Accounting for Small OT Home Mod Businesses

Accountant John Sullivan was our special guest speaker discussing accounting, entrepreneurship and business structures for small businesses, in particular, occupational therapy home modification businesses.

Enjoy the discussion:

Alternatives to Business Coaching

(Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

By Laura Roeder, social media marketing expert.

As a business owner, what do you do when you’re seriously stuck but have no boss or partner to go to for advice?

Soak up the wisdom online or at the library for free.

This may sound like overly basic advice, but I can’t emphasize enough how much I’ve learned about running a business just by spending some time reading. I’ve applied systems, practices and tools to my own startup with visibly great results. Here are my go-to business books (some of them travel with me everywhere I go):

1. “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Growing Firm”: This book has helped me and my team focus on serious growth. Establishing a business that works is great, but the playing field does change when you’re trying to go from 100 customers to 10,000. I recommend it for anyone ready to take their success to a whole new level.
2. “Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years or Less”: Cameron Herold’s book is also focused on growing your business. What really opened my eyes about this book though, are the parts about building a team that will facilitate growth, and how to lead that team. This is one of those books I read over and over, and I would highly recommend it — especially if you’re looking to stop doing everything yourself and bring on one (or many) team members.
3. “Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle”: This was the book I used as my guide when I was first starting out as a freelance web designer. When you’re a freelancer, finding the clients is just as important — if not more important than — actually executing work for them. One of the major things I got from this book is about going after what he calls the “red velvet rope clients.” In other words, these are your 100 percent ideal customers. It can be really hard to say no when someone comes to you saying “I want to work with you AND give you money!” But Michael Port breaks it down clearly and explains why being choosy is the absolute best thing you can do as a freelancer.
4. “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us”: Tribes is essentially our marketing bible here at Roeder Studios. It teaches you that building a fanatical community (your “tribe”) is far more important than the specs of your next product. Unless you run a collections agency, this book is for you.

I love books. But chances are you aren’t going to get through multiple books in one day. So when I can get an almost-daily dose of advice from the blogs of business-owners who are doing things right, I happily consume it as fast as a pint of ice cream. Below are my favorite read-first business blogs:

1. Seth Godin: Seth has been writing about marketing and growing your business for so many years that you could basically devote your time to reading through the archives and you’d pretty much know everything there is to know. Lots of his articles are super-short and easy to consume while on the go.
2. Derek Sivers: Derek, a friend of mine, writes this amazing blog on all aspects of life, camouflaged as a business blog. What I love about Derek’s writing is that it always makes you stop and think deeper, regardless of the particular topic of any given post.
3. Neil Patel: Neil shells out the most practical advice about everything that’s currently happening in the world of marketing in Quick Sprout. His posts are extremely detailed and he’s constantly giving away the step-by-step systems that brought him such enormous success at a young age.

Finally, the only thing better than books and blogs for getting really tangible advice is in-person events and conferences. I try to never miss:

1. Microconf: Microconf is a conference dedicated to bootstrapped startups. These are a collection of businesses who have unique struggles from the both the startup and small business worlds, and have some really amazing solutions to share with you.
2. World Domination Summit: The absolute best conference for anyone thinking about making their mark in the world is World Domination Summit. I’ve met some of my closest friends at this inspiring event. Tickets sell out in about 30 seconds every year — it’s that good. (Here’s why I loved it this year.)
3. Summit Series: This is a series of conferences that collect some of the brightest minds, thought leaders and entrepreneurs from around the world. Get ready to get blown away by what these people are up to.

There you have it: 10 sources to turn to for advice as a solo business owner. I’m not against paying for an experienced business coach to help you go after that big growth. In fact, I’ve been coached at different points in my business. But there’s nothing quite like having a free (or inexpensive) resource that you can turn to again and again. So fire up that library card. Your credit card bill — and your business — will thank you.

Courtesy of YEC

Laura Roeder is a social media marketing expert who teaches small businesses how to become known as #1 in their field and claim their brand online. She is the creator of Creating Fame and Your Backstage Pass to Twitter.

Hearing the Internet Buzz Ears

grow bigger ears by Chris Brogan

I’m a huge proponent of professional listening as part of a business communication strategy. Lots of people will sell you ways to speak. They’ll give you lots of ways to get your message all over the place. Me? I’m passionate about listening as much as I am speaking. You know: two ears, one mouth, that stuff.
I love many of the professional products out there like Radian6, Techrigy, BuzzGain (just launched today!), and Crimson Hexagon to name just a few. But you know, there are ways to listen simply, and though they’re not perfect, they’re free.
I always recommend both. Use a professional platform to get the depth, the reporting, the other added value. But I recommend setting up a free listening station, too. Here’s a quick step by step to start that kind of station off. You might have more ideas for the comments section.

1. Get a gmail account. – http://www.gmail.com
2. Log in to Google Reader. This will become your home base for listening. Note the position of the “Add Subscriptions” button (mid top left) – http://www.google.com/reader
3. Now, go to Google Blogsearch. Type in your query about your company, your organization, your competitors, and the like. We’ll use the results in the next step. – http://blogsearch.google.com.
4. Note the “Subscribe” links on the bottom left of the page. Right-click the RSS link, and select copy.
5. Go back to Google Reader, click Add Subscription, and select paste.
6. Repeat this for as many variations of searches you want for blogs.
7. UPDATE: I hear this feature is going away. You can do the same thing at IceRocket, if so, just do this step at Icerocket instead of Technorati. Go to Technorati. Perform the same queries there. Neither Google nor Technorati finds it all, so cross-posting works. – http://www.technorati.com
8. Go to Twitter Search. Do the same. – http://search.twitter.com
9. Fine tune your searches by seeing what inaccurate results come from your first attempts, and replace bad searches with better ones.
10. Take the payload of all that raw searching and SORT it using Google Reader. By this, I mean the following: when you find something to note, either Share it (Shift S), or email it to a core team ( type E on the keyboard). Send only the important stuff. Then, let internal employees see the RSS feed of the shared items, or just use the email feature. Whichever works best. This is how you sort the larger pile of info into the smaller and more useful packets that your organization can consume.
11. Most important to the process – DO something with what you’re learning. Figure out the business value of the listening you’re doing, and route it to the right places. Listening isn’t for marketers. It’s for the organization. It’s for customer service, for product management, for the senior team, etc.

