I had three conversations with different entrepreneurs today. All three of them have established businesses and are trying to take them to the next level but one of them is going to do far better than the other two.

The biggest challenge, I learned, with the first two entrepreneurs I met was that they did not have the right people around them. One was doing everything himself. The other had a few staff but did not have the right team in place to grow her business to the next step.

The third entrepreneur was different. We spoke and he introduced me to a new venture he was starting and wanted my help with. We agreed on some high level details and the next step is for him to connect me with the people in his organization who handle the specific areas we discussed. I, in turn, will then connect them with the people at my company who will run with the project.

Once they are all set up, we will both move on to new deals for our companies.

If you’re going to grow your business to any sort of substantial size and if you don’t want to be working 18 hour days you’ll need to learn how to delegate.

Delegation is as simple as finding someone to do the tasks that free up your time to focus on higher value projects. A classic example is data entry. Entrepreneurs often spend their time doing data entry which they could hire someone to do for $10 / hour. They could then use that time to land new business and bring in 10, 100, or 1,000 times that amount!

In our upcoming YoungEntrepreneur.com newsletter, YE founder Adam Toren shares his goals for the New Year. One of them is “Learn to delegate more effectively so I can focus on doing what I do best .” (If you want to receive the newsletter you need to have a YE account - sign up here)

The first guy I hired was for 1 hour a day. He did data entry for me and I only had to pay him for 5 hours per week. That gave me an extra 5 hours per week to go out and close new business. As I brought in new sales I could afford to hire him for more hours and eventually bring him on full time.

You don’t have to be rich and successful to delegate but you do have to delegate to become rich and successful.

How have you delegated tasks in your business to free up your time to focus on higher value work?

When McKenzie Tuttle walked down the aisle to say “I do” to her husband-to-be Jeff Bezos, she thought she was marrying into a secure future. At the time, Bezos was in his 30s and serving as Vice President of an investment firm in New York City. It was a job he liked – and one that paid well – but Bezos couldn’t shake this crazy idea from his head; he wanted “to create the world’s most customer-centric company, the place where you can find and buy anything you want online.” That stable life McKenzie once had was almost immediately turned upside down when Bezos decided to launch Amazon.com. As fate would have it, Bezos’ small garage startup would go on to become one of the leading e-commerce sites in the world, with revenues exceeding $8 billion.

Bezos was hit with the hard reality of life when he came to the realization in university that he would never become one of the world’s great physicists. Little did he know that what the future had in store for him would be equally as impressive; from the garage in his two-bedroom home to the company’s global headquarters in Seattle that oversees its $8.5 billion in revenues, Amazon has become one of the largest e-commerce sites in the world. How did Bezos do it?

“For the first four years of the company, we worked in relative obscurity. We always had lots of supporters and we always had lots of skeptics, and that’s still the same today. It’s just that the level of visibility is so much higher. If you look at the six years that we’ve been doing business, in exactly one of those six years we were not the underdog.

If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon. And if you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you’re trying to solve.

If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.

We have so many customers who treat us so well, and we have the right kind of culture that obsesses over the customer.

If there’s one reason we have done better than of our peers in the Internet space over the last six years, it is because we have focused like a laser on customer experience, and that really does matter, I think, in any business. It certainly matters online, where word of mouth is so very, very powerful.

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.

I love people counting on me, and so, you know, today it’s so easy to be motivated, because we have millions of customers counting on us at Amazon.com. That’s fun.

I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not trying.

The framework I found which made the decision incredibly easy was what I called – which only a nerd would call – a ‘regret minimization framework’. So I wanted to project myself forward to age 80 and say, ‘Okay, now I’m looking back on my life. I want to have minimized the number of regrets I have.’

I knew that that would haunt me every day.”

Are you ready to live 2008 with no regrets?

This week’s Entrepreneur University addition comes from networking guru Dr. Ivan Misner. Dr. Misner is the Founder & Chairman of BNI (Business Network Int’l.). BNI was founded in 1985. The organization has over 4,200 chapters throughout every populated continent of the world. Last year alone, BNI generated millions referrals resulting in billions of dollars worth of business for its members. Dr. Misner shares with us his top 10 secrets to effective business networking:

Do you suffer from “butterfly-itis” at the very mention of networking at business functions? If you answered yes, you are not alone. Many entrepreneurs get a bit uncomfortable when it comes right down to walking up to someone and starting a conversation. Many others are concerned about getting effective results from the time they spend networking.

