Location:
Johnson & Wales University
7150 E. Montview Blvd.
Denver, CO 80220

The forum is a full day event that includes workshops to strengthen your business, breakfast, lunch, and other refreshments for attendees as they make their way between workshops, sessions and networking opportunities. The day will be concluded with a networking reception where you can connect, relax, and listen to live music. Appetizers and drinks will be served.

Keynote presentations by:

• Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock (morning)
• CEO/Co-Founder of Survey Gizmo, Christian Vanek (afternoon)
• Vice Chair of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, Matt Bauer (evening reception)

I’m one of the presenters, as well, with 2 sessions in the afternoon: “Purposeful Networking“, and “Claim your marker on the Google Map,” two popular sessions from past BW4W events. If you missed either one, here’s your chance to hear one or both of those topics.

You can find descriptions of the Business Forum, and all the sessions here: http://milehighbiz.org/sbfsessions

Tickets to the event are $100 in advance, and $125 at the door. This is a great deal for a full day of training, PLUS it’s a great place to network with other small business owners.

Want to get in for FREE? We’ll draw one business card at the workshop this Saturday, May 12. RSVP now! Come, hear our great speaker, and you might be the lucky winner!

Remember, too, if you bring a guest with you who has never attended a BW4W event, you get to choose a prize from our “Gifts for Guests” table.

See you Saturday!

Our speaker, Melanie Smithson, showed our ladies how to Play More to Earn More. In addition to sharing some things we never thought about before, such as:

• Goal Boards can be counter-productive, because they keep you in a state of wanting, or lack
• Working harder doesn’t make you more productive or profitable
• You need to play, so your brain and body can function better

So, where does clap, wiggle, jump fit into all of this? She got us all on our feet for a very fun and challenging exercise.
Pair off with a friend and see how it goes:

1. Count off between yourselves, 1, 2, 3, taking turns on each number. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, and so on.
2. Replace #1 with a clap, 2, 3, clap 2, 3
3. Now Replace #2 with a wiggle, so it’s Clap, Wiggle, 3, Clap, Wiggle, 3
4. Finally, Replace #3 with a hop, so it’s Clap, Wiggle, Hop, Clap, Wiggle Hop.
5. If you’re not energized and laughing by the end of this, you aren’t playing hard enough!

Melanie also had us playing with stuffed animals, tossing one, and then a dozen, back and forth. Not at all what you’d expect at a workshop, but it really got our creative juices flowing!

You may not be in the mood to clap, wiggle, jump, or toss stuffed animals, but if you find a way to add more play to your day, you can, as Melanie says, “Play More, AND Earn More!”

Important takeaways:

1. Always put a short subject in the subject line
2. Keep the email short, simple, and to the point
3. Use the spellcheck and grammar check feature in your email program
4. Respond to all emails within 24 hours
5. DON’T USE ALL CAPS!!
6. Don’t send chain letters, warnings or hoaxes (my personal pet peeve)
7. Don’t reply to spammers (and don’t buy anything from them!)
8. If you send an email by mistake, suck it up, admit the error, and fix it.
9. Proofread before you send
10. If anything in the email is confidential, protect yourself with a disclaimer

Do you know someone who violates any of these rules? Please share this post with them!

Starting a new business can be exciting, exhilarating, and very frightening. The only way to know the answers to all the “what ifs” is to jump in and just do it. Sticking your toe in to test the waters isn’t always enough. Immerse yourself in your new business, determined to make it a success, and you have a much better chance at realizing your dream.

What if you let the “what ifs” stop you? What if you remain paralyzed by what if-itis? Is it worth living in regret, or the misery of hope-a hope-a land, hoping that some day, everything will be in place for the perfect opportunity to land in your lap? What if that opportunity is sitting in your lap Right Now, and you continue to daydream about success, but never reach out to grab it?

Nothing great has ever been achieved without risk. You may fail. You may even fail spectacularly. You may fail so huge, the climb back out of the hole seems impossible. Or, you may be on the ride of your life, with new and exciting things happening every day. You may achieve your dream, and go beyond it, to heights you never imagined were possible.

Stop worrying yourself into inactivity. Stop focusing on the risks that keep you from making a move, and start counting the rewards that come from doing something you love.

You’ll make mistakes, and from them, you get experience. Stumbling along the way helps you better focus on what you truly want. The experience helps you get it right the next time.

