What Matters Most In 2010?

One of my goals in 2010 is to keep my life more simple.  To  me, this means focusing on what matters most in my life.  Optimal health physically, mentally and spiritually.  Less scrambling in business so I can focus on the businesses and people who really count.  Loving what “is” as Byron Katie would say.

I’ve not written here year to date.  I’ve not sent one email newsletter year to date.  I have a great plan for 2010 and right now less is more.  In line with current thinking I wanted to share this with my readers.  It was passed along to me by my good friend Scott Sackett.

If you know the source of this content, which came to me by email, feel free to leave a comment so I can give credit where credit is due.  While I want to add my own thoughts to this, I share it with you just as it came to me.  And no.  It doesn’t have anything to do with Internet marketing or business development other than if you follow these principles you may just find your business and your life get a whole lot better.

Health:

1.  Drink plenty of water.
2.  Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3.  Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4.  Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy.
5.  Pray.
6.  Play more games.
7.  Read more books than you did in 2009.
8.  Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
9.  Sleep for 7 hours.
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. While you walk, smile.

Personality:

11.  Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12.  Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13.  Don’t over do. Keep your limits.
14.  Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
15.  Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip.
16.  Dream more while you are awake.
17.  Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
18.  Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19.  Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

Don’t hate others:

20.  Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
21.  No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22.  Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23.  Smile and laugh more.
24.  You don’t have to win every argument, agree to disagree.

Society:

25.  Call your family often.
26.  Each day give something good to others.
27.  Forgive everyone for everything.
28.  Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
29.  Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30.  What other people think of you is none of your business.
31.  Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:

32.  Do the right thing!
33.  Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
34.  GOD heals everything.
35.  However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
36.  No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37.  The best is yet to come.
38.  When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39.  Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

What matters most to you in 2010?

Tour de France and Entrepreneurship

As my friends know, I love long bicycle rides.  I ride road bikes more than mountain bikes since I had my back surgery a few years ago.  I love to compete and I absolutely love the month of July when I can watch the world’s most famous bike race, the Tour de France.

As I was watching yesterday’s epic mountain stage it occurred to me that racing bicycles and entrepreneurship have a few things in common.

1. There is luck involved.  Some days racers and entrepreneurs both find they crash.  It’s not that they necessarily did anything wrong.  In many instances it’s that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Or they got caught up in something beyond their control.  In short, they got unlucky.  Those who win on any given day could attribute their victory to luck as well.  Being in the right place at the right time.  Like when a break goes off the front and you’re ready to roll with those who will go for the finish first.  Some days your, no matter what you’ve done to be in good form, your body works well.  And other days it won’t.

Entrepreneurs face a big race every day.  They must develop and execute a professional business plan.  They must build, manage and coach the right team.  They must generate more leads, follow up and close more sales.  It seems the most disciplined in this regard have a higher success rate.  But business involves luck too.

2. Those who practice the most put themselves in a position to win the most.  Whether you know cycling or not, disciplined training and coaching is the key to success.  Genetics can play a role.  But most often the best racers work the hardest to train and practice.  I know a lot of business owners who are good at what they do.  But many I meet don’t do the tough training.  I equate the hard work in business to being disciplined with sales calls and follow up.  Attracting, organizing and following up on all the leads so none fall through the cracks.  And of course, success in business comes from taking great care of our partners, contractors and employees in order to exceed the expectations of the customer or client.  Work as a team.  Plan.  Practice.  Execute.  Learn.  Start over.

3. Everyone has a job on a cycling team.  Yes, cycling is a team sport.  And so is business.  Employees, managers and leaders must all work with one another in a way that the team exceeds the client’s expectations.  If there’s a breakdown in communication, commitment, or planning the end result can be disastrous.  Working as team requires discipline in business and in cycling.

Sadly, there are only a two more days of racing until most of the cyclists who started the Tour de France hit Paris and cycle to the ultimate finish line.  It’s been a pleasure to watch the race evolve.  And as of today’s start, twenty two of the original 180 or so racers had to exit the race.  It’s a grueling undertaking.

When I watch what the racers endure to just finish the race, I deeply admire those who have the guts to be there in the first place.  Same for those who won choose the life of entrepreneurship.  Facing our fears.  Doing the hard work.  Making the sales calls.  Hiring, leading, managing and firing the people.  Long days.  Long nights.  Steep hills.  Incredible odds.  It makes me proud to serve other entrepreneurs.

