When you think of Mark Cuban, you probably think of him as the hands-on owner of the Dallas Mavericks. When Cuban is on the sidelines of an NBA game, he’s either really into the game or really annoying — depending on your point of view.

Mark Cuban (Image: Flickr)

However, no matter what you think of Cuban, he’s one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the last few decades. He’s owned several startup companies and initially made millions and then made billions.

He’s also a very smart guy who has a great blog at BlogMaverick.com. One of his best blog entries is called Success & Motivation. In this entry, he tells his entrepreneurial stories. Reading the whole thing, you couldn’t help but get motivated.

Along the way, he offers a number of tips for entrepreneurs and startup companies. Read it and let me know what you think.

Well, the reports are out.

The National Small Business Association is reporting (based on its 2008 Year-End Economic Report) that things are looking pretty bleak for small business owners this year. And those surveyed are pointing to the recession as the reason why their profits and growth will be extremely limited in 2009.

And according to a recent Gallup poll, almost half of small business owners say their revenues decrease last year - and are expexting more of the same by cutting their spending this year.

So so you want to join all these small businesses?

I didn’t think so. And although you need to be realistic in what’s going on out there, I am sure businesses can thrive in a recession.

But you can’t do the same things you did before. They’re just not going to work - and could actually hurt you.

There’s plenty of evidence that businesses which market wisely, compared to those who continue with the same strategies used prior to the recession, will be the ones do well. Penn State’s research, for example, showed that firms who had a strategic marketing plan with an entrepreneurial spirit had a competitive advantage.

So stop with the doom and gloom already - and start creating a great marketing plan.

Image credit:  gothicburg, on Flickr

The Entrepreneur Mindset

By:  Kelle Sparta

Anytime I go out into the world, there’s one thing I notice consistently.  It’s the difference between the way that I look at the world and the way the average person on the street looks at the world.  You see, I have what I term “The Entrepreneur Mindset”. 

What Is It?

The Entrepreneur Mindset is actually three thought processes in one.  The first is a business owner’s approach to the world.  The second is an out-of-the-box, creative innovation approach to life.  And the third is an unwillingness to settle for good when you could have great.

The Business Owner’s Approach

I used to have a training center that was up two flights of stairs.  Each time I started a six-week class for new real estate agents, I would bring in 10 gallons of water in gallon jugs.  Not being a total masochist, I would place them on the stairs and bring a couple of jugs up with me each time I went up the stairs – usually right in front of the students who were coming in the door and who would see the other jugs of water on the stairs waiting to go up.  Not once did a student offer to bring one of the jugs up the stairs.  If I asked, they would happily oblige, but they never offered. 

Then one day a broker decided to audit the class to determine if he wanted to send his agents to it.  When I grabbed two jugs on my way back up from lunch, he grabbed two as well – without even thinking about it.  And it was then that I realized that it wasn’t that the new agents were lazy or insensitive, it’s that they were unconscious.  They were still in the employee mindset.  They happily did what they were told, they just didn’t know how to see the environment from an owner’s perspective and assign themselves tasks based on that ownership. 

The Employee Mindset vs. The Business Owner Mindset

This is the biggest challenge that new entrepreneurs face is that mindset shift.  There’s no one to tell you what to do when you start.  Just like those new agents, you have to learn how to see the world from the perspective of someone responsible for it.  A business owner looks at the huge sheet of plastic on the side of the street and thinks “that could blow into the street, blind a driver and kill someone” and they take the plastic and put it into a garbage can where it can’t do damage.  An employee walks by the same piece of plastic and, if they even notice that it’s there, the most they will think is “wow, it’s terrible how people litter”.  There’s no ownership, no stewardship, no sense of personal responsibility that drives them to do something about it.

Mindset Shift – Employee to Business Owner

It is both simple and terribly hard to make the shift from employee to business owner.  It’s simple because it’s just a matter of paying attention, thinking about it as though it IS your responsibility and then doing something about it.  It’s terribly hard because it requires constant vigilance on your part to make the shift in your mindset.  It’s so easy to slip back into your old way of doing things that before you know it, you’ve gone unconscious again.  Then you have to have the presence of mind to get back to paying attention rather than getting stuck in being angry at yourself for losing focus (which, but the way, will keep you unfocused for longer).  Don’t beat yourself up, just get back to it.  It’s kind of like meditating while you’re awake.  Stay focused, pay attention, and take action.  That’s a business owner’s mindset.