In a nutshell, that’s the plan. You can do this. It’s not especially tricky (though the tuning can be challenging). My question to you: why wouldn’t you?

The 10 Things You Should Do On LinkedIn Each And Every Week

The 10 Things You Should Do On LinkedIn Each And Every Week

How to Get Prospects to Stampede to Your Trade Show Booth

by Robert Moskowitz on August 28, 2013

If your small business exhibits at trade shows or conferences, you know both the importance — and the difficulty — of generating substantial traffic from attendees. To bring more people to your booth, try one or more of these tactics.

• Ask for tweets or text messages as entries in a contest. Raffles and other prize giveaways can dramatically increase the footfalls at your booth. Make it easy for people to enter your contest by asking for a tweet or a text message with the person’s contact information. To attract the greatest number of prospects, keep the contest closely aligned with your product, service, or brand.
• Give away valuable information. Another angle on the freebie is to disseminate sought-after information at your booth. Most people willingly yield their contact information in return for a white paper, an e-book, an industry report, and the like. In fact, if contact information is all you seek, you could deliver the goods wirelessly and remotely via email, text, or other means. To draw people to your booth, provide the information in a tangible format, such as providing a printed report, a prerecorded CD, or a download to the recipient’s flash drive.
• Hire an extrovert in a costume. Draw traffic to your booth by hiring an interesting character to pose for photographs with attendees who leave a business card or otherwise share their contact details. Your extrovert should pose in front of a large sign touting your brand, product, or service. It’s also helpful to ask your character to put a flyer, a coupon, or a spec sheet into the hands of each person. Be sure to snap your own pics, too; you’ll get even more marketing mileage out of these shots by streaming or posting these photos online.
• Supply free Wi-Fi. You’d think that every exhibit hall or trade show venue would offer free Wi-Fi to all comers, yet connectivity remains a major issue at many industry gatherings. Capitalize on this shortcoming by providing wireless access at your booth, trading the password for people’s contact info and providing a place to sit. 
• Provide a charging station. At many trade shows and exhibitions, the only things in shorter supply than free Wi-Fi are electricity and a place to set devices while they recharge. You can earn a lot of appreciation from attendees by providing extra AC outlets and shelf space — and if the area happens to be boldly branded with your logo, they’re unlikely to complain.
• Donate to charity for each visitor. Giving your time or money to a worthy cause sends a positive message about your company and influences people’s attitudes toward you, your product or service, and your unique selling proposition. Donating $1 per business card collected isn’t likely to break the bank, but it makes a powerful statement. This tactic will be even more powerful if the charity you select ties in with your brand.
• Give live talks on interesting topics. Does your company have interesting insights to share? Dynamic mini-lectures on topics related to your offering can quickly draw a crowd around your booth. Line up a charismatic speaker to offer a 10- to 15-minute talk every hour — or give the presentations yourself.

Read more: http://blog.intuit.com/marketing/how-to-get-prospects-to-stampede-to-your-trade-show-booth/#ixzz2dqSqB9to

Managing Work-from-Home Employees

How to Manage Home-Based Workers the Apple Way

by Tim Parker on August 15, 2013

If your small business employs or plans to employ virtual workers, check out the recent article by software analyst Ashley Verrill on TechCrunch. In it, Verrill says she emailed more than 40 current and former employees of Apple’s At-Home Advisor program to learn how to run a team that’s based in disparate locations. These Apple staffers work remotely, offering customer service and tech support to its customers.
Apple’s management methods “in every case were intense, sometimes sort of silly, and at other times borderline extreme,” Verrill writes. But the company’s style offers some insights that may help you evolve your virtual management practices or develop a strategy for future work-at-home employees. Here are three tips based on Apple’s practices.
1. Make them part of the team. When At-Home Advisors are hired, Apple sends them a care package of items such as a company T-shirt, gift cards, and a mug that makes the employee feel welcome, Verrill reports.
When you hire a virtual worker, invest time and effort in making them part of your team. If you’re transitioning on-site employees to at-home jobs, convene regular meetings and get-togethers to foster a “family” environment. Employees are more likely to work harder and stick around when they feel valued.
2. Set expectations during training. Working as a virtual employee for Apple means completing an intensive training program. It’s a four-week program in which prospective employees are required to participate from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. At the end of each week, trainees must pass an exam, Verrill reports. This makes it clear that working from home isn’t casual or easy. It also requires employees to invest time and energy in the program, which makes them less likely to quit soon after training.
The takeaway here for small-business owners is that, if you make any kind of training casual, employees may view the job as casual. Testing new employees’ work ethic and setting clear expectations are as important as teaching them the skills needed for the position.
3. Conduct real-time checks. There’s a fine line between micromanaging and encouraging efficiency, but Apple employs “big brother”-style strategies to monitor employees. During training, employees are asked to answer questions during live instruction. Mouse movements are monitored, and trainers may ask class members to turn on their cameras for group instruction. This extends after training as well, Verrill reports.
Monitoring your employees is easy: Services like Google Chat, Skype, and FaceTime allow you to speak with employees and catch a glimpse of where they are. Some employers require remote staffers to have their computer’s webcam turned on while working to more mimic the office environment. This allows managers to talk to workers in real time just as they would in a traditional office. If you use cloud-based services like Dropbox, you can view files as they’re updated, which time-stamps work as it’s delivered.
Apple’s methods may be “intense,” but they’re effective. By following its lead — and making adjustments to suit your small business — you can successfully manage home-based workers, too.

