Founders And VCs Reveal 21 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

October 16th, 2011 § 0

Founders And VCs Reveal 21 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

Time To Get Your Mind Right Baby!

August 23rd, 2010 § 1

During the course of a day I speak to at least 75 people. I track how many people I speak to everyday, what we discuss, and the outcome of the conversation. This is my way of assessing myself daily to be ever watchful of my Thinking, my Attitude, and my Actions.

All I seem to get from people is how bad the economy is and how they can get a piece of the pie. What seems to be top priority is money and vanity, no interest in things if it doesn’t benefit them, and who they associate with. This is the mind set is a dangerous trap.

The prosperous and successful people I’m talking to are continuously assessing themselves to be encouraging to people who have given up, a light of hope for people who are broken, and to help others in need. These successful individuals are prospering in the new economy…and they’re EXCITED about the Favor GOD is Blessing them with as a result of their servant mind set.

After you have finished reading this blog post, ask yourself this critical thinking question: Are you really serving GOD, or is it all about you, and are you allowing the mind set of self centered thinking to invade your consciousness?

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Need Financing for Your Business, Community Development Corporations may be your salvation!

August 20th, 2010 § 0

You Support Your Community; They May Finance Your Business In Return!

by Joseph Lizio

Whether you are a small mom and pop shop or a multi-national corporation, all businesses impact or are impacted by the communities in which they operate.

Most businesses, when they first commence operations, think long and hard about their location to include factors like the availability of needed materials and resources, the local labor pool and its talent base and in particular the ease of access to capital sources. But, over time, the characteristics that drew a business to a certain locale may have changed; sometimes for the worse.

Throw in this bad economy and businesses residing in declining or distressed areas receive the proverbial double whammy.

However, many communities, looking to retain some sense of viability as well as to support the businesses that continue to support them and their population have developed unique financing vehicles termed Community Development Corporations (CDC).

For the most part CDCs are non-profit organizations publicly funded via their city’s government or through state or federal grants. However, there are some that are for-profit organizations and tend to receive their funding from local banks in conjunction with community reinvestment act initiatives.

Regardless of how they are funded, these financing organizations can help local businesses by either providing grants or loans to community based businesses that are either struggling to stay afloat or looking to expand.

Most CDCs typically have two or more programs focused on hard assets acquisition. Hard assets meaning the purchase, construction or rehabilitation of physical plant and property (building or land) or for capital equipment purchases and needs.

Further, some of these programs are great for companies that are struggling to meet traditional bank loan-to-value (LTV) requirements.

Example, your bank approves your $1MM loan but will only fund 65% of the amount – requiring your business to secure the remaining 35% or $350K in equity.

In steps the CDC. Most CDCs programs can raise the LTV amount to 90%.

Thus, in this scenario, the company would only have to raise $100K in equity, receive $250K from the CDC and the remaining amount from the bank.

Originating banks tend not to mind these agreements as the CDCs will usually take a second lien position behind the originating financial institution.

Moreover, for some companies that do not meet traditional financing requirements, many CDCs have subprime products. While these are not modeled after the subprime products that destroyed our financial markets in 2008 and 2009, they do require less underwriting, overall, than many traditional lending organizations.

Other benefits include low rates (even compared to traditional lenders) – most of which are fixed rates with loan terms of up to 30% longer than most bank products making monthly payments easier to handle.

The bottom line, if your business is struggling but has a very clear path to turning itself around, especially as signs of a recovery are taking place; but only lack the financing piece of the equation, Community Development Corporations may be your salvation.

These groups are based on a very simple premise. They wash your back (provide your business with needed capital) and you wash their back by improving your local communities and the people that reside within.

To find a Community Development Corporation in your area, you might start by contacting a local SCORE or Small Business Development Center office in your city, visiting your local Chamber of Commerce or contacting your city’s officials.

Either way, if you are in the market for financing hard assets like Property, Plant and Equipment you might want to start searching out your local Community Development Corporations.

Joseph Lizio holds an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship and has a strong commercial lending background. In his current venture, Mr. Lizio is the founder of www.businessmoneytoday.com – a site designed to help business owners find and obtain capital to grow their businesses.

