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7 Business Leaders Worth Looking Up To
Nov 15th
Every young entrepreneur needs an example to look up to–someone whose story resonates with your own and inspires you to reach even greater heights. Whether it’s a personal encounter with Jack Welch or reading a biography of Steve Jobs, you can find inspiration from multiple sources.
We asked members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invitation-only nonprofit organization comprised of the country’s most promising young entrepreneurs, this question:
“Who is one well-known business leader over the age of 40 that you look to for advice on running your small business? Why do they resonate with you?”
Here are some of the leaders the YEC members look up to:
1. Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines
“Like many businesses, Southwest Airlines was born on a cocktail napkin, but it took a lot of perseverance to actually take flight. Numerous Texas airlines tried to keep Southwest grounded with lawsuits in its first years of business, but Kelleher was steadfast and fought through. Today Southwest is one of the only profitable airlines [in the U.S.] because it refuses to accept the status quo.” ~ Benjamin Leis, Sweat EquiTees
2. Jack Welch
“I personally resonate with Jack Welch because I admire his ability to lead and manage people. He believes that winning individuals and organizations create jobs, galvanize growth and give back to society. I had the pleasure of meeting him. He shook my hand, looked me in the eye and remembered my name. Named the CEO of the century, his management skills are unparalleled.” ~ Lucas Sommer, Audimated
3. Aaron Strout
“Aaron has been part of my professional and personal life since we met at SXSW in 2009. He’s done a lot in his marketing career, from big brands to startup digital agencies. His advice resonates with me because he’s one of my mentors and despite the fact that my path has changed from when we first met, he isn’t trying to shape me into a mini-Aaron. Though that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.” ~ Sydney Owen, 3Ring Media
4. Richard Branson
“I read his book and love what he did. He created an enterprise that was built on a lifestyle brand versus a specific industry. This allowed him to expand anywhere because he had a big vision. I like having a big vision, as there is a lot to accomplish in this world. I also admire his ability to be well rounded.” ~ David Schnurman, Lawline
“I’ve read Barbara’s book Use What You’ve Got and I keep going back to it because there are so many juicy and wise words of advice there. I resonate with her because she is self-made and tells it like it is. She’s also got a great sense of humor and makes doing business fun!” ~ Nath Lussier, Nathalie Lussier Media
6. Dan Kennedy
“Working in direct-response marketing and helping others build their own businesses is the business that I have found myself in, and no one has done that better, longer and within more industries than Dan Kennedy. From his bestselling books to his live events and masterminds, he finds ways to connect with me and my team that have exponentially grown our business and expanded my mind.” ~ Greg Rollett, The ProductPros
7. Who’s Next?
“I look to many older business leaders for advice as there is always an area of business to improve. Rather than looking to one person, I turn to many people, and usually to the person who has successfully navigated through the issue I am having at the time. This allows me to find the exact experience of the person who has been there and done that, rather than taking advice from someone who hasn’t.” ~ Louis Lautman, Young Entrepreneur Society
7 Business Leaders Worth Looking Up To
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
7 Business Leaders Worth Looking Up To
Nov 15th
Every young entrepreneur needs an example to look up to–someone whose story resonates with your own and inspires you to reach even greater heights. Whether it’s a personal encounter with Jack Welch or reading a biography of Steve Jobs, you can find inspiration from multiple sources.
We asked members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invitation-only nonprofit organization comprised of the country’s most promising young entrepreneurs, this question:
“Who is one well-known business leader over the age of 40 that you look to for advice on running your small business? Why do they resonate with you?”