Tapping Into The B2B Blogosphere

Everyone and their mom seems to have a blog these days. From parenting to family to travel and even button collecting – there is a place for everyone to get a piece of the pie. While the consumer sector of the blogosphere has  latched on quickly to the trend, the B2B world has been slower to adopt these channels as strategic communications tools with real tangible benefits.
Since embracing social media and blogger relations in the past years, Dell has learned a thing or two about the importance of blogger relations. They have learned that people and their opinions come in all forms and every person finds their own and unique way to share a story. The savviest of companies are using this unique, word-of-mouth marketing strategy to help change company perceptions and tap into niche industries with relevant conversation.  B2B brands should take note!

Photo by: Dell Official Flickr, CC-BY-2.0

Bloggers are often the first to report on new industry trends, and once established, they rate very highly in terms of trust. So it is clear that if you’re launching a new B2B product or service, the importance of bloggers cannot and should not be ignored. Here are some tips for adding blogger relations to your B2B marketing mix.
When Making Lists, It’s Ok To Play Favorites
Remember when I mentioned there were 181 million blogs out there? If  thinking about where to start compiling your blog lists makes your head spin, get in line behind me. To be effective with blogger outreach, you have to play favorites  –  kindergarten-style. This means that you have to find, narrow and target blogs that  are the best fit for your company’s message and decide at which level you will communicate with those bloggers. Follow the blogger for several weeks to get a feel for their opinions, the topics they cover and how that fits in with your communications goals. RSS is a great way to streamline this process. Once you’ve narrowed down your favorites, it’s a good idea to tier your “best friends” for any priority messaging from your company because you already know they’re reliable and great fits to share your message.
It’s Always a Good Idea to Recycle Content
The social Web, for the most part, has a short memory. This doesn’t mean you should go digging in ancient archives for presentations to share, but it does mean that when pitching B2B bloggers, you can revisit topics that were previously well-received and update them for today’s business environment. It’s likely that new blogger contacts have never seen this information and may find it useful for their audiences. Try to:

• Turn old PowerPoint presentations into articles
• Use interview materials with journalists/media that never got published
• Break up long articles into series
• Re-write press releases into conversational blog posts

Pick the Brains of Your Thought Leaders
Doing interviews with industry thought leaders is a great way to create interesting content and tap into new audiences for exposure. Interview internal thought leaders, whether they are business leaders, product managers or engineers. Interviews with these busy people can be done via phone and then transcribed into text. This makes it easy for the interviewee and also provides both audio and text versions of content. Questions can be keyword optimized and responses can inter-link using anchor text to support your SEO efforts. Send this information to your bloggers as sharable content for their readers and audiences.
Learn What Content is Successful and Popular
Many blogs make this information easy to find by having sidebars highlighting most shared posts and posts with most comments. Look for trends and topics that resonate with the blog’s audience.  It is also a great idea to read through the comments of popular posts (that fall within your area of interest) to gauge the tone of the conversation and the overall sentiment of the audience.
Understand what makes a good post and be ready to provide it. This will vary from blog to blog. Some blogs focus on highlighting news and technology while others are more issue focused and tackle industry debates head on. Determine what you need to provide to mirror the type of content the blog features.  Would offering a demo of your technology with screen shots piqué the blogger’s interest? What about sharing your opinion on an industry debate via the comments section of the blog? Also consider providing the blogger with product giveaways or exclusive tours of your facility.
“No Comment” is Never the Answer

Photo by Search Engine People Blog, CC-BY-2.0

Whether B2B or B2C, the most important part of the term blogger relations is the“relations” portion. This means ongoing stewardship between both parties. If a blogger writes a great blog post about your company, return the favor by sharing the blog post on your company’s social profiles or electronic newsletter. Nothing makes a blogger want to continue their working relationship with your company much like feeling as though their work is valuable and appreciated. It’s a two-way street – treat it as such.
Additionally, commenting on a person’s blog consistently with insightful thoughts is the best way to begin or build up existing relationships with influencers. Every time you leave a comment on a blog it is displayed in the least crowded inbox that individual has, the comment dashboard. The majority of bloggers read every comment that comes through their blog dashboard.
There is No “One Size Fits All”
Truth is, there is no mold that fits all brands and companies when it comes to successful blogger relations. The key is to get in, get your hands dirty and find the types of messages and strategies that sync with your brand’s communications goals.  Always be flexible and open to any ideas your blogger contacts may have as well. Though it takes time to get started, the fruits of the labor are totally worth it when done correctly.
Previously published on The M/C/C Minute at www.mccom.com/blog.

Motivational Quotes

Running a business is like riding on a roller coaster. Although it is fun and exciting, there will be times when you’ll be scared and feel powerless. During the bad times there isn’t much you can do, other than to keep on pushing forward.
So in that spirit, here are 101 quotes that will motivate you to push forward.

