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4 Fear Busters To Jumpstart Your Business

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By Kevin Kelly

In my latest book, DO! The Pursuit of Xceptional Execution, I interviewed entrepreneurs from around the world. They lead some of the world’s most compelling brands and companies, ranging from one to 3,000 employees, with turnovers from $100,000 to $130 million. I call them the Xceptionalists. They hail from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Bologna, Italy; from Des Moines, Iowa to Galway, Ireland. They run app companies, consultancies, clinics and sprawling technology corporations.

Given that half of all new business fail in the first five years, how did they deal with fear and survive their early failures?

1. Stop fearing feedback

Xceptionalists treat failures as feedback and a prelude to future success. Ben Milne of Dwolla said, “… I have failed in making adaptations to the product… I have failed at selecting business partners. I nearly went out of business three times in my career. When you are failing the key point is to just admit it. … The longer you drag it out the less chance you have.”

According to Peldi from Balsamiq. “Mistakes don’t really matter that much as long as you fix them straight away and put your hand up. … It is very much the lean start-up way: throw it out there and listen.”

Why fear feedback? Why stigmatize failure in the workplace when it’s bringing you closer to achieving your organizational goals. If you want to find the next big success, failure comes with the territory.

2. Face and floor it

In the early 1970’s, during the height of the political turmoil that rocked Northern Ireland, Agnes McCourt, owner of Unislim had a very frightening encounter with an armed and masked gunman, Agnes’s husband wanted to cease all business links in Northern Ireland and relocate to Southern Ireland. Agnes agreed to the house move but continued to develop the her business. Why? “In business, one has to be fearless and do what one’s inner voice tells you is the right thing,” she told me.

Devon Brooks co-founder of the unique women’s personal care business Blo Blow Dry Bars, was sexually assaulted and went through the ensuing harrowing judicial process. She made a personal commitment that she would never let her past get in the way of taking action. Devon told me, “Sometimes you live life, and sometimes life happens to you. But you always get to choose what you do about it.”

3. Find the source of the fear

Like many Xceptionalists, when fear raises its head, Patrick McKeown of Asthmacare had a strategy that works for him. He asks three questions:

  • What is the best possible outcome?
  • What is the worst possible outcome?
  • What outcome falls between the above two?

McKeown says entrepreneurs who survive in the long term take calculated risks, and tend not to take monumental courses of action with their head stuck in the sand. So the fear has no gone away, they just understand it a little better.

4. Flow floors fear

For our Xceptionalists from Brazil, WeDemand.com, fear was never an issue. They have been so immersed in an industry they love, they haven’t had the time or the inclination to be afraid. “I would tell entrepreneurs not to be afraid. If you sit around and just wish about your idea, nothing will happen. All you can lose is money and there is no shame in trying,” said cofounder Bruno Natal.

So in essence, there is nothing to fear. The challenge for you the entrepreneur is to find your passion and make fear history.

See more extracts from Kevin Kelly’s new book “Do! The pursuit of Xceptional Execution”

Author’s Bio: Kevin is an internationally acclaimed leadership and motivational speaker and best selling author. For more information: http://www.kevinkellyunlimited.com.

If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, You’ll Never Get There

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By Jennifer Dunn

Where is your business headed in 40 years? Yes, that question probably sounds ridiculous to you right now. You’re busy trying to survive another year, month, week or day, or even attempting to get your business off the ground in the first place. At what point are you supposed to think about 40 years in the future?

Honestly, you should be thinking about the future, because it will be here at some point. While you may not have to specifically worry about 40 years ahead, you should be considering where you want your business to be. If not, it could lead to some pretty bad situations for you that could lead to the demise of your business.

If you don’t have a plan for your company, it’s like it’s a plane without a destination – you can fly high for a while, but at some point you have to come down. If you don’t know where that is, you could be in for a rough landing.

Goals and Vision

Everyone has a vision for their business as well as a reason for getting into business in the first place. This reason could be absolutely anything – you wanted to spend more time with your family, or had a great idea for a product, or wanted to escape the rat race. It could even be to prove to yourself you could do it.

There is no wrong or right answer here. Your reasons are your own. The point is you have to honor those reasons and your vision for your company. If you don’t, you could end up with a monster you can’t control.

For example, let’s say you wanted to never compromise your product line as you believe it can change the world. It’s a lofty goal, but a great one nonetheless. Now let’s say you have an opportunity to sell your company to a bigger company. At some point you may realize the big conglomerate wants to change your product. Now you have a big problem – do you choose the money or the reason you went into business in the first place?

Find Your Destination

While this initially may not seem like such a big deal, eventually moving away from your original goals could lead to a point where you abandon your business. If you struck out on your own to spend more time with your family but you let your company get so big that you no longer have no time for them, you’ve defeated the entire purpose of starting your company.

This is why it’s important to look toward a destination for your company. If you have a place in mind for your company to land, you can make better decisions that will keep you happy and invested in your business. Even if something unexpected pops up you’ll be able to handle it with ease as you know where you want to end up.

