Category: Entrepreneurship

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Entrepreneurship

Organizational Leadership Mistakes – The #1 Way Business Leaders Unknowingly Sabotage Trust

Article Contributed by Skip Weisman

Trust is the fuel that propels teams and organizations to high-levels of success. Yet, organizational leaders today unknowingly do almost everything in their power to sabotage trust.

The primary way in which trust in organizations is sabotaged is by a leader’s communication style. One particularly egregious style of leader communication, which significantly undermines trust, is called “indirect communication.”

We have all fallen victim to indirect communication at one point in our professional or personal lives. For example, have you experienced…

  • A team member going first to a boss to inform them of a mistake a co-worker or manager made on the job
  • A manager calling a mandatory team meeting to review policies and procedures because one individual has acted inappropriately.

Let’s give a closer look to these mistakes…

Trust Building Mistake #1: Are You Allowing Teammates to Throw Each Other “Under the Bus?”

The phrase “thrown under the bus” is quite common in corporate America. It occurs when co- workers directly try to undermine the credibility and reputation of a teammate by talking behind their back with peers, or going to a superior to discuss poor behaviors of someone.

This form of indirect communication can be devastating to an organization’s culture because it ruins trust between team members and killing employee morale.

But, it can get worse.

It gets worse when organizational leaders call the offending person on their behavior using this second-hand, hearsay evidence. This accelerates the destruction of trust in your organization. Organizational leaders have to stop taking the bait dangled by the employees trying to make themselves look good at the expense of their teammates.

When a leader goes directly to the accused individual, without directly observing or experiencing the behavior first hand, organizational culture and morale deteriorate.

The proper approach would be for the leader to tell the bearer of this information that they need to address the issue directly with the perpetrator. Pushing the issue back down in this manner is what must happen with this type of indirect communication.

This is the only healthy way for teams and organizations to function. It builds high-levels of trust and commitment throughout. This will also help prevent a leader’s need for fire-fighting and crisis management

Trust Building Mistake #2: Are You Holding Generic Policy Review Team Meetings

When one individual violates a company policy or procedure, a weak organizational leader will decide its time to call everyone together for a meeting to review the issue. Now, you may think this is a great approach so all team members are clear on the expected behavior – but it’s not. Let me explain…

There are three reasons why this is a very poor approach to leadership communication:

  • As everyone knows why the meeting is called and who the perpetrators are, it causes resentment among those team members not guilty of the infraction. This sabotages trust at all levels of the team.
  • It diminishes the respect of the leader, who is choosing not to address the issue directly with the individual
  • It doesn’t solve the problem because the perpetrator doesn’t change their behavior since it always seems they never “get it.”

Organizational leaders must take it upon themselves to address these issues promptly and directly with the individual perpetrator. By doing so they point out to the individual the specific behavior they witnessed, outline why and how it is a problem, and ask directly for a change in behavior to which they can then hold the individual accountable.

It is the only healthy way for leaders to lead their teams to build a high-trust work environment with a team committed to achieving great things together.

Non-direct communication in an organization’s culture is just one of “The 7 Deadly Sins of Organizational Leadership Communication.” If you or other leaders in your organization are struggling to get greater results from your personnel at any level, the problem can be just one of two things. It’s either the habits of communication that are tolerated throughout organization,
or how performance is managed.

About the Author

Skip Weisman works with organizational leaders to improve personnel, productivity and profits by helping them “Create a Champion Organization,” now you can get his latest white paper “The 7 Deadly Sins of Organizational Leadership Communication” at www.HowToImproveOrganizationalCommunication.com. This will help your organization communicate effectively and take action with commitment towards a shared compelling vision.

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Entrepreneurship

Business Opportunity: Ask “why” As Well As “what” Prospect Looking For

Article Contributed by Tami Stodghill

I read a great ebook awhile back. It actually provided potent pointers on how to set your business apart from all of the other business opportunities out there. And having read the whole book, one suggestion in particular stuck out as a great way to tell if a prospect would really be able to be successful in the opportunity you have.