Creative Innovation

The next two steps: creative innovation and not settling for good but always striving for great, are often both accomplished in the same manner.  When you are willing to constantly innovate, then you are not settling and you’re always making things better (hopefully – not all innovation is progress).  But how do you learn to be a creative thinker?

Becoming a Creative Thinker

Thinking outside of the box is harder than you would imagine.  You see, we learn how to think according to the parameters of the box.  For example, if I asked you to make me a sandwich you would probably pick some form of protein like turkey, add lettuce and tomato and perhaps something to wet the bread like mayo or mustard.  A creative thinker, however might question whether I necessarily wanted lunch food and might hand me a couple of pancakes with a fried egg in the center.  Or they might wonder whether the sandwich even needed to be edible and then they might give me two books with a hat in the middle.  Or, they might go with the idea that what defines a sandwich is that it is portable and edible with the hands which is probably where the idea of the wrap came from. 

Questioning Assumptions

The fact is that creative thinkers always question their assumptions.  This is precisely what gets them out of their box.  One of the assumptions that we make is that our perspective is the right one or the only one.  So creative thinkers also tend to look for new and different perspectives.  In our example, that was the moment when the person assumed that the sandwich didn’t have to be edible.  That’s a major perspective shift.  It’s not just a matter of creating a variation on a theme, but instead it’s a matter of looking at the issue from a totally different angle. 

The Benefits of The Entrepreneur Mindset

If this all seems like a lot of work, well it is.  If it were easy, then everyone would be doing it.  But you’re already doing a lot of work in owning your own business.  Why not take on this one additional piece and find out how much more effective you become?  Once you put these two processes (the business owner’s mindset and creative innovation) together, you’ve got it made.  You are now in the perfect position to be able to grow your business in new and creative ways, to differentiate yourself from the competition and to be a better business person than 90% of the rest of the population of business owners.  And wouldn’t that be just lovely?

Kelle Sparta is a small business coach, consultant and shaman.  She helps business owners grow their businesses from the inside out – starting with the owner.  Kelle  provides tools, coaching, and training to empower business owners to create lives and businesses they can love.  For more information, visit her website at www.kellesparta.com. © 2008, Kelle Sparta.  Used by permission.

 Six Sanity-Saving Scenarios to Turn a Massive Breakdown into a Powerful Business Breakthrough

By Melanie Benson Strick

Download the Podcast of this Article

There I was. Depressed, frustrated, and overwhelmed. Despite my best efforts to have a smooth running ship and organize my event, I realized I had a significant breakdown in my process. I admit, it wasn’t the end of the world, but come on, I teach this stuff! It was one week before we went live on our new program, we were preparing the workbooks for production, and I realized, no one ordered the right tabs! Yikes!

It got me thinking how a client of mine had shared a great story about their direct mail marketing campaign. A lot of money had been invested in buying a list of qualified candidates. But every step of the way there was breakdown in the process – the guy who formatted the list didn’t set it up right, the assistant didn’t have the proper envelopes, and they had no postage when they needed it. My client laughed as he told me this, but I knew he was frustrated!

Well, I’ve learned over the years that a breakdown means that something very valuable is happening – I have new insight into how I can improve my process, my attitude, or my belief so that problem never happens again.

Let’s look at a few examples of how breakdowns can occur in our business or life.

• A business partnership goes from the honeymoon phase to the divorce phase, all from a simple miscommunication around “who is doing what” with the budget.
• After training your new team for six months, you realize a key person continues to not follow through on your requests in a timely manner. You are worried you may have to let them go, even though they seemed like a perfect fit at the interview.
• Many late nights and nose-to-the-grind-stone days later, you realize that your big speaking debut will not be flawless because your brochures and products did not get shipped by the supplier.
• A wonderful new client suddenly becomes a nightmare when they keep adding new deliverables to the project agreement – but don’t want to pay you any additional money.