Keep in mind this destination and your goals may change. You may start out wanting to make a ton of money and get rich but switch it later on to just being comfortable and being happy working on your own. Again, there’s no wrong or right answer – just make sure it’s what you want for your business and yourself!

Where are you heading?

Author’s Bio: Jennifer Escalona Dunn is the owner of Social Street Media where she writes about small business, tech and finance for sites like WePay and Outright. You can find her on Twitter @jennescalona.

Entrepreneurial Tips – How to Maintain a Positive Attitude

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By Ronald Alexander

As entrepreneurs, we put work just above everything else. Unfortunately, sometimes when we are working toward something, we forget to maintain a positive attitude, which can lead to additional stress and an unhappy all-around life.

The 10 tips listed below will help you to stay positive while at the same time driving your business in the right direction.
How to maintain a positive attitude

1. Work with people that you like

It’s easy to be unhappy in a business where you are surrounded by negative people all day. This is why it is vital that you hire and work with people who have a positive attitude and don’t drain you emotionally.

2. Don’t hesitate to fire people

It is 100% okay to let people go who are not doing all they can do to help your business. Usually a primary cause of stress for entrepreneurs in the workplace is having people who make them unhappy because they either don’t work hard enough or constantly stress out about little things. It’s a great release when you know that you have just made your work environment better for everyone by letting someone go.

3. Create long-term goals

Short-term goals are good, but having goals that extend decades will allow you to be more focused on where you want your business to go. These goals are usually far less stressful and will show your team that you do know what you want out of your company.

4. Feed your creative mind

Every entrepreneur is creative, so it’s natural that we need to fill our off-time with things that will feed that creativity. Some people like to read, while others get their creative juices flowing by taking a long walk. Whatever you need to stay charged up, you need to make sure that it is included in your weekly schedule.

5. Continue to be yourself

People often forget what got them to the point of being an entrepreneur and having a business. The fact is that you need to continue to be yourself even as you are taking off as an entrepreneur. The people who work for you and the business contacts that you make need to know who the real “you” is. You don’t have to develop a phoney business persona, which, I promise you, will lead to additional stress.

6. Don’t be a yes man

Many people have the instinct that saying yes to their employees will keep all parties happy, but in reality a business has to be run by someone who knows when to say no. If someone needs help with something and you have an important task that you are dealing with right now, you have to tell them no and they’ll need to find another solution to their problem. Always take a second to assess everything before you answer questions at work so you can be honest with yourself and others.

7. Remember to take a break once in a while

Entrepreneurs are usually workaholics, but everyone needs a break to stay fresh. The truth is that those breaks that you take every day will allow you to get better work done, which should be reason enough to take them.

8. Expect stressful situations and deal with them the right way

Work is stressful no matter what you do for a living, so it is each person’s responsibility to deal with every bit of stress that is thrown in their direction. It’s tougher earlier on because you are new to all of the business scenarios that you will face, but with time you will learn how to deal with the stress. Just go into every situation knowing that there will be stress and then conquer it.

9. Don’t expect flawless work

It would be nice if everything we do in our work life ends up being absolutely perfect, but that’s just not reality. You want to draw things up to be perfectly played out, but the most important thing is that you reach the end goal in everything you do. Don’t focus too much on the imperfections; this can help you put off some burden.

10. Don’t try to do everything on your own.

You have a team for a reason, so you have to learn how to delegate responsibilities. It’s not easy at first, but you shouldn’t try to do too much of the work on your own. You run the business, so figuring out who should be doing what all day will help you to take a lot off your plate.

To sum up: You need to figure out what’s keeping you from being as happy as you can be in your business life. Going over these tips should help you to figure out how to lessen the stress so you can focus on getting your business to where you want it to be.

Author’s Bio: Ronald Alexander is a passionate writer and avid blogger currently associated with Forsyth.co.uk, which provides business services including flexible office space and virtual office services in Manchester.

Image source: Pixabay by Nemo

Turning Customers Into Advocates

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John Caplan, founder and CEO of OpenSky.com, shares his tips on how leveraging the web’s social tools to build a community around your brand and engage directly with shoppers can grow your business.  

As an entrepreneur, I know how important it is to build a community of people around your business.  As a business owner who is passionate about growing emerging businesses, getting your business online to leverage distribution and build relationships is an essential tool. 
 
At OpenSky, we strive to empower emerging brands to grow their businesses by engaging consumers.  We make sure to communicate and constantly listen to the concerns, questions and feedback from our merchants and our members, which helps us build a platform that works for people we serve.
 
Leveraging the web’s social tools to build a community around your brand by engaging and communicating directly with your shoppers can grow your business.  Here are some ways to help you achieve this.
 

