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:

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!

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:

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.

About the Author: Brian Reese is the co-founder and CEO of TestSoup.com.  He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from the United States Air Force Academy, CO, where he was a distinguished graduate in 2007.

“There is no such thing as one brilliant or earth-shattering idea.  Ideas are cheap.  Implementation and execution are what set apart the entrepreneurial contenders from the entrepreneurial pretenders.” –Brian Reese

For many people, the word “entrepreneurship” conjures up illusions of grandeur—thoughts of instant success and overnight riches.  For the great majority, however, the word “entrepreneurship” means late nights, early mornings, and sweat equity.
My assertion is this:  Entrepreneurship is neither about capitalizing on that one monumental idea nor about making millions of dollars.  Entrepreneurship is a passion.  Entrepreneurship is a continual process with many ups and downs.  Entrepreneurship is a mindset and a way of life.  Entrepreneurs constantly ask questions such as:  How can I make this process better?  How can I save my company both time and money?  How can I develop a new way to attack this old problem?

An entrepreneurial contender views entrepreneurship as a passion and a personal mantra for living one’s life.  He/she is thinking of ways to improve people, systems, and processes constantly.  An entrepreneurial pretender views entrepreneurship as a contest of thrills rather than a contest of wills.  An entrepreneurial pretender thinks that because he/she has a good idea, fame and riches are right around the next corner.  This is far from the truth.

I personally believe that every possible idea for a new product or service already has been thought of by somebody else.  Having a good idea does not make you a successful entrepreneur—it simply means you have a good idea.  Implementation and execution are what separate the entrepreneurial contenders from the entrepreneurial pretenders.

Successful entrepreneurs have the foresight to take decisive action to achieve desired results.  At the same time, successful entrepreneurs know when to persevere through adversity and when to quit and shift valuable resources to other projects.  Nobody likes to admit failure; however, entrepreneurs do not think of it as failure, they think of it as the “shifting valuable resources.”  In addition, successful entrepreneurs are not afraid to take on various roles within a start-up.  For example, in the early stages of a start-up, you may need to wear many different hats:  CEO, CFO, marketing manager, product development, etc.  This is completely normal.  Cherish this opportunity because your chance to call all the shots diminishes over time as more people and resources get involved with a start-up.

The bottom line is that there is nothing glamorous about being an entrepreneur.  Moreover, there is not one idea or implementation method that will guarantee a return on your investment.  It’s a tough process and not meant for the faint of heart.  Expect a constant teetering of risk and reward.  Don’t be afraid to take some calculated risks.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  Do not forget that sweat equity goes a long way—especially in the start-up environment.  Above all else, never be afraid to fail.

This article is neither meant to scare you nor prevent you from chasing your dreams.  Think of it more as a “truth tool” to show you what you are up against.  A venture capitalist told me a long time ago that he expects one out of every ten start-ups he invests in to provide a decent return and the other nine to fail miserably.  So, you might ask, why even bother in the first place?  Because, if you recall, entrepreneurship is a mindset.  A ceaseless desire to create, change, revise, and improve people, systems, and processes.  Successful entrepreneurs are not afraid to fail.  Successful entrepreneurs love to challenge the status quo—especially with the odds stacked against them.

About the Author:

This is a typical scenario for most entrepreneurs.  Luckily, I had some great coaches to whom I will be forever grateful. Let me share a few tips I learned along the way that helped me to get clear on where I’m headed, to communicate that well and be seen as a leader in my field.

Business Development Tips:

1. In a quiet place, contemplate what you truly want, enjoy, and has the potential for making money.
2. If you have been in business for a while, of all the things you do, which utilizes your talents best, has potential for making money, and/or do you enjoy the most?
3. Focus on the top 3 revenue streams until they are steady and established.
4. If you only have 1 revenue stream, add 2 more that are complementary.
5. Set time aside each day to build at least one of the streams; sometimes by working on one it will affect the other positively.
6. Take an evening to plan your biggest vision for your major money-making activity.
7. Create medium sized projects to get to the big vision.
8. Create small sized projects to get to the medium sized projects.
9. Write weekly must-dos to achieve the smaller projects quickly and pay attention to whether you are accomplishing them.
10. Every day you must devote one-two hours to your bigger vision – I call this your “Daily Business Vitamins”.
11. Prioritize by appointments, bigger vision projects, smaller tasks.
12. This minute – write down the first big vision that comes to your mind and begin planning!

When you operate in the manner described above, you become highly efficient, finding more hours in the day. People will stop to ask how it is possible that you are achieving so much. You will feel much better about your business and begin to smile. I know because I went through this process myself.

The smile on your face says it all. Prospects, clients and everyone else will see you finally look happy and ask what’s new and take interest. A smile is actually (in my mind) another form of a marketing message and helps communicate that you have become a leader if not an expert in your field. You are well on your way!

Now add great customer service policies to your repertoire, and build relationships with everyone you meet. You will attract larger audiences to your business and close more sales.

–WV partner, Chris Yeh.

What are you doing to quickly make decisions at your start-up?

Are you going down enough alleys to even determine if they are dead-ends?

It is fairly rare that you will find me quoting a Frenchman, but this is one of those occasions.  I was reading Schom’s biography of Napoleon when I came across this quote.

The jest of this quote is that must have audacity, audacity again, always audacity.  A bold commander never gives up the aggressive initiative to his enemy.

