, having started her own writing, editing and marketing firm, To The Point Communications.

A Taste of Successby Maureen Lofton

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volunteer project hinted at the tenacious entrepreneur she would become. She and a friend, Debbie Martin, developed an ambitious and inventive fundraising project dubbed “Around Town, Carousels Abound,” capitalizing on the city’s role as the home of a historic, priceless, hand-carved carousel. The two determined women secured the support of local government , developed agreements with talented artists, and persuaded area businesses to purchase the one-of-a-kind, beautifully decorated carousel horses, with the proceeds going to a local home for abandoned and abused children. What set this project apart from public arts projects in other communities was that it was always intended to be permanent, not just a temporary display for a festival or other occasion. The more than 50 carousel horses commissioned during the project still dot the community and are a source of tourism on their own. As Jamie began to look beyond the volunteer scene and toward doing “something different,” a friend of hers suggested she explore the idea of a gourmet specialty store. Jamie and her husband, Bob, travel often, so she began to seek out other similar stores and make note of how they operated. She has a friend in Florence, Alabama who owned and operated a gourmet shop, so she was able to pick her brain for ideas. At that point in the development process, Jamie made a gutsy leap of faith. Based on her research and on the significant network of contacts she had developed in the community, she became firmly convinced that an up-scale, high-end gourmet foods market could succeed, even in a small city of 40,000 people, if it found the right niche. And she was willing to invest some of her family’s own money into the venture as

a source of collateral and a show of faith in the venture. That’s when Jamie first went to see Doc, who worked with her to calculate solid financial projections for the fledgling business. Over the years, Doc had developed a one-page Sources and Uses of Funds Statement and a companion, one-page Projected Profit and Loss Statement to

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Jamie prepares a latte on the espresso machine.

guide the entrepreneur in identifying all costs; funds, if any, that would need to be borrowed; and what level of gross revenue would be required for the first three years in order to meet expenses. The fact that Jamie was willing to invest her own money—the bulk of it inherited from her mother-in-law in her will—was an asset, but not a panacea.

“Of course, banks don’t want to loan unless you have significant collateral,” Doc said. “But that can also be a hazard. With your own collateral, you might not be as cautious as you would be if you owed the money to a bank.”

Together, they pinpointed every conceivable, start-up expense and developed an initial budget of $2,700 for costs like utility deposits and insurance costs; $21,800 for capital investments like equipment, computers, furniture and fixtures; $20,000 worth of inventory and supplies; $5,000 worth of initial advertising and promotional costs; and $540 for miscellaneous fees like accounting and licensing. They also decided Jamie would need $10,000 in working capital to keep cash flowing as the business developed.

All of those costs totaled $60,040. Jamie and Bob planned to invest $29,000, leaving $31,040 in total capital needed, which was easily secured from a bank because of the couple’s nearly 50 percent collateral level. On the Profit and Loss Statement, Doc estimated Jamie would need to generate $159,000 in gross sales the first year, and told her not to expect any profit at least until years two or three.Jamie made a profit the first year.

Doc credits Jamie’s innate business sense for at least part of the success. “She had identified a need”, he says. “The community was ready. She identified her target market—the affluent. There are no 10-cent cookies at Cater’s Market.” The other two critical areas were the right location and a name that clearly identified her brand.

After driving around the north end of town looking for just the right spot, Jamie took Doc’s advice and checked out a location owned by a friend of his. The friend’s establishment, which housed a garden center and an outdoor adventure business, had suffered some damage in Hurricane Katrina, and the owner was looking for an additional tenant to bring more rental income into the operation to finance renovations. Jamie figured she could draw on the same customer base as the garden center and outdoor shop, so she next wrestled with the right name. After trying out Queen City Market, she finally settled on what had been obvious from the start.

“I had lots and lots of contacts,” she explains. “It became clear that I needed to use my own name. And the last name ‘Cater’ was just perfect for the food business.” So, Cater’s Market was born in May of 2006.

