Live Awards Coverage: Meet a Few Rule Breakers

Successful entrepreneurs are risk takers and rule breakers.

And the Rule Breaker Awards celebrate the success of business owners who do things “their way.”

This was the first year for the event.  The inaugural Rule Breaker Awards ceremony was held on June 10, 2014 at the Tribeca Grand Hotel in New York City.

Some of the honorees revolutionized their industries, while others created brand new ones.  Awards were given to 17 entrepreneurs in five categories:

• Technology
• Retail
• Manufacturing
• Food/restaurant
• Service

Special “People’s Choice” awards were also handed to winners based on popular vote in each category, including Matthew Perosi of Jeweler Website Advisory Group and Chris Dyer of PeopleG2.

Mike Agugliaro and Rob Zadotti of Gold Medal Service, a plumbing, waterproofing and HVAC business, believe rule-breaking is the wave of the future. Citing their company as an example, they surprise clients with high levels of service not typically seen in their field. Because of this, Gold Medal set new rules in customer care. They celebrated their 20th anniversary in business this year and had $23MM in revenue in 2013.

Shelley Armato, President and CEO of MySmartPlans broke the rules when she introduced revolutionary technology into construction sites to increase accountability and reduce chaos.  Her business was started in a garage with $15,000. Today, MySmartPlans manages $9 billion in project assets in 27 states.

Christina Daves, President of CastMedic Designs and author of PR for Anyone, won the award in the retailer category (revenue under $1MM). She is pictured above (right) along with hosts Barry Moltz and Rieva Lesonsky. Her products give medical boots a better appearance, allowing patients with injuries to “look and heal like a celebrity.”

Daves also received the evening’s top honor as "Rule Breaker of the Year.”

Event sponsors Skype, Constant Contact and Nextiva were on hand to honor the winners.

Blake Shepard, senior business planner at Skype said, “Entrepreneurs who create lasting impact do break rules. Skype rewrote the rules by removing barriers such as long-distance cost burdens. Today, Skype is used by hundreds of millions of people with an internet connection to easily work and communicate in real-time, regardless of distance.”

About the sponsors: Constant Contact, Inc. is an online marketing company offering email marketing, digital storefronts and other tools to SMBs and other organizations such an nonprofits. Nextiva is a unified communications platform providing businesses with VoIP hardware, virtual fax lines, PBX trunk lines for SIP Trunking, online portals for management reporting and more. Skype allows users to communicate with peers by voice, video or instant messaging using an Internet connection. Skype reached a record 27 million simultaneous online users in 2011, and in the same year was acquired by Microsoft.

Anita Campbell, CEO of Small Business Trends, was one of the judges in the process, which began this past winter. I attended the Awards Ceremony on her behalf.

Pictured in top image, left to right are: Barry Moltz, co-founder of the Awards; Blake Shepard, small business advocate of Skype; Rieva Lesonsky, Co-Founder of the Awards; Tomas Gorny, CEO of Nextiva; Christina Daves, Rule Breaker winner; Mike Michalowicz, Judge;  and Chris Litster, Senior Vice President of Constant Contact.)

Image Credit: RuleBreaker Awards

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10 Useful Productivity Hacks for Small Business Owners

Running a small business can take up a lot of your time. If you’re fortunate enough to have some success under your belt, you could have anywhere from 20 – 200 people a day who need a minute or two of your time.

On top of those obligations you still have a dozen or so contracts that need your approval, a staff meeting, a wedding designer (right, you’re getting married okay, just go with it), little Holly’s soccer game (from your first marriage), and then you still need to find time to watch this week’s episode of Castle on TiVo.

Productivity Hacks for Small Business

1. Ritual de lo Habitual

Read the book, "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. Also read "Daily Rituals" by Mason Curry. Buy them, borrow them, or otherwise acquire them. Just read them.

Habits are the cornerstone of success. Not everyone can be a playboy or heiress; rich at birth, with limitless cash flow and time to ponder the meaning of life indefinitely. Some of us need to work to reach the top of the mountain.

