I left university having had enough of sitting in the classroom. My degree took 5 years to complete, having added and removed subjects several times. I was ready to move out into the real world, despite the messages constantly being sent during the school years that the workload was preparing me for life.

I have never worked as hard as I did in school.

Being in a real job, whether for someone else, or for myself, made me realize that I have a fair bit of spare time, times when I don’t have other responsibilities. I then did something I would not have considered prior to starting the job – I started learning again.

Some learning was formal, presented in a classroom, with assignments, tests, and marks. Most, however, was the informal learning that I know to be one of the keys to success. Every discussion I had, every event I participated in, every situation that arose, all were opportunities to learn.

Constantly absorbing what happens around you in a work environment can be tougher than my fourth year algorithms course (ranked one of the most difficult courses offered by the university). Reflecting on the situations and making their lessons part of your being increase your value, just as getting a few more letters after your name can do the same.

To succeed, you need to keep learning. Any opportunity you have to sharpen your mind, increase your knowledge and understanding of your business and its environment, can only help you succeed.

Related posts:

1. The Road to Success is Always Under Construction
2. Book Education vs. Job Training
3. Knowledge and Experience

Find a mentor who has been in a similar business situation before (though not necessarily in the same industry), with whom you have good personal chemistry, and with whom you can communicate effectively.

The reason for this is simple – no matter how much advice you read, no matter how many textbooks you study, you will encounter countless situations in which the generic advice doesn’t hold true. Your training won’t help you, nor can you go out and search for an answer. The only resource that can help you is another person.

A mentor for a business owner understands the realities of the business. They understand the issues you’ve faced in the past, and how you handled them. They understand the local culture, and the personalities of the people involved.

And they understand your business.

Mentors can be free, if you have a friend or family member who is willing to step up to the job. If not, there are many small business consultants, who are essentially mentors. While their fees may seem extravagant to the point where they make lawyers look cheap, the value they bring to your business far exceeds their cost.

A good mentor will help you avoid costly mistakes, learn from your own history, and push you to succeed. A good mentor wants you to eventually part ways with them – because that means that you’ve succeeded, which means they’ve done their job well.

Related posts:

1. Benefits of a Mentor
2. Looking for a Business Mentor
3. Question: How do you name your business?

Siams Pants, a comfortable, one-size-fits-all Thailand Fisherman’s Pant, retail for $32, and are the base of her growing business. Starting with $5,000 and an initial inventory, Carley managed to expand her business, locking down a supplier. Her biggest problem, though, was distribution. While alone she managed to grow her business, every sale was a significant amount of effort, which would mean she would need to find a representative in any city or country she wanted to reach.

The four Dragons who bowed out did so for some simple reasons – the business was not terribly large, even if it were to succeed, and the barriers to entry for a competitor were non-existant. After all, anyone could manufacture identical pants, or have them imported. Carley’s response that the reality is that she is alone in her market failed to sway any opinions.

Any, that is, except for Jim Treliving. He made an offer, for the simple reason that for him, distribution was not an issue. If the reason for lack of growth was an inability to reach out across the country, Jim could certainly provide assistance there.

Additionally, the lively presentation demonstrated many qualities of a good entrepreneur – to keep pushing, to keep chasing after the sale even when it seems increasingly unlikely that it will succeed. If anyone could make the business succeed, it would be someone with a passion, who had demonstrated her ability to succeed if given the chance.

If you are looking for a quality presentation of a business or product, look no further than Carley Stenson – she has the passion, and she has the credibility. Sometimes, to get a deal, that’s what it takes.

Related posts:

1. Investing with a Social Conscience
2. Upsell Your Investors
3. Handy Solution Catches a Deal

How do you go about ensuring that your invoices are being paid in a timely fashion?

Coping with Failure

Last week, I asked how you cope with failure, no matter the significance. Clearly, though, the significance of the failed event makes a difference to most people, but successful people have managed to define all failures in one of two ways:

1. I failed and there was nothing I could have done to prevent it;
2. I failed because I didn’t take some action[s] to prevent it.

If the failure falls under the first category, then it can be brushed off fairly easily – after all, the failure came about through no fault of my own. Granted, I need to be brutally honest with myself in this assessment, but if I truly believe the failure was not under my control, then it will not hamper my ability to move forward.