Clifford Jones, Founder
WealthNet Partners, LLC
“Discover The Art of Business Development”
Scottsdale, Arizona
Follow up on twitter http://twitter.com/WealthNetTeam
Get LinkedIn with us at http://linkedin.com/wealthnetpartners

Obama, Please Don’t Try to Run Companies

Let those that will fail, fail.  Let those that will prosper do just that.  The focus for economic recovery should be on helping small companies grow.  Access to capital and talent means successful entrepreneurs can leverage their way to creating more jobs as they innovate.   If you want proof of this model, ask anyone in France or other socialistic economies about job creation numbers.  Then look at the U.S. track record in this regard.

We Salute the Original Entrepreneurs, Our Founding Fathers.

I am taking a break for the holiday weekend and hope our fellow entrepreneurs are doing the same. It’s a great time of year to reflect on the many blessings we enjoy as Americans.

As I was pedaling back from the gym this morning it occurred to me that it is important to know that our founding fathers were the original entrepreneurs of our nation. So I did a little Googling and found the following on Wikipedia.

The 1787 delegates practiced a wide range of high and middle-status occupations, and many pursued more than one career simultaneously. They did not differ dramatically from the Loyalists, except they were generally younger and less senior in their professions.^[8] Thirty-five were lawyers or had benefited from legal education, though not all of them relied on the profession for a livelihood. Some had also become judges.^[9]

• At the time of the convention, 13 men were merchants: Blount, Broom, Clymer, Dayton, Fitzsimons, Shields, Gilman, Gorham, Langdon, Robert Morris, Pierce, Sherman, and Wilson.
• Six were major land speculators: Blount, Dayton, Fitzsimons, Gorham, Robert Morris, and Wilson.
• Eleven speculated in securities on a large scale: Bedford, Blair, Clymer, Dayton, Fitzsimons, Franklin, King, Langdon, Robert Morris, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and Sherman.
• Twelve owned or managed slave-operated plantations or large farms: Bassett, Blair, Blount, Butler, Carroll, Jenifer, Jefferson, Mason, Charles Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Rutledge, Spaight, and Washington. Madison also owned slaves, as did Franklin, who later freed his slaves and was a key founder of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. Alexander Hamilton was opposed to slavery and, with John Jay and other anti-slavery advocates, helped to found the first African free school in New York City. Jay helped to found the New York Manumission Society and, when he was governor of New York in 1798, signed into law the state statute ending slavery as of 1821.
• Broom and Few were small farmers.
• Eight of the men received a substantial part of their income from public office: Baldwin, Blair, Brearly, Gilman, Livingston, Madison, and Rutledge.
• Three had retired from active economic endeavors: Franklin, McHenry, and Mifflin.
• Franklin and Williamson were scientists, in addition to their other activities.
• McClurg, McHenry, and Williamson were physicians, and Johnson was a college president.

Entrepreneurs come from all walks of life and from many industries and professionals. It’s an honor to work with our clients who reflect the same values as our founding fathers.

Happy Independence day to you all.

Clifford Jones, Founder
WealthNet Partners, LLC
“Discover The Art of Business Development”
Scottsdale, Arizona
Follow up on twitter http://twitter.com/WealthNetTeam
Get LinkedIn with us at http://linkedin.com/wealthnetpartners

What’s Holding You Back From Growing Your Business?

This is one of my favorite questions to ask entrepreneurs. I am on my way to meet a new prospective client. And I’ll ask him, “What’s holding you back from growing your business?”

The WealthNet community of entrepreneurs and professionals wants to know what’s on your mind. Is it capital? Not enough lead generation? How about closing more sales? Or is it people on your team? Maybe it’s the economy. (Just saw a great tweet, “We are not participating in this recession.” Check it out at Twitter.

Let us know by sharing your comments here.

Clifford Jones, Founder
WealthNet Partners, LLC
“Discover The Art of Business Development”
Scottsdale, Arizona
http://twitter.com/WealthNetTeam

More startups. More Businesses. More Jobs. More Income. More Wealth.

Entrepreneurs will ultimately rescue the U.S. and global economies. I am inspired every day and here’s why.

Today was like most days. Exciting and packed with interaction meeting dynamic entrepreneurs who have vision. And they execute on that vision. Which means they grow their businesses. They create jobs. They create income. And they create wealth.

If you own a business keep the mindset that you can grow no matter what. If you don’t own a business, start one today.

One more thing. Let’s not allow government to run businesses. It will never be a good thing. If a business needs a bailout, maybe it should just fail. Another entrepreneur will pick up the pieces that make business sense. And the rest will go away.

Clifford Jones, Founder
WealthNet Partners, LLC
“Discover The Art of Business Development”
Scottsdale, Arizona
http://twitter.com/WealthNetTeam

Entrepreneurs. What’s Keeping You Awake At Night?

Noah and I are planning some new content geared to understanding what’s keeping entrepreneurs awake at night. We want your feedback. Share your comments here or send an email to us at info@wealthnetpartners.com.

