I don’t post much affiliate or marketing things here but I just thought this was an awesome concept. It’s free so any one can give it a try and there is really nothing to lose!

Business owners and entrepreneurs want to participate to get some insight into team building strategies and extend their networking “circle”

This is an interesting spin on things!
You actually build your team prior to choosing a business opportunity!
May seem backward, but it makes sense. If you can get a team together and on ‘one accord’, you can ‘plug-in’ a business opportunity and approach it with force!

Of course, you would not get involved with any business, but the team approach increases your chances of greater success with any business!

Check out the video… Join Free and be a part of something educational and interesting!

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• Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered.   Daniel Webster

• Long-range planning works best in the short term.  Doug Evelyn

• Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.  Dwight Eisenhower

• Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.  Norman Schwarzkopf

• I wanted to be an editor or a journalist, I wasn’t really interested in being an entrepreneur, but I soon found I had to become an entrepreneur in order to keep my magazine going.  Richard Branson

• The entrepreneur is our visionary, the creator in each of us. We’re born with that quality and it defines our lives as we respond to what we see, hear, feel, and experience. It is developed, nurtured, and given space to flourish or is squelched, thwarted, without air or stimulation, and dies.  Michael Gerber

• I’ve always said that the better off you are, the more responsibility you have for helping others. Just as I think it’s important to run companies well, with a close eye to the bottom line, I think you have to use your entrepreneurial experience to make corporate philanthropy effective.  Carlos Slim Helu
  

Win through your Actions, Never through Argument

Any momentary triumph you think gained through argument is really a mirage:  The resentment and ill will you stir up is stronger and lasts longer than any momentary change of opinion.  It is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without saying a word.  Demonstrate, do not explicate.

The saying, “Action speaks louder than word…” could be based on this truth. In business, be argumentative can cause you too lose customers, suppliers and create a negative image for your business. Rather than get into a war of words, demonstrate your ‘rightness’ !

Keeping good records of transactions and keeping detailed project notes is the greatest tool to help you demonstrate your ‘correctness’ when handling  disputes. Whether it be financial disputes or disputes concerning the actual service or product. It’s hard to argue with a paper trail!

Creating a positive image in your daily interactions helps tremendously, when a dispute arises. People come to recognize your business as ‘up-standing’ and are more willing to forgive an occasional mistake or dispute.

Be Humble. Be willing to take a small loss to retain a customer. An angry or disgruntled customer is much more likely to speak negatively of your business than a satisfied customer is to speak positively of your business! It’s just human nature. Anger is a great motivator!

Make other People come to you – use Bait if Necessary

It is always a good practice to do business based on your parameters. If possible have your business associates meet at time and locations that are convenient for you. Always request that people come to you when requesting their presence. When you force the other person to act, you are the one in control and in business, you want to be in control as much as possible, even when building business relationships with people.

You hold the cards. During any business transaction, negotiation or general meeting; you want to gain as much control as you can and you want to be perceived as having more control than you do! By making people come to you, naturally gives you an appearance of importance and power, which can affect the outcome to be most beneficial to you and your business.

Interesting thought: Woman use this rule a lot with their husbands, significant other or men with whom they associate. Think about it… how often does a woman want or request your presences and they say “Can you Come Here….” My wife does it all the time… and I think, ‘why do I have to come to you when we are both capable of getting to one another and you are the one that wants or needs something…’ ; so she’s wants something from me and not only do I have to deal with the ‘want’, I have to also deliver the ‘want’….. Now that’s control!   LOL

Every now and then we like cover topics that are, more for the business owner, as an individual. This is one of those topics.

Business owners should have a personal investment plan. I always advocate diversity in investing;  including ‘real’ assets as well as market-based investments (stocks, bonds, etc.). Naturally, real estate is the first thing to everyone’s mind when thinking ‘real’ assets, but what about precious metals, like gold? Gold is a great investment option. Certified gold coins and gold bullion coin are solid investment choices.

Over the last 10 years gold has outperformed just about every other investment. From stocks to bonds to real estate, there has not been any other investment that provides an above average return and also provides the feeling of security.

A few more reasons why gold coins are such a great investment:

• Troubled times in the United States’ fiscal gap.

• Troubled times in the macroeconomic investment climate.

• Supply and Demand.

• Historical value.

• Gold is the great stabilizer for all economies.

A career means different things to different people. To some, it is an end point: It is a statement of ambition, for instance, I must become the CEO of this company. To others, it means the landmarks on the way: I must become regional manager in two years and GM in three years thereafter. To most, it is a combination. But, these are all ‘destinations’ and not the ‘journey’.