Most business owners conduct a phone interview with prospects asking what they are currently doing and what they liked about it, and what they are looking for, exactly, in a home-based business opportunity. What they may fail to do is ask “why” the prospect is looking for the opportunity. What’s the difference? A big one!

See, when asking a potential client about his or her present situation and desires, in a great number of the cases, you will get a pretty general response—something like “I want to make alot of money”, or “I want to work from home”. But those responses, although telling, are not the key to what may or may not mean that this person would be a good fit for a home-based opportunity. Because it’s the “why” they want those things that matters and drives a person to succeed.

After reading this ebook, I began making it a point to ask prospects who contacted me exactly “why” they wanted to “work at home” or “make a lot of money”. The answers were surprising and actually very insightful. They let me get to know what the prospect was “about” so to speak. From the single mother who wanted to work at home to avoid daycare costs which were stifling her, to the gentleman who wanted to make lots of money to help his parents pay their medical bills and get health insurance himself, the reasons speak volumes about whether this person will indeed have the drive necessary to succeed.

When a person doesn’t know why they want a home-based business, I believe they are sometimes setting themselves up for failure. Not always. But many people don’t see it as real work and picture sitting at home and waiting for the phone to ring or an email to come in. It has to be much more than that to really be lucrative. Sure…alot of opportunities say “sit back and watch the money roll in”. And I suppose in some cases it might to some degree. But would I want to be a part of a company that didn’t offer continued support and mentoring, a great product or service, new and exciting marketing ideas, and key, ambitious people that were continually striving to expand? No. I want to know that the people out there who are offering the business opportunity and product that I have brought them in on, are willing to take the time to ensure that they are, in turn, selling the opportunity to like-minded people. I value the business we are in and try to work with quality people who are in it because they, too, believe in the product and business.

We only put in part time hours, that’s true. But those are quality, dedicated hours and we continually are seeking new ways to market and advise prospects about our opportunity. We do a few key things daily, but we also explore new options and most certainly have never “sat and waited”. When we aren’t marketing, we are learning more about the product and the company and participate in anything the company has to offer that will further our success.

If you sell to just anyone and their “why” isn’t enough to drive them, will they succeed? Maybe. But I assure you that if you sell your opportunity to someone who is goal-driven, they will make far more of the opportunity and your business will secure key people that will contribute to the continued success of your product or service in the market place.

About the Author

Tami Stodghill was the Press-Relations manager, for a world-wide extensible-technology distributor based in London and the US for 20 years. She was also a freelance writer for several industry publications and is now a home-based business owner with WMI. She makes her home in Page-Lake Powell, Arizona, in the summers and Palm Harbor, Florida in the winters where she enjoys boating and reading, camping, hiking and meeting new people. She runs a blog site exclusively to offer tips for success for any small or home-based business.

Categories
Entrepreneurship

How Self Publishing Saved My Life

I first wanted to write a book when I was 24-years old working in Hong Kong. I carried this passion through my 20’s and 30’s.  It wasn’t until I started writing philosophy papers that I realized I could write original poems from my theories.

One day I was struck with the creative muse!

Twenty minutes later I completed six poems. I started creating websites to showcase my work. But I still felt incomplete, unworthy, and sad. My websites and my poems were not well-known, or even publicly available. Even my family and friends were quiet about my writings.

I realized that I would forever be unhappy and unsatisfied unless I could find an established authority to support my writing and help me share my work with the world. But finding an establishment was difficult.  I continued to look as I continued to write.

Then in 2006 I stumbled across a website for authors who want to self-publish. That website was: Outskirts Press.

Many Authors Are Now Becoming Self-Published Authors Because…

*  Traditional publishers are picky! They take your rights, require you to have a marketing platform, and take up to 2 years to publish your book.
*  Self-publishing authors keep all the rights to their work
*  Self-publishing authors have control over their pricing and profit
*  Self-publishing authors can pursue other opportunities thanks to non-exclusive contracts

How Self-Publishing Transformed My Life

Within a few months, my first book, “The Book Of Life: Existentialism, the Will and the Truth” was published.  I was ecstatic and, just like that, my life changed. For 13 years, my life was a constant struggle to be recognized and appreciated as a writer. Suddenly I had achieved a goal that had been imprinted in my mind through sorrow and pain in my wonder years.

