POST UPDATE

Hello All!

Sorry for not being able to post anything new here in my blog for more than a week now. I've been very busy and I'm also moving my blog into Word Press. I'll keep you posted once my blog is moved to Word Press.

Thank you!

Chris

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you're not, pretend you are."

Muhammad Ali

The Entrepreneur's Most Important Asset

What is the key to entrepreneurial and small business success? Read more and find out.

The Only Decision-Making Tool You'll Ever Need

Say you're presented with two choices. Both have their merits. Both have positives and negatives. Absent a clear winner, what should you do?

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome."

William James

9 Things That Motivate Employees More Than Money

Don't show 'em the money (even if you have it). Here are nine better ways to boost morale.

5 Easy Ways to Stay Motivated

Face it: There are days when being an entrepreneur sucks. Here are a few simple steps to getting your mojo back.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”

Colin Powell

How Failure Makes You a Better Manager

"When I was a young manager at Texas Instruments, my boss would occasionally get it in his head that I was worth mentoring. What he saw that made it worth the effort of trying to get anything through my thick skull is beyond me." Steve Tobak

4 Steps To Becoming A Great Problem Solver

If you've ever heard the expression, "That's why you make the big bucks," then you were probably on the hook to solve a tough problem. Indeed, the ability to troubleshoot complex issues, fix troubled organizations, beat bigger competitors or successfully manage crises, is highly valued in the corporate world.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

“To succeed, you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.”

Tony Dorsett

7 Steps To Closing A Deal Via Email

Despite what you may think, a perfectly crafted email can actually close a deal. In most cases, you’ll want to close deals either in person or on the telephone. It’s more personal and more likely to work. And you’ll know, right away, whether you’ve got the business or not. Even so, it’s sometimes more convenient to ask for the business via email. Here’s a simple seven-step process for writing an email that can actually close:

10 Tips Of The Trade On How You Can Make Email Marketing Work Harder

Not all email marketing campaigns are the same under the skin. Shawn Naggiar, chief revenue of Act-On Software, makers of a cloud-based marketing-automation platform, has seen them all firsthand and knows what works and what doesn't. Here are 10 tips of the email marketing trade that he says will help businesses make their email marketing work smarter and harder.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

Oliver Goldsmith

Why You Must Face Reality In Business -- And In Life

Life as a human being is a complicated mess. If you look at all the stuff you've got to deal with in your home and work life, it seems almost impossible to get through it in one piece, let alone raise a family and have a successful career.

What Does A Great Morning Look Like?

At a conference recently, I moderated a panel of professionals who had made changes in their schedules in order to be more effective. One woman, a college administrator, logged her time and realized that her work day featured constant interruptions. This was partly by design; she had an open-door policy, and valued close collaboration with her team. Indeed, we soon saw that her "interruptions" were probably the most important part of her job!

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven't planted”

David Bly

Get Customers To Buy Now, Not Later

You know the scenario: A prospect hears a presentation, agrees that your solution is the right one, and works with you on the price -- only to later tell you, "But let's look at this next week/month/quarter/ year..." It just doesn't add up. Companies invest time in considering a change in approach or supplier for a reason and that usually includes a level of urgency for change. If they then don't move forward, what should you do?

Constructive Criticism: 5 Ways To Get Your Point Heard, Every Single Time

One of the hardest parts of being an effective manager is communicating criticism to your employees. If you're too harsh, they'll react emotionally and won't hear you. If you're too vague, they won't hear the message.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"When a man is willing and eager, the Gods join in."

Aeschylus

The Best Way To Achieve Healthy Work-Life Balance

Want a clear separation between work and business? For the small business owner that's almost impossible. You are your business: virtually and symbolically, your business is an extension of you. That means you will get calls at night. You will answer emails on the weekend. You will be preoccupied and distracted. That's all part of owning your own business.

Fed Up? 3 Leadership Strategies To Fix Any Problem

(MoneyWatch) "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" That rant, which Paddy Chayefsky used to great effect in his film Network, usually results in people getting hurt. But not always! Being fed up doesn't have to equate to rage or getting even. It can result in positive things. Two recent news stories made me realize, as Harvard professor and author Rosabeth Moss Kanter would say, "we change only when it hurts too much not to change."

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"The great successful men of the world have used their imagination. They think ahead and create their mental picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building - steadily building."

Robert Collier

Make 2012 Your Best Year: Prepare This Holiday!

I feel like Scrooge about this time of the year. The lack of sales progress in the holiday and pre-holiday season can be maddening. For business-to-business sales people the action tapers off for the 6 weeks between the Monday before Thanksgiving and the Monday after New Year's Day. The business community goes into decision-making, phone call returning, email-responding hibernation and sales people are left to grumble. Here are 3 things you can do to set yourself in a great position for the next year's sales plan and avoid losing your mind:

You Won't Achieve The American Dream By Dreaming

We live in volatile times where viewpoints are highly polarized. The way people see business in America is no exception. Lately, it seems as if management commentary is either feel-good fluff or anti-business rhetoric.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do, well."