As we collect your comments and feedback we will build new educational content to deliver by video, webinar, blog, podcasts, etc. Although I am sleeping very well lately, what’s kept me up at night in the past was all based on my fears. Here’s a short list of fears with which I used to struggle.

1. Fear of failing financially. Not generating enough cash flow, revenue or profit.

2. Fear of letting a client down. Not serving the client in a way that they become a raving fan.

3. Fear of not having a clear enough plan. It used to be that I wasn’t absolutely clear on our positioning and how we wanted specifically to serve our clients.

So what’s keeping you awake at night? What kinds of fears are you facing? What is holding you back the most? Sales? Marketing? Capital? People?

We encourage you to let us know.

A Lesson In Leverage: WealthNet Offers A Network That Entrepreneurs Can Use for Instant Leverage

I was meeting last week with a very successful company facing an age old dilemma. This company has an in house marketing director and one IT person, both on payroll receiving a very comfortable salary by most standards. The CEO is not pleased with the results that either person is delivering and it appears to be impacting the top and bottom lines. In an effort to implement more accountability for each department, the management team of the company has asked for a scope of services that details the deliverables and planning for each department. And management continues to wait having asked for this weeks ago.

I have often written about the importance of strategic planning for all organizations. In fact, I’ve written an eBook that will soon be revised entitled, “Strategic Planning Made Simple the WealthNet Way.” I wrote the eBook because not every company wants to hire us to facilitate a strategic planning process and the book is intended to help business owners and leaders get on track quickly with a simple approach to developing an internal strategic planning process.

The reason that strategic planning is so critical is the process enables an organization to detail the Vision, Mission, Goals, Objectives, Actions, and Accountability Planning that is so essential to success in business. The company that I am referencing in this post is working on their strategic plan. To compliment their planning process and accelerate their business development efforts, I have submitted a Services Agreement that would enable the organization to immediately leverage our team of professionals to assist with crafting a real marketing plan, providing the resources to execute a wide variety of marketing projects, and most important to this particular company, direct the development of their internet marketing.

Most small and mid-size companies don’t have an in house IT person or marketing director for several reasons. Most of the time paying benefits, salaries, and all the related costs are simply prohibitive. But regardless of whether the respective professional is in house or not, the key to success comes from an essential element of the strategic planning process. Through the planning process the what, when and who must be clearly defined for every aspect of the business. With or without a disciplined planning process in place, when a company decides to outsource to  WealthNet for instant leverage, they are forced to do three things.

1. Plan more carefully.

2. Define the project and deliverable (what).

3. Define the time frame in which the project must be done (when).

4. Define the person or people to be held accountable for performing (who).

Of course, one of the benefits of outsourcing marketing to us is we have an entire team of people to call upon when we get new work. And when it comes to the budget aspect of getting the work done, our clients pay us to perform on a time line. And they don’t pay our benefits and all the related costs to having someone on staff. Through outsourcing to us and leveraging our team, we essentially take each client through a planning process to define the objective, goal, actions and people responsible for delivering on a certain time line and budget. Then we execute typically with much less cost when compared to all the related expenses of paying employees.

WealthNet was created to provide this kind of instant leverage to entrepreneurs running small and mid-sized companies. Entrepreneurs define a desired outcome or Vision and together we craft a plan to deliver what the client wants. They leverage our network, we create the work, and deliver on time within a specified budget. Simple. Easy. Efficient. And cost effective.

Don’t get me wrong about employees. It’s not that I don’t like employees. I just have a tough time with anyone who doesn’t deliver fair value. And in today’s competitive environment, there’s really no sense in paying people who don’t perform. Especially when you can outsource marketing, IT and many other projects to a company such as ours.

In the end, I hope we earn the privilege of working with this organization. And if they don’t select us, that’s okay too. We’ll never run out of entrepreneurs who understand the power of instantly leveraging a network like WealthNet.

Clifford Jones, Founder
WealthNet Partners, LLC
“Discover The Art of Business Development”
Scottsdale, Arizona

The “Net” in WealthNet Partners, LLC

The sole focus of WealthNet Partners, LLC is to help entrepreneurs create real wealth by providing a vast array of business development resources. When WealthNet was founded in 2002 I have to admit that finding the right name was a real struggle. My goal in this post is to share a bit of our story and explain what the “Net” in WealthNet means.

We started as Sterling Management Solutions, LLC which served it’s purpose for a while. But one day, as I was riding through the desert on one of my bikes doing some serious thinking about the business, the word WealthNet popped into my head. This was truly Divine Inspiration at it’s finest. I had been through a coaching certification program and needed to better define what the company was all about. And I wanted to find a new name for the company to take us to the next level.

