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Are You As Productive As You Want to Be? By Marcia Zidle

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Are You As Productive As You Want to Be? By Marcia Zidle

Do you remember the Franklin Covey Planner? A couple of decades ago, companies helped managers to increase their productivity and transition into leaders by following a proven methodology using a day planner. You were to understand your values, define your long-term objectives and focus on your daily tasks so that they would align with corporate goals. Today’s it’s obsolete. Instead we have the smart phone revolution.

See a Problem, Find a Solution, Market It!
My Guest today is Zain Ali, CEO of Aezee (A to Z), who has created the first integrated app designed to allow companies to bring back leadership development for the next generation and also leverages technology to automate the manual and mundane tasks that we all do to boost our productivity. This is another entrepreneurial journey that began with a problem – how do I plan and manage my day in one application – which led to a solution: a comprehensive digital planner (the A to Z app).

Listen to This Podcast and Learn
* An entrepreneurial story of what it takes to turn a practical idea into a profitable reality
* What the app does and how it increases work and personal productivity as well personal growth
* The 5 P’s of success to lead a big project, obtain a big contract or even get a company off the ground.
* How it can be used as leadership development tool that reinforces your company’s professional training initiatives.

Zain’s Smart Moves Success Tip: Don’t Just Say It, Do It!
We all lead very busy lives and we make commitments all the time. Each commitment that’s kept increases our leadership credibility and each commitment missed results in a loss in credibility. To make sure you deliver, document your commitments and then once or twice a day prioritize and update your progress.

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How the 3 Laws of Empowerment Can Create a Life You Love By Marcia Zidle

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How the 3 Laws of Empowerment Can Create a Life You Love By Marcia Zidle

It’s not where you begin, but where you take yourself to that counts. Successful entrepreneurs and business owners, have a powerful belief in their selves, their ideas and their dream. They are laser focused on their goals and, according to New York Times Best Seller “Grit, the Power of Passion and Perseverance” they have the ability to preserve despite any obstacle. What makes them winners is their deep sense of personal empowerment.  

My guest on this episode of The Business Edge is Shawn McBride who. after spending 10 years working for large law firms, began his entrepreneurial career in 2012. He works with business owners to lay the legal foundation first to get their business going in the right direction. He has built his successful career through empowering himself by using the 3 Laws of Empowerment to create a life and career that gives him a true sense of fulfillment. He now shares his empowerment lessons and his legal knowledge through professional speaking.  

Listen to This Podcast and Learn
The 10 legal business blunders to avoid at all costs
Why it takes much longer than you think to build a business
The three laws and how they interact with another to propel success
The importance of having the right people on your team – inside and out
What a “high service” professional firm culture looks like and how to develop it

Shawn’s Key Takeaway: Failure is Part of Our DNA

Don’t be afraid to take risks because you may fall flat on your face. Goof-ups, missteps, slip-ups and embarrassments are no reason to ring one’s hands and hang one’s head. In fact, our failures can be the most powerful teachers we have – the lessons we learn often stick with us for a lifetime. So see them as learning opportunities not disasters.

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What Separates Entrepreneurs Who Thrive From Those Who Crumble? By Marcia Zidle

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What Separates Entrepreneurs Who Thrive From Those Who Crumble? By Marcia Zidle

Exhilarating, humbling, challenging, inspiring, mind-numbing, nerve -racking, life changing, exasperating, exhausting, empowering, maddening, uplifting and enlivening. That, in the words of a seasoned expert, describes the daily reality of being an entrepreneur. Members of a special breed, entrepreneurs possess vision, courage, creativity, drive, spirit and grit. So why do about 50% of entrepreneurial ventures fail during their first year in business?

