Have you been watching the Olympics. Athletes have trained for years to be at the top of their games all for the chance to compete on the world stage for that gold medal. What can you learn from today’s Olympic stars? Mashable recently put together a list of seven lessons for entrepreneurs.

Here are the top 3:

1) Great talent means nothing without great teamwork:

The 2004 Olympics were a disaster for Team USA Basketball. Despite having the most talented individuals on the court, the United States lost three times and came home with a disappointing bronze. After that, the leadership’s mentality changed to make sure 2008 was different. Coach Mike Krzyzewski didn’t choose individuals, but chose a team. This group has now played together since 2005 and 2006 in preparation for these Olympics and showed their strength in a 101-70 opening rout of China.

Learn from Team USA’s mistakes - getting great talent is never enough if that talent does not mesh and work well together. You must build a team with members that complement each other and are selfless in achieving company goals. If you ignore that team dynamic, you’re probably going to be stuck with something far more disappointing than a bronze medal.

2) Endorsement deals are great, but don’t let them distract you:

In sports, endorsement deals mean commercials, visibility, new products, and a wad of cash. For Internet entrepreneurs, endorsement deals mean venture capitalists An-Interview-With-Alan-Patricof , networking, new credibility, and of course a wad of cash. But if you get too engrossed in venture capital, it can become something you regret. If you spend too much time finding a deal instead of working on making your product the best it can be, nobody will want to endorse you in the first place, regardless of whether you’re an athlete or an entrepreneur.

3) Finish:

Finishing isn’t always easy and you can get distracted from the end by distractions. Sometimes it’s just painful and the last thing you want to do, but nobody succeeds without finishing. The greats dig deep to summon the strength needed to finish. Just ask Track and Field Gold Medalist Derek Redmond. Even if you do not come out the winner in the end, you can hold your head up high and know you did what most never do: finish what they start.

The other four lessons were:

4) When you are injured, you need to work even harder to reach your goals
5) Know your competition
6) Nothing worth accomplishing comes quick and easy
7) Remember what’s really important

Can you think of any other lessons that you’ve taken home by watching the Olympics?

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

Did you enjoy this article? If so, then subscribe to our RSS Feed.

No comments

From a farm boy living in the outskirts of Oklahoma to becoming the richest man in America in the 1980s and revolutionizing the way the country did business, Sam Walton’s legacy continues to live on. By the time he passed away in 1992, Sam Walton had amassed a fortune in excess of $25 billion and today, his brainchild Wal-Mart continues to bring in revenues of over $300 billion, making it the world’s largest retailer.

Sam Walton passed away in 1992 but his legacy lives on. It is estimated that if the Wal-Mart chain was its own economy, it would rank 30th in the world, behind Saudi Arabia. The company’s revenues continue to grow at roughly 10% a year, likely surpassing half a trillion dollars in sales within the next decade. The international division of Wal-Mart is also its fastest-growing division, which indicates that the company is continuing to increase its presence around the world. If Sam Walton were alive today, he would be the richest person in the world, with twice the fortune of Bill Gates. How did a farm boy from Oklahoma accomplish all of this?

“If you love your work, you’ll be out there every day trying to do it the best you possibly can, and pretty soon everybody around will catch the passion from you – like a fever. I think I overcame every single one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer passion I brought to my work. I don’t know if you’re born with this kind of passion, or if you can learn it. But I do know you need it.

Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction. Commit to your business. Believe in it more than anybody else. Capital isn’t scarce. Vision is.

Don’t take yourself so seriously. Loosen up, and everybody around you will loosen up. Have fun. My feeling is that just because we work so hard, we don’t have to go around with long faces all the time. While we’re doing all of this work, we like to have a good time. When all else fails, put on a costume and sing a silly song. Then make everybody else sing with you.

Celebrate your successes. Find some humor in your failures. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Loosen up, and everybody around you will loosen up. Have fun. Show enthusiasm - always. When all else fails, put on a costume and sing a silly song. Then make everybody else sing with you. Don’t do a hula on Wall Street. It’s been done. Think up your own stunt. All of this is more important, and more fun, than you think, and it really fools the competition. “Why should we take those cornballs at Wal-Mart seriously?” 

