How four ultra-successful twentysomethings leveraged their brilliant ideas into major businesses online. And how you can, too.

Entrepreneur Magazine, September 2010
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217183

Starting your own business

It’s one thing to try and convince your family that you’re doing the right thing. It’s an entirely different beast trying to get other people to take the plunge with you.

Motivation is key

If you’re not entirely convinced you can be successful, you won’t be.

The thing people most often tell me is, “I don’t really have the time.” They want success, but they don’t have time for it. How about a single mother with two kids, two jobs, and college classes to attend?

Not having time means you don’t have motivation.

Finding the right people

My journey to find the right kind of people for my team has been tough.

To find the right kind of people, you have to put yourself out there. Get out there and make things happen. Be open and honest.

My selling point is: If you’re not willing to put your heart and soul behind a project, we’re not going to be a good fit. That’s what it all comes down to for me. I don’t care if you’re a genius or have never even touched a computer. You need to be willing to work hard and see it through.

Read Justin Tadlock’s full post “Some Thoughts on Success” at: http://justintadlock.com/archives/2009/08/26/some-thoughts-on-success

Life Coaching: A friend recently mentioned how much her life was positively changed because of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” I recommended Stephen Covey’s book a few months ago and she had just finished reading it. “I’m training for a triathlon that’s taking place in California,” she beamed! “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” has helped in many areas of my life,” she remarked. “Thanks for recommending it!”

Life Coaching; Business Coaching: My brother, Lance, got what he wanted simply by asking for it! The following advice came from his friend, Tem.

“Everything is clearer and faster when you just decide what you really want and go for it or go for broke.” And the follow-up lesson is: “Be willing to walk; don’t sweat the details.”

The above involved a business deal, but it’s equally great advice for personal relationships. There’s great clarity in knowing what you want as you hit the dating scene. Because, eventually, your date will request something that isn’t part of your plan – whether your plan is for the date or for the rest of your life. Clarity of knowing what you want, and the willingness to walk away and not sweating the details, means that you get to “enjoy” your life!

Life Coaching: Just started re-reading The Power of Nice, by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval. I completely agree with their philosophy that “it pays to be nice.” Finally, a four-letter word I can use around my parents.

The Power of Nice is available through Amazon.

Also visit their site at: www.thepowerofnice.com

Business Coach – Guy Kawasaki on The Art of Customer Service

(From http://blogs.openforum.com/2008/12/17/the-art-of-customer-service/)

I’m a huge fan of Guy Kawasaki and own a thoroughly highlighted copy of his book, The Art of the Start. The excerpt below is from a chapter in Guy’s new book, Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition

1. Start at the top. The CEO’s attitude toward customer service determines the quality of service that a company delivers. If the CEO thinks that customers are a pain in the ass, her company will provide lousy service. If the CEO thinks customers are treasured assets, it will provide great service. If you’re not the CEO, either change her mind, quit, or learn to live with mediocrity—in that order.I’m pretty sure you can check this box off at Virgin.
2. Put the customer in control. The best customer service happens when management enables employees to put the customer in control. Th is requires two leaps of faith: first, trusting customers to not take advantage of the situation; second, trusting employees to make sound decisions. If you can make these leaps, then the quality of your customer service will zoom; if not … well, there is nothing more frustrating than working for a firm that cops the attitude that something is “against company policy.”
3. Take responsibility for your shortcomings. Companies that take responsibility for their shortcomings garner good customer-service reputations because they have acknowledged that the problem is their fault and their responsibility to fix. Most people understand that “shiitake happens,” but it’s aggravating when companies deny that the problem is their fault and responsibility. Th at’s when you hear people say, “It’s the principle.”
4. Don’t point the finger. This is the flip side of taking responsibility. For example, when a computer program doesn’t work, vendors resort to finger pointing: “It’s Apple’s system software.” “It’s Microsoft’s application.” “It’s Adobe’s PDF format.” A great customer-service company doesn’t point the finger; it figures out what the solution is, regardless of whose fault the problem is, and makes the customer happy. As my mother used to say, quoting Eldrige Cleaver, “You’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem.” (By the way, as a rule of thumb, the company with the largest market capitalization is the one at fault.)
5. Don’t finger the pointer. Great customer service companies don’t shoot the messenger. It could be a customer, an employee, a vendor, or a consultant who’s doing the pointing. The goal is not to silence the messenger, but to fix the problem so that the messenger never has to bring that message again.
6. Don’t be paranoid. One of the most common justifications for lousy service is “What if everyone did this?” For example, to cite the often-told, perhaps apocryphal, story of a customer returning a tire to Nordstrom even though Nordstrom doesn’t sell tires: What if everyone started returning tires to Nordstrom? However, the worst case is seldom the common case. There will be abusers, but generally people are reasonable.
7. Hire the right kind of people. To put it mildly, customer service is not a job for everyone. The ideal customer-service person derives great satisfaction by helping people and solving problems. Th is cannot be said of every job candidate. It’s the company’s responsibility to hire the right kind of people for this job, because it is a bad experience for the employee and the customer when you hire folks without a service orientation.
8. Underpromise and overdeliver. The goal is to delight a customer. For example, the signs in the lines at Disneyland that tell you how long you’ll have to wait from each point are purposely overstated. When you get to the ride in less time, you’re delighted. Imagine if the signs were understated— you’d be angry because Disneyland lied to you.
9. Integrate customer service into the mainstream. Let’s see: Salespeople make the big bucks. Marketers do the fun stuff. Engineers: You leave them alone in their dark caves. Accounting cuts the paychecks. And customer service? They handle angry people when something isn’t working, and something isn’t working all the time. Customer service largely determines the company’s reputation, so do not consider it a profit-sucking necessary evil.
10. Don’t give them a sales pitch. Never give customers a sales pitch unless they’re calling your sales department. When customers call for customer service or technical support, they are hardly in a mood for a sales pitch. If you sell anything, you’re in danger of losing the customer, so you certainly should not ask customers to shell out more money to fix problems that they perceive as the company’s fault. And don’t even think about offering more free defective products as a token of your appreciation for their business.
11. Use operating procedures, not scripts. You’ve probably called at least a few companies and been sure the representative is reading a script—it’s annoying and certainly not personal. Have standard operating procedures for common things, like cancellations and product returns, to ensure the job is done properly, but never ask or train your representatives to read from a script.
12. Use operators. Use people, not PBX systems (the push 1 for sales, 2 for billing). Make it so the operator can answer basic questions (like How do I sign up?), collect information about problems, assign a ticket number or reference ID, and find an available representative to take the call. If you must use a PBX system, keep it to one level with three or four options, as well as an option to be connected immediately to an operator.
13. Use a callback system. A few companies have a callback system by which they offer the option of calling you back at a set time rather than making you wait on hold. The first time I encountered one of these systems, I hesitated, thinking I might lose my place in the queue, but it really worked, and I’ve been a believer ever since.
14. Keep customers in the loop. Customers should never have to ask what you are doing. Let them know what’s happening as you’re doing things like looking up their account or researching an issue. Extending this concept, you can post information about outages right on your Web site, so people don’t have to call to figure out what’s happening. Be honest: Tell them if there’s a problem and what’s causing it, when service will be restored, and what you’re doing to prevent it from happening again.
15. Make customers feel important. Train your employees to make customers feel important. If a customer makes a suggestion, the representative should note it and let the customer know he’s noted it. Don’t hesitate to do things like give credits or say things like “because you’re a valued customer, we can do this for you.” Customers are usually frustrated when they call customer service or support, so try to make them feel good.
16. Follow up. The biggest difference between acceptable and great customer service is how often and how well the customer-service department follows up on requests. Give customers a call or send them an e-mail with the result of their complaint or request. If a customer calls with a problem and you believe it’s resolved, call or send an e-mail to ask if the issue has been resolved to their satisfaction.

