Archive for June, 2010

It’s not easy to be an entrepreneur. There are ups and downs, struggles and triumphs, victories and defeat. But throughout it all, a successful entrepreneur stays committed to their idea, their business, and themselves.

                Every entrepreneur, when starting their business is going to set short-term and long-term goals regarding what they want to accomplish with their business. At Professional Marketing International, we want to make sure all of our clients keep those commitments. So take some time to look within and see if you’re really committed to your business.

                When you’re first starting out, it can be a lonely road. Family or friends may not think you’re going to succeed, investors may be skeptical, and you may not get the kind of support you’re hoping for. You need to be self-reliant and confident in your goals. Don’t let frustration or discouragement creep in, even during less successful times. Stay mentally keen and emotionally focused and the positive feedback will come flowing in once you’ve found success.

                There may be some indicators that you may not be as committed as you should to your business. For instance, where is retirement on your priority list? Everyone wants to be able to retire comfortably, but if you’re just looking to make as much money as possible so you can retire early, you may not have the commitment to your business that it takes to achieve that success. The same holds true if you take a lot of time off for vacations. Vacations are fine, but a committed entrepreneur puts their business first.

                Nothing should be able to stop you. Stay committed to your idea, your goals, your business, your investors, you family, your friends, and your future. Seek out others, peers, coaches, mentors, and other advisors to see what they do when times get tough. What’s kept them going? Why haven’t they given up? It’s because they’re committed to being a powerful entrepreneur.

Sometimes, as an entrepreneur, there can be pressure to have all the answers. As the leader and the one in charge, it may seem like it’s unacceptable to have to go elsewhere for help or not know exactly what to do at all times. While an entrepreneur is confident and educated, they are also teachable. At PMI Coaching, we help teachable students get the most out of their experience and help less-teachable students learn the value of lifelong learning.

If you don’t already have the attitude of teach-ability, you may have a long road ahead of you. But here are some ways to ensure lifelong learning.

• Continually ask questions In some situations, you may feel uncomfortable asking questions. You need to get over that. Very few people will ostracize you for asking a question, and those who do may not be the kind of people you want to do business with. If you do have questions that can’t be answered immediately, write them down and look up the answer later.
• Constructive criticism is, in fact, constructive If someone is critical of a decision you make or suggests something, they may have a point. Every suggestion isn’t always a good one, but every sincere suggestion deserves at least a few seconds under the microscope. The added perspective from a coworker, employee, friend, or even competition may be just what your business needs.
• Learn on your own Take a class or read a book. There are many different organizations which offer education and training on various business-related topics. Alternatively, check out a book from the local library or buy one. There is a whole world of resources out there to help you pursue a lifetime of learning.
• Seek out others Whether it be a mentor you can work with one-on-one, or a community of professionals who meet regularly to discuss business, other people can be a great resource. Allow them to teach you what you may not know, bringing their own experiences, troubles, and solutions to the table.

Stay teachable and you will stay successful. Don’t, and you quickly limit your success. The moment you think there’s nothing more to learn about your business, your market, or your industry, you put a cap on your success. If you don’t know how to be better than your competition, how to efficiently reach your customers, or how to improve your product, expect a plateau on the horizon. Your inability to continue learning will only bring failure.

Let’s say your child isn’t doing well in his math classes. He’s having a hard time understanding the material and difficulty grasping what can be some fairly abstract concepts. One route you could go is to spend more time working with him on his math homework (or hire a math tutor) thinking that the more he is exposed to the material, the more likely it is that he’ll understand it. While this may help, if you really want to help him do better in math, you may want to consider enrolling him in music classes.

Studies have shown that students who learn an instrument do better in school and in life. The reason for this is twofold. One, students involved in a variety of disciplines are less likely to get burned out. It gives them a chance to use different parts of their brain and focus their mind on different topics. Two, there is crossover. The parts of the brain exercised by painting, singing, or dancing are closely connected with the parts of the brain involved in more academic pursuits.

Why do I bring all this up? Because even though you may be out of high school, it’s important to have balance in your life – a little bit because of reason one (burnout) but more because of reason two (crossover).

A lot of people will tell you it’s important to take time to relax, to take a break, or to go on vacation. Let’s be clear; they’re absolutely right. You don’t want to work yourself to death. However, some of us have a hard time just sitting around, watching TV, or reading a trashy novel, when there’s stuff to be done.

Success requires balance. So even though you’re working 50 or 60 (or more) hours each week, you cannot neglect your other responsibilities – family, friends, hygiene. But perhaps even more importantly, you should not neglect other potential avenues for growth.

You first need to figure out what demands already exist on your time. Talk with your spouse, family, girlfriend or boyfriend, friends, and neighbors to see how much time you should be spending with them – running errands, chores around the house, spending quality time together. Then figure out how many hours you need to work each week in order to maintain and grow your business. (And then be sure to factor in sleep.) If your total is less than 168 – the number of hours in a week – then you have to decide what to do with that extra time.

There’s nothing automatically wrong with using it to relax – watch the game or go for a walk – but you may want to use it to learn a musical instrument or another language, study art from a certain time period, take up pottery, or anything else. If you’ve already booked your 168 hours, you may want to consider including these extracurricular pursuits (art, music, etc.) as part of your work schedule. Doing so will make the hours you spend working more efficient. You’ll be able to look at problems with a new perspective and bring an added element to what you do.

These are the sorts of things that make a difference. Your business is important, but you are more important. Take time to continually learn and grow, not just regarding business but also culture, life, society, and the world around you. By expanding you, your business is sure to follow.

As an entrepreneur, you have a constant laundry list of worries to deal with – paying bills, product fulfillment, customer service.

