Successful Blog

First Year Priorities for Entrepreneurs #2

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I recently had the opportunity to review a book for entrepreneurs that had some great advice, a list of seven priorities for the critical first year of business. The more I thought about this list, the more important that it seemed to me. So I have decided to create a series of posts elaborating on this theme. While “Young Guns“, by Robert Tuchman, is targeted to a just-out-of-college-and-wondering-what-to-do market, I believe that these priorities apply to anyone starting a new venture.

2. Take daily action on your business plan

What separates successful entrepreneurs from floundering entrepreneurs? A daily commitment to fulfilling the benchmarks, both short- and long-term, you have set for your company. Every day, you have to be willing to put the time in and do what needs to be done to move your business forward, in a measurable way. For some people, this means making 10 sales calls a day, no matter what. For others, it means conducting a daily status meeting and troubleshooting with your team.

What, you don’t have a business plan? That is okay, get a piece of paper and write down the answers to these questions:

  1. How would you describe the people that your business will serve, either with a product or service?
  2. Where will your company be at this time next year? In five years?
  3. What is your primary goal for your business to accomplish in the next six months?
  4. List three smaller, more specific, goals that you need to accomplish in 30-, 60-, and 90 days to achieve the six-month goal.
  5. Do the same for your one-year goal.

There, now you have a business plan. This piece of paper should be handy at all times, and you should be referring to it frequently. I also recommend that you put reminders in your calendar for one week before the due dates of your “smaller, more specific” goals. Now, about that daily action. “I just created 6 short term goals, what is there to do every day?“, you might ask. Well, each of those 6 smaller goals should be a project in itself – a group of actions & tasks that make up the sequence of activities that accomplish the goal. A project called “Optimize Keywords for Website” is a good short term project, but “Review Analytics and Referral Logs” (for example) is not  very specific. A better set of actions and tasks would be something like this:

  • Review analytics – collect keywords from search results, measure frequency of keywords, look for unusual uses; Review referral logs for inbound links, visit those sites and leave comments/join in the discussion

You will find that by incorporating daily, tactical actions your strategic goals will start to move closer to actualization.

7 First Year Priorities for Entrepreneurs

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I recently had the opportunity to review a book for entrepreneurs that had some great advice, a list of seven priorities for the critical first year of business. The more I thought about this list, the more important that it seemed to me. So I have decided to create a series of posts elaborating on this theme. While “Young Guns” is targeted to a just-out-of-college-and-wondering-what-to-do market, I believe that these priorities apply to anyone starting a new venture.

In the book Robert Tuchman writes:

1. Build a culture of action and enthusiasm – During the first year, you will face a lot of questions about your experience.The best – and probably only – way to overcome them is to impress your clients with your vigor and dynamism. If you want to be perceived as youthful, forward-thinking, and results-oriented, be proactive! Reward your people for taking the initiative. You’ll have a huge competitive advantage over established companies. Many cliets will pay, and even take a bit of a risk, to get young, energetic minds on their side.

Indeed. In fact, you don’t have to be young, just have that “youthful” mind-set and a good grasp of the new tools and tactics of business and marketing. If you are here reading this you are probably involved with the “Social Media Scene” and, no matter what your age, you have something to teach older companies – by way of eating their lunch.

Action and Enthusiasm Can Be Contagious

action-260Cultivating and maintaining a pro-active and empowered team in your business have the potential to take your business over and above your competitors, especially those that have been around for a while and may have slipped into some bad habits. A personal example: When I used to work for a Marriott hotel we were encouraged to take care of our guests in every way. One of our guiding principles was (I am paraphrasing here), “If you encounter a guest with a problem you own that problem until the guest is satisfied.”

In theory, this meant that the employee who discovered/encountered the problem was in charge of solving it to the guest’s satisfaction. In practice this meant that our staff went out of their way to make sure that guests didn’t have problems, and if they did every employee knew how far they could go to fix it, and when they would need to reach out for help. In any case, I saw many front-line employees handling guest issues that may not have been entirely within their job description, either by themselves or with the help of the staff members who were responsible for that area of service. I believe that this policy was largely responsble for the high level of morale and pride that the staff had in their jobs and workplace – and the Triple A 4-diamond rating the hotel received.

What are you doing to cultivate a culture of action and enthusiasm in your business? Please share in the comments.
(You can read the review and enter a contest to win an autographed copy of the book at this link Book Review: Young Guns by Robert Tuchman.)

Book Launch from the Middle Zone!

