Achieving small business success is yours for the taking. Turn your passions into small business profits. Small business startups around the world continues to grow exponentially, the success rate has remained fairly consistent. Are you ready to achieve small business success?  So what can you do to ensure lasting success for your small business?  Take a look at our top ten small business startup secrets.

1.  Market Research. Market research is the first step to starting a business, it is the last step, and it is an ongoing process.  Market research tells you not only if you have a viable business idea, it keeps you in touch with your prospects and customers and helps you build your business so that it can continue to grow.

2.  Master the Internet.  The internet isn’t just a place to do business, though your business will definitely profit with an online presence. The internet is a valuable research tool, communication tool, payment tool, marketing tool and so much more.  Master the internet and you will find numerous time saving, money saving, business building tools and resources – guaranteed.

3.  Seek outside Advice.  You can’t know everything and don’t expect yourself too.  You certainly have specialized knowledge and that is your strength.  Consult with others about their expert advice to build your business.

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How often have you either referred to or considered the expression, “Success is a journey and not a Destination?”  Probably many times, yet often being in a hurry to get there, we forget that success is not an end unto itself, but is instead an ongoing process.

Though some people seem to have the Midas touch and easily turn everything to gold, most of us have to give our endeavors lots of time, effort and the sweat of our brow before seeing things come to fruition.  The simple truth is that the majority of us are simply not born leaders, but become leaders by who we are and the actions we take.  Consequently, whether or not you’re an established entrepreneur or just starting out on your journey, there are particular traits you’ll usually find operating within the exceptional entrepreneur.  In fact there are 7 particular traits you’ll generally discover deeply embedded within the exceptional and successful entrepreneur.

If you’ve already taken the plunge as an entrepreneur, you know that it takes a great deal of planning, development and strategic marketing to succeed.  At any given time, there are changes to be considered and new directions to examine.  In which case, whether you’re the CEO, CFO, Chief Marketer or Chief Solutions Officer of your company, your journey to success is probably full of trials and tribulations.

To support you in your journey to success, be willing to open your mind and sense of reasoning as you consider whether these traits are part of your driving force.  If they are not yet ingrained within you, I recommend that you give them some thought.

The 7 Traits to Success

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“Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”
~John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) American president

Most of us negotiate every day without realizing it.  However mention the word “negotiation” and some people get nervous.  It frightens them.  They imagine themselves at the car dealership and the hassles and pressure associated with making a deal with someone who is an expert negotiator.  However, 99.9% of the time negotiation is simply working with someone to find a solution that benefits both parties equally.  Whether you’re negotiating with your two year old about bedtime or your biggest customer, the principles are the same.
 
1.  Creating a Win-Win situation.  When you approach a negotiation with the right attitude, it takes the pressure off of both parties.  What is the right attitude?  The desire for both parties to get what they want.  To create a win-win situation.  If one party is only in the process for themselves, a resolution will be difficult to come by.

2.  Listening skills.  In order to know what the other party hopes to get from a negotiation, you have to listen.  In fact, your ability to ask the right questions, and listen to the answers, is your #1 most important negotiating skill.  A skilled negotiator enters a negotiation with a questioning mindset.  When you make it your mission to learn more about your customer, you are more likely to learn quality information, information that you can use to build a rapport and establish a collaborative environment.  Look to learn what your customer needs, wants, what makes them successful, and how you can sell to them.

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People.
They’re the one dynamic variable in the success or failure of an organization.  They’re the glue that educators, academic theoreticians and financial folks have been unable to quantify. In the final analysis, people will make or break an organization.  This is especially true in an entrepreneurial or start-up firm that is finding its niche and growing. The uncertain climate of start-ups call for more than a manager, what they really need is a leader, an individual who can shape and mold the organization through group cooperation.  In almost any company, especially during its formative stages, the managers must have the ability to develop solid relationships among people. Finding a manager that can focus the energies of the final dynamic factor – people – toward the same goal is often the key to the success of a start-up organization.