You can imagine the relief and personal satisfaction that sets in when you overcome a life’s hurdle and the change in feelings that occur when a book you have toiled to write is finally published.

What a tremendous achievement!

My book was in my hands and available for purchase throughout the world on Amazon.com. It made me feel whole, complete, worthy, revived, excited and motivated to live my life happily, fully and more inspired.

I became more prolific, too, with a renewed zest and love for writing.

Since, I Self-Published My First Book…

*  I wrote and published six more books with Outskirts Press.  When something this easy makes you feel so alive, you pursue it with all your heart.
*   I have book videos for all my books available on YouTube. I have audio excerpts on iTunes for some, and business cards for others. My reviews have mostly been positive and some were even exceptional.
*  My first six books are in the Hong Kong public library and my first book is also for sale in a major bookshop, Swindon Book Co. Ltd. in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. The gladness in my heart grows ever stronger every day.

Without self-publishing, I would have missed one of the most delightful moments of my life — seeing my own books on the website of a bookshop, WHSmith, where I used to buy school books as a youngster.

Would I ever have imagined my own books on display?

No.  But there they are, and all I can say is, it is worth it!

I am hoping to self-publish more books and I am also planning an exhibition with other artists in Hong Kong. By helping ourselves, we artists and writers can help others in society through inspiration and motivation from our words.

Publishing makes me feel like a first-class citizen. I feel self-publishers like Outskirts Press saved my life. Without them, I would still be lost. Now self-publishing has made my life’s work honorable.

I have achieved more than I could have ever expected.

About the Author:
Ronnie Lee, author of “The Book of Life: Existentialism, the Will and the Truth” and 5 other major books, dramatically changed his life by self-publishing with Outskirts Press. Now, you can get 2 free self-publishing guides at http://outskirtspress.com/ebook and see if self-publishing can help you live your dream of sharing your information, knowledge and life’s work with the world!

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Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship Starting Up

Small Business Success –Avoid Letting Your Big Customer Sink Your Business

Image provided by www.2-small-business.com

Article Contributed by Jim DeLapa

A huge customer for a new small business can be both a blessing and a curse.  The positive side is more obvious—the business establishes an early recurring source of revenue. Since revenue is the lifeblood of any business, what could be wrong with that?  Nothing, if you don’t stop there.

Any new small business owner will tell you that there is never enough time to do everything he or she knows they need to do to grow their business.  In addition to fulfilling customer orders, there are personnel issues, the website and other marketing activities, and an unbelievable number of administrative tasks that must be done even if they don’t help to grow the business.

It seems perfectly logical to focus on just that one big customer when keeping up with that customer’s orders is taking all of your time.  After all, you have too much work to do now.  Why go out and look for new customers?   Wouldn’t it be better to just take care of the business you have?  The answer is ‘absolutely not.’ Don’t fall into that trap.

Of course you want to take care of your big customer.  But you cannot stop there even for a short time.  Doing so becomes a habit and a way of life for too many small business owners.  Remember, if you only have one customer, no matter how big, you don’t have a business, you have a job. Eventually it will become clear that you have no leverage and no control even over the fate of your own company.

To drive this point home, imagine that your new business gets off to a great start.  You land that big customer that everyone would want and you take care of them like no other.  Your business grows, you’re hiring people, taking on more office space, profits are strong and you’re living the American dream.  Then, after three years, they still account for 80% of your business and suddenly something changes. For any of a hundred reasons, you’re notified that your number one customer will be your customer no more.

Within 90 days, you lay off more than half your staff, take a pay cut and are negotiating with an unsympathetic landlord to take back some of the office space.  As you sit in your office alone at night with your head in your hands, you say to yourself, ‘If only we had gone after other customers when we had the chance.’   This story and this pattern are far too common among small business owners.  It leaves previously successful small business leaders feeling betrayed, humiliated and defeated.

