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              Thanks to Orin Zebest for permission to use this Photo.

When I was a small girl, my family would gather to watch The Art Linkletter Show, a television variety show which aired once a week.  

Although I have watched countless shows since that time, there is one particular segment which comes to mind when considering the many facets of starting and operating a small business.  During the segment, Art Linkletter introduced a juggler who proceeded to explain how we all are jugglers.  There are those who juggle as a profession; however, the analogy was applied to the rest of the population.  No matter your profession, age, or socio-economic status, we can all learn from the juggler’s lesson of “The Spinning Plates.” 

To offer a brief synopsis of the lesson, the juggler first began the process by placing a dowel rod on the floor and balancing a plate on top of the rod.  He gave the plate a spin with this hand and stood back to watch as the plate, balanced atop the dowel rod, would spin around and around.  As the first plate was spinning, the juggler would set up a second dowel rod and plate.  This process continued until the juggler had twelve sets of dowel rods and plates spinning.  In order to keep the plates from crashing to the ground, the juggler had to run from one to the next to keep the motion going.  Inevitably, he would be too slow to attend to all of the plates and one would crash to the ground with the plates shattering into pieces. Quickly, he would set up a replacement and run from one plate to the next spinning, spinning, running, spinning, running, spinning, and running again!  I was exhausted just watching the process.

The morale of the lesson is that no matter how wonderful you might be at spinning plates, you can only manage a certain number of plates effectively.  Add just one too many plates and they may all come crashing to the ground.  The same lesson is especially true for those of us who are business owners.

There are many aspects of your new business which will spin at the same time:  financial, marketing, sales, service, employer/employee relationships, customer relationships, deadlines, industry regulations, ordering supplies, overseeing production, submitting bids, and the list goes on!  With all of these responsibilities, it is no wonder that we find ourselves spinning and running just to keep all of our “plates” operating as they should.  New entrepreneurs are often overwhelmed with the magnitude of responsibilities created when they decided to start and operate a new business. Realizing that all of the different areas must be effectively operating at the same time can create quite a bit of stress for the new business owner.  To be successful, it is imperative that we understand our value to the new business.  The primary responsibility for the new business owner is to focus time and effort on actions which contribute the greatest value to a new business.  So what happens to the rest of the plates left spinning?  Ah, that is the portion which must be delegated to others.  In other words, the business owner should “spin” the value plates and delegate all activities that others can do.  To capitalize on entrepreneurial strengths, new business owners must learn to delegate in order to spend valuable time strategizing and leading rather than doing.  

Art Linkletter has been quoted as saying, “I’ve learned it is always better to have a small percentage of a big success, than a hundred percent of nothing.”  An entrepreneur himself, Linkletter learned early in his career that the quality of employees he hired was in direct correlation with the success of a venture.  Linkletter hired the most creative people he could find to assist with the production of his television shows, “House Party” and “The Art Linkletter Show.”  Then, he shared his success with the employees realizing that without creative employees, his ventures would not have yielded the same results.  If you were to ask the 96-year old entrepreneur his secret for success, he would tell you that he has learned not to spin more plates than he could comfortably handle.  Of the many books Linkletter wrote, it was the title of a book released in 1980 that states the fact entrepreneurs must remember, “I Didn’t Do it Alone!” 

As this article comes to a close, I hope that you also learn from the juggler’s lesson and realize that you can not possibly “spin all of the plates” found in your new small business.  Instead, learn to delegate responsibilities to others within your organization so that you can concentrate on that which brings your enterprise most value.  I’ll leave you with another bit of advice from Art Linkletter: “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out!” 

Keep the plates spinning, 

Penny Joyner Waddell
Small Business Management Instructor
Ashworth University

                      Image courtesy of jeff magnum-orange twin.

From Brian Grinonneau:

Dare to be different. A look at why advertising professionals should consider standing out from the competition, not copying them. To make your advertising work, follow the principle if your competition is doing it, don’t.  To succeed in today’s crowded marketplace where most of the products and advertising look exactly the same, a small business owner must stand out, shouting above the din with a message so clear and compelling that prospects stop and take notice. It’s a matter of business survival. Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs quickly retreat to the supposed security of sameness, soon to be lost in a sea of anonymity and a tidal wave of frustration.

In effect, albeit at a subconscious level, they are saying , “I don’t want to be different”. In back room offices and store fronts everywhere, salespeople are telling business owners they should do this or that kind of ad because it worked so great for their competitor. The owners nod and sign on. It’s already proven to be a winner, right? WRONG! Change the name, background color and a font style and you’ve got sameness. Put those ads in the yellow pages, a coupon magazine or a TV commercial cluster and you’ve got advertising death. Want proof? Get the latest statistics on small business failures.

About the author: Brian Grinonneau is the general manager of McMann and Tate advertising, an agency that works with small business owners helping them stand out from the crowd.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

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To read more of Brian Grinonneau’s  great article, login to the Ashworth University Career Center through the student portal and click here. 