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Autoresponders Automatically deliver a sequence of messages to new subscribers

August 18th, 2010 § 2

An autoresponder Immediately Engages Subscribers. You can begin sending automated messages. New subscribers require special attention. They’re eager to hear from you, but they don’t know your company as well as established subscribers do. Build profitable relationships with them using a sequence of automatically delivered follow up emails.

* Welcome new subscribers, then drive them back to your website

* Answer questions, deliver downloads and provide product information

* Build subscriber trust and confidence

* No manual sending needed

* Personalize emails with subscribers’ names and other information

You Can Set Your Own Delivery Hours

Pick windows of time you’d like your autoresponders to be delivered.

Do you know when your subscribers are more likely to check their email?

Emails at the top of the inbox tend to get the most attention. Use Send Window features to make sure message is one of them!

Easily specify which days and what time of the day your follow up messages to help increase your open rates and subscriber response.

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Putting The “Service” Back In “Customer Service”

August 17th, 2010 § 0

by Sean Cohen

The future of customer service is here. Technology has made seeking out support faster and easier than ever. But, has your digital age company sacrificed true service in the name of automation?

Today, finding customer support is as simple as writing an e-mail or picking up the phone. But, even though you’re not face-to-face with your customers, you still leave a lasting impression. Do you come across as caring and competent, or menacing and mechanical?

Offering stand-out service on the Internet isn’t as hard as it is rare. Take these simple steps towards old-style service in the digital age:

Give Each Customer a Personal Response

When a customer sits down to e-mail your company, it’s because he needs help. He chooses e-mail because it’s quick, but his request still warrants a satisfying and personal response!Companies eager to save time and money often take automation too far in their customer support. Each customer has a unique question, and deserves a unique answer. Even if you save time by copying and pasting stock replies, change the opening and closing to make the message sound less robotic.

Be Clear, But Sincere

Offer Live Customer Support

help

Make Sure Your Support Reps Have All The Answers

The presence of phone support will do no good if your staff doesn’t know your product! Customer support reps should be warm and friendly, and willing to help with any aspect of your product.What a good feeling it is to talk to someone who feels confident in his product. It’s even better if he’s knowledgeable enough to solve your problem without transferring you all around the company!

Provide Stand-Out Service; Gain Lifelong Customers

every

Email Deliverability Tips

August 17th, 2010 § 0

by Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO)

Ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to subscriber inboxes is an increasingly difficult battle in the age of spam filtering. Open and click thru response rates can be dramatically affected by as much as 20-30% due to incorrect spam filter classification.

Permission

Confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list is the number one step in the battle for deliverability. You should be using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the same person that owns the email address and requested to subscribe.

Subscriber Addresses

When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their “real” or “primary” email address instead of a free email address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.

List Maintenance

Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending email to them. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

Message Format

Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be difficult. A 2004 study by AWeber .com shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.

Content

Many ISP’s filter based on the content that appears within the message text.

Website URL:

Words/phrases:

Images:

Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered based on image content.

Attachments:

With viruses running rampant and spreading thru the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It’s often better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size.

CAN-SPAM Compliance

The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced a number of rules regarding the delivery of email. It’s important you have your legal counsel review your practices and ensure you are in compliance. The two most important rules include having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial messages and a working unsubscribe link that is promptly honored to remove the subscriber from future messages.

Reputation

Reputation services are often used by large ISP’s as a way to vet email senders regarding their email practices and policies. Businesses listed with these services are then given less stringent filtering or no filtering at all. Several reputation services are:

http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
http://www.bondedsender.com
http://www.habeas.com

Relationships & Whitelisting

Contact with major ISP’s and email providers is essential in letting them know about your requested subscriber email. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific whitelisting programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list.

Email deliverability is about ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to the intended recipient. While no single tip will enable you to get 100% of your email delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long way to reaching that goal.