As a start-up, even when you have great success you have to keep going.  Great sales success is not an excuse not to do more marketing.  Great new features in a product are not an excuse not to build the next great thing.

This probably means extended time of 15 hour days, doing sales calls on weekends, answering support tickets at crazy hours, and never losing the audacity that got you success in the first place.

It is in this effort that you will win.  Your competitors are not your friends.  They are the enemy, and you must step on their throats and cut off the very air they breathe.   Every customer/user they add is one you never are getting.  Start-up life is a blitzkrieg land grab, and you need to push every day to steal the next inch of ground.

Winning is what this game is about, and that is what determines who gets to cash the big checks at the end of the day.

1.    Let an Intern Grow with the Company.  It’s so hard to find dedicated and loyal employees. Bringing an intern on board provides a “test-drive” of their abilities. This intern can learn the company inside out and help you brainstorm. At the end of the internship, there is a good chance that you will want to hire that person full-time. By this time, the goal is to build a trusting relationship with the individual. This is usually much better than hiring someone you are unfamiliar with.

2.    Bring Fresh Ideas to the Table.  It’s always nice to have a fresh set of eyes look things over and provide new and different opinions. The interns of today are the future buyers of tomorrow. Get their opinions. See what they are into. Test things with them. Have them ask their peers about products and services.

3.    Go Social Media Crazy. Employers are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars having social media consultants teach their employees the ropes. These students already have integrated several of these social media tools into their daily lives. Give an intern a stab at running your online marketing. You may be surprised by what she can do.

4.    Micro-Manage When Necessary.  Look, many interns have never worked in the “real world” before. They have a different perception of how things work and how tasks should be managed and prioritized. Don’t assume anything. Teach them the ropes. Encourage them to ask questions. When assigning tasks, specify how much time they should be spending on each task and set your expectations.

5.    Make “Commitment” Your Magic Word. Take it from someone who has had both bad and good experiences with interns, stress the word commitment. In the interview process, ask the intern what the word commitment means to him. Explain clearly what you expect of him, the time commitment you would like, and how you feel about people who don’t take their commitments seriously. You want to hire an intern that you can rely on.

Environmental issues and doing meaningful work have been important to me since early childhood.  Although BoxCycle fulfills both goals, I didn’t come up with the idea by thinking of the best way to help the environment.  I came up with it by running an online store specializing in calculators.

I started CalculatorSource shortly after college because I enjoyed the challenge of creating something on my own and because I believed I could run the store well enough to provide me with income and time for more meaningful pursuits.  I spent a few years mostly developing the store and writing the back-end software.

Efficiency and environmental stewardship are both important to me, and I did what I could to reduce waste.  Most processing is electronic and nearly all packaging I received gets reused.  I doubt more than a few boxes ended up in the recycling bin in the last seven years.

But around 2004 big boxes from incoming shipments were beginning to become a problem.  They were often in nearly perfect shape, but since I mostly shipped out small quantities they just continued to pile up.  I knew that people paid a lot of money for boxes like these when moving and I figured that I was not alone with unwanted boxes.  I went online to find a solution.  I was surprised to find nothing at all and my first thoughts of developing a solution were born.

A few months later I found a site called BoxQuest; I believe they started around that time.  They are essentially a classifieds site focused on boxes.  I posted my boxes on there and got a few buyers.  What astounded me were the lengths to which many buyers travelled to get discounted boxes and how overjoyed they were when they picked them up.  I knew there were ways to get boxes for free, but clearly those methods were either insufficient or did not appeal to everyone.

I started using Craigslist along with BoxQuest, and soon I wasn’t getting enough boxes to fill all the orders.  Box reuse has a significantly lower environmental impact than recycling, and I was beginning to feel that there may be room for me to contribute in this area.  I experimented with picking up boxes from a local retailer.  I was again astounded by how overjoyed they were to give their boxes to me and how much work they were willing to do to make this happen.  Getting rid of boxes is a daily hassle for most retailers.  While there are solutions, they are clearly also either insufficient or do not appeal to everyone.

I eventually stopped doing box pickups because I didn’t find them economically viable.  While I could see ways of making them work on a large enough scale, setting up such an enterprise would entail a substantial commitment and I was not sure I could generate the necessary demand.  More importantly, I found a number of companies that tried making a business out of picking up used boxes and reselling them on the retail level.  Virtually all of them have stopped doing individual pickups and either went out of business or switched to picking up overrun boxes in large volume from box manufacturers.

Still, the waste of boxes kept haunting me.  I knew that the numbers fundamentally worked.  Months later it hit me to do something no one seems to have tried – remove the intermediary pickup step – create a market!
Retailers already have the space to store boxes.  Buyers would greatly benefit with a large number of pickup locations a market could generate. Pricing could easily be made to work.  Environmental impact would be reduced to the absolute minimum.  Benefits just kept coming to me.  Sure, I could also see the difficulties, like convincing sellers to want to bother.   But this was worth a try.

It took about year of thinking and preparing, but eventually I took the plunge and BoxCycle was born.  If it succeeds, I believe it will benefit the environment more than nearly anything a single person can do.  And it will do so as a profitable business.

So, the online store ended up providing me with a meaningful way to help the environment.  Getting rid of boxes it generated gave me a great deal of insight into issues faced by potential buyers and sellers of used boxes; issues that I designed BoxCycle to resolve.  And the experience of running it, gave me the business and retail knowledge to increase my chances of success.