If the failure is from the second category, however, then I need to assess what went wrong, and how I can prevent such a failure from occurring again. That is, failure is a way to learn from the past, to create the lessons that will shape the future.

Regardless of whether the failure was due to my actions or not, I cannot allow the failure to impact my future actions at an emotional level. Such reactions will not generate positive actions, and are more likely to result in a downward spiral as logic is removed and emotion begins to take control.

If you want to be successful, look at failure as an opportunity to learn how to improve. While you should not hope for failure, it also need not be a calamity.

Related posts:

1. Question: How do you cope with failure?
2. Early Failure Can Impact a Career
3. Question: Fake it Until You Break It?

Naturally, the way in which people deal with failure is somewhat dependent on the nature of the event. However, some people are in general better able to cope with failure, and everyone can learn from them.

The question of the week is simple: how do you cope with failure, whether significant or otherwise?

Assessing Competency

Last week, the question dealt with interviews, and in particular, how you assess the competency of a candidate. Chemistry, or how the candidate will fit in with the corporate culture, is in some respects easier to assess. After all, you can describe the culture, assess for a personality clash, have the candidate meet the team.

Some will venture to say that qualifications, that is, the degrees and certificates a candidate presents, can be used to assess their abilities. Unfortunately, in reality, this doesn’t really work very well.

First, unless you have knowledge of the particular institution issuing the degree or certificate, you cannot assess how well the curriculum of that degree matches the needs of your business. Additionally, unless you request transcripts, you have no way of knowing whether the candidate finished at the top of their class or the bottom – which could be a significant spread.

Second, most jobs entail real-life experience, something which few degrees provide. As such, the work experience of a candidate has more relevancy than which university they attended, and what grade they received in a particular course.

Looking at work experience has similar problems. While the candidate can describe their role in order to appear to be a good fit, the reality of what they did at past jobs may have little resemblance to the verbose descriptions provided in the interview. Stories about events at past jobs may have been minor parts of the role – if they happened to the candidate at all.

As such, the interviewing company must resort to more practical assessments of skill. There are a few ways to accomplish this.

The first way is via a portfolio, in which the candidate is asked to provide samples of their work. The company must make it clear that the work is being requested purely for assessment purposes, and should NEVER use the work without the permission of the candidate.

However, not every job can be assessed via a portfolio. In some cases, more specific samples are needed.

The company can request a particular sample. For example, a salesman might be asked to prepare a sales pitch on a particular product, and present it during the interview. If the preparation of such a pitch is not expected to take too much time (and this is relative to the position being filled), such a mechanism can provide a very accurate assessment of skill.

Last, the company can attempt a test, but with caution. The test questions should be designed such that it’s not so much the correct answers as a way of thinking that is being measured. For example, a candidate could be given a problem to which there are many known solutions, and the assessment is not whether or not the candidate knows a particular answer, but how they approach the problem. This can be used to assess the candidate’s problem solving skills.

Related posts:

1. Question: How do you ensure timely payments from clients?
2. Early Failure Can Impact a Career
3. Question: Assessing Competency in an Interview

The manager was concerned that this would appear as a stain on a clean resume, perhaps having a negative impact on his ability to market himself effectively. However, perhaps this early failure could turn out to be of benefit, when properly presented.

Everything in life is about the spin, or the angle. In any situation, the question is not whether there is bias, but rather, how that bias is being presented, and to what ends. Sometimes, the creation of the bias itself is subject to analysis, showing the thought processes of the presenter.

The manager, seeking to put a positive spin on the situation, can choose to reflect on what was accomplished prior to the conclusion of the contract. Additionally, he can look at the reasons for the project being cancelled, and learn how to detect such issues early in the project lifecycle. He can apply those lessons learned to future projects, but, perhaps more relevant, he can explain all this as a lesson learned in the school of hard knocks.

When presented with a situation in which the outcome was not the hoped for success, that’s not the same as a failure, unless you choose to present it that way. Every situation has bias, and you can choose to bias the situation to be described as an alternative successful outcome, rather than a failure.

Related posts:

1. Question: How do you cope with failure?
2. Question: How do you ensure timely payments from clients?
3. Life is a Roller Coaster

When you named your business, how did you choose the name? What vision were you trying to portray with your choice of name?

