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Magic pills, magic wands, and gurus are best kept in the Fairytale books. The tools you need to grow your business are Leadership, knowledge, and self-discipline.
By 2010 $13.9 Billion per year will be spent on self help techniques. Although I am a firm believer in self development, it is frightning to see how many of us invest large amounts of time and money on finding the secret to their success and happiness. For some it can become an addiction, going from one self help book, seminar, retreat to the next. Your happiness and satisfaction lie in your accomplishments. Think of all the happiness and satisfaction you would have achieved if your were as committed to having it as opposed to achieving it.
I recently watched the movie "Into The Wild" Christopher McCandless went on a quest to seek the truth, he thought the magic pill would be found in the Alaskan wilderness. He paid the ultimate price to find something he already had.
Entrepreneurialism: The Importance of Having a Business Plan
Planning a business is very much like planning a road trip without a map resources and working tools it makes it difficult to reach your destination.
Example:
Trip to Boston (Hartford CT - Boston MA)
Person 1 we will call her Doris: Doris Decides she is going to Boston, immediately jumps in the car and starts to drive. Twenty minutes into the drive she runs out of fuel and has to wait for AAA to help her. After that ordeal she realizes she is hungry and has to stop for food. Two hours into the trip Doris realizes that she doesn't know where Boston is but knows that she will get there eventually. Four hours later realizes she is in New Jersey, asks for directions, stops for fuel, gets another bite to eat and arrives in Boston many hours later.
Person 2 we will call him Alfred: Alfred decides he wants to go to Boston. He sits down calls his sister to let her know he is coming. Before his journey he prepares a list of things to do.
- Purchase a GPS
- Visit Jane the mechanic to check his car
- Get Gas
- Go to ATM
- Get food for trip
- Buy sister a gift
- Clean out refrigerator
- Unplug appliances
- Wash clothes
- Shut off Water
- Notify the Mailman
By the time he has finished his to do list, Alfred realizes he is too tired calls his sister to let her know he will be there tomorrow. He is so exausted from the day before he oversleeps, and by the time he is ready it is once again too late to travel. Three days later he arrives at his sisters place only to turn around and go home, he used up his vacation days and must return to work in the morning.
Person 3 we will call her Mildred: Mildred wakes up decides she wants to go to Boston. She makes hotel arrangements with Expedia, packs a bag, and gets directions. She hops in the car, makes 2 stops the gas station, and the grocery store to get some food for her trip. Two hours later she is at her hotel talking with the consierge about things to do and where to get dinner.
Mildred will have the most productive trip of the three. She made a decision, put a plan together, took action, and then modified the plan when she arrived. Planning too much or lacking a plan in any situation can be detrimental to the success of your journey.
For more articles and information: http://resourceforbusiness.blogspot.com/ http://www.TheEcircle.com
Flying under the radar—A great way to crash and burn
Through the years, I have met with and counseled countless CEOs, company presidents, entrepreneurs, marketing directors, and VPs, all of whom wanted to improve their businesses and gain a competitive (marketing) advantage. Despite the fact that these bright, tenacious, success-driven professionals were meeting with us—public relations and marketing counselors whose raison d’etre is to create heightened brand awareness—some of them wanted to keep their success a secret!During the past 24 months, I have met with a number of companies that share this love/hate relationship with publicity. They included an innovative company with a smart technology that enhanced customer retention; an equipment manufacturer with a manufacturing process that had the potential to transform the beauty products industry; a software developer with a cutting-edge technology that could significantly impact the financial services industry; a fitness equipment maker with a clearly superior product line; and a food manufacturer with a unique line of healthier snack foods.Each one wanted to, and I quote—“stay under the radar.” This despite the unambiguous, newsworthy differentiators that easily set them apart from the competition!Each was fearful that someone would steal their idea and try to knock it off. But how can a brand or company be first or perceived as best in a category by taking this stance? More importantly, how can a brand be the preferred brand of choice if nobody knows about it?It boggles the mind.
As marketers, we understand the need to safeguard proprietary technologies, business practices or inventions. But if a product or service is ready to be sold and a distribution plan is in place, why not get it out there and own a category in the minds of your potential customers?
By Christopher Rosica, author of The Authentic Brand: How Today’s Top Entrepreneurs Connect with Customers and CEO of Rosica Strategic Public Relations
Getting the call to go green…
SaaS is good for the planet. VaaS is an example. I’ll give a few reasons: Eliminating in-house phone system equipment reduces power consumption by about 20 watts per user at a company premises. The smallest phone systems might support 10 people which is about 200 watts of power that is being consumed. According to a report released by Jonathan G. Koomy, Ph.D and Staff Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at Stanford University (estimating total power consumption by servers in the U.S. and world), “typical” power use for low-end servers is about 200 watts. Which means that if you have 10 users on a phone system, your business is consuming the same power that a low-end server would be using. Amazing! According to Nortel, who claims to be very efficient, a 500 seat Nortel system, not including phones or network infrastructure, is estimated to consume 10,000 watt-hours, or about 20 watt-hours per user. M5 consumes 28,000 watts to support 31,000 users, or about 0.9 watts per user; clearly a difference in power consumption and one that does not go unnoticed by our small and medium customers who are very environmentally conscious.