1. The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer. – Nolan Bushnell
2. My son is now an ‘entrepreneur’. That’s what you’re called when you don’t have a job. – Ted Turner
3. Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. – Norman Schwarzkopf
4. The golden rule for every business man is this: “Put yourself in your customer’s place. – Orison Swett Marden
5. I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it! Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them! – C.J. Walker
6. The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it. – Debbi Fields
7. Life is too complicated not to be orderly. – Martha Stewart
8. The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have or would have done, or what they can’t do. – Dennis Waitley
9. Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming. – Richard Branson
10. Leadership is doing what is right when no one is watching. – George Van Valkenburg
11. There is no royal, flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it. For if I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard. – C.J. Walker
12. Business is more exciting than any game. – Lord Beaverbrook
13. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. – Albert Einstein
14. We are currently not planning on conquering the world. – Sergey Brin
15. If it really was a no-brainer to make it on your own in business there’d be millions of no-brained, harebrained, and otherwise dubiously brained individuals quitting their day jobs and hanging out their own shingles. Nobody would be left to round out the workforce and execute the business plan. – Bill Rancic
16. It takes more than capital to swing business. You’ve got to have the A. I. D. degree to get by — Advertising, Initiative, and Dynamics. – Ren Mulford Jr.
17. For all of its faults, it gives most hardworking people a chance to improve themselves economically, even as the deck is stacked in favor of the privileged few. Here are the choices most of us face in such a system: Get bitter or get busy. – Bill O’ Reilly
18. A man should never neglect his family for business. – Walt Disney
19. The only limits are, as always, those of vision. – James Broughton
20. To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult. – Johann Wolfgang Von Goeth
21. I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big. – Donald Trump
22. Nobody talks about entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking. Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it’s about trading: buying and selling. – Anita Roddick
23. To waken interest and kindle enthusiasm is the sure way to teach easily and successfully. – Tryon Edwards
24. Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. – Bill Gates
25. Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable. – Coco Chanel
26. The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time. – Henry Ford
27. The good or ill of a man lies within his own will. – Epictetus
28. I have known not a few men who, after reaching the summits of business success, found themselves miserable on attaining retirement age. They were so exclusively engrossed in their day to day affairs that they had no time for friend making. – B.C. Forbes
29. The cynic says, “One man can’t do anything”. I say, “Only one man can do anything.” - John W. Gardner
30. I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity. – Oprah Winfrey
31. If there is such a thing as good leadership, it is to give a good example. – Ingvar Kamprad
32. Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations. – Steve Jobs
33. You’ve got to say, I think that if I keep working at this and want it badly enough I can have it. It’s called perseverance. – Lee Iacocca
34. The desire of knowledge, like the thirst for riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it. – Laurence Sterne
35. Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were. – David Rockefeller
36. Well, you know, I was a human being before I became a businessman. – George Soros
37. Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. – Dwight Eisenhower
38. If you did not look after today’s business then you might as well forget about tomorrow. – Isaac Mophatlane
39. The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas of enthusiasm. – Thomas J. Watson
40. Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games. – Babe Ruth
41. Being able to touch so many people through my businesses and make money while doing it, is a huge blessing. – Magic Johnson
42. Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness. – James Thurber
43. The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. – Carlos Castaneda
44. The great leaders are like the best conductors – they reach beyond the notes to reach the magic in the players. – Blaine Lee
45. To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted. – George Kneller
46. To the degree we’re not living our dreams; our comfort zone has more control of us than we have over ourselves. – Peter McWilliams
47. The enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth-persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. – John F. Kennedy
48. Long-range planning works best in the short term. – Doug Evelyn
49. The NBA is never just a business. It’s always business. It’s always personal. All good businesses are personal. The best businesses are very personal. – Mark Cuban
50. You can fool all the people all the time if the advertising is right and the budget is big enough. – Joseph E. Levine
51. A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts. – Richard Branson
52. The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity. – Peter F. Drucker
53. No enterprise can exist for itself alone. It ministers to some great need, it performs some great service, not for itself, but for others.. or failing therein, it ceases to be profitable and ceases to exist. – Calvin Coolidge
54. Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition – in having put forth the best within you. – Henry J. Kaiser
55. Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. – Vince Lombardi
56. In all realms of life it takes courage to stretch your limits, express your power, and fulfill your potential. It’s no different in the financial realm. – Suze Orman
57. The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools. – Confucius
58. The first one gets the oyster the second gets the shell. – Andrew Carnegie
59. Hire character. Train skill. – Peter Schutz
60. The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency. – Bill Gates
61. Look well to this day. Yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day. – Francis Gray
62. Surviving a failure gives you more self-confidence. Failures are great learning tools.. but they must be kept to a minimum. – Jeffrey Immelt
63. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. Thoughts are things! And powerful things at that, when mixed with definiteness of purpose, and burning desire, can be translated into riches. – Napoleon Hill
64. It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. – Charles Darwin
65. Industry is the soul of business and the keystone of prosperity. – Charles Dickens
66. I don’t pay good wages because I have a lot of money; I have a lot of money because I pay good wages. – Robert Bosch
67. People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps. – Mary Kay Ash
68. In business, I’ve discovered that my purpose is to do my best to my utmost ability every day. That’s my standard. I learned early in my life that I had high standards. – Donald Trump
69. In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later. – Harold Geneen
70. To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business, and your business in your heart. – Thomas Watson, Sr.
71. The absolute fundamental aim is to make money out of satisfying customers. – John Egan
72. There are a lot of things that go into creating success. I don’t like to do just the things I like to do. I like to do things that cause the company to succeed. I don’t spend a lot of time doing my favorite activities. – Michael Dell
73. I have found no greater satisfaction than achieving success through honest dealing and strict adherence to the view that, for you to gain, those you deal with should gain as well. – Alan Greenspan
74. You must be the change you wish to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi
75. Let’s be honest. There’s not a business anywhere that is without problems. Business is complicated and imperfect. Every business everywhere is staffed with imperfect human beings and exists by providing a product or service to other imperfect human beings. – Bob Parsons
76. You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins. – Jim Stovall
77. The only way around is through. – Robert Frost
78. You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong. – Warren Buffett
79. The noblest search is the search for excellence – Lyndon B. Johnson
80. The man who does not work for the love of work but only for money is not likely to neither make money nor find much fun in life. – Charles M. Schwab
81. You must remain focused on your journey to greatness. – Les Brown
82. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. – Theodore Roosevelt
83. Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier. – Charles F. Kettering
84. Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right! – Henry Ford
85. You must either modify your dreams or magnify your skills. – Jim Rohn
86. Who likes not his business, his business likes not him. – William Hazlitt
87. The new source of power is not money in the hands of a few, but information in the hands of many. – John Naisbitt
88. The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed. – Henry Ford
89. It’s through curiosity and looking at opportunities in new ways that we’ve always mapped our path at Dell. There’s always an opportunity to make a difference. – Michael Dell
90. If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours. – Ray Kroc
91. Winners take time to relish their work, knowing that scaling the mountain is what makes the view from the top so exhilarating. – Denis Waitley
92. Management is nothing more than motivating other people. – Le Iacocca
93. Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it. – Dwight D. Eisenhower
94. The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong question. – Peter Drucker
95. Why did I want to win? Because I didn’t want to lose! – Max Schmelling
96. To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all it is possible to know about that business. – J. Paul Getty
97. To win without risk is to triumph without glory. – Pierre Corneille
98. To succeed… You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you. – Tony Dorsett
99. Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business. – Zig Ziglar
100. I wasn’t satisfied just to earn a good living. I was looking to make a statement. – Donald Trump
101. Whether it’s Google or Apple or free software, we’ve got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes. – Bill Gates

