Saturday, I heard an excellent speaker, Ines Kinchen, who speaks about the same thing that I do, Appreciation Marketing. What made her unique was that she spoke with her new baby strapped on the front of her during the entire speech and most of the day. When the baby woke up, she took it in stride and introduced Marquise to the audience. I even got one of his business cards, which are about one-half the size of a regular card and has his picture on the front!

I plan to keep Marquise’s card to remind me to stop making excuses. Ines could have easily passed on the speech with the excuse that she had a young baby. Yet she is a go getter and even though she never mentioned it in her speech, she demonstrated to the audience (and me) that you can do anything despite the obstacles that are thrown in your path.

Too young (Marquise is a baby.) Too old? I can prove that won’t fly. Just had a baby? Ines proved that excuse won’t work. Let’s try something. Reply to this post with an excuse and I’ll bet I can prove someone has gone ahead and beat the odds!

A friend recently asked about an LLC versus a sole proprietorship. Over the past 10 years I have coached hundreds of entrepreneurs who were starting a business or whose sales seemed “stuck.”   In so many cases,  I’ve noticed that this question comes up way too early in the planning stages. Another question is about bookkeeping when there is nothing to book-keep. All of these details are important, but not nearly as important as the big question, who will buy my product or service?

You can have the most unique, high quality, priced-right product or service but unless you know who will reach in their checkbook and write you a check, it’s my opinion that everything else is immaterial until that question is answered.

Those letters of Inc. or LLC will not make one sale for you.  So if you’re bothered by the trivial details of setting up a business, focus on the elephant in the room, sales and marketing and the rest will come easy!

aviary.com

Need more cool tools to make your photos shinier, your audio recordings zippier, your illustrations simpler, and your presentation graphics well annotated? Aviary is a new, online, cross-platform suite of tools you can now use in the pro mode for no charge. This company got a new round of funding so you no longer have to pay.

It has lots of video tutorials to help you understand and use the tools, too. You will need a computer, an up-to-date Web browser, and a broadband Internet connection.

in the recent Snowmaggedon that hit the Northeast, the Washington Post reported what happened when a lone employee braved the blizzard to get to his job at Safeway, only to discover he was the only one who showed up for work. Safeway has a policy that there have to be at least two employee in a store, so he left — and forgot to lock the door. That day, ten customers trudged through the snow to get groceries only to find the Safeway untended. What did they do? Help themselves and run? No. They took what they needed and left cash and IOUs.

Guess there’s still a lot of good people out there!

This ad recently appeared on my FaceBook page:

Wonder how fast is your computer? Take this free speed test. Mine is about 3280 upload and download for comparison.

Looking for a way to meet new people and network in your area? Try http://www.meetup.com.  Put in your zip code and find meetings and groups in your area.

Last night I attended a pro hockey game where the final score was 9-1. (We won) When they interviewed the coach the question was asked, “Did you see any weaknesses that you’ll be working on tomorrow?” The coach told the interviewer, “Of course. We will enjoy the win tonight and immediately start working on our weak spots tomorrow.”

I had the thought – what if our business or job was like last night’s game? Each day is a new game and you are the coach. Do you review the day (game) looking at your strengths and weak spots? Do you create a plan for tomorrow to make those weak spots disappear from your game?

What would happen if the team just shows up each game, plays and goes home to wait on the next game. No review. No game tapes. No practice. No celebration. It wouldn’t be much of a team would it?

So what’s your game plan, coach?

We had a great group discussion yesterday at TBN about how to get yourself “up” on those days when you feel lethargic, totally drained and just don’t feel like working. The group came up with:
motivational messages (CD, Tapes), prayer, music, watch a recorded Joel Osteen sermon, exercise, meditation, take a drive and use self talk, remember past successes, keep a Thankful Journal and call a motivated friend.

All of these are great ideas and can work. One TV show I enjoy watching is Kitchen Nightmares. When business just doesn’t seem to be working, I get inspired by the energy of host Gordon Ramsey. He goes into family owned restaurants who are in a mess and usually the owners are really down. He rebuilds their attitude and their business with common sense ideas. By the end of the hour, the owners are charged up, ready to tackle their obstacles and the restaurant is full of happy customers.

Although his beeped-out language is not what I would use, I admire his “kick right square in the seat of the pants” approach as many of the business owners that I coach could use this form of motivation. Since Gordon Ramsey won’t be coming to your business anytime soon, maybe you could use this approach on yourself.

Amazing how far you can go with common sense. My coaching and speaking business is thriving, not because I’m a genius at business, but I look for common sense solutions and provide that kick when needed. It seems to work. Thanks Gordon Ramsey!