It was not all that long ago, I left a visible and lucrative career as a television news reporter. Last stop was ABC TV in Philadelphia where my stories ran on Nightline, Good Morning America and CNN as well as the local news each evening. It was a career, like many, that had taken a long time to build. And probably like your own careers, there were many scary times that I doubted my ability to succeed. From grunt work as a desk assistant for the NBC TV station in Philadelphia that included getting coffee for the late network news anchor Jessica Savitch, to reporter and anchor gigs in Huntsville, Alabama and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, there were times I earned little, complained a lot, but never lost sight of my goal to come back home to broadcast in Philadelphia, the 4th largest television market in the country.
I grew up in a home where my parents taught me I could be anything and have anything if I was willing to go the extra mile and work harder than the next person. It's advice I share with my children today... advice that has paid off in spades as I climbed through the highly competitive television industry and ultimately left to launch my own business.
Given I have a degree in journalism and no real background in business, starting a coaching and training firm was challenging, to put it mildly. While I'm fairly savvy, balancing the checkbook is not my strong point and my family has banned me from helping our 5th grader with his math homework. When I quit ABC, colleagues and friends called me "nuts". After all, why would you leave a highly visible, coveted job in a major market to sit in your home office and try to get people to h ire you to teach them how to talk? In fact, as I just wrote that sentence, it does sound like a fairly dumb plan. But entrepreneurs are always looking for the next door. If it's cracked open just a tiny bit, we want to see what's on the other side, even if stepping through that door means never turning back. It reminds me of the imprints on our automobile rear views mirrors that say: "Caution: Objects are closer than they appear." Truth be told, what we strive for is usually closer than it appears. All we have to do is reach out and grasp to make it happen.
This year I am celebrating my 12th year in business. I've made a few mistakes a long the way, but I have also learned a lot which I would like to share with you so you can continue to grow, enjoy your own successes and share them with others who aspire to join the ranks of successful entrepreneurs.
1. Believe in Yourself. Fear is a powerful motivator. Be motivated and challenged by all of the people who tell you it can't be done.
2. Be a sponge. Read everything you can get your hands on. Attend as many professional development sessions that time and money afford. Watch the news, listen to the talk shows and then talk to everyone and anyone. Every person from every walk of life, regardless of what they do, has knowledge to offer.
3. Don't try to be everything to everybody. Focus on what you're good at and what you love to do. That's what you'll excel at and that's how you will provide the most value to your clients and customers.
4. Even the big guys are always looking for the next client. There is no such thing as coasting. Worrying about keeping clients forces you to bring new ones in the door. Your worst enemy is not the competition...your worst enemy is yourself.
5. Always strive to re-invent yourself and your product. Look for new ways to spread information, offer services and change the way you do things so you remain fresh, informed and can provide new services for your clients.
6. Integrity is King. Never Never Never compromise your values and beliefs. There is no such thing as an easy road to success or making an easy buck. No one gets discovered. But, they do earn success.
7. Leave your ego at home. I come from an ego driven business and I have an ego. That's not bad as it has served me well in television and in business. HOWEVER, the priority is the client. They don't care about how great you are. They care about what you can do for them to fix their problems and make them better.
8. Know When to Let Go: Not every client is worth keeping. Some will drain time, energy and money away from you, your family and your business. So, learn to say no because compromising what's important to you can make you unhappy and cause you to compromise your own values.
9. Do what you say. So many people are so worried about pitching and competing for the business that they lose sight of what they told the client in those initial meetings. Remember what you said you would do and do it!
10. Have fun. Love what you do and love to get out of bed in the morning. If not, you're in the wrong business.
While sales, marketing, client development, public relations and so many other business considerations are necessary to climb the ladder of success; real success bubbles forth from your gut for your clients will feel your commitment, energy and passion that you bring to your own business and will pass on to them.
Copyright (c) 2009 Karen Friedman
With a cancer-like economy, leaving 2.6 million people without jobs, anticipating 50 million more world wide, even Joe the plumber could end up in the soup line if he deny his starting role as Founder of Joe's Plumbing Service.
While multi-million dollar businesses are closing regularly, why would anyone with any CENTS think entrepreneurial ideas could be the catch of the day?
Tune in while we uncover 3 solid reasons (with a well thought out business plan) you are more likely to succeed in reaching your business goals if you take heed to some of the unfair business practices from a few major corporations.
Today is the perfect training ground to learn what not to do if you plan to capture massive long term success. You will uncover what happened to big businesses, and how to capitalize on a few Fortune 500's fatal mistakes.
Listed below are 3 oversights to side step to potentially out produce big businesses, even starting on a low budget.
1. Don't allow or practice favoritism: Keep control over your business; Don't be afraid to weed out the slackers, we all know people who work for large corporations or have witnessed first hand the slackers...their main objective is to try to creatively manipulate "father time-clock".
The slackers sole purpose is to test drive their entrepreneur ideas to see how much work they can dodge. Then you have the human walkie talkie's, they do nothing all day, but talk of course.
2. Learn to treat each employee with honesty and fairness: Have you noticed, it seems that the person with the best ingenious ideas and leadership qualities are always the persons passed over?
Many times the most egotistical, narcissistic co-worker end up with the magical position of manager which kills the entrepreneurial spirit, originality and inspiration of your team.
Surprisingly companies just keep missing the boat...encouraging independent thinkers will be critical in the new economy, why, because the world's competition will force companies to cut loose the dead weight, even if it's the boss' best buddy.
3. Start small and consume less Risk: With large corporations comes bigger-risk: and the most slippery risk is balancing between the employees vs the stockholders.
Many companies don't always do what's in the best interest of their employees (shocking I know) but rather what's in the interest of the stock holders.
And some stock holders and CEO's have one goal and one goal only... WIIFM (what's in it for me) to make as much money as humanely or inhumanely possible, many times at the expense of thousands of others.
With resources such as CNN news and the internet we don't have to elaborate much on that issue... E.g. $35,000.00 Toilets, private or corporate jets, cooking the books, (accounting errors)Etc...
since many big businesses are sinking faster than the titanic and with the tax breaks stacked on the home business owners side for now, it will be eons before we get another opportunity like this, timing is everything in business so use it to your advantage.
There you have it, 3 advantages for you to contemplate that will assist you in the beginning stages of your small or home business.
It's no different than what our parents preached when growing up, to treat people the way you want to be treated. Remember to exercise honesty and integrity which will surely set you ahead of your soon to be competitors.
Now is a perfect time to stir your entrepreneurial juices, jump start your home business today.
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Both Karen Friedman & Deborah Pretty are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Karen Friedman has sinced written about articles on various topics from Writing, Leadership and Writing. Karen Friedman is an international communications coach and award winning television reporter who helps executives, spokespeople and celebrities shine in every interview, appearance and presentation. President, Karen Friedman Enterprises and co-author of. Karen Friedman's top article generates over 110000 views. to your Favourites.
Deborah Pretty has sinced written about articles on various topics from Work From Home. Deborah Pretty offers innovative creative training and business ideas based on her 25 years of experience as a successful entrepreneur . Find out more about how you can gain unfair advantages by side stepping high-overhead and costly business start-up mi. Deborah Pretty's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.