These are typical scenarios that many of my clients and associates have experienced. What I have noticed is there can be a difference in how people handle these types of breakdowns. Some people might freak out, scream and yell, and blame everyone else for the breakdown. That tends to be the “victim-mentality” type who struggle in life. The “success-oriented” type is the one who says, “OK, how can I make my process better?” Here are Six Sanity-Saving Scenarios that can turn that breakdown into a breakthrough.

1. Strengthen Communication.
   When you have a miscommunication with someone, it is usually a sign that someone “assumed” something along the way. Make sure that you use the “listen first, speak second, confirm your message last” method to make sure everyone is on the same page.
2. Delegate Effectively.
   There are 3 key elements for effective delegation to your virtual assistant: what you want, when it is due, and how to communicate completion. If you miss one of these steps, you will most likely have problems with the tasks you delegate. In the Virtual Team Building Telebootcamp, we spend quite a bit of time on this subject as it seems to be a big area for breakdowns!
3. Improve Skills.
   Often times, when something is not done properly, it is because the person doesn’t know how to do it. Find out what skills, education or training they need so they can complete the job properly.
4. Improve Your System.
   If the skills are there, then most likely the system (or the process to complete it) is broken. Identify in writing using a checklist, flow chart or written request what exactly needs to be done. Make sure that every element that can impact the quality of the end result is included.
5. Slow Down.
   Ever heard the saying that someone is like a “bull in a china shop?” That means they are racing forward breaking everything in their path. Often people move so fast they leave a massive path of carnage – including their teams, their clients and their families – in the wake. Even in the Fast-Track Mastermind where we focus on speed implementation, the key is remembering Rome was not built in a day.
6. Be a Leader.
   If you feel like mutiny on the bounty, perhaps your virtual team doesn’t understand the vision anymore. Being a leader is inspiring others to support and follow your vision. If they aren’t following, you are not leading. Revitalize the vision – it will work wonders.

The bottom line is that life happens and breakdowns will occur. We have all heard the saying, “breakdown, breakthrough.” Well it is true. I have experienced enough adversity in my life to fill an ocean liner. It is up to us to choose to respond to these situations with a positive attitude to make them work for us – not against us. So take those challenging situations and look for the opportunity to strengthen your personal mindset and your business systems.

Now, it’s your turn. How will you take a breakdown in your life and turn it into a breakthrough? I encourage you to take note of where the problems occur and brainstorm with your team, your family, or your friends to come up with possible “breakthroughs!”

About the Coach:

Melanie Benson Strick, The Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach, teaches entrepreneurs how to stop feeling overwhelmed so they can create more money, more freedom and more prestige.

Want to discover faster, easier ways to achieve more with less effort? Get our free report 101 Ways to Triple Your Income by Outsourcing Your High Payoff Activities at http://www.successconnections.com/101ways.

The Worlds Best Get Rich Quick Formula!

 by Janet Foust

Have you ever wondered how the wealthy get wealthier?

I’m sure most of you can guess that real estate is one way, but there is another.  Its called compound interest.  There is a formula that has been around for years.  This formula is called the Rule of 72. The genius physicist, Einstein, regaled compound interest as the ninth wonder of the world!  

The Rule of 72 tells you exactly how many years it will take for your money to double when calculating compound interest. 

For example:

72 divided by interest rate of return = # of years it takes for your money to double.

So lets say you have $1,000 in your on line money market account and it is earning 3%.   To figure out how many years it would take you to double your money, take 72 and divide it by 3% which would equal 24.   It will take 24 years until you see your money double to $2,000!

To make this even more exciting, lets take that same formula but change the interest rate to 9%. Take 72 and divide it by 9%, which equals 8 years.  What a huge difference a few more points can make! This concept is the big reason why you need to look at your savings account to see what your interest rate is.  If the interest rate you are getting is .05% like most regular savings accounts, it could take you a really long time to see any amount of increase in your account!  Now do you see why the interest rate you get when saving is so important to you?

When you understand this formula you can take it one step further and add your age into the equation.