7 Low-Cost Benefits That Employees Love

When you first start your company, employee benefits are probably the last thing on your mind. (Figuring out how to make or raise money so you can bring on said employees? A bit more important.)
But as you grow your business, you face a dilemma: You want to attract the best and brightest workers, but you can’t afford the high-dollar salary and awesome benefits handed out by Fortune 500 companies (or even more established small businesses). How do you build a workplace so compelling that people will eagerly come work for you?
The good news is that some of today’s most beloved and sought-after employee benefits don’t cost a fortune. In fact, they’re fairly affordable. And in the long run, providing even a few low-cost benefits can help you attract loyal employees and compete for talent in today’s strengthening job market.
Here are seven perks to consider at your start-up.

1. Unlimited Vacation Time

Letting employees decide how much vacation time they take may seem like a slippery slope. But it can actually help motivate them to work harder. You trust them to do their jobs, and, in exchange, they’re free to take time off as they need. Many of today’s fast-growing companies including Netflix, HubSpot, and my company, ZenPayroll, have adopted unlimited PTO policies. We provide guidelines and references (for example, what other employees have done in the past) but fundamentally, we trust employees to think about what’s best for the company, their work, and themselves. And that’s a really empowering perk.

2. Sabbaticals

Of course, at many workplaces, it’s logistically impossible for employees to take off more than a couple weeks at a time. But offering a lengthier break after, say, five years of employment can differentiate your company from competitors and let your employees recharge. Only 4% of companies offer sabbaticals, according to a 2011 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management. But those that do say they boost retention, while providing valuable personal and professional development opportunities.
Sabbaticals can be designed in various ways, though most are tied to years of service. For example, Red Frog Events, a Chicago events planning firm, gives employees a one-month vacation sabbatical every five years of employment. When I worked at Intel, employees were rewarded with a two-month sabbatical every seven years.

3. Flex Time

Most start-up employees find themselves working around the clock, whether they’re checking email in the morning or wrapping up a project before bedtime. So, a nice way to compensate for that “always on” work mentality is by giving them a little flexibility in their work hours.
You can set this up in various ways: Some companies require their employees to work certain core hours, but let them create their own work schedule around that time frame. Others allow them to work whenever they choose, as long as they produce quality work and finish it on time.

4. Fitness Stipends

Healthy employees are good for your business, as they can lower your insurance costs while also preventing sick days. And while you may not be able to install an on-site gym, you can give employees a monthly stipend to pay for gym memberships, yoga sessions, or other fitness classes. We do this at ZenPayroll, and we’ve found that it not only promotes healthy lifestyles, it’s also something our employees really value.

5. Commuter Benefits

Getting to work may cost your staffers $100 or more each month. That may not seem like much, but it’s certainly a tangible cost to them. Consider helping them pay for these expenses, whether by providing a monthly stipend or giving them access to a commuter flexible-spending account (FSA) that provides a tax deduction for contributions. These types of commuter incentive programs are in place around the country, and the tax benefit can be significant.

6. Free Food

Everyone needs to eat, and so food is a universally consumed (and universally loved) benefit. You might stock a refrigerator with yummy snacks or even treat your employees to occasional catered breakfast or lunch meetings. At ZenPayroll, we’ve found eating outside the office as a group at least once a week is a great opportunity to change our environment and bond as a team. It’s a relatively small cost that can pay back in dividends by strengthening your workplace culture.

7. Vendor Discounts

As your employee base grows, you may be able to arrange employee discounts at various companies in your area—think health clubs, dry-cleaning services, or restaurants. AnyPerk is a great low-cost service that makes it easy to give employees access to discounts in your area. These discounts may not cost your business much (or anything), but they’re really fun perks that people love.