The process doesn’t have to be traumatic, scary or a waste of time. When done properly, it can truly make a difference in the amount of business your company generates. With the right approach, you can use it to build a wealth of resources and contacts that will help make your business very successful.

Use the following ten commandments to help you network your way through your next business networking event:

1. Have the tools to network with you at all times. These include an informative name badge, business cards, brochures about your business, and a pocket-sized business card file containing cards of other professionals to whom you can refer new business.

2. Set a goal for the number of people you’ll meet. Identify a reachable goal based on attendance and the type of group. If you feel inspired, set a goal to meet 15 to 20 people, and make sure you get all their cards. If you don’t feel so hot, shoot for less. In either case, don’t leave until you’ve met your goal.

3. Act like a host, not a guest. A host is expected to do things for others, while a guest sits back and relaxes. Volunteer to help greet people. If you see visitors sitting, introduce yourself and ask if they would like to meet others. Act as a conduit.

4. Listen and ask questions. Remember that a good networker has two ears and one mouth and uses them proportionately. After you’ve learned what another person does, tell them what you do. Be specific but brief. Don’t assume they know your business.

5. Don’t try to close a deal. These events are not meant to be a vehicle to hit on businesspeople to buy your products or services. Networking is about developing relationships with other professionals. Meeting people at events should be the beginning of that process, not the end of it.

6. Give referrals whenever possible. The best networkers believe in the “givers gain” philosophy (what goes around comes around). If I help you, you’ll help me and we’ll both do better as a result of it. In other words, if you don’t genuinely attempt to help the people you meet, then you are not networking effectively. If you can’t give someone a bona fide referral, try to offer some information that might be of interest to them (such as details about an upcoming event).

7. Exchange business cards. Ask each person you meet for two cards-one to pass on to someone else and one to keep. This sets the stage for networking to happen.

8. Manage your time efficiently. Spend 10 minutes or less with each person you meet, and don’t linger with friends or associates. If your goal is to meet a given number of people, be careful not to spend too much time with any one person. When you meet someone interesting with whom you’d like to speak further, set up an appointment for a later date.

9. Write notes on the backs of business cards you collect. Record anything you think may be useful in remembering each person more clearly. This will come in handy when you follow up on each contact.

10. Follow up! You can obey the previous nine commandments religiously, but if you don’t follow up effectively, you will have wasted your time. Drop a note or give a call to each person you’ve met. Be sure to fulfill any promises you’ve made.

Our 16th Review our Blog entry comes thanks to John A. Sarkett from The Comeback Blog. You can read what he had to say about us in his blog post: YE earns a “10″ for comeback info.

John is the author of “Extraordinary Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph, and Success.” Publication date: May, 2007 by Sourcebooks, Naperville, IL. His blog features additional inspiring stories of extraordinary comebacks and is a source of wisdom for any entrepreneur who is falling on bad times. He has three main quotes at the top of his blog:

FALL SEVEN TIMES, STAND UP EIGHT. — JAPANESE PROVERB

It is not by force but by steady dripping that water pierces the stone.

“Where there is no hope, one must invent hope.” Albert Camus

Thanks for the review John! If you are interested in doing a review, check out our Review Our Blog initiative for instructions.

While I was away Adam Toren, one of the founders of YoungEntrepreneur.com, put me on to this blog post which highlights the most popular webmaster forums online.

According to the blog: “The list contains forums about Webmaster resources, Search engine optimization (SEO), Domain names, Blogs and blogging, Internet marketing, Affiliate marketing and Web development.”

The list is ranked from number 1 to 75 according to how popular they are in Alexa. I’m pleased to see that YoungEntrepreneur.com made the list coming in at the number 39 spot with an Alexa ranking of 27,491 at the time the poll was created.

The full list looks at blogs from all sorts of different topics but all of them seem to have a common focus on helping people build an online business.

A flaw in the polling, however, is that the list looks at the overall Alexa score of the website and doesn’t rank how popular the forum communities are. For example, coming in at the number 9 spot is http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/. The main business of Search Engine Watch is the news section of the site, not the forums. It’s what drives the traffic and helps boost its Alexa ranking. Their forums only have 116,000 posts and 11,000 members.

YoungEntrepreneur.com, on the other hand, has a lower Alexa score but most of the traffic to the site goes right to the forums. As a result the YoungEntrepreneur.com forums have 139,000 posts and 31,000 members.

Regardless of the accuracy of the list, it’s a useful one to look at for anyone trying to build an online business. While my favorite is, of course, our YoungEntrepreneur.com forums, this list has showcased a few new ones that I haven’t heard of before and will be sure to visit.

Which are your favorite online forums?

