Successful Blog

7:00 – Becky McCray on Successful Entrepreneurship

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The theme of SOBCon09 is the ROI of Relationships. Relationships with customers, employees, colleagues, coworkers, builders, contractors, developers, and CUSTOMERS — in the form of readers, buyers, clients, and others — are the success of any business.

How do we form the best relationships; bring our best to them; build environments that nurture them; and measure our success?

Join the Comment Box Conference. Ask questions. Discuss answers. Meet people in the comment box. Find out.

Becky McCray

Becky McCray is a small town entrepreneur with boatload of experience online and off. Becky has worked as an antiques dealer, city administrator, nonprofit executive and newspaper reporter. Listen to her talk small business, and you’ll know she brought something to and took some from every career step and life step she’s made.

Currently, Becky is the co-owner of a small town retail liquor store and small cattle ranch. As a consultant, she helps small businesses to maintain their web presence and helps city governments with project management and grant writing.

Today Becky’s focus is

Successful Entrepreneurship

  • Redefining failure and learning from mistakes.
  • Positioning yourself as an expert.
  • Learning to brag on your successes.

Ask me anything about going into business. Small towns – they’re where it’s at!

Becky McCray is a small town entrepreneur. She writes Small Biz Survival about small business and rural issues, based on her own successes and failures. She is the co-owner of a small town retail liquor store and small cattle ranch, and is a consultant to her surrounding small town governments.
Follow @BeckyMcCray at Twitter.

Anita Roddick's "The Body Shop" Was Built on Relationships

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The theme of SOBCon09 is the ROI of Relationships. To underscore the importance of relationships in business and to have a chance to make and celebrate a few while we’re doing that, I’ve opened up this series by successful and outstanding bloggers like you.

Dame Anita Roddick, Business As Unusual
by Gerald Neo

“The old views of business as a jungle where only the vicious survive will, I hope, soon be giving way to a new view of business as a community where only the responsible will lead. If yours values are heralded and if your heart is in the right place, if your feeling are recognized and your spirit at play, I believe there will be footprints out there for all of us.” –Anita Roddick — Business As Unusual

The late a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Roddick”>Dame Anita Roddick (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Roddick) is one of those few business person whom I always admired. She had built a business empire The Body Shop not just on making profit out of producing cosmetic products but also an ambassador for fair trade, environmental awareness, animal protection and respect for human rights.

Anita had always being known for her campaigning work on social and environmental causes. And through campaigning, she had caused multi-national companies like Shell and government to take remedial action on the things which they have done wrong.

In one of her books “Business As Unusual”, she mentioned the following reasons as how The Body shop maintains their identity in a business environment that usually alienates humanity in every way.

  • We didn’t know how to run a conventional business. We had never read a book on economic theory and had never even heard of Milton Friedman.
  • We valued and respected labour as fuzzy and cuddly, nerdy as that sounds. We understood that life was no more complicated than love and work.
  • We had no money. Every original was based on reusing everything, refilling and recycling we could.
  • We were naïve. We didn’t know you could tell lies. That grace has stayed with us to this day.
  • We loved change. We believed everything was subject to change.
  • We had a secret ingredient called euphoria. We shared an extraordinary level of optimism, and we still do.

Finally – and this was the main ingredient – we couldn’t take a moisturizer seriously!

Anita had built every business relationship on those reasons. And those reasons had also become the foundation for the values, which every employee of The Body Shop used to guide them as they worked with each other.

In the ever-changing business world, companies can only be successful if the people running it are true to their values. And usually how are they being judged on that? It’s not based on their bottom line but how they maintain their business relationship with everyone from business partners, customer, vendors and even their employees.

Gerald Neo can be found at geraldheralds where he
writes about anything from leadership managment and organizational
managment to online marketing and social media.
His twitter name is @gneo

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

What Sheila Scarborough Said … About Getting Paid

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A community isn’t built or befriended,
it’s connected by offering and accepting.
Community is affinity, identity, and kinship
that make room for ideas, thoughts, and solutions.
Wherever a community gathers, we aspire and inspire each other intentionally . . . And our words shine with authenticity.