How to Change Yourself For the Better

August 10th, 2010 § 0

I had good parents growing up, I always got what I wanted. I was not born with a silver spoon in mouth but I always got what I wanted from my parents. Sometimes I think giving your kids everything they want is not good in the long run because they become spoiled kids. You see there is a dark side to being a spoiled kid and that dark side is rejection.

It is all good and fun when you are growing up and you always have some change in your pocket, and clothes on your back, but when you mature and realize you can not always have what you want in life, that is when rejection kicks in. If you can not handle rejection you can end up feeling inadequate about yourself, unhappy, lonely, resentful and angry at the whole world. That is what my whole life had become as a result of rejection.

I had a hard time dealing with rejection because grew up a spoiled kid that grew into a very selfish adult and people could see that in me. My selfish attitude lead to several bad relationships, continuous job instability, and seclusion from society. I became a loner. I did not want you to give me anything, so do not ask me for nothing.

My life became totally unmanageable, I lost my family and everything and I worked hard for because of my selfishness. So I surrendered, and put it in Gods hands. I started sweeping the spotlight back and forth over my life and it revealed all those experiences that I did not want to remember.

It also revealed that I had Selfish Ambitions, Selfish Interests, and I was Self Centered. It revealed how wrong Thinking, my Attitude and my Actions have hurt myself and others.

To be honest with you, I still struggle with my Selfish Ambitions, I still struggle with my Selfish Interests, and I still struggle with being Self Centered.

But the big difference now is, I am not going through life lost with blinders on. Now I know what I need to work on and change in my life. You see, I am in a fight for my life dealing with my Selfish Ambitions, my wrong Thinking, (what I Value). I am in a fight for my life dealing with my Selfish Interests, my Attitude. (my Selfish Attitude). I am in a fight for my life dealing with being Self Centered, my Actions, Bad Choices, (my Pride and Ego). I had to change my Thoughts, Attitude, and Actions, that was my problem, that is what got me where I am today.

So how did I plan to change my Thinking, my Attitude, and my Actions, I decided to do something different. I started doing things different to change my Thinking, my Attitude, and my Actions.

I set out to change My Selfish Ambitions which involved changing my Thoughts, and changing my Thinking. This meant I had to change what I Valued in life, and that meant stop trying to impress people.

The homes I bought, the cars I bought, and all material things I bought to go with it, they are all gone now.
All those females who I was there for when they needed me, do not want to have nothing to do with now. All those people that I thought were my friends, when I had all those material things, they have all changed, they are not the same, they act like they do not know me now. The coldest part is, with all the accomplishments and my achievements that I received in my life, I am still no better than next person.

So now, instead of trying to impress people, I am trying to focus on being a shining light of hope. Instead of trying to impress people, I am practicing encouraging people to be strong in their faith. Instead of trying to impress people, I am trying to leave a positive impact in their life.

I also started to change my Selfish Interests which involved changing my Attitude, my Selfish Attitude
I had to learn how to not look only at my own interests. You know, I do not want talk to him, or I do not want to talk to her, or I do not want to go to this place, or that place. I had to learn how to take interest in other people. There are people out there hurting that I can help with my story, this story I am telling now.

I also started to change being Self Centered, which involved changing my Actions and the choices I made in life. This meant eliminating Pride and Ego and becoming Humble. I had to learn how to put others needs before my personal comforts. I had to learn how to give up my desires in order to meet the needs of others. I had to learn how to do everything without complaining or arguing.

In closing, the most important thing I did in changing my life and doing something different, was reading the Bible and spending time with God in Prayer.

Now God is transforming me from the inside out so that I can be a light for him and help another suffering individual overcome, and that is a good thing.

-George Hayes

A Quick List Building Tutorial for Beginners

June 26th, 2010 § 0

Building an email list can be very frustrating if you do not have a proven method for collecting email addresses. Fortunately, there are lots of easy ways to collect email addresses so that you reap the benefits of an email marketing campaign. Here is one way I acquired a lot email addresses very quickly.

About twelve years ago when I was working at radio station in Boston Massachusetts, the radio station was holding a promotional event in the community at one of the public parks.

There were several vendors and sponsors attending this event. I noticed one of the sponsors attending this event was a community newspaper that was just beginning to promote the launch of their new newspaper.

