You the Entrepreneur

The life of an entrepreneur, is the tale of many triumphs and long hard work. Knowing how to push past the negativity and find your hidden reserve of strength is a valuable tool in your struggles for success.

We as entrepreneurs are a unique breed. We thrive in challenging situations and we seek out the difficult. This can often put us in a place seemingly impossible to succeed. Pushing past your own limits to find greater heights is often the only way out, well that or giving up, but you wouldn’t be a true entrepreneur if you seriously considered that.

In this podcast I talk with serial entrepreneur Murray Smith. This is Part 2 of the Podcasts series with Murray Smith co-author of “the Answer”. Which you can win a copy of my joining Success U for free:

The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial Freedom, and Live an Extraordinary Life

Here are some of the direct links that Murray had referenced during the many podcasts we recorded with him;  The free PDF’s downloads (see below), links to the business growth makeover contest with millions in prizes, and Get the Answer site that references more about Murray and the business growth system he built called Attract more Clients. This system is the summation of 30 years of his life’s work and everything he learned about growing business put together in a simple, user friendly format.

-       http://gettheanswer.com

-       http://www.businessgrowthmakeover.com

-       http://accessmainstreet.com

-       The Test your EQ button on the Mainstreet website will have the following Free PDF Downloads for your listeners:

• Unique Selling Proposition Examples from many industries
• Client Profile – Match what you want with what your clients want
• 3 Ways to make money in business
• Map the Gap – Helping business owners map the distance from where they are to where they want to be
• How to think like a Business Millionaire – Vision, Focus and Action

More Resources for you the entrepreneur

Small Business For Dummies

The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything

More Entrepreneur Podcasts

Entrepreneur.com Podcast Directory

• Unique Positioning - Standing out From the Competition - Marketing Tips Marketing Tips - Unique Positioning One of the best marketing tips, is the concept of developing unique positioning for your product or service. In this podcast Murray Smith and I talk about the creation of your corporate marketing plan by defining your unique positioning in the marketplace. Defining your......
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• Life Lessons of a Successful Entrepreneur Thinking Like a Successful Entrepreneur Murray Smith joins me on another Success U podcast, and shares with us some of the life lessons this very successful entrepreneur has found the hard way. These lessons are hard learned, and often painful and expensive to experience. One of the simplest to......
• Marketing Tip - Knowing Your Ideal Clients... Where are They? Another top Marketing Tip In this Success U podcast we discuss another very important marketing tip, or more specifically part of the marketing process that Murray Smith decided to share with us. One of the biggest mistakes many of us entrepreneurs and online marketers make is misunderstanding our clients.......
• Becoming Viral Podcast Last week we talked about Viral Marketing from a stratospheric level, this time we go a little more in depth and give a great example of a company building a program that will definitely create a viral effect. What it all boils down to is understanding the value you offer......

• Some Good Corporate Blogs It has become popular for businesses and companies of all types to express interest in creating a business blog so that they can better communicate with other companies, their customers, and a variety of other target markets out there. By looking at what corporate blogs are doing it right, and......
• 10 Best Motivational Podcasts for Entrepreneurs Both seasoned and aspiring entrepreneurs have a wealth of online motivational material available to them. Podcasts are quickly becoming a popular medium with which to get inspired when it comes to running one's own business. Leaving the traditional world of employment in order to start a business can seem overwhelming......
• ScanShell Store - Business Card Scanner document.write(''); Stop typing customer info into your computer. Start scanning their business cards and documents for a speedy data entry and database creation. We sell all manner of scanning solutions including Business Card scanner, ID scanner, Medical card scanner, Driver License scanner, portable scanner and much more. We offer......
• I Phone It An Introduction And Just Say How I Presume I Can Assist My New The web has turn out to be so strong over the previous decade that web site advertising and marketing is now the favored promoting device of most corporations.http://www.usafamilydetective.com/finance/on-the-internet-trading-exposes-the-consumer-to-a-lot-of-selections-that-leads/ http://www.wearebehindenemylines.com/social/britain-believes-that-the-about-220000-flights-that-would-accompany-the-opening/ To comprehend what helpful it can be it is a person of the greatest procedures in recognizing Website 2. On-line Marketing.......
• Flu Shots and the Small Business Entrepreneur Yes - "flu shots" and "entrepreneur" are related. Just stay with me for a short post and I will explain. I just returned from the second floor lobby of our office building where I (and many others who work in this building) received an H1N1 flu shot. Yes, the flu......