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University

While the “experts” continue to debate whether our economy is in a recession, the rest of us working in the real world have already determined that the semantic definition of this crisis is the least of our concerns.  In the following podcast interview, Dale Collie, a former corporate executive and elite U.S. Army Ranger shares the lessons he has learned throughout his life on how to cope with the stress caused by difficult circumstances.  Although focusing primarily on how the business manager of today can effectively lead, inspire, and provide stability to workers during times of economic hardship; this podcast also offers some “big picture” perspectives that anyone can apply in their personal lives as well.  I think you’ll enjoy this podcast. Please share your thoughts in the comments section of this post.  I’d also like to thank Bill Conerly for conducting this outstanding interview. Thanks…

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University  

When I read the book Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin, it reminded me of one of his previous books I read, Purple Cow.  But was it just the content of the book, or the fact that the book arrived to me several years ago in a milk carton?

The premise of the book Purple Cow, published in 2002, is about being remarkable.  Godin’s point is that in an age where we are deluged with images and messages, these have reduced their overall effectiveness, and to get your message out there, your product or service needs to be different or unique in its own way.  The first example in the book is driving through farm lands and seeing cow after cow and they all look alike, but a cow that is purple will stand out and be remembered, thus remarkable.

So is remarkable something you put on top of a product or service?  Not necessarily.  The book gives examples of how L.L. Bean and Sears Craftsman line of tools are remarkable in their unconditional return policy.  Ikea is remarkable in how they sell low-cost, assemble-yourself furniture that is extremely stylish.  Dr. Bronner’s soap is remarkable in its unique labeling.

My greatest takeaway is that remarkable is not a gimmick.  From the above examples, what makes them remarkable are attributes that have lasted for years.  Gimmicks may drive sales, but not over the long term.  Gimmicks are also not considered sincere.

Another takeaway is that you may already be remarkable.  When many entrepreneurs venture out on their own, their catalyst is often they can do what they do better or in a more unique way from where they previously worked.  They may not have been able to do it, whatever it is, when they worked for someone else and have the conviction to do it themselves.  This was part of my own motivation for starting Dunkirk Systems, LLC.

The book Purple Cow does not over-do it with examples and is an energetic, quick read.  If you are venturing out on your own, or taking a strategic look at your business I recommend reading the book as it will definitely inspire you, and you may get some ideas from it as well.

Mike Maddaloni
Founder and President of Dunkirk Systems
Ashworth University Contributing Blogger

*We consider it a great privilege to share the business-tech perspectives of entrepreneur Mike Maddaloni with the Ashworth University Business Community. Mike’s Internet consulting firm, Dunkirk Systems, is based out of Chicago and has steadily built a reputation for providing superior service to their growing list of satisfied clients. Visit The Hot Iron blog to gain additional insights into Mike’s business life. Thanks Mike!

 
               Thanks to Nick Coombe for permission to use this Photo.

I hope you are already doing this, if not, you should treat you loyal prospects as VIPs (very important person). You should give them discounts, you should provide them with news that very few other people will get and you should provide them with all sorts of goodies, because your loyal prospects will hang around longer.It’s rather easy to use this marketing strategy. Just think about it, what would you really appreciate to get from a person much like yourself? Give them:                                                     

• Discounts on products
• Free products
• Interesting information

If you have a list of loyal prospects, you can just send them an email and you can start the email with ”I want to give my loyal prospects a discount…”You can do this before every launch of a new product. If a person have bought one of your other products, then this person will automatically get a discount on every new product that you will release.You can create a buying frenzy by limiting the number of days the discount will be available.

It’s a great way to build loyalty. Your customers will hang around longer if you give them some special VIP treatment once in a while. It’s important that they know and feel that they are treated as VIPs. Because if they do, they won’t unsubscribe to your lists, and they will stick around in order to be a part of your gang. (more…)

Photo courtesy of Larry_Page

Sarah Lewis, a Blog Mastermind student who blogs at Blogging Expertise, sent me an email yesterday about a website she’s just released.

It’s called WordPress Theme Review and here’s how Sarah described it to me -

Because SEO can have a significant impact on overall traffic, I always encourage clients to get a blog theme design that’s optimized for search engines, even if they go with a free theme. The difficulty, of course, is for them to find a theme that’s optimized without knowing code.For my own clients, I help with this, but I know many people don’t have the resources/willingness to hire help, and they really don’t know what to look for. Last year, I published a couple of posts highlighting themes that were optimized out-of-the-box, and they turned out to be some of my most popular themes. Since there was obvious interest, I sat down and figured out exactly what makes a theme search-engine-friendly, and WordPress Theme Review is the result.The site offers thumbnail images of the theme in use, as well as info on whether or not it supports tags and widgets, if there’s a cost, etc., but the main feature is that each theme is assigned an SEO score (out of 100) that helps the average user know how optimized the theme is.Continuing the blogging theme… (more…)