Have you thought about starting your own business? Have you started one and are having challenges with marketing, fear of failure, fear of success…I could go on and on. Has the question, Now what? ever entered your mind? If so, I would like to share my story with you. A journey, from corporate to business owner and everything in between.

After working in the corporate field for 25 years, an opportunity presented itself to start my own business, to work out of my home. I found a fulfilling profession in personal and business coaching. I love working with others helping them to achieve a better life for themselves. Although it was my choice to develop my own business, I did not have the marketing experience and desire I needed to build that client base. The truth is, I disliked (kind word) marketing, I didn’t want to sell and I knew I didn’t have what it takes to achieve this part of my business…or thought I didn’t have what it takes. The fact is, if I had a dollar for every time I said, “I’m not a marketing person,” I wouldn’t have to market my business; I’d be set for life.

I did the typical routine of sending some letters of introduction to my friends and business acquaintances, giving away sample coaching sessions and making a few calls that felt safe. I even put a few ads in the paper. I soon came to the reality that the phone was not going to ring and people were not going to approach me while I was sitting comfortably at my desk. Then a turning point came while I was standing in my office one afternoon. I realized I just wasn’t a person that could be an independent business owner – what was I thinking that I could do this? I decided I should quit and go back to an office job. At that moment I heard a voice; it was very clear. “If you quit before you’ve given it 100% you will be very disappointed in yourself for the rest of your life.”

I thought I’d give it one more try. How was I going to do this? I asked myself two basic questions. What did I need and what did I want? The answers I received were simple. I needed movement and I wanted color. At that point that was all I knew. I decided to trust that these answers would forward my direction in marketing and building my business. About one week later I drove past a juggling academy in Burnsville MN. Color, movement – I signed up. I started with a juggling class, networked with friends and business peers and developed a monthly call with other business owners about “manifesting” what you desire. I started looking at me; what made me tick, what energized me and when was I at my best. This became a time period of self-discovery. I had been so tied up in who I thought I wasn’t, I had forgotten who I was; a great team player, a great partner, the queen of brainstorming and resource extraordinaire. I thrived from the energy of others to help build my business. I needed diversity to keep things interesting and took a look at what really interested me. What were my strengths and what made me unique? I also looked at what was giving me energy and what was taking my energy. I decided to cut loose a part of my business that was draining rather than energizing. About 2 weeks later “Marketing On The Playground^(TM)” was born. I had created the space for what was supposed to come in by releasing what wasn’t working.

About 1-½ years have passed since I allowed myself this self-discovery time and gave myself permission to market my business “my way”. My business has blossomed into: 1) writing a booklet, “Marketing On The Playground^(TM).” 2) developing playshops and teleclasses to help others struggling with marketing their business 3) creating retreats for entrepreneurs that need time to get away and develop their ideas.

Here’s the bottom line. Discover what works for you. It should be an extension of your own strengths, passions and uniqueness. You have chosen to be in your own business; that took guts, passion and a desire for making a better life for yourself. Tell me again why you don’t think you have what it takes to market your business? If you have passions, interests, the strength, and I do mean strength to step into this world and set your own course, you have what it takes to market your business. Now, it’s just a matter of finding what works for you.

What was my secret for overcoming obstacles? “True” belief. Belief so strong that you are willing to stand up and overcome anything and everything that challenges your vision.

A Few Marketing Tips: . Give yourself “permission” to follow your own style as an extension of yourself. . Network and Market Through Your Strengths, Your Passions and Your Uniqueness. . Trust Yourself – You are the only one who has Your own unique talent to market Your business. . Look at what’s working and what’s not – If it’s not working do you need to cut it loose? . Believe in Yourself, and “Be”Yourself.

Hernning Parr
http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/online-marketing-business-opportunity-91811.html

Look back over the past few years and try to pick one or two days that have shaped the path you’re on right now. For me an obvious one was the day I was in the front office, chatting with two of our team on reception and almost loitering behind our front counter. A purchaser of a property came into the building to sign a contract or pay a deposit – who even knows now. All I really remember is that I was drawn to this young man, and now he’s my husband. If I’d been at my desk that day, or at lunch, or in the bathroom – or anywhere but that location – who knows if we ever would have met. It’s hard to believe my marriage relied on such a coincidence.

Consider this – how many of these opportunities are you potentially missing out on each day. I’ll share with you an example I know of, where someone has had one of those days that has altered their path.

