3 Truths No One Tells You About Running a Business

There are issues entrepreneurs routinely face that you won't hear about in a business school classroom.

We all know the grim statistics about small businesses. One example: Ninety-five percent of the businesses that launch this year will not exist by 2019. I am convinced that this stat is caused by far more than a lack of money on the part of some unfortunate business owners. It's not business debt, and it's not the economy, either.

It is something in the mindset of these business owners. Some people just don't know what to expect when they start a company. So I thought I'd take a few minutes to share some truth.

1. Problem Solving Is Your New Job

You're going to encounter challenges and obstacles from the day you open your doors. You won't even be able to visualize these challenges before they land in your lap.

Some of these challenges will make you want to give up. And you will give up--if you don't accept the fact that your new title is "Chief Problem Solver." You have to get out there and attack your problems from every possible angle if you want to be successful.

If you aren't ready to jump these hurdles, your business is going to fail, even if you have an awesome new product, a plan to market it, and plenty of money to invest in your new business.

In any given month, I encounter problems that could easily drive any normal person to the brink of insanity. Remember all the office drama you used to avoid? It all started landing on my desk. It's going to land on yours, too.

Early in my career, I wasn't ready for this, and I almost quit, too. I wasn't sleeping. I felt like I was losing my mind. It wasn't clear yet that all of this was going to be worth it.

Now, after 10 years of running my own business, I welcome new problems. I now know they are a chance to grow my business, and grow my own skills as a business owner. You can come out the other side, too--if you prepare yourself for what lies ahead, and if you commit to embracing it.

2. You Get Paid Last

Trust me, it took me a while to grasp this one.

Your employees, vendors, contractors, landlords, and utility providers must all get their checks before you do. If there is anything left over when all of these checks are written, then, and only then, do you get to pay yourself.

You're out of business on the day that you can't pay all of these people. This is especially true if you have employees. If you miss even one paycheck, there will be an uproar in your office. You will kill morale, lose employee trust, and open yourself up to legal problems.

Failing to pay vendors and contractors on time is just as bad. It ruins relationships. The loss of these relationships will soon cause issues within your organization as you drop to the bottom of these people's priority lists.

And I don't think I have to tell you what happens if you don't pay your rent and utilities.

Just getting started? I promise it's going to be months before you ever see a check. Make sure you have money set aside to pay your personal bills during the lean months. Cut your personal expenses if you have to, because there is no way around this reality.

3. There Are No Vacations or Sick Days

You think you're working hard now? Wait until you start your own business.

You're going to get into the office early. You'll end up staying late and working through the weekends. You have to. You're now at the head of a machine that runs 24/7/365. People are depending on you. Until your organization grows, you'll be faced with enough work for literally seven people, or more.

I'm not exaggerating or pulling this number out of a hat. In my current company, we actually do have seven people doing the one job I took on when we started. I worked 12-hour days six days a week for more than two years.

So if you tell me you want to start a business because you're just working too hard now, please don't take it personally if I laugh. It is simply the laugh of someone who knows the truth.

BY LOGAN CHIEROTTI  @LOGANCHIEROTTI

5 Habits That Will Help Spark The Best Ideas You've Ever Had!

There's no magic trick for generating genius ideas, but these habits will have your creative juices flowing--with some practice.

 

What if whenever someone asked you a question, you had tons of innovative ideas waiting in response? You would be a hot commodity; who doesn’t want an ideas machine? Unfortunately for those who want this power, the science behind the eureka moment is tricky. While cultivating great ideas is a process that can’t quite be produced at a moment’s notice, you can get better at thinking in ways that open yourself up to inspiration and, hopefully, generating better ideas.

Below are some ways to push yourself to having the best ideas you’ve ever had:

1. Train Yourself To Think In “Crisis” Mode

According to author James Altucher, you need to be in a constant state of panic and up against the wall for your creative brain to really kick into gear. He writes:

“States of panic are special and have to be revered. Think about the times in your life that you remember--it’s exactly those moments when you hit bottom and were forced to come up with ideas, to get stronger, to connect with some inner force inside you with the outer force.”

The problem is, most of us are not constantly in this frenzy state (hopefully) so we can’t just come up with amazing ideas at a moment’s notice. So what do you do? Altucher says you have to train yourself to think in crisis mode and compares it to when a runner reaches the point of exhaustion, then miraculously discovers the “second wind” sometimes known as a “runner’s high.”
This high is the eureka moment when really good ideas happen, but to get there, you must be in good shape or you’ll never be able to push past the point of exhaustion. Similar to training your body, training your brain to think past this point of exhaustion, this “crisis” mode, is crucial.