How to Work Smart as an Entrepreneur

Serial entrepreneur Murray Smith co-author of “The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial Freedom, and Live an Extraordinary Life” shares the secrets to his success in this Success U podcast. His book is a best seller and  Stephen R. Covey says it is “Brilliant!” you can add my personal endorsement to that. Murray, joins me in a series of podcasts as he describes the lessons he has learned in the last 20 years of being a successful serial entrepreneur and his quest to unlock the secrets to success. This podcast is part of the series with this brilliant and very successful serial entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur Success Plan

In this podcast we talk about how to work smarter not harder and Murray explains many of the tricks he has learned that allow you to change your habits into ones that will lead to your success. His long career as a serial entrepreneur has been marked with a long string of success. He has taken the time to codify this knowledge and experience gained over the years. He shares that with us in these podcasts, but in greater detail in his book “The Answer”.

You can enter to win a hardbound copy of “The Answer” by joining Success U today, it is free as always

Here are some of the direct links that Murray had referenced during the many podcasts we recorded with him;  The free PDF’s downloads (see below), links to the business growth makeover contest with millions in prizes, and Get the Answer site that references more about Murray and the business growth system he built called Attract more Clients. This system is the summation of 30 years of his life’s work and everything he learned about growing business put together in a simple, user friendly format.

Great Resources for the Entrepreneur

-       http://gettheanswer.com

-       http://www.businessgrowthmakeover.com

-       http://accessmainstreet.com

-       The Test your EQ button on the Mainstreet website will have the following Free PDF Downloads for your listeners:

• Unique Selling Proposition Examples from many industries
• Client Profile – Match what you want with what your clients want
• 3 Ways to make money in business
• Map the Gap – Helping business owners map the distance from where they are to where they want to be
• How to think like a Business Millionaire – Vision, Focus and Action

Let us know your story as an Entrepreneur, maybe even join us for a podcast to share with the world! You might also be interested in our other posts and podcasts about being an entrepreneur.

• Marketing Tip - Knowing Your Ideal Clients... Where are They? Another top Marketing Tip In this Success U podcast we discuss another very important marketing tip, or more specifically part of the marketing process that Murray Smith decided to share with us. One of the biggest mistakes many of us entrepreneurs and online marketers make is misunderstanding our clients.......
• Entrepreneur Beware Your Own Success Entrepreneur, Success can be Hard Success as an Entrepreneur can be it's own challenge, and we are hitting those challenges today. We are working on a great many new things for Success U, tools that will help you succeed. But using these tools ourselves, we have been flooded with,......
• Building Trust as an Entrepreneur How to Build Trust as an Entrepreneur As an Entrepreneur it is imperative that we build trust. We need team members, clients, investors and colleagues to believe in us. Trust is more than a soft, unknown, feel good, fuzzy thing. It is a measurable and quantifiable asset that is......
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• Online Marketing Tips for the Entrepreneur Online Marketing Tips for the Entrepreneur Over the years I have compiled a wide and varied list of marketing tips. Online marketing is a challenging and ever changing business that can often feel overwhelming for the lone entrepreneur. For this reason alone I usually recommend that you outsource much......

• Career Tip #1: Act Like You Own the Place I’ve owned my own company since 1988, and often hear people say they’d like to own a business. When I ask why, they give answers such as “So I can set my own hours”, “To make what I’m really worth”, or “So I won’t have to answer to anyone”. I......
• The Key to a Strong Blog Analyze what brings readers to your blog, and then find a way to build upon that. When I speak with owners of medium sized blogs, the first thing I recommend highly to them is to put aside time to analyze their blogs current performance, with focus on the blogs successes......
• Tips For Successful Online Business From Home To Motivate Yourself Already you are running a home based online business ? Or you are willing to start an online business from home ? Then you are in the right place today. So you are interested in working from home and you are your own boss, right ? That's a great situation,......
• My Weekly Personal Finance Reader I found a few interesting and amusing writings this week to share: My oldest son understands my attitude about young adults who go to law school or who enter an MBA program because they have nothing better to do. He sent me a link to this funny piece about a......
• Internet Network Marketing - Do You Really Get It? Internet Network Marketing - In A Bad Economy The Internet Thrives Image by kahunapulej via Flickr Between smart phones and the internet it is easier than ever to get noticed online. Before the internet people had to do things like leave their house to be productive. In today's world you......

