Work the System: the Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less by Sam Carpenter landed in my lap at a very fortuitous time. I was already knee-deep in one of those “what am I doing with my life” phases, trying to discern the difference between accomplishing something and accomplishing nothing (but staying very busy). I am always amazed at how fine the line is.

If you’ve never heard the phrase “fire killing” (I hadn’t), be advised before reading that it refers to attacking urgent problems (like an angry client on the phone) instead of focusing on what may actually be more important (like creating a corporate culture that creates fewer angry clients). It is one Carpenter’s favorites, and it illustrates perfectly the difference between “accomplishment” and “staying busy.” The phrase immediately reminded me of Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – another book that stresses the “important” over the “urgent” as a key to leading a better life.

My mention of Covey’s 7 Habits is by no means unintentional, because I rank Work the System right up there with the two books that I think anyone who wants to actually do anything should read. One of them is 7 Habits, obviously. The other is Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, which is an invaluable guide for navigating the intricate pathways of human emotion and interaction.

That I am mentioning Work the System in the same company as 7 Habits and Emotional Intelligence is an enormous compliment, because those two books have long been the rocks upon which I based much of my world-view. I think, armed with the knowledge contained in these three books, one could make a very good run at leading a happy life and a successful business. In other words: Work the System is staying on my shelf, right where 7 Habits and E.I. would be (if I hadn’t given away my copies to people that I felt needed them more than I did).

Carpenter spends the first third of his book guiding the reader towards the same realization that he experienced 12-odd years ago. He calls this process “getting it,” and he will be writing a guest post or two about it in his guest series, which starts on Monday. Look forward to this, because life is not the same once you “get it.” Even if you already sort of “got it” before picking up the book (Carpenter does mention that there are, of course, people out there who “got it” long before he did – and many of them built very successful careers for themselves because of this), it will reenergize you.

An example: Mid-way through reading this book, I wrote up a budget for my household and began tracking our spending so that we wouldn’t end up going into debt this year for the day-to-day stuff like gas, groceries, and entertainment. And I reorganized my weekly schedule to free up some extra time in the evenings for my side-projects by wasting less time watching TV.

The greater changes are still to come, however. Carpenter’s book lays the foundation for a simple yet powerful shift in your life. Before reading it (if you’re not one of the rare few who already “get it”), it’s very likely that you’re spending a lot of time running on a treadmill without even realizing it. After reading it, you’re ready to take your run outside.

About the author: John J. Walters is a social media marketer with Wasabi Ventures, director of marketing with TestSoup, and a research associate with The Maryland Public Policy Institute.

In the chapter “Tap Those Assets,” Ryan writes about several ways an entrepreneur can utilize personal assets; primarily leveraging monetary assets and personal/business connections.  It is vitally important for entrepreneurs to develop a diverse business network, and take time to cultivate each relationship.  According to Alina Tugend, entrepreneurs can also take networking to a whole new level, and  become connectors.  Please take some time to read Alina’s piece called Are you a connector?

If an entrepreneur is not already categorized as a connector, they should be intentional in developing that skill set.  That goes mostly for small businesses, but larger corporations should try to become connectors in some capacity.  Connectors look for ways to connect people in their network, and they usually ask for nothing in return.  To put it simply, connectors are often prime examples of people living out the “Golden Rule:” treating others how they would like to be treated.

Being nice isn’t the only characteristic trait of a connector.  Connectors also need to be intuitive so they can identify a need even without it being verbalized.  Connectors must have the ability to see the big picture, and identify several possible solutions in order to offer suggestions.  The aforementioned need doesn’t need to be astronomical. All the business may be looking for is a guest blogger.  Without being asked, a connector would recognize a perfect opportunity and connect a blogger in their network to the business.  Again, the connector will probably not receive compensation for their efforts other than the satisfaction that he was able to help someone.

Let me share an example for you.  Last year I met my website developer Lance Cummins on Twitter, and we have grown to become really great friends.  I also happen to think that Lance creates an awesome product, and I intentionally look for ways to promote him to the people and businesses in my network.  If you need proof, visit his site here.  Feel free to visit the Quincy Tutor Network to view another example of his work.  You won’t be disappointed.

Entrepreneurs can also volunteer their services to form a connection with another business.  My connection with WV stemmed from a relationship that I created with TestSoup.  Now, I am honored with the privilege of writing for the WV Entrepreneur’s Bible discussing topics that I would have never approached before.