2. Practice, Practice, Practice

To train your mind, you need to constantly be thinking of ideas even when you don’t necessarily need them. Altucher writes about his system:

Take a waiter’s pad. Go to a local cafe. Maybe read an inspirational book for 10 to 20 minutes. Then start writing down ideas. The key here is, write 10 ideas … a waiter’s pad is too small to write a whole novel or even a paragraph. In fact, it’s specifically made to make a list. And that’s all you want, a list of ideas.

Do this every day. Just like your muscles don’t start to build and form until your sweat, you also need to make your brain sweat by coming up with at least 10 ideas whenever you sit down for your ideas sessions.

3. Write Everything Down

In his book, A Technique for Producing Ideas, James Webb Young says that one of the principles of producing ideas “depends largely on the ability to see relationships.” Many of the thoughts we have throughout the day are bits and pieces of knowledge that are separate unless an “aha” moment links them. To get there faster, write every one of those bits and pieces of knowledge you think of down.
Once you’ve collecting your thoughts, your materials will be waiting when your brain is ready to make the connection.

4. Mix Things Up And Distract Yourself

When you need to come up with specific ideas for a problem, consider mixing up your usual environment. Rachel Sklar, cofounder of Change The Ratio and The Li.st, tells Fast Company she prefers to stay on the go so that her “brain can whirl without distraction.”
The distraction that happens when you mix things up is exactly what your brain needs when it comes to creativity, according to Harvard psychologist Shelley H. Carson, author of Your Creative Brain.

5. Let Your Mind Wander

When your mind wanders, you’re usually in a state of relaxation and this is exactly the reason why so many brilliant ideas happen during baths and showers. According to neurologist Alice Flaherty, these happy, relaxed times release dopamine in your brain and the more dopamine that’s released, the more creative power you’ll hold. Hence, showers, walks, and runs are prime times to have a eureka moment.

When considering the tricks above, remember that idea sessions, like everything else, take practice and process to make perfect. There’s certainly no magic formula, but a process can help your ideas flow more freely and help you make the connections you need to have more and better “aha” moments.

Article by Vivian Giang.

5 Tips for Off-the-Cuff Speaking by John Coleman

If it’s true that many people fear public speaking more than death, it’s equally true that businesspeople are condemned to a thousand small deaths in client pitches, in boardrooms, and on stage. And that death can turn slow and torturous when you are asked to speak unexpectedly with little or no time to prepare. One of the key demands of business is the ability to speak extemporaneously. Whether giving an unexpected “elevator pitch” to a potential investor or being asked at the last minute to offer remarks to a sales team over dinner, the demands for a business person to speak with limited preparation are diverse, endless, and — to many — terrifying.

I became more comfortable with these situations through one of my primary activities in college, competitive public speaking called “forensics” (from the Latin “forensis,” which means “in an open court, public”). In forensics, one of my favorite categories was “limited preparation” in which we were given between 1 and 30 minutes to prepare a 5–7 minute speech. The lessons learned in those limited preparation events have paid huge dividends to my work in business. They carried me through my first consulting case interviews right out of college. They’ve helped me address complex questions from bosses and board members. And they’ve helped me when I’ve been put on the spot to address college classes and new analyst training sessions.

No matter your position, they can also be useful to you. Here are a few of the tips I picked up along the way:

1. Define a structure: The pressure of extemporaneous remarks comes from their ambiguity. What do I say? What do I not say? The worst and most stressful business speeches are those that ramble without purpose. In forensics we’d tackle this issue by quickly drafting a structure on a notecard to support our main point — often an introduction, two or three supporting points, and a conclusion. With these on paper, it was easy to fill in the details with stories, examples, and statistics. Now, when I’m asked to offer unexpected remarks over dinner or at a board meeting, I grab a napkin, notebook, or the back of a PowerPoint deck and jot down my main argument and some key supporting points. Then I fill out the examples and data I need to make those points — usually in 20 words or less. Any ambiguity or tendency to ramble evaporates.

2. Put the punchline first: When I worked in consulting, one of the cardinal rules of communication was “punchline first.” Any presentation should have a clear thesis stated up front so that listeners can easily follow and interpret the comments that follow. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen business presenters ramble through a speech with the audience wondering to the very end about the point of the comments. Giving a good business speech is not like telling a good joke. Don’t save the punchline for the end.