It’s Not Their Business Plan or Funding or Products..It’s YOU!
My guest on this episode of The Business Edge is Michael Dermer author of The Lonely Entrepreneur – who shared his insights that not only saved his own company, but has made the difference between success and failure for hundreds of struggling start-ups. “It’s how we manage the struggle of being the entrepreneur,” he attests, based on his harrowing experience who watched the business he built for 10 years almost get destroyed in 10 days by the 2008 financial crisis. From this experience he developed a unique method on how to thrive under the pressure, chaos and burden of being the entrepreneur.

Listen to This Podcast and Learn
* The seven deadly business sins we must avoid at all costs.
* How the entrepreneur’s perspective can stunt progress or propel to victory
* What’s the “Brutal Truth “and the “Four P’s? Why they’re foundational concepts to success.
* Why it’s not your IQ but your emotional intelligence (EQ) which is the secret sauce to be a winner
* How to negotiate from a position of strength rather than weakness – create leverage when you don’t have much.

The key takeaway: Manage the “struggle” and you’ll be successful All entrepreneurs have basically the same problems – lack of money, resources, time, etc. It’s the ones that can look at things from a different perspective – who can rein the the Four P’s – that will thrive under pressure. It’s believing in yourself, acknowledging your gaps and what you need to run the business instead of feeling like’ it’s running you.

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Making the Entrepreneurial Leap: How to Do It Successfully! By Marcia Zidle

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Making the Entrepreneurial Leap: How to Do It Successfully! By Marcia Zidle

You’ve decided to leave the corporate world and become a small business owner. Great! Now What? Are there skills and wisdom you can bring from your corporate career to your new business venture? Of course there are. The reality is big to little box… the same rules apply in successfully implementing a business strategy as well as building a high performance team of employees.

The Journey From Corporate to Business Owner
My guest on his episode of The Business Edge is John Todd who was Vice President, Sales Support, Business Services at Sprint before making the leap into entrepreneurship. He tells the steps he took first to find the right small business (that had a sound yet interesting business model); second how he retooled that business, Elite Remodeling, from a residential discount provider to a full service value added supplier. More importantly, he found, as a corporate “drop out” one can thrive personally and financially being a small
business owner.

Listen to This Podcast and Learn
* How his corporate experience prepared him from budgeting to hiring right to managing projects

* The big difference: You are the company and everyone takes their cues from you – no blaming others.

* The 5 P’s of marketing (product – position – price – promotion – people) and how it applies to small business

* That you’re buying the people as well as the business: Realize some you’ll keep, some will need to be replaced.

* Why sales is the most important skill business owners should have and if they don’t, develop it even if you have a sales team.

The Key Take-Away: Know Your Numbers.
When employed in a big company, it’s top management who are mostly concerned with profit and loss. Now it’s you! Regularly review your financial information: margins and mark-ups, price point, expenses, net income, etc. Don’t rely solely on your accountant or financial adviser. If you don’t understand the finances, you can go broke!

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How One Person Is Making a Difference in Her Community and the World! By Marcia Zidle

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How One Person Is Making a Difference in Her Community and the World! By Marcia Zidle

How do you empower women to become agents of transformation in their communities? The answer is the Akola Project, a social business that gives life changing opportunities to unskilled women – both in Uganda and the US by teaching them a trade and employing them so they become self-sufficient providers in their communities. In other words, when you give a woman a fish you feed her for a day; when you teach a woman to fish you feed her (and her family) for a lifetime.

The Journey to Making a Difference

My guest on this episode of The Business Edge is Brittany Merrill Underwood, Founder and CEO of Akola,  who has dedicated the past 12 years to transform the lives of impoverished women and families through the Akola Project. Most recently, Akola lauched a partnership with the retailer Neiman Marcus to introduce the first full impact brand – handmade jewelry -into this luxury market. From raw materials to assembly to distribution, Brittany shares how she’s managed to create a social brand that has a measurable impact in every level of the supply chain and what she has learned along the way.