If you are not a connector, I would encourage you to work on developing that skill set.  It is extremely rewarding to help others achieve their goal or solve a problem, even without compensation.  I am also a firm believer that good things will come to those that do good.  Please share a recent connection that you made, and the results of that connection.  As always, please feel free to connect with me on Twitter, and thank you for indulging me.

About the author: Eric Clark is the founder/CEO of the National Quincy Tutor Network, and is the Director of the Center for Academic Success at Eastern Nazarene College.

Each attendee was instrumental in the determination of the winner based on the pitch.

Once the votes were cast, three finalists (Mosaic, MyBridalDream.com and Pokos Communications) were selected to appear in front of a panel of expert judges  to answer questions about their company. Judges independently scored each company and then the winner, Mosaic, was announced and awarded the grand prize.

“We are honored to win the first ever VentureX competition especially with so many other great companies participating. We will use the prize right away to keep enhancing our product and to continue growing our business.  We are very excited to work with Wasabi Ventures and to being a part of all the excitement that is happening at the ABI in Manchester.” – Gerard Murphy, Founder, Mosaic

The event drew an impressive crowd of 250+ attendees including Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors, and Entrepreneurs. Each attendee was invited to listen to each pitch and ask their own critical questions in order to cast their vote accordingly. Attendees enjoyed extensive networking and learning through his event as well. In addition, each attendee participated in the “final pitch” in front the judges listening to critical feedback and networking it judges after the event.

Each start-up that participated, proclaimed “winners” or not, all gained something. The take-away from the event was comprehensive feedback, expansive networking, and the exposure for their company. This is only the beginning for many of the companies and we encourage them to continue to refine their idea and to come out and support our next VentureX Event to be held in Baltimore, Maryland, early Summer 2012. Be sure to keep up with our discussions, ideas, connections and events at The Startup Life .

We would like to congratulate all startups for getting this far, and offer a special thanks to all of our attendees, judges, and the abi Innovation hub, who made this event possible. We are looking forward to working with you in the future!

About the author: Kendall D. Ryan is the Director of Events and Outreach for Wasabi Ventures.

Passwords protect access to a myriad of personal accounts, banking information, files, credit cards, the ATM,  your cell phone; yet the frustration of tracking separate passwords proves exhausting and time consuming. I freely admit my propensity towards defaulting to the same password for every account and access I need, and historically created  something I knew well like the year of my birth and my initials, or, my grandfather’s name followed by the year I graduated from high school.  If you find yourself defaulting to the same approach; please don’t.

Before you find yourself echoing the sentiments of many who learned “too little too late”, i.e. those victims of identity theft; review the following best practices for password protection and organization.

1. Create strong passwords. Experts recommend passwords should be at least twelve characters long and contain a mix of upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers and symbols

Password’s should not contain real words or names.

2. Consider using a password manager. There are a wide variety of online password manager applications which allow you to view your passwords from anywhere you have access to the internet.  Online password managers allow you to have a multitude of passwords, protected in an encrypted environment, accessible by a “master password.” Here are a few to applications to check out:

RoboForm

LastPass

Use your search engine and query “password manager reviews” to explore other applications and  find the best solution for you.

3. Investigate a flash drive solution. I.e., an encrypted application on a flash drive.  Keep in mind, the flash drive must be carried with you :

https://www.ironkey.com/personal

RoboForm offers software to install on your flash drive

Look for additional information regarding password creation by searching “what makes a strong password” in your favorite search engine, or the following links may prove helpful as well:

http:/www.hackingpasswords.net/

http://www.identity-theft-awareness.com/password-protection.html

About the author: Tracy Parks is CEO of Simplicated, LLC, Productivity Consultant, trainer and speaker.

Writing a corporate blog can begin to have that feel.  You look at the calendar and realize, “Oh no!  It’s Tuesday, which means it is time to create a post.”

When you begin to feel this way toward writing on your corporate blog, it is time to consider a change.  The point of your blog is to engage your readers and build better relationships.  However, if you are entering into your writing with a “get this done” attitude, it will come across in your writing.

So, how can you keep things exciting?  There are a few simple changes you can make to spark some interest:

• Try a new format.  Write your blog post as a bulleted list of suggestions.  Include a poll for your readers.
• Write the article on a different day of the week.  Publish on Fridays as an end of the week recap.  Schedule the post for Monday as an intro the week.
• Add a guest writer once a month.  Find someone within your company whose writing you like and ask him or her to submit a column.  It is amazing what a week off can do to reignite your writing.