Money and ownership alone aren’t enough. Set high goals, encourage competition, and then keep score. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They’re absolutely free – and worth a fortune. We’re all working together; that’s the secret.

The folks on the front lines – the ones who actually talk to the customer – are the only ones who really know what’s going on out there. The two most important words I ever wrote were on that first Wal-Mart sign, ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed’. They’re still up there, and they have made all the difference. Each Wal-Mart store should reflect the values of its customers and support the vision they hold for their community.

There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.“

More on Sam Walton.

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

Did you enjoy this article? If so, then subscribe to our RSS Feed.

3 comments

For this edition of Entrepreneur University we turn to Business and Management trainer Martin Haworth. From managers of small, developing businesses and their teams, through to one-on-one work with senior executives, Martin enables a new generation of managers - and their businesses - to meet their potential - and deliver performance they only dream about. We last connected with Martin in January where he shared his tips on How To Network Differently.

Today Martin shares with us his 5 best tips to help you manage your time:

“There’s only one thing you can’t buy more of in life and that’s time. Yet many of us complain that we just don’t have enough. So it’s vital to maximise what we do have and make the most of our time management with absolute effectiveness and efficiency.

Yet it comes down to personal habits and changes you can start to make, right away. Here are five ideas to get you started.

Get Organised

Whatever you do in your business, it won’t work well if you are disorganized. Truth is many business-people are, so they solve it by surrounding themselves with people who are very capable. They get people in to manage them! If your business isn’t that big, then there are always great team members who might have time management skills you’re a bit short on. Learning to be organized can be achieved to greater or lesser extents, but you have to have things in the right places at the right times, or things will start to go wrong.

Do What’s Important

By focusing on where you personally add the best value, you leverage the excellent skills you bring to your business. Using delegating skills to empower, develop and get the best from others is vital. Great bosses do what they are good at and lose the rest. Building team resources is one of the best places to start and to do so it’s critical that you recognize the areas where you add less value yourself. Letting go as a business grows is one of the biggest challenges.

Manage E-mail and Phone Calls

Now for some tactical steps. There are always demands on your time. Yet that is so precious. By analyzing where your time goes, you can easily find out whether it is the best use of your contributions. Impositions from others, often unexpected, like e-mail and phone calls, can not only be managed, but trained, even though it is sometimes tough to say ‘no’. So that’s a start in getting your time management effective. Follow this by making time-slots for fixed periods of time throughout the day for these communication processes and you will find that you don’t let yourself slide.

Make Time to Think

Once you get some control back, take some of it back by slackening off. If you create spaces for yourself to think in your day, you will find you are released from tactical day-to-day fire-fighting and start to get creative with problem-solving, planning and development. Which is what you must have to progress. Every time you solve a problem, ask yourself, ‘What would it take to make this problem not happen ever again’?, ‘What could I use the time for’? And provide solutions that fix sources of problems, not sticking-plaster one-off short-cuts.

Closed Door/Open Door

It’s great to be there for your people. Building relationships is one of the most valuable activities you can undertake in your business. On your own terms. Whilst having an open-door policy help make you approachable, it isn’t good time management to have that all the time. So open your door when you are ready to be interrupted - and close it the rest of the time when you need to do your own work. People get to realize what you are doing and understand - even take the tactic into the way they run their own work practices. That works!

Five little time management steps that can make a huge difference when you make a start. And there’s no time like the present!”

Have you tried any of these techniques? What do you to effectively manage your time?

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

Did you enjoy this article? If so, then subscribe to our RSS Feed.

3 comments

Our 22nd Review our Blog entry comes thanks to Anthony B. Mallgren from Novorum Consulting. You can read what he had to say about us in his blog post: Young Entrepreneur Blog Source For Gen-Y Networking/Advice.

Novorum Consulting Inc. was founded June 13th, 2008 by Anthony Mallgren and Cory J. Geesaman – seeing an immediate opening within the business technology infrastructure market. Novorum Consulting Inc could be considered a hedge software development company, as they seek out higher risk projects for higher returns. They have established a reputation for coming into clutch situations and bringing motivation, organization and excitement, then delivering a showcase solution. In most cases, they are more likely to work 5-9 rather than the other way around. Their “value add” is really bringing an equal mix of business acumen and technical know-how to deliver truly innovative and effective solutions.

Thanks for the review Anthony!