M&M Manager
What such situations don’t need is an M&M manager.  An M&M manager is not a specialist in focusing people. He or she is a specialist in meetings & memos.  Even if the company has less than 25 employees, this executive dictates reams of memos and schedules meeting after meeting. The M&M manager would rather dictate a memo to a department manager than call to discuss a situation or resolve a problem. This action occupies the precious time of a number of people (the manager, his assistant, a delivery person and the recipient). Rather than getting an immediate solution, at least four people have to research the question, dictate the solution, prepare the response memo, deliver the response, read it and file the response. In other words, M&M management is a gross waste of time, money and effort. When the M&M manager is forced to emerge from the office, it is generally to attend a meeting.  Again the new manager insulates him or herself from the organization with red tape.

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The price tag for Sprint in MCI Worldcom’s bidding war was a staggering $115 billion.  That’s more money dropped in a single transaction than the gross national income of more than 1/3 of the world’s countries. In the converging voice, data and video world as well as the rest of business and industry this record will stood…for awhile.  Like any record it has been broken again and again over the past 24 months.  But in the dotcom, dotnet, dotdisaster environments which impact every aspect of life and business the high water marks will continue to be surpassed.

While the big numbers garner the headlines there are thousands of smaller and less visible mergers and acquisitions taking place every week.    AT&T has made an aggressive series of acquisitions.  Now almost unbelievably it looks vulnerable to attack.  Financial institutions are buying other financial institutions.  The petroleum, pharmaceutical and distribution industries are all consolidating.  The transportation industry is “consolidating.” Retail organizations are buying other retailer organizations.  The communications industry is being reshaped at mind boggling evaluations even as red ink bleeding and there is no sign of clotting in sight.

While highly visible, the latest round of deals isn’t isolated events.  For the first ten months of 2000, more than 58,520 similar transactions were completed.  There were 2,500 LBOs (leveraged buy-outs), including divestitures as well as friendly and unfriendly takeovers in the United States and abroad.

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Selling is hard work, even in the virtual world of the Internet.  It requires strong motivation, personal pride, perseverance, flexibility, energy, discipline, and focus.  Above all, it requires communicating and being able to read/understand the prospects’ attitudes and needs, whether they are real or perceived.
 
A successful selling situation – especially when selling to a decision team in a company – is based on the salesperson’s ability to communicate.  However, few salespeople are successful at selling “off-the-cuff.” Your best salespeople prepare, rehearse, analyze, prepare and rehearse.  The more “tools” that you provide for them, the better job they can do in selling systems, products, programs and services.

While you will rarely use a complete company/product presentation in a specific sales situation, it is wise to have one, which discusses all of the features and benefits, as well as the salient selling points.  And, it should ask for the order.
It sounds simple, but these facts are often left at the office when there’s selling to be done.  One of the major problems is that most professional sales training still stresses one-on-one selling.  But in today’s selling environment, for systems as well as other products/services, a team presentation to a group of decision-makers is required.

This is not to say that one-on-one selling does not take place today.  But for organizations to be successful in specific market segments, they have to sell to more than just the buyer who calls or sends an email and places small orders.  There’s more at stake in high-volume organizational sales, and more people participate in the decision making process.

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Today’s marketplace is still exciting, vibrant and tolerant.  Every day, across the country, small groups of designers, sales people and application specialist who have great market niche ideas step forward to start the next killer company.  Unfortunately, these new companies are often like roving mobs, rather than armies planning to win on the battlefield.
Two years after their formation, fewer than five out of every 100-marketplace contenders will still be around.  The dazed, battle-worn founders will walk the scarred landscape wondering what went wrong.  As the industry continues to grow at a rate of 20-25 percent or so per annum, the defeated wonder how and why they not only lost the skirmish but the entire war.

Wrong Focus
These people blow it because they don’t have “the right stuff.” These founders assigned responsibilities and authority without considering true capabilities.  Just because someone handles the checkbook at home is no reason to believe he or she can be the finance officer for the company.  The best technical guru may not be the best to be VP of engineering or design.  The person who had the idea may not be the best person to be president.  The most outgoing individual, or the salesperson with a record of outstanding sales, is probably not the one to guide marketing and sales. Being able to talk technically, or having a good sales sense, has nothing to do with being an outstanding marketing person.  Outstanding salespeople generally think that good marketing is belly-to-belly selling or increasingly a solid Web presence.  Their marketing plan is to double sales next year.  They fail to understand the total marketing concept.  They believe that advertising, PR, selling and the other marketing activities are separate and independent functions.