Say today, you are 40; you have $20,000 in a savings account earning you 3%.  With the calculation of the Rule of 72, you will be 64 years old before you will see your hard earned money double to $40,000.  Change that savings interest rate to 9%, and in 8 years, and at age 48, your money will double to $40,000.  By 56 you will see it double again! Which would you choose?

This is one of my favorite financial concepts to teach.  Many of us do not realize what a difference a couple percentage points make, but in reality, just having this knowledge can make you rich quicker!

Janet Foust gives you the tools to powerfully partner the inner and outer strategies of your financial wealth to attract more freedom, joy and abundance to your life. Go to: http://www.wealthharvest.com to learn more about her and sign up for a free e-course!

Is getting outside help essential for a startup’s survival?

Stats show that more than 90% of all business aren’t around in five years. But according to George Derbyshire, head of the UK-based National Federation of Enterprise Agencies, entrepreneurs who get outside help during the start up process increase their survival chances by up to 20%.

But how do you find the help you need?

Here are a few ideas:

• Keep learning: Learn as much as you can before you start to build the foundation for your business. Take classes at a local college, ecourses, go to seminars, network with other startups. The more you learn the more potential you have to succeed. Ryan Allis went to college to learn more, even though he had a thriving business, and ended up creating iContact.

• Do what you can, not what you can’t: Numerically challenged? Hire someone to make sure they are taken care of for you. This can be as easy as asking a numerically inclined spouse (which could cost you nothing), or finding a friend you trust and taking them out for drinks to repay them.

• Make contacts: Knowing other people who went through the same startup ordeal can be invaluable. People who are further along in the process can tell you who they went to for help when they were in your shoes. If you trust a contact, you can trust their referral and that cuts down on time spent shopping around.

Are you getting help with your startup? Was it a good experience you would recommend or not?

 (photo courtesy of Shannon Cherry of BeHeardSolutions.com)

When starting a business, there’s no guarantee of success, even when you have unique skills, experience, knowledge and talents.

But you can increase your chances in any given opportunity:

1. Never stop learning. By continuing your ‘education’, you’ll build a habit that will serve as a guarantee against “being left behind or missing the boat”.  Always be reading e-books, articles and news related to your efforts.  Hang out in forums and blogs, ask questions, and stay tuned to what’s happening your community. I know a self-proclaimed web designer who doesn’t know a thing about creating forms, design themes for blogs, or creating an SEO-friendly website, etc.   She’s just so behind the times - but thinks she can still get business.
2. Don’t put your eggs in just one basket. You can choose one opportunity, but build a structure around that opportunity that will support the change of seasons. Market your product, service or website using several different methods to secure your long term objectives.  For instance, don’t only focus on Search Engines Optimization (SEO) or Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising. A true marketing plan uses a variety of ways to attract a targeted market. One entrpreneur I know thought just having a website would bring customers to his door. Ummm….no.
3. Organize your time and activities.  Focus on the things that are going to make you money. Too many people get caught up in the details.  Instead of goofing around and fine tuning your site endlessly, do the things that will ultimately generate income.  You want to be spending a good amount of time marketing your product or services. Build a system and stick to it.  Don’t get caught in the trap of hanging out in some forum.  It may be a way to generate some income, but you can get so rapped up you stop doing other things that will make you more money in the long run. How many of you got sucked into Facebook, and soon forgot why you got there in the first place?  (I admit, I did this for a day and snapped back to reality as soon as I realized I was losing time!)
4. When something goes wrong, embrace it! This is how we learn.  Everyone goes through this learning curve.  There are a lot of things that are going to happen before you are going to succeed.

In the believe it or not category, I just read about a new startup called YouNoodle.com, which claims it can predict the success of startups.

The company uses artificial intelligence (mainly historical data and some formulas, according to the New York Times story) to help predict how successful a new company will be in the future.

According to the owners, YouNoodle will help venture capitalist make better assessments when giving out money.

And what I find ironic, is the new company hasn’t even put themselves through their computer tests to see if they are actually viable!

Sure, in order to be a successful startup, you need the right idea at the right time.  But also you need something else that no technology or algorithm  can compute: drive and determination.

What do yo think?  Will you use their free 3-year predictor program to see if you’re viable?  Do you even want to?