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

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

Did you enjoy this article? If so, then subscribe to our RSS Feed.

No comments

We’ve asked you what the most useful tools are to your business to build a valuable list for young entrepreneurs to be able to refer to. So far the top results are:

#1: Pencil /Pen and Paper

#1: Websites
(Young Entrepreneur Forums, Interactive Business Planner, valuebasedmanagement.net, Docstoc.com, Huddle.net, Scanr.com)

#3: RSS Reader / Google Reader

#3: Books
(Redstone Sumner’s, Thomas Friedman’s last edition of “The World is Flat”, Rich Dad Poor Dad, How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie), A New Earth (Earkhart Tolle), Loosing my Virginity (Richard Branson)

The other ideas that have been submitted so far are:

• A virtual assistant
• Twitter
• Your own blog
• iPhone3G
• Business cards
• Your network
• A personal computer
• Mentors
• Independent and major media news
• Your peers
• An internet connection

So far it has been an impressive list of suggestions! Is the pen / paper combination the most useful tool for entrepreneurs or are various online tools more helpful? Do you find RSS readers or business books to have been more valuable to you or perhaps another one of the suggestions listed?

Have your say in our Entrepreneur Forum post here.

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

Did you enjoy this article? If so, then subscribe to our RSS Feed.

4 comments

It’s time for another SEO Advice post! Last week, I offered free SEO advice to All You Need Business Services. I’m going to continue my SEO Advice series today by helping out another YoungEntrepreneur.com blog reader Judy Cheung, from SkinB5. We are going to focus today on increasing conversions instead of the usual SEO, however.

SkinB5 - www.skinb5.com

Dear Evan,

I have a seriously burning question! We have been doing many different things to improve rate of conversion with no success. What can I do, I am pulling my hair out and running out of ideas, HELP !!

Just sharing below stats with you. (Judy shared some stats showing that many people hit her home page but don’t end up going beyond the home page to the order page or any other inside page) Does it mean most people don’t visit beyond our home page???? If so why? I look forward to your expert advice!

warm regards,

Judy Cheung

My Recommendations

1) Where is your traffic coming from?

Not all traffic is created equally. What are the sources of your traffic? Are they coming from search engines or social media sites, for example. I’ve always had the best conversions from search engine traffic because people are specifically looking for something so they are more interested in finding a solution. Traffic from partner websites generally do not convert as well because people come more out of curiosity then looking for a specific answer. Social media sites generally generate the least number of conversions. If you’re not getting enough traffic from search engines, consider improving your SEO efforts to rank in Google.

2) Use Better Pictures

Personal health products like acne cures and weight loss solutions are sold most often due to the pictures and testimonials. On the homepage you have two pictures (before and after) of Nick Bell. The concept is great but the pictures are hard to see. It’s difficult to tell that there has been a big improvement and the second picture looks blurry and photoshopped. If people question the authenticity of the photos then they won’t click through to buy your product. It’s also of Nick Bell, who is the co-founder of the company. I would look at using ordinary people who have great stories and great pictures instead of the company’s co-founder. I would also suggest putting more pictures on the homepage instead of just Nick’s. The stories and the testimonials will help sell the product and encourage click throughs.

3) Change Order’ to ‘Learn More’

For each product you show one paragraph of text and a list of benefits. Because you’re not yet a household name it’s going to take more information to convince someone to order your product. I wouldn’t order a product which I’ve never heard of based on the information you’ve provided. Try changing the Order button to Learn More which drives people to another page that explains more about the product, shows how and why it works, and includes testimonials and success stories. People will be more willing to click through on a learn more page than an order page.

Good luck Judy!

Readers, what do you think about SkinB5.com?

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

Did you enjoy this article? If so, then subscribe to our RSS Feed.

9 comments

Lifehack put together a list of the top 10 skills that you need to succeed at almost anything. The top 5 were:

1. Public Speaking

The ability to speak clearly, persuasively, and forcefully in front of an audience – whether an audience of 1 or of thousands – is one of the most important skills anyone can develop. People who are effective speakers come across as more comfortable with themselves, more confident, and more attractive to be around. Being able to speak effectively means you can sell anything – products, of course, but also ideas, ideologies, worldviews. And yourself – which means more opportunities for career advancement, bigger clients, or business funding.

