Best 5 Hints For Profitable Success

I’ve had my private business since I was 9 years old. I’ve started, acquired, sold and helped out in numerous different kinds of companies over the thirty odd years since that time.

I’ve tried everything I’ve always wished to do, and I’ve had plenty of fun. Some of the highlights : I worked on Wall Street, I helped take a company public and I ejected one of the biggest VC names in the country right out of my office. I have worked on planning a quality management system for a leading dairy company. I’ve worked with many of the biggest names in the online and offline space, and I’ve seen the guts of lots of the biggest firms in America.

I made my first million the old fashioned way. I worked my butt off. And I’ve got a lot to show for it, for which I’m both humble and grateful. Understand this, I am a successful entrpreneur and I’m happy about it.

Why am I sharing all this with you? I’m getting there.

Folks always ask me if I have any advice for being successful. They ask if I could name the things I suspect have contributed the most to my success. Id like to share my observations from thirty years of business experience. They are applicable both online and offline.

Here are my top 5 tips for success :

1. Always make sure all of your emails and calls get returned. I am making a lot of contacts and requests through email, telephone or even in real life. I am totally surprised at the amount of folks who do not bother to return the request. It is classless and disrespectful to disregard someones request, and it makes them irritated. Indignant folk tell other folks how you have wronged them. The fewer folk out there speaking unwell about you the better.

When I was an iso 9001 consultant at Modem Media I got between one thousand – 3000 emails a day. I was buried in emails. My helper went in and cleared out emails when she could, forwarding the ones she realized she or one of my underlings could handle. But she left the rest for me. I would spend at least an hour a day returning them. Often all I said was Call so-and-so or Thanks for the alert, but most of them got answered. The priority was clients, then executives then standard folk. If you are not going to answer correspondence from clients or peers, do not give any person your email. Funny thing about most of usif you’ve an email and invite us to use it, we think an answer . I’ve written three emails to Darren at ProBlogger.net. He has not answered a single one. While I believe some of his stuff is good, I find his unresponsiveness displeasing and I do not find him as authoritative as I used to.

I sent an email to the President of Staples on a Saturday afternoon a few years ago. I got a personal reply from him the next day (Sun.), and we resolved my issue with the help of one of his EVPs. If he’ll respond to one of my e-mails, so can Darren.

2. Help anyone that asks. It does not matter what it is if someone asks you to help them and you can do it, do it. Whether it entails rolling up your sleeves, writing a check, giving some time or simply responding to a question from someone that does not know as much as you, suck it up and do it.

3. Always know more than most of the people about your industry or business. I’ve always been a technologist, so this has been engrained in me since I was 16. Read about things in your field each day. Go to a convention or trade show now and then. Participate in discussions or forums, on or off-line. It will keep you hooked up to the people in your industry and make you a guru. The Net is an extraordinary tool for getting this done.

4. Treat your people like gold, because they are . In my personal businesses my workers get away with a lot. They’re well paid, get surprise benefits all of the time and can pop up and vanish as they please. Some take advantage, but they do not last long. Being a jerk to your workers will always come back to bite you. It will also mean that you’ll get hosed a number of times, but you most likely would have anyhow.

Make the workplace fun, snug and as casual as you can. Show your people by example how you need them to treat customers and work mates. They’re going to follow your lead. If they hate coming to work it will show in what you produce, this was a major feature that I spotted while planning the quality management system I mentioned earlier.

At Modem Media I organised a yearly barbeque in the front carpark. We had pork, BBQ sauce from Texas and lots of other stuff Im not going to get into here. It had been a tiny gesture but it went a great distance.

5. Recognize everyone who helps you advance, particularly those who didn’t gain from it. This is another thing that I am surprised more folk haven’t caught on to. I said in an earlier post that I constantly brush my log files for people who have social bookmarks pointing to this blog site and send them a quick email thanking them. I stopped counting the number of folks who email me back shocked that I’d make the effort to thank them. Why shouldn’t I? They took time out to help promote my blog, and got nothing in exchange. A thank you acknowledges their time and effort and hardens them as a friend. Trust me, you need all of the allies you can get.

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