It’s funny how things work. I had been searching for a new name and then, one day, it comes to me out of the blue. And it sure did resonate for many reasons. The name WealthNet is significant for two primary reasons. First, we believe that real wealth is created most often by entrepreneurs who start, fund and grow their own businesses. Second, real wealth through entrepreneurship can only be created by building a significant network of people who will support you in your effort to build your business. Ask any successful business owner about the importance of building a solid network and you will undoubtedly learn that it is essential to creating real wealth.

Hence, the “Net” in WealthNet is all about the power of building a network. In fact, if you look closely at the WealthNet Partners logo, the image at the top right section of the company name is a network itself. It represents the power of the “Net” in WealthNet. It represents the power of an ever expanding network. Our network. Your network. The Internet as a global network. Your employees as a network. Your business partners and associates as a network. And your community as a network. Each of these networks is entwined and impacting your success whether you know it or not.

In a simple sense, WealthNet clients immediately leverage our growing network of designers, website developers, and business development experts. We are constantly expanding our network and resources to help entrepreneurs. And if you are truly committed to building your business and creating real, sustainable wealth you need to take building your network very seriously.

Building a successful network requires discipline, focus and persistence like anything else. It requires that you focus on giving first. Helping others by putting them first. I call this living with a Servant’s Heart.

As a side note, I am headed shortly after writing this to a meeting that will hopefully finalize a new business partnership that will enable me to serve the world’s premier leads organization. And the success of this long-time business is all based on the power of networking. Assuming we can agree on the remaining terms of the partnership, my goal is to help hundreds and thousands of business owners and entrepreneurs leverage the true power of networking within their local community. To me, this is the single most import activity any business owner can embrace to grow.

Networking and growing a network is a fundamental principle of WealthNet Partners, LLC. Again, Divine Inspiration at it’s finest. For which I am eternally grateful.

As WealthNet continues to expand and work with entrepreneurs all over the world, please remember that the most powerful way to grow your business is to grow your network. Over the weeks ahead I plan to share many thoughts and tips regarding how to grow your business through networking. So please tell your friends about the WealthNet blog and contribute your thoughts and comments. We are always open to more contributors.

I am also interested in interviewing what I refer to as “power networkers” for upcoming posts, articles and a book I’ve been working on recently. So if you know anyone who you consider to be a “power networker” please tell them I’d love to meet and talk with them.

Clifford Jones, Founder
WealthNet Partners, LLC
“Discover The Art of Business Development”
Scottsdale, Arizona

The Cost of Indifference When It Comes To Marketing Your Business

I love to ride most anything with two wheels. And believe it or not, I love the Summer in Arizona because the Sun rises early and I can get on one of my bicycles and do some real thinking. On my ride this morning it occurred to me that I experience a ton of indifference when it comes to marketing small and mid size businesses. Indifference when it comes to marketing your business is expensive. Really expensive. Let me give you three simple examples.

1. I suggested to a friend of mine who recently launched her own law practice that she should talk with us about redesigning her website. Her current site looks like it was designed by someone who could care less about reflecting proper positioning and brand. It reflects poorly on the new practice because when people look at it they will likely think, “Gee, this site looks lame. I guess the owners don’t care enough to invest in a quality website. I wonder what if this reflects how they practice law?” It’s not that people will tell you they think your website is lame or your brochure stinks. They’ll just think it. Now that’s expensive.

2. Virtually every business that cares about marketing has a website. But it appears that just having a website seems to be enough. Entrepreneurs need to be clear on the purpose of their website. It’s not enough to have a decent, static online brochure for our clients. The purpose of WealthNet websites is to generate traffic, leads, and earn permission to market so we can attract and keep tons of new business. So if your site is just sitting there and no one really knows how to find it, what purpose is it really serving? Lack of purpose gets expensive and it’s often a function of not knowing well enough or being indifferent.

3. A friend of mine is a world-class golf professional. He works his butt off teaching all day long. He has a beautiful site. But no ecommerce. No blog. No way of converting visitors to paying customers unless they send him an email or call him and he makes the time to follow up and generate new revenue. Most golf professionals trade time for money. So do consultants. Why not have a website that integrates a strategy that can generate revenue without getting out of bed to teach or consult? Again, it’s either a matter of knowing what needs to be done or being indifferent.

My plea to all entrepreneurs is avoid indifference at all costs. It’s too expensive. Build websites with purpose. Care about your brand and the image you project. Run your business with integrity. And be the best you can possibly be to shine above the competition.

Clifford Jones, Founder
WealthNet Partners, LLC
“Discover The Art of Business Development”
Scottsdale, Arizona