I always find it interesting of those who have made it successful, to see what they find to be important. Take a look below and leave comments. “Nothing Great Was Ever Accomplished Without Inspiration“

1. Don’t start a company unless it’s an obsession and something you love.

2. If you have an exit strategy, it’s not an obsession.

3. Hire people who you think will love working there.

4. Sales Cure All. Know how your company will make money and how you will actually make sales.

5. Know your core competencies and focus on being great at them. Pay up for people in your core competencies. Get the best. Outside the core competencies, hire people that fit your culture but aren’t as expensive to pay.

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6. An espresso machine? Are you kidding me? Coffee is for closers. Sodas are free. Lunch is a chance to get out of the office and talk. There are 24 hours in a day, and if people like their jobs, they will find ways to use as much of it as possible to do their jobs.

7. No offices. Open offices keep everyone in tune with what is going on and keep the energy up. If an employee is about privacy, show him or her how to use the lock on the bathroom. There is nothing private in a startup. This is also a good way to keep from hiring executives who cannot operate successfully in a startup. My biggest fear was always hiring someone who wanted to build an empire. If the person demands to fly first class or to bring over a personal secretary, run away. If an exec won’t go on sales calls, run away. They are empire builders and will pollute your company.

8. As far as technology, go with what you know. That is always the most inexpensive way. If you know Apple, use it. If you know Vista, ask yourself why, then use it. It’s a startup so there are just a few employees. Let people use what they know.

Read More Here: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222524

I found this to be a Great Interview. Hope you be inspired!

Marjorie Perry

Meet Marjorie Perry, President and CEO of MZM Construction and Management Company in Newark, New Jersey. Perry is a fearless visionary who started her construction company 20 years ago, untouched by her predominantly male competition. AN influential business executive, Perry has a proven track record of success, Having brokered multi-million dollars deals with clients such as the Marriot Hotels, Meadowlands Giants and Jets Sports Arena. She’s an innovative leader, passionate, and A positive role model dedicated to empowering women and minorities in business. Find out why she’s the boss!

I contemplated about started this Business Motivational from Jnairb Design. First, I thought what does this have to do with design. And, then I said a lot because every website that I have created for a person or business was through some form of inspiration for both them and I. “Nothing Great Was Ever Accomplished Without Inspiration!”

Do you believe in self help books? Are they effective or just a bunch of bull? Have you ever been called closed minded because you will only take from the Bible or Koran? Do you constantly work on improving yourself? Well, whatever you believe, believe in belief itself because “Life Principles” never change.

No matter where you are in your life, we all can stand some improvement in every aspect. Would you affirm that our life is a constant work in progress! Can you relate that a human life born into this world is one significant treasure that doesn’t come with instructions? So, how do we become who we are? We are who we are literally through our inspired thoughts first then creating our feelings indigenous of our hearts. (In Beach Chair—Jay-Z said it best “Books can guide you, but your heart defines you” Ha, Ha, Ha!) So I said to chica, Is it really our corazon that bring us on? It is said that everything you come in contact with or see on a daily started either in the Universal Mind (i.e. God) or in the mind of a human (in which is a derivative of the Universal Mind).

With that said; practice these five steps for improvement:

• Stay Focus: Permit your mind to think about only what you want it to think about (stop letting your mind drift and wonder) this causes you to lose control. Remember the old saw, “An idle mind is the devils workshop”. More of a three part series on focus.
• Get in tune with the universe: Mind, Body, and Soul. Read more on Mind, Body, and Soul
• Set Goals: Setting and accomplishing goals builds self esteem and confidence. A person who practices goal setting will run circles around the average person that’s considered to be smart.
• Practice Daily Affirmations: Constantly tell yourself, I can…, I will…, I am going to do…
• Pray and ask God for Knowledge, Wisdom, and Understanding of life. Knowledge which is the 1st step. Knowledge is knowing what you want and want to accomplish. Pray and ask God for Wisdom, which is the 2nd step. Being wise enough to learn from life’s experiences. Wisdom is accumulated knowledge and the ability to utilize and apply prudent and sensible knowledge. Understanding is the 3rd step and considered the most powerful of all. And I say that because, once you understand something and how it works. This thing can be turned inside out, right side up, upside down, or around and round. It doesn’t matter what something, someone or what predicament you’re faced with, you will always have the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding to pick up the pieces, put them back together and get on with your life, in ANY situations.