On Thursdays I usually write about tips and strategies on how to get ranked in Google. One of the most important factors to getting a high ranking is building quality links to your site.

We’ve been fortunate here at the YoungEntrepreneur.com blog to receive quite a number of incoming links and I wanted to recognize some of the sites who have showcased our work. They include:

• How To Sell on Ebay - Tools, tips and Advice - YoungEntrepreneur equals YE
• Keri’s Korner - under My Favorite Blogs
• Test Blog - under Great reference sites
• Automated Traffic Machine - The 15 Most Important Onsite SEO Factors: Part 4 - URLs
• BlackHat Planet - The 15 Most Important Onsite SEO Factors: Part 4 - URLs
• Blogpreneur - under Blogroll
• Pro Money Blog - under Blogs
• Rohail Rizvi - under Blogroll
• Sports Lizard Entrepreneur Blog - under My Favorite Blogs

Thank you again for your vote of confidence in recommending our blog!

If you want to get in on our next link love simply post put up a link to our blog from your site and let me know about it!

We also have a Review Our Blog initiative that can get your blog a featured listing. Check out the details here: Review Our Blog.

Happy link building!

After almost a full month away from the office I’m glad to say that I’m back. I set up a series of posts that would publish automatically while I was gone and left on December 7th to get married in the Caribbean.

My apologies for not giving advance warning but I didn’t want to give the spammers the heads up that I would be away!

I came back on the 23rd and, like most of you, got caught up in a series of back to back to back family events. Today was my first day in the office and it’s good to be back!

I have always found that time away from the daily grind is useful to put things into perspective and help create clarity on new goals to achieve.

Every year I set new goals for the amount of web traffic I want to drive. Two years ago I achieved my year end goal in April. Last year it took me until November and we barely made it.

This year is going to be even more difficult than any of the previous years. It’s going to take a lot of hard work to get there and I’m going to have to rely on others more than ever before to help me achieve my goal.

It’s easy to make a goal and not follow through, however. According to Amber Tresca, here are 10 tips to keep to your New Year’s resolutions:

1 Be realistic

2 Plan ahead

3 Outline your plan

4 Make a “pro” and “con” list

5 Talk about it

6 Reward yourself

7 Track your progress

8 Don’t beat yourself up

9 Stick to it

10 Keep trying

What are your New Year’s resolutions and how are you planning on keeping to them?

Evan Carmichael

The man whose name today has become synonymous with hip-hop and the tough urban streets was born on October 4, 1957 into a comfortable middle class family in Queens, New York. The middle son of three boys, Simmons’ father worked as a teacher for the local board of education while his mother worked in the city recreation department.

Simmons knew early on that the type of life his parents had lived was not for him. He was not a good student at school, which bored him, and he was interested in little more than making money to buy clothes. A far cry from the success he has achieved today, as a teenager Simmons joined an infamous local gang called Seven Immortals and became heavily involved with drugs. “The only people in the neighborhood who were entrepreneurs were Black Muslims and drug dealers,” recalls Simmons. His older brother Danny was arrested and jailed for drug use, but that didn’t stop Simmons from continuing down that path. Spending his days working at the Orange Julius store in Greenwich Village, Simmons spent his nights dealing fake cocaine. Legal and faring better profit margins than real cocaine, Simmons reasoned that the only people he would have to worry about were the ripped-off clients.

“Everything you need to know about success is inside of you, because I believe it is inside of all of us,” says Simmons. “That is, all human beings have potential for infinite success.”

From dealing drugs on the streets of New York to becoming one of the most creative, successful and well-respected entrepreneurs of the 20th century, Russell Simmons has learned what it takes to reach your goals:

These blacks here today see the poverty and ignorance that is keeping us at a certain place. They know where the forces are, and they will come together and force our government to respond to the poverty and ignorance that’s rampant in our country.You know, sometimes people never get to learn how successful they could have been because they give up too easily. If I’ve learned one thing in all my years in the business, it’s that often things don’t work out the way you want at first. But that doesn’t mean you should give up.

You’ve got to put your head down and do the work. There are no shortcuts. If you don’t break a hole through the brick wall, don’t just start digging a new hole. Keep going until you break through that wall. It’s all about the work. Nothing is going to fall into your lap. If something doesn’t work, then you know what not to do.

Everything you need to know about success is inside of you, because I believe it is inside of all of us. That is, all human beings have potential for infinite success.

Everybody has a great idea, but very few are successful without true focus. That’s the most basic thing: Stick with your vision. You have to stick with what you start. 

Evan Carmichael