Here are some of the leaders the YEC members look up to:
1. Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines
“Like many businesses, Southwest Airlines was born on a cocktail napkin, but it took a lot of perseverance to actually take flight. Numerous Texas airlines tried to keep Southwest grounded with lawsuits in its first years of business, but Kelleher was steadfast and fought through. Today Southwest is one of the only profitable airlines [in the U.S.] because it refuses to accept the status quo.” ~ Benjamin Leis, Sweat EquiTees
2. Jack Welch
“I personally resonate with Jack Welch because I admire his ability to lead and manage people. He believes that winning individuals and organizations create jobs, galvanize growth and give back to society. I had the pleasure of meeting him. He shook my hand, looked me in the eye and remembered my name. Named the CEO of the century, his management skills are unparalleled.” ~ Lucas Sommer, Audimated
3. Aaron Strout
“Aaron has been part of my professional and personal life since we met at SXSW in 2009. He’s done a lot in his marketing career, from big brands to startup digital agencies. His advice resonates with me because he’s one of my mentors and despite the fact that my path has changed from when we first met, he isn’t trying to shape me into a mini-Aaron. Though that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.” ~ Sydney Owen, 3Ring Media
4. Richard Branson
“I read his book and love what he did. He created an enterprise that was built on a lifestyle brand versus a specific industry. This allowed him to expand anywhere because he had a big vision. I like having a big vision, as there is a lot to accomplish in this world. I also admire his ability to be well rounded.” ~ David Schnurman, Lawline
“I’ve read Barbara’s book Use What You’ve Got and I keep going back to it because there are so many juicy and wise words of advice there. I resonate with her because she is self-made and tells it like it is. She’s also got a great sense of humor and makes doing business fun!” ~ Nath Lussier, Nathalie Lussier Media
6. Dan Kennedy
“Working in direct-response marketing and helping others build their own businesses is the business that I have found myself in, and no one has done that better, longer and within more industries than Dan Kennedy. From his bestselling books to his live events and masterminds, he finds ways to connect with me and my team that have exponentially grown our business and expanded my mind.” ~ Greg Rollett, The ProductPros
7. Who’s Next?
“I look to many older business leaders for advice as there is always an area of business to improve. Rather than looking to one person, I turn to many people, and usually to the person who has successfully navigated through the issue I am having at the time. This allows me to find the exact experience of the person who has been there and done that, rather than taking advice from someone who hasn’t.” ~ Louis Lautman, Young Entrepreneur Society
7 Business Leaders Worth Looking Up To
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Stop Looking Down At Your Feet
Nov 8th
Stop Looking Down At Your Feet
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
In all my years of owning a business there’s one thing I’ve witnessed to be true – that which gets my focus gets done or another way to say it is – my intention gets my attention.
Daniel Morris via Flickr
Of course, as with so many things that are true about business, this is equally true about life in general. The things we think about create our actions and our actions create our present reality.
The reason I wander into this territory is that I’ve also discovered that if you acknowledge this phenomenon you must also accept that you have the ability to change what you focus on and change any aspect of your business or life.
Change your point of view and you can change your life.
For most business owners the real problem is the lack of a compelling future vision or any long-term view at all. I know you’ve heard this before, but it’s one of those once a day kind of notions. Creating a compelling picture of where you need to be in three years from now is not something your stop and do in a planning workshop, it’s something you think about in the shower and you take to work every day.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the moment of running a business that we get pushed and pulled into one course correction after another. Unless you have a view of where you are headed and catch a hint of that vision every day you’ll trudge through each step along the way.
I had a running coach once that gave me the best advice I’ve ever received. The advice had nothing to do with footfall, turnover or arm swing. He simply told me that if I wanted to be a better runner I needed to change what I looked at.
Instead of looking down at my feet or a few strides of pavement forward, as many runners do, he suggested that I look as far ahead as I could see and let that far off horizon pull me forward. I can tell you that this little piece of advice changes my physiology and literally yanks me forward.
I think the same is so true for business owners and here are the questions that may help you change your point of view.
- Have your framed your far off horizon?
- Is it a big enough vision to pull your towards it?
- How can you develop the habit of keeping your head up and fixed on your bigger vision?
- How will your new intention impact what gets your day to day attention?
View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
Looking for Blog Topics? @TheSalesLion Has a Few [BlogWorld Coverage]
Nov 5th
Marcus Sheridan, who goes by @TheSalesLion on Twitter, is not your average BlogWorld speaker. He doesn’t run a social media agency. He doesn’t run a marketing agency. He runs a pool company. In Virginia. And yet, his pool company is one of the most popular in the search engines, in the world.
How did that happen? After the economic slump in 2008, he found selling pools hard. He turned to writing a blog, and saw great results within 6 months. Now his pool blog gets hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. He is truly, as in the example he gave in his session at this week’s BlogWorld Expo in Los Angeles, a “David” to the “Goliaths” in his industry.
Sheridan gave attendees seven blog topics to write about. Essentially, he said:
“If a consumer is thinking it, you should be writing it.”
Cost and Price
The first topics he covered were cost and price. When he asked the audience how many people talked about price on their websites, only two raised their hands. He asked why we didn’t list our prices.
