General

Monday, January 25th, 2010

2010 Kick Off and Foundation Live Events Start the Year Off in a Big Way

Lisa Molina and the Executive Marketing Council at 2010 Kick Off

Polaris has started off 2010 in a very memorable way with our 2010 Kick Off and Foundation Live events.

To date we have hosted the events in San Francisco on 9-10 January and then on the Gold Coast, Australia on 16-17 January. I’m heading to Prague soon for the final events on 30-31 January.

It’s been great to meet hundreds of our distributors, to see them fully realize the vision and mission of Polaris and be so excited about the products we have just released.

Many of the event attendees had already received their Beyond Freedom Evolution Departure by the time they arrived at the events.

Our second documentary film, Unbeaten, was released at the Foundation Live event in San Francisco. This mission to bring into being inspirational stories of individuals overcoming incredible odds in life has received unqualified support from our distributors.

Scott Burrows, keynote speaker at Foundation Live

Our Foundation Live guest speakers Scott Burrows and Oz Sanchez, who is featured in Unbeaten, definitely inspired all the attendees and they received standing ovations.

I know those who attended these events have headed back home with more knowledge and tools to expand your business and take the actions required to move closer to achieving your goals and the life you want.

One of the messages given at Foundation Live and a message I want to reiterate as you head into 2010 – You DO have the power to create this year to be anything you want regardless of whatever barriers you may be facing right now. This is a brand new year and the beginning of a whole new decade. Don’t hold back on your creativity. Just go for it!

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Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Will Your Entrepreneur Opportunity Be Successful? Only Research Will Tell.

research There’s a lot to be said for doing business in a way that earns people’s trust and respect. Here’s the story of a guy who failed at his first entrepreneur opportunity, but developed such good relationships with his contacts and employees that the same employees came to work for him in his new business – despite the fact that he hadn’t been able to pay them when his first business closed down.

I’m generally not a big fan of the idea that you have to fail in order to succeed. Nor am I in agreement with the statement made in the article that you have to go into business thinking there’s a 50% chance it will fail.

That said, what does it take to have something closer to a guarantee of success? What it basically comes down to is research.

Here’s a good example: The person featured in the article said he couldn’t find a way to make his business viable. He was selling used moving boxes, a great entrepreneur opportunity since this is definitely the right time to open a ‘green’ business. But he found he could not carry the business for the price at which he could sell the boxes, even though sales were very good.

A little research at the beginning – cost of employees, cost of acquiring the boxes, cost of storing and shipping the boxes, business taxes, other business expenses, and so on, would have given him this information in the beginning.

Achieving success takes good planning – market research, projected expenses, income, and so on. There are no guarantees, life is full of unexpected twists and turns, but if you do it, you have a much better than 50% chance of success.

By the way, the fellow in the article now has a new business model, and it is working. Check him out here.

Tags: achieving success, entrepreneur opportunity
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Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

Achieving Success with Complaint Free Wednesday

In June of this year, Missouri democratic Representative Emanuel Cleaver proposed legislation to set aside the day before Thanksgiving as “Complaint Free Wednesday.” It wasn’t his idea, but he encouraged it and said it was intended to help people “look forward, not backward”; an important factor in achieving success. Unfortunately, he was shot down in flames.

Many of those who shot him down saw complaining as a basic right; even a duty. “I thought dissent and complaining were patriotic” said one commenter.

Do they have a point? Sure. But at the same time, they’re also missing the point. And the point they’re missing has a lot to do with achieving success.

There’s nothing wrong with disagreeing, nothing wrong with dissent, nothing wrong with making it known to the appropriate people that you don’t like something. In fact, growth does not occur without looking at how something could be better.

But simply complaining – especially if you do it all the time – is a bore, non-productive, and sometimes even counter-productive. Achieving success in a certain direction – which the complainer will say is his goal – is done by doing, not by simply complaining. The people who actually create the change are the doers, those who spend more time working out solutions and bringing them to the table than they do complaining.