Mentors

Last week, I asked about finding a mentor, or where you might look to find a mentor. Perhaps the best answer was the one from Jeremy:

Friends in business, business partners, customers that you respect, or hire a business coach!

The best approach here is to address each on its own.

Friends in Business

These are your peers, who have no vested interest in the performance of your business in particular, beyond a desire to see you succeed. They may not have much more experience than you, but their experiences are similar, and yet different enough to be of use. An issue you face now might be one a friend dealt with a while ago. Additionally, this mentorship relationship can be reciprocal, with you giving your friend the benefit of your experiences when they need it.

The downside to such a relationship is that finding a friend with sufficient experience, and where having a mentor-like relationship will not impact your friendship, can be difficult. Not every business owner can find such a resource, but if you can, it should certainly be used.

Business Partners

The upside to business partners as mentors is that they know exactly what issues you’re facing, and the implications of the decisions you need to make. The downside, though, is that they also have a vested interest, and some of those interests might not align themselves with your own.

When using a business partner as a mentor, try to find at least one other resource who can act as a mentor as well.

Respected Customers

This one may be surprising, but the perspective customers bring to a business is not to be taken lightly. They see the short-comings of your business, as well as what it is you do well that keeps them around as customers. If you have a customer who has experience with business, and with whom you have a good relationship, try to at least spend some time with them on a regular basis to get feedback on how your business is developing.

Business Coach

This is, perhaps, my least-liked approach to mentorship, though many advocate it. My primary issue with such a mentor is that they are in the business of mentoring, and as such, want to see you succeed. However, this lends itself to a potential pitfall, in that if you succeed too quickly, you may abandon them sooner rather than later. Of course, that also might result in more referrals, but you are a guaranteed customer, while referrals are a maybe.

However, a business coach who has experience running a business (other than their coaching business) could be an extremely valuable resource. If this is the route you are taking, be sure to get personal referrals for a coach from other business people you know and trust.

Related posts:

1. Looking for a Business Mentor
2. The One Tip for the New Business Owner
3. Question: Where did you find a mentor?

The true reason for having multiple plans is when there is an outside factor which can influence whether or not a plan is feasible. For example, if you’re planning a camp outing, you don’t have control over the weather. Plan A would then be for a beautiful sunny day, while Plan B would be in case it rains. Since you won’t be able to control this factor, having a second plan (or a third, as the situation demands) would be perfectly reasonable.

In business, however, having multiple plans can actually hamper your ability to succeed at your primary plan. Setting up your business, you have a path of how you would like to grow your business. Some parts of that plan are flexible, others are not. However, all your planning should be dedicated toward removing obstacles to Plan A succeeding.

As soon as you start to devote effort toward a secondary plan, you diminish the effort put into Plan A. Suddenly, with obstacles arising in your chosen path, it becomes easier to say you’ll switch to Plan B, rather than persevere toward your original goal.

To flip this around, not having a second plan can seem foolish – it’s known that life rarely follows along our ideas of perfection. As such, how can one justify not having a recourse?

The answer is that the recourse is to plan better – think through the various possible scenarios, all the things that could go wrong, and plan for them. If your flyers don’t generate a lot of leads, then you’ll adapt your marketing strategy to use direct mail postcards. If the average customer spends $50 in your store instead of the planned $75, you’ll implement a plan to increase the number of customers.

However, in the big picture, all these actions and plans are to achieve a single goal, whatever that might be. Plan B is merely one of several plans for when Plan A needs a bit of tweaking to succeed.

Related posts:

1. Effective Marketing Strategy
2. Plan for the Worst, Hope for the Best
3. I Have a Great Idea – What Now?

If you have an idea for a new business, a product, or a service, the first thing you need to do is to get customer validation – that is, confirm that someone with no ulterior motive (that rules out your parents/siblings/kids) would pay for a good execution of your idea. For more details on this aspect of getting started, read my earlier post on Starting a Business.

Assuming you can get your idea validated with a paying customer, it’s time to do some thinking about your ability to succeed at your project. This is, perhaps, one of the reasons that some advocate writing a formal business plan – because it will make you think about some of the questions you really should be answering:

• Who is your competition?
• What are they doing?
• What are some of the industry rules, processes, or expectations?
• How will you set yourself apart?
• What are the barriers to entry?
• What are your start-up costs and your operating costs?
• Where will the money to run the business come from?
• How will you make money, and how long will it take to prove profitable?