Let’s call our example Jane (that’s her name so it’s kind of easy for me!) Jane worked in a local camera and photography shop and worked in sales and providing customer service to customers in the shop. One day another young lady – we’ll call her Kirsty (because it was me) dropped off some photographs to be processed. I thought nothing more of the transaction except perhaps a passing thought that Jane was pleasant to deal with. I dropped back with a friend of mine to pick up the photos later on and Jane and my friend had a chat. Again – nothing remarkable. Jane was pleasant and courteous.

I collected my photos and left with my friend walking out of the shop only for my friend to receive a phone call about 30 seconds after we had left. It was Jane saying that we had missed one packet of photographs. We said fine and that we’d walk back to the shop and turned around to head back. We’d walked no more than about 10 steps when I saw Jane running down the street in full corporate attire, heels, hair flying with my photos in hand and a huge smile on her face (the huge smile I would find out later is just part of Jane’s permanent uniform).

I was blown away with the extra effort Jane had gone to – she’d created the wow factor with me by not waiting for me to come back to the shop – but by stepping out and finding me. I instantly said to my friend, if Jane ever wants to make a move into real estate – tell her to give me a call. She called, she switched careers and is one of the most fabulous young women I’ve had the pleasure to work with.

There are two really important factors to consider here:

1. Jane created a wow factor with me as I’m sure she did with a lot of her other customers. She didn’t do it to try and get a job or a tip. She did it because she excels in providing great service and going the extra mile. The door opened simply because she showed a willingness to create that moment between us.

2. Jane had never considered real estate before, she only went through that door because she was open to new ideas and suggestions.

If someone wanting to offer you a fabulous new opportunity (be it a relationship, a career opportunity, a promotion in your current job, a partnership) watched you in your every day work – be it with customers, your team or concerning your work ethic or work quality would it make them want to open new doors to you?

Copyright/Reprint Info – The contents of this article written by Kirsty may be copied, reproduced, or freely distributed for all nonprofit purposes without the consent of the author as long as the author’s name and contact information are included. Example: Reproduced with permission from the Kirsty Dunphey weekly email. To subscribe to Kirsty Dunphey’s weekly email, go to www.kirstydunphey.com

See more at: www.kirstydunphey.com

Kirsty Dunphey
http://www.articlesbase.com/customer-service-articles/do-you-go-the-extra-inch-96438.html

Most business leaders don’t know how to structure their sales organizations or even themselves for maximum productivity. They don’t know how to change, adapt and re-organize for new stages of growth. Whether you are a one-person army or a large-scale sales force, you can learn and leverage my golden secrets to super sales mastery.

I first learned the secrets to building precision sales organizations while working for billionaire businessman, Charlie Munger. I doubled the sales of the first company given to me in just 15 months. The second company I doubled in just 12 months. Several of the companies I took over, I doubled two and three years in a row. Here’s how…

How to Increase Productivity & Double Your Sales

In most sales organizations, the sales are ad-hoc. Everyone’s running around doing what they think is best. Management sets very little standards of performance.

If you want to achieve maximum productivity and double your sales in less than 12 to 15 months, you must think like a scientist. You must plan of every aspect of your sales process down to the smallest detail.

Here Are My Top Ideas to Help You Create Your Step-By-Step Battle Plan for Sales Success:

1. Prospecting Stage

Do you have minimum standards for the types of accounts your salespeople should go after? Does every rep have some “dream clients” they chase constantly and relentlessly? What is the minimal size accounts should your reps be going after?

Did you establish the minimum number of accounts your team will go after (per rep)? How much time each day is going to be dedicated to this effort? Did you set a minimum amount of rejections your team will face per client? Make sure you include in your battle plan what your sales reps should do after each rejection and how this process is going to be monitored? If you don’t set standards here, 52% of all salespeople will give up after a single rejection. Yet studies show it takes 8.4 rejections today to get the client to at least meet you.

What will be your sales reps first approach? The second? The Third? What do you say if you get the prospect on the phone right away? What are your procedures for getting around gatekeepers and assistants?

2. The sales call.

What are your sales reps going to present? What are the top five strategic objectives you want to achieve from every interaction with every buyer? What and how many questions are they going to ask? How will your reps own personal credibility?

The sales call is a terrific strategy 99.9% o companies never address on purpose. Have you seriously sat down and talked about the sales call and planned out each aspect? Did you practice it, role-play it and polish it to a fine luster? Are you leaving nothing to chance?

For every company I work with, I make them plan every inch of the sales call. I tell my clients to think of sales like a war. Marketing with direct mail, advertising, trade shows and Internet Marketing are like your long range bombing. They soften the market and make it more receptive.