By the way, that’s expensive too. 10,000 watt-hours is 10kw hours is about $1/hour or $8,760/year.
- SaaS and VaaS help prevent commutes: people can work from home easily. US average commute is 20 miles per day with an average gas mileage of 21 mpg. A car generates 20lbs of emissions for each gallon of gas consumed. One employee telecommuting once a week can prevent about 1000lbs of emissions into the atmosphere every year.
Of course, this also saves money. 1 gallon/day = $4.00. Could easily be $1000/year.
- Don’t forget that eliminating all those servers and systems avoids junk getting thrown out. E-Waste, or electronic waste, makes up more that 5 percent of all municipal solid waste worldwide. As more people upgrade their PCs, TVs, mobile phones, and enterprise servers and phones recycling or eliminating the e-Waste altogether becomes ever more urgent.
Even America’s teenagers are going green these days, isn’t it time other phone vendors got the call to go green too?
VoIP Impacts the Economy by Enabling Telecommuting
As an ABP Technology Reseller partner you recommend and inspire some of your customers to look at new technology. Consider showing your customers how IP Technology can help them save and how it is the more environmentally conscious approach to communications. Let them see how using IP phones to enable employees to tele-commute one day a week would make a difference.
Imagine if 20% of the work force would work from home 20% of the time. None of the negatives of telecommuting like losing contact with the team would would occurs when working from home one day a week but there would be incredible savings and advantages.
Imagine if the entire nation did this. We would consume 20% less gas and could even have a measurable impact on the national tarde deficit. Lower demand on oil might even reduce the gas prices. Tele-commuting is THE KILLER application for VoIP and you should make a point in explaining the advantages to your custmers.
Technology has made us as a nation more productive. Today most of us work more than ever. We respond to emails day and night and are available by cell phone at all times. To give these employees, were working from home makes sense, the tools to do this will pay off for all.
It's not about selling the feature of remote phones, talk about the many benefits of doing this!
The ABP Team
Learn more about IP Technology solutions
What Website Has Most Improved Its Alexa Traffic Rank During The Past 3-Months?
I’d love your comments and Alexa traffic rank hyperlinks (eg, http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/backgroundnow.com).
What sites are growing, and why?
I decided to try search engine marketing (SEM) on my own, learned to
write some elementary HTML and began optimizing and marketing
www.BackgroundNow.com in April 2008.
The results have been surprising:
- As of today, Alexa reports www.BackgroundNow.com traffic rank has improved by 5,718,611 during the past 3-months
- A 2,356% improvement
- www.BackgroundNow.com’s 3-month Alexa average traffic rank is now #401,759 worldwide and #69,130 in the United States
What’s your story? Give us your comments!
Entrepreneurialism: Experience Life as a Child
Experiencing life as a child keeps us present to the moment and helps us see all of the opportunities.
Have you ever taken a child for a walk? Did you ever notice how long it takes?
As a young mother taking walks served 2 purposes, or so I thought. It would give me an opportunity to get some exercise, and give the children an activity. I soon found that it was best to keep it simple and serve one or the other. I could put them in the stroller and walk the distance and speed I wanted to, or they could walk with me, and spend an hour walking down the street. The latter usually won out.
A child sees everything, every bug, blade of grass, and crack in the sidewalk ETC.... They see it and fully experience every moment. They don't have any deadlines, bills, commitments, or appointments. As we go through life we collect these extra things, and for some the baggage is so heavy that we become incapable of experiencing anything.
I don't live in fantasy land and don't think that we as adults could possibly recreate the true feelings of childhood, but am foolish enough to think that we could all benefit from Keeping a little Peter Pan in our lives.
I recently found out that one of my best friends was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer, on the same day her daughter was born. At the hospital her father was telling me (with pure joy in his face) how much he was enjoying his grandchildren. He went on to say that he was so busy (providing for his family) as a young man that he unfortunately didn't have the same experiences with his own children.
How many blades of grass, bugs, and cracks in the sidewalk do we miss out on everyday, because we are so bogged down with the extra baggage of life? How many opportunities and experiences do we miss out on due to our pre-conceived notions, or responsibilities? What are these missed opportunities costing you in your personal and professional life?
This is my long winded way of saying life is too short to take it so seriously. Before you know it, you are looking back saying "where did it all go?". If you are going to take the time to do or go somewhere, be wherever you are.
For more articles and information:
Entrepreneurialism: It Takes a Villiage
The old African proverb states, "it takes a village to raise a child". No man, woman, or family is an island onto itself. We venture into a new role, undertake a new project or set out to do what no man has done before. Whatever direction we choose to take, we go there with limited knowledge and experience. “The Village” can take many forms, but the one commonality is we seek the knowledge of those who have come before us.