Is it possible to get a full understanding of life. THAT WOULD BE POWERFUL! Go ahead, ask for it! Nothing is impossible.

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Sometimes a company or brand logo is more than it first appears. For example, take a look at the hidden meanings or messages embedded in these 12 popular logos below. You won’t look at these designs the same way again.

Fed Ex

FedEx
Can you spot something in this logo? The FedEx logo, designed in 1994 by Linden Leader & Landor Associates, at first appears simple and straightforward. However, if you look at the white space between the “E” and “x” you can see a right-facing arrow. This “hidden” arrow was intended to be a subliminal symbol for speed and precision.

Amazon.com

Amazon.com
That yellow arrow is more than just a decorative swoosh. The Amazon logo was created to represent the message that it sells everything from A to Z (the arrow connects the two letters) and also represents the smile that customers would experience by shopping on the Amazon.com Web site (the arrow becomes a smile).

Baskin Robbins

Baskin-Robbins
In 2005, as part of its 60th anniversary celebration, Baskin-Robbins launched a new brand identity. The new logo was intended to “capture the fun and energy of Baskin-Robbins.” In the old logo, the number “31″ appeared within a simple arc, suggestive of a scoop of ice cream, and next to the name. In the new logo, you can see that the “31″ still exists. It is now formed by the pink portion of the ice cream store’s two initials: “B” and “R.”

See More…

Steve Waganer – March 28, 2009

In this global market, online access is the prime medium for the globalization. Information and commerce are mingling with each other in order to open doors for the people who are interested in this communication process. Organic search engine marketing is such a marketing process through which one can promote business or the product and can have the full update about the business world.

The new comers are promoting their own sites in order to be acquainted with the market. A computer with the online service is enough to reach out to the enthusiasts. Organic search engine marketing is the helping hand to provide all kinds of assistance to create a site which can be discovered by the searching engines.

Each page of the site should be constructed in such a way that the content or the materials are indexed to the keywords so that the customers can get the information about the product without much effort. This search engine is modelled to detect the steps necessary to obtain the benefits in short period of time. These kinds of functions are essential in the field of business and corporate world in order to minimize the gap between the product and its targeted customers. The site designers also must have the satisfactory information and accurate ideas of the product or the service. There should be the clear facts about the productivity and profitability.

People who are looking for grabbing this chance should submit the complete package like the personal site, the report on the catalogue etc. There are sources who will accompany you in developing a set of keywords. These sources go through the ingredients of the site. Therefore the site has to be designed catchy and appealing to have a positive result. It will also examine the statistics of the traffic. Then it delivers the ranking position of the site. The information of organic search engine marketing is highly recommended to understand the various search engines. Then it goes for selecting the proper keywords. After that, add the titles META descriptions, link structure and other vital requirements. These companies or the sources are experienced leaders in the marketing analysis.

Read More…

A growing number of businesses are making Facebook an indispensible part of hanging out their shingles. Small businesses are using it to find new customers, build online communities of fans and dig into gold mines of demographic information.

“You need to be where your customers are and your prospective customers are,” said Clara Shih, author of “The Facebook Era” (Pearson Education, 2009). “And with 300 million people on Facebook, and still growing, that’s increasingly where your audience is for a lot of products and services.”

Start Small

For most businesses, Facebook Pages (distinct from individual profiles and Facebook groups) are the best place to start. Pages allow businesses to collect “fans” the way celebrities, sports teams, musicians and politicians do. There are now 1.4 million Facebook Pages and they collect more than 10 million fans every day, according to the site.