Your salespeople are your foot soldiers. When they get into hand-do-hand combat, how well do you want them trained? How many scenarios do you want to address in advance? By perfecting every aspect of the sales phone call, my clients slaughtered companies four tines their size!

3. The actual pitch for the product or service.

What’s your pre-emptive strategy to block competitors? What’s going to motivate your prospects to buy right now? Pretend you had to present to all your prospects all at once, what kind of experience would that be? Are you ready right now? If not, your sales process is sloppy.

Sorry, but it’s true. I plan out the sales opportunities to the letter. I know exactly what I’d say if you put all my prospects in a room all at once. Figure it out, then role-play it.

4. The offer.

Creating a compelling offer is an art form. Can you offer something for free that gets you deep into your clients’ world? Can you offer a free audit related to your type of product or service? Can you sweeten the inducement to buy with a bonus or free gift?

I have a client who recently added an MP3 Player to the offer and it increased his sales by 22% overnight. As a bonus, I give away spectacular additional training programs as an inducement to buy my primary offers.

Role-play your offer again and again until the reps do it with ease and complete comfort.

5. The follow up.

Now it’s time to continue the bonding process. In this stage you must recognize and plan your objectives after a sales interaction? Do you want to get referrals? Do you want to keep the client coming back again and again?

How are you going to build a bond? Did you get emails addresses? Can you open a relationship that is so worth having they can’t say no? What’s follow up step one, step two, step three and so on?

Train Your Sales Reps to Act More Like Top Producers

That said, the procedures, role-playing, constant training and working on your sales process and not just in it, can help even regular salespeople perform like top producers. If you’re not leading, you can’t close. There’s a war in today’s business world. It’s called sales. Ad, if you want to win the war and get more market share you must get yourself some true warriors. You need top producers.

Top producers respond perfectly to rejection by becoming more effective. They become more aggressive when someone is brushing them off. They’re more persuasive if someone isn’t buying.

Top Performers know that the sales process is a science. They understand that they must operate like scientists, constantly moving toward the sale. So start drilling down like a scientist each and every aspect of your sales process.

Chet Holmes
http://www.articlesbase.com/sales-articles/sales-management-mastery-how-to-turn-your-sales-effort-into-a-rocket-ship-of-results-139249.html

Author of Ignited

If you’ve been living in the corporate world for some time, you’ve probably attended a training session where one of the exercises was to conduct a “time spent” analysis in order to increase your efficiency. You cracked open your calendar, reviewed how you spent your time for the past week, and identified black holes that were wasting your energy. Maybe you even went so far as to break your activities into categories, separating the “urgent” things from the “important” things and both of these from the “insignificant” things.

Time management studies like these can be interesting, but the findings are almost always the same. Virtually every manager who works through the exercises discovers that he or she is spending too much time on “putting out fires” — dealing with the daily dramas and emergencies around the office — and not enough time thinking and planning for long-term projects that really matter. E-mails, instant messages, phone calls, and that guy from Purchasing who drops in “just for a second” and chews the fat for 45 minutes undo our best-laid plans — not to mention the endless, interminable, usually pointless meetings.

We know all this. Why doesn’t it ever change?

The problem lies in our approach. Time management programs usually focus on your personal productivity, analyzing how you choose to spend your time. This is all fine and dandy, but it misses one essential truth: In an organization that’s devoted to banging pots, you better bang pots or have a damn good reason for not banging them.

That’s why, after the PowerPoint presentation had ended and the trainer went home, you fell back into your old, unproductive rhythms — not because you didn’t agree with the time management expert’s analysis, but because you returned to normal life in the world of The Middle . . . which means doing what you think your boss wants you to do. Bang! Bang! Bang!

Managing Your Managers

In order to take back your time, your life, and your career, you need to make a new kind of change in your approach to self-management. You must step into the realm of managing your managers and thereby altering their expectations related to your time. The goal is to achieve complete alignment between what your bosses want (and perhaps need) you to do and what you believe you really should do.

In the same way that you coordinate the schedule in your PDA and your laptop with the one in your desktop computer, you need to continually coordinate with your bosses to ensure that you are clear, on track, and working from the same plan.

All of this starts with having a happy and supportive boss. And that means a successful boss. Your boss has to be successful. For if he is not, his failure may cast a negative light on everyone on his team. Many potentially great careers have been stalled, not because of the effort of the individual, but because of a boss who failed to make an impact, who failed to demonstrate his own value and the value of those on his team.