2. Writing

Writing well offers many of the same advantages that speaking well offers: good writers are better at selling products, ideas, and themselves than poor writers. Learning to write well involves not just mastery of grammar but the development of the ability to organize one’s thoughts into a coherent form and target it to an audience in the most effective way possible. Given the huge amount of text generated by almost every transaction – from court briefs and legislation running into the thousands of pages to those foot-long receipts you get when you buy gum these days – a person who is a master of the written word can expect doors to open in just about every field.

3. Self-Management

If success depends of effective action, effective action depends on the ability to focus your attention where it is needed most, when it is needed most. Strong organizational skills, effective productivity habits, and a strong sense of discipline are needed to keep yourself on track.

4. Networking

Networking is not only for finding jobs or clients. In an economy dominated by ideas and innovation, networking creates the channel through which ideas flow and in which new ideas are created. A large network, carefully cultivated, ties one into not just a body of people but a body of relationships, and those relationships are more than just the sum of their parts. The interactions those relationships make possible give rise to innovation and creativity – and provide the support to nurture new ideas until they can be realized.

5. Critical Thinking

We are exposed to hundreds, if not thousands, of times more information on a daily basis than our great-grandparents were. Being able to evaluate that information, sort the potentially valuable from the trivial, analyze its relevance and meaning, and relate it to other information is crucial – and woefully under-taught. Good critical thinking skills immediately distinguish you from the mass of people these days.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

6. Decision-Making
7. Math
8. Research
9. Relaxation
10. Basic Accounting

What would make your top 10 list? Do you agree with these 10?

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

Did you enjoy this article? If so, then subscribe to our RSS Feed.

2 comments

In February I did a profile on Rupert Murdoch, one of the world’s richest men with a net worth of over $8 billion. The profile was: The Buck Stops With You - Rupert Murdoch. He was also #2 on our list of the Top 24 Most Powerful Men and 1 Woman in Business.

I wanted to continue the profile today by sharing one of business rules Murdoch lives by: Know your business inside out.

“I try to keep in touch with the details,” says Murdoch. “I also look at the product daily. That doesn’t mean you interfere, but it’s important occasionally to show the ability to be involved. It shows you understand what’s happening.”

While he understands the pitfalls of micromanaging, Murdoch has never been one to sit back and let someone else call the shots, especially when it comes to his own business. From the printing presses straight on up to the marketing and advertising departments, Murdoch keeps a tight reign on the activities that take place within his company walls.

Murdoch never got too big or too rich to involve himself in the daily running of one of his newspapers. Indeed, because his father had involved the young Murdoch in all aspects of his own newspaper – from sweeping floors to copy-editing – he grew intimately familiar with every aspect of its operation.

In October 1969, after purchasing the Sun in London, he knew he had to make some serious changes. At the time, it had a circulation of 600,00 but was losing over $5 million per year. Murdoch had immediately snatched up this opportunity because he recognized the paper’s potential. He decided that in order to turn the Sun around he would need to transform it from being a broadsheet – a newspaper that measures 17 x 22 inches – to a small tabloid. In order for this change to become a reality, the newspaper’s printing machines would have to be adjusted. This, said the paper’s printers, would not be technically possible. Instead, they suggested buying entirely new machines.

Murdoch, however, was no stranger to the machines and had made himself familiar with their complexities over the years. Immediately, Murdoch climbed onto one of the large machines and opened the control cabinet. He proceeded to pull out a bar and replace it in a different position, which had instantly converted the machine into one capable of printing tabloids. Murdoch’s staff was stunned as they realized that right down to the nitty-gritty of daily production, Murdoch knew everything he needed to know about running his business.

Even today, Murdoch always finds the time to pick up the phone and call anyone at any level of his company, just to check in – and with no advance notice, of course. “They all put up with me, so it encourages me,” Murdoch laughs. “I probably don’t do it enough here.” He even devotes time to meet with executives from 20th Century Fox, one of his subsidiaries, to hear their ideas about plans for future movies.

“I dig in – I like to know what’s going on,” he says. Despite being a multi-billionaire with hundreds of companies under his watch, Murdoch maintains his hands-on management style. For him, there is no detail too small. It is this close eye he keeps on every aspect of his business and his intimate knowledge of its details that has allowed him to reach the heights of success that he has.