If your interest in your corporate blog has dissipated, give one of these strategies a try.  Do you have some ideas for keeping your blog exciting?  Please post your suggestions in the comments.

About the author: Michele Pesula Kuegler is founder and CEO of Wasabi Media Group.

Being a member of a business book club is the easiest, most fun way to get you to read while infusing your brain with usable information. It’s also a great way to network with like-minded people. (You can also adapt this information for starting a casual book club with your friends.) Setting this up is easy if you follow these simple parameters:

•  Ideal Size: 10-12 like-minded people (knowing that only 8-10 will probably make it on a regular basis)

•  Meeting Frequency: Once a month at the same time (i.e. 1st Friday of the month)

•  Suggested Meeting Length: 30-60 minutes – maybe a breakfast meeting would work?

•  Location: A quiet and private location – restaurant back room, someone’s home, an empty office

•  Fees: Just the cost of the books (and food if in a restaurant)

•  Refreshments: optional, pot-luck or bring-your-own

At your first meeting, decide what types of books you want to read. Create a 12 month reading list with one book a month (or two months if life dictates). Then talk about ground rules to include the responsibilities of members such as reading the book(!), attending meetings, absentee policy, judgment-free participation guidelines, guests, etc.

If you prefer to make this a business magazine reading group, go for it! There’s a lot of great current information disseminated in magazines with much to talk about. Just make sure everyone in the group have similar interests and want to read the same publications.

Every meeting should have a designated facilitator who reminds members of the upcoming meeting, leads the discussion, monitors start and stop times, and encourages dialogue from all participants. The facilitator can stay the same or rotate among the members.

That’s it! As you continue to meet, go with what works and abandon things that don’t. As a result, you will be more interested in reading, more interesting to talk to and more well-informed!

About the author: Abby Marks Beale is America’s #1 Speed Reading Expert. She has taught speed reading for the past 25 years and is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Speed Reading and 10 Days to Faster Reading.  She is also the creator of Rev It Up Reading, the online speed reading course. Please visit www.RevItUpReading.com for more.

The most common reaction I get from people at this idea is: “I have more than one thing!”  Well, so do I, but here’s the truth as I see it.  IF you identify ONE outcome that is not negotiable in order for you to get the results you want in 2012, and you get results, the positive outcome will roll over into many other positive results. But if you don’t identify — or acknowledge — that one goal, the resulting negative energy will prevent you from accomplishing the other goals as well.

I’ve identified that the most important thing for me to accomplish in 2012 is to get more sleep.  In a recent conversation with my best friend of nearly 30 years, she pointed out something she has observed repeatedly through the years: Whenever I don’t get enough sleep, I have a variety of negative results which dramatically reduce my productivity.

It turns out I’m not alone.  Tony Schwartz, author of The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, in a speech to Google employees makes the staggering statement that sleeping less than 6 hours/night for 2 weeks has the same effect on cognitive ability as 48 consecutive hours without sleep.  He further points out that we deny the effect, the same as someone who drinks too much alcohol denies any negative effects. If you’d like to learn more astonishing effects, do a search on YouTube for “Tony Schwartz Google.”

So, based on all this data, and much more research that totally supports it, I’m committed to getting more sleep in 2012, so I would share with you how I am using our 5-Step Productive Environment Process:

1)  State your vision.  My vision is to get 8 hours of sleep at least 5 nights out of 7, and on the other 2 nights, no less than 6 hours.

2)  Identify your obstacles. One big obstacle will be my travel schedule. Another will be a habit of watching TV with my husband when I could be going to bed. And, admittedly, the biggest obstacle is not making sleep a priority.

3)  Commit your resources.  My resources include my business partner and my best friend who are also working on similar goals, and are committed to helping me be accountable, and my husband who has been saying for years I don‘t get enough sleep.  Other resources include My PlannerPad calendar, and numerous resources I have collected on the subject of sleep which I have put in my SwiftFile tickler system throughout the year to remind me!

4)  Design your plan.  First of all, I will track the number of hours of sleep I get each night in my Planner Pad so that I have to face the truth about my progress. I have shared my goal with Andrea, Flo, and Alfred. Once a week, at a minimum, I will read or listen to one of my resources on the subject to get encouragement and new ideas.

5)  Maintain your success.  At the end of the 1st quarter of 2012, I will assess my progress and share with my accountability partners.  If I have reached my goal, I will plan a night out at a new restaurant (one of my favorite things to do) to celebrate my accomplishment, and I will make any necessary adjustments for the next quarter.