As you work to build your start-up’s benefits package, don’t forget about your freelancers, independent contractors, and part-timers as well. These workers can be just as vital to your business. Giving them access to some of your offerings can make a difference in their lives and make them much happier members of the team.
Ultimately, every workplace is different, and the most valuable benefits will depend on your employees and their personal needs. If you’re not sure what benefits they value, just ask! Often times, it’s not the most expensive perk that makes the difference.

Marketing Mean Market Machine

How to Turn Your Startup Into a Lean, Mean Marketing Machine

BY Ross Kimbarovsky | June 4, 2013|

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Image credit: Shutterstock

Marketing your startup can get expensive and often the strategy you choose doesn't work as planned. How can you promote your products or services without spending a lot of money or time developing comprehensive marketing plans?
You've heard of the lean startup concept pioneered by entrepreneur Eric Ries and popularized over the years by professor Steve Blank. The lean startup approach, which favors experimentation over planning, offers a useful blueprint for developing a more efficient marketing strategy.
Here are three ways you can apply it to your business right now:
Test your marketing ideas in small batches.
Instead of investing months to plan and research, lean startup encourages businesses to develop untested assumptions and quickly test those assumptions in the marketplace -- a concept that can easily be applied to your marketing efforts.
When you invest a majority of your marketing budget into developing strategies and tactics, you make a gamble that they will actually succeed. This is a sucker's bet because most marketing strategies fail.
Instead of developing big plans and investing the vast majority of your marketing budget in one or two initiatives, break your budget into smaller pieces and test a variety of ideas.
For example, do not commit to six-month marketing campaigns on Facebook and Twitter. Instead, dedicate a small budget to run two-week experiments. Pick a variety of images and develop four or five different ads. Within two weeks, look at the results to measure which ads send the most traffic to your site and which ads result in better conversions. Compare the traffic and conversions from Facebook and Twitter relative to the money you're spending. Is one network sending more customers? Do certain ads have higher click-through and conversion rates? Which ads perform best on both networks?

Related

• 7 Ways to Make Your Business Card Your Best Marketing Tool

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If your experiments fail, don't worry -- this is normal. At my company, 99 percent of the marketing tactics we try fail. Find several other channels -- pay-per click search-engine advertising or sponsoring a newsletter targeting potential customers, for example -- and run new two-week experiments.
You don't even have to run actual experiments on Facebook or Twitter. You can put together four or five ads and launch a survey on the crowdsourcing internet marketplace Amazon Mechanical Turk. Offer 500 people 10 cents each to answer a small number of questions about the ads. Refine the ads based on the answers and re-run the survey with a different batch of 500 people. By spending $100 before you run the ads, you'll be able to improve them and focus your marketing message.
Experimenting with different options will give you a better sense of how your prospective customers respond to your marketing so that you can focus your energy and budget on those channels and tactics that work best.
Leverage your customers' feedback.
Marketing is typically one-way communication, but it doesn't have to be. Just as lean startup encourages businesses to listen to customer feedback in order to modify initial assumptions, businesses can easily find ways to leverage feedback from customers as they test marketing ideas.
After your two-week experiments on Twitter and Facebook end, for example, you'll have a group of customers who purchased your products or services that you can survey. Why were your messages effective to those customers? What made them click your ads and complete a purchase?
Ask your customers and try to offer incentives to encourage people to respond. At my company, for example, we often raffle a few $50 gift cards to survey participants. Call customers and conduct brief phone interviews, ask them on Twitter or Facebook, or develop a short online survey. Did they like the images in your ads? Did they respond to the content? Did they like the landing pages or did other factors lead them to make a purchase? What would have helped them purchase sooner?
Be prepared to change gears quickly.
Once you've gathered this information, you can move into the third lean-startup stage, agile development: the process of improving your product or service in incremental ways in response to what you're hearing from customers.
If customers tell you certain images get them more interested in your products and services than others, find more of those images and re-test your assumptions. By doing this, you can adjust, refocus and find those marketing channels and messages that work best for your brand.

Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226889#ixzz2W0hr79PK

Tips to Work Well with Employees

Whether you know it or not, being a business owner also requires being a leader — especially if you have employees. If you don’t display good leadership skills, you won’t get the most from your employees, and your business will suffer.
Despite good intentions, many business owners and managers unknowingly strike fear into employees simply by what they say — or don’t say. And fearful employees are not productive employees. They react to fear with the primitive ‘fight, flight or freeze” instinct and begin to focus only on their own survival, says Christine Comaford, a leadership consultant and author of the new book “How Teams Become Brilliant Together” (Portfolio/Penguin 2013).
Here are five ways that business owners inadvertently scare employees into a dysfunctional state:
You “help them out” by giving them solutions. When you constantly tell people what to do instead of encouraging them to figure things out on their own, you develop a business full or order-takers instead of innovators. By training them to always ask, you end up with a group of workers who are perpetually frozen in survival mode.
On the other hand, when you engage people in problem-solving themselves, you create a sense of safety, belonging and mattering.
Your meetings are heavy on sharing and point-proving, and light on promises and requests. Meetings that are rambling and unfocused send people into fear and confusion. But short, high-energy meetings that have a clear agenda keep everyone motivated. Ideally you should focus on only enough information sharing to solicit requests from people who need something, and promises from people who will fill that need.
If you tune up your communication, the result will be meetings that are efficient and effective, and that keep your employees happy as well as productive and accountable.
You give feedback to employees without first establishing rapport. In short, you must be able to influence people, not just boss them around. Here are three shortcut phrases that can help you do that:
“What if ...” When you use this preface to an idea/suggestion, you remove ego and reduce emotion. You’re curious — not forcing a position, but kind of scratching your head and pondering.
“I need your help.” Specialists call this a “dom-sub swap” because when the dominant person (the boss) uses it, they are asking the subordinate person to rise up and swap roles. This is especially effective when you want a person to change their behavior or take on more responsibility.
“Would it be helpful if ...” When a fearful employee is unable to move forward, offering some options will help them see a possible course of action or positive outcome.
You focus on problems, not outcomes. Instead of asking ‘What’s wrong?’ and ‘Why is this happening? You should ask ‘What do we want?’ and ‘How will we create it?’ ”
Being outcome focused is more energizing and fills people with confidence. Avoid saying things like “Let me help you” or “I’ll make it better for you.” Instead, say “What outcome would you like?” and “What will having that do for you?”
You talk about change in the wrong way. Most business owners and managers want their businesses to change. That’s the only way to grow and get better. But as we know, most employees — and people in general — fear and resist change.
People tolerate change better if it’s framed the right way — more like “sameness with a difference.” Try presenting change as merely an improvement in what is already being done. The bad stuff is being removed, and the good stuff is being added. You might even avoid using the word “change” at all and instead use “growth” which is less daunting to most people.
“All business owners want to outperform, outsell, and out-innovate the competition,” says Comaford. “And most of us have teams that are quite capable of doing so. We just need to stop scaring the competence out of them.”