There are, of course, many other questions that a business plan covers. It will walk you through an overview of your business, industry analysis, marketing plans, sales, operations, finances. It will enable you to see the bigger picture of your own business before you risk a single dime.

I recently advised a couple of people who were setting out to build a business. Both were creating online stores to market and sell their products, and wanted to know what it would take to succeed. In both cases, the products were high quality, with a corresponding price tag. In one case, there was a large start-up cost in terms of machinery, other than that, the two businesses were quite comparable.

For both, I advised they start with the most basic eCommerce system available that could be quickly installed and configured, although it’s longevity for their business was questionable. The reason was that the system is free to install, and can get someone non-technical running with an online store in a matter of hours (this includes many kinds of reports, product management, newsletters, etc). However, once both their businesses start to be profitable, I suggested that they then invest in a better eCommerce solution, which would be more pricey.

In other words, both needed to understand that the distribution channel would not set themselves apart, and so they shouldn’t be focused on it (even though both would be primarily marketing via their websites). However, their product needed to be as good as possible, and that’s where the energy was directed.

If you want to succeed, you need to understand what it will take, and which parts of the road are not important. For the unimportant pieces, push it out to the most time- and cost-effective solution, while for the important pieces, spend the time and money to do it right.

Related posts:

1. It’s a Good Idea, Now What?
2. From Idea to Capitalization
3. A Novel Idea

What would make you leave a business?

Measuring Progress

In last week’s question, I was interested to know what factors you use in business to measure progress, or your ability to reach goals.

In a recent course on writing business plans, I learned that while many businesses use income as a measure of progress, it’s actually counter-productive to do so. For example, a business which wants to earn $120,000 a year needs to bring in $10,000 per month. Perhaps that’s not such a big deal, but if after 6 months it’s realized that the average has been only $5,000 per month, it can be de-motivating.

Perhaps this is why the focus in business plans is driven toward number of customers, or leads, rather than dollars. I might know that a customer is worth about $5,000 in income, and that to reach my goal of $120,000 I need to find 2 customers per month. If, however, after 6 months I realize that I’ve missed my goal by 50%, that’s an extra 6 customers to find in the second half of the year.

As well, since many businesses operate on a recurring basis, that is, where customers come back over time to continue to support the business, the importance of any given month is limited, since there is the secondary influx of consumers that will happen over time. While missing the monthly goals continually will hamper a business’ ability to flourish, people are still aware that minor bumps in the road can still be navigated successfully.

Other ways to measure goals can involve number of positive reviews from clients, the number of referrals acquired and turned into clients, the number of networking events attended at which at least one new contact was made. The goals, though, should be directed at the long-term success of the business, and not the monthly quota – that is, they should be used to benchmark those events which bring your business closer to its eventual success. When you fall short of those goals, it is easier to pick yourself up and move forward, since falling short does not negatively impact your business, but rather, fails to have a positive impact.

Related posts:

1. Question: How do you Measure Progress?
2. Business Health Checkup
3. Question: How do you name your business?

First, my goals for 2010 were accurate as of the time of writing, though priorities changed over the year, and with good reason. To recap the goals, and my current status with them:

• Learn PHP and Zend to a reasonable degree of proficiency – this has gone well, and while I would hesitate to call myself an expert on either, I am comfortable programming a web application using those technologies. I’m still working on getting the turn-around time down, but it’s moving in the right direction.
• Launch Client Data Tracker – this has not happened, because priorities change. The project turned out to be significantly larger than I anticipated, and I put it on the side because I didn’t feel I could do the project justice.
• Continue side development until I’m doing in excess of 30 hours a week of billable time – this has happened, and I’m now working solely on a contract basis. Happily, I’ve been able to leave the corporate setting.
• Complete the work required for KNIRL.com – this has not happened, though we learned a lot of interesting pieces of information and technology working with it.

Overall, 2010 was a good year for business, and looking forward, 2011 looks like it will be even more exciting:

• Launch the product I’m working on for my primary client before the end of the first quarter;
• Learn the intricate details of a fairly large industry to determine how to be able to carve out a niche in it;
• Solidify my knowledge of certain technologies I use frequently to the point I would call myself an expert.