The first step in managing your manager is to move beyond your own needs to examine your bosses’ needs. Sounds reasonable — but understanding those needs and figuring out what to do to meet them isn’t usually straightforward. In fact, it’s a challenge in itself, requiring a whole new set of skills most people have never thought about.

Needs Explicit and Needs Implicit

Let’s start by dispelling a common misunderstanding. Lots of people in business assume that “meeting the boss’s needs” means doing exactly what the boss wants them to do — accepting the boss’s vision and direction wholesale. Wrong! This assumption is simple-minded and inaccurate. It leads to managers in The Middle focusing on aligning their lips with their boss’s backsides rather than meeting anyone’s actual needs.

Real “managing upward” demands a more serious and subtle analysis of human needs, which starts with the realization that needs come in two forms — explicit needs and implicit needs.

Explicit needs are easier to understand. They may be stated in the strategic plan promulgated by the company or the division, or they may be announced by your boss whenever the team gets together for the usual pep talk/torture session. They may sound something like this:

· “We need to expand our business internationally!”

· “We need to create a shipping policy that will save us some money and keep the administrative assistants from running around the office like decapitated chickens every afternoon at 4 p.m. when the FedEx guy makes his last pickup.”

· “We need to commerce-enable our Web site before Amazon.com decides to start selling the same kinds of widgets we sell and drives us out of business.”

· “We need to hire two more designers, fast, so we’ll have a prayer of getting the fall product line into the stores sometime this year.”

Explicit needs are the kinds of things that make it into the lists of goals you write every year at objective-setting time. They’re the things you tell people you’re working on when they ask. They tend to be the things you are proud of accomplishing (if and when you happen to accomplish one of them).

Implicit needs are more subtle. People don’t talk about them. Sometimes they’re not even aware of them. Most of the time they are things that people would deny if confronted with them. They sound like this:

· “Make me look good in front of my boss so that when he gets kicked upstairs he’ll recommend me for his job.”

· “Help me demonstrate my creativity by coming up with some ideas for next year’s marketing campaign that I can tweak a little and show off at the next divisional conference as if they were mine.

· “Help me feel more like a leader and less like the kid who was always picked last in the schoolyard basketball games.”

· “Figure out some way to keep the department running when I’m not around so I can go on vacation for ten days in a row without having to call the office every two hours to make sure the damned place isn’t on fire.”

While explicit needs tend to run a linear path, implicit needs tend be random, triggered by emotion and circumstance. But don’t think of them as flighty and certainly not as insignificant. They are ever-present, tenacious, and can overrule the explicit needs with a swiftness and power that can be awe-inspiring.

It’s a fun exercise to sit down with a sheet of paper and try listing your boss’s implicit needs. It’s also deadly serious. From the first day you meet your new boss through the last day you work together, you need to devote a portion of your time and energy to scoping out his or her implicit needs and defining them with as much precision as possible. Then measure whatever you do against those needs. (Your boss certainly will.)

One implicit need that virtually every boss has (and therefore belongs on the to-do list of every ignited manager) is the need for confidence. Your boss must have confidence that you are working in his best interest and that you are capable of delivering what he needs (both explicitly and implicitly). Fail to maintain this confidence and your boss will most likely drive you crazy — and will often drive you out.

We’ve all been there. The boss who last week simply set a goal and gave us the freedom to carry it out suddenly wants to micromanage every phone call we make this week. Sometimes it’s because they’ve lost confidence in us; other times it’s because their bosses have lost confidence in them, producing a sort of trickle-down anxiety that may end up with you being hypercritical of the dinosaur diorama your nine-year-old makes for science class. Giving your boss a sense of confidence in you is perhaps the most fundamental of all the implicit needs and the one without which no managerial relationship can succeed.

Understanding the implicit and explicit needs of your boss and his bosses sets a course by which you can align your own efforts. When that alignment is clear and accurate, you’re on track to creating an environment in which traction is possible.

Management Value Added

The concept of Management Value Added (MVA) is based on a simple question that you should ask whenever you’re making a decision about how to invest your time and energy: “What value does management add?” And how can your actions “add value” to any situation in business? That’s right — by helping to meet your bosses’ needs.

One way to start using the concept of MVA is by sitting down with your boss to discuss his or her explicit needs (the ones written down as part of the company’s strategy or the division’s official mandate). It shouldn’t take long for the two of you to agree on what they are and to prioritize them appropriately. Then ask your boss, “How do you feel I can add the most value?” If your boss responds, “Huh?” you can flesh out the question with additional questions like these:

· “What are the activities I am engaged in when I am contributing the most?”