Financing to Offer for Customers

I ran across a great resource for offering financing that doesn't cost me a dime. No discounts, no fees, nothing. The consumer applies for a credit card that offers 18 mth zero interest. The consumer then pays me with the CC or writes a check on the cc to pay me. Some of the offers may have a 2-3% fee to the consumer, but that's cheap interested if considered.
Here's the link: http://www.myprojectloan.com/offers/index.html

Building vs Growing a Business

Building vs. Growing a Business – There is a difference and it matters

Submitted by kym on Wed, 20/03/2013 - 10:40

In reflecting over the time I have spent consulting to large and small organisations, I have always been intrigued by the stark differences I have seen between those that are focussing on growing their business, practice or team rather than focussing on building a sustainable and successful long term business. It might sound as you read this that it is only a slight language difference, they mean the same, right?
Wrong. There is a major difference between growing vs. building a business. Not only in terms of language but also in terms of intent and the way this is adopted and heard from the team, stakeholders and other personnel. The focus on growth very much drives growth at all costs which may benefit you in the short term whereas the building is around focussing on key areas, markets and clients that align to your vision, plan or strategies.
To illustrate, the following table outlines the differences in the approaches:

Too many focus on growing their business and forget to build a business, practice or team. It’s far easier to grow, work hard, put in more hours and more money. What we should be doing is intending to build a business that makes money even when we are not there so that we can focus on the areas of our life that are important to us. I have had the benefit of seeing consultants and owners that actually do build great practices and businesses so I know it can be done. Given this, why do people find it so hard to move from being busy to truly being productive around the hard things it takes to build a business?
A question to ponder is have you started your practice or business with the intention of working hard and making money but not having a life and planning to do this indefinitely? The reality is that we get what we intend and not what we hope for. The definition of insanity is to do the same things and expect a different result. Analyse where you are putting your effort and make the changes you need to make to really build something you not only will benefit from financially but you will bring to life the others reasons you built your business for.

http://www.easyconsult.com.au/blog/building-vs-growing-a-business-there-is-a-difference-and-it-matters/

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225971

Top 10 Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

BY Adam and Mathew Toren | FROM Young Entrepreneur| March 1, 2013|

In entrepreneurship, as with most other worthwhile endeavors in life -- from attending college to getting a job to parenting -- having a role model can be hugely valuable. Not only is it helpful to follow their footsteps and avoid their missteps, these entrepreneurial icons are always good for a healthy dose of inspiration.
With this in mind, we culled 10 of the most inspiring entrepreneurship quotes around. They also happen to be our favorites:
Steve Jobs: Co-Founder of Apple "Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." ~ from his 2005 Stanford commencement address.

Walter Elias a.k.a. ‘Walt Disney:’ Co-Founder of Walt Disney Productions "All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." ~ from the 2004 book How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life.  

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Richard Branson: Chairman of the Virgin Group "My biggest motivation? Just to keep challenging myself. I see life almost like one long University education that I never had -- everyday I’m learning something new."

Oprah Winfrey: Media mogul "Every time you state what you want or believe, you’re the first to hear it. It’s a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don’t put a ceiling on yourself."

Bill Gates: Chairman of Microsoft "It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure."
Related: 5 Myths About Being an Entrepreneur

Henry Ford: Founder of the Ford Motor Company "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently… A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large."

Larry Page: Co-Founder of Google "You don’t need to have a 100-person company to develop that idea" ~ from a 2001 BusinessWeek article.

Warren Buffett: Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently." ~ from a 2011 story in The Guardian. 

Russell Simmons: Founder of Def Jam Records "I’ve been blessed to find people who are smarter than I am, and they help me to execute the vision I have." ~ from a 2010 article in Brandmaker News.

Jeff Bezos: Chairman and CEO of Amazon "One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don't choose your passions; your passions choose you." ~ from the 2013 book Shortcut to Prosperity: 10 Entrepreneurial Habits and a Roadmap for an Exceptional Career.

Read more: http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/blog/entrepreneurship/top-10-inspirational-entrepreneurship-quotes/#ixzz2OUaz8aog

Strategic Brand Management: Competitive Advantage

Submitted by Israel on Tue, 03/12/2013 - 10:12

Strategic brand management is the best way to give your business a competitive advantage.  One of the reasons large, powerful companies succeed is that consumers easily connect their brand with the company, and the reason for this is the branding strategies they use.  Several simple steps can help any company with branding management.