What are your goals? Do you have a way to measure yourself against them?

Related posts:

1. Goals for 2010
2. Goals and Fitness
3. 2009 Goals

As it turns out, when he started drawing Dilbert, he had no experience with cartoons either. Before he landed his first paid speaking gig (which paid him $5,000 for an hour of his time), he had no experience with public speaking beyond a couple generic courses. He recounts many of his successes, and makes the statement:

To put all of this in context, I remind you again that I fail miserably about ten times for every one success. (That’s an accurate estimate. I’ve literally kept score.) The failures always involved activities for which I was completely qualified. Ironically, I couldn’t even “keep my day job.” On the other hand, my successes have all been in areas in which I had no obviously relevant background or experience whatsoever.

This statement is incredibly interesting for a variety of reasons.

First, however, this cannot be taken to mean that if you were to try something for which you have no qualifications that it means you will succeed. In that, Scott is an exception, though I do believe his recipe for success can be duplicated. While Scott did apply himself to a variety of endeavors with no qualifications, he also did not attempt the impossible, merely the improbable.

What Scott is saying here is that success and qualification in a particular area have little to do with one another. While those two factors may not be mutually exclusive, they are also commonly not found to coincide with one another. Simply because one is qualified does not mean that success is probable, and the inverse of that is also true.

The pattern in what Scott has done is that in each case he has set himself against probability, but had a motivation to succeed despite the odds. Winning contests with some element of skill involved is not impossible, even if there are millions of other contestants. It’s unlikely, not probable, but still possible. One can succeed and win.

While I’m sure Scott has not included every endeavor of his in his introduction to his book, he has described a sufficient number to indicate that while he was not particularly qualified to excel at any one of his successes, he was not unqualified either. That is, he may not have been considered an expert in the field, but he would not have been described as incompetent in that area.

Success is not a function of what you’ve been trained to do. You can succeed at something for which you have no background, provided, that is, that you are prepared to apply yourself. The path may be difficult, but it’s not impossible. Some things you may find yourself struggling with, but in other areas, where the “professionals” would have stopped, you may persevere and succeed.

Perhaps that’s actually a limitation in an ability to succeed. The more documented a background you have in an area, the less likely you may be to push the boundaries of what can be done. By not being qualified (and recognizing that fact), you prepare yourself for the long, hard road. If you’ve found a way to motivate yourself, to convince yourself that you can succeed, then you may well endure along that path until you do reach your eventual success.

Related posts:

1. Succeed or Fail? Your Choice…
2. It’s Not Nepotism, He’s My Brother
3. Are You Getting Ready To Succeed?

The project began with everyone positive and upbeat, but then things began ton deteriorate. The schedule began to slip, and the quality of the project began to slide as well. Once this was realized, action was taken to remedy the situation, but it might have been too late. Trust with the client had begun to falter, and action was needed.

As part of the effort to rebuild trust, I drafted up an outline of the things that went wrong in the project, and how I might avoid at from happening in the future.

• If you cannot see the person working, then make sure that you can communicate on a regular basis, and that you are seeing their handiwork often to ensure that progress is being made.
• Never assume anything about the project. Always ask about every little detail, so that you truly know where the project stands.
• When budgeting, make sure that you use a buffer sufficiently large that were things to go severely downhill, you could still deliver within budget.
• Use milestones to cap the amount of work that needs to be done at any one point in time. That way, if any pArt of the project falls bend, there’s a limit on the amount of damage to the entire project it can cause.
• A tiny percentage of projects in IT finish both on time and on budget. Don’t stick to one to the absolute exclusion of the other.

There are other lessons, but theism I feel, real get to the gist if what can go wrong. Sometimes you need to sacrifice part of a project to meet a successful conclusion, and sometimes, the decisions that need to be made are tough.

That’s why not everyone is cut out for this kind of work – you can become a pretty unpopular person at times, but if you’re patient, the reward will come.

Related posts:

1. Working for Equity Doesn’t Always Work
2. Time Management and Procrastination
3. Risk and Reward

I believe the minute you begin to think that way is the minute you begin to erode.

There’s another saying that I think reflects this thought quite well:

If you’re going to dream, dream big.

