Category Archives: Success

07.28.13
by

The Power of Small Businesses

By Sonny O’Steen

Atlanta, GA

Americans spend much of their time watching the news about large corporations and how their decisions may affect the local economy. Make no mistake about it, the small business holds the power to the livelihoods of millions of American households. Over 20 million Americans are employed by businesses with less than 20 employees, which is quite a lot of workers. Also, small businesses generate over 11 trillion dollars a year in receipts. They produce more than 13 times more patents per employee than large corporations! That is very significant.

Needless to say, if small business owners are unrestrained, they will continue year after year adding more to the American economy than ever before. Unfortunately in today’s economy, regulation and taxes present a considerable amount of roadblocks to small business owners.

Left to their entrepreneurial spirit, the small business owner will seek to find ways to improve receipts for their business. The more receipts, the more employees and the better the unemployment numbers will look quarterly for the nation as a whole.

The power of progress rests in the hands of small business owners, not large corporations. The patent count verifies that with certainty. No other environment fosters creativity like the small business environment. Large corporations are prone to stifle creativity as their board members look to the immediate bottom line rather than the future of the company they oversee. Government economists look to the large companies to drive the economy when in fact, the small businesses can accomplish this by delivering more tax revenue because of fewer tax loopholes. If you are a small business  owner, the power of progress holds clear implications for where to focus your efforts. It suggests that you have more influence as a manager than you may realize over your employees’ well being, motivation and creative output. Knowing what serves to motivate and nourish progress – and what does the opposite – turns out to be the key to effectively managing people and their output. The small business owner champions this output and creativity every day they unlock the door.

06.28.13
by

Guerrilla Marketing – Remix!

9781599184227_p0_v2_s260x420Guerrilla Marketing Remix has been out for a couple of years, but if you haven’t read it, I strongly recommend it! It’s packed with practical information for all kinds of business owners, and it’s especially resourceful for microbusiness owners! Do yourself a favor and check it out!

Visit Amazon, your local library, or a nearby bookstore to pick up a copy.

06.04.13
by

The Fallacy of Starting a “Real Business”

By Anthony Hilb

Be extremely careful with the advice people share with you…this blog included! What has worked for others may not work for you. Our economy isn’t what it once was, and technology is drastically changing just about every industry. Many traditional rules no longer apply. People have told me to grow my businesses, to start a “real business” and to get a “real job.” Yet I’ve been profitable since day one, and I make more than the average person my age. What’s so unreal about that? These are the same people that want me to take on debt and hire employees I don’t need. And that’s probably why 90% of businesses fail. People new to the business world frequently listen to their elders and take antiquated routes. This isn’t always the case, but it has been often enough from my experience. Every adviser at my local SBDC has not been helpful. I would have never even started the profitable businesses I enjoy had I listened to many of my risk averse elders.  iStock_000008617758XSmall

Who has helped me with their advice? Incredible people who blog about business and authors who write about business. People like Seth Godin, Jason Fried, Jay Levinson, Gary Vaynerchuk, Tony Robbins, Richard Branson, Chris Anderson, Chris Guillebeau, Timothy Ferris, and many others have all been very helpful. They actually have experience and know what they’re talking about.

Take a route that works best for you. Pursue your business at a pace that works best for you. Some people are in a situation to start a traditional business with millions of dollars and employees, while other people prefer starting extremely small without debt. Determine a path that works best for you and get started! You may need to start your business part-time, or you may be able to start full-time. It’s all situational.

To traditionalists and many people older than myself, it may not appear like I own a “real” business. I don’t have 50 employees, and I don’t own a big office. I don’t buy everything I need for my businesses up front; I rent equipment and buy it used if I know I’ll need it regularly. Even if I do grow more and hire 20 people, those employees won’t have to come in to an office. As long as they get their work done, they can work from their home or from their own small office.

I started my first business two years ago, and now I pursue three microbusinesses each week. One of my microbusinesses gets the majority of my attention while the other two only need a few hours spent on them each week at this point. It only took a couple hundred bucks to start all of my businesses, and I hardly spend anything on marketing. I have no business debt, and I’ve always been profitable. All because I follow my instincts and grow at a pace that’s right for me.

05.28.13
by

Take a Break!

By Anthony Hilb

VactionI haven’t taken more than a few days off work for the last two years. Fortunately, running my own microbusinesses is fun, so I’m excited to get to work each day.

I just got married this weekend and a lot of my microbusinesses were put on hold – specifically my websites and digital work. Currently, my blogs are my least profitable endeavor. It was difficult for me to put them on hold, but I had to narrow my focus on my most profitable work while I was helping my wife plan our wedding. Taking a break doesn’t always mean taking a break from all of your work. Taking a break from a few projects can bring new life and excitement to them when you return.

The projects that are the most profitable for me right now don’t even require much of an online presence. I still have websites for a lot of those microbusinesses, but my customers are really more interested in talking with me in person. There’s still a market for people who want to meet face to face!

Now I’m preparing my honeymoon and plan to take a break from everything for about a week. I’m confident it will be helpful for all of my projects. You need to do the same when you get a chance!

04.27.13
by

Members Only!

By Anthony Hilb

nordstromSometimes making your business exclusive is the right move. We’ve been seeing many membership websites launch over the years. Lumosity.com is a basic example. Colleges are an even better example. By only allowing a select group of people into their schools, more people want to attend. They’re exclusive. Getting into prestigious colleges often shows credibility.

I don’t believe colleges are the only way to learn, but even certain professions only allow members. Doctors, lawyers, professors, and engineers are all required to have certain degrees and pass specific tests. Fortunately, many business owners don’t have to worry about those degrees and tests. Yet they must be lifelong learners. In order to be successful, many of the most successful business owners are required to spend the same amount of time, if not more, learning as the top professionals. Becoming a successful business owner is often a members only situation too.

Making your business a members only organization shows that you have standards. This doesn’t always work when you’re selling products. But think about Nordstrom. Their prices are high and they sell quality products. It’s a membership business because many people simply don’t have the money to buy from them. So those people go to Walmart and buy a suit for $60 instead of the suit that costs $1,000 at Nordstrom. Nordstrom has to sell a much smaller quantity to compete with those who race to the bottom with their prices.

The people who buy all of their clothes directly from Nordstrom are in the rich club or perceived to be in the rich club. Buying from them is a status symbol. Once you set higher standards and focus on high quality, you can make your products and services a members only club too.

04.15.13
by

Improvise!

By Anthony Hilb

Improvise!You gotta be flexible. Sometimes you MUST improvise. I’m improvising this entire blog post; I have no idea what I’ll say next at this moment, and I haven’t decided how I’ll end it. I’m only giving myself 10 minutes to finish this post. But so what! The importance of improvisation can’t be overlooked, and this is giving me a bit of practice.

Sometimes incredible opportunities unexpectedly present themselves to us. Often times these moments are when we’ll have to improvise. In conversations sometimes we just gotta improvise and go with it.

Not everything can be planned, and we have a restricted amount of time to work during the day. However, so much can be planned. To eliminate too much improvisation during your work week, set your priorities. Be ruthless about setting your priorities. This will help you predetermine what actions you will take in many circumstances.

When an amazing opportunity comes your way, you’ll be able to make an educated decision about your course of action. You might need to drop a current project or client in order to pursue a much better project/client. But you will still need to improvise and learn as you go no matter what you decide. There’s no doubt about that. Planning your every move won’t always work.

My 10 minutes is up. I hope you enjoyed my improvised rant. Get out there and take action! Set your priorities and improvise when you’re stuck!