To Honor Their Service

May 30, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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Today is Memorial Day here in the United States. It is a day when we, as a country stop for a moment in time to honor the life and sacrifices of those who have served and who are serving this country in the military services.

The point of this holiday is to remind ourselves that the freedom that has been afforded us in this country comes with a price. That price is the willingness of men and women alike who are willing to risk life and limb for the freedoms we hold so dear.

So, today, we honor you all. Those who have served in years past and those who are in the service of this country today. We honor you for what you do and can’t breathe a breath of freedom’s air without being thankful for the sacrifice of your lives for us.

For those of us who are living in the freedom afforded by these brave men and women, I have another thought about memorial day that I would like to toss out for our consideration. In order to honor their service, I would like to challenge all of us to live our lives in the fullness of the freedom so many of these heroes have fought and died for.

What I mean by this is that our service men and women keep us free and provide us with a country built on the ability to be anything we choose to be. I believe that we can best honor the service of those we remember on this Memorial Day by making the choice to live life to the fullest, by choosing to “be all that we can be,” and by making our  world a better place for everyone who lives in our communities.

When we live to our fullest, we say with our actions, as well as our voices, “Thank you!”

Have a great Memorial Day!

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World Changing Entrepreneurs

May 26, 2011 by 4 Comments
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World changing entrepreneurs (also know as social entrepreneurs) are the kind of people that see the issues and challenges that life hands mankind and looks for a way to solve those problems. I, being one of these entrepreneurs, struggle though with which problem to attack and with identifying what success looks like.

You see, for the social entrepreneur there is a two-fold bottom line. Company profit is a driving force, but profit is of minimal benefit without the development of a successful remedy for the companies “cause.” To have a world changing dream is wonderful, but if the best we can do is identify the problem then the dream will always be just that …. a dream. Genuine success comes to the social entrepreneur when he/she can bring the dream to life.

I had the privilege of attending a graduation ceremony for a Leadership course recently. There were a group of 16 bright individuals, with drive and passion who were looking for ways to solve problems in our community. Yet, in the end, the director of the program said that the results had be to create more questions than were answered. You see the hard work for the world changing entrepreneurs is not in discovering the problem or even in asking the appropriate questions. It is in finding the answers that will bring about real change! (And doing it in a way that can financially sustain that change.)

The whole idea of changing the world has an almost universal draw, but the willingness to start something that will actually bring change often requires more effort than even the most ardent entrepreneur wants to tackle.  So, here are some things to consider before you begin your world changing journey:

1. What is the one cause that you can “hang your hat on?”
2. Do you have the capacity to create a solution to successfully change the world in the area of that cause? Global causes are great things to stimulate the mind to think, but do you really have capacity to make a global change, or should you look for a cause in a more local area? (World hunger and world peace are great causes, but can you really tackle these causes?)
3. What can you do in the development and growing of a business model that will directly effect your cause?
4. How will you measure success both financially and socially? If you don’t know what success looks like, you will never achieve it!
5. Does your business plan create something that is sustainable without outside influence (when you take money from outside entities … banks, investors, governments, etc. they will have a say in what/how you do things!)

Being a world changing entrepreneur is a noble profession. The question is how and where will you begin?

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Help Business Success Go Viral

May 25, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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Several years ago my life circumstances changed and I had to make a decision about a career change. While the decision came simply and the choice to me was clear, I had to go back to class, get some new training, the become licensed by the state. All of this to be able to walk in the door and start the process of building a new business.

Once I got those things taken care of, I started off like everyone else. We were all trying to learn the ropes. We were relying on the experience of those who were our teachers and trainers. We accepted their view of the business as being the “best and only legitimate” view. After all, they were the one’s with the experience and they were the one’s willing to train us.

What I found was that while we were given the basics of the industry, the “real” and “hidden treasures” of successful business building were left to our own finding. As I asked questions and sought advice, I found that there was a wall of resistance that existed. These successful business builders felt that they were “training their competition.” They saw our success as something that would take away from theirs. They saw a limited pool of success and any that I gained came at the expense of theirs. As a result, many of my peers faltered and left the industry.

I see things in a completely different way. I believe that in virtually every industry that there is an unlimited pool of opportunity. I know that a responsive and adaptive business can grow to levels of success in any market. I also know that no one business can”click” with every potential client/customer.

This being true, I believe that every business should have as a matter of good business practice a plan to help business success go viral. What I mean is that if you can’t do something you are asked to do or you can’t devote the appropriate time to it to make your efforts valuable to the potential client, the pass the business along to someone who can/will! (Someone get that guy some smelling salts!)

