Top 8 Differences Between a Worker Bee and a CEO

by Phil Glosserman

1. The CEO prioritizes her time around strategic activities that affect the company's growth and direction. The worker bee spends most of her time buzzing around doing projects and managing the details of the business.

2. The CEO thinks big and out into the future. The worker bee thinks in terms of short-term deadlines and constraints.

3. The CEO is clear about his role, responsibilities, and duties - he knows when to delegate, farm out, or hire. The head worker bee doesn't; make the distinction between being a worker and a manager. His boundaries are fuzzy and this often gets him, and the business, into trouble.

4. The CEO takes charge of building the company's reputation, image and trustworthiness. He is externally focused and "outward facing". The worker bee is more internally focused - on the tasks, projects and problems at hand.

5. The CEO realizes he must invest in himself, his company and his people to make the business thrive.  He readily invest time and money in coaching, education, training, etc.  The worker bee typically sees himself as too busy or strapped for cash to invest in himself.

6. The CEO is bold, visionary, optimistic, and takes calculated risks. The worker bee worries about getting through the current workload and may be afraid to take risks because things "may not work out". 

7. The CEO builds the capacity of the business ahead of the business growth.  The worker bee is reactive - he builds business capacity in response to business growth.  He usually adds people and other resources way late in the game and struggles to bring them up to speed while managing the work that has been piling up. 

8. The CEO sees herself as a leader in and outside the company. She is aware of her responsibilities to inspire and motivate people and takes it seriously.  Most worker bees don't see themselves as leaders. 

How do you stack up? Do you think and act like a CEO, a worker bee or a little bit of both?  It doesn't matter whether you're head of a large company or a one-man operation, if you want to be the CEO of your business, you must first think like a CEO.

www.coachphil.com

What to do BEFORE You Start Your Blog

by Stebbins Media

 

There are no real hard-defined rules for starting a blog, but there are tasks you can complete before a full launch that will help you gain footing a bit faster than if it the steps completed after the fact.

If you haven’t yet decided upon a domain name yet start researching domain names by looking into a keyword tool.  A very popular choice is Google AdWords Keyword Tool.  Type in the broadest term for what type of blog you are looking to start and narrow it from there.  For an example, if you sell chairs you may want to research furniture and narrow it down from there (drilling it down to your local area).

Come up with at least 10 post idea and write them (paying some extra attention to the keywords that you found during your earlier research). Even if you may intend to post weekly, monthly, or even daily having this cushion to fall back on may prove exceptionally helpful.  There is always the chance of something happening that you aren't planning on, and having that cushion will be incredibly helpful.  Another benefit of having some pre-done posts is the ability to take your time and truly craft them perfectly.
Research every angle before writing.  Before you look into your posts, research your market in every area you can find.  There are internet forums for almost anything conceivable, look towards them to get a feel for what your potential customer is looking for. This is also a great time to establish a presence on these forums and work up trust before your launch.

Before you officially launch, you may even want to consult with experts both in your field and SEO and blogging.  You can learn a lot from other people’s knowledge and ability and it will prove a great time to learn from them before an official launch. 

www.stebbinsmedia.com

What is the Tipping Point for Your Industry?

by Stacey O"Byrne 

In today’s economic climate, word of mouth marketing / relationship marketing is extremely important and very necessary.  Business owners today, are asked to do a lot with a little.  This causes us to continually juggle and multi task.  When a small business owner / entrepreneur / sales person joins a networking group, their expectations may not always be reasonable or realistic.  I have found through my years of networking and training thousands of workshop attendees, that if people get very honest with themselves they realize that their expectation was to receive a significant return with a minimal investment.  What do you want to get out of your networking efforts?  What do you expect your ROI to be?

Each industry / category has its own tipping point, do you know what yours is?  I will share with you a few examples to help set the bar and get an idea of your networking tipping point, to help you get the most out of your TEAM membership.  If you were to represent Mary Kay, or equivalent, and you joined a chapter today.  It is very safe to say you could potentially start receiving referrals and transactional business within a few weeks, 3 – 5 weeks.  Let’s look at the opposite end of the spectrum now.  If you are in financial services, Financial Planning / Advising, this is a much more personal and sensitive category.  Your investment needs to be much greater before you start receiving a return.  It is very realistic to say that you would be looking at 9 – 18 months before you truly start seeing something or possibly anything.  Is it worth it, absolutely it is, you just have to understand the concept and philosophy to this type of environment.  

I would love to share a story with you to put this into perspective.  I have a student of my program, who has since became a friend, she is a Financial Advisor.  She went through my course back in Feb 2011 and when she did, she told me she would do everything I told her to do because it wasn’t a matter of wanting to make this work, she had to make this work.  No pressure right!  I told her due to the nature of her industry and the sensitivity of dealing with people’s money and the trust that had to be evoked would require her to invest 9 – 18 months of playing full out and participating in networking continually.  She assured me she got it, she understood and she was fully on board.  October / November time frame, she was sharing with me her frustration.  “I have done everything you told me to do and I have become a great referrer.  People have gotten a lot of business from me, but I haven’t received anything in return.  This isn’t working, I’m not sure if I can keep doing this.  I’m just not getting the value.”  Her boss even called me.  He said, “ I really need you to intervene, she believes in everything you tell her.  She must be doing something wrong, because she isn’t seeing anything.  Will you see if she is closing right?”  I assured him, that he really didn’t understand the foundation of networking and that she was fine and would start receiving a return on her investment, she just had to reach her tipping point.  I received a call shortly after Thanksgiving, “I got my first referral, and wrote my first piece of business from networking.”  Then a couple weeks later, I received another call, “I got another referral and wrote another plan.”  Guess what, between then and now.  She has written 10 new clients.  Just on the verge of her tipping point, she was at her ropes end.  She had almost given up.  She is very glad she didn’t.  

