When I moved to New Hampshire, I was surprised to learn that people were responsible for their own trash collection.  Every place I had ever lived, trash collection was just handled by the city or county where I lived.   But in New Hampshire, where everyone is a “live free or die” mentality, individual independence and choice is key.  And they express their independence by allowing people to hire their own “garbage men”.  Six years ago, my choice for garbage collection was Waste Management.  A huge multi-national company with a large world footprint.  They did a fine job and my garbage was always removed and I was a happy camper.

About 6 months ago, we made a switch in our service.  This switch was precipitated by great work by a start-up, Buckley Disposal.  In this local operation, I think there are some great lessons to be learned for any start-up:

• Marketing works – Buckley did a direct mail postcard campaign that was action-oriented and simple-messaged.   For$7 per week, they would do curbside trash removal.  This was 40% less than Waste Management.
• Provide a good product – The process of trash disposal is not a sexy product, but to get customers you need to have a good product.  Mr. Buckley told my wife about how his process works and how they aggressively recycle on the back-end of the process.
• Provide great customer support – Buckley’s really gets that personal care is what is needed to win in a competitive environment.  Recently, we were going on vacation so we emailed in to let them know they could skip our house for the week.  Mr. Buckley actually called back and told us that he got our message and that he would credit us the $7.  We didn’t ask for the credit, but he just offered it.  Super customer support always wins over customers.

Most start-ups are in battles with large, established companies.  Maybe you can look at the efforts of Buckley Disposal in your business and find ways to beat up the big guys.

About the Author: Elinor Stutz is CEO of Smooth Sale, LLC, International Author, Sales Trainer & Coach, and Motivational Speaker.

Are you suffering from being at the bottom of the pyramid with no one taking you seriously? Well here’s how to overcome the “pyramid syndrome.”

Step One: Simply stated, when you are at ground level, learn as much as you can by asking appropriate questions. Recognize what works and what does not work and only implement the best advice that is consistent with your personality.

Step Two: Once you have the information you need, take the unusual leadership stance by going it alone for a while to experiment with what you believe will work best. Avoid nay-sayers. Trial and error as well as persistence will get you moving to the top.  Continual education will help you leap-frog over where you began.

Step Three: Do a return check to the original group to see if you still belong. Most likely you will be in, near, or at the top of the pyramid — able to offer a helping hand.  Distinguish yourself by offering to help!

As the economy tumbled last year, I knew I had to change my business model. So with a leap of faith, I joined WhisperingEnergy.com, (two of us at the time), which grew into an international online collaboration and social media university. I learned how to collaborate. Soon Sharon Hooper and I joined forces to bring a complete author program to the public, WEeBooks4U.com. My part is teaching authors how to write a book and sell more copies online while Sharon helps the author secure the right graphic design, format the book for digital readers, and upload the finalized book to Amazon and our site. We foresee our site becoming the go-to-site for buying and selling ebooks given the power of our collaboration and knowledge of social media!

After a long quiet period, I returned to a group convention where I was once at the bottom level. We soon recognized I was the only one who is conversant with social media! Many of the highly paid business coaches were not familiar with the basics. It appears I have a new opportunity for business where none previously existed.

My motto: “Believe in yourself, envision what you want and pursue it.”

Believing helps you to communicate with clarity and confidence.  When you listen to your intuition and heart, you will attract more prospects, clients and sales, and enjoy the Smooth Sale!

The heat of the summer is piling on in the northern hemisphere.  This is a time to explore your entrepreneurial efforts and hone your skills.

With that in mind here are 4 quick do’s and don’ts for the summer:

1. Don’t take 2 and 3 week vacations. Running a start-up is not like being a privileged European employee.   You have to be available all of the time and you have to be constantly working.  If you want a vacation take a 3-day-weekend, and have your laptop with you.  If you want a three week vacation, go get a job.
2. Do be on the lookout for summer help. In a down economy lots of college students are struggling to find paying work.  Get a smart one to come do some part time work at your start-up.    This is a great way to test run for future employment.
3. Do expect delays in sales. If your company relies on other business people as customers, know that a lot of people take vacations and will not be around to complete contracts.  Plan into your business for these delays.
4. Do reward your team. If you have a team that works for you, make sure you give them a chance to relax a little.  Lots of people need small breaks in the summer.  With their friends and family taking vacations, make sure you give them a little time to also relax.  If you can combine this with company meetings that are offsite and fun, this can be a double win.

Enjoy the summer and make your business grow!

About the Author: Elinor Stutz is CEO of Smooth Sale, LLC, International Author, Sales Trainer & Coach, and Motivational Speaker.

The above question was the title of a television show many years ago. It definitely applies to business when choosing partners and helpers. Are you asking the right questions, and are you able to sleep at night?

Over the past couple of weeks, as well as years, I have heard one horror story after another. The brilliant entrepreneur who:

1. …wanted to expand too quickly and left loopholes in her business development plan

2. …had to work 20 hours per day because not enough help was in place for what was promised

3. …gave away stake in the company to be known nationally and soon lost control of his own business

4. …and gave money to people for services badly needed but the trusted help left before the service was implemented.

You can tell all of this would be very unsettling if any of this happened to you. I am not a business plan advisor in the sense of spreadsheets nor a bookkeeper, so I know full well to hire these tasks out. I also know to look at my bottom line before taking on another project and all the implications of further services that may be required.

Another very important piece of advice I read in Loral Langmeier’s book: Separate all personal from business expense. This includes savings, checking, credit cards – whatever you use for business needs to have an account of its own. Too many people wiped out their personal savings on the dream of making it in business but did not have the right plan in place. Consequently, not only did they lose their dream, they lost their homes.

Due to so much of this occurring recently, I am writing this morning hopefully to forewarn you in time to develop your business s-l-o-w-l-y with all pieces in place before you add new revenue streams. Once you become familiar with the process, you then will be able to move steadily in a variety of complementary areas at a quicker pace.

When you develop a carefully thought out plan, your clientele at large will be attracted to your professionalism and leadership charisma, and soon prospects will become clients. It’s all part of enjoying the Smooth Sale!

P.S. Entrepreneurship is one of the most difficult tasks I ever undertook, learning how to sell was easy in comparison. I do have a new upcoming webinar series that will take you step by step through the process of building a solid foundation, progress to developing multiple streams of income and how to expand your message and brand to the world in easy, logical steps.