Businesses can easily create a Web presence with Facebook, even if they don’t have their own Web site (most companies still should maintain a Web site to reach people who don’t use Facebook or whose employers block access to the site). Businesses can claim a vanity address so that their Facebook address reflects the business name, like www.facebook.com/Starbucks. Facebook pages can link to the company’s Web site or direct sales to e-commerce sites like Ticketmaster or Amazon.

Read More…

Outsourcing — the practice of using outside firms to handle work normally performed within a company — is a familiar concept to many entrepreneurs. Small companies routinely outsource their payroll processing, accounting, distribution, and many other important functions — often because they have no other choice. Many large companies turn to outsourcing to cut costs. In response, entire industries have evolved to serve companies’ outsourcing needs.

But not many businesses thoroughly understand the benefits of outsourcing. It’s true that outsourcing can save money, but that’s not the only (or even the most important) reason to do it. As many firms discovered during the outsourcing “mania” of the early 1990s, outsourcing too much can be an even bigger mistake than not outsourcing any work at all. The flat economy caused many companies into huge layoffs and subsequently outsourced functions that were better kept in-house. Wise outsourcing, however, can provide a number of long-term benefits:

Control capital costs. Cost-cutting may not be the only reason to outsource, but it’s certainly a major factor. Outsourcing converts fixed costs into variable costs, releases capital for investment elsewhere in your business, and allows you to avoid large expenditures in the early stages of your business. Outsourcing can also make your firm more attractive to investors, since you’re able to pump more capital directly into revenue-producing activities.

Increase efficiency. Companies that do everything themselves have much higher research, development, marketing, and distribution expenses, all of which must be passed on to customers. An outside provider’s cost structure and economy of scale can give your firm an important competitive advantage.

Reduce labor costs. Hiring and training staff for short-term or peripheral projects can be very expensive, and temporary employees don’t always live up to your expectations. Outsourcing lets you focus your human resources where you need them most.

Start new projects quickly. A good outsourcing firm has the resources to start a project right away. Handling the same project in-house might involve taking weeks or months to hire the right people, train them, and provide the support they need. And if a project requires major capital investments (such as building a series of distribution centers), the startup process can be even more difficult.

Focus on your core business. Every business has limited resources, and every manager has limited time and attention. Outsourcing can help your business to shift its focus from peripheral activities toward work that serves the customer, and it can help managers set their priorities more clearly.

Level the playing field. Most small firms simply can’t afford to match the in-house support services that larger companies maintain. Outsourcing can help small firms act “big” by giving them access to the same economies of scale, efficiency, and expertise that large companies enjoy.

Reduce risk. Every business investment carries a certain amount of risk. Markets, competition, government regulations, financial conditions, and technologies all change very quickly. Outsourcing providers assume and manage this risk for you, and they generally are much better at deciding how to avoid risk in their areas of expertise.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a fairly hot topic these days. Every business wants to know how to get found online.

Anita Campbell from Small Business Trends is running a short information-packed webinar entitled:

Getting Found in Search Engines, for Beginners

These two bullet points jumped out at me, since I have clients who are trying to navigate this new frontier:

• Simple techniques you can do yourself to improve your website so you can get found by potential customers in the search engines more easily

• When and how to hire SEO professionals — over the years I have hired a number of search optimization and marketing experts and I will share some tips for what to look for

I’m planning to listen in and tweet about it. Please join in, if your schedule allows. If not, you can check the Twitter feed using the hashtag #SMBTOOLS. I’m a fan of TweetChat.com for these sorts of events, so you can use the hash tag to enter the room, as they call it.

What is the purpose of a business card? It should be designed to attract and acquire new customers to your product or services.  It is not only one of the most cost effective advertisements, a networking and lead-generating tool, Not to mention a visual representation of you and your business.  The bottom line is if it is not bringing you business and presenting a professional image of you and your company, it is not working.

For most people, especially for those just starting in business, the business card is the only marketing tool used.

People frequently think a business card that can be designed and printed on their home computer will be a good enough tool to get them noticed and remembered.  The truth is business cards are one of the most overlooked of all business tools.  A well-designed, professional card makes a professional presence; a homemade business card typically gives the impression of an amateur taking a stab at being in business.

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