Life Lessons – Develop a Success Plan

One of the more important life lessons I have discovered as an entrepreneur is to develop a success plan. Rich Harshaw from MyMEssentials.com gives a great example of a Success Plan in his post World’s Greatest Car Salesman. The steps he identifies, unique to the market and opportunity, are easily adapted to most traditional sales channels. This post by Rich is one of the better examples of a good business, sales or marketing plan for success that I have come across.

His approach to the car sales experience disaster, that he identifies because of the poor service he received while looking for a new car, is brilliant. The Life Lesson is extraordinarily valuable. In fact it is what we should all strive for when we find that troublesome experience or opportunity in front of us.

He clearly identifies the missing pieces in the sales funnel of his competition and identifies a way to create a strength in his brand from those opportunities.

Recommended books and training about the sales plan and sales cycle:

Platinum Advanced Entrepreneurship Training Library (14 DVDs + 4 Audio CDs and Manuals)

Get Clients Now!(TM): A 28-Day Marketing Program for Professionals, Consultants, and Coaches

The Ultimate Marketing Plan

Related Life Lessons and Articles:

• Developing and Implementing Strategic Marketing (slideshare.net)
• My 20 year marketing plan (slideshare.net)
• The Elements of a Successful Sales Plan (slideshare.net)
• Getting New Businesses Running With Outsourced Marketing (marketingpr.suite101.com)
• More Life Lessons from Success U

• Determining The Right Price For Your Product Or Service Top marketers are constantly tweaking, testing, and making adjustments to the prices of their products. Price is one of the important factors involved in how well any given product or service is converted into sales. There are some important considerations you must take into account when deciding on the price......
• Becoming Viral Podcast Last week we talked about Viral Marketing from a stratospheric level, this time we go a little more in depth and give a great example of a company building a program that will definitely create a viral effect. What it all boils down to is understanding the value you offer......
• Social Media Marketing Sucks Tools such as Twitter, Digg, and Facebook are Horrible sales vehicles. In fact using them poorly can do more to hurt your brand than help it. Social Media as a tool for business is much more useful to your PR group than it is to your sales team. At best......
• What Would Apple Do? We started the conversation discussing how to determine the best price point for your product and then went into a wide variety of tools you can use to drive sales online in the first part of this podcast. In this podcast we continue the conversation by looking at one......
• Building a Strong Customer Relationship Strong Customer Relationship Determining who is your ideal client is the first step on the long road to developing a strong customer relationship. Murray Smith, best selling author ("The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial Freedom, and Live an Extraordinary Life") and super successful Serial Entrepreneur joins us on......

• Network Marketing - How To Be A Good Sponsor (Part 3) Network Marketing -  Being A Real Mentor [/caption] If there is one thing that has frustrated me online it is all the hype.  It seems everyone online has the new best gizmo in town. Some in the network marketing industry realize that in order to see real duplication in there......
• Put Yourself on the Path of Happiness for the Holiday Season It's been a rough year for many, a rough several years in fact.  The holiday season can bring shudders and tears to folks who have lost family members or friends; who have lost jobs and income; who have seen illness come into their lives; or who have lost hope......
• Hints For Success As AN Internet MarketIng Expert The Net marketer is commonly used to refer to that person who earns money thru the Net for their own use or for their clients. This person sometimes promotes products or services online . One doesn't only use the internet but also makes use of email and even wireless media.......
• Profit Pyramid and Social Media Simpleology 201 and Mark Joyner has completed another interesting video. It is done in a kind of Twilight Zone-ish manner. It is an interesting example of how someone with a very minimal set up (Camera, script and software) can create a sales funnel for their product. I always hear people......
• How To Improve Affiliate Income With 3 Easy Steps ? The effort of every affiliate marketer is Improving Affiliate Income. You find a way for affiliate marketing but you may be struggling to make decent money online. There are successful affiliate marketers who are following certain common steps to succeed. If you understand those steps, you could easily turn your......

How to Build Trust as an Entrepreneur

As an Entrepreneur it is imperative that we build trust. We need team members, clients, investors and colleagues to believe in us. Trust is more than a soft, unknown, feel good, fuzzy thing. It is a measurable and quantifiable asset that is one of the most important to you the Entrepreneur regarding the speed of your business and the overall success of your enterprise. In this Success U Podcast we discuss how taking the time to build trust actually saves time and in the end increases profit.