· “What are the activities that you and the company most need me to do?”

· “What do you consider to be the best and most productive use of my time?”

· “What do you think is the special contribution that I am best positioned to offer to you and the company?”

· “Of all the things that I’m engaged in on behalf of this company, what are the three areas where you believe that I can contribute the most?”

Listen carefully to your boss’s answers. Using them as a guide, you can begin to understand exactly how your boss views your contributions. It’s quite likely that the way he or she measures your MVA is different from the way you might measure it.

Here’s what one of my bosses had to say when I asked him to define my most important areas for MVA:

1. “Hiring, nurturing, and guiding talent; putting the right people in the right jobs with the right goals.”

2. “Building capability; teaching my team members and creating an environment conducive to challenging thought and growth:”

3. “Staying close to the customers — understanding what’s important to them, what their challenges are, and how our company can provide them with solutions.”

Of course, this exercise will relate only to your boss’s explicit needs. (Don’t try to engage him in a discussion of his implicit needs. There’s a good reason why they’re implicit.) Having these priorities clearly defined is an enormous step forward and an advantage that surprisingly few managers enjoy. It provides you with a framework you can share with others on your team and allows you to use the test of MVA in your quest to get past pot banging.

You can use MVA to help you determine how to spend your time, which projects to support, and which meetings to attend. In my case, before committing energy to any new activity, I ask myself: “Will this activity help me achieve my priorities? Will it help me put the right people in the right jobs? Will it help me build capability? Will it help me know and connect with our customers?” If the answer is no, I avoid the activity — even if it sounds otherwise interesting, appealing, or fun.

MVA helps you maintain a focus on the things that matter while earning the support of those you serve. When your boss or someone else in the organization asks you to commit time or energy to an area that falls outside of the MVA priorities you’ve established, you can talk about how new commitment may affect your main goals and reach a joint decision as to whether a shift in priorities is warranted.

Copyright © 2007 Vince Thompson from the book Ignited Published by FT Press; March 2007;$25.99US/$32.99CAN; 978-0-13-249248-6

Vince Thompson
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/the-problem-with-time-management-128602.html

Most of us have been working for someone else for years now. You may have been dreaming to be your own boss, calling the shots and beyond that – to earn even more money than you were while working for someone else. Perhaps you hopped online or talked to some new Internet friends and it seemed that everywhere you turned people were getting rich quickly and easily using the Internet. Or at least it sounded that way.

Well, the answer is that indeed you CAN earn a solid income, even an excessive income from a home based online business. The problem, however, is that the ones who earn the most money, are 99% of the time NOT the ones making the most noise about their income.

So let’s get real about building a home business. Let’s take a look at the real picture to get you started down the right path having a better idea of what to expect ahead.

The Seed
Have you ever heard that your home business is like a plant? You have to watch it, nurture it and constantly be aware of its needs. Well all that attention starts with the seed. It has to be a healthy seed, planted in the right type of soil. Your business idea is the seed and the soil is the market. Does your home based online business idea have a chance to be supported in the market? Does it have the power to earn? Choosing your business idea is more important than anything else, because no amount of marketing, selling or Search Engine Ranking is going to fool people into thinking a worthless product or service is valuable.

You have to evaluate your seed, your home business idea and the way to do that is by testing it, comparing it and observing what’s already out there. Are there similar home based online business ideas that are thriving as well? Is it a valid improvement on something that’s already out there? If you have an idea that is completely original, unlike anything else – then you’ve got to spend even more time testing it. Think of how many types of paper, types of bottled water, types of drinking glasses, types of shoes – it’s virtually ENDLESS. To invent something totally new isn’t impossible, but you should be prepared for a tougher journey.

You can bounce ideas off of people you trust, whether that is family and friends around you or even people you meet in Internet forums. Be smart about what home business you decide to go into – it will lay the groundwork for your success or your step back to the drawing board.

Your Business, Worldwide.
Once you’re confident in the type of Internet Business products or services you’ll offer, it’s time to bring your company to the world via your website. When it comes to choosing a website, it’s usually not just spot and click. First you have to find and purchase a domain name at a domain name registrar such as www.Godaddy.com that fits your company. It has to be available or you have to be willing to cough up some big bucks if you want a popular website name that someone already owns.