1. Social media makes it easier than ever to connect directly to customers.

Establish your brand on social channels – Facebook, OpenSky, Twitter, Pinterest — where you can have active, real-time conversations.  It’s not only a great way to share updates but often times, it’s that real time feedback from customers that can help you resolve a problem before it impacts a huge number of people.  This will serve as an effective way to give people a great experience because then they share it with their friends and their friends share it with friends and so on.  There is nothing more effective for marketing than a truly happy customer.
 

2. It’s essential to listen to customer feedback on social outlets and respond right away.

  However, as it important as it is, make sure that isn’t the only way you’re getting direct feedback from customers about how you’re doing.  Ask for it anytime an opportunity arises.  From packing slips, to invoices, customer surveys and emails – there are numerous opportunities to ask your customers for feedback and offer a place where they can provide it.
 

3. In addition to blogs and social networks, invite members of your community from customers to partners and vendors into your offices, stores or workshops.

  Whether it’s for a party, focus group, or to demo a new product – creating the face-to-face connection can be invaluable for creating brand loyalty.
 

4. One of the most difficult and stressful elements of growing a business is expanding your products or services. 

Adding a new feature or service can strain your core business and potentially alienate existing customers, especially in the beginning. Open the lines of communication and bring your community into your growth strategy by talking to them during the process.  Working with your core customers early on to help them understand new products and services will keep you on the right track, provide valuable insight and make your loyal customers more forgiving of any mishaps in the road to success.

Author’s Bio: John Caplan is the Founder and CEO of OpenSky, the social network for shopping where members shop with their friends for unique, artisanal finds. Prior to OpenSky, John was the CEO of Ford Models. In five years, he rebuilt the agency, tripling its size and value while expanding it to include Ford’s artist divisions and digital media business. During the late 1990s, John served first, as CMO of About.com leading the brands growth and later as President of the About Network before selling the company to Primedia in 2001 for $500+ million. Caplan has made numerous appearances as a business expert on television shows including CNBC, MSNBC, Bloomberg TV, Reuters TV, TODAY Show, WNBC-TV and many others.

Going It Alone as an Entrepreneur

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Guest Post by Debba Haupert

debba-haupert-girlfriendology-founder-sq

It’s somewhat ironic, I know. But I write a write a blog and run a business about female friendship — all by myself. In theory, I should have started Girlfriendology LLC with a girlfriend (or two) and collaborated in building the brand and company. I should have women who share the work load and assist me in creating a business around women supporting each other. However, the reality is that I’m a passionate entrepreneur and I didn’t know anyone else crazy enough to start it with me, so I jumped in the entrepreneurial pool alone!

As entrepreneurs, we’re often alone. We typically work long and strange hours from home or finally get dressed to have occasional meetings in coffee shops. We wake up with ideas and do the research to explore them. We create and market products and solutions, and we generally are accountable to only ourselves. That’s a great scenario if you’re self-motivated and prefer not to deal with group decisions. It’s also a wonderful arrangement if you’re creative and dedicated to seeing your dreams become reality.

Self-motivated, creative and dedicated I am, and I’m very thankful to be that way. But that doesn’t mean I HAVE to go it alone. I have received amazing support from other entrepreneurs in several groups that I’ve started or joined. For example, I’m working on eCommerce for Girlfriendology.com (to sell girlfriend gifts). I knew of several other women in town (Cincinnati) who sell products online. I also tweeted about it. Two weeks ago seven of us met to talk about our online stores, what worked/didn’t, technologies, trends and prep for the coming holidays. We plan to do this on a monthly basis as well as feature each other on our websites. I’m also part of an entrepreneurial group, LegacyConnection (www.legacyconnection.com) that shares resources for entrepreneurs as well as keeps us accountable in weekly group calls.

In addition to these groups, I am blessed with great girlfriends, supportive guy friends and a wonderful husband. My girlfriends share feedback, connections and ideas; my guy friends often look out for opportunities for me and my husband, who is a writer, has edited copy, helped with events and had many brainstorming conversations where we strategize on my business as well as his.

So, I don’t feel so bad that I “should have” started Girlfriendology with a girlfriend. I have the support and assistance of a “village” of friends who care about me and my business. As I share on Girlfriendology, if you need a friend, you to need to be a friend. The same goes for us entrepreneurs. Reach out to others, get to know their businesses and collaborate. Life (and business) really is better together with the support of friends and family.

How do you go it alone, but do it together as an entrepreneur?

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Debba Haupert is founder of Girlfriendology . She considers herself a ‘marketing mutt’ based on her 20 years of corporate marketing (from designing consumer products, studying trends in Europe, to writing an award-winning book, selling products on QVC and being a bank VP). She founded Girlfriendology LLC in January 2006 as a way to support and inspire women. She is a passionate entrepreneur and student of social media with over 850 blogs, 150 podcasts/BlogTalkRadio shows, 15000 Twitter followers (primarily ‘girlfriends’), and 1000 LinkedIn connections. And she loves Liz Strauss and is honored to call her a girlfriend! (-;

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Thanks, Debba. The respect, admiration, and friendship is mutual. I’m grateful to have met you.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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