Successful Blog

How-To Find Success: Believing in Yourself!

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Ben Newman

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How-To Find Success: Believing in Yourself!

The world is moving at an ever faster pace, and it can be a challenge just to keep up, let alone get ahead. Where do your dreams fit in when you put everything into keeping a job or running a business? Is success just about the bottom line? What do you do when you have the big house and the fancy cars but your life is still stressful and empty? How do you have meaningful relationships when your success depends on you being in control?

No one makes a conscious choice to wake up one day completely overwhelmed and disconnected from the things that matter most — but, it happens to many of us. Often we don’t even realize we’ve gotten off course until we crash and burn, a spouse leaves, a business fails, an illness strikes, and we’re forced to re-examine our priorities. The good news is, it’s never too late to make a change, and you don’t have to wait for the sky to fall before you make it.

With all the noise about the economy, elections, and what is happening around the world, it is easy to fall into the trap of trying to believe two contradictory points:

a) that everything is beyond your control, and
b) in order to succeed you have to control everything.

The truth is actually the opposite.

a)You always have control over the only thing that matters: yourself. That is to say, you have total control over how you choose to act and what you choose to believe in any given moment, in any given circumstance, and
b) in order to succeed, you have to let go of controlling others and of controlling the outcome.

Five Key Factors for Attaining Belief in Yourself

The place to start is with a belief in yourself and I’ve outlined the Five Key Factors for Attaining Belief in Yourself in my book, “Own YOUR Success”:

  1. Accept the truth. Acknowledging the person you are today is the key to becoming the person you want to be and ultimately, attaining belief in yourself. There is a big difference between failing and not getting the results we want. Instead of seeing failure, see opportunities for growth and change.
  2. Speak the truth. Be honest about your past behaviors and habits. While it may be difficult to acknowledge them, burying those parts of our lives makes us feel like victims, amplifying our fear and pain. Shedding light on the past, by talking with a trusted friend or professional, frees us.
  3. Breathe through the truth. Avoid reacting from a place of pain or anger — no matter how much you believe you are right. Be open to changing your perspective. Treat yourself lovingly. Do not self-destruct.
  4. Process the truth. Give yourself time and space to find your equilibrium. Developing belief in yourself means gaining confidence that will lead to a stronger foundation.
  5. Create a plan based on the truth. Changing entrenched behaviors and mindsets takes time, and sometimes they return. Stay strong. Continue to believe and actively engage in this process. Define how you want to live your life from where you are right now.

If you can master these Five Key Factors for Attaining Belief in Yourself, you will be well on your way to achieving the kind of success you really dream of success that incorporates balance in all areas of your life.

Author’s Bio:
Ben Newman writes and speaks to inspire and motivate people to take actionable steps in their personal and professional lives to achieve the success they dream of. He is the author of “Own YOUR Success.” View his website at http://bennewman.net/ and connect with him on Twitter as @ContinuedFight

Thank you for adding to the conversation! So with you on that, Ben!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Setting Up Your Business for Long-Term Success

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Robert Cordray

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Setting Up Your Business for Long-Term Success

Start-up business owners learn two things very quickly. First, the idea that launches an entrepreneurship is invaluable. The seed of a business, or the initial idea, provides a source of motivation and initial direction.

However, the second notion often comes as an unpleasant discovery. The grand idea by itself is not enough to sustain long-term growth and success. No matter how great the business idea is, many other factors influence success and determine whether a business will flourish or fail.

The key to being successful in business is learning to make good business decisions. While success cannot be guaranteed, you can start your business with attention to a few important areas and increase your chances of achieving your goals.

Avoid the most common missteps entrepreneurs tend to make by following these suggestions:

Have a Business Plan

A business plan is an opportunity for business owners to understand their market, as it relates to their product or service, and map out their capabilities. Compiling a thorough business plan requires a bit of effort, but as it will serve as a guideline for your financial expectations and keep you on track, it is an essential part of any new business.

The business plan will also help you in the key area of setting realistic goals for when you will achieve profitability. Know how much time, effort and capital it will reasonably take to reach your goal of being profitable. Conservatively scaling your expectations to match reality will keep you on track and save you from disappointment if your hopes of becoming an overnight success are not realized.