The bottom line: most of us are afraid to talk about price. We want to talk about value. But he’s found that by mentioning price on his pool site, more people buy from him, simply because he’s not afraid of the conversation.
Problems
He also suggests writing about problems. Customers have problems with products in your industry (maybe even yours). They have problems that your products can solve. Write about them. Sheridan also suggests using negative keywords as a way to draw in people looking for bad reviews, such as “product X bad review.” Even if the product isn’t yours, it’s a way to introduce them to yours if there are bad reviews about a competitor’s product.
Comparing or Contrasting Products
Sheridan suggests comparing or contrasting products. His Product A vs. Product B posts have been among the most visited posts on his blog.
Awards
He also suggests creating awards for your industry, even if it means highlighting competitors’ products. The trick here is that in adding a “Goliath” to your award list and linking to them, they’ll become aware of the honor and link back to your site, thus giving you some great Google juice! Genius.
Breaking News
Finally, Sheridan says that breaking news is another great topic for your blog for driving traffic. The more niche your industry, the fewer people will be covering the smaller news stories, so your blog could be a valuable resource for that information.
Looking for Blog Topics? @TheSalesLion Has a Few [BlogWorld Coverage]
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Through the Looking Glass
Oct 15th
I do tons and tons of chart cartoons, and I’m always on the lookout for different graphic takes on what is basically a few straight lines and an arrow.
So one day, I drew my line and decided it looked like a branch. I drew some more offshooting branches, some leaves, etc. . . .but the joke never quite materialized. Then I took another shot with the line as a flower, and that, unfortunately, just made things worse.
It had gotten pretty weird, pretty fast. But it was that surreal quality that finally suggested the caption above. It never exactly made sense, but at least the cartoon and I had come to terms with that.
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
People looking for ‘more of the same’ aren’t actively looking
Sep 4th
While there may be a lot of them, they’re satisfied with what they’ve got, which means that they’re hard to attract.
No, the real opportunity is in reaching out to the dissatisifed, to those in search of something new.
View full post on Seth’s Blog
15 Ruthless Dictators Looking for Love on OK Cupid
Jul 29th
Being a ruthless dictator is a difficult job. Genocide, oppression, racism and avoiding assassination make a man pretty lonely. Here are 15 dictators looking for love using OK Cupid ads. Ladies? Ladies….?
Ali Abdullah Saleh: Yemen
What I’m doing with my life: Trying to keep myself from getting shot by my beloved people.
The first thing people usually notice about me: That I’ve been shot
I’m looking for: Someone who enjoys cooking Italian and oppressive rule
You should message me if: You own any predator drones. I love those things!
Jose Eduardo dos Santos: Angola
What I’m doing with my life: Trying to find Angola on a map
The first thing people usually notice about me: That you get two Santos for the price of one
I’m looking for: Someone who doesn’t mind living in a third world Hellhole
You should message me if: You like long walks on the beach strewn with the bodies of my enemies.
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo: Equatorial Guinea
What I’m doing with my life: Trying to pronounce my name
The first thing people usually notice about me: That my name tag wraps around my chest
I’m looking for: A chick with a name like “Wu” or “Chi”. No more than three letters!
You should message me if: You like listening to Celine Dione.
Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev: Kazakhstan
What I’m doing with my life: Trying to have Sasha Baron Cohen killed
The first thing people usually notice about me: That there are a thousand corpses on my front lawn
I’m looking for: Someone that isn’t squeamish
You should message me if: You’re turned on by crimes against humanity.
Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko: Belarus
What I’m doing with my life: Trying to convince people that yes, that’s an actual name of a country
The first thing people usually notice about me: My gangsta tats.
I’m looking for: An old fashioned girl who thinks Hitler was misunderstood.
You should message me if: You’re a fan of Schindler’s List, except for the third act.
Frank Bainimarama: Fiji
What I’m doing with my life: Living on a tiny island with one palm tree.
The first thing people usually notice about me: That I was not in the band Bananarama.
I’m looking for: Two people to help me reenact the opening of Hawaii 5-O. You know, with the rowers at the beginning. That would be cool.
You should message me if: You realize I can’t get you any free bottled water.
Saparmurat Niyazov: Turkmenistan
What I’m doing with my life: Banishing dogs from the capital because of their unappealing odor!
