7 Steps to Closing a Deal Via Email 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. Step No. 1. Just as important as what you DO put in the email is what you DON’T. Your corporate history, motto, values, etc.Technical details about the solution.The price (!!!!) The reason is simple. Key concept: If you’re still talking technical details and price, you’re not ready to close. NOTE: The above is adapted from a conversation I had with the amazing Tom Sant, author of Persuasive Business Proposals (Amacom, 2003), tempered by my own extensive experience of closing business using email.
How Training Employees Can Boost Sales - VerticalResponse Column by Janine Popick, Inc.com "Female CEOs" October 16, 2009 When I started VerticalResponse we had just four employees. With such a tight knit group there wasn’t really a need for company or product training. We all knew everything that was happening, who our customers were, how our product worked, and how to sell it. But what happens when a company starts to grow and the tight knit group starts to unravel? I can tell you that we waited way too long to start formally training our new employees, and for a while it showed. One day I witnessed one of our salespeople who had been with the company for a few months selling something we didn’t offer. I take our training program very seriously. It’s never too early to start your own training program in your company. Create a document that the employee can be walked through and refer back to.
The 5 Things I’d Tell My 21 Year Old Entrepreneurial Self | JonBischke.com 12 years ago I set out on my first foray into the world of entrepreneurship. The company was called MCSETutor.com (we later changed the name to the equally obtuse 2000Tutor.com) and while it wasn’t a huge success by dot com era standards we did sell it for a tidy profit. But looking back I’m shocked at how little I knew about entrepreneurship. As I’m sure any entrepreneur would love to do, I’d give anything to step back in time 12 years and have a chat with my 21 year old self. #1 – Take as much risk as you can as early in life as you can. I’m not talking stupid risks. #2 – Nail the fundamentals. Take some of that time and use it to build skills that will make you more effective and productive the rest of your life. #3 – Surround yourself with people who expect you to succeed in a big way. “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” “The quality of your life is a direct reflection of the expectations of your peer group” -Tony Robbins I’m lucky. Fantastic.
106 Excuses That Prevent You From Ever Becoming Great The following is a rare guest post, this time coming from Tommy Walker. Tommy Walker is an Online Marketing Strategist and host of “Inside the Mind” a fresh and entertaining video show about Internet Marketing Strategy. Be honest. How often do you sabotage yourself? On any given day, you have tasks you’d like to finish because you know they’d positively impact your business, and tasks you actually do. You trick yourself into thinking that keeping up with industry news, and reading the latest “10 tips to ______” post is “working”. You know better, but some part of you believes that simply reading the article will help you move forward. That having a deep understanding of all things online marketing will better position you when the time is right. But that time doesn’t come. Something is holding you back, and you can’t quite put your finger on it. You may have one excuse; you may have several. What follows are 106 of the most common excuses you might tell yourself. You don’t have the knowledge.
Mahendra Ramsinghani: What Every Entrepreneur Can Learn From Facebooks Early... On January 4, 2011, Mark Zuckerberg woke up to some good news. TIME magazine named him the "Person of the Year" and had his photo on the cover. The same day's Wall Street Journal featured a story on MySpace, Facebook's once formidable competitor, and its dramatic downsizing. Entrepreneurs dream of such fame, not to mention the total decimation of competition. Can you get users to beat a path to your door? Economics 101 tells us that when supply rises above demand, value evaporates. Can you get VCs to beat a path to your door? Can you block out noise from competition? That's enough competition to make even the toughest entrepreneurs throw in the towel. Can you build value and yet keep the keys to the kingdom?
13 Business Books That Will Blow Your Mind Having never taken a business class in college I find that I read and listen to a lot of business books to round out my education. The books usually aren't "How to Manage Your Cash Flow" but rather get me to rethink the way I run my business, which--despite no business classes or diploma--continues to be in business 13 plus years after I started it. In that time, here are 13 of the books that had the biggest impact on how I run my business (in no particular order): Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink: If you supervise anyone in your business, this book is a must read. It shows that what science knows about motivation, business isn't putting into practice. The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up by Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham: I wanted to have at least one book that was dedicated to small business and the entrepreneurial spirit.