I’m far from an expert on Africa and the difficulties faced within the continent. But it seems to me, if there’s any place on earth that needs powerful, motivated and passionate entrepreneurs, it’s Africa.

Benin Mwangi is opening the door on African entrepreneurship and his recent post 7 Lessons from Africa’s Successful Entrepreneurs is worth delving into. Incidentally, Benin’s post title ends in a question mark but I don’t think it should. He’s right on the money and not only that, the lessons being learned by entrepreneurs in Africa apply equally as well to entrepreneurs anywhere.

“Each of them has made their business into a platform or a bigger cause, almost taking on the an evangelistic role for their particular industry or products.”

Africa should be a hotbed for social entrepreneurship because there’s no shortage of people who need help. But that’s true anywhere you look in the world. There’s no such place as utopia - not even close - and what the world needs more of is entrepreneurs using their brains, energy and guts to build companies with bigger purposes and visions.

“Adapting thinking, processes, products, and/or services to their local environments.”

I love the message here — think local, go global. It’s so easy to look elsewhere for your success - the grass is always greener elsewhere right? Entrepreneurs can do so much at a local level and develop businesses that are driven by local needs and wants, and then take those successes to everyone else.

“Most of them built their businesses around their own personal experiences and as a result ended up creating niche-targeted businesses.”

This lesson holds true for anyone. The best way to start a business is find something you want that you can’t get and make it happen. You want to be your own customer. It’s the best way to know if you’re headed in the right direction.

Benin has additional observations that are worth checking out. Whether you plan on doing business in Africa any time soon or not, The Benin Epilogue looks like a blog worth following.

Welcome to the 6th Edition of the Carnival of Entrepreneurs!

We’ve got a huge list of content to go through, with some great posts on topics ranging from motivation, inspiration, learning, making money online and failure. There’s a few themes running through the posts, which I find particularly interesting. It shows that people are thinking along the same lines at the beginning of 2007.

Please help us promote the Carnival of Entrepreneurs! Link back to this post. Visit the sites and comment on then. Submit your own entrepreneurial content! The more participation, linking and sharing, the stronger the Carnival becomes.

Carnival Highlights

• Laura Young tells us about her bathroom habits. OK, not quite, but she’s got a great story to tell about being bold and grabbing opportunities when they come your way.
• GP suggests that you don’t try and learn everything when you first start pursuing your goals. Sure, it might be a natural reaction when starting something new; go out and learn everything to avoid mistakes, but those mistakes could be worth more than you realize. (Oh, there’s also a recipe for Comforting Rice Pudding.)
• Bill D’Alessandro asks, What Makes a Successful Entrepreneur? Of course we all want to know. Bill looks at some research, questions why so few young people go into entrepreneurship and concludes with some thoughts on whether entrepreneurship is a character trait or learned.
• Craig Harper takes a scientific look at success and offers up 10 things that he’s learned about successful people. Craig’s got a bit of a “take-no-prisoners” attitude, which is quite refreshing. The end of his post is brilliant.

Get Inspired And Succeed

• Lorenzo has a method for channeling inspiration which he developed after noticing that people often solve their problems, right on the spot, when speaking to someone about them.
• Jane Chin offers up Your Crucial Key To Success. If I’m not mistaken Jane has her own blog network called Chinspirations. I’m still laughing at the catchy name! Jane, do you write ALL of those blogs?
• Wilson Ng wonders how to manage our own indulgences. It’s a good question. A tough question. Any ideas?
• Adeolu Akinyemi is thinking along the same lines. He offers some suggestions on how to stay strong in moments of weakness.
• Emmanuel Olawutosin has the answer to your job woes: Fire Your Boss. Until I read “it’s a mental exercise” I was really hoping Emmanuel was suggesting that you literally fire your boss. Sadly, that’s not the case, but the article is well worth reading on how to improve your current job situation.
• Paul is thinking a lot about goal setting and how to achieve his goals. He’s looked at different methodologies, tackled goal setting from different angles, and perhaps finally come up with some secret sauce - focusing solely on ego-driven goals won’t work.
• Johan Holmberg is focused on entrepreneurial failure. Not the most positive topic in the world, but it’s important to understand failure and accept it. Well, don’t just accept it and roll over. Learn from it, please. Johan’s looking at research into entrepreneurial failure with a very detailed approach.
• John Peter says the key to success is all about attitude. Granted, John’s impression of success is making money, and I’d say there’s more to it than that, but your attitude certainly plays a big role regardless of how you define success.