The first thing people usually notice about me: That I am strangling their dog
I’m looking for: Someone who understands they must be controlled by the state
You should message me if: You want a boyfriend-for-life!
Hamid Karzai: Afghanistan
What I’m doing with my life: Collecting bribes and answering calls from crybaby warlords.
The first thing people usually notice about me: That I am covered in poppy seeds.
I’m looking for: Bribes and dates. Preferably both.
You should message me if: Your bills are unmarked and you control at least four square miles of poppy fields.
Islom Karimov: Uzbekistan
What I’m doing with my life: Boiling political opponents in oil.
The first thing people usually notice about me: I wear a chef’s hat everywhere!
I’m looking for: The proper seasoning for a Belgian.
You should message me if: You like your fondue screaming.
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia
What I’m doing with my life: Protecting the culture of my people by brutally oppressing them.
The first thing people usually notice about me: That I’m wearing my sheets.
I’m looking for: Wife #142
You should message me if: You don’t mind group showers
Raul Castro: Cuba
What I’m doing with my life: Waiting for my brother to die.
The first thing people usually notice about me: That I’m not my brother and my face isn’t a T-shirt.
I’m looking for: Someone that will help me row to Miami.
You should message me if: You’d like some free cigars.
Robert Mugabe: Zimbabwe
What I’m doing with my life: Trying to save up ten trillion Zimbabwe dollars for a loaf of bread.
The first thing people usually notice about me: That I’m accompanied by a witch doctor wherever I go.
I’m looking for: A woman who will love me for who I am, a brutal dictator and a lover of fine wines.
You should message me if: You want to hook up with a racists homophobe.
Muammar Gaddafi: Libya
What I’m doing with my life: As much as I can in the short time I have left.
The first thing people usually notice about me: That I’m hiding behind a bunker and a battalion of bodyguards.
I’m looking for: A woman that is a tiger in the sack and can take a few bullets if she has to act as a human shield.
You should message me if: You’re not trying to figure out my coordinates for a missile.
Kim Jong-il: North Korea
What I’m doing with my life: Making taller dictators look less crazy.
The first thing people usually notice about me: That I’m only slightly less taller than the puppet that played me in Team America.
I’m looking for: Stuff to look at.
You should message me if: You are under four feet and don’t mind calling me “Great Leader” in the sack.
Hosni Mubarak: Egypt
What I’m doing with my life: I’m retired… for now.
The first thing people usually notice about me: That I’m being chased by Egyptian peace activists.
I’m looking for: Someone that longs for oppressive rule and an iron fist.
You should message me if: You like the Pyramids. I can get us tickets. Front row.
View full post on Business Pundit
Looking for the right excuse
May 26th
This is the first warning sign that a project is in trouble. Sometimes it even begins before the project does.
Quietly, our subconscious starts looking around for an excuse, deniability and someone to blame. It gives us confidence and peace of mind. [It's much easier to be calm when the police car appears in your rear view mirror if you have an excuse handy.]
Amazingly, we often look for the excuse before we even accept the project. We say to ourselves, “well, I can start this, and if it doesn’t work perfectly, I can point out it was the …” Then, as the team ramps up, bosses appear and events occur (or not), we continually add to and refine our excuse list, reminding ourselves of all the factors that were out of our control. Decades ago, when I used to sell by phone, I often found myself describing why I was unable to close this particular sale–and realized I was articulating these reasons while the phone was still ringing.
People who have a built-in all-purpose excuse (middle child syndrom, wrong astrology sign, some slight at the hands of the system long ago) often end up failing–they have an excuse ready to go, so it’s easier to back off when the going is rough.
Here’s an alternative to the excuse-driven life: What happens if you relentlessly avoid looking for excuses at all?
Instead of seeking excuses, the successful project is filled with people who are obsessed with avoiding excuses. If you relentlessly work to avoid opportunities to use your ability to blame, you may never actually need to blame anyone. If you’re not pulled over by the cop, no need to blame the speedometer, right?
View full post on Seth’s Blog
The Janus Month: Looking Back and Looking Forward
Jan 31st
Small business research has been pretty thin over the last couple of months but what little there is happens to be focused on a single big question, “How are we doing?” Or, to be more accurate, “How were we doing?”
