He Can't Be Serious ... Can He?

(Our chairman is out in the real world somewhere, waging business.  He sent this on the fly and asked us to post it for him.)

What Was Warren Kitzmiller Thinking?

Not much, I guess. Because if the Representative from Montpelier really believes

Vermont is a darn good place to do business ... if the only thing you're looking at is profit … that's a very myopic view of life.

he is absolutely clueless about what a practical and pragmatic businessperson, regardless of political view, needs and wants to maintain an operation in Vermont.

What is this naïveté about making a little less profit?  Are the hard working employees of these fantasy-world companies willing to go without raises?  Are they about to say, “Gee boss, my bills are climbing and taxes are going through the roof but I’ll take less pay this year because Vermont is such a great place to live.”

No.  Oh, I get it.   The companies should earn less, have less money to invest in growth, layoff their employees and leave the state next year.

 

Business is hard.  Jobs are flooding into Asia. Many technologies are being “consumerized’ which means they are ultra-cost sensitive in order to sell to households.  The business community is faced with challenges arising from globalization that will not get easier and cannot be legislated away….will Mr. Kitzmiller pay 300% more for a TV made in Vermont?  Of course not. 

O.K., so we have the concept.  Now, let’s find the limits.  Will he pay 200% for Vermont coffee; say, the $8 latte?  Doubt it.  Will Mr. Kitzmiller pay $30 for a gallon of maple syrup?  Probably, as we are the major and the most efficient producer.  Now, we’re getting somewhere.  Even Mr. Kitzmiller who is in the, “Earn less in Vermont while your global competitor eats your lunch” camp is, my guess, a rational consumer and will avoid the 3X priced TV but will buy the efficiently manufactured and best priced product. What a concept. 

Perhaps Mr. Kitzmiller was busy doing something else when Communism failed.  Oh yeah, sorry, I forgot Cuba; great products launched out of there every year.  How is it that China and Viet Nam can launch what are among the most aggressive, pro-business initiatives in the world and Vermont is still being led by folks who say profit should be redistributed to the masses by bureaucrats?  Please….

I have to add this.  There may be genius in these ridiculous utterances and the media is helping right along.  Mr. Kitzmiller may be willing to look completely unplugged from the reality of today’s business world in return for the shot at filling the middle ground, with one-liners baked in tones of cooperation between the liberals and the conservatives. This is the only justification I can muster for looking so bad to the business community and the working person who will get paid less under his Utopian themes.  But that is a sorry substitute for not demonstrating the knowledge and leadership required of our elected officials (from either party,by the way,  Mr. Douglas) to ensure we can enjoy the prosperity of clean, safe economic growth in our spectacularly wonderful Vermont.

Jack Harding

Comments

[GreggB]

From the article 'Rep. Warren Kitzmiller, D-Montpelier, is a former longtime business owner' anyone know what his longtime business was? and what happened to it? Must have been hard to give up a successful VT business for the 55k and 6 months of work being a state pol.

[Anonymous]

You know I love the way that you guys at VermontTiger don't have a clue who is who in Vermont. My suggestion is that you either learn to google or get out in the business community and meet a few people instead of hiding down there in Dorset or in the halls of UVM. Warren Kitzmiller's former business started in 1974 and is still operating today under new ownership(and from what I know is wicked profitable). It is Onion River Sports. I believe he sold it and retired a few years ago. I have patronized it since 1978.

[Jim Gatti]

W. Kitzmiller owned Onion River Sports for years. I don't know when he sold it. My educated guess is that he has coupons to clip.

[GreggB]

Thanks for answering my question re:Kitzmiller's business. I have another question is a retail shop like Onion River worthy of VC funding? Why/why not?

[Nate Freeman]

Don't talk about what you don't know about.

Look, Kitzmiller owned and operated one of the longest running -- and still running -- small retail shops in Vermont. He had employees he paid well. He contributed to the community with his businesses annual bike swap. He sold his business in a successful transaction and moved into public life.

It's a little dispiriting to hear other business owners having a problem with that, don't you think, GreggB? Quit your whining already, and get to work in your own business instead of blogging if you're not successful enough already.