3. Remember your audience: All it takes is a few lines to make an audience feel acknowledged and a speech feel fresh. Tie the city in which you are speaking into your introduction. Draw parallels between the organization you’re addressing and one of the stories you tell. Mention someone by name, connecting them to the comments you’re offering. These are small gestures, but they make your remarks more tailored and relevant.

4. Memorize what to say, not how to say it: How many times have you practiced exactly how to say something in your head then frozen up or completely forgotten in the moment? In forensics speeches, we’d often have 5–10 citations to remember, 3–4 examples with names and places, and 3–4 supporting statistics. That’s a lot to research and remember in 30 minutes or less. The trick was this: We’d focus on memorizing key stories and statistics, rather than practicing our delivery. If you spend your time on how to say something perfectly, you’ll stumble through those phrasings, and you’ll forget all the details that can make them come alive. Or worse, you’ll slavishly read from a PowerPoint or document rather than hitting the high points fluidly with your audience. If you know your topic, the words will come.

5. Keep it short: Blaise Pascal once famously commented, “I have only made this letter rather long because I have not had time to make it shorter.” While it seems like the challenge of speaking with limited preparation would be finding enough to say, the opposite is often true. When at a loss for words, many of us underestimate the time we need — cramming in so many stories and points that we run well over our time and dilute our message. No one will appreciate your economy of words more than your listeners, so when in doubt, say less.

There’s no substitute for practice in offering impromptu remarks, and there are many things to consider when preparing for a great talk. But mastering a few basics, like those above, can make these public comments less stressful to prepare and easier for audiences to hear.

How to be a Perfect '10' When it Comes to Sales!

Selling can affect your psyche.

Losing a sale makes us feel bad, closing a sale gets us excited, approaching an unresponsive prospect makes us uncomfortable. But our daily sales interactions can seriously affect how we feel. It takes a conscious effort to address those feelings. Addressing our emotions about selling can be difficult, but taking sales personally can be overcome with five seconds of guts. The five seconds of guts is used to consciously focus on your personal feelings of self-worth and reaffirm that your role as a salesperson cannot influence your personal value.

During a training session, I was discussing the difference between personal identity and role performance with the group. I asked a question that is challenging to answer publicly, especially in a group of peers. The question was, “So we know that on a scale of 1 to 10 we should view ourselves as a 10, but how many people in this room can honestly say in their heart of hearts that they are confident they are a 10 no matter how they perform their job?”

Only one woman in the room, Carol, had the guts to raise her hand. I was a little skeptical, thinking that Carol was just providing the answer she thought I wanted to hear. It’s rare that I come across a salesperson that has such confidence without putting a conscious effort into maintaining identity value.

So I said, “Carol, I’m shocked. I’ll often have people say 8 or 9 but it’s very rare that someone confidently says they are a 10. Why are you a 10?”

All eyes went to Carol. One person actually said, “Yeah, how can you be a 10? You’re saying you have no room for improvement?”

Carol didn’t wilt for a second. Her explanation has become a common way I describe mustering the guts to maintain a strong personal identity regardless of role.

Carol said, “I used to compete in gymnastics through college. Many times the competitions got really intense and lots of gymnasts really beat themselves up if they performed poorly. I did as well up until high school when something occurred to me. Before I start my routine I am a 10. As I finish my routine, the judges detract points for the errors I make. But after getting my score, no matter how poor it is, I default back to a 10 for my next routine. I’ve defaulted to that system in my sales career. I’m always a 10. Prospects and clients can detract points from how I perform, but I start the day as a 10 and I will start tomorrow as a 10.”

That is the essence of a strong personal identity. Even when performance is poor, it doesn’t mean that you as a person should feel that reflects on you as a person. Every morning Carol took her five seconds to reaffirm that once again she had defaulted back to a 10.

It’s critical to have a strong personal self image because we will perform consistently to the manner we view ourselves. Tens expect to perform like a 10 and typically do. Those with a lower self-image will lower their personal expectations because they feel they are incapable of performing as a 10. If we confuse our role performances with our values as a human being, our self-image will go up and down with each performance. We constantly work to bring our performance into line with that self-image. Without a 10 rating for our self-image, our role performance will be limited.

by Matt Neuberger, Matt Neuberger is the president of Neuberger & Co.