Listen to this podcast and learn:
* The inspiration for and the path The Akola Project took to get to where it is today.
* How to structure and sustain a social business to achieve both impact and profitability goals.
* The mindset, motivation, lessons learned of an entrepreneurial millennial as she set out to make a difference
* The challenge of maintaining the start-up “family” culture as the business expands with new people and in new areas.
* Why these 3 factors- brand, impact, and innovative products – are essential in building a social business from the ground up.  

The key take away: Not everyone is wired like you. Many entrepreneurs are big picture visionaries with high energy and enthusiasm.  Realize your excitement and rapid idea generation can overwhelm your staff and team. Therefore, adapt your communication style to resonate with the people who need to buy into your vision as well as execute it. It also means appreciating your gifts and at the same time knowing that others have different gifts.

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A Great Idea That Didn’t Work: How to Move Forward With an Even Better Idea! By Marcia Zidle

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A Great Idea That Didn’t Work: How to Move Forward With an Even Better Idea! By Marcia Zidle

Discouraged by the decline in genuine engagement across Social Media platforms -most notably Linkedin- over the past several years a great idea was born – to build a better engagement platform. Following an intensive nine-month development project – investing substantial time, talent, and dollars – it was decided to “pull the plug”.

What Triggered the Decision? What Was Learned? What’s Next?

My guest on this episode of The Business Edge is Dennis Pitocco, founder, publisher and executive editor of Bizcatalyst360.com – one-stop resource” for busy professionals seeking cutting-edge insights, intelligence and information across all major business sectors. He shares his journey of coming up with a better “mousetrap” for social media engagement called BizTribes 360; his wisdom from this enlightening experience; and what’s on the horizon in his search for “genuine” sharing and learning.

Listen to This Podcast and Learn:

* What the inspiration was for BizTribes360
* * The process, over the nine months, to get the platform ready to launch.
* How to utilize the expertise of others – college interns and colleagues- to turn your idea into a reality
* The realization the “better mousetrap” was not viable and why “a good retreat is better than a last stand”
* His vision for what’s next: A very different model for social media engagement built on lessons learned

A Key Takeaway: Do Something That Scares You Every Day!
Launching BizTribes was scary; it was something new; it was a risk; it could fail; and it did. However, don’t hold yourself back. Rather, jump with your eyes open and your faith in the people who are there to help you. Even if it doesn’t work, you’ll bounce back with more insights and wisdom to carry with you on your next project or entrepreneurial journey.

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Building a Culture of Excellence: You’re Never Too Small or Too Big to Do It! By Marcia Zidle

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Building a Culture of Excellence: You’re Never Too Small or Too Big to Do It! By Marcia Zidle

Today’s economic environment demands excellence from everyone in your business. The key to scaling up your company from the status quo to a higher standard of excellence is your company culture. When you build a culture of excellence, you create better employee engagement, better customer experience and build a powerful brand.

My guest on this episode of the Business Edge is Tal Shnall a Customer Experience (CX) expert in the hospitality industry. As a hotel brand and customer service manager, Tal served as a catalyst, trainer and coach to develop a culture of excellence for hotel brands such as Marriott, Hilton, Starwood and Intercontinental Hotel Group.

Listen to This Podcast and Learn:
* Why Tal says culture is not a cliché but rather values in action
* How a culture of excellence will transform you from being a commodity to a valued brand
* Five simple strategies to build a culture of excellence in your business…it’s not rocket science
*How to develop leaders of excellence who become role models, mentors and coaches to their employees
*Ways to create great experiences that customers remember and share with others – it starts with your people

The key take away: Don’t look for microwave solutions
A culture of excellence requires an investment of time, training and mentoring of your leaders AND your employees. The results will be first a recognition of your brand as one of service excellence; second better engagement of your talented people; and third higher retention of your customers. This is one area not to skimp on.