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During the course of the sale of a business, you will need to find out exactly what documents are needed and when they will be needed. There are a lot of legal processes involved and skipping or failing to carry out one of these areas properly can be disastrous for your future plans. Escrow documents are just one of the types of documents that you will always come across. They are vital when selling or buying a business because they are fundamental for the transaction to legally occur. They also ensure the fulfilment of both the seller and buyer’s right to change his or her mind. As such, escrow documents are a must.

What are Escrow Documents?

Escrow documents are the documents that govern the final payment structure or arrangement for the business to move from the seller to the buyer smoothly. Escrow is an important period of time because it is the last chance both buyer and seller have to formalize their agreement. There are various functions that take place during this time, but all arrangements are specified in the escrow documents.

Escrow documents detail the amount of money that has been placed in the hands of a third party, which is usually a broker or a licensed escrow agent. It also stipulates when the escrowed funds are to be released and to whom, as well as any payment schedule that may exist. It may be that the seller has agreed to pay the buyer in instalments as each part of the transaction has been completed. It may be that so much is held back until 6 or 12 months down the line. This is determined in negotiations and then recorded in the escrow documents.

The main item of importance that is contained within the escrow documents though is the sale terms.

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Negotiating can be done in a professional manner that can increase customer satisfaction while helping to protect both parties’ interests.

Let’s first look at some of the problems that give negotiating a bad name and then look at the solutions. A lack of training in negotiating in the automotive industry has put sales people at a disadvantage. Usually, a sales person is taught how to negotiate in a learn-as-you-go method. Although all learning must be accomplished by doing, some preparation has to be done to make the learning experience more effective. All sales people and managers should go through a course on basic and advanced negotiating. Assuming that sales managers can automatically teach your sales people to negotiate professionally is asking for trouble. How did the managers learn to negotiate?

Sales people should be taught the expected procedures. I like to call these routing procedures. Routing procedures will define everyone’s responsibilities, from the moment a customer is greeted until they are delivered, including the necessary paperwork and who initiates what. Included in the routing procedures are items known as, black and white items. Black and white items are the things that should never vary at your dealership. These items are to be defined by your top management and can include such things as not quoting discounted prices on the lot or never low-balling on price.

Another source of problems in negotiating is the misuse of traditional negotiating techniques. The “higher authority technique” is a technique of always deferring to a higher authority for a decision. The technique is a solid negotiation tactic that has been run into the ground by automotive people. Having your sales people run to the manager more than once or twice in negotiations is a crime.

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All sales people need to have a monthly sales goal for themselves. They also need to know how they arrived at that specific goal. Many times, these goals are based upon their past sales performance, but past results may not be indicative of performance.

You can increase your sales by 25 percent or more. Identify what causes mental barriers that produce limited results and how to overcome them. Many barriers are caused by conditioning, circumstance and emotions. Many people associate money with the following phrases: “Do you think money is grown on trees?” “Do you think we are rich?” “You can’t afford that.” “Money is the root of all evil.” This is why many people have limited and negative beliefs about money.

Examples of the three limiting factors are:

Conditioning. The US is the richest country in the world. Money is printed every day here. So in reality, what’s the difference between it growing on trees or on a printing press? 

Circumstance. All people have negative experiences and setbacks in their lives, these experiences can lead you to let circumstances limit your beliefs about success or money. When you anchor your future to the past, that’s exactly what you get. History is meant to be a rudder not an anchor. 

Emotions. Emotions are some of the most powerful sources of energy in nature. Negative emotions are also caused when your conscious mind and subconscious are in conflict with one another. Example: If you set a goal to lose five pounds, it is done in your conscious mind. If later that day, you walk by a bakery and smell cookies and walk in and eat a half-dozen, that action was controlled by your subconscious mind. Can you see the conflict? Your subconscious reacts to information and emotions given to it without regard to your goals.