By the way, do check out the Complaint Free Blog where you can get and stay involved in the ‘complaint free lifestyle’. Someone’s turned this into a real entrepreneurial opportunity – personally, I think it’s great. Just think how much more pleasant and productive life would be.

Not everyone thought badly of Emanuel Cleaver’s suggestion. An Australian radio show asked to interview him. They think ‘Complaint Free Wednesday’ is a great idea.

Tags: achieving success, complaint free blog, complaint free Wednesday, entrepreneurial opportunity
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Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Entrepreneurial Skills Help Moms Further Their Careers

Entrepreneur skills One of the reasons I’m excited about people learning entrepreneurial skills is the freedom those skills allow. Take the choice mothers often feel forced to make, for example: On one hand, they have the desire to be with their child, teach them some of life’s basics, witness milestone events, and generally just kind of hang out and adore them. On the other hand, there’s that drive or purpose, that burning desire to follow your ‘career bliss’; very tough choice.

But if you learn entrepreneurial skills and play your cards right, you don’t have to make really tough decisions like ‘child or career.’ You may have to decide whether to work or be with your kid for a few hours, or a day or two – but that’s not so bad. It’s when you have to decide whether to spend time with your kids or have a career for the next five or twenty years that it really becomes a dilemma!

Just about every time I turn around I see an entrepreneurial opportunity. Really, there’s no shortage of exciting careers that also allow you to be a mom.

If you feel torn between the two, realize that it’s a solvable problem. Once you really know that, finding a solution will be much easier. And once you find that solution, you’ll be on your way to achieving success with both your family and your career.

Tags: achieving success, entrepreneurial opportunity, Entrepreneurial skills
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Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Key Entrepreneurial Skills – Planning, Organizing and a Positive State of Mind

There are some things that transcend the physical aspects of entrepreneurial skill. I’m sure you’ve had times in your life when, no matter how well things are planned out, lined up, anticipated, and so on, just about everything goes wrong. We’ll call them your Murphy’s Law periods.

Then there are the times when just about everything you’ve got going on is a long-shot but, somehow, almost magically, they all hit the mark. We’ll call them your Midas periods.

What does this phenomenon prove? That obstacles exist more in the realm of thought and emotion than in that of the physical.

Several famous people have made profound statements about the vital necessity of planning, organizing, and so on. All true. But a state of mind that is not conducive to achieving success can throw the best laid plans right out the window.

What is the entrepreneurial skill at play in these situations? While staying ‘up’ is important, some people do it by pretending everything’s great when it’s really not. Rather than pulling the wool over your eyes, you have to learn to recognize that things aren’t what they should be, locate the reason behind it, and do something to change it.

Tags: achieving success, Entrepreneurial skill
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Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Entrepreneurial Skill – Find Out What’s Important to People

achieve success This morning I read the results of a two-year study conducted by NASA and the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA). The study was designed to determine if house plants can improve indoor air quality. The answer was a resounding yes – see NASA Study House Plants Clean Air for the results, including a list of the 10 house plants most effective at removing formaldehyde, benzene, and carbon monoxide (you’d be surprised how much of these are in our homes.) As interesting as this subject was, I couldn’t also help but notice the entrepreneurial skill demonstrated by the ALCA.

Here we are in an economic mess – obviously it’s not a time when a lot of people are going to hire landscape contractors, who sell what is generally considered a luxury item. But with this study, landscape contractors will be able to boost business doing indoor landscaping/gardening design/plant services and so on for homes and offices.

Why will they be able to sell this when they are having trouble with regular landscaping work? Because they’re offering a remedy for the one problem that, to the American public, right now, is as important, if not more so, than the economy – the environment. Giving people what they think is important is a classic, and key, entrepreneurial skill.

I don’t know if anyone at the ALCA was thinking about this aspect of things two years ago, and longer, when the study started. But, if that’s the case, I applaud their entrepreneurial skill. In fact, it’s a brilliant move regardless of economic times: it gives contractors a way to achieve success when times are tough.