Henry W. Longfellow

Unique Selling Proposition (USP) As A Competitive Edge

To capture a larger share of market and become more viable, sustainable, and profitable, you absolutely must differentiate your business, products, and/or services from your competitors. In other words, you need to make your business special in the eyes of your customers and prospects. You can achieve that by creating a “unique selling proposition,” or USP, and then effectively conveying it to your target. Virtually all businesses can benefit from a good USP, but it’s crucial for those operating in a highly competitive market.

The Easiest Elevator Pitch To Deliver

I'm terrible at delivering elevator pitches. While some people are great at making a wonderful first impression on potential clients, to me making an elevator pitch feels forced and obvious, so I usually chicken out and console myself by rationalizing that impromptu encounters with people in need of a ghostwriter aren't likely anyway.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

“Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.”

Orison Swett Marden

5 Rules Of Small Business Advertising Success

Many small businesses can't afford an ad agency, or prefer to do advertising and other creative work in-house. It makes agency people jump down my throat, but for many reasons (and after two decades of experience doing it both ways), I happen to think that "D.I.Y." is right for most startups and many established small companies.

How To Compete Against Giant Corporations--And Win!

Watch neighborhood kids choose their teams, and you'll see an emotionally brutal process unfold. Everyone gets to participate, but biggest, oldest and fastest kids are selected first; friends are second. And unknowns usually are among the last. In the world of sales, a similar sandlot process happens, except not everyone gets to play.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”

Herman Cain

10 Ways To Get More Sales From Existing Customers

If you are looking to increase your revenue per customer, here are some tips on getting your sales staff focused on inside sales, upselling, and marketing additional services.

Practical Tips to Maximize Revenue Potential

In a constrained environment, where organizations of all sizes are being pressed to find ways to do more with less, maximizing revenue streams is a top-of-mind consideration for many SMBs.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"Success is the good fortune that comes from aspiration, desperation, perspiration and inspiration."

Evan Esar

On a Losing Streak? How to Win the Final Stretch

Sales in any business is a lot like baseball game. Focusing on the current game is more important than thinking of the next game coming.

The 3 Most Dangerous Sales Clichés

Clichés can wreak havoc. In sales, especially, many clichés can cause damage in the hiring processes, the buying experience and the sales conversation.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will."

Vince Lombardi

Why Your Business Doesn't Love You Back

Many small business owners fall out of love with their businesses. Over time, what you once felt passionate about has become a source of disillusionment, pressure, and stress. In short, you've gotten sick of your business -- and your business may be sick of you as a result.

7 Signs You Shouldn't Be An Entrepreneur

You've read a few books, heard the cautionary tales, created a business plan, and talked to other business owners. You've done plenty of homework and feel starting your own business is right for you.
That's a great start, but let's make sure. If any of the following strikes a chord, give a little more thought to taking the entrepreneurial plunge.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"There is only one success--to be able to spend your life in your own way."

Christopher Morley

Why You Shouldn't Care About Small Business Pessimism

Sure, Congress is ineffective, the Fed can't help you, and optimism is still weak. But there are plenty of reasons to feel good about being a small business owner.

5 Ways to Start a Successful Business During a Recession

You may think a recession is a terrible time to start a business, but, in reality, there are a lot of reasons it might be a great time. Smart entrepreneurs are taking advantage of new opportunities and unique needs presented by the economic downturn. The trick, business owners say, is to find a way to meet the new needs of the recession. Here are five ways you can start and grow during this protracted economic instability.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"Success is sweet: the sweeter if long delayed and attained through manifold struggles and defeats."

A. Branson Alcott

Built to Survive: The Darwin Approach to Business

Charles Darwin would have built a killer company. He knew that it's not necessarily the strongest or the first to arrive who are most likely to survive; it's the most adaptable who win in the end. The same is true in business.

Four Tips for Avoiding Business Failure

There’s an oft-repeated statistic claiming that half of all businesses fail in the first year. That’s a myth. But the truth is not a whole lot more soothing. Fully 50 percent of small businesses fail in the first five years, according to the Small Business Administration. To survive, a new business owner needs to avoid some of the common blunders known to derail many an entrepreneurial dream.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out."

Robert Collier

The Dirtiest Word In Customer Service

If there’s one word that stabs me in the ears and makes me don my Customer Service Avenger tights and cape, it’s “can’t.” It’s a filthy word that should be avoided at all costs.

The Best Sales Technique You’ve Stopped Using

Sometimes sales training and “advanced” sales strategies do more harm than good — especially if the techniques you adopt take you away from what works best for you.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

“Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”

Mark Victor Hansen

4 Sure-Fire Ways to Deliver First-Class Customer Service

Trading money for time and convenience is nothing new–it’s the basis for countless businesses, from fully-prepared, take-home meals to dry cleaning pickup services. But for frequent international travelers, the money/convenience tradeoff goes way beyond grabbing a ready-to-eat rotisserie chicken; it’s virtually a way of life.

Mind Your Business: A Scary Proposition

Taking the leap into entrepreneurship can be a scary proposition. That's especially true if you're betting all your chips (and dollars, for that matter) on the success of this one great business venture.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be."