Now, go out and do it. Change all those “what ifs” to “What if it all goes right?”

Bad decision #1: Not having adequate start-up capital.
No matter how much money you think it’s going to take to get your business off the ground, it’s never enough. Plan on spending every penny you have, and a bunch you don’t, before you pay yourself. In fact, don’t plan on paying your self anything for awhile. New businesses eat capital like babies eat cheerios.

Bad decision #2: Having no other source of income
Sometimes, you have no choice. You don’t have start-up capital, and you’re just flying by the seat of your pants. You have a great idea, and you go for it. It’s been said that the best time to look for a job is when you already have one. It’s also easier to start a business when you aren’t worried about putting food on your table. If you have a job, work your new business in the evening and on weekends until you’ve built it into a business that will sustain your lifestyle. Better still, if you have a spouse or partner in the business – one of you should keep your full-time job while the other works the business full or part-time. Or, maybe you both keep your jobs and work the business every waking moment you’re not on the clock. If you want it bad enough, the long hours will be easier to take.

Bad decision #3: No marketing plan
If nobody knows you exist, no one will buy from you. If you’ve done your homework, you know where your customers are, and how to reach them. Too many people start a business out of love, and think the customers will flock to them. It doesn’t work. It also doesn’t work to just throw money at the latest advertising to come across your desk. Make a plan. If you don’t know how, there are people who can help. (Start your search at your local SBA office)

Bad decision #4: Expecting immediate sales
You told your mom, your friends, and the women in your PTO group all about your new business, and they were overflowing with support. Support doesn’t pay the bills; sales do. You can make the best cookies in the world, but until people know you exist (see #3), and have a need for what you have to sell, sales will build slowly.

Bad decision #5: Playing the blame game
No one wants to do business with a whiner. When you’re feeling victimized by your business, your customers read that as a lack of confidence in your business. People want to do business with people who are positive, happy, and fun to be around. If things aren’t going as well as you hoped, keep that news close to the vest. When people ask you how your business is doing, always find something positive to say.

Bad decision #6: Thinking “No” is the end of the world
I’ve learned, after many years in the sales business, that “No” is a wonderful word. It cuts through the noise. It tells me my product or service isn’t a good fit, or my marketing message is wrong. It gives me an opportunity to improve. And, the more “no’s” you get out of the way, the closer you get to the golden “Yes.”

Bad decision #7: No plan “B”
Think you’re in the business of selling cookies? What if nobody else loves them after you’ve bought all the equipment, rented a commercial kitchen, created a website, and more? What could you do instead, that uses the same skill set and equipment? Sell dog biscuits? Plan what you would do if you fail, and you’re actually planning for your success, whatever gets thrown your way.

Bad decision #8: Being inflexible
You may have the best widget on the planet, but if nobody agrees with you, your inventory will stay piled up in the closet. Think on your feet. What haven’t you tried? Where haven’t you gone? Who haven’t you talked to yet, who may be in an entire new market segment for you?

Bad decision #9: Refusing to take advice
Successful business owners who are willing to give you the benefit of their experience are a special breed. When they give you advice, or make suggestions, listen. Even if you don’t see the practical application right away. Even if you don’t know how you’ll make their idea work. Trust their instincts, and then take all the advice you’ve been given to find your true path.

Bad decision #10: Being too afraid to really commit.
A business can only grow and thrive when you throw yourself into it. If you have a baby, do you “sort of” mother her? Do you take care of her when you feel like it, or all the time? Your new business is your baby. It will grow and thrive when you give it everything it needs. Sometimes that means everything you have.

Does your business deserve everything you have? Does it deserve all your free time, all the money you would normally spend on “extras?” Do you love it enough to be totally immersed in it? If not, maybe you’re not a true entrepreneur, or it’s not the business for you.

There should be a #11, so I’ll add it here:

Bad decision #11: Failure to Plan
A well thought-out business plan can help you avoid many of these mistakes, and help guide you when you hit a snag. There are resources at your local SBA office, or plan to attend the workshop on September 24.

If you want to succeed, take the time necessary to plan for your success. If you fail to plan, you can plan to fail.

Often, I see entrepreneurs jump into a new business with both feet, without adequate preparation, or even a rudimentary business plan. They love their new business, or the thought of their new business, so much that they believe everyone else will instantly love what they have to offer, and their success is guaranteed.