Each industry has a different investment level before you will see a return.  Now that doesn’t mean that you might not luck out and get something before then.  It just means that you won’t see the “mother lode” until you have made your investment.  Now to get clear, investment is not just showing up to your weekly TEAM meeting.  Investment means, SHOWING UP to your TEAM meeting.  Playing full out.  Engaging in relationships, adding value.  Understanding why you are there, what you are going to do while you are there and what you are going to do when you leave.  Investment means, having a networking plan, creating a commercial strategy, participating in your chapter, doing your coaching session and adding value to your TEAM members.  Remember, how you do some things is how you do everything and how you do the little things is how you do the big things!

The last tip I would like to share with you to help ensure you get the biggest bang for your investment.  Is track your ROI.  Put a dollar amount on your time, track what you spend on networking, get really organized and track the referrals you receive, 1^st generation, 2^nd generation and 3^rd generation etc.. referrals.  By understanding your tipping point, making a real and honest investment and then tracking your ROI you will be very surprised on your true networking results.  If you have any questions or would like any help, please feel free to contact me.

www.pivotpointadvantage.com

Client Retention is Everybody's Job

by Reuben Estrada

CEOs, this is a no-brainer.  Yet so often, so very often, in business I find myself working with a client that is having a hard time with the concept of creating “Customers for Life.”  You know the sales people are out there selling, but they simply don’t see it as their job to follow up on their past customers.  The people in your Customer Service Department deliver the product or the service, but they don’t see it as their job to talk about future sales or purchases with that customer.  The receptionist, who is answering the phone and doing well at it, just doesn’t see it as her job to ask that additional one or two questions:  How are we taking care of you? Do you know about the other products that we have to offer?  Your Production Department is doing their job by putting out product so the Service Department can serve the customer, but for some unknown reason there seems to be a big disconnection between production and the end user, your customer. In the most successful organizations I’ve seen, the customer is it!   Everyone in the company knows without a doubt that Customer Service is everybody’s job.

Here’s a tip:  Ask this question of every employee, in every position, and in every department:  How do you specifically, in your job, impact Customer Service?  More importantly, how do you feed our culture of creating “Customer’s For Life”?  If they don’t have a great answer, develop a training program and systems to make sure they understand and begin to live this culture.

This has been your CEO Rule of the Week.  I am Ruben Estrada.  Your Next Move

www.estradastrategies.

Frank Ortiz, of A Shot at Happiness, shares his secrets and ideas on how to create a happier life. During these hard economic times, everyone could use a little happiness in their day to day lives. Are you ready for your shot at Happiness?

www.ashotathappiness.com

Invest Your Time to Build Relationships

You know a lot of people, but how well do you really know them? By investing your time to strengthen relationships you will grow a strong referral network.

You may have heard the phrase, it’s, "Who you know." Well, many believe that the phrase, "How well you know them and how they do business" that counts.

This means your network must not only be broad, it must also be deep. Unfortunately, most people make lots of contacts hoping to find that special someone that will become a client. They are simply gaining exposure and some visibility. These people need to consider this… eucalyptus trees have a shallow root system and the oak tree has a root system that grows deep into the ground. During heavy winds, the eucalyptus tree blows over and yet the oak will weather the storm. Which tree are you? If you want to be the oak tree you need to build a relationship based on trust and deepen the roots of your network. Let’s get you started.

1. Determine who is in your network that has the same ideal client as you do. Ask around to determine if this person and the business are reputable. Visit their website and read the marketing material.

2. Schedule an hour and get to know them as a person and about their business. At the end of an hour you will know if you want to get to know them better or not.

3. If you still want to know them after the initial hour invite them out for a social event, attend a networking event together, or a fundraiser to further strengthening the relationship.

4. Once trust has been established you may want to pass a referral or make an introduction to someone in your network in order to move the relationship along. This is important, one referral or introduction only… follow up on this and see how it goes. If all goes well, then get your “Ask in Gear” and ask for a referral or introduction in return.

We all know the best time to plant an oak tree was 25 years ago; however, the next best time is now! Invest your time and develop business relationships with deep roots, it will be worth it.

Laura Bruno

The Business Relationship Authority

310.961.6136

Laura@BusinessRelationshipAuthority.com

www.BusinessRelationshipAuthority.com

Facts Tell, Stories Sell

by Cory Newman

 

Every week in your TEAM chapter you will have an opportunity to give a “One Minute Commercial” about your business, and I have a little saying about this time of the meeting.  It is "Facts Tell...Stories Sell".  What does that mean?  It means when we are telling stories about our business we are really painting a picture to our networking partners, clients, potential clients and everyone else that we know what we are doing, and are doing it successfully.  Telling stories helps you brag about yourself a little bit.  Let me give you an example:

During the "highlight one part of your business" you can say: This week I'd like to highlight...(and then proceed to tell us about the highlight for the week).

Now, let me show you how to "spice up" your highlight.  You can say: "This week I'd like to highlight..." (and then proceed to highlight your business...and share a story that will illustrate how you have helped someone this week)

Find a way to share a story in every One Minute Commercial because it works!  Remember, when we were growing up, our parents didn't tell us bedtime "facts", they told us bedtime stories.  Facts tell, stories sell and we want you to sell a bunch.

www.teamreferralnetwork.com