With just four employees at the outset, including Jamie and her mother, who worked tirelessly to get the business to flourish, the market offered a wide variety of gourmet foods including marinades, salsas, chutneys, cookies, sauces, dips and a freezer full of frozen casseroles and desserts. The store specialized in items not found in ordinary grocery stores, and the concept worked. Three years later, Cater’s Market was well-established but was about to lose its home. The owner of the building was selling out and Jamie knew she was going to have to move. So, she once again hopped in the car and started driving around looking for a new location. A chance encounter with a developer led her to a restaurant about to close—just blocks from her current location. Jamie snapped it up, did some renovations and moved in, changing not just locations but the scope of the services she offered.

While the original location had a small luncheon area, Jamie says, “I never intended for it to be a restaurant.” She had started making some sandwiches and other light fare for bridge clubs and

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for birthdays and wedding showers after discovering that contracting with a caterer for prepared food was just too expensive, but was focused primarily on sales of bottled, canned and frozen specialty items. But all that changed with the relocation.

“When we moved, the new place had already been a restaurant,” she says, “and people were used to that.” So Cater’s Market became a full-fledged restaurant.

Doc says that’s not unusual and is the mark of an entrepreneur who stays flexible and recognizes new opportunities. “Her place does not even resemble the original idea,” he says. “That’s typical. They usually evolve if they’re to continue to be successful.”

The new market features an espresso bar and a counter where cus tomers order lunch—sandwiches; fresh soups; and lots of sweets, like cheesecake, lemon and chess squares. The restaurant area is surrounded by industrial-grade metal racks stuffed with a dizzying array of distinctive salsas, marinades, curries, teas, mustards and other condiments, plus the popular frozen foods section. To handle the growing business, Jamie has increased the number of employees from four to about 14, with surprisingly little turnover. “I’ve been lucky,” she says. “I have a great staff. When somebody leaves, God sends somebody else.”

But luck’s got nothing to do with it, according to Doc, who says, “You can judge management ability by the turnover. That speaks volumes. It’s expensive to have turnovers. A good entrepreneur knows how to manage people.”

Jamie acknowledges there have certainly been mistakes along the way—like when she thought she was gett ing a great deal on some used

freezers from a grocery store going out of business.

“I wasted money,” she says flatly. “I bought $15,000 worth of refrigeration and never used it. It was too big. I didn’t know enough about freezers. It turned out they had to be vented out the roof, which would have been expensive.” So, Jamie says she learned to be wary about buying used equipment and only from people she knew.

By the time Jamie was approached about opening a location downtown, she was making a little net profit at the market. After backing off the idea because of family considerations, she finally got the deal she wanted on a prime downtown location. She originally toyed with the idea of a small branch of the market at the downtown site, but ultimately decided that a café with an urban flair would be a better draw downtown.

“So many people come in off the interstate,” she says. “They need variety. They need choice. I didn’t want to compete with exist ing downtown restaurants, just add something different. This is just a great spot. If this doesn’t work here, nothing will.”

Cater’s Café features an interesting array of espressos and lattes, with small, round tables dotting the storefront, inviting patrons to sit a while, read the newspaper and take advantage of free Wi-Fi. The L-shaped space sports a casual lounge area with comfortable, bright red leather sofas, and a loft upstairs provides additional seating for small groups. The café has a small food preparation area, but not a full kitchen, a money-saving idea made possible by the ability to draw on the foods already available at the market. Every day, employees bring sweet treats, soups and prepared sandwiches to the café from the market. Daily specialty sandwiches are made on site, but everything else comes fresh from the companion market.

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Doc says Jamie did not discuss the idea of the café with him before making the decision to open it, but he wasn’t surprised. “She’s a dyed-in-the-wool entrepreneur,” he says. “The only thing I asked her every time I saw her was ‘Are you still having fun?’”

Jamie acknowledges that, while the café has so far been successful, it has taken a toll on her physically. She is visibly drawn and tired the day of the interview and admits that the café has added to an already staggeringly long work week. The market is not open on Mondays—although Jamie and the staff are there taking stock, ordering supplies and tending to routine business—but the café is open, which means Jamie has just one day off a week—Sundays.