Unfortunately, the Times Argus article hardly covered the bases in regard to the Chamber conference. Instead of speculating, you can just call the Chamber to see what was on the agenda, and how the conference really went. But if you don't want to do that, don't worry, the Chamber is coming out with a report soon.

Unlike the Tiger symposium, the Chamber event didn't offer experts in the field of business. Instead it was a forum for business owners to discuss their own concerns about the business environment in Vermont. According to a Chamber representative, some of the concerns were from the echo-chamber in Vermont media and certain political talking heads, including Bill Sayer of the Associated Industries of Vermont.

As a result, the non-business issues of education tax and school privatization became reportable talking points in the Times Argus article. The education tax may have an indirect impact to Vermont businesses, but that whipping horse is nothing more than a political distraction when you put the cost driver of health insurance beside it. Privatization of our schools? Frankly, I can't see any connection here, especially when we look at the data from other states that have gone in that direction already -- the net result difference in either academic excellence and cost per student does not change significantly to warrant such a radical overhaul.

So you're upset about what you read in a newspaper article without knowing who or what you're talking about? You don't know Warren Kitzmiller or Onion River Sports? You think Vermont is a terrible place to do business?

With all due respect, maybe you need to do a little more homework and at the same time, brush up your business plan.

Nate Freeman

[GreggB]

'Don't talk about what you don't know about.' Now that's not nice, and a completely unreasonable thing to expect on the internet. Feel free to help me know more.
Simply put the article stated that he was a longtime business owner- turned pol. who said that profits weren't important. I was curious as to how successful and what his business was. Now I know. Kudos to Kitzmiller for being successful, retiring and entering public service. All very good and noble. Some folks around here don't agree with his quip about profits. But other people have covered that.

[Anonymous]

Jim Gatti knows Onion River Sports! I stand corrected. It's only the guys in Dorset that need to get out and see what's up in Vermont not the UVM profs. However, Mr. Gatti probably needs to brush up on the metrics of selling a small business. I doubt Mr. Kitzmiller is clipping coupons on the sale of ORS. Give Country Business a call, Jim or New England Business Brokers. They can probably help you out figure this out.

[Cairn Cross]

To answer GreggB's question on whether Onion River Sports or a business like it is a candidate for venture capital financing, the answer is no. Venture investors are looking for larger opportunities than a local sports store. Typically a venture backed company is expected to grow to $50 million in revenues in 3 to 5 years.

[Nate Freeman]

Ok, I wasn't being nice, GreggB. I was responding to what I read as sarcasm in your line: "Must have been hard to give up a successful VT business for the 55k and 6 months of work being a state pol." Perhaps I misread your tone and came back with the same tone I was reading into your comment above. Nothing personal, Ok?

I like profit just as much as the next business person, myself. But that's not what drives me. Call me sentimental, but my customers make me glad I do what I do. You don't have to be a non-profit to feel that way about your business, actually it's the people who are more driven by making their customers happy than profits that are successful. That's my experience, anyway.

Best to you and your family, Gregg.

Nate

[T. Shea]

Lively discussion. One comment for Nate -- "If you think one of the longest running small retails shops in Vermont" is one founded in the 1970's, I suggest that you 'don't talk about what you don't know about'. There are many shops over a century old in Vermont. The flatlanders call some of them 'country stores', but small town Vermonters usually just call them 'the store'. While it is admirable that someone has made a go of it in Montpelier, but there are many of us that would like this situation to be the norm, not the exception, and in places beyond Montpelier, Burlington and Quechee.

[GreggB]

No apology necessary, Nate, I try to be funny and obnoxious around here without being a complete idiot. It is a fine line. Thanks for answering my question Cairn. One further comment - and this is not a slight against Mr. Kitzmiller but a comment on VT at large. I find it interesting that a proprietor of one store should be famous in the business community statewide. Is the business community that small? Or is it so hard to run a successful retail store in VT that doing so is worthy of fame?

[Cairn Cross]

GreggB. The business community is quite small but Onion River Sports is famous among endurance sports enthusiasts and Vermont has plenty of those.