SWOT Analysis
The first step to developing strategic brand management is to conduct an analysis of your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, also known as a SWOT analysis.  First, identify the strengths of your company, such as a good staff, a unique product, environmentally friendly practices, or excellent customer service.  The next step, and probably the most difficult, is identifying the weaknesses of your business.  Be objective and honest in order to find all the weaknesses that exist, including customer service areas that need improvement, a need for additional staff, assistance with financial information, or the need for a better location for the business.  Next, learn what opportunities are available to promote your business, such as a competitor that is not performing well or additional technology that could help improve your business.  Finally, understand the threats to your company, such as a new competitor moving into the area or employees who are not offering the customer service your customers expect and deserve.

Becoming a better leader by Dave Kerpen

11 Simple Concepts to Become a Better Leader

January 28, 2013

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Being likeable will help you in your job, business, relationships, and life. I interviewed dozens of successful business leaders for my last book, to determine what made them so likeable and their companies so successful. All of the concepts are simple, and yet, perhaps in the name of revenues or the bottom line, we often lose sight of the simple things - things that not only make us human, but can actually help us become more successful. Below are the eleven most important principles to integrate to become a better leader:

1. Listening
"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." - Ernest Hemingway
Listening is the foundation of any good relationship. Great leaders listen to what their customers and prospects want and need, and they listen to the challenges those customers face. They listen to colleagues and are open to new ideas. They listen to shareholders, investors, and competitors. Here's why the best CEO's listen more.
2. Storytelling
"Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." -Robert McAfee Brown
After listening, leaders need to tell great stories in order to sell their products, but more important, in order to sell their ideas. Storytelling is what captivates people and drives them to take action. Whether you're telling a story to one prospect over lunch, a boardroom full of people, or thousands of people through an online video - storytelling wins customers.
3. Authenticity
"I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier." -Oprah Winfrey
Great leaders are who they say they are, and they have integrity beyond compare. Vulnerability and humility are hallmarks of the authentic leader and create a positive, attractive energy. Customers, employees, and media all want to help an authentic person to succeed. There used to be a divide between one’s public self and private self, but the social internet has blurred that line. Tomorrow's leaders are transparent about who they are online, merging their personal and professional lives together.
4. Transparency
"As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth." -John Whittier
There is nowhere to hide anymore, and businesspeople who attempt to keep secrets will eventually be exposed. Openness and honesty lead to happier staff and customers and colleagues. More important, transparency makes it a lot easier to sleep at night - unworried about what you said to whom, a happier leader is a more productive one.
5. Team Playing
"Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds." -SEAL Team Saying
No matter how small your organization, you interact with others every day. Letting others shine, encouraging innovative ideas, practicing humility, and following other rules for working in teams will help you become a more likeable leader. You’ll need a culture of success within your organization, one that includes out-of-the-box thinking.
6. Responsiveness
"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." -Charles Swindoll
The best leaders are responsive to their customers, staff, investors, and prospects. Every stakeholder today is a potential viral sparkplug, for better or for worse, and the winning leader is one who recognizes this and insists upon a culture of responsiveness. Whether the communication is email, voice mail, a note or a a tweet, responding shows you care and gives your customers and colleagues a say, allowing them to make a positive impact on the organization.
7. Adaptability
"When you're finished changing, you're finished." -Ben Franklin
There has never been a faster-changing marketplace than the one we live in today. Leaders must be flexible in managing changing opportunities and challenges and nimble enough to pivot at the right moment. Stubbornness is no longer desirable to most organizations. Instead, humility and the willingness to adapt mark a great leader.
8. Passion
"The only way to do great work is to love the work you do." -Steve Jobs
Those who love what they do don’t have to work a day in their lives. People who are able to bring passion to their business have a remarkable advantage, as that passion is contagious to customers and colleagues alike. Finding and increasing your passion will absolutely affect your bottom line.
9. Surprise and Delight
"A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless." -Charles de Gaulle
Most people like surprises in their day-to-day lives. Likeable leaders underpromise and overdeliver, assuring that customers and staff are surprised in a positive way. There are a plethora of ways to surprise without spending extra money - a smile, We all like to be delighted — surprise and delight create incredible word-of-mouth marketing opportunities.
10. Simplicity
"Less isn't more; just enough is more." -Milton Glaser
The world is more complex than ever before, and yet what customers often respond to best is simplicity — in design, form, and function. Taking complex projects, challenges, and ideas and distilling them to their simplest components allows customers, staff, and other stakeholders to better understand and buy into your vision. We humans all crave simplicity, and so today's leader must be focused and deliver simplicity.
11. Gratefulness
"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." -Gilbert Chesterton
Likeable leaders are ever grateful for the people who contribute to their opportunities and success. Being appreciative and saying thank you to mentors, customers, colleagues, and other stakeholders keeps leaders humble, appreciated, and well received. It also makes you feel great! Donor's Choose studied the value of a hand-written thank-you note, and actually found donors were 38% more likely to give a 2nd time if they got a hand-written note!

The Golden Rule: Above all else, treat others as you’d like to be treated
By showing others the same courtesy you expect from them, you will gain more respect from coworkers, customers, and business partners. Holding others in high regard demonstrates your company’s likeability and motivates others to work with you. This seems so simple, as do so many of these principles — and yet many people, too concerned with making money or getting by, fail to truly adopt these key concepts.
Which of these principles are most important to you — what makes you likeable?
Dave Kerpen