Colonel Harland Sanders has one of the most recognisable faces in the world today, but many people would not actually know it if they saw it. This is because it has long been the face of KFC, or Kentucky Fried Chicken to give the company its full name. The red and white KFC icon features the face of the entrepreneur that made it the global force it is today. Much can be learned from Sanders and his example is certainly one that solicits respect from those that have effectively followed in his footsteps.

The Child Cook

Colonel Harland Sanders was born in Henryville, Indiana on September 9, 1890 into a working class family. His parents worked hard, but Sanders virtually had to bring himself up from the age of six when his father died suddenly. The entrepreneur helped around the house because his mother was forced to work to support the family as a result of his father’s absence. He learned how to cook at an early age and found that he enjoyed it. However, he was forced to stop cooking for others for a while when he was old enough to go out to work himself.

Sanders dropped out of the seventh grade, never to return to school because his education was perceived as less important than supporting the family. Between then and 1918, the entrepreneur went from job to job earning whatever money he could to help out at home. Those jobs included a farmer, a steamboat driver, an insurance salesman and a railroad fireman. In 1918 he enlisted in the United States Army and was stationed in Cuba. However, none of the career paths he had begun to journey along appealed to him. Instead, the entrepreneur decided to go back to his roots and cook.

The Start Of KFC

In 1930, Sanders took over the ownership of a service station in Corbin, Kentucky. It was extremely small and did not even have a dining section but the entrepreneur resolved to serve food nevertheless.

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Dave Thomas has one of the most recognizable faces in America, despite the fact that he died on January 8, 2002. This is largely because he appeared in over 800 commercials between 1989 and his death to advertise his entrepreneurial venture, Wendy’s. Dave Thomas was a born entrepreneur and exhibited the signs of that from an early age, despite the fact that he ended up getting fired from his first job in the food industry. As such, he is an example of why you should never give up your dream.

An Early Start

David Thomas was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey on July 2, 1932. However, he was never to know his real parents. He was adopted by Rex and Auleva Thomas and raised as their own. He did have a happy childhood and was taught the core values of respect, hard work and treating others as you would want to be treated yourself. Whether his parents knew it or not at that time, Dave Thomas was to be an important and esteemed entrepreneur that lived and worked by those very values, and it was those values that made him as successful as he was.

Dave Thomas has little in the way of an education because he did not graduate high school until much later on in life. He was working from the age of 12 in his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. The entrepreneur’s first job was actually at a restaurant but did not last for long because he was fired after just a few weeks. Promising himself that he would never lose another job, the entrepreneur went on to another restaurant when his family moved to Indiana and then dropped out when they planned to move again to take care of himself from then on. At the time, he was just 15 years of age.

The Army And Beyond

As he was old enough to be drafted at the time of the Korean War, Thomas decided to go into the US Army on his own terms and chose to join the Cooks And Baker’s School at Fort Benning.

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Going to work first thing in a morning is never the same unless you stop for a cup of coffee on your way into the office, and the most common outlet to stop to get your caffeine hit is probably Starbucks. Having visited at least one of the world’s favorite coffee shops, you may be surprised to find out that Starbucks was the brainchild of one man. That man is Howard Schultz. The entrepreneur started out in Seattle in 1982 and is today worth $1.1 billion. It has certainly been a long journey for him and one that budding entrepreneurs can learn from.

The Boy From The Projects

Howard Schultz was born on July 19, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York. He was actually born into the projects and so his family had no money when the entrepreneur was growing up. His parents often struggled to make ends meet and so his childhood can only be described as uneventful. The struggles the entrepreneur saw his family go through made Schultz determined to make a better life for himself any way he could, which is why he worked so hard to earn a football scholarship to Northern Michigan University.

Although not an absolute academic, Schultz did well enough to graduate from Northern Michigan University with a degree in Communications in 1975. However, he worked a series of jobs in the years immediately after graduation to ease the burden on his family. Although the money was nice to have and was a great help, the entrepreneur was not happy with his lot. He wanted to be successful above all else, and it was this overriding ambition that took him directly to Starbucks in 1982.

The Beginning Of A New Era

Although Starbucks was already a business in Seattle when he joined in 1982, it was far from the global power that it is now.

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When was the last time you were asked to prepare an East-West Seafood Bisque with Gosling’s Aioli & Shrimp-Garlic Chive Dumpling* ? I don’t think I ever have been. But if I were to be asked to, I’d invest the time necessary - but no more - to figure out how to do it, so I could do it right. Why “no more?” Because it’s unlikely that I’d ever be asked to prepare that dish again. On the other hand, I am a master of the burger, the hot dog, the chicken, the tuna fish sandwich, and the turkey on rye. Why? Because they comprise the basic staples of my diet. I make them all the time. I could make them with my eyes closed. I could make them in my sleep (neither of which I will ever try, mind you). I make them so often that doing so has become second nature. I don’t even have to think to do it - I just do it.

In sales - or any profession, for that matter - we can perform a lot better, and be more successful, if we just learn to master - and consistently do - the basics. The things we do - or should be doing - every single time we’re involved with a prospect. Asking questions instead of pitching solutions.  Soliciting feedback from prospects. Listening twice as much as we speak. Asking for the order when the moment presents itself.  With all the blogging, podcasting, seminars, webinars, and newsletters bombarding us with offers such as “6 New Ways to Grow your Sales”, and “Discover Five Keys to Sales Success”, it’s easy to lose focus, and stop implementing the basics. Don’t let yourself get caught in that trap.