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There is a revelation that is shocking and, quite frankly, scary. A dangerous and potentially fatal mistake is being made everyday in businesses. The mistake is the confusion between strategy and tactics. Strategy is your overall goal for your business and your overall marketing philosophy to achieve those goals. Tactics are executable actions you take to achieve those options. The good news is that once you have clarity about your strategy, and then apply emotional direct response marketing methods, you can create a continual stream of customers to your business. The scary part is that it is as easy as flipping on a light switch, and yet very few people know and understand the simple secrets to make this happen.

Your business is actually comprised of two businesses: the people business and the marketing business. You can be great with your people skills and handling of customers, but if you don’t have the customers to be great with, it won’t matter. Lead generation equals dollar creation. You live and die by the success or failure of your marketing efforts to create new customers and retain existing ones.

There are three simple things you can do immediately to make a dramatic impact on your customer flow and sales: Market, Message and Media.

Step One – Define who your market is.If you were asked who your average customer is, do you really know? Do you know where they live, what they do for a living and what their hopes, dreams and fears are? Have you begun to break down every element of what makes up your best potential market of customers? Many dealerships open the doors every day and spend tons of money to drive customers through the door without ever giving extensive thought to who their market really is. Successful businesses don’t try to do business with everybody. If you believe your market is everyone, you are wasting tons of money. You must match your message to your market.

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You are who you decide to be at any given moment. It does not take money, a degree, a certain age, a certain appearance, tons of experience, knowing the right people, past success or any other qualifying factor that you may be currently using as a subconscious roadblock to your desired success. Your belief system creates your results both past and present. If your current belief system is not what it should be to support your success, you must fake it, till you make it.

If you currently don’t appear to be on the path that will create the level of success in the form you desire, you must begin to identify the mental programming that is limiting your success before you can change your resulting limiting actions.

You must pay close attention to your inner dialogue when you write goals or have thoughts about anything you desire. When thinking of your goals, if you repeatedly think of the specific reasons of how and why your goal may be hard to obtain, you are creating the “When-Then Syndrome.” Your subconscious identifies your current programming that tells you that for X to occur you must first have Y. If that is the case, your current mental programming is limited and will not allow you to break through your current barriers to further success.

Write down the first twenty mental images or messages you heard or were taught about money. When closely examined, most of the images and messages remembered will be limited, negative, and fear based. Those negative messages and images have taken a life of their own and have been accepted in your subconscious as absolute truths. To increase money, you must identify your current limiting messages and rewrite the messages to create accepted new truths.

Every person you come into contact with tries to define you based upon his/her own thoughts and beliefs.

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“You are not given a dream without the capacity to make it a reality.. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull.

This piece is about choosing where you are going to be in 1000 days (i.e., three year’s time). Before you sceptics come up with your “yeah, buts,” let me say that part of me agrees with you! I’m usually wary about the idea of having a grand plan knowing that plans and reality can be very different. Real life can sometimes turn out to be much better than our plans! But the idea behind this piece is to identify key areas in your life and to really visualise what you want in them. After all, this is about looking at who you would like to be 1000 days from now and making your fantasies a reality.

Step 1
The first part of this is actually writing down all the amazing, wonderful ambitions you have for various parts of your life. This is the first part of making them real. It may take a couple of days to do this. The end of a holiday is an excellent time to do this; the chances are you will feel relaxed, positive and more open to change. Then choose a quiet place to do this by yourself. Get some blank paper or open a new file on your computer. Then choose a page for each of the following areas: Career, Relationships, Money, Spirituality/Meaning, Health, Personal or whatever areas you want to create goals in. Write the heading at the top of each page. Then close your eyes and fantasise about what you really really want in each of these areas of your life. Write them in a series of bullet points. Leave the “yeah, buts” at the door. There will be time to look at them later! Then just write and write about what your ideals/fantasies would be under each of these areas. For example, under career you want to be earning 150,000 a year, running your own business, being a manager. Under personal goals, you could have that you want to visit Egypt. Do not censor yourself.

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We are frequently told about how we should ignore fear and go for what we want and to some extent that’s really true. However, I think fear (like ice-cream) has more than one flavor and some fears can actually help us. There are times when fear is appropriate…like when we are faced with physical danger or someone is threatening one of our nearest and dearest. I like to distinguish between four types of fear.