Building Great Companies

• David Maister asks, What does a company need most? He gives you 7 choices and the discussion created is quite interesting.
• David Lorenzo provides The Foundation of Marketing a Business Start-Up. Visibility. Credibility. Differentiation. There’s the foundation. Now go read how to do it.

Practical Business Guidance

• Thom Singer tells us we should pay attention to the US pre-election campaign as it heats up. Why? Because Hillary Clinton, John McCain and John Edwards do a fine job of giving us a live business seminar throughout the process.
• Mary Emma presents, Branding Your Home Business. It’s a quick reminder that even if you work from home, if you’re trying to earn a buck from it, you should think about branding. It’s not just for big business.
• Charles Green suggests that you subsidize marketing with sales. The basic idea is to help others when the occasion makes sense, and you’re bound to create more than just good will and positive karma, including referrals, testimonials and buzz.
• John Ingrisano asks, Does your business have a disaster plan? He’s not asking if you have a plan for getting into disaster, but if you’ve got one to get out of it when it strikes.
• Derek has a strategy for planning pulled from the U.S army called the Operation Order. You have to love the title of his blog - Hope Is Not A Plan; very cool.
• Kelly Anderson has some tips for what you can do for your startup business in 15 minutes. She’s got some good ideas and really hones in on the fact that many stay-at-home mompreneurs (mom entrepreneurs) have to work in short bursts.
• Chris Johnson reminds us that it’s important to pay yourself first. He’s speaking about the fact that many people spend without tracking their income and are left at the end of the month breaking even, just getting by. He’s got some ideas on doing more than that. I’ve touched on this subject before as well with, Don’t Forget To Pay Yourself When You Start A New Business.
• Wayne Hulbert suggests that you admit your mistakes when you make them. Wayne’s got some good insights into how a company can develop a good culture around admitting mistakes and giving people the freedom to mess up and learn from it.

Interesting Reading

• Kavit Haria presents, Role of an Entrepreneur. Kavit has an interesting definition of an entrepreneur, and coins the term, “musopreneur.”
• H.S. Ayoub tells us that the biotech industry is a failure. This is an interesting read, even if you’re not that familiar with the biotech industry and there are some great lessons in here for all businesses and industries.
• Mike Buckley presents, Your Strategic Plan. It’s the 18th installment in a long series of posts based on a case study on the rebirth of small, independent retail in the US. Very interesting. I don’t think we have many retail-focused contributors here so this is a new twist on things. The gist of the post is that retail changes so quickly, it’s hard for management to keep up.
• Michelle presents, Immigrants Are More Likely to Become Successful Entrepreneurs & Business Owners. Michelle looks at some recent research on the subject of immigrant entrepreneurs and draws her own conclusions as to why there seems to be a real connection between immigrants and entrepreneurship.
• Almomento presents, The Hidden Power of Mastermind. I had never heard of Mastermind groups before, but it sounds interesting!
• Juuso Hietalahti has a funny story to tell about a pizza guy and marketing.

Online Entrepreneurship

• Erin Blaskie offers 5 Reasons Why You Should Create a Blog Site. Solid, straightforward advice.
• Ruben presents, Blogging for Profit: 2 of the Most Profitable Types of Blogs in the Blogosphere. If you’re looking to earn money from blogging it can’t hurt to find out what works well already.
• Kumiko Suzuki tells us how she achieved over 1,500 hits in my first two weeks. Of course she’s referring to her website, and offers some sound advice on site marketing and strategy.

That’s it for Carnival #6. Next week’s Carnival will be hosted right here on January 24th.

Next month the Carnival hits the road - I’ll be emailing a few people shortly about hosting - if you’re interested, please get in touch.

And don’t forget - we’d love a link over to the Carnival, or perhaps you’ll find a post you want to write about, pushing people’s ideas further and extending the conversation.