Regardless of your success with any given customer, it is essential that you build a broad base of customers as if your business depends on it—because it does.   To ensure that your team gets behind this goal include “number of new customers” as a metric in your incentive compensation or bonus plans.  As the business owner, delegate less important tasks and stay involved in both the ‘big’ customer account and the effort to bring in new customers.

Building a small business on a diversified base of customers is a winning long term strategy.  In doing so, you’ll even out the ups and downs in revenue and profitability.  This will serve you well if you ever seek a small business loan or line of credit.  You’ll be creating a business with a higher valuation and one that delivers stability and peace of mind to its employees and owners.  Make sure your small business plan includes a commitment to building a broad base of customers.

About the Author:

Jim DeLapa is the founder of GreatBusinessPlans.com, a leading provider of small business plan assistance for current and future small business owners.  DeLapa has launched and invested in numerous successful startups and played an active role in nurturing two of those from inception through being acquired by publicly traded firms.

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Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship People & Relationships Starting Up

Could You Succeed as an Entrepreneur? Look for These Signs

Entrepreneurs have a knack for seeing opportunities where others don’t. If you see 2010 as a good time to start a business despite the recession, then you may have an entrepreneurial perspective. Now you need to know if you have some of the other characteristics of successful entrepreneurs.
What helps entrepreneurs these days is that virtual business models put more emphasis on talent and less on administration and infrastructure. After all, e-commerce solutions can give you an instant storefront presence and credit card processing services can handle your receivables, and SEO can give you access to online customers with a minimal up front investment.
So now all you need is the right set of skills and characteristics. Consider whether you have the following ingredients of successful entrepreneurship:
1. Talent.
You should be able to identify at least one area of ability that makes you stand out from the crowd. This can be anything: technical expertise, sales skill, marketing insight, or logistical know-how. Since small businesses are talent-driven, you have to start out with the belief that you have the raw material with which to compete and succeed. It helps if your skills happen to be in areas with growing demand, such as health care or computer technology. If you have medical knowledge or a skill such as Web design, you may have a little wind at your back.
2. A new or different perspective.
“Me-too” businesses have a tough time making a mark, especially during a weak economy. Your business should be founded on the idea that there is a better way to do things. Ideally, you should have enough experience in your chosen industry to be familiar with the normal way business is done, and to have developed some unique insights as to how that can be improved. Being able to clearly articulate a differing perspective should be central to your business plan. In turn, it should also become the vision you communicate to everyone you hire, and the selling proposition you use to pitch potential customers.
3. A business network of connections and affiliations
Experience is valuable not only for knowing how other companies do things, but also for helping you form a business network that will get your new company up and running more quickly. Remember, people–especially business-to-business customers–can be reluctant to do business with a start-up. You should have some contacts who respect you enough personally to take a chance on your new business. Of course a network of contacts can also help you identify potential investors, suppliers, and talented employees. If you need to build your network think about joining a business community of interest.
4. A war chest.
Don’t start your business venture unless you have identified sufficient funding to not only get started, but to keep your business running through the inevitable lean months at the beginning. Many businesses are forced to go under just as they would be starting to gain some momentum, simply because they underestimated the amount of time it would take for profits to start rolling in. Funding can be from your own savings, outside investors, or loans. Of course, external sources of funding are harder to come by in a recession, but you can use techniques such as virtual offices to reduce the need for this type of funding.
5. Ability to take risk.
You should start any new business with a commitment to succeed, but an acceptance of the risk involved. Entrepreneurs are often people who are willing to trade a sure thing working for someone else for even a risky chance at running their own show.
6. An eye for complementary talent.
Once you start hiring people, you should think in terms of rounding out the team rather than looking for people just like yourself. It can be a mistake to have too many would-be leaders in one organization. If you have an independent and visionary outlook, you might do well to complement that with a strong administrator who can take care of the details.
7. Persistence.
Not only does it take a long time for a new business to gain traction, but entrepreneurs often don’t succeed on their first try. As long as you have confidence in the first two items on this list–your talent and your unique perspective on the business–you should be willing to keep trying.