Raw, visceral fear: This is the fear we experience if a threat to our own lives or the lives of our loved ones is imminent. I believe most of us in the Western world will rarely experience this, except perhaps in a car crash. Our instincts bring us through this one.

Irrelevant fear: For example, I am afraid of jumping out of a helicopter or going skydiving. However I do not have the slightest desire to do either of those things so the fear does not impinge on me. To be honest, this is one fear I certainly wouldn’t be bothered trying to overcome!

Limiting fear: When most personal development experts talk about fear, this is the one they talk about…the fear that stops us doing the things that will help us bloom and grow…going for that interview, asking that man/woman out on a date, public speaking. We know it’s a limiting fear because while it feels visceral we also feel excited and wistful about the action. People experiencing this sort of fear say stuff like “I’d love to do X, Y or X but…” and feel envious of those who do embark on those tasks. Here are some ways to get around this fear…

• Get out of your head: Talk to some supportive people about it. Speak honestly about your fears…get the fear out of your head. If you do not have some people like this in your life…sit down and write what is in your head until it begins to repeat itself.

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So, you have got the job that everyone told you would be great. You are earning good money but there’s only one problem. You are not happy anymore. You want to do something else, but you realize that you have no idea what that “something” is. This article gives you clear simple steps to begin moving towards the job you were born to do! You can engage in the process by yourself but it’s probably more fun to do it with a friend or coach.

Identify What You Like and Dislike About the Jobs You Have Been In
The first step is to take some time out to discover what you have really enjoyed (and hated) in the jobs you have held so far. Give each job a heading and write down what you really enjoyed (if anything!) about each position and what you really did not like. If you have not held any positions you liked, identify what you really enjoy doing in your life. Come on, there must be something!

Design Your Ideal Job
Once you have identified what you really like doing, the next step is to write out a profile of your ideal job. Give yourself time to think about it. Use the following questions as prompters when you are doing this. Leave the “Yeah, buts” out for a while.

• What would you do if money was no object?
• What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
• Have you ever seen somebody do a job and say to yourself you’d love that job. If so, what was it?
• What did you really enjoy doing when you were a child?
• What TV programmes did you find inspirational? What in particular appealed to you about them?

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Here are some tips to help you stay on track with your food during the summer:

1. Cut yourself some…slack: Eating that extra bit of Ben & Jerry probably will not kill you (unless of course you are eating a piece of the original Ben & Jerry…in which case you have a whole different set of problems).
2. Face the feeling not the fridge: note your feelings when you eat emotionally (e.g., you eat in response to an emotion rather than physical hunger). Work on staying with the feeling rather than heading to the fridge…you won’t die.
3. Regular exercise: Exercise is one of those things that once you get used to…you will not be without. You feel good afterwards and it has the delightful side-effect of burning calories. Also bring your problems on a walk and notice how they have shrunk by the time you get home.
4. Does your weight give you permission to wait? Women often say “oh, I will leave the job/husband/country” when I lose weight. I hate to tell you but that’s just an excuse. Oprah Winfrey and Dawn French are both fat…and I don’t see them waiting around for permission to do the things that inspire and enthuse them. Go ahead, do the things that you love and give you joy…you may find that your weight begins to disappear as you begin to love your life.

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Do you work in a pressurized environment? Do you feel as though there are never enough hours in the day? Do you feel as though you make bad choices and decisions because you are under stress? If so, you are not on your own. According to a report by Robert Murphy of Farrell Grant Sparks , 82% of respondents felt they had to work very hard and 38% felt they never had enough time to get everything done. A quarter of workers report that they always or frequently find their work stressful and that it impacts on their home life.

So what could be done to eliminate your stress? One thing that strikes me about a lot of the stuff written on stress is that it focuses on what your employer should do – that could mean you are waiting for a very long time…they are probably too stressed themselves! So let’s look at what YOU can do to eliminate your stress.

1. One thing Now: Do one thing at a time and give it your full present attention. Have you ever noticed how stressed out you can get thinking about all the other things you have to do instead of giving the task in front of you your full attention?
2. Remind yourself: Create a poster with “What’s important NOW?” on it and place it somewhere as a constant reminder to focus on ONE thing NOW.
3. Get a daily overview: One client of mine had a projects spreadsheet which he reviewed daily to see what needed to get done. This allowed him to get an overview of his work and also made it easier for him to say NO when he was asked to take on extra work. It also stopped him getting sucked into doing other people’s jobs.
4. Breathe and break: Recognise the physical symptoms of when you are going into overwhelm. Take a break and breathe deeply.