If you are aiming high, then your success is a function of your ability to reach those lofty goals. If you find that you’re reaching your goals easily, then perhaps you haven’t set your goals high enough. Goals are made to make you stretch, to push the boundaries of what you can do. If you aren’t stretching, then you may very well be contracting.

If you start to look at your life, and think about how far you’ve come, then that can be motivating to push yourself further ahead. However, if you start thinking along the lines of “I made it!” is an indication that you have not set your goals far enough, as you have time to go further, but don’t have anywhere to stretch.

Related posts:

1. Goals for 2010
2. Business Health Checkup
3. Understand and Respect Boundaries

That’s not, of course, to say that every business has to have all, or even any, of these factors. These are just the patterns I’ve noticed.

Motivation

First, the people involved in the business are motivated to succeed. They have a burning desire to see the business do well, and are pushing hard to make things work. They are, in general, fairly motivated people – at least when it comes to something that interests them.

Ego

The people in the business are very much self-aware, in that they know both their strengths and their weaknesses, and exploit both to the advantage of all around them.

Questions

Successful people look for answers to their questions, and aren’t afraid to say they don’t know. They are constantly learning as they encounter new and changing circumstances.

Adaptation

Life is constantly evolving, and successful businesses are likewise changing over time. A business that cannot adapt to changes will eventually become obsolete, especially in the area of technology, which is evolving at an incredibly rapid rate.

Pride

If you want to be successful, you have to be proud of what you’re doing. You have to know how to toot your own horn without sounding arrogant, how to show off your accomplishments without foisting them on reluctant audiences.

What do you have in your business? Are there other subtle signs that you’ve noticed? I’d love to hear about them!

Related posts:

1. Waiting for a Break
2. Importance of Happy Employees
3. Business and Social Media – Part 4

However, at a more fundamental level, what’s important is that you love what you do, and the reason is that when you’re running your own business, it isn’t always a smooth road. Sometimes things go well, and everyone is happy. Clients get the service or products they need, employees are being treated nicely, vendors are aligned with your own goals.

Sometimes, though, the road is rough. While the ending may be sunny, you need some motivation to make you stick with it. You need something (other than cash) to convince you that it’s worth running along this road. If you love the work you do, then the motivation is the fact that while you may not enjoy this particular period of time, you do in fact enjoy the bigger picture of the work you’re involved in.

I love what I do. Not every day, and I have certainly had my share of sleepless nights wondering whether my business will survive one crisis or another. But what pushes me to persevere is that I know that ultimately the crisis will be water under the bridge, I’ll have learned how to deal with yet another situation, and my business will be stronger for it.

And at the same time, I do, in fact, love the work I do.

Related posts:

1. The Expensive Route to Certification
2. What would you like me to write about
3. What Will You Succeed At?

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.

We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

This can be explained as once you see the solution to a problem, the problem itself no longer exists. Perhaps you have to do something to remove one of the side-effects of the problem, but the problem itself is now a non-issue.

Some people are better at resolving problems than others. In a certain sense, we might say that someone who is unable to see the solution is unable to change perspectives. If, when a solution is proposed, they remain unwilling to change perspectives, this would be a form of close-mindedness.

Sadly, when this happens, it is often being done subconsciously, in that people are unaware that a shift in perspective can resolve a significant number of problems they face. In business, this can be extremely detrimental to the potential success of a business. This is, perhaps, one of the main reasons that business owners should be paired with someone that they can discuss and debate problems in the business.

Most people have such support around them, whether a co-owner or manager in the business, a professional advisor, a family member, or a friend. If you find yourself without any of these, your best first step is likely to bring someone into your confidence who can point out the problems you can’t or won’t see in your business, and help advise you on potential solutions.

In short, every business needs a mentor, either internally or externally. The purpose this mentor serves is to offer an alternative perspective on the business, who can help you, the owner of the business, to identify and resolve potential problems before they cause significant damage to the eventual success of your business.

Related posts:

1. A Matter of Perspective
2. Looking for a Business Mentor
3. Question: How do you name your business?

Of course, most people are aware that abusive behavior is not acceptable in the workplace, not inclusive of the eventual lawsuit when the abuser explodes at one too many people. However, this is merely the tip of the iceberg, as other forms of manipulation and control can be exploited based on an understanding of the human nature of the people in your work environment.