To the wise, it means the enjoyment and experiences of work. A career is not a destination, it is the journey. So what kind of a journey must you have? The answer is, ‘a journey which you enjoy’. You can excel with consistency only at tasks that you enjoy. Conversely, you cannot excel with consistency at tasks that you do not enjoy. Enjoyment does not mean that the task is easy, or that you know how to do it, quite the reverse.

You enjoy doing things that challenge you sufficiently, yet are instructive to you, that engage you. For instance, selling to a difficult customer, debugging a production issue, configuring a least costly solution to a problem, etc. It is engaging to you for your own reason, some others may hate the same tasks.

Dev joined HLL as a young manager in sales and marketing. He had studied at an excellent school, had a fine degree from a great college, was intelligent and articulate, and had cleared the tough series of HLL interviews. He had all the characteristics to become a successful manager in the sales/marketing function. However, recruiting and developing managers through characteristics is fraught with risks.

One of the preparations before he could be assigned his first responsibility was field training. This meant that he had to work on a salesman’s beat with an experienced salesman for 16 weeks, visiting grocery shops and booking orders all day long.

The idea was for him to learn the routines, pains and tribulations of being a salesman. Dev was miserable. He found it boring, in fact, as he called it, it was ‘demeaning.’ After spending some time with him, his boss wondered if Dev would ever make a good sales manager.

That did not per se make him a good or a bad manager; it just meant that Dev had to rethink what kind of work he should do to enjoy himself. The HLL job was quite a prized one: getting such a job was prestigious, conversely not being successful was considered by many to be a negative.

As Dev thought about it, something kept telling him that he had joined HLL just to prove to the world how smart he was; the salary was a huge added attraction. It was not that he understood this career, and that he wanted to try it. What he truly enjoyed was spending time with students. He wanted to be a school teacher!

Implementing his idea meant sacrifices of salary, and image among his family and peers. He was courageous, and took the plunge. I met him 20 years later. By now, he was the headmaster of a prestigious public school, probably earning a fraction of what he would if he had stayed on at HLL. He was enjoying himself.

He told me he had found his calling, his journey had been exciting and he looked forward to each day. He understood what a career meant: doing what you enjoy and enjoying what you do. He had realized that what was important was the journey, not the destination.

R Gopalakrishnan

Law 5

So Much Depends on Reputation – Guard it with your Life

In business, reputation means so much! Potential customers can be lost before they ever get to experience your products or services if your business has a bad reputation. It is of the utmost importance to manage and guard your company’s reputation. A bad reputation is especially damaging to your small business when it come to ‘word of mouth’ recommendations from past clients.  Customers are more likely to tell others of a bad encounter with your business than they are to tell of a good experience with your business.

Here are some ways to manage and protect your business reputation:

1. Be honest with your customers
   • Don’t accept tasks that you can’t complete – tell your customer if their request is beyond your expertise. It’s better to lose the business on one occasion, than to fail and lose the customer.
   • Don’t promise anything you are not sure you can deliver – don’t make promises you can’t keep. It is very tempting to do this at the point you feel you are about to close the deal, but refrain; breaking a promise will taint your reputation.
2. Manage customer expectations
   • Don’t agree to deadlines that you already know you can’t meet – customers often don’t understand your business operations and will often under-estimate the time needed to complete a particular project. Don’t agree to an impossible deadline; it’s better to pass on the project.
   • Tell clients if their expected outcome is not reasonable – this is an extension of the last point… tell your customer if they are expecting an outcome that you already know is unlikely.
3. Inform your customers
   • Inform your clients of your processes and/or procedures – give your customers some sense of what their request involves so they can understand the process and have a better understanding if something has to change.
   • Inform your clients of any changes that occur – tell your clients if any changes that will affect the services they receive or the product they expect, in a timely manner.
4. Provide support for your products or services
   • Be accessible to your customers – this is one of the quickest ways to damage your reputation with a customer. Customers want to feel that they can contact you when they have a question or a problem.
5. Give existing customers incentive to tell others about your business
   • Offer a small discount on a return visit if they refer someone
   • Show your customers some appreciation, by using small value-adds to your products or services. (ex. create an inviting atmosphere for your business)

Remember: You will never satisfy every one and this applies to customers as well. In general, being professional, honest and accessible will be enough for most customers to have a good feeling about their encounter with your business.