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First of all, I am not going to begin this article by telling you about how important it is to eat properly, exercise regularly and to look after yourself. You know all that stuff already, don’t you? No, what I am going to give you are five things you can do to handle your stress,

Could I suggest first of all, that you practise these when you are NOT stressed? After all, the time to learn any new skill is BEFORE you need it, not WHEN you need it.

Be Here Now
I reckon that a major part of stress comes from the “what if” tape that plays every time we come across something that exceeds our perceived capacity. “What if I can’t handle this?” “What if I screw this up, I’ll lose my job?” Imagine yourself turning down the volume on the tape. Instead ask yourself…what is the one thing I have to do RIGHT NOW? Do it and forget about the rest. Repeat as necessary. Focus on doing this one thing as well as possible.

What Part of “No” Don’t You Understand?
There are times when you just have to say “No”. Begin today by saying No to small requests – things you do find it easy to say NO to. If you find it hard to say “No”, say “I’ll get back to you”. This will give you breathing space to decide if you can easily accommodate the other person. Practise this skill when you are NOT under pressure…

If your boss asks you to do something extra, ask him/her what other tasks will have to be left undone because you can’t do everything. You are not Superman/woman. (Really, you are not…haven’t you checked lately? And remember, even Superman wasn’t super all the time!)

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Life Story

Winifred Holtby was born in the latter part of the 19th century to a Yorkshire family. Her mother was the first woman county councilor of her area and a formidable figure. Winifred worked as a nurse in the First World War and then read History at Oxford. In the course of that study, she met Vera Brittain, and they established a strong deep friendship that lasted until Winifred died at the age of 37. After Oxford, they went to London to become writers and supported themselves by a mixture of teaching and journalism. The friendship was maintained throughout Vera’s marriage and Winifred’s travels. Winifred died at the age of 37 of Bright’s disease.

Why Do I Find Holtby Inspirational?

Winifred’s life embodied many of the contradictions and challenges faced by the modern woman. She was constantly drawn into her family’s struggles and as a single woman found herself “dumped” on a lot. Yet at the same time her strong creative side worked to write and create novels that are still being published (South Riding is a Virago Modern Classic) today. These novels are characterized by a wise compassionate view of humanity that seem to reflect the spirit of the woman herself During most of her life, she experienced the struggle of reconciling the creative, reformer and duty-driven side of her personalities of her life. At the end of her life she felt that she had reconciled these different dimensions through her art. She also worked tirelessly for the oppressed Africans of South Africa. Throughout this, she retained a sweetness, humor and wisdom that touched and inspired everyone she met. She was single but yet derived an immense happiness from the joys of her friends’ marriages and children.

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Having to fire an employee is one of the most difficult and traumatic decisions that a business owner can make. Letting an employee go is hard not only on the employee, but also on the employer, and the other employees in your company. It is a decision that should never be undertaken lightly. Common reasons for firing an employee include: 

• Performance-related issues
• Poor personality fit or attitude fit with company
• Attendance issues
• Violating company policies
• Lack of work
• Company reorganization

We’ve put together some quick tips on the do’s and don’ts of terminating an employee. 
 
What to Do:

1. Make the firing decision carefully, but once made, act quickly – Firing an employee is one of the most difficult decisions an employer can make, regardless of the reason for the termination. Make sure the decision is well-reasoned and thought out, and then if the decision is made to terminate, act quickly so that it does not continue to negatively affect you or other employees.
2. If firing due to performance-related reasons, ensure that multiple meetings have been held with the employee prior to making the firing decision to address and correct the performance issue.
3. Be respectful and discreet when having the termination meeting. The meeting should preserve the dignity of the employee.
4. Ensure that your severance or notice arrangements meet legal requirements. Consult an employment lawyer if necessary.
5. Ensure that you have a written termination letter and release which documents the terms and conditions of the termination.
        

What Not to Do:

1. Don’t get personal.

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