Now, lest I be labeled a hypocrite (after all, not all of these newsletters focus on the basics, and I myself conduct webinars), I am by no means suggesting not to seek to continuously improve yourself by learning new things; on the contrary, such learning is the only way to grow.

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Do you ever shake your head and wonder why so many prospects fail to pull the trigger when you’ve clearly made a compelling case for them to do so? To those of us in Sales, it makes no sense - it’s clear as day that they should. But for some reason we can’t fathom, it often doesn’t appear to be so clear to our prospects. Why is this? And what can we do about it?

When it comes to making a major purchase, buyers’ decisions are influenced by numerous factors, many of which are not obvious.  Key among these factors are the prospect’s

1. Personal Agenda (what’s in it for me?) - This is driven more by emotion than logic.
2. Dominant Buying Value - Am I the kind of person who’s always looking for an opportunity to gain something, or am I the kind of person who’s driven by fear of losing something, and am always looking for ways to play it safe?
3. Motivational Trigger - What’s my hot button? Money? Convenience? Comfort? Security? To what personal desire do you have to appeal in order to get me in your corner?
4. Buying Style - Do I need to feel in control, or do I want and need guidance? Do I need to see all the details, or do details bore and irritate me?  Does I view the transaction as a confrontation, or as a collaboration? Am I a maverick who likes to strike out on my own, or do I prefer consensus and the comfort of the crowd?
5. Concerns and Worries (sometimes expressed, but more often not) - What’s keeping me from making this decision, even though a compelling case has been made that it’s the right one?

Awareness of these factors, together with your skill at determining which are in play, and how, will increase your odds of connecting with each person on the prospect’s buying team, winning them over, and closing the business.

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The world’s oldest form of business partnership is alive and well. In fact it is thriving and growing. It is the business partnership of two people who live together; they are called copreneurs.

Copreneurs make a powerful business team. Their special relationship brings a unique synergy to their company. They also face unique pitfalls. It is not an easy task to critique the work of the one you love. The business relationship can easily consume the personal relationship. And then there is the question of how to divvy up the workload.

A well developed and documented Strategic Action Plan that is used on a daily basis goes a long way to alleviating many challenges facing copreneurs. It provides them with something to point to other than each other!

A Strategic Action Plan is a working document that provides the road map to manage and control the growth of the company. It defines the long term measurable objectives for the company and links them to specific actions to be taken in the next year. It is the glue that keeps the partnership together.

It is always assumed that because copreneurs share a very close relationship they also share the same vision for the company. This is not necessarily true and so the first step in the development of the Strategic Action Plan is to clearly define the company’s Mission Statement. There are two kinds of mission statements. The first is a mission statement full of meaningless platitudes; this is easy to develop and quite useless. A real mission statement tells the reader what the company does, who it serves and what sets it apart from the competition. This type of mission statement is very difficult to write but is an essential foundation for the Strategic Action Plan.

The next step in the planning process ensures that the copreneurs have a common vision of where they want their company to go in the future.

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There are nowhere near as many family businesses around as there used to be. They have given way to larger corporations and companies that seem to have very few ties to the modern family. The majority of those family companies and businesses that still do exist are small businesses and may not necessarily have been established as a family business to begin with. However, if the owner wishes to sell the business to free up time or as a result of old age or a loss of interest, and a family member expresses an interest in buying should that owner sell?

Selling a business to family members can either be a harmonious transition that is completed in the best interests of all parties or an absolute nightmare that is worse than selling to a stranger. Whether this falls into the harmonious or nightmarish categories for you depend on the person you are selling it to, and also whether selling is in your best interests. However, you first need to know how to decide whether or not selling is right for you.

The Right Move?

Before selling a business to family members, you need to think about whether it is the right move for you. The first step in this process is evaluating why you are selling to begin with. If you do genuinely want to reduce your role within the company or retire from it and move on, then selling to a family member could be a smart move. For the first reason, it may be easier to negotiate a regular position within the company than if it was sold to a stranger who may not want you around. Similarly, if it is for the second reason then the business remains in your family and so relatives will continue your legacy.

However, if you are leaving a business for any other reason than your own free will then family members may not be the best people to sell to.

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There are various entrepreneurs that are alive and well in the world at the moment, making their fortunes and enjoying their fantastic lifestyles. However, there are very few that give up their entire business portfolios to dedicate themselves wholly to philanthropic interests. Tom Monaghan most definitely falls into the latter category. Monaghan is an excellent example of a businessman and entrepreneur turned benefactor and can be held up as an example of a dedicated citizen as well, and thus how to avoid the greed that afflicts some after the arrival of success.

It’s A Hard Life

Thomas Stephen Monaghan was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan on March 25, 1937. His father died during his early years of life and so the family struggled as his mother tried to raise him alone. Although she tried her best, she ultimately failed to quell the rebellious streak that Monaghan displayed from an early age. As a result, the entrepreneur ended up in the St Joseph’s Home for Children in Jackson, Michigan under the care of the Felician Sisters of Livonia. They instilled a firm sense of Catholic devotion in him, so much so that he decided to become a priest. At least, that was his chosen career path until he was asked to leave for persistent rule breaking.

Instead, in 1956 the entrepreneur enrolled in the United States Marine Corps by complete mistake. He had planned to enlist in the army but had a good military career until 1959 regardless. Following his honorable discharge, Monaghan attended the University of Michigan to study architecture but decided to invest in a side venture while there. He and his brother bought DomiNick’s, a pizza place in Ypsilanti for $500, although the entrepreneur offered a VW Beetle for his brother’s half a little later on.

Domino’s And Beyond

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