12 Successful Entrepreneurs Share the Best Advice They Ever Got

From Entrepreneur.com-- some great advice to some of the current greats of business!

Being a successful entrepreneur frequently involves a series of missteps and mistakes before finally nailing the right idea or business. The difference, for many, between giving up and persisting through the toughest times can be getting advice from people who have done it before — and being smart enough to listen.
From investor Mark Cuban's dad telling him that there are no shortcuts to Lululemon founder Chip Wilson's realization that people actually enjoy helping others, we asked 12 successful entrepreneurs to share the best advice they ever got, discovering the lessons that stick with them to this day.

Follow the link here> http://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/230239#ixzz2mzluf7lQ

Small business advice to avoid the January slump

We all face the possibility of a December slump- so getting a jump on January is key. Thanks to CWA Studio for the wonderful tips from the U.K.:

It happens year after year.  Christmas, that is. It still comes on the same date every year and yet still manages to catch everyone off guard and distract small business owners. January is a difficult month for SME ’s.  Planning ahead for a potential decline in sales after Christmas is a smart way to secure a better start to January.  If you are an SME and are worried about the potential January slump, generating new enquiries and growing your client base is something you need to start planning now.
We’ve put together some helpful suggestions:

Existing Clients:
Now is an excellent time to talk to your existing clients/customers. For example, ask your clients what new products or services they would like your business to provide?  By communicating with your clients and addressing their needs you can forge a greater business relationship and become more valuable to them as a service provider.


Read the full article for all tips at: CWAStudio.com

Creating a Council of Advisors

"Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing." Oscar Wilde

Family-owned and other closely-held corporations often experience the need for independent, unbiased advice to guide the business through the ever changing business climate, as well as through personality and family differences that can harm and even destroy a business.

Traditionally, corporations have looked primarily to Boards of Directors to provide the expertise and counsel necessary to manage the business. Often Boards of private companies are supplemented with members who are neither shareholders nor officers of the corporation. However, in the context of family-owned and closely-held corporations, a Board of Directors has significant shortcomings even with the use of outside independent Directors. The stockholders may not feel comfortable granting legal management control of the business to an enlarged Board comprised in part of non-family members. Potential Directors are also reluctant to accept Board membership because of the potential liability to the shareholders, the corporation and third parties arising out of a Director's legal status as a fiduciary.

A developing alternative to the traditional board of directors is the use of a Council of Advisors which can provide an independent forum to address and discuss business policy and practices without many of the concerns attendant to the Board of Directors.

Is Your Company Ready for Growth?

Contributed by Jurgen Ringer. To reach Jurgen, please contact: jurgenringer@iib.ws

The beginning stages of any entrepreneurial concern are usually built around the product or service expertise (let’s call it the “PSE”) of the owners and organizers, which they offer to the market. They must be good at what they do, or the company will not survive at all. If it does survive and grow, though, more than this PSE is needed. Sooner or later, a transition point is reached, where the company must be transformed from primary emphasis on the PSE to the more structured format of a professionally managed concern. That is, management know how must be added to the PSE of the original owners.

The first challenge for the growing company comes when the owners must recognize that such a transition is necessary at all. Having survived the heavy demands and very hard work of the start-up phase (while watching others fail, perhaps), and being accustomed to constant striving to keep one’s PSE ahead of competitors, there is bound to be a tendency to believe that PSE is all that is really needed, that managing is just common sense.

But many of us have seen – and worked on – major turn arounds that happened solely because a strong team of management pros was brought on board a floundering concern, without any change in the PSE. There is just no  doubt about the need to add management expertise to the PSE to keep a good company healthy ands growing.

A company which does not pass this transition stage successfully, either because it does not recognize the need, or because it does not have access to the needed expertise, will not grow, or  will encounter more and more trouble trying to cope with greater volumes.

Some typical examples of such troubles, which are symptoms of greater problems: The CEO has to approve every little thing, is the only one with initiative, feels harrassed, and thinks he has to do everything himself; there are more and more errors, internal conflicts, morale problems; the most qualified employees leave and good people can not be attracted to replace them; there is poor or no cost control; unexpected cash shortages occur; some people exceed their authority, but most dodge responsibility; there is a general feeling of aimlessness and confusion; sales and profit performance are erratic; and so on and so on.

Eventually, the company must shrink back to a manageable size (“Mom and Pop”?),  be sold, or simply fails alltogether.