We started discussing this topic thanks to Steven Covey’s Book “The Speed of Trust”. This is a must read book for an Entrepreneur. It is not a topic I would normally have sought out, but it came recommended highly from those I trust… So I read it, and now I think every entrepreneur, manager, marketer or sales professional should also read it.

If You are an Entrepreneur You Should Read These Books:

The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything

Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust

Related Entrepreneur articles you should read:

• Building Trust in Today’s Online World (socialmediatoday.com)
• Trust Agents: Using The Web To Build Influence, Improve Reputation, And Earn Trust (lockergnome.com)
• Integrity is the Sales Guys Only Asset (thecustomercollective.com)
• FranklinCovey’s New, Online Learning Suite Launches at Training 2010: World Renowned Content Now Available in a Unique, Online Format (eon.businesswire.com)
• In the Post-Crisis World, Restoring Trust is Not Enough (blogs.hbr.org)

Tell us your story as an Entrepreneur in the comments and maybe we will have you on a future podcast!

• Marketing Tip - Knowing Your Ideal Clients... Where are They? Another top Marketing Tip In this Success U podcast we discuss another very important marketing tip, or more specifically part of the marketing process that Murray Smith decided to share with us. One of the biggest mistakes many of us entrepreneurs and online marketers make is misunderstanding our clients.......
• How To Benefit From Social Networking Social networking has revolutionized the way we use the internet over the past few years. Originally just a few networks, these have grown into hundreds of social sites. All of those networks are dedicated to helping you make connections with other people. You can join networks that allow you to......
• Life Lessons of a Successful Entrepreneur Thinking Like a Successful Entrepreneur Murray Smith joins me on another Success U podcast, and shares with us some of the life lessons this very successful entrepreneur has found the hard way. These lessons are hard learned, and often painful and expensive to experience. One of the simplest to......
• Entrepreneur, The Future Now, What Tomorrow? Entrepreneur Disorder? As an Entrepreneur, how do you stay ahead of the market when the only constant is change, and that is accelerating? Trying to keep up is a dizzying task. And as an Entrepreneur it is our role to look ahead, while trying to keep your business out......
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The most difficult aspect of running a blog or podcast is generating great, unique content on a regular basis. This issue is the primary reason most bloggers eventually fail. In this podcast I give you several ways to create more ideas than you can handle.

You’d be surprised by the sheer amount of great concepts you have during the day if you just keep tabs on them, and the simplest way to do that is to keep a notebook. In mine I jot down any random thought that seems interesting at the time. I write down magazine articles that I came across, or radio interviews or conversations I have. Just quick notes that remind me later.No need to keep a detailed account of every moment in your life.

Interviews and questions from your audience are also very helpful. In fact this topic is a direct result of a question from one of our listeners. Of course you have to have an audience, already, to get questions from them, but interviews on the other hand, are simply a matter of asking questions of others. It helps to have an existing relationship, but you’d be amazed at how open most people are to being interviewed. Especially when it is on a topic they are selling themselves as an expert on.

Freemind – This is the open source software I mention, that will help you generating and organizing your great content ideas.

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• Driving Online Sales Part one in a two part series on generating sales by using several simple and effective tactics. In this podcast Ben and Christian debate how pricing will effect your online sales and how several other factors such as affiliate marketers can radically increase your sales. Creating exclusivity for your......
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• How To Nail Your Next Article Using These Article Writing Approaches If you create an efficient article writing process, then you will discover that it is not a horrible as people make it out to be. If you're an Internet marketer then you know the value of creating and publishing high quality articles on a regular basis. So if you're looking......
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We started the conversation discussing how to determine the best price point for your product and then went into a wide variety of tools you can use to drive sales online in the first part of this podcast. In this podcast we continue the conversation by looking at one particular company that has done it right… Apple.

There are many ways to look at driving your sales and a plethora of tools to use in doing so. Apple is the prime example of a company who has used many of these tools to develop a unique and profitable brand identity with an almost cult like following. How have they done this? We talk about some of the techniques they use, and we found this great post “What Would Apple Do?”.

Here are several more resources for developing your brand:

First Steps to Developing a Brand Identity

Personal Branding 101

Creating a Brand

Creating the Brand: Halo Effect

Creating a Brand on a Budget

In our next podcast we will put the pieces together for you and walk through the process of developing a unique Brand ID and how to drive sales using this new brand.