I recently spoke with a business owner who fits that description. She complained that she had to sell her jewelry, her husband had to work at a kiosk in the mall at Christmas, they sold their house and moved into a small apartment, and she took a part time sales job, all to try to stay afloat while working on their new business. She talked as if they faced more difficult hardships than any other entrepreneur in existence. The reality is, many, if not most start-ups share stories just like this.

Starting a new business is exciting, and at the same time, very exhausting. Tune into Shark Tank on Friday evening, and you’ll hear stories just like hers. The difference? The winners view those things as “doing what needs to be done, in order to succeed.”

Along the way, you’ll make some fabulous strides, and make both good and bad decisions.

The great thing about bad business decisions is that you gain experience. Experience, a bunch of it, can put you on the path to success, if you are willing to learn from your mistakes.

In the next blog post, I’ll list 10 Bad Decisions new business owners make, and what you can do about them.

Several years ago

The trip those settlers took was 4-6 months of walking, covering as much as 15 miles every day. The trail ran close to rivers for water, away from Indians for security, and over time, cutouts were made in the mountains, bridges were built over rivers, more towns sprang up along the way, and the path became more and more “Safe.” A deviation from that path could mean at the least, a longer, more difficult journey, and at worst, death. So the ruts got deeper, and still deeper, and no one deviated from the safety of the ruts.

Nowadays, in our comfortable modern lives, we settle into ruts, often without noticing. We call these ruts, our “routine” and go about doing the same things in the same ways every day, waiting for something to change that doesn’t. Einstein said the definition of insanity was doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result. How much insanity do you have in your life? Do you vacillate from one choice to the next, bouncing between comfort and discomfort, and slide back into the rut when things are harder than you can tolerate?

Often, when I talk to people who want change in their life, they talk about “Risk.” Change is frightening; it’s scary to try new things. What if I fail? What if it doesn’t work? What if I look stupid? These people have no risk tolerance. Growing, making changes in your life, becoming the successful person you want to be, means taking risks. A lot of them.

Think about those Oregon Trail emigrants. They took enormous risks in order to get a better life. They risked their lives to create a better life for themselves and their families.

Have you made a choice to improve yourself that had the possibility of death? Have you ever made a life-or-death decision? If not, and you’re paralyzed by fear of the risk ahead of you, you have no risk-tolerance.

How do you build your risk tolerance and make positive changes in your life? By taking risks! When you start to do something new, it’s uncomfortable. You can feel your wagon bumping against the edge of the rut, and it’s scary. You try another new thing, and your wheel bounces back again. Keep bumping up against the edges with bigger and bigger risks until you jump out of the rut.

Zig Ziglar said “Little men with little minds and little imaginations go through life in little ruts, smugly resisting all changes which would jar their little worlds.” Fight your way out of those little ruts, and you’ll find the bigger ruts are easier to manage.

If you can’t remember when you last tried something for the first time, you are in a rut.

You’re in a rut if you’ve said, “It’s always been like this,” or “we don’t do it that way.”

When was the last time you made a big mistake? If it’s been years, you are in a deep rut!

If you want to grow, if you want something bigger or better in your life, do something new or different every day. Start with little things. Part your hair on the other side. Go to a new restaurant. Say hello to the person in front of you in the grocery store line. Take a class. Learn a foreign language. Sing Karaoke. Go to bed every night reviewing the new things you learned, or tried, or failed at that day. The more new things you do, the more risks you take, the greater a change you’ll see in your life.

What does this have to do with bananas?

If you have a banana, get it, and peel it this “new” way. If not, go buy one, and try this out.

There. That was a very small risk. You could have “done it wrong” or looked silly. You might have dropped the banana. You just learned something new today. Make that the first.

I hope that the next time, and every time you see a banana, you think of the Oregon Trail, and ruts, and challenge yourself to do something different, try something new, and take bigger and bigger risks in your life. Someday, you’ll look back on all those ruts in your life, the same way I looked at the Oregon trail, and marvel at how far you’ve come.

There is only one good reason to use “Reply All.” That is when every single recipient wants or needs to be part of an ongoing conversation that is exchanged via email. In this case, all email addresses are put into the TO or CC field; everyone in the exchange knows everyone else (or is being introduced to them), and needs to continue the conversation with all of them.

Using the BCC field is one way of helping to stop the “Reply All” problem before it happens.