Asking for What We’re Worth

When we take on the role and reins of a professional, not all of the skills come at the same time. Often we’re great the work, but not so good at asking to be paid what the work is worth. How do folks figure that out? It comes from experience and trust in our own value.

Here’s what Sheila said . . .

For one thing, people are rather itchy about giving specific amounts when discussing payment and salary, so we go around not knowing that there are some people out there getting paid pretty good money to do what we’re doing.

Once I finally figured out that .50-$1/word was more than reasonable and even low-end for most print pubs, I started doing the math for my online work, which is just writing, after all.

Holy cow, was I giving away the farm! That led me to turn down a few blogging jobs that sounded nice but just were not paying enough for my considerable efforts.

So, let’s be more frank about money so we know what is “standard” and reasonable to ask for.

Then, let’s realize how increasingly valuable our online savvy is to businesses that want to move online. Knowledge that we think “everyone knows” is in fact gold bullion to companies who have just found Web 2.0. I’m not saying overcharge “because they can afford it,” but we should really appreciate our unique skillsets.

The teacher/consultant role and the need to pay such folks seems to be understood, so I plan to lean more in that direction, and try to make a decent living teaching what I know.

Sheila Scarborough from a comment on December 29, 2007

A successful and outstanding blogger said that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

5 Doorways to the Power of Social Networks

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Are You Networking More and Enjoying It Less?

relationships button

Anyone in social media can tell you the power of networking for individuals and businesses. Social networks can fuel personal growth and business development.

From Linkedin and Facebook to Twitter and Ning, the quality social networks that we build can guide us, protect us, and help us stay our course … if we let them know how.

We have the networks already or already started. Now we need to engage in open, equal, and active relationships that move us all toward success.

5 Doorways to the Power of Social Networks

One bane of small and solo business is the isolation that can be part of our business life. We can hire lawyers and accountants, trainers and guides, marketers and sales folks … well, maybe not all at one time. Even if we can outsource in every direction, we need to know that what folks are suggesting is right.

We’re building communities and networks that have the experience and expertise we need. The key is to get our networks working with us. Here are 5 ways to do just that.

  • Listen for doorways being opened.
    Rather than trying to pry new doors open, find the doors that people are holding open for you. Social media folks and great networkers are always opening doors. We ask what they need or what they they’re working on. Sometimes it’s a simple, “How’s business?” Sometimes it’s a more direct, “What can I do for you?” Once I started listening for open doors, I realized folks were opening doors for me every day.
  • Value compliments.
    Compliments are a way that people reach out in good faith. Accepting a compliment elevates you and your relationship with the person who gave it. You show that you value the giver and the information. Compliments open doorways to find out what people perceive as your strengths. Think about them dispassionately. Be sure you know what a compliment means. Follow up later to ask if you don’t.
  • Talk about what you’re doing.
    Listen first, but let people know your quest. Open a doorway to let people know what you’re doing, especially what you’re trying for the first time. This week I’ve told everyone about my goal for 2009 — to find ways to get people working again. I’m glad and grateful that Gail jumped in with both feet to help. I might never have know that she had something similar on her mind.
  • Ask for help.
    Be a learner not a hunter. Open multiple doorways for people to let people see you learn. Most people rise to an occasion to help. Invite your network to be teachers, removed from the role of potential clients. When we start with “Would you help? My ideal client would look a lot like you, would you have five minutes to offer me advice?”
  • Turn interest into a way to invest.
    When someone likes your work, offer a doorway to a partnership. Sit on the same side of the table and enlist that client or friend in your quest. Too often we see ourselves as “less.” Yet, that person has something to teach us and we have something to offer in return. Ask about his or her goals and find how they align with yours. Use what you learn to follow Steve Farber’s advice. “Do what you love in service to the people who love what you do.”

Doorways connect.

We’ve invested in the network of people we call friends and colleagues — the people we respect and are happy to help. Why wouldn’t we offer them doorways to do the same?

How do you open doorways to enlist the power of your network? How else might we engage them in open, equal, and active relationships so that our barns and bridges are well built and successful?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you think Liz can help you find focus or direction, check out the Work with Liz!!