Develop a habit of waking, eating, completing important tasks, eating, fielding inquiries, eating, then going to sleep (oh and drink lots of water too) at specific times.

2. Make a "To Do List" in Order of Importance and/or Difficulty Level

You’re probably sick of hearing about to do lists. Unless you’re a successful artist with fans, studios, publishing houses, etc. – all eagerly awaiting your next big piece. You need a list to accomplish your goals for each day. Put the important and/or difficult stuff first.

You can push the unimportant stuff off to someone else if it doesn’t get done, or leave it til the next day.

3. Never Agree to or Set up a Meeting Without a Clear Agenda

Ask for a specific, unalterable time limit that will not be exceeded. There are so many greats that I’ve heard utter this phrase over the years, and unfortunately I can’t remember a single one right now.

However, this Linkedin post about covers the importance of not wasting your time in meetings and how to avoid their inevitable chit chat, back and forth, and general lack of effectiveness.

4. Doodle While You Work

Yes. Doodle a picture of a stick-figure dog while you work. Seriously, try it. It’s great for relaxing the mind while you’re making phone calls or listening to messages.

5. Schedule Non-Negotiable YOU Time

Cindy Wong, CEO of Vayable says that she schedules three activities every single week that are just for her, with no business interruptions during that time. She’s an ambitious lady and doesn’t have much free time.

You should try to aim for an hour or two a day. Read an interesting book, take MMA lessons, teach someone a skill you’ve mastered, etc.

6. Outsource

This works no matter what kind of business you happen to be in, for the most part. The secret to outsourcing is to first realize that you’re not the only one who can get things done. And that you’re not the best. And that’s that. Lie to yourself if you have to.

There are exceptions (like if you’re the only astronaut who can fly to the space station to fix the ‘orbital spectrograph’), but projects like data entry, transcription, (some) customer service, sales, and many others can be outsourced affordably. This leaves your brain more refreshed to innovate and expand your business.

7. Exercise Daily

Exercise burns up cortisol, the hormone our body releases in excess when we’re stressed. It also releases endorphins, burns up excess blood sugar (so you don’t become a typical diabetic office drone), blah – blah – blah.

You’ve heard this before. You know it’s true, but how could I say I shared productivity hacks with my readers if I didn’t throw this one in?

Seriously though, exercise might seem like something you don’t have time for, until all that sitting around catches up with you, in the form of anxiety, heart attacks, strokes, etc. The ailments caused by inactivity kill productivity. ‘Nuff said.

8. Forgive Those Who Trespass Against You

Anger and holding a grudge can actually make the adrenal glands release more adrenalin and cortisol than day-to-day stress would. These hormones are meant for primitive survival, like running from a Tyrannosaurus. When you’re sitting around not physically working your body very much, they actually become quite toxic in your blood.

Ever felt so angry that you just couldn’t stop thinking about it? Head pounding, heart racing, rage seething inside you – feeling like something is unresolved?

Resolve it by choosing to forgive.

Forgiveness releases Oxytocin, which literally makes you feel orgasmic. Oxytocin halts the release of adrenalin and cortisol too, reducing blood pressure significantly.

Not to mention the person you forgive will receive the same benefit – enabling both of you to be more clear-headed and productive.

9. Use Voicemail

Beth Doane, the beautiful and successful Founder of Raintees advises against answering your phone whenever it rings:

“I tend to return calls at the end of the day, and if someone really needs to reach me I have my assistant’s info on my voicemail and let her decide if it’s really an ‘important’ call.”

Resist the urge to answer every incoming call. Each one will put you a further step behind and eventually it’s 4PM and you’ve got nothing to show for the day.

10. Oxygen

Shallow breathing leads to hypoxia (low oxygen levels) and hypercapnia (high carbon dioxide levels) in your blood. This isn’t good for the brain obviously. How can you be productive when your thinker isn’t getting the oxygen it so desperately needs.