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

Did you enjoy this article? If so, then subscribe to our RSS Feed.

3 comments

Last September we featured the expert advice of Donald F. Pooley on the topic of 6 Steps To Getting Referrals - Entrepreneur University. Donald is an internationally recognized authority on the marketing of financial services, has shared his knowledge with audiences of financial consultants in Australia, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, New York, San Francisco, Singapore, and all major (and a few minor) cities in Canada. His articles on the marketing of financial services have been published on three continents.

Today Donald shares with us his advice on successful selling for this week’s Entrepreneur University:

“Myth #1: You need to be a “good talker” Anytime a salesperson is talking, the client is formulating objections. That’s just the way the human mind works.

Anytime a salesperson is listening, the client is probably still formulating objections…but at least the salesperson will have an idea about what those objections might be.

Myth #2: You need to be a “good listener”

Most salespeople are good listeners…but they’re good at listening for all the wrong things!

Many sales trainers say to ignore objections and to listen instead for psychological “hooks” or “openings” the prospect may either verbally or non-verbally pass along.

The trainee is then taught to use these hooks to manipulate or cajole the prospect into buying what is offered.

Myth #3: You need to have a lot of self-confidence You only need a lot of self-confidence when you don’t know what you’re selling.

If you “think” you’re selling an insurance package, then of course you need a lot of confidence. (It takes confidence to sell anything you can’t really sell).

Once you know what you’re really selling and gain some skill in selling it over and over again, you’ll never even consider needing any confidence…you’ll just BE confident.

Myth #4: You need the ability to quickly size people up If you spend most of your time searching for your prospect’s weakness to exploit it to your own advantage, you may end up making the transaction, but there’s no way in the world you’ll ever make any sales.

Myth #5: You need to “dominate” your prospect Most people are smart. They’re not fooled by “covert” forms of persuasion. It doesn’t matter how clever or disguised you think these kinds of strategies are. They send up an instant red flag in the mind of every prospect you see.

Myth #6: You need to be one step ahead of your prospect Anytime you’re one step ahead of a prospect, your prospect has fallen twenty steps behind you.

Myth #7: You need special credentials

Entering an expensive university program won’t make you a salesperson anymore than entering a music store will make you a musician.

The only credential you need for sales is the knowledge of what you’re selling.

When you know what you’re selling and possess the specific skills of selling it over and over again, credentials or not, you’ll know how to make the sale!”

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

Did you enjoy this article? If so, then subscribe to our RSS Feed.

2 comments

Factory Green, a purveyor of original eco-friendly apparel, accessories and apartment wares, prides itself on offering its culturally sophisticated, self-expressive and environmentally conscious customers the best in green alternatives. The company was founded by friends Jack Short and Daniel Lyons. The idea for Factory Green came from Daniel and Jack’s shared experiences in Europe, specifically their time abroad in the UK.

According to CEO Daniel:

“Your traditional t-shirt at a store in the mall releases 7, 600 grams of carbon dioxide into the air by the manufacturer. Our shirts are completely carbon neutral, which means that there are zero carbon emissions. The only carbon emissions that are produced by our shirts are due to transport.

Sure, our green products are top of the line but at the same time, as an average consumer, you’re going to want a t-shirt that’s representative of you. You’re not going to want to buy some apparel just because of what it’s made of, even though it’s incredibly soft… but you want it to say something a little bit fun.

We really try to find products that are produced here in the U.S. to reduce the amount of international shipping like our vinyl-ised collection… [But] the fact is that the best products are found outside the United States currently, so until U.S. manufacturers catch up and produce the same quality and the same sustainability as overseas companies, we’re going to keep on buying from them.

It’s fulfilling to set a goal, find the right people and see it through. Every step is make-or-break. Factory Green is green for everyone, not just for Hollywood”

The pair plan on heading to medical school together and hiring employees to help manage the business.

“So, it is a bit of a challenge. We don’t sleep anymore. We’re still really devoted to both, I would say and Factory Green has just been a ton of fun and on the other hand, we’re still ready to go to medical school too. So, hopefully, once Jack and I finish four years of school we can just do Factory Green full-time.”

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

Did you enjoy this article? If so, then subscribe to our RSS Feed.

5 comments