Mom Entrepreneur: Raising a Family and a Business By Marcia Zidle

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Mom Entrepreneur: Raising a Family and a Business By Marcia Zidle

Why would a mom start a family and a business almost simultaneously? There is a saying…Necessity is the mother of all inventions. The reality is that moms and dads are often faced with everyday parenting challenges that bring ideas to their minds on how to make it or do it better, easier, less expensively. Here’s how an idea turned into a series of products which turned into a family business.

My guest on this episode of the Business Edge Andrea Thomas, Owner and Creator of the ScratchMeNot. The parenting challenge that started her entrepreneurial journey was designing a product to prevent her daughter from damaging her skin by constantly scratching her eczema. Andrea will share how she is making her product visible to the masses as well how she navigates these two very different world…mom to 4 kids and business owner growing a company.

Listen to this Podcast and Learn
* Why you must be strategic when selecting the right product or service to bring to the marketplace.
* How she’s making her children part of her business educating them in business 101 so they won’t feel left out
* The identity crisis and other challenges she tackled transitioning from a corporate career to being an entrepreneur
* Her preparation for the growth of ScrathMeNot: hiring the right people, creating a * culture, building a management team
* How to deal with your spouse becoming part of “your” business: The solution regularly negotiate roles and responsibilities

The key take away: Before taking the leap, know what you’re getting into. Talk with other entrepreneurs and ask lots of questions. Get past surface answers. Really find out what the challenges are, how they dealt with them, their lessons learned. Get a variety of opinions and insights. Take it all in and then decide if it’s right for you. She realized that she should have done more research especially when expanding her product line and finding suppliers

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From Start Up to Real Company: The Five Key Essentials By Marcia Zidle

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From Start Up to Real Company: The Five Key Essentials By Marcia Zidle

You have an idea, you’ve shared it with a few of your friends you’ve written a business plan and then took the plunge not knowing how things would work out. To your surprise or not, they did! Now what? For most entrepreneurs the answer is:  Grow! Grow! Grow! But there are definite challenges.

My guest on this episode of the Business Edge is Zain Ali, Managing Partner at Sunbonn, and adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, He will explore three common choices that most entrepreneurs have in front of them. If it’s growth, he then shares his vast experience and methodology as a consultant to major companies as well as a successful entrepreneur and business owner.

Listen to the Podcast and Learn:

*The biggest mistake he made with the rapid expansion of his company
*How to build a management team that is aligned with the culture you are creating.
*The big dilemma: Keep or let go of people who are not the right people going forward.
*Why it’s important to clearly define the product s and/or services that you will take to market
*How to trickle down company goals and values to everyone: It’s communication and measurement.

The key take away: It’s OK to borrow money to advance your vision. In the Goldman’s Sach 10,000 Businesses Program he attended, there was an exercise that gave everyone a blank check of a specific amount to spend on their business. He gave his check back because his business was self-funded. What he realized was that to grow, you will need additional funding and that it’s OK to take on realistic debt.

How to Build a Brand People Can’t Resist. By Marcia Zidle

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How to Build a Brand People Can’t Resist. By Marcia Zidle

Branding is not your logo: it is how people perceive, understand, and react to your business. Branding helps people make decisions about you. But when your brand isn’t consistent or emotional, it can sabotage both your sales efforts and your leadership efforts.

My guest on this episode of The Business Edge is Dacia Coffee, the CEO of The Marketing Blender, who helps companies achieve next-level growth by aligning the sales cycle with story, psychology and branding. She loves developing the message and directing the words that connect people to one another and inspire action.

Listen to this podcast and learn::
The answers to the four key questions for your brand
Examples of amazing brand and what makes them amazing;
What’s your “truth” and why it’s so important for your customer
How to create a “Buyer Persona” and use it for messaging and differentiation.
The importance of consistency; everyone, not just marketing, must know and live your brand

The key take away:The importance of your WHY!
Branding is about determining the purpose of your business; knowing your customers and their pain points; and communicating what you provide and how you serve them better than others. It’s connecting the head (the facts and features) with the heart (the emotional tug) that makes them want to do business with you rather than someone else.

 

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