To determine if your company is in danger of reaching this stage, or is already there, see how many of these questions you  must answer ‘no” or “maybe”:

• Are there written descriptions that tell people what their job is, how to do it, relationships with other positions in the company? Such as an organization chart, job descriptions, statements of responsibility, delegated authority, measures of accountability? No, everybody does not know what their job is – I have seen confusion and conflict in companies with fewer than 15 employees!
• Does your compensation system recognize performance? Structured bonus programs (the discretionary Christmas bonus does not count!), properly designed individual or group incentives for hourly employees, gross profit based sales commissions, meaningful stock options or profit participation?
• Does your cost accounting system let you make aggressive pricing decisions if you need to? Variable and semi variable costs clearly identified so your incremental profit rate is accurate? How does your true gross profit compare to your competitors?
• Is cost control as tight as it needs to be? Monthly performance numbers? Detailed budgets and budget performance reports by department and areas of responsibility? Do department managers understand their budgets and how to control them?
• Do you have a written Business Plan, short and long term? Do your department managers understand it, and their part in it? Does your company have a Mission Statement, and longer term goals, which the management team understands and supports? 
• Is your management information system as good and as prompt as it needs to be for timely decision making by your managers? Have you and your managers identified your Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), and are they being tracked routinely?
•  Is the company’s sales management program reasonably complete, including sales targets, gross profit based commission programs, specific programs to gain major accounts, analysis of lost sales, comparisons against competitors? Is there a clear understanding of what sales people are supposed to do, with training programs to help them do it? What is the difference between your top and your bottom performers in terms of skills, motivation, expertise, effort put forth?
• Do you know  your penetration  of your market segment, and whether it is growing or shrinking? An  approximation is fine if necessary, but be sure you are realistic, so you know what additional effort is needed for a strategy to make gains.
• Is there a program and strategy for protecting and improving your market position? Is it supported by your advertising, sales promotion, a functioning web site?
• Does the company have a program to develop a management team for the longer term? Top management succession? Supervisory training? Personnel appraisals aimed at improving supervision and personnel selection?

These questions are still far from a complete Management Audit; still, if you have to answer “no” to as many as half of them, your company is not only unready for growth, it has already outgrown its management expertise. You will need part time or permanent help to correct the problem. You might get a little of that help by keeping up with this blog.

Building (Business) Relationships Takes TIME

A major skill often requiring some fine-tuning with most entrepreneurs is the process of building relationships with prospective clients and future business associates BEFORE asking for the sale or discussing business participation specifics.

Most entrepreneurs are taught to talk to anyone and everyone they know and meet as soon as they can, about their new business BEFORE someone else gets to them first. This goes against all good business logic.

People do business with those they know, like and trust. New prospects need more than a first meeting to know, like and trust you. In all businesses, it takes time to build relationships that are mutually beneficial.

Be professional, focus on your goals and create a reason for people to do business with you – PERSONALLY!

What is Marketing Research?

"The secret to success is - find out where the people are going and get there first." - Mark Twain

Basically, marketing research is just what the merchant did with the peanuts. Find out what catches customers' attention by observing their actions and drawing conclusions from what you see. To put it more formally, in the words of the American Marketing Association, marketing research is "the systematic gathering, recording, and analyzing of data about problems relating to the marketing of goods and services."

Marketing research is an organized way of finding objective answers to questions every business must answer to succeed. Every business owner-manager must ask:
 Who are my customers and potential customers?
 What kind of people are they?
 Can and will they buy?
 Am I offering the kinds of goods or services they want - at the best place, at the best time, and in the right amounts?
 Are my prices consistent with what buyers view as the products' values?
 Are my promotional programs working?
 What do customers think of my business?
 How does my business compare with my competitors?

Marketing research is not a perfect science; it deals with people and their constantly changing likes and dislikes which can be affected by hundreds of influences, many of which simply can't be identified. Marketing research does, however, try to learn about markets scientifically. That simply, is to gather facts in an orderly, objective way; to find out how things are, not how you think they are or would like them to be; what people want to buy, not just what you want to sell them.

Why Do It?

It's tough - impossible - to sell people what they don't want. (Remember the Nehru jacket?) That's pretty obvious. Just as obvious is the fact that nothing could be simpler than selling people what they do want. Big business has to do market research to find that out. The same reason holds for small business.

Business owners often have a "feel" for their customers - their markets - that comes from years of experience. Experience can be a two-edged sword, though, since it comprises a tremendous mass of facts acquired at random over a number of years.

Information about markets gained from long experience may no longer be timely enough to base selling decisions on. In addition, some "facts" may be vague, misleading impressions or folk tales of the "everybody knows that..." variety.

Marketing research focuses and organized marketing information. It ensures that such information is timely. It provides what you need to:
 Reduce business risks,
 Spot problems and potential problems in your current market,
 Identify and profit from sales opportunities,

Get basic facts about your market to help you make better decisions and set up plans of action.

Why Do a Marketing Plan?

A marketing plan outlines everything you will do to market your business, in what order, and when. The time and effort spent developing your marketing plan is a good investment.

An effective marketing plan does the following:
 Identifies and explores the strengths and weaknesses of your company, its products, or services
 Examines, based on these strengths and weaknesses, the opportunities and threats that exist in the marketplace
 Forces you to focus on the needs of your customers and potential customers
 Allows you to anticipate and plan for changing market trends, consumer demands, and changes of your competitors
 Helps you reach company goals within your budget
 Forms an essential part of your business plan