Also, the aforementioned conditions are very "stressful" to our bodies, as too little of one and not enough of the other is a life or death problem; resulting in, you guessed it – more adrenaline and more cortisol. This article contains information on the long-term health complications of improper breathing.

Breathing Photo via Shutterstock

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So Your Facebook Post Views Dropped, Huh?

Have you noticed your Facebook post views dropped dramatically in the organic reach of your Facebook fan page?

If you're not sure with what’s going on, take a few minutes to click around your Facebook Insights. You'll find the link on the top bar in your Fan Page admin panel. Take a look at the recap of your Recent Posts Published. You'll get the full picture of which posts are connecting with your fans by checking your Reach and Engagement numbers.

So what happened to all those Facebook marketing messages that you were posting that were getting Likes, shares and comments from your fans?

In January, Facebook quietly made another change to their programming that has directly affected how Facebook Fan Pages connect with their customers. It turns out that most Facebook users want to see more pictures from their friend's vacation and less sales messages. They want to click on more hamster videos and see fewer Fan Page marketing promotions.

So Facebook decided to make a change to their algorithm (how we get our content in our home feeds) to provide their fans a better user experience. So what’s a small business to do? Well, you've got three choices.

My Facebook Post Views Dropped: What Do I Do?

1. Move on From Facebook

This may be the time in your marketing plans to shift your attention to your other social programs like Pinterest and Twitter.

Quite honestly, you may not need to do an official breakup with Facebook. But you should consider finding other social programs to spend some time with to reach a new audience.

2. Play the Facebook Game and Pay for Promoted Posts

I have always been a big fan of Facebook’s Promoted Posts. You can run a targeted marketing campaign for as little as $30 and reach thousands of people.

Not of all them will be your target audience, but at least by promoting your posts, your content will show up in more of your fans and friends of your fans news feeds.

3. Stay on Facebook and Make it Work

If you decide to keep posting on Facebook, you'll need to make some changes to your Facebook strategy. Below are some ideas to help you create content that your fans will want to read and share.

Change Your Text-Only Messages into Link Share Posts

With the updated Facebook news feed algorithm, text-only updates are now less likely to be seen by your fans. But when you share a link, the new programming gives these “Link Share” posts a higher priority, meaning more people will see them.

Link Share Posts:

Facebook posts without the link appearing in your message but that are shown below it with an image – are now getting more engagement from fans. It’s really simple to do and makes your post stand out more in the news feed.

In the status post update section, do the following to create a Link Share:

1. Copy the URL of the content you want to share.
2. Paste it into the status update. Facebook will bring up the article title, image from the post (if there is more than one image, you can click through the options) and a description of the article.
3. With the Link Share info now included below in your status update, delete the URL you just pasted.
4. Add your comments or questions to your status then hit the post button to share with your fans.

Pay More Attention to Your Images

Visual content is still a great way to get your fans' attention. So spend a little time making sure you add eye-catching images to your posts that grab your fans' attention. The new content feed changes also brought new changes to the way images appear on your wall.

I'm sure it may change again. But right now, Facebook images are all about the square.

The Best Facebook Photo Sizes Are Now Square (504 x 504 Pixels)

If your images are smaller than the 504 pixel square, Facebook will fill in the extra area with grey bars. If you post taller images like infographics, your image will be reduced to 504 pixels tall and Facebook will fill the extra space on the sides with the same gray bar effect.

Note: These gray bars filling in the extra space won't be seen in the news feed of your fans. Facebook is using the grey bars to make sure that your image fits into the 504 pixel wide space on the new Fan Page wall layout.

Conclusion

Whatever you decide to do with your Facebook marketing plans, make sure you take into account all of the new Facebook changes to ensure that your company's content connects with your fans.

I look at my social media marketing plans this way. With all the latest changes on Facebook affecting my reach with customers, I'm not putting all my marketing eggs into Facebook's basket. But I will continue to post, share and engage on this social site because Facebook is still the first place we go to check out a business. And if your last post was 6 months ago, then what message are you sending to a potential customer?