“There have been some mornings when I thought to myself, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore,’” she says. “But I help a stranger or have an interaction with a customer that lifts my spirits and I remember why I am doing it. I feel like I am contributing something unique to my community. I am working toward at least taking a day off so I can prevent burning out.”

Doc cautions that burnout is a real issue, especially for entrepreneurs whose businesses are growing.

“She needs somebody else to help manage,” he says. “For her own sake, she’s got to find somebody else but stay close enough that it’s still her vision.” Jamie and Doc are huddled together again, this time figuring out how to pare expenses. While the market has always shown a gross profit, it does not yet have a strong enough net profit, and the addition of the café has put a further strain on the bottom line. Once again, they’re working through Doc’s source of funds statement and profit and loss statement, detailing every expense and looking for ways to cut costs and boost revenues.

One morning at the café, Jamie chats with an employee after he’s whipped up an espresso for a customer. He’s got an idea he wants to share with the boss. The market and café both sell lots of specialty dips for tailgate parties during football season. Why not figure out a way to put the decals of the most popular universities on the dip cartons to spur sales and promote fan loyalty? Why not, indeed?

“That’s a great idea,” Jamie says, after mulling over the concept. So, the two spend several more minutes figuring out how to do decals in an inexpensive but effective way.When they’re finished, she has a contented look on her face.

She’s still having fun.

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Jamie rarely gets a break, but she checks out the comfort of the couch in her downtown cafe’.

Years ago, I worked for a CEO named Jim Burgess. Jim had spent his formative management years with GE. Somewhere along the way, he picked up what I call the “Five F’s of Management.” As Jim explained to me, you could be successful as a manger if you simply employed the Five F’s in priority order. He also noted that you may not be able to get to all five, but you ALWAYS had to work the F’s in order.

I have remembered those F’s and have tried to practice them in my role as a manager. Whether or not these F’s were original to Jim, I believe there is much wisdom to the practice of these F’s.

The first F in this management hierarchy is “Fair.” The contention is that

a manager must always be fair in his dealings, no matter with whom he is working. This fairness concept is the linchpin to making the other F’s work and the reason that it is first in priority. If you are perceived as being fair, you retain a relationship with your audience, whoever that might be. For instance, in working through a particularly difficult project with hard decisions needing to be made, a fair manager would accept input, and even go solicit input, if necessary, from the team members of the project. The solicitation of input achieves several objectives. First, most of us recognize that every project, task or game has a leader, or leaders. What we really want is success and recognition for being part of a successful team. By allowing and encouraging input from team members, the leader is demonstrating an open-mindedness toward new ideas or alternative approaches. This generally leads to a greater likelihood for overall success.

Secondly, the solicitation of input also leads to another important objective, which is “buy-in” to the success of the project by all team members. Those actively involved and contributing are much more likely to develop a bond to the project and a commitment to its success than a team member who is allowed to simply lay back or worse, one who wants to provide input but is ignored.

Al Gaston is the owner and president of Columbus Flooring and More, Inc. in Columbus, Georgia. He has more than 30 years of experience with various corporations, specializing in general management and financial services and providing leadership in human resources and balance sheet and turnaround management.

Al has an MBA from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Al is a strong believer in community involvement. He is the chair of the board of directors at Springer Opera House and chair of the Headmaster’s Committee at Brookstone School. He is a coach for Babe Ruth Youth Baseball, on the board of directors at Lamar School and an instructor in Junior Achievement.

The Five F’s of Managementby Al Gaston (with thanks to friends and colleagues)

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I sometimes tease my children when they protest, “that’s not fair” to which I respond, “The [county] fair comes in October.” If you ever get to the point of perception by your team where they honestly believe that you are not listening and not being fair, you have violated the first F of successful management. This gets us to the third objective of fairness…perception. The critical element of fairness is the perceived fairness for those involved and even those uninvolved. We are all being watched by others at different times. If our reputation is one of fairness and even-handed dealings, we will be able to lead, even though not everyone agrees with the decision. The reason you can s t i l l ma in ta in leadersh ip desp i te a disagreement with team members is that all pertinent points were duly considered and an appropriate course of action was chosen out of the available alternatives. It is vital to note that going through the motions versus actually listening and considering alternative points of view will not accomplish the fairness objective. The manager must be sincere and engaged in the process.