The irony of customer service is that at an intuitive level, most people know that it largely determines a company’s reputation, but companies spend less money on it than sales and marketing. The double irony of customer service is that nothing I’ve listed is particularly expensive. Now you know what to do, how to do it, and how cheap it is to do, so you have absolutely no excuses for poor customer service.

My brother, Lance Walley, is a very smart businessman. He is the co-founder and CEO of Engine Yard, based in San Francisco, which provides fully-managed Ruby and Rails hosting and deployment.

Lance recently mentioned the reason for Engine Yard’s success was due to every employee’s efforts: “I want to note that we wouldn’t be in this strong position without the efforts of everyone at Engine Yard!  Every time you add value to a customer’s life, you add value to Engine Yard. That means everything from restarting a slice to interacting at conferences to answering customer calls to making better software for our platform. There are so many facets on which we’ve all done very well. It speaks to the value we’ve created and to the potential offered by our leadership in the Ruby & Rails communities.”

Lance’s “adding value to the customer = adding value to Engine Yard” creed is especially helpful in this current economic down-turn. Customer service, at all levels of the business, is the only real differentiating factor that continues to elevate Engine Yard’s position and leadership.

Randy Pausch Lecture: Time Management
Time management from Randy Pausch, whose doctors gave him 3-6 months left to live due to pancreatic cancer. A VERY practical approach to time management.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTugjssqOT0

Brian Gardner lists 5 things that were essential in establishing his online success in designing Premium WordPress Blog Themes. I also see the life & business coaching benefits of Brian’s list:

1) Establish a game plan
Part of this step is identifying not only what your good at, but also what you enjoy doing. A lot of us are good at our jobs, but if enjoyment isn’t there, life can really be a drag. …it’s essential to map out the direction you want to head. You might stray from time to time, and that’s ok, but keeping your eyes on the prize can really take you there.

2) Get yourself on the map
Take a chance, and email the owner of a site, and ask them if they need a redesign, or if you can offer your services at a discounted rate. …As I look back, there were two sites that I designed which, in my opinion, really helped me and my business take off.

3) Do favors for people
…whether it be to offer assistance at no charge, or simply do work for people at a discounted rate. …when you’re starting out, any exposure is good exposure. …I can recount at least two things I’ve done in the last year for people that have come back tenfold.

How To Be Successful Online, Part 1, by Brian Gardner

4) Be innovative, and take chances
So many of us (myself included) have a tendency to want to “mimic” those who are doing something successful. …but in my opinion it is far better to pioneer a concept, than to be a follower of one that already exists. Be innovative and take chances.

5) Put customer service on the top of your priority list
…I used to see customers on a daily basis, and I made it a point to get to know them – to learn their names, to know what they did, and to do little things for them that mattered. For as long as I am working in a business that deals with customers, I will do my best to put [customers] first. Make sure that they are happy with the product. In addition to that, it’s very important to set up an infrastructure for your business to accommodate your client base. Happy customers can be a huge marketing tool. They spread the word about you and your services and they refer others to your site. In other words, they can really help build your business for you. As long as you are willing to put them first, and to make them feel special.

How To Be Successful Online, Part 2, by Brian Gardner