Balance Your Capital

Having enough capital to launch your business is crucial, but you will want to avoid the mistake of taking on sizable loans at the outset. Use your business plan to ensure you have enough resources to see you through until you achieve profitability.

Understand Your Market

As a new business owner, you need to understand who your customers are. How large is your market? Who are your competitors? You will need to know what alternatives to your business are already available to consumers or if you are creating a new market. This will help you in your decisions on strategy.

Choose a Go-to Market Strategy

Having a focus on one strategy for your business will enable you to market your business effectively. Without a focus, you are likely to flounder, but attempting to pursue multiple strategies at once will also doom you to failure. Understand your business and choose one as your goal.

In general, there are three go-to market strategies that businesses use. The first is a focus on operational excellence. These businesses emphasize efficiency in their processes to lower their costs and provide consistency to a wide range of customers.

Another strategy is to develop customer intimacy by establishing strong relationships and fostering repeat business through customer care.

Third, businesses can seek an advantage through product innovation. This aspect depends upon the creation of a new and desirable product or service and founding a business where there are little to no existing competitors. This may be the most difficult of the three for a new entrepreneur to achieve.

Build an Effective Team

The path to becoming a successful entrepreneur should not be a lonely journey. Many businesses fail because the owner tried to manage too many decisions and responsibilities that could have been delegated to others. Find good support for your business such as those you can trust with general tasks while you focus on your role as an executive.

Seeking advice will be necessary, and finding a reliable source for information and direction may seem intimidating. However, there are several people who specialize in guidance and helping entrepreneurs maintain their focus. Through their services, you can rest assured that your business will profit from your well-directed efforts.

Author’s Bio:

Robert Cordray writes about business, entrepreneurship, and living better at noomii.com. He has acquired over 20 years of entrepreneurship and business consulting. You can find him on Twitter @RobertCordray

Growing Your Business: Four Tips for Female Entrepreneurs

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Ken Myers

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What’s the key to small business success? There are many aspects to creating a successful small business — having a skill that others will pay for is only the first step. With more women than ever before getting involved in entrepreneurship, it’s important to be fully prepared with as much information on small business success as you can get.

Growing Your Business: Four Tips for Female Entrepreneurs

What’s the key to cultivating a lasting small business? Below, you’ll find four tips that other women in small business have used to reach their goals.

1. Connect in the Community

No matter what business you create, there are two major avenues for you to think about: Your “business-to-consumer” strategy and your “business-to-business” strategy. Even if you focus mainly on making sales directly to consumers, you can find great ways to achieve institutional contracts by addressing a need that others may not realize is there. Meet with other local business owners to find ways that you can cooperate for mutual benefit. Consider the needs of nonprofit organizations such as schools and libraries, too.

2. Build Your Expert Credentials

To create an enduring business, it’s essential that you become known as an expert in your field. Showcasing your expertise allows you to find customers more easily and put them at their ease. There are many different ways to do this — you can become active in industry associations and volunteer organizations, for example. Publishing books and articles on your subject is also a road to becoming a recognized expert. Help people get comfortable with your reputation! They will reward your efforts with repeat business.

3. Don’t Neglect the Internet

When you have a steady source of local business, you are at a huge advantage compared to competitors who mainly use the Internet to find their clients. That said, you should never neglect the Internet. Local clients and those who will be visiting your area for a short time will both use Internet search engines to find you. Make sure that your business is listed in “local search” features across the various major search sites; also ensure that your site allows potential customers to contact you, make purchases or set reservations. The longer your site is active, the easier it will be to discover you online.

4. Leverage Local Resources

Women in business can benefit from a large number of local, state and national resources. In addition to major volunteer organizations such as Rotary International, you’ll also find excellent resources at your local chamber of commerce and similar concerns. Don’t forget that, as a female entrepreneur, you can often qualify for grants and other assistance from the federal government and a wide variety of pro-business establishments. It is a good idea to gain some knowledge of grant proposal writing and fundraising!

Remember that a business does not typically turn a substantial profit in its first year. Many small businesses close within five years — and it may take up to three years for a business on a successful trajectory to begin showing a healthy balance sheet. During this time, it is important that you gain as much insight as possible into the aspects of business that support your main operation. Always be on the lookout for ways to expand your marketing efforts using word of mouth and direct contact within your local area.