When I first started in business I found out quickly that the guy with the biggest Rolodex wins. Sharing the wealth has always made me more money than hoarding all I could get my hands on! And, although this seems to violate all the tenets of modern business, I am telling you it works! To borrow the title of a great book by Michael Port “Book Yourself Solid“(affiliate link) and then find ways to help book others solid as well.

The more you help business go viral the more reciprocal business will come your way by those thankful for your efforts on their behalf.

What do you think? Have you ever received business by giving some away?

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Real Customer Care

May 18, 2011 by 2 Comments
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I had a bad experience yesterday. I was planting some trees at church. I took off my glasses and set them on the ground (I know, not too smart). Needless too say they soon ended up in several pieces and very badly bent. After finishing what I was doing I headed off to the store (Lens Crafters) where I had purchased the glasses about 18 months ago.

When I walked in I didn’t know whether or not my glasses could be salvaged or not. The gentleman who took them from me didn’t either. However, after about twenty minutes of work, twisting, bending and reshaping, I walked out of the store with my glasses intact and no money lost from my wallet! All the while I was treated as if my glasses (and their restoration) was the most important task that the salesperson had on his plate.

Where do you suppose that I am going to buy my next pair of glasses from, and if possible who do you think I will request as my salesperson? You guessed it, the guy who straightened out my old glasses while maintaining my integrity and not laughing at me for stepping on them in the first place.

In this short span of time this salesperson expressed created an atmosphere of trust that not only made me appreciate him and his company, but also to tell his story by writing this post today. I what he did I saw three key ingredients that someone building a business that counts should understand and put to practice in developing real customer care:

1. Building an atmosphere of trust is essential to great customer service. People become loyal customers to companies that they grow to trust. While Lens Crafters is not the cheapest store for eye glasses, it is MY store because of how they treated my personal crisis!

2. Treating customers/clients with integrity will always work to your benefit. They way customers/clients feel while in your business and after they leave is critical to their willingness to both buy again and give you referrals. Treating each customer as if THEY will make or break your business is very important to your long-term success.

3. It takes a quiet confidence in your ability to build such trust. While I sat and watched, this salesperson went to his drawer of tools over and over finding just the right tool to bend and twist my glasses back into shape and even when things looked bad, he didn’t quit. In the end his skills won out and I am wearing those, no longer damaged, glasses as I type this morning.

The old adage in business is that it is cheaper to keep an existing customer than it is to develop a new one. (Something the media companies should learn …. but that’s another article all together!) So, with that thought in mind you and I need to learn the principles of real customer care!

What do you think? What kinds of unique things do you do to let your customers know you care?

 

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Smaller with Purpose – Update

May 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I always love it when I write a post (Smaller with Purpose) and someone who reads it says, “that reminds me of something I’m doing” or “that reminds me of something else I saw/read.” Yesterday, a good friend, photographer Shuva Rahim said that she had just written a blog post about why she was a photographer. (Just click on Shuva’s name to read the post.) She also told me of a great video that she saw that touched on the subject of building a business with purpose.

Watch this great video by Simon Sinek and hear this concept of purpose from a different voice. After you watch, let me know what you think about this idea of purpose. Do you have a purpose? Do you know yours?

 

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The Essentials of Business Success

May 13, 2011 by 2 Comments

I hope you have all been enjoying the series “Building a Business that Counts.” I have enjoyed reading and commenting on your comments so far and hope that the rest of this series can be blessing to you.

Today, I want to get down to brass tacks. I want to share with you what I think are the essentials of business success. Those basic things that every entrepreneur and small business needs to understand in order to make their definition of success come to pass.

In his best selling book The E-Myth Revisited (Amazon affiliate link) Michael Gerber speaks about the “fatal assumption” in business. He says that the fatal assumption is, “if you understand the technical work of a business, you understand the business that does that technical work.” In other words, you may be an awesome carpenter, but that does not mean that you understand how to run a successful and profitable carpentry business.

In order to make your business grow and thrive, you need to understand the essentials of business success. I think that these essentials fall into five categories:

1. The entrepreneurial mindset. This mindset allows the business owner to always be open to evaluate the potential success of every opportunity placed before their business. It is the creative side of the business where risk and rewards are calculated.

2. Business financial education. While budgeting, profit margins, pricing, overhead, fixed expenses and the like might well be a foreign language to most entrepreneurs and small business owners, understanding how they work in your business is essential to long-term business success. Don’t loose sight of the money. Nothing else in your definition of success will come true if you don’t keep the money under control!