So, that’s my “one thing” for 2012.  What’s yours?

About the author: Barbara Hemphill is the founder of Productive Environment Institute whose mission is to help businesses reduce costs and increase productivity by implementing systems to manage information, space, and time.  For information about speaking or consulting services, www.BarbaraHemphill.com or call 888-380-6799.

There are plenty of great ways to come up with a serviceable elevator pitch. A quick Google search will come up with almost a million results. A few days ago, however, I ran across an article on TechCrunch that has what I think is the quickest, easiest way to formulate your own one-sentence business pitch, which is a great starting point for your company’s elevator pitch.

My company, _______, is developing _______ to help ________ do _______ with _______.

Not only is this a great springboard into the rest of your elevator pitch (which should be no more than a minute and a half long, since most people only have an attention span of 90 seconds), it’s also a good way to evaluate if your newest business idea has merit.

But once you have your elevator pitch perfected, you’ll still have to find someone with money to give it to. Preferably, a lot of people, because the vast majority of people you approach will most likely pass. Even great ideas sound dumb most of the time, and sometimes it seems like all the planets need to be in perfect alignment for a venture to get funded.

Luckily, there are events that you can attend where you’ll get the chance to give your elevator pitch to not just one or two potential investors, but an entire troupe of them. Events like the Venture Capital and Angel Showcase in NYC – where one of our managing partners happens to be speaking on Tuesday, February 7^th.

Not only do events like this give you a chance to hone your elevator pitching skills and try your luck with a number of different investors, they also do some of your homework for you. All attendees get background information on every firm in attendance so they can pick and choose who to approach.

But what if you’re not quite to the pitching stage quite yet? What if there’s still taking notes and getting your story straight? We can help you out there, too.

CapLinked is holding an online business-plan competition that has been narrowed down to five finalists, each of which will compete for the grand prize by giving their pitch to a panel of judges (which just happens to include another one of our managing partners) on Wednesday, January 11th.

Tuning into that discussion is free, so if you think you and your business could use a few pointers on crafting a great pitch before jetting off to New York City in early February, reserve a spot for the webinar.

About the author: John J. Walters is a freelancer with Wasabi Ventures, director of marketing with TestSoup, and a research associate with The Maryland Public Policy Institute.

There are also seminars with titles like “Measuring the ROI of Your Social Media Marketing.” I went to one a couple months ago, hoping to learn something. Instead, I was surrounded by middle-aged and above small-business owners who mostly talked about how they were afraid that Facebook and Twitter were out to steal their identities. Even the presenter basically said that measuring ROI from social media is impossible. And I agree.

Still, there seems to be consensus that having some sort of social media presence is essential in today’s business world. It makes sense. Social media plays a big role in our personal lives. It’s how we share cool stuff (Twitter), stay on top of the latest accomplishments of our colleagues (LinkedIn), and keep in touch with those friends that don’t live right around the corner (Facebook). Why wouldn’t social media be just as important in the business world?

Perhaps the reason that it’s so darn important is because everyone else is doing it. If you don’t want to be out of the loop, you have to take the time to get in there. True, the ROI is immeasurable and possibly absent entirely. True, it can take up a lot of valuable time and possibly get you and your business no further along the path of success. But there are, in fact, two compelling reasons to get your business involved in social media.

Here are the only two reasons to set aside time each day for social media (or pay someone to do it for you, which is what a lot of small companies are doing), discovered by yours truly after a year of trial and error:

1) Make connections with the other movers and shakers in your industry.

2) Earn a reputation for your business as an authority on whatever it is you do.

Now, as I mentioned before, there are a TON of other bloggers out there who will try to tell you the fastest and most effective ways to do this. I don’t have the time, the drive, or the experience to become one of them. So instead, I’ll simply tell you what I’ve learned in the past year.

Accomplishing the two essential goals of social media marketing is actually very intuitive. If you think about it, both those goals can be simplified down to “make friends” and “get recognized.” And we should all (by now) know how to make friends and get recognized. You contribute. Simple as that.

Don’t get into the social media marketing game just to get noticed and make more money. If you do it right, those things will happen. But to do it right you have to contribute to the ongoing conversation about your industry. Strive to learn as much as you can and to share that learning with others. And the longer you do this, the more people will like and respect you (and your business).

About the author: John J. Walters is a freelancer with Wasabi Ventures, director of marketing with TestSoup, and a research associate with The Maryland Public Policy Institute.