Author’s Bio:
Ken Myers as an Expert Advisor on multiple household help issues to many Organizations and groups, and is a mentor for other “Mom-preneurs” seeking guidance. He is a regular contributor of “www.gonannies.com/”. You can get in touch with him at k.meyerst20@gmail.com.

What The Wizard of Oz Taught Me About Business Success

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A Guest Post by Amy Derby

As a kid I loved the part of The Wizard of Oz movie where Dorothy’s having the ruby slippers made the guardian of the Emerald City say, “Well that’s a horse of a different color. Come on in!”

The other kids liked the lollipop dance. My mom liked the message that everything Dorothy ever needed had been inside her the whole time. I was fascinated with the ruby slippers, because at five years old I already felt it was important to ponder someday owning that one valuable thing that would make people want to invite me inside their magical world.

Sometimes we allow what we don’t have to define us.

Whether the thing we lack is money or a home or a heart, it’s easy to become so obsessed with what we don’t have that we think getting it will bring us all the happiness in the world. We set out on a path to get there – even if it’s the wrong one — and become determined to reach our goal at any cost. (Sometimes we even have to kill a witch in the process.)


BigStock: Ruby slippers

At 18, I bought a bunch of shiny shoes and entered Corporate America. Someone who promised she was a good witch held the glass doors open for me, and I got sucked in. Once inside I quickly woke up to the fact that I didn’t like what that world was made of. Flying monkeys, screechy munchkins, and green ladies who needed houses dropped on their heads gave me nightmares. I had flashbacks of elementary school, where every time someone asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, all I could visualize was the yellow brick road and the little man pretending to be a big bad wizard shouting “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”

This wasn’t the dream I wanted to live after all.

Someone else’s yellow brick road might look like a promising path, but sometimes it’s just a really long way to get to where you want to go.

That doesn’t mean the path is worthless. I took everything I learned in my scary nightmare land of Corporate America with me to build the business I have today.

Just as I spent hours as a kid glued to the television watching The Wizard of Oz until my mother swore she would give our VCR away to some poor kid in China who didn’t have one, I spent many hours observing the green ladies and flying monkeys of big law firm life. I got to know a lot of different types of folks, and in doing so I made mental notes of everything they had and everything they lacked. I watched the ones who failed and the ones who succeeded — some of them did both — knowing that I wasn’t so fundamentally different from any of them. (After all, they grew up longing for magical shoes too.)

Watching them reinforced a few things The Wizard of Oz taught me:

You’ve gotta have a brain.

Scarecrow: I haven’t got a brain… only straw.
Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven’t got a brain?
Scarecrow: I don’t know… But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don’t they?

You’ve gotta have heart.

Wizard: As for you, my galvanized friend, you want a heart. You don’t know how lucky you are not to have one. Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.
Tinman: But I still want one.

You’ve gotta have courage.

Wizard to Lion: You, my friend, are a victim of disorganized thinking. You are under the unfortunate impression that just because you run away you have no courage; you’re confusing courage with wisdom.

You’ve gotta have a home.

Dorothy: If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.

And sometimes… it helps to have shiny shoes.

Dorothy: Oh, please! Please, sir! I’ve got to see the Wizard! The Good Witch of the North sent me!
Guardian of the Emerald City Gates: Prove it!
Scarecrow: She’s wearing the ruby slippers she gave her.
Guardian of the Emerald City Gates: Why didn’t you say that in the first place? That’s a horse of a different color! Come on in!

Of course, it also helps to know where you’re going and why you want to get there.

It helps to remember that there’s more than one path, and sometimes the best path is the one you pave yourself. Sometimes everything we need really is inside us the whole time. Other times, the stuff we need is only a friend (or a twit) away.

I left the corporate version of Oz in 2004. I’ve been paving my path since, building a business that helps other folks like me succeed — with the help of an awesome network of folks, many of whom I’m happy to call my friends. I can’t say I’m living happily ever after yet, but I’m a lot closer than I was. Meanwhile, I’ve given away most of the shiny shoes I bought, because I don’t really feel like I need them anymore.

What was your favorite book or movie as a kid? What lessons did it teach you that have helped you succeed?

Amy Derby is a law blog consultant and highly caffeinated social media addict who twitters — @amyderby — more than she sleeps.