George Sheehan

5 Things Successful People Don’t DO

There are no formulas for who is successful. But there are statistical probabilities. For example, you are equally as likely to succeed if you go to Harvard as if you apply to Harvard and get rejected, according to Alan Krueger, Princeton economist.

Why the Next Steve Jobs Will be Asian

As Washington maneuvers on skilled immigration reform, the United States is losing its near-monopoly on entrepreneurship by forcing its educated Indian and Chinese immigrants to return home.

FREE Cloud Storage from Box.net!

If you have an iPhone or an iPad, you may want to check out this FREE cloud storage from Box.net!

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

“Success is simple. Do what's right, the right way, at the right time.”

Arnold H. Glasgow

Does Your Business Have Banker’s Syndrome…or the Gratitude Effect?

When the phone lines are jammed and the pipeline is full and revenue is skyrocketing and glowing testimonials are pouring in it’s only natural to feel really good about your business — and yourself. At times you might even catch yourself feeling not only satisfied and fulfilled… but maybe even a little smug.

Piictu: Sharing Pictures and Making Money

As he was watching the progress of Argentina (his favorite team) in the World Cup, he never dreamed that his next project would be to try to revolutionize the world of photo sharing. But something strange happened.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"There is only one success--to be able to spend your life in your own way."

Christopher Morley

Conquer Your Challenges: 12 Great Ways to Do Things Differently

Instead of waiting until you’re forced to make a bad situation better, why not turn a decent situation into a great one and tackle your challenges head on?

The Characteristics of a Great Leader

Great leaders are often described as having a certain magnetism. But according to new research, that special something could have less to do with charisma than with a tendency to obscure the way they get things done.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."

Theodore Roosevelt

Effective Ways to Evaluate Leads| Selling Power

Watch the video.

How to Find and Attract Customers

New business owners might feel the world has all gone online in recent years and that the high-tech landscape has changed the very nature of the entrepreneurial game. While there is some truth to that, the old adage that “the more things change, the more they stay the same” also applies to hooking new customers.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

“Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.”

Buddha

Stress Management Key to Keeping Business (and Owner) Alive

The challenges of owning a business aren’t always about hiring employees or satisfying customers. Sometimes, the struggles are a little more personal. And usually, the end result is stress.

Is Your Customer Service Sabotaging Sales?

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that when the cost to acquire customers (CAC) exceeds the lifetime value of the customer (LTV) the business model is doomed to fail.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"Success and growth is about constantly pushing yourself to the extreme limits, getting out of your "comfort zone", and exploring "un-chartered territories!"

Chris Zapata Viado

Homework 101: 5 Business You Can Run From Home

So you want to start a business, but you don't have the funds for an office or a storefront? Don't worry. You might be surprised at how easy it is to run a business out of your home without your customers being any the wiser. Here are five entrepreneurs who've made a successful go of working from home and found a measure of work-life balance in the process.

Success? It’s Just a Decision Away

Read more...

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan, 'press on' has solved, and always will solve, the problems of the human race."

Calvin Coolidge

How Do Successful People Respond to Setbacks? (Video)

Watch this video.

3 Steps to Bringing Your Invention to Market

So you finally have a great idea that is going to launch your company and make it a success. Now what?

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a man has taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of your first."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Simple Ways to Increase Productivity by 5% — In One Day

Want to dramatically improve your employee’s performance without spending any money? Want to dramatically improve your own performance without taking classes, attending seminars, or buying cool new gadgets that promise lots but deliver little?

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"Success seems to be connected with action. Successful men keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit."

Conrad Hilton

How Facebook’s New Features Will Affect Digital Marketers

With Facebook’s major changes set to roll out this week, little thought has been given to answering how Timeline and the revamped Open Graph will affect our interaction with rest of the web, and how websites stand to benefit. I believe that weaving Facebook even deeper into websites is going to yield a positive experience for consumers and sites alike.

The 3 Types of Procrastination (And What to Do About Each)

If you have a headache, there could be a variety of causes for the symptom — dehydration, the neighbor’s unbearable music, migraine or, in rare and terrible cases, something more serious. And what’s true of physical symptoms is also often true of behavioral ones. You’re snapping at your partner? Maybe you have unresolved anger issues or maybe you’re just hungry.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all."

Dale Carnegie

7 Ways to Up Your Sales Game

Not a natural born salesperson? Fortunately, sales is one of those things that can be learned, and improved upon over time. All you need do is copy what great salespeople do, learn their strategies, and practice.

Inspirational Quote Of The Day

"ETERNAL OPTIMISM and CONSTANT BELIEVING IN YOURSELF are THE ONLY KEYS TO SUCCESS, JOY, and TRUE HAPPINESS IN LIFE! And DON'T LET ANYONE TELL YOU SOMETHING ELSE OTHERWISE!" 

Chris Zapata Viado 

Entrepreneur, Founder and Proprietor
Excellerium Business Consulting Services
Author and Publisher, "Outsource Yourself!" Book