I was born into a family of small business owners. Grandpa Joe, Gramma Marcella and their 10 children (my dad, aunts and uncles) ran a 40 acre truck farm near Rochester NY. The kids were up at 4:30 am to deliver produce to the Public Market. Then they hustled back home to get ready for school. Each evening they had farm chores, homework, and after dinner the whole family said the rosary together.
The photo above was taken in 1937 with my Grandpa Joe and my dad, Bob, just as white-headed as the cauliflower plants next to him. And as every farmer or business owner knows, it’s non-stop work to keep the kids fed!
Every owner also knows that some decisions could make the difference between a profit and a loss.
The “Cauliflower King”
Most farmers who took their produce to the Rochester Public Market removed the leaves from around the cauliflower to show off the white head. They wanted to present the best appearance to the buyers, so after trimming they arranged them in crates with all the heads facing out for display.
Grandpa Joe made a different decision. He calculated the amount of time it would take he and his hard working young ‘uns to strip those leaves and decided the labor cost wasn’t worth it. He figured the store and restaurant buyers could remove the leaves. Like corn, they could just as easily pull back the leaves to see if what they were getting was worth the price.
Joe priced his produce competitively and became known around the marketplace as “The Cauliflower King”.
The Lesson? Keep your overhead and labor costs low!
The Ultimate in Customer Service
Cash was also “King” but some customers paid by check. It got confusing when Grandpa told them who to make the checks out to. They struggled because Joe’s last name was Schichler (pronounced shish-ler). Customers had a devil of a time getting the spelling right.
So, after consulting with his brother, they decided to change their name to Schickler (schick-ler, pronounced like Schick razor blades).
The Lesson? Always make it easy for your customers to do business with you — and for the check to clear the bank!
(Photo: The Schichler Family with young Joe in the back row, upper right corner)
Leadership Lessons and Public Policy Problems
Leadership 101: A leader’s main job is to set the vision, inspire direction, clear obstacles and solve problems. Regardless of where you are and what role you play, we expect that when problems appear, leaders will do their job and create solutions that generate positive quantifiable results.
To turn a blind eye to trends that continue on a downward slope, without putting effective solutions in place, should mandate a change in leadership.
State government should be no different.
States are regularly ranked by factors that include how many people vote with their feet and their wallets — how many choose to relocate from other places, how many stay, leave or invest.
Colorado, and many other states, are failing. Their leaders just aren’t doing their jobs.
A recent article by Michael D. Brown outlined how state policies are affecting Colorado businesses. Per the Colorado Business Roundtable and 52 Senior Executives, 81% have a negative view. That’s up from 65% in Fall 2025.
We’ve lost 11,700 payroll jobs in 2025 alone. But in Nevada, Utah and Idaho, job creation grew.
Michael explains:
“Start with the rankings, which the state itself has been tracking since 2012. CNBC’s “Top States for Business” list. Colorado ranked number one in 2011. This year? 25th. Cost of living, 49th in the country. Cost of doing business, 38th. Infrastructure, 32nd. The American Legislative Exchange Counsel (ALEC) economic outlook index has us at 29th this year, down from 17th last year, and far, far away from second place, which is where we were in 2008.”
He goes on to offer eight suggestions about what can be done about it. Our newsletter readers in other states can learn from Colorado’s mistakes.
Michael has a lot to say in this article, but states in closing, “…the question to ask every candidate for governor is not whether they will convene stakeholders so they can ‘listen’… the question is, which of those eight items on the list will they actually do? And what they will trade away, inside their own party, to get any of it done.”
And while Michael didn’t mention it in his article, I’d add another public policy scourge crying out for a solution: Colorado is the second most dangerous state in the country.— perhaps a new “law and order” Attorney General would make a big difference.
Marketing Tips
I sat across the table last weekend at a BBQ from a man who told us he owned a water damage restoration business in Colorado Springs. During the conversation, I asked him how he got started in business and he replied, “It was all because of my mom. I helped her clean up her house from water damage, then was able to get a loan to help her pay off the mortgage and save the house from foreclosure.”
It was a great story! So, I suggested he put it on his website on the About page, to which he replied, “That’s a great idea!” I hope he does it.
People love start-up stories. Struggles you went through. Successes and achievements along the way. Everyone likes to hear how an underdog overcame adversity and persevered. Far too many websites are so very “oh-so-professional” that they appear sterile, impersonal and just like everyone else in their industry.
People like to do business with people, not companies. They want to see the faces behind the business, because…
It’s never just business, it’s always personal!™
Thanks for stopping by! Warmly, Laura Lollar (pronounced “Lollar” like “dollar”)