Not too bad, right?

Well, you’ve also got to come up with innovative marketing strategies, effective website content, and creative new products.

Now how do you feel?

On top of that, you’re ultimately responsible for taxes to be paid, licenses to be renewed, and paychecks to go out.

Have you had enough?

And then are plenty of other responsibilities to deal with, which are all in addition to any personal life you may have, which could include a spouse, kids, mortgage payments, credit card bills, and (heaven forbid) having a little time to relax or have fun.

It’s easy to get frustrated, weighed down, or depressed about everything on your plate, especially if success seems to remain just out of reach. But regardless of all your responsibilities and the status of your business, a successful entrepreneur remains optimistic.

The whole world is not working against you and past failure does not prevent future success.

A successful entrepreneur doesn’t allow negative thoughts to take over. A successful entrepreneur focuses on the positive and possibilities. A successful entrepreneur learns to maximize the good in any situation.

This isn’t to say one needs to ignore or dismiss the bad things that are just part of business. Shipments get lost. Customer gets angry. Mistakes get made. And it’s important to learn from any negative events and do what you can to prevent them from happening again.

Was it just human error, a one-time event? Or was this mistake evidence of a bigger problem? What part of the process could be altered to remedy the situation, and what is the ultimate cost of (or revenue from) such a change? Is a short-term fix enough, or is there a long-term solution which needs to be implemented?

With all of these questions, the focus is on the future and on the possibilities for improvement. Without becoming too cliché, trials, failures, and mistakes really are opportunities to learn, to grow, and to improve.

Here are some tips on how to be an optimistic entrepreneur:

• Affirm the Positive It may sound cheesy, but mentally repeating such phrases as “I can do it” or “Choose to be positive” really can help you focus on the good. It’s also okay to take some time to relish the feeling of success.
• Be Efficient with your Time This is twofold. By remaining busy – solving problems and working hard – it becomes harder to get in the downward spiral of pessimism. Additionally, having a mindset that every minute counts will keep you motivated.
• Be Patient You likely won’t become an optimist overnight. Keep a record – either mentally or on paper – of times you’ve felt optimistic versus the time you’ve felt pessimistic. Try to best analyze what was different about each situation, looking for what may have caused you to react differently (keeping in mind, it could be something as simple as a traffic jam in the morning or stubbing your toe).
• Take Time for Yourself It may just be a few minutes, but take some time each day to do something you want to do. Catch the sports scores, read the comics, go to YouTube.com (just don’t stay long; it’s very addictive).
• Learn to Move On You need to accept what’s happened in the past as a reality; there’s nothing you can do about it now. Move on to the future and focus on what lies ahead.
• Be Honest with Yourself Don’t become delusional, in either direction. Don’t become so deliriously optimistic that you refuse to acknowledge failures, and don’t treat mistakes so seriously that they engulf you. Success is a long and winding road.

And if this song can’t cheer you up, I don’t know what will.

If you grew up before the internet was a necessity in every household, you might feel like you have some catching up to do in order to keep pace with current technology.  Technology is developing at an exponential rate and many users feel overwhelmed by the rapid changes. Read on to find out about some great websites that will teach you how to make the most of your internet usage.

How to use a search engine

Without search engines, the vast wealth of knowledge that is available to us online would be useless.  If we can’t find the information we need, it might as well not be there.  Learning how to effectively use search engines is one of the most important skills an internet user can develop.  Here is a link to an article that demystifies search engines: http://www.learnthenet.com/how-to/search-the-web/index.php.  There is even a website dedicated to using one of the most popular search engines in the world: Google.  Check out www.googleguide.com to learn everything you need to know about conducting searches with Google specifically.

How to send an email

Email is one of the most common ways people use the internet.  As a child, I remember having an email service for at least a year before my family finally got an internet service that allowed actual surfing.   A great guide on how to send emails is located here: http://www.learnthenet.com/how-to/send-email/.

How to bookmark a website

In your internet exploring, you will undoubtedly find websites that you want to be able to return to quickly and easily.  Bookmarks are place holders that you can add to a list on your web browser that will allow you to return to your sites with one click.  There are free services that you can use to organize your bookmarks like www.delicious.com or www.google.com/bookmarks.  A simple article that explains bookmarking for beginners can be found at http://www.learnthenet.com/how-to/bookmark-websites/index.php.

How to subscribe to an RSS feed

RSS feeds are indispensible for people who find themselves frequently returning to the same blogs or websites to check for updated content.  With RSS feeds, readers can choose to subscribe to frequently updated blogs and websites.  All newly posted content will be automatically sent to the user’s RSS feed and they can read them all in one place rather than visiting each separate website every time they want to read the new content.  Guidelines for setting up an account with an RSS service are outlined here: http://www.learnthenet.com/how-to/subscribe-to-rss-feeds/index.php.  Some of my favorite RSS reader services are www.google.com/reader, and www.feedreader.com.

How to start social networking

Social networking is a great way to stay in touch with friends and family or even to market a business.  On social networking sites, internet users can create personal profiles that house their own pictures and information.  Users can interact with other people through their profiles and create “groups” for individuals with similar interests.  Businesspeople can market their products for free on social networking sites by creating profiles for their businesses and inviting people to become “fans”.  Here are some tutorials on how to use the most common social networking sites: http://www.learnthenet.com/learn-to-social-network/, http://www.aarpmagazine.org/lifestyle/facebook_step_by_step_guide.html?CMP=KNC-360I-MSN-ATM&HBX_OU=52&HBX_PK=how_to_use_facebook&utm_source=MSN&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=how%2Bto%2Buse%2Bfacebook&utm_campaign=MSN-ATM%2B-%2BLifestyle.