The State of Small Business
During the course of 2010, staff from the SBA Office of Advocacy spent some of their time working on the office’s annual report to the President on small business for 2009. (Similarly, they’ll spend a nice-sized chunk of this year working on their report for 2010.) The report was just released a couple of days ago.
It’s a bit mind-boggling to try to send yourself back to 2009, when the economy was busily falling to pieces around us. It seems like a million years ago.
During the first six months of that year, the economy shed about 3.3 million jobs — almost 2 million of them in the first quarter alone. The pace of job losses slowed as the year progressed, but by the time the ball dropped to usher in 2010, we were down 4.3 million jobs.
Small businesses were getting hammered, of course. The report notes that they accounted for 60 percent of net job losses, with the greatest hits taken in the first quarter of 2009.
By the third quarter, small firms were still shedding jobs, but only 33 percent as many as they had lost during the first quarter. That’s not too shabby when you consider that overall job losses, economy-wide, were almost 40 percent of what they had been during the first quarter.
If the employment is not your favorite metric by which to judge the small business sector, perhaps you’re one of those folks who think that small firms will thrive as long as they can borrow money. If so, then you may recall that 2009 wasn’t a good year for that kind of activity, either.
In fact, quite a lot of the small business policy debate we got to listen to was a kind of chicken-and-egg argument about small firm lending.
In this corner, we have the businesses-gotta-borrow crowd, who complained long and loud about banks tightening their lending standards and refusing to lend to small firms. If only we could loosen things up at the banks, these folks theorized, small businesses could borrow what they need and expand their businesses and hire people and save our political careers!
Not so fast, said the folks in the other corner, to whom we will refer as the first-things-first crowd. It doesn’t really matter that the banks aren’t lending because loan demand is down anyway, they said. Small businesses don’t really want to borrow. They can’t afford to borrow because their customers aren’t buying. Think about that before you go standing on the bankers’ necks.
We got to listen to this argument all year lon,g and at no point in time did I hear anybody stop and say, “You’re both right. Nothing you say is going to describe all small firms anyway, so knock it off!”
Another data point that illustrates all that pain is this: The number of nonemployer firms declined in 2008, and Advocacy estimates that the number of employers will also decline for that year. Regarding the year in question, 2009, Advocacy estimates that the number of employer firms fell still further, while nonemployers started to recover their numbers.
We’ll see how accurate those estimates turn out to be. It wouldn’t surprise me to discover that the number of nonemployers increased more than expected. After all, sometimes those vanishing employer firms don’t close, they just revert to nonemployers.
Fast Forward
All things considered, when you think about where we are now, you almost can’t help quoting that old Virginia Slims commercial: You’ve come a long way, baby.
As usual, the various small business employment indexes disagree with each other — mainly because they measure slightly different things.
The December Intuit Small Business Employment Index shows that firms with fewer than 20 employees created 57,000 new jobs that month. The ADP National Employment Report for December indicated that employment increased by 117,000 at firms with fewer than 50 employees.
Meanwhile, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, overall nonfarm payroll employment increased by 103,000 in December.
No matter how you look at it, we’re certainly doing quite a lot better than we were in 2009.
As for how things are going in small business lending land, that is still a matter for debate. The most recent Small Business Economic Trends release from the National Federation of Independent Business (December 2010) indicates that the vast majority (91 percent) of small businesses have no interest in borrowing or their credit needs are already being met.
On the other hand, the Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Study was released earlier this month and it shows a different picture. Only 40 percent of private business owners report having adequate capital for growth. The survey also showed that lenders and investors reject 73 percent of applications based on cash flow and 90 percent of those secured by real estate holdings.
That particular argument rages on, but it is raging much more quietly now that economic growth is back with us.
The Janus Month: Looking Back and Looking Forward
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Just looking
Dec 22nd
The problem with browsers is that they rarely buy anything.
The prospect who walks up to the salesperson and says, “I’m looking for a pinstripe suit in size 38″ is a lot more likely to walk out with a suit than the one who mutters, “No thanks, just looking.”
Which is relevant to your quest for a new product or business or job or mate or project worth working on…
If you’re still looking around, making sure you understand all your options, getting your bearings or making sure you’re well informed, you’re most probably browsing.
You missed the first, second and third waves of the internet. You missed a hundred great jobs and forty great husbands. You missed the deadline for that course and the window for this program.
Quit looking and go buy something already.
View full post on Seth’s Blog