What must be remembered is that “business is business” and is therefore cold and calculated. That doesn’t mean the people involved in business are always cold and calculating, but the bottom line for business is results, and what will achieve the desired results. As such, attitudes, and mannerisms should reflect this fact, according to each person’s natural tendencies.

Awareness of the attitudes and mannerisms of those around us leads to manipulation, whether deliberately or subconsciously. Children intuitively know how to do this, knowing which parent for permission to visit a friend, to stay up late, or get some candy. Adults are no different, knowing which co-worker will be willing to cover a shift, which supervisor to approach for approval on a project, and who is likely to take credit for work done by others.

The knowledge of all this human nature results in an environment in which manipulation is occurring, whether people like it or not, whether acknowledged or not. If people ignore this fact, they will eventually discover that they are the ones being manipulated. Being aware of this fact will change who is manipulated. The one aware of the manipulation can project the appropriate mien to achieve their own goals, to give the appearance of being manipulated when it suits their objectives, and at all times, to consider their implications.

The second result of being aware of the implications of your mien on the people around you is that you can retain control of what happens in any situation. Whether you choose to project a loud, irate look, or a dominated, submissive impression, it is done with absolute calculation, in that a desired result can be arranged via that particular mien. Neither projection is right, neither is wrong. Both are merely tools in the arsenal of the person on the road to success.

Related posts:

1. Trust is Earned when Given
2. Business is Business – Take it Personally
3. Business Health Checkup

Why do I not include a coach in this category? Simple – there’s a conflict of interest.

While I do not accuse any particular coach of the following, it is something to be aware of when recruiting ac coach for your business. A coach is in the business of coaching. They earn their fees by spending time with you, by providing you with material, by getting you to continue to be their client, and to refer other clients to them. As such, while a coach does want you to succeed (thereby garnering additional clients through your referrals), they also want that success to be slow, not fast, so that you will continue to be a client for a long time.

A rapid success would mean that you’ve learned the lessons. Even were that not to be true, because of the success you’ve seen, there would an inclination to remove the expense of retaining your coach. Slow success would show you why the coach is worth the fees, and would keep you paying them for as long as it took to fully succeed.

What I would look for in a mentor, therefore, is an altruistic reason for coaching that cannot be explained by the fees I pay. This could be a successful businessman who sees the mentoring as a way of giving to the next generation of business owners some of their experience. It could be someone who simply wishes to donate their time and expertise, or charge a minimal amount relative to what they could be earning.

The altruism means that this mentor would be happy to see you succeed rapidly as well as slowly. Since the financial gain is almost irrelevant, the conflict of interest is likewise removed, or at least reduced.

This is not to say that I’m looking for a handout. I’m strongly of the belief that if someone does work, they should be compensated fairly for it. As such, even a mentor could expect to be compensated for their time. But the compensation should not be the reason that the person is coaching me (or you, or anyone). Rather, it should extend from some other altruistic cause, with the financial reward being for the value of what they deliver.

Related posts:

1. Question: How do you name your business?
2. Benefits of a Mentor
3. The One Tip for the New Business Owner

I’m looking more into finding ways to promote my business, and I’m doing it with a whole new look. In short, I’m rebranding myself.

Why? Because this site represents my journey over the past couple years, but does not represent my future. It represents what me and my business have done, what we want to do, but not where the business is going. It’s time to change that.

This isn’t really about just me and my company though. It’s something every business should go through every once in a while. Similar to goal setting, which I’ve discussed here many times, this is about seeing your future, and showing it to the world.

When was the last time you truly showed your customers where it is you want to go? When have you demonstrated to your clients how your business works, and where they in particular fit into the grand scheme of things? When was the last time you even thought about these questions?

Going through a rebranding exercise can make you do all this and more. When you rebrand, you’re looking for the image, whether visual or otherwise, that best represents your company both in terms of where you are today, as well as in terms of where you would like to be a year or longer from now. You’re trying to represent yourself to an unknown audience, without being there. You’re giving away material, but you aren’t there to explain it.

What does your brand say about you? What do your clients think your brand is? If the answers aren’t the same, you should take a close look at how you present yourself, and why others don’t see your image in the same light that you do.

Related posts:

1. Developing a Personal Brand
2. Universal Imaging
3. The Personal Brand