The newspaper decided the best way to let community know about the new newspaper was through email marketing. They purchased a table at this radio event with the sole intention of collecting email addresses.

The newspaper assigned several members of their staff to go into the crowd with clip boards telling the crowd about the launch of the newspaper and to ask attendees at the event if they would like to receive the newspaper.

The only requirement to sign up for the free newspaper was to register by giving their email address to the staff member of the newspaper.

The community newspaper would sell advertisement to small businesses in the community based on the number of subscribers to the newspaper.

In a very short time, about three months, the new community newspaper had several thousand subscribers by just going to a few events and asking for email addresses.

One of the easiest ways to build a big
list quickly is to simply ask for email addresses.

When you speak with prospects tell them that your newsletter, blog,or website is full of great information. your content; it is the one thing that you are most knowledgeable about and it will show when you are talking it up.

It only takes a few seconds to jot down an email address. If you make “the big ask” five times a day for one work week, that is 25 email addresses you did not have before you started, and 100 email addresses in just one month!

I built a big list very quickly this way and you can too. To promote my resume writing service, I went out everyday to employment agencies just to collect 5 email addresses a day. I got even more when I attended job fairs.

However collecting email addresses will not do you any good if you do not have a powerful auto responder tool to boost your websites traffic, turn passive visitors into active subscribers, convert more sales, give you precise subscriber tracking and targeting, and give you excellent customer support for creating an email marketing campaigns.

Here is one way to build a big list quickly!

1. Focus on asking for email addresses. Simply Ask!

2. Find events and places where your target audience is going to be, go there and start collecting email addresses.

3. Make it your goal to collect 5 emails a day for a whole year. Chances are you will get a lot more email addresses than you are expecting if you are a goal oriented person.

4. Get a good auto responder. I recommend http://www.aweber.com/?339682

This is the auto responder most Internet Marketers use to market their products and services.

Good luck building your list!

By George Hayes

Job Security – It Can Be Yours

March 18th, 2010 § 0

Do you have job security? How can you be sure? What exactly is job security?

You’ve probably heard that the most secure job in any company is that of the HR Manager because they have to be around at least long enough to fire everyone else. Well, whether that is true or not, I do know that a lot of people spend a lot of time worrying about job security. Yet, even with a lot of worry and effort to find just the right job, rarely do we have control over our jobs to the point that we can really feel secure that we will be able to do tomorrow what we are doing today.

So what is job security?

A simple search on the Internet and you’ll find many definitions of job security. One site says it is the assurance that we have about the continuity of gainful employment. Another gives a list of dependencies for job security. Some of those are: the economy, prevailing business conditions and a person’s skills. Some also state that government jobs are more secure than others. It’s almost laughable really because if you look deep enough, you will find that basically every business, economic, social and personal factor that could ever come into play, can have an affect on your job security. Well, if you ask me, that doesn’t sound very secure. So what do you do? How can you find real job security? Or can you?

Well I believe we can and it really doesn’t matter where you work or who you work for. IT doesn’t matter if the economy is good or bad or where you’re located or even your skill level. To find real job security, you just have to be able to answer one question: What would you do tomorrow, if you lost your job today?

If you are like most people, the thought of losing your job freaks you out just a little bit (or a lot). You aren’t sure what you would do. All you know for sure is that you have bills to pay, food to buy and a people to take care of it. In other words you don’t have a plan.

Real job security comes from having a plan in place and ready for when that day comes that your job goes away. To begin building your plan, answer the following questions:

How long can I live without a job? – To live without a job, you need to have some money set back, an emergency fund if you will. Do you have one?

What are my strengths and Weaknesses? - Do you know what you are good at? Maybe you are an accountant right now but do you have any other transferable skills that you could take to a different job?

Where would you like to work? – Even though you may be happily employed right now, you should be aware of other companies and have a short list of 5 – 10 that you would like to work for if something happened to your job.

Is Your Resume Current? – When you have to start looking for a job is a horrible time to figure out how to build a good resume. Keep your resume current even if you are happy where you are.

