Business | paulhunterjones

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Can you spot college football fanatics among your friends, acquaintances or work colleagues?

These are some the telltale signs of bona fide fanatics of the game:

On game day, they dress in the colors of their school
They schedule personal activities on game day around kick-off time
Using their smartphones, they watch the game via live stream or receive “Game Cast” updates
They go about their daily routine on game day while listening to the game via radio
They watch the game at a particular sports bar where school alumni gather to reminisce about “the good old days of campus life” and to cheer for their team
Once the college football season comes to an official end, they go into a kind of hibernation until the season starts up again.
In the latter part of August, they rush to their local magazine newsstand to buy Sports Illustrated’s must-read college football preview edition
They look forward to Monday morning chit-chat at the office water cooler that normally starts with; did you see the game?

Though we normally think of these fanatics when discussing NCAA Division I football, there are also ardent fans of Division II and III football. For purposes of this post, I focus on big time Div. I college football.

Is big time college football essentially “big business?” Your darn right it is!

A few days ago while riding the NYC Subway, I decided to read the Wall Street Journal. Like so many other people, I had taken some time off just to relax over the holidays. Even by my standards, I had watched way too many college football bowl games. As a result, I lost some focus on other things important in life. I figured it was time to get back to the daily grind. Would you believe that I stumbled across an article about the business end of college football?

I missed my stop reading Andrew Beaton’s January 10, 2016 article entitled “How Much is Your Favorite College Football Team Worth.” Beaton reported on this year’s annual report prepared by assistant professor of finance at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus of the fair market value of college football’s top teams. Ohio State’s football team is valued at $946 million and sits at the top of the list of most valuable programs. Next on the list is the University of Texas. Its team is valued at $885 million. Sitting at third on the list is the University of Michigan at $811 million. According to Forbes Magazine, the vaunted New York Yankees’ in the summer of last year were worth 3.2 billion dollars. Regardless of the method used to compute fair market value, college football’s major programs are worth an incredible amount of money. The major college football programs produce an incredible amount of money for their athletic departments.

There are those who argue that big-time college football has become “too big.” These opponents of the long practiced campus tradition of watching the home team play on fall Saturdays point out the game has eclipsed the need to focus on students’ education. Some of the arguments that the opponents put forth are worthy of consideration. Yet, the college football ritual enhances a student’s overall educational experienced in countless ways that the opponents fail to acknowledge. As a point of interest, a few of the universities in the top 25 final rankings are well-known for their outstanding academics. Northwestern, Stanford, Notre Dame and Duke are highly regarded educational institutions and all were ranked within this year’s final top 25 ranking. Not all football players are big dumb brutes.

I now need to devise a doable plan for tapping into college football’s money stream.

Every small business owner of a professional service firm (referred to as a “PSF”) has nightmares about dealing with impossible or extremely difficult clients. Mangers and owners of PSFs must ultimately decided what to do with these problematic clients. There is

Fire the Client

a tendency in the industry to simply put up with the behavior of these types of clients. Incredible as it sounds, most PSFs dread the lost, regardless of the reason, of a single client. It is a fact that clients are the foundation of a successful business. Many managers erroneously see the number of clients as an indication of the business’ health.

In the July 2007 Oregon State Bar Bulletin there appeared an interesting and informative article entitled “How to Fire a Client.” The author, Beverly Michaels, in the first paragraph of the piece, succinctly discussed what many professionals dread about their jobs:

“Do you have you have a file in your office that you just can’t stand to look at (Hint: It’s often related to the client you don’t like.) Has it been languishing on the corner of your desk or pushed out-of-sight on your credenza Is a deadline approaching, but you just can’t seem to get started These unwanted files are a major cause of ethics complaints and legal malpractice claims. And most lawyers have at least one. To free yourself from this potentially dangerous situation, gather your courage, take a stand, and fire your problem clients. The first step is to identify the clients and cases you should let go”

Though Ms. Michaels wrote about lawyers and their difficult clients her comments and recommendations are applicable to all professionals. For many reasons some clients are not worth being involved with. Professionals should shed their egos and analyze a problem client in terms of the relationship’s true value to the business. I do not believe that a damaged relationship with a client can be successfully rehabilitated, and in many instances just trying to do so can make matters worst.

Management gurus and advocates of progressive customer service relations generally put forth the idea that businesses that render professional services must deal with difficult clients to stay competitive. It is as if that in exchange for the privilege of being a professional you must put up with the most anxious behavior clients can offer. In my opinion these antiquated axioms and unrealistic expectations of human behavior should give way to better business principles and practices. A PSF must accept the fact that a client can stop being an asset and adversely impact business’ operations and long-term growth. When dealing with the client from hell – yes you can and should fire them and you should do so sooner than later. Unfortunately too many PSFs have adopted the mentality of the ambulance chasers. The businesses’ administrators cannot judge a client in terms of his real value to the firm.

I have participated in many conversations about malevolent clients with owners of PSFs . These informal sessions have proved very beneficial. Generally speaking – there is agreement on how to deal with the client that enters the office snorting like a bull. When looking into the eyes these clients one only sees uncontrollable rage, emotional conflict and a tapestry of problems for everyone involved. These clients are often rude and aggressively pushy. They treat the office and the professional staff equally bad. These raging bulls are always primed to stab their front hoofs into the office carpet. They “draw a line in the sand” and dare everyone to cross it. One should not be naïve and think that a client, who might be under extreme emotional distress, will always be able to control himself. Clients do become verbally abusive and even violent. Under the right set of circumstances anyone can lose their control.

There have been countless front-page reports of clients resorting to violence in dealing with PSFs . Managers of PSFs agree that relations with an out of control client should be immediately terminated, regardless of any financial benefit that the firm might be enjoying. When dealing with extremely difficult clients office managers must make an assessment as to the chance the client will become violent or engage in uncontrollable behavior. An out of control client presents practical and legal problems that no business wants or needs. In my opinion every firm should have a person trained in conflict resolution. This person could be called upon to defuse a potentially dangerous or embarrassing situation with a problem client. Unless it is your professional responsibility or job to deal with a client like this, there is no excuse for not firing the client.

Dealing effectively with the client from hell does not present any complicated legal or business problems for managers. There are lesser extreme circumstances that call for the termination of the business relationship, or at least, a complete restructuring of it. There has been a lot written on when to fire a client. A PSF must carefully examine its relationship with the client and make a decision that serves the overall best interests of the firm. The determination to fire a client should be based on a cost-benefit analysis; simply put – is the client an asset or liability.

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