The second F in this lexicon is “Firm.” The

successful manager realizes that management is not a popularity contest. Someone must lead and that is the manager’s job; however, leading means bringing the troops with you. If you are fair in your management judgments and consideration of alternative opinions, you can move to the second F by making decisions with confidence that the direction will be followed. As an example, in the 1980s I worked for Schlumberger, Ltd, an oil field services company. In 1981, the domestic onshore U.S. drilling rig count was somewhere around 4,500 operating rigs. By 1986, that count had dropped to around 1,100 with no hope of recovery…a market collapse of 75%! I worked in the USA Land Services unit led by a fellow named Alton McCready. Alton was a tough, no-nonsense manager who was not afraid to make a decision.

He charted a course of action and we followed. Of course, it helped that Alton was perceived by his managers as fair…he allowed and encouraged input, made a decision and stuck with it. By way of contrast, as part of the financial function, I had a functional boss in Houston who was our group controller. This individual was smart as a whip, but he vacillated on key decisions, which caused us to stop and start work in the field, even wasting large amounts of time on projects that ended up abandoned. The point being, smart isn’t always right when it comes to leadership. Fairness and firmness of direction create a stable environment in which others could work for success in the projects assigned.

The third F is “Frank.” A manager has an

obligation to shoot straight, even if it is not always convenient or comfortable. This does not provide a license for the manager to be unkind. Far from it, an honest manager will constructively critique the work of a subordinate in a way that allows the employee to learn and grow (think fairness). It would be most unkind to a subordinate to smile and nod that everything was OK with their work when this was not true. The manager has an obligation to teach and contribute to the success of his subordinates. This cannot be done without honest, constructive feedback. It can also be done with humor or other techniques with which the manager is comfortable. Going back to McCready (think oil field here), when a division manager sent a report to Alton with which he disagreed, his disagreement was crystal clear because he would take a red ink pad and a big block letter stamp reading B-U-L-L-S-_ _ _ (well, you get it), stamp the report and return it to its writer. Simple, clear communication! To take this “no nonsense” theme a little further, Alton had a sticker on his office door that had one of the “don’t do it” red circles with a diagonal line through it. In the circle was a bull squatting over a manure pile. The message was unambiguous--”Don’t come in

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here with BS, we’ve got a business to run in a very tough environment and I need facts!”

If a manager has been successful in the application of the first three F’s (Fair, Firm and Frank), then you get to the last two without really doing anything else. These are what I call the bonus rounds. The

fourth F is “Faithful.” If you are fair, provide

consistent leadership (Firm) in a way that admits mistakes when they occur and solicits input (see Fair again) with candor about what is necessary to succeed (Frank), you will earn the faithful dedication of the team…you might even call it loyalty. I think of Faith in this context as earned trust and respect, a willingness of the team to follow the manager because the manager is known to listen, deliberate and make the a decision…a decision that is generally right based on the input received and evaluated with a team now confident in the direction charted. Interestingly, I have found that confidence, and Faith, is strongest when the team knows that the manager is not afraid to objectively re-evaluate a decision that is not getting the desired results. Most importantly, it is the buy-in of the team following the manager’s direction (based on the first three F’s) that will lead to success for all.

The final “F” is truly a bonus, and that F is

“Friendly.” As a manger, you do not have to

be friends with your colleagues to be successful, but you do have to earn and maintain their respect (think Fair, Firm and Frank). One could also make the argument that being close friends with work colleagues hinders objective performance and decision making. Certainly there will be some on the team who see personal friendship between a manager and a co-worker as a “favored” relationship. Still, this F, while not critical for success, is the one that contains the greatest degree of personal reward. Occasionally, work

colleagues will become lifelong friends. I have several folks from previous employments whom I still see socially and truly consider friends. A true blessing and a bonus in the five F’s of management. My advice is keep it objective…friendship seeks its own way!