3. Basic marketing education. Peter Drucker once said, “Business has only two functions – marketing and innovation.” Both require a creative mind and the willingness to take risks. Unless your business has a marketing plan and the will to engage the market, chances of success are minimal.

4. Leadership education. Even the most “solo” of solo-entrepreneurs needs to have leadership skills. Learning how to direct your clients/customers into making a decision is absolutely necessary in developing a successful business. If and when employees come into the picture, these skills need to be sharpened regularly to keep the company moving smoothly and in the right direction at all times.

5 Personal growth education. This is probably one of the least considered of the essentials of business success. Most business owners don’t see either the value of personal growth training nor to they make ample time for it in their business. Yet, if you study the lives of some of the greatest business owners in history, they found such education as essential for themselves and their businesses.

Understanding and putting to practice these essentials does not guarantee business success, but they do make the probability of that success greater. To discard them makes failure your primary option.

What do you think about this list? Are there other essentials that you would include?

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Defining Success “A Follow-up”

May 12, 2011 by 4 Comments


The power of the internet never ceases to amaze me. I was reading this morning some articles on issues that I enjoy and came across one on BNet about companies that are enjoying success by being socially responsible. (point three in yesterday’s post) So, as a follow-up to yesterday’ article (Defining Success) I wanted to invite you to read the post at BNet and then come back at let us know what you think!

Talk again soon ….

 

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Defining Success

May 11, 2011 by 2 Comments

When people set out to start their own business, they usually do so because they think that they can “make more money” with their own business than they can by working for someone else. The money, more than anything, drives them and money, more than anything is their way of defining success. Now don’t get me wrong, every business needs to make money and “how much can be reasonably expected” is a very important question. My point here is that this question might necessarily need to be answered after defining success.

The definition of success is so often the last consideration for new businesses. I think that this is true (at least it has been for me) because it is a way more complicated answer that just “how much money can I make.” Success is more than just deciding on a arbitrary “why” and takes time to work through. Defining success has to do with deciding what your life should look like and what you are willing to do (and not do) to get to that place.

In my view, defining success requires looking at life in three areas:

1. What makes you happy? For any business to be successful, it needs to be something that adds to your “happy factor.” To get up every morning and head out to do something that doesn’t make you happy is akin to poking yourself in the eye with a sharp stick! It’s not fun the first time you do it and it doesn’t get better with age! You may become dulled to the pain, but even that doesn’t make things better.

2. How will your business help your clients? When someone asks me what success looks like, I think about the faces of those who I helped buy their first house. The smile on their face as they walked through the door for the first time as owners is priceless. Success, in all businesses should look like that! A client/customer elated with what you have helped them do and their view of a brighter future because of your efforts on their behalf.

3. How will your business help make the world a better place? Whether you choose to donate to an existing cause or develop a system that allows new causes to get the place they deserve, society is only made better by businesses that care! In the early days of American capitalism, businesses (not government) were the engines of social change. They supported the needs of the under privileged and the needy. They supported the churches and religious institutions. They encouraged young entrepreneurs to showcase their talents. They realized that, as an old line from Star Trek said, “the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few.”

If you first define success by looking in, looking out, and then looking around, the money question will be much easier to answer. Then you will know for certain if you are building a business that counts!

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Building a Business that Counts

May 9, 2011 by 2 Comments

Over the past couple weeks I have indicated that Doulos Marketing would be undergoing some changes beginning the first of May. In order to share those changes with you I am going to post an article series entitled, “Building a Business that Counts.” This series will let you in on my passion and dream for the development not only Doulos Marketing, but will also allow you to see the direction of my new training programs for aspiring entrepreneurs and small businesses/start-ups.

I have three principle goals in this change of direction and this series of posts:

1. To challenge and encourage entrepreneurs and new business owners to consider their businesses from points not found on a profit and loss sheet.
2. To raise the hopes of current small businesses/start-ups who have a “more-than-the-money” view of business that they are not alone in their thinking or their efforts.
3. To develop a network of like-minded businesses who can stand our from the crowd and together replace the troubling concept of national/global capitalism (driven mostly by greed) with a more local and community based capitalism that focuses on a balance between the need for profits and the need for community involvement.

What I am proposing is the kind of capitalism that made the United States a great nation, filled with generous people who sought the benefit of the community and country while creating a life of success and comfort for themselves and those around them. I believe that there are a growing number of entrepreneurs and small business owners who are looking to break out of the “what’s in it for me mold” and build their business success on a different platform.

I hope that you enjoy this series, but more importantly I hope you will join the conversation. Let me know what you think!

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