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• Unique Positioning - Standing out From the Competition - Marketing Tips Marketing Tips - Unique Positioning One of the best marketing tips, is the concept of developing unique positioning for your product or service. In this podcast Murray Smith and I talk about the creation of your corporate marketing plan by defining your unique positioning in the marketplace. Defining your......
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• Building a Strong Customer Relationship Strong Customer Relationship Determining who is your ideal client is the first step on the long road to developing a strong customer relationship. Murray Smith, best selling author ("The Answer: Grow Any Business, Achieve Financial Freedom, and Live an Extraordinary Life") and super successful Serial Entrepreneur joins us on......

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Part one in a two part series on generating sales by using several simple and effective tactics. In this podcast Ben and Christian debate how pricing will effect your online sales and how several other factors such as affiliate marketers can radically increase your sales.

Creating exclusivity for your product is a major driver for sales. By creating the sense of urgency you help a prospect come to a decision rather than delaying. Your goal is not to force them into action but to give them an incentive to do so. Exclusivity can be created in several ways, higher price point, limited availability, limited duration, limited quantity.

Here are a few other resources:

Tips for Maximizing Sales

8 Ways to Attract Affiliates

15 Reasons Your Affiliate Campaign is not Working

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Every great invention or idea has run up against the same first roadblock… fear. The would be entrepreneur fears the unknown, fears to possibility of failure and fears the innate risks involved with a new venture.

So, what separates the entrepreneur from just some person with a good idea? The successful professional knows the steps to define the unknown and by doing so they eliminate fear.

Fear is the Mind Killer

It is the fear of the unknown that stops most people from attaining their dreams. The fear keeps them in their comfortable job. The fear stops them from taking the risks necessary to succeed.

Here are the 5 steps to help you get over your fears, and get the ball rolling on your new venture.

1) Do Your Research

Find out everything there is to know about your idea.  Who will be your competitors? Even if no one has the exact same product or service, there will always be competition, so get to know them. Google is your best friend. Use it to your advantage. Find the keywords your would be competition uses, search blogs, directories and every resource and media outlet.

This is a great time to define what or how you will be better than the competition. Find the answers to these questions: How will you take market share? Who is your target customer? Where are they? How do you get them? What is the MVP (Minimum Viable Product)?

2) Define the Opportunity

Now that you know everything there is to know about the market and competition it is time to define your opportunity. There are a series of questions that are vital to answer: What are acceptable price points? How many customers are there? Is the market local, regional, national or international? What is the exact niche? You will want to know who you are targeting, why you are going after them, where they are at, when you will launch and how you will reach them (Who, What, When, Where, Why and How).

3) Entrepreneur Know thy-self

If you have done the first two steps, it is time to decide if you are the right person for this opportunity. What relationships do you have that could open doors in this market? Do you have the skill set to  fit the concept?  Do you have the tools, software and money to go full out? What essential skills, experience, knowledge or money are you missing?

By understanding how you fit the opportunity you can define the gaps in your own abilities, knowledge and finances. These gaps help you Define a team.

4) Build Your Team

So you have determined the skills, experience, knowledge or money you are missing to make your idea a success. Look around you at your friends, family and colleagues. Do you know people who can fill your gaps? Are they willing to work with you, especially  on speculative work. What are your financing options, do you have the money or do you know potential investors (Friends and family) that might be interested? You will need to be able to sell them on this idea. Often the first person I look for is a great salesperson, because they can help me sell the next person in the idea. The people involved can be contractors or freelance, you don’t have to look for the long term team at this time, in fact it is often best to keep the final team small early on. Find the people and fill the gaps.

5) Build the Prototype

There are a great many cliches to remember at this time, and all are valid. Keep It Simple Stupid. Don’t get overly complex, just make it work. If it is a service this is a great time to do the work cheap or free. What you want is to get a couple of clients that will give you an endorsement and that you can use as a reference. If you properly defined the opportunity then you know what the M.V.P. for your prototype should be, build that.

Always remember that perfection is the enemy of profit. Build the MVP, get it into the hands of a few customers, let them define what more is needed, or how it should change. Your customer will know better than you what they really want, so let them tell you.

Incremental Perfection

Now that the customer has the product in hand and has told you what they really want. Now is the time to incorporate some of these changes. Add a feature, test again. The steps we have outlined here are actually a cycle that you should re-iterate through over and over until you have the final product. Often what you will find is that the initial idea and the final one are radically different.

Don’t be afraid to change direction .

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