I can’t stress the importance of the BCC field enough. If you are sending to a group of people, and it doesn’t meet the definition above, PLEASE protect the privacy of all your recipients and put all the email addresses in the BCC field. That way, no one can accidentally “Reply All” and send email to people they don’t know. Your contacts will appreciate the fact that their email address doesn’t get added to the contact list of strangers.

It’s pretty easy to hit “Reply All” instead of “Reply,” because the buttons in Outlook are right next to each other, and they look almost identical. (Outlook 2007 calls this “Reply to All”)

Follow these steps fix that problem.

Right-click anywhere in the Outlook toolbar, and select “Customize”

Select “Rearrange Commands”

Select “Toolbar,” making sure to select the toolbar in the drop-down box that is active in Outlook. For most people, this is the Standard toolbar.

Select “Reply to All” and click the “Move Down” button on the right. Keep clicking that button until it is as far away from “Reply” as you like.

Close the window, and your toolbar will look something like this:

Ah, but what if, since the button still looks like “Reply,” you still accidentally click it? Change the icon to something completely different.

Go back to the Customize|Rearrange Commands window, select “Reply to All” and click “Modify Selection” and then “Change button image.” Select the one you like from the window, and close the Customize window to set your new icon.

What if you don’t like any of the icons? Instead of “Change button image,” go for “Edit button image.”

You’ll get a window where you can change the image, pixel by pixel.

Once you’ve finished creating or modifying your button, click OK. (An extra step you can take, should you need it, is to change the name of the button. I don’t recommend it, because if you don’t use it very often, you might forget what it’s called!) Now close the Customize window. Your new icon is set, and your “Reply All” button looks completely different from “Reply.”

You’ll never embarrass yourself with an unintended “Reply All” again!

Here’s the Bridgestone video I promised you:

Yes! Women are pioneers in business precisely because they are nurturing, sensitive, and passionate.

You go, girl!

1. Visualize your success
   You won’t win if you don’t believe you can. Before heading out onto the field, the players get psyched up for the game. They walk onto the field knowing, not wishing, or hoping, or praying, knowing they are ready to win the game. They visualize finishing on top, because anything less than that is unacceptable. Football, like life, is an emotional game. You can’t win if you don’t care.
2. Practice, practice, practice
   If they want to stay winners, they must continually challenge themselves to be better than their last game. Don’t rest on your laurels – you an always improve. If you think you’re good, strive for great. If you’re already great, work to achieve awesome.
3. Dress for success
   The team dresses like the champions they know themselves to be. Do you attend every meeting with, in addition to the right clothes, a winner’s “Game Face?” Wear a confident smile, and people will gravitate to you.
4. Teamwork
   It takes more than one player to win a game. If you’re a solopreneur, create your own team of mentors, confidants, motivators – people who care about your success and can help you achieve it.
5. Commitment
   Many games have been won in the final seconds. A good team will constantly assess their current position, and make adjustments. Even when things look bleak, there’s always another play. If you are committed to success, and things aren’t going well, this is the time to work on “Plan B” and C and D…
6. Focus
   From kickoff to the final whistle, the winners are the ones who are totally in the moment, focused on the current play. They pick their path and dedicate themselves 100% to the execution. They don’t try to execute the play, they do it. When you a creating your product, or providing your service, focus 100% on quality.
7. Don’t be afraid of mistakes
   Everyone makes mistakes. A good player sees this as an opportunity to learn, and correct his behavior, so he is better than he was before. Mistakes are an opportunity to improve. Sometimes a mistake can even unveil a hidden opportunity. If you truly believe in yourself, you’ll see those opportunities when they present themselves.
8. Don’t give up
   When you get knocked down, get up and keep playing. If the competition is breathing down your neck, keep running. What you do next could make all the difference.
9. Everyone is watching
   Your competition is watching your every move. But, more importantly, so are your fans. Set the bar high so your competition will be challenged, and your fans will be thrilled. Your fans want you to succeed. Enjoy the praise, and let it motivate you to be good enough to deserve it.
10. Have fun!
    The players who are truly passionate about the game are the ones who end up at the Super Bowl. When you’re doing what you love, enjoy it! Don’t complain about how hard you work. Celebrate the experience. Focus on how much fun it is to be doing what you love. Enjoy your success, and get ready for the greater success you’ll have tomorrow, and every day for the rest of your life.

Dare to dream. Life is the Big Game. Play everyday like it’s your last play.