After the domain name comes the hosting site. Basically a webhost is like a landlord. Usually you pay them on a monthly or yearly basis to rent “space” from them. Most webhosts also throw in some bells and whistles like email software or the ability to have affiliate sign-ups on your site. Do a google search and you should be able to do some comparison shopping to find the host offering the best price based on what your specific home business will need.

Internet Business Processes
You’ve done the research to get a solid home business idea. You’ve researched domain names and you spent a fair amount of time choosing the best webhost for your needs. That’s a lot of work – but how much of that is ever mentioned in those sites that espouse: “Just sign up and you can have $15,000 in 30 days!”

The learning doesn’t end there. When your website goes live you need to make sure it ranks extremely high in the search engines. These methods are called Search Engine Optimization or SEO. Here’s a quick tip: Do what you can to get as many links as possible on other sites that link back to your site. Also – write content about your products – have those articles placed on your site because the more words you have, the better chance you have to get a search engine to notice your site.

Of course any online home business works like any other offline business in most ways, especially with regard to customer service, your method of delivering your products or services and your accounting methods. All of these core issues need to be addressed before you head out to sell yourself.

Yourself.
Running any business takes a lot of work but keep your eyes on why you decided to do it. Don’t put to much focus on the little tasks or you’ll find yourself feeling overwhelmed and overworked. If you find that happening, take a step back – maybe a day off from the tediousness. Recharge yourself by relaxing and refocusing on why you started your business and what you’re trying to accomplish with it. Having a mentor by your side throughout the entire starting up phase will be an invaluable resource. You can feel the support of someone who has gone through or knows how to get through, the same things you’re facing.

Keep yourself motivated by staying refreshed and having a solid team around you. Remind yourself that you are part of an elite group of people who have chosen to go after their dreams – to live them. When you come across others who seem to discourage you – even if they don’t do it intentionally – just stop talking to them about your goals and aspirations. You can be starting off on the right foot just by surrounding yourself with those energetic, successful, happy people you know. And above all, no matter what you do – have fun!

Thien Kai Wei
http://www.articlesbase.com/ecommerce-articles/starting-and-building-an-internet-home-business-online-86370.html

I need help! I have just been appointed team lead for our internal office for a group of about 8 people. The folks already know me and use me as a go to person because I have been the technical trainer for the last 12 months. Due to the economy my company has downsized and I have been moved to this team lead position. I am in need of some good ideas on how to get the group to know each other and work together. Thoughts? Ideas?

Spend a few hours designing and building a table you will use for all your meetings. It is job you all have to agree on the design and work together to get done fast, also a reminder of a group accomplishment every time you have a meeting.

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“Mastermind” is the one of the greatest “secrets” to success. A Mastermind is a group of people who share a common vision and commit to leveraging each other’s brilliance, skills and big thinking to achieve their biggest dreams. Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, talked about the power of masterminding almost 100 years ago! When you gather a small group of committed, successful people together and focus on your individual businesses – magic happens. I know – I just spent last weekend with my Master Mind for our quarterly in-person meeting and the results were phenomenal.

When I look back at the 18 months our Master Mind has been together it’s truly amazing what each of our five members has accomplished.

Launched a highly lucrative seminar series

Made over $80k in just under 5 days

Leapt from struggling financially to six-figure income

Rebranded business and launched new website in under 3 months

Created a highly sought-after protégée program

Too many more to count!

I’ve personally participated in these types of groups for over 10 years. In reflection, some of my greatest “out-of-the-box” ideas and big accomplishments come from this type of unwavering support (and a swift kick in the butt) when I get scared.

I get approached all of the time to help people put their own mastermind together so I thought this month I’d share my insider secrets to creating million-dollar results through a mastermind team.

1. Mastermind with others who are playing big.

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Most of my time is spent with my mastermind group. They are all 6-figure earners who take big risks and are well respected in the community. If you want a massive leap in your business success, start surrounding yourself with the “power players.” These type of people will never let you get away with playing it safe and being unsuccessful.

2. Commit to meeting regularly.

Our group meets every Monday morning on the phone for 1 ½ hours and three times a year in person for a retreat. Our commitment to each other is a part of what keeps us on our toes. During our weekly calls, two members of the group present a challenge and the rest of us brainstorm and strategize solutions. Our retreats are more in-depth planning events. Consistency is the key.

3. Solve problems with the “third mind.”

When two or more people are gathered, a third entity is created which is the “collective intelligence.” It is said that a problem can never be solved with the same level of thinking in which it is created. Part of the magic of masterminding is in the synergy created by people who don’t really think the same way. By building on each other’s ideas, something completely new gets created.