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The Five F’s of Management

FAIR

FIRM

FRANK

FAITHFUL

FRIENDLY

Clay Hamilton is a self-employed, reinvented baby boomer. In the past, he has served as webmaster and IT manager for higher education and corporate America. He is currently the head geek of Nexus Hero, a program designed to help displaced workers find work on the Internet as well as help people start or expand a business on the Internet.

He also serves as a mentor to Netfishbowl.com, a female-owned Internet business that sells domain names, web hosting and web design.

Currently he is working on BABI, an online building and business inventory designed to help communities revitalize their downtowns.

He can be cranky if he doesn’t get one nap a week, is a vegetarian who occasionally eats chicken and is a practitioner of minimalism.

If Money Was An Objectby Clay Hamilton

An interesting question to pose is, “What if money was no object?”

So, being part contrarian, I want to take the other perspective. What if money HAD TO be an object? I would posit that most of our problems stem from the fact that money really isn’t an object, that it has completely uncoupled itself from physicality, and that is a big problem.

So, in my alternate universe, Warren Buffett can still be the richest man in the world, worth $39 billion dollars, but in my world he must maintain that wealth in dimes.

That’s right. Ol’ Warren would have to find a place for all 1.95175241 × 10 to 9 power pounds of it. It’d be his responsibility to keep it safe and pay the taxes on the land it would be sitting on. He’d have to pay for the building it sits in and he ‘d have to put in the metal detectors to make sure the people who were supposed to be watching it weren’t carrying it home at night. Even if we cut Warren some slack and let him keep it in one dollar bills, he’d still have to keep up with 85,980,282.3 pounds of legal tender. Again, with all the same worries about a place to keep it and a way to keep people from stealing it.

In fact, because money is often NOT an object, many of the distortions we experience like “you can’t have too much of it” are possible. If you had to carry it in your pocket all the time, I imagine we’d find that much less money was not only more comfortable but quite doable.

The other problem with money being no object other than a smidgen of data in a computer is that, ultimately, it has NO real value other than what we give to it. Originally, our currency was backed by gold, then silver, and now it’s backed by nothing other than our shared belief in it. A belief that some of us do not share like others do. Some will game the system, creating money by making ledger entries, as the Federal Reserve recently did by buying 1.25 trillion dollars in housing debt just by saying that they did it.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/08/26/129451895/how-to-spend-1-25-trillionAt the core of the concept of money is the idea that at least it represents a shared “value” but, when so much of it is intangible, and the fingers on the

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keyboard are far, far away with little or no accountability, it becomes something of a risk to continue to participate.

Some do withdraw and convert their intangible money into more tangible investments like gold.

Some create alternatives like the cyber currency bitcoin that is traded over the Internet and has a value to its traders but has no basis in any economy for exchange.

The bottom line is being wealthy, now more than ever, has little or no consequences (i.e. responsibilities). We have allowed our world to become geared toward the comfort of the most comfortable, giving them numerous affordances to aid and abet them in accumulating even more.

It continues even when it doesn’t even remotely make sense. Why anyone would need 39 billion dollars doesn’t make any sense. The only thing that I think brings that into perspective is if money WAS an object.--something that you had to carry to keep.

As a parent, one of the things I stressed to my kids (and I have to remind myself a lot ,too) is to know the difference between a want and a need. We may want billions (I know I do) but the reality is what could we possibly need a billion for? Have all our vital organs transplanted?

As long as we insist on treating insanity as sanity, we will reap what I call the karmic backlash. Your particular flavor of religion may rankle at the idea of karma, but I can assure you that every religion agrees you will reap what you sow.

As long as we treat money, which is in fact not an object, as the most important object, we will miss the importance (and great joy) of just hearing some good banjo music.

Seriously.

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Stress has come back to the markets and folks are fearful once again. A new month and two days of down markets. More up and down on the horizon.

What are we as investors to do?

My advice is, if you have passed on your accounts to experts to manage, let them do their jobs. That is what you have hired them to do. Turn off the news on the markets, as it looks to continue to be highly volatile and tense. This only adds to anxiety of investors. Trust me, I have been there.