Entrepreneurs are a proud and independent group; we have a better way and are willing to assume all the risk to deliver our product to the world. Unfortunately, pride and independence can work for us and against us at the same time. An entrepreneur is someone with the courage and passion to take a concept and turn it into a business and is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve their desired outcomes. An entrepreneur can also restrict themselves to solitary confinement and resist the aid of “the village”.
Why do we resist?
- Fear of looking bad
- Need Permission
- Didn’t know the option was available
- Waste of time
- Don’t know who to ask
I am a mother and an entrepreneur. As a new mother I also resisted “the village”. How could I admit that I didn’t have the faintest idea what to do with this child? All I knew for sure was that I loved her, and wanted to take the best care of her. I soon realized that I wasn’t alone; my mom shared how she felt after I was born. “What a relief, I may actually have a shot of raising this child.” From that moment on, I sought out the expertise, took classes, surrounded myself with other parents, and got involved in activities to help support the village. We are now the proud parents of 2 teenagers who openly communicate, take pride in their work at home and school, and set goals for their own future.
Unfortunately, I didn’t realize the same rules applied to entrepreneurship, and it took me a little longer to get acquainted with “the village”. How could I admit that I didn’t have the faintest idea what to do with this business? All I knew for sure was that I had a better way, and wanted to deliver the best product in my industry. Someone recently asked me “why I do what I do, and what makes me good at it?”. I do it because it gives me joy. I am good at it because I eventually got tired of solitary confinement. I got tired of repeatedly making the same mistakes. I grew weary of the paralysis of my fears. I looked at the areas in my life that I was the most successful, and applied them to my business. “The village” has become my greatest resource. The residents of the village are fellow entrepreneurs that have shared with me their experiences, and expertise. In return, I gave them the gift of my experience and expertise. They come in the form of my accountant, my attorney, peers, clients, and most importantly my Mastermind group. My mastermind group has become the governing branch of my village. They have shared with me their experience, supported me when I have fallen, been patient, and never judgmental. They have helped me to align myself with my business, take leadership, and look at the business for what it is and what it can become.
We all posses the power to accomplish what we set out to do, some take the long route and others seek the direct route. When we accept the village we remove the fear, and isolation that can stunt our progress.
For more articles and information:
Entrepreneurialism - Are You a Cool Kid? Or, Just Trying to Be One?
A common frustration of small or micro business owners is that the larger firms won't do business with them. "Why won't they return my calls?" "If they just listen to me, they will know they need my product." The truth is the larger companies are referring to and giving small/micro businesses a chance. They are returning calls and they are listening to them. So why aren't they doing business with you? The answer is simple, you don't want to do business with them. You want their money and they know it.
Something strange happens to the small/micro business owner when they are face to face with their ideal prospect. They suddenly become babbling fools who can't handle the conversation.
Let's take a walk down memory lane, remember when you were in school? There were "the cool kids" and "the not so cool kids". You were either "a cool kid" or trying like hell to become one. The cool kids only accepted or respected those that were cool like they were. Was there a secret handshake that kept most of us out of the group? Yes, it was called confidence. The cool kids didn't strategize all night on how they were going to be accepted by the popular crowd. They just showed up and assumed they were one of them. They spoke to them as if they belonged.
As business owners we do the same things. Smaller companies are so caught up in wanting to be noticed by the bigger companies that when they finally get their chance to participate in "the cool kid group", they blow it!
· Try to impress them
· Send a friend over to talk to them first
· Act like a subordinate to show respect
· Trick them
· Assume they want or need whatever you are selling without asking the appropriate questions.
· Treat the prospect like a checkbook or transaction
These maneuvers didn't work on the playground and they don't in business.
People want to be treated like people and can sense when there is a perceived agenda. It's all about the attitude and level of confidence you display that truly gets you in with "the cool kids". Someone shouldn't buy from you to give you a chance or because you need the money. Show your customer the value in what you do by becoming a resource. Show your knowledge, ask questions to determine the need. I can read a brochure to find out the features and benefits.
Be sincere! One of the worst mistakes is to pretend to engage in activities, hobbies or interests of the person whose attention you wish to gain. If golf is a common interest, share your experience. Don't pretend that you enjoy golf if you have never been on a golf course. You will look foolish and the level of trust will diminish. It's ok to ask about hobbies or interests to find out more. The important thing is to be yourself, and not force the connection. You may discover that there is a common ground, or not.
Listen! It's about the relationship, not the transaction. By building the relationship you will gain their trust. They will tell you if they are going to buy, and when they plan to do so. If they aren't going to buy and they trust you, they may refer you to others they may want to buy. Enter the conversation without any expectations, if you focus on making the sale, chances are you won't. Even worse, you may discover that a sale was made to someone you never wanted as a customer.
This is a long winded way of saying "You will gain your greatest results by being yourself." Think about the way you behave in your current relationships (Personal & Business). Why do they like you? Why do they do business with you?
Acting natural and confident is the crucial ingredient to creating long lasting business relationships with the customers you are interested in working with. Relationships/trust can't be rushed or forced, but can be nurtured and developed.
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