Case in Point:

At a recent event, a few members of our mastermind were having breakfast and talking about the Small Biz Marketing Summit that we are all speaking at in May (another result of leveraging each other.) As we threw out an idea to market the event, each of us built on it until we realized that not only had we created a brilliant way to help people get the most out of seminars but we had created a whole new product! By bringing one possibility to the group we synergized and brainstormed our way into a really awesome opportunity for everyone. Now that’s cool!

4. Balance ambition with reality.

It is often said that there are no unrealistic goals, just unrealistic timelines. Sometimes as entrepreneurs, our big visions of success are really “right, shiny objects”(i.e. distractions from the goal.) A mastermind helps you stay focused, keep things simple and accomplish more because you are staying on track.

5. Leverage a “board of advisors”.

I can’t tell you how many times my mastermind group has saved me thousands of dollars with excellent business advice. When I incorporated, it was my mastermind I turned to for advice on all of the steps. When someone throws out an idea that seems unrealistic, I whip out my “how will it make you money” filter. We each represent a certain type of skills or strength that balances the group. When we don’t know what to do about a business decision, we will often bring it to the team to help us decide.

6. Experience mastery.

You can’t “hide out” or play small when you have a mastermind committed to the success of each member. You are forced to strive for that extra goal when you know your mastermind is holding you accountable. A mastermind pulls you forward. It becomes easy to take responsibility for your success and growth when you know someone “has your back.”

7. Evolve beyond your wildest dreams.

Sometimes when life is a bit challenging, one of us will slack off, get stagnate, or start thinking small. Each and every one of us believes that we have made a $10,000+ investment in each other. We show up (no excuses) for the calls on time, we talk to each other regularly outside of the calls, we give our time and talent to each other freely to support each others ventures, and we always challenge each other to play big. And we have made a commitment to each other that we won’t leave anyone behind and we won’t play small. So in turn, when life gets rough, we get through it with support and camaraderie.

* * *

I highly encourage each of you to form your own mastermind. Simply look around at people you admire and want to associate with and approach them with the idea. They in turn might have friends and associates they want to include. Let it evolve naturally – take the initiative to get your own mastermind started.

Melanie Benson Strick
http://www.articlesbase.com/entrepreneurship-articles/7-steps-to-creating-milliondollar-results-with-your-own-mastermind-team-127296.html

Janet was a manager for an insurance company and she complained, “We don’t work together as a team!” Larry, her human resources consultant said, “Everyone just seems to do their own thing, they don’t share information, don’t try to help each other, and just don’t seem to care about anyone else’s problems. What we need is a team building offsite!” The two of them put together a two-day offsite for their team at a local resort. Because Janet wanted to fix the problem ASAP they had it just a few days later. Larry worked hard on putting together a schedule of trust building, ice breaking, and brainstorming.

During day one of the offsite only half of Janet’s team was there. The other half were on an important project that needed to get done by the end of the week. The half that were there did the activities politely but thought they were too touchy-feely. They knew it was because Janet was trying to force team building. The brainstorming sessions showed promise but no one even took notes. In the end, the team saw the offsite as a failure.

If you have never attended a successful offsite business session you probably think great results are impossible. However offsites are really a great way of bringing a team together to concentrate on business dilemmas and finding solutions for them. While working on these business problems a good teamwork is usually developed. One of the best side benefits of offsites is this team-building which is formed when working together to solve problems. A well-planned session finds answers to business issues but also brings groups together to work closely and develops a team spirit and confidence to accomplish tasks efficiently. A sloppily put together session will not be productive and the planner will not be highly thought of.

Do you want your offsites to be successful at team-building while also ensuring productivity? If so, you should consider the following ideas:

If you are having an offsite meeting for ‘Team Building’, do yourself a favor and declare how your meeting actually improves business. It’s important to have real business goals for the meeting. Actual business development such as sales goals for the next year, new customer service ideas or trying to fix a nagging problem are some ideas to concentrate on. If you tell you employees the meeting is for “Team Building” they may feel that the meeting is unimportant and won’t really help the business. In reality, you are building your team and solving business problems at the same time.

Make sure there’s enough time to network. There should be plenty of time throughout the experience for everyone to get to know each other and enjoy refreshments. Everyone needs to know each other better in order to have a more cohesive and better working team. Do not plan getting to know each other activities – let the team do this naturally.