Make an agreement with yourself to set a date when you are going to meet with your advisor to review what is taking place. Until then, stay away. You can agree to talk/meet monthly, every three months or once every six months.

Alternatively, get out of the markets. If you can't stomach the volatility, the media madness is not going to serve you now. And the volatility is not going away.

The key is to get beyond the day today. It can have too strong an influence on your moods, on your fulfillment, on your productivity. It is going to suck your life force, grab your heart, infiltrate your mind, and drive you crazy.

You have to make another choice. I have found that the more successful clients trust themselves and their decisions and, therefore, trust their advisors to act in their best interests.

Where it gets sticky is with clients who are not confident in themselves, nor confident in their managers. This is where many of the problems occur for both

Save Your Sanity: Turn Off the TVby Timothy Karsten

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Timothy Karsten works with business and non-profit leaders, wealthy individuals and wealthy families who are change makers and thought leaders, but who are either in the process of transformation or are reaching for their greatest potential. Beyond graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Political Economics and International Relations and earning a law degree from USC Law Center, Timothy’s travels and interest in diversity of culture and customs have taken him around the world.For more than 20 years, Timothy has overseen family trusts, investment strategies and asset managers. Since 2000, he has managed the investment portfolio of the Karsten Family Foundation and driven its mission through grant-making focused on the environment, education, housing and empowering girls and women.He happily shares his home in Pacific Palisades, California with his wife, Karinna, and their Jack Russell, Sparky. When Timothy is not busy raising the bar of expectation and performance for his clients, you can find him entertaining friends and family, playing music, discovering unknown roads and mountain trails around the world and bringing magic to his organic gardens.

investor and manager. The clients are second-guessing themselves and their managers. In addition, the clients are watching snippets of news that create anxiety for them but don't have much, if anything, to do with the overall strategy that their manager is implementing.

What is to be done in this situation?

1) Get clear as an investor. Clarity is key. Who am I? Who am I in relationship to my wealth/investments?What is going to work for me?

Do I want to be in anxiety? If so, keep at it and keep driving the anxiety. If not, find a way to quiet your mind, turn off the news and go get more engaged in your life and what you love. If you see that the market is down or catch a news story that might cause anxiety for you, walk away from it, turn it off or, alternatively, choose a different response. Shrug your shoulders, go exercise or get a massage and go do what you love. Or, listen to the story and see it only as a story. It is up to you how you choose to respond.

2) If you do not trust the advisor and your mistrust is sincerely valid, then do something about it. Get a professional to help you sort out your relationship with the advisor if you don't feel you can alone. Speak with your lawyer, accountant or someone like myself who specializes in helping investors and advisors work together successfully. You need someone you trust in the mix.

3) Do not beat yourself up in any way for the past.

You might be living out trauma from past events and what you might call "mistakes.” You have got to become trauma free and find the trigger points that keep returning you to the trauma. There is more a n d m o r e r e s e a r c h a b o u t t r a u m a a n d methodologies for treating it.

4) Who do you surround yourself with? Take a look at the voices influencing you. If you want to live in the world of worry and doom and gloom, it is out there. Granted, there are factors at work that are t h r e a t e n i n g o u r s t a b i l i t y a n d f i n a n c i a l strength. However, there are always great opportunities in such an environment. You can find advisors who see the opportunity and are going to help you gain from this opportunity. This is not about taking a gamble with your money. This is about finding alignment with advisors who ring true for you.

5) Do not take any of this too seriously. Yes, there is much seriousness and, most importantly, it is the individuals who can't find work and are losing their marriages, their health and their homes who are struggling the most. Those individuals need our help. How can we help them if we are sitting in a state of anxiety about our own financial story? Get out of your story and help someone with theirs.

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"To develop a framework for successful living that incorporates the wise use of money as a tool in achieving objectives; to create a forum for honest discussion about money and its value in our lives; to foster independence and creativity; to promote ambition without excess, excellence over quantity and growth without waste; and to identify meaningful strategies for living a life of dignity and grace."

Beyond Capital, 2211 5th St. Suite 107, Meridian, MS 39301,  kenny@beyondcapitalinc.com    nikki@beyondcapitalinc.com

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