Tags: achieve success, Entrepreneurial skill
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Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Can a Company Achieve Success with Marketing Focus Groups?

One entrepreneurial skill which absolutely must be mastered to achieve success is the ability to listen to your current and potential customers. But exactly how do you do that?

In the past, public opinion about a product has been determined via focus groups of six to ten people. Before the session, the group members are sent the five or six questions to be asked. The session lasts for 60 to 90 minutes. The goal is to determine how buyers feel about a product.

However, focus groups do not often achieve success. Why?

1. Six to ten people is not a large enough sampling to determine how the majority of your potential customer base feels, and

2. Because the questions are discussed, each member’s responses can be influenced by the others. For example, the group might be asked if they prefer blue or green packaging. Member A’s initial response is ‘green.’ After two other members – who are aggressive, outspoken, and argue with conviction – offer their views on why blue would be best, member A changes her mind. The remaining members, who were also influenced by the outspoken members, also eventually agree to blue. The end result is an apparent consensus that blue packaging is preferred, but, in fact, only two of the ten members actually said that. Will the other eight respond to green or blue in a ‘buy’ situation? Chances are they’ll go with green – their initial choice. But the packaging will be blue – and the product will not sell.

To achieve success in market research, you have to survey potential customers privately, and their answers should be accepted without discussion. As long as enough people are surveyed, you’ll get a real majority opinion.

The lesson? Take the time to interview potential customers one-on-one. One-on-one surveys are a vital part of the entrepreneurial skill set, and the only way to really find out what your customers want, give it to them, and achieve success with your product.

Shane Krider – Polaris Media Group

Tags: achieve success, Entrepreneurial skills, focus groups, market research
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Thursday, October 29th, 2009

Entrepreneurial Skills and the Power of Interruption

I read a study a while ago about how long people take to get back to work after they’ve been interrupted. The results were quite amazing, and it really brought home the power of interruptions and the vital necessity to avoid them if you want to achieve success. In fact, organizing in a way that prevents interruptions is a pivotal entrepreneurial skill.

The study was conducted on people working in a corporate environment. On average, per the study, people are interrupted 15 times during their 8-hour workday and, each time, it takes them an average of 20 minutes to get back into the swing of things. An interruption may only take 5 minutes, but if you are on a roll, in the middle of a train of thought, it takes time to get that roll going again.

Based on those numbers, people work an average of 5 hours in their 8-hour day. So if you find yourself wondering “where did the time go” at the end of your day, there’s your answer. And there’s no way you’re going to achieve success under those conditions.

Cutting down on interruptions is pretty easy if you’re working at home or in a work environment you can control:

-Set appointments for in-person or phone meetings rather than having people drop in or call whenever, or ‘tomorrow.’

-Schedule appointments in such a way that you have long stretches in which you can get other work done.

-Exercise personal discipline so distractions don’t pull you away.

-Work in a space where you can close the door.

If you’re in a large office, or you’re not the boss, get with the powers that be and see what kind of policy changes can be made. Which takes a different set of entrepreneurial skills – but that’s another story.

Tags: achieve success, Entrepreneurial skills, working at home
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Monday, October 5th, 2009

Money Secondary to Personal Success

Personal success People are driven by different things. And no I don’t mean cars. Their goals are different and their ways of achieving them will always be contingent on their life experience and personal drive.

Research has even indicated that the financial reward may not matter that much to many entrepreneurs. It is simply a by-product of personal success.

The basic impulse of the true entrepreneur is to succeed against all odds. It is this need to achieve that bears fruit when it comes to money. For many, money is the drive. Financial independence is the mountain they keep their eye on, or perhaps just a nebulous idea of wealth, generally with a prefix of winning the lotto. But the entrepreneur has a metaphorical jockey on his back whipping him to ever greater heights, chasing the success that is so rightly his…or hers.

They have a need to achieve: Although they keep an “eye” on profits, this is often secondary to the drive toward personal success. And that is why they succeed.

Tags: Entrepreneurs, Personal success
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