Try your best not to hold the offsite during a particularly busy time, as you want your team members’ full attention. You don’t want them to be constantly checking emails or leaving to make phone calls. Attempt to hold your offsite during a slow period. As is the case with most businesses, there may not be a prime “slow” time during which to hold the offsite, but you want to make sure team members are not already taking on more work than they can handle.

Some of the best offsites I’ve held were overnight events. It gave it a more fun-filled atmosphere because the team ate dinner together, had some drinks… it made the whole thing feel so much more relaxed. Further, we’d always stay up late brainstorming new , out-of-the-box strategies and working through major business problems. These sessions would prove to be invaluable because the team members put their heads together to address problems and opportunities. Everyone really worked together as a team and, more importantly, the team members built real relationships with each by getting to know each other better. They got to know how the others think and act, which laid the foundation for building a strong team.

Following a business meeting where an idea was born, it is crucial to develop a plan of action. If you are going to complete a project elsewhere it is imperative that you have a well thought-out plan of action. Without a plan, you will just have a list of ideas or thoughts and no way to complete the project. You need to do this as soon as possible after the original meeting and keep your team members informed of your process. Otherwise, the team will lose faith in the project and feel that their time could have been put to better use.

Daiv Russell
http://www.articlesbase.com/team-building-articles/strategies-for-success-offsite-team-building-332230.html

Team building days are events that are usually planned by employers. These types of days usually involve different types of cooperative activities and social designed to unify groups of employees.

Theme parties are one type of event that is usually planned towards the end of a team building day. These types of activities usually involve bringing out more of the fun and creative side of most people.Different types of themed party days that have been planned include Wild West, James Bond, and Tropical Island themed parties. A variety of activities are planned at one of social events.A Wild West party could include one or more of the following events: dressing up as a cowboy/cowgirl, participating in a Wild West shootout (a duel), and riding a simulated bull. Other activities may include participating in a saloon poker game (and perhaps even real or fake cigars will be provided for extra effect).

Of course a party with a Wild West theme will be set in a location that is very indicative of the old west (i.e. the swinging saloon doors, American flags, and cacti plants). Furthermore, usually old west music will be played, and entertainment such as gun slinging, lasso rope throwing, and knife throwing.At a James Bond themed party all the guests will be a different James Bond character. Professional or experienced amateur James Bond leading actors will guide the evening of mystery solving. One of the most important James Bond missions is to overpower Dr. Evil, and the other would be to help free hostages.

Other miscellaneous activities that may take place at a James Bond party include casino gaming, dancing, and watching movies (James Bond series and movies). Sometimes a bar is served with the appropriate cocktails and drinks as well.The Tropical Island themed party would include dressing up in beach clothing, sipping on pre-dinner cocktails, and listening to a live music. Two of the most commonly planned island theme parties include those that represent either the Caribbean or Hawaii-or a combination of both areas.Events and activities that may be included in a Hawaiian or Caribbean themed party could include belly dancing (and regular types of dancing), “tanning” on the beach, and lei making. For those who want to learn what a “lei” is the next paragraph would explain.

A lei is basically a flower necklace that is usually made from loose orchids or similar-shaped flowers. These flowers can be fake or real. Sometimes leis are made for the waste wrist or bracelet as well. These crafts can be accented with a variety of other items as well, such as dried bamboo pieces, miniature pineapple and/or coconut ornaments. Grass skirts may also be a craft that is made at an island party.The backdrop of the indoor location of a Caribbean Tropical Island party would represent the beach scenery of islands such as the Bahamas, Jamaica, Cuba, or otherwise. On the contrary, a Hawaiian party may include decoration themes of one or more of Hawaii’s favorite island volcanic beach spots or beaches.Usually the purpose of a themed party is to help open the minds of groups of employees. More importantly, these parties provide a way for new groups of employees to get better acquainted.

John Tarr
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/themed-party-ideas-for-a-team-building-day-127554.html

Problem is we have 2 people over the age of 60 and one pregnant lady. Any ideas welcome. x

My son and his team organised a day of painting and maintenance in our local children's play school. They made raised beds and planted them with bulbs, then they painted a 'blackboard' on the wall outside for the children to draw on. The inside was spruced up with a coat of paint and the teacher got the youngsters to paint a picture each and these were framed and hung on the walls. My son's wife and I made cakes and sandwiches and the school provided the drinks for everyone.It made such a difference to the look of the building and all the helpers were bowled over by thanks they received. This idea would work for your team because the over 60's would probably like to do the planting or painting and the younger members can do the 'heavy' work. The pregnant lady could make the cakes and sandwiches!

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