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celebrateYeehaw! Hey, ya’ll, come celebrate with me, won’t you?
Why are we celebrating, you ask?
OK, since you ask, I’ll tell ya! July 15, 2009 is a banner day for little ol’ me because it’s the official launch of my very first book from Middle Zone Publishing (sound of crowd cheering enthusiastically)!
Yep; writing a book wasn’t even a glimmer in my eye way back when I first started blogging – and by an amazing series of events, it’s actually come to pass! In fact, being a writer is something I’ve wanted to do ever since I discovered my grandmother’s attic nearly 50 years ago.
I want to take a moment and thank my dear friend Liz Strauss for kick-startin’ the whole process some years ago when she accused me of bein’ a “writer”, of all things! I mean, who knew? Plus, I want to also thank all of YOU – Terry Starbucker and the whole SOBCon gang of desperados – you all had a hand in helping shape me into the writer I am today.
hat-tip-thumbAnyhoo – now that I’ve made the further move from writer to “author”, well, all I can say is:
Thanks, y’all, from the bottom of my Texas heart, and a big ol’ tip o’ the hat to ya! (Oh, and p.s.- Please buy the book! Just sayin’;-)
Robert Hruzek writes at Middle Zone Musings
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Celebrate the New Beginning | 2009, by rAmmoRRison
A Hat Tip To Ya! by Robert Hruzek
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Attracting Knowledge Workers to Real-Life Communities

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Charlie Grantham and Jim Ware, writing at The Future of Work
, ask:

What can you do to help your community become a net attractor of knowledge worker talent?

We have synthesized our ideas and Gardner’s into a few simple questions you can use in community development workshops. Please bear in mind that this list is research in progress and doesn’t yet exist as a formal diagnostic instrument; but we believe it gives us a good basis for working with serious community leaders to start the conversation.

1. Do the people in our community share a similar purpose for living here?
2. Is our community highly diverse in its cultural and ethnic makeup? Do we practice an openness that allows all of us to question all of our assumptions?
3. Is teamwork among our community members very important and valued?
4. Are people in our community recognized publicly for their contributions?
5. Does everyone in our community communicate well with each other?
6. Does our community have a distinct and unique identity? Is there local pride in what we do and represent?
7. Is our community connected economically and politically with others in our region? Do we play an active leadership role in developing the region politically, economically, and environmentally?
8. Do we welcome new members to our community, even when they come from different backgrounds and have different lifestyles?
9. Do we believe in the “equal rights” of all our residents to transportation, education, clean air, and public spaces?
10. How easily does our community resolve conflicts among our members?
11. Do our residents invest time and energy to develop the community? To improve our schools? To ensure a sustainable environment?
12. Do we have adequate resources in our community to help it thrive?
13. Are we constantly seeking to “push the envelope” and striving to become a better, more interesting place?
14. Do we support and encourage innovation in both our public and our commercial enterprises?

That’s it. Short and sweet. The world changes, and your community changes or dies. Give this quick-check diagnostic a try. Go out into your community and ask people these simple questions (and ask yourself, too). You may be surprised at the answers—or you may decide to rent a moving van the next day.

Read the whole thing, and participate in the discussion here.

Tips for Web Workers

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Meryl Evans at Web Worker Daily has assembled a collection of tips on the Minimum Specs for a Successful Web Worker Machine. I am honored to have one of my own tips included!

Web working is not for everybody. Those who do it tend to have traits and personalities that fit the web working life. For others, it means making sacrifices they don’t want to make. “I don’t really understand why people would like to work at home. It’s like reducing to the minimum (almost nothing) the barrier between professional and private life,” comments Chris on Georgina’s recent post, “How To Ask the Boss If You Can Work Remotely.”

In interviewing people in web working careers, one fact is clear: Many of us share similar specs beyond motivation and organization. I asked some web working colleagues what it takes to make a successful web worker. Do you have the right components to become a fine-tuned web worker machine?

Read the article “Minimum Specs for a Successful Web Worker Machine” for the rest of the suggestions.

It’s Time to Prepare for SOBCon 2010!

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The SOBCon2010 “Reserve Now, Pay Later” Program | TerryStarbucker.com

We have a theme for 2010 – “Where the Virtual Meets the Concrete“.

Or as Terry Starbucker likes to call it – “The Return of the Digiloggers, Part 2“

But there’s a catch.

We can only accommodate 150 people, max.

This is a gathering where size does matter, and we really want to keep the numbers at a level where we maximize the value of the learning and interactions.

So that’s why we’ve already opened up registration, so those who would like to get a head start on reserving a seat to this event can do so, right now.

Because I know you don’t want to miss it.

But we also know that plucking down cash so far in advance is a lot to ask.

Therefore, we are announcing the “Reserve Now, Pay Later” program. It’s a “three-fer”:

1. You get a seat early, and rest easy – your there
2. You get a deeply discounted rate – $300 off the “at the door” price
3. You only have to put down a $95 deposit now – and just pay the rest by December 31, 2009

Here’s what you need to do:

* Go to the SOBCon2010 Registration site
* Click “Enter Discount Code“
* Put in this code: paylater10, then click “apply discount“
* Buy your tickets at $95
* Pay the remaining $500 per ticket to us by 12/31/09 to keep your seats (I”ll let you know how to do that)

To take advantage of this program you need to act quickly – the $595 rate, and thus this program, expires on July 3, 2009