Do you know how to perform a focused job search? – Although you may have a short list of companies that you would like to work for, do you know how to perform a focused job search to get the job that you want? You must be more deliberate and focused than just sending your resume out to online job boards.

As you answer these questions you’ll need to do the work to ensure that you know or have everything that you need. Then, as you build this plan, you will begin to feel much more secure in your current job because you will be able to be confident in what you would do if you did lose your job. That is real job security.

Greg Gearlds is a Career Coach and Business coach and Creative Leader at The Original Vocation Agency. To find out more about job security and to hire Greg to help you put your plan together check out http://www.thevocationagency.com

Get Your Perfect Job

March 18th, 2010 § 0

There are several initial steps that you can take to discover who you are and what you really want in a career. Once you have completed a Career/Life Plan or in some other way have completed an in-depth exploration of you, your talents, dreams, potential, you will be ready to bring those unique talents to the attention of potential employers.

You will want to take time to create a resume that clearly states the tangible results you have accomplished and lets the working world recognize the benefits of convincing you to work for them. Employment is always a two-way street, and in any hiring situation you are both trying to discover how well you may be able to work together.

So, once you have your resume and cover letter in place, how do you get in front of the right people?

Be very clear about what you want in a job – that doesn’t just mean duties and salary. That also means corporate culture, working conditions, people environment, personal skills you want to showcase, etc. The more clear you are here, the better the fit will be.
Research the companies out there that meet your criteria. Follow up the initial research by “informational interview” where you actually go into the company and interview someone there to find out about what they do, what kinds of employees they hire, how they treat their employees and customers, what their structure is, etc. Informational interviews may include managers, executives, secretaries, etc., whoever is able to give you the information you need about the company. Because these are busy people, always schedule your interview ahead of time, and be respectful of their time constraints.
After you have completed this research and identified one, two, or three companies you are interested in, contact them again. Forget about the newspaper ads (although they can give you an idea of what the market is like), most jobs are not advertised. And those that are advertised will generally have heavy competition (when I was a training manager for a software company in Silicon Valley my ads, regardless of the position, would pull in 90 applicants – minimum).
Network, Network, Network. You should always be doing this whether on a formal or informal basis. Formally, any trade association that matches your market is a good place to start, so is NAFE (National Association for Female Executives), even Rotary and Soroptimist. Informally, become involved in your community and you’ll be surprised the connections that “suddenly” pop-up when someone has a need. Take the time to identify everyone you know, and who THEY know that could be a help to you. You may be amazed at how large your network really is. Networks are the best places to give and receive help. Remember, networking is a two-way street, so ethically you will need to give back to the network in whatever way your particular gifts allow – this is the basis and foundation for networking. And by the way, networking is the best way to find jobs.
Along the same lines, volunteer for some project or position in your community that holds interest for you, gives you more/better experience, and gives you an opportunity to meet others. It’s okay if it puts you in the limelight, too. This way folks get a chance to find out who you are, what you do and how well you can do it. Plus you’ll be doing the community a favor, so the community will be more inclined to help you out when the time is appropriate. We all prefer to do business with people we know, this gives the rest of the world the chance to know you.

Even for the seasoned veteran with lots of experience, it often takes 6 months of active searching to change jobs effectively. So give yourself permission to focus on what you really want and take the time to put your best foot forward.

1999-2009 Katie Darden ~ Katie Darden is a Creative Catalyst who delights in drawing out the best in those around her – clients, friends and strangers. To read more articles like this one, go to http://CareerLifeInstitute.com. If you’re ready to change careers or find the job you really love, discover an easy way to do this at http://SuccessfulCareerTransitions.com.

About George Hayes

George Hayes is an Internet marketing specialist. He enjoys promoting powerful web solutions and tools that work for him and he helps small business professionals achieve breakthrough results through improving their web presence. George is the founder of VictorySeekers.com and he has written a book Path to Victory a testimony on how he overcame personal challenges in his life to live his life's purpose.
George would like to say Thank You to all Partners and Friends who enable VictorySeekers.com to accomplish its mission of reaching victorious people through their faithful financial gifts.
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