Related
6 Ways to Build Your Own Personal Developmental Network
Self-Promotion as Easy as Knowing What You Do
Money Strategy, a Dead Horse, and Folks
Are You a Freelancer or a Solo Entrepreneur? Use Guy Kawasaki’s Mantra as He Meant

What’s Your Best Advice on Hitches, Glitches, and People Who Don’t Show Up?

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(Updated in 2020)

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Even Big Hairy Audacious Goals Get Stuck

What makes me think that everyone has been here?

We get an idea. The concept seems whole, simple, brilliant. We can’t wait to start. So we set a dream on the horizon, and we go for it. Enthusiasm, drive, and determination propel us.

We set a plan.
We get to work.
We talk about what we’re doing.
Things are rolling
until …
a hitch, a glitch, someone doesn’t show up.
Now what?

Gotta Get a Big Hairy Audacious Goal

Putting a dream on the horizon and moving toward it is a start, but it isn’t quite enough. We need to make it a Big Hairy Audacious Goal.
Suzie Cheel and Glenda Watson Hyatt live by their Big Hairy Audacious Goals. Lots of folks believe in BHAGs. Tim O’Reilly and Rosa Say blogged about their value. Geoff Livingston wasn’t shy about explaining what he why he thinks big hairy audacious goals make things happen.

When they name the BHAG, marching orders crystallize. It’s messy and non-linear, but voracious. Just the ticket for a little magic. The Buzz Bin

I agree. Big hairy audacious goals are messy and nonlinear. The very “big, hairy” name makes it clear that they’re likely to offer deadends, detours, and doers who don’t do what they said they would. Those big hairy interruptions are when too much thinking can get us stuck.

It’s the thinking … questioning?
Is it us?
Is the goal too big and too hairy?
Are we up to the struggle?
That’s the danger. The goal didn’t change, nor did it’s value. What changes is our resolve. Enthusiasm, drive, and determination fade into black and we’re left with voices saying we might have misjudged.

Hitches, Glitches, and People Who Don’t Show Up

I said I’d tell you about the barns and bridges project as things moved forward. It’s been a week since then.

Here’s what’s going on.

  • Hitches: People are asking how to help and I don’t have a system for answering them.
  • Glitches: Bad code stole time from the project and other work needs to get done.
  • People who don’t show up: My designer has gone into the code cave. I think I need to find a new one.
  • What’s on track: conversations with possible sponsors are moving forward, I’ve got help forming the message and the documentation they’ll need to see the project clearly and know their part.

As my friend, Lorelle, often tells me, “You’d be brilliant for other folks, now’s the time to be brilliant for yourself.” With that in mind, I’m offering these plans for now.

The next few days, my free time will be about: keeping the sponsor conversation alive; planning out how to get 2 or 3 key volunteers committed to help manage the project for 2-3 hours a week; start the quest for a new designer; finish the details left open by my computer mess.

Action has always been my best response to making sure a big goal doesn’t get stuck. That’s my advice for me. What’s yours?

Here’s the keys. I hand it over to you …

What’s your best advice about hitches, glitches, and people who don’t show up? What action steps should come next to keep this Big Hairy Audacious Goal of Raising Barns and Building Bridges moving forward? What good things have you been doing that we don’t know about?

Looking forward to what you write in the comment box.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related:
Why Play the Game, If We Aren’t Playing for Keeps?

What Possible Benefit Could Anyone Get from a Blog?

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Starting a Conversation Offline

The Living Web

This spring I’ve made it a mission to reconnect with the people doing business outside the Internet. They represent most of the people on this blue planet. It only makes sense that to grow my business, most of my customers will come from that group. I want to understand how they view the Internet. So I started finding gatherings where I could have conversations and learn things. I went looking for patterns and what they seem to reveal.

What I see is a huge gap.

You’ve probably seen it too.

Many business people I met seem to see the Internet as interactive TV. They imagine it works something like a television news room. The virtual connectedness and the personal / business relationships don’t come through. What they describe is an endeavor separate, possibly equal, but unrelated to what they do.

They still hear the word blog and the look in their eyes gets a little glassy. So I’m off to BlogWorld to give a presentation. Sure hope to meet you there, but be prepared, I’m going to be asking . . .

How do you tell people of the benefits of blogging?

Sure am interested in your answer.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!