pinatas DIY Honeycomb Pinata Favors by Michaela Egger Jordan is most definitely the queen of pinata crafting! Click through for materials & instructions! (more…) Mini Ghost Piñatas DIY By Kathleen Ballos When I look back at the Halloweens of my childhood, I’d have to admit that the candy was my favorite part. (more…) Pineapple Party Invitation by Kitiya Palaskas I love the idea of giving my guests something a little different at my next summer party. Click through for instructions… (more…) Huge Giveaway with Splendid! Have you heard about the Crafting Community event at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs? Here is the best part, Oh Happy Day is teaming up with our favorite striped clothing company, Splendid to give a reader the chance to win a trip for 4 to Crafting Community plus a $500 Splendid gift card! ps: We made these mini pinatas favors inspired by the Crafting Community event. Click through for Mini Pinata DIY… (more…) Watermelon Pinata DIY (more…)
All Revenue is Not Created Equal: The Keys to the 10X Revenue Club &... May 24, 2011: May 24, 2011: [Follow Me on Twitter] “ Don’t you know that you are a shooting star,And all the world will love you just as long,As long as you are.” – Paul Rodgers, Shooting Star With the IPO market now blown wide-open, and the media completely infatuated with frothy trades in the bubbly late stage private market, it is common to see articles that reference both “valuation” and “revenue” and suggest that there is a correlation between the two. What drives true equity value? Because of the difficulty of getting DCF right, investors commonly use a handful of other shortcuts to determine valuations. The following chart highlights 2012 forward price/revenue ratios for 122 global Internet stocks. Before we talk about why there is such disparity, it is important to highlight a few more points. What causes such a wide dispersion of price/revenue multiples? 1. If high price/revenue multiple companies have wide moats or strong barriers to entry, then the opposite is also true. 2.
Is Starting A Business Safer Than Your Job? [Infographic] What's Better - Getting a Job or Starting a Business? With a slow economy, many people have turned to entrepreneurship as a means to pay the bills. Which begs the question, what’s better today — getting a job or starting a business? We dug deep to find out the numbers and have compared the risk of starting a business to keeping a job. What do you think? Small Business Loans Made Simple Create a Free Lendio Account Overview “Laid off? “True entrepreneurs reduce risk to the point that action becomes quite logical.” Unemployment Rate: 9.1% 26% of North American workers are self-employedIn 2008 on average 2,356 people went into business for themselves every day.Their ventures accounted for 78% of U.S. businesses SELF-EMPLOYMENT There are only four paths toward business ownership: Start a business from scratchBecome a consultantBuy a non-franchise businessBuy a franchise (the most secure choice) Among the fastest-growing industries are: Reemployment figures: To reduce risk: Incorporated Self-Employed
Unsupported Browser Today, we are excited to share that Identified has been acquired by Workday. This is an exciting outcome for everyone involved in Identified and we want to thank our team, Board of Directors, investors, customers, advisors, families and the other countless people that have supported us over the years. Waller Capital served as an exclusive advisor to Identified in this transaction. Since we co-founded Identified out of a shared dorm room at Stanford University in 2010, we have assembled what we believe to be the best group of data scientists and engineers in the industry. And so on behalf of all of us, we are thankful to Workday for believing in us and in the possibilities of what we can do together. Sincerely, Adeyemi Ajao & Brendan Wallace, co-Founders of Identified Continue to identified.com
Entrepreneurs, Start Your Engines: 100 Business Ideas You Can Drive Home Today Skip Advertisement This ad will close in 15 seconds... Young Entrepreneurs Today's Most Read 9 Proven Ways to Get People to Take You Seriously 4 Intangibles That Drive CEOs What It Takes to Go From Dead Broke to 6 Figures in 6 Months The Mentality of a Successful Career 4 Big Challenges That Startups Face These Siblings Are Cooking Up America's First Meatless Butcher Shop Kim Lachance Shandrow 3 min read News and Articles About Young Entrepreneurs Failure 6 Stories of Super Successes Who Overcame Failure They're perfect examples of why failure should never stop you from following your vision. Jayson DeMers Podcasts Top 25 Business Podcasts for Entrepreneurs Podcasts are as easy to use as old-school radio but as specialized as blogs. Murray Newlands Entrepreneurship Programs Saxbys and Drexel Team Up to Promote Entrepreneurship Saxby's founder Nick Bayer talks about the one-of-a-kind program and why he wishes there was one for himself years ago. Carly Okyle Presented by Young Entrepreneurs Laura Entis Fear
Business Ideas for the Self Employed Several years ago, I had a lovely long-term consulting assignment which kept me both busy and solvent. One morning I woke up and realized that it was coming to an end and I had nothing lined up. After a few moments of panic, I decided to get serious about creating my next income source. I didn’t have a great deal of time to devote to this, so I gave myself the challenge of finding a way to earn $100—an easily accomplished goal. What I didn’t realize at the time, was that I had just created a new habit that has kept my business—and cash flow—moving smoothly along. Over time, I’ve learned that there are other benefits to this simple technique. There’s an old saying, popularized by Robert Schuller, that goes, “By the inch, it’s a cinch. You can begin implementing the $100 Hour even if you now have a job or other commitments that clamor for your time. A word of warning is in order here. My local tv news just featured a booming business called Vegas Errands. . . . .