Facebook Photo via Shutterstock

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Glean Insights Into “Aligning Strategies and Sales”

What does it take to be effective? Moreover what does it take to be effective at the right time? Given the speed of the Internet, success is becoming more dependent on being systematic where it counts. Such organization has potentially great value when strategy and sales are aligned.

To gain that alignment in a successful way, consider the book Aligning Strategies and Sales: The Choices Systems and Behaviors That Drive Effective Selling by Frank Cespedes. The author is a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School. I received an advanced copy through Harvard Business Review and was intrigued by the author's earnest effort to make selling meaningful for those who struggle to organize sales.

When Sales Affects Your Whole Organization

This book looks at strategy and sales at what the link needs to be to make sales actually happened to business. It is a more advanced book than a book I reviewed a few years back, Dave Lakhani's How to Sell When No One is Buying. 

In that book, Lakhani highlights tactics in the sales trenches and implementation. Cespedes highlights implementation, but with an overview of those tactics in context of an organization. He writes that much is written about strategy but very few books have focused on the actual link. I found Cespedes makes a great distinction on when meaningful strategy activity really begins.

Saying No Leads to More Meaningful Activity

Chapter 5 starts with the idea of evaluating projects relative to the strategy and saying no. This advice has been increasingly appearing in text as of late. See Adrienne Graham’s book No You May Not Pick My Brain or Eli Broad's The Art of Being Unreasonable.  Although each of these books offer differing main subject matter, the art of being paid for your work in the former, leadership in the latter, the idea of saying no to achieve something greater appears in each.

Cespedes enhances the concept by framing the concept around strategy. What I liked about the book is that such framing is written well for organizational managers as much as for small business owners. The end result is text that can help growing small businesses make enterprise level decisions and appreciate the potential results more clearly. Check out this comment to get a sense of what a “no” should do for a sales strategy:

"Without "no" you get what most companies get as a result of planning meetings: A list of possibilities, a vision at 30,000 feet that many managers simply do not understand or series of incremental initiatives for the next year. In fact, if you attend a strategy meeting after the meeting, and it’s not clear what services you would not provide and what activities in sales in other areas you will not invest in, then the odds are that it was not a strategy meeting. It may have been a useful motivational meeting, and people may leave feeling good about the company. But without clarity about “no” as well as "yes" there is no strategy."

There are also chapters on training and implementation, with Cespedes highlighting that strategy is a process instead of an overnight change in an organization:

"The basic idea is that aligning strategy and sales requires an ongoing systemic approach and not, unfortunately, a quick-fix motivational speech or an allegedly all-purpose selling methodology. You must integrate three factors internally to the sales organization—the people involved, the control systems that influence their behaviors, and how those controls are applied in the sales force and company environment—with factors external to the sales organization: Your business strategy and the target market/customer characteristics that (if you in fact have a strategy) flow from those strategic choices."

All along the way there are figures and charts that highlight the processes that are encountered and, according to Cespedes, must be managed. Check out this quote regarding salespeople:

"…salespeople (more than others in a company) must interact internally with people in marketing, operations, engineering, finance, and others across the firm, and depending upon the buying process, they deal externally with a host of people. Each group has its own operating procedures. Yet the essence of most selling jobs is to manage and, in practice, to negotiate this boundary between the selling organization and potential customers. That's one reason why coordination across the organization…is so important to effective selling."

Cespedes goes on to note examples of how external clients impact a sales person's performance, such as how international sales for Ford and Pfizer are managed differently.

Later chapters are dedicated to operational concerns in which pitfalls can appear. Chapter 9 illustrates how sales compensation and incentives are misused; Chapter 10 looks at performance reviews; and Chapter 11 takes a look at sales managers.

This book will help guide your organization's sales strategy and highlight the tactics that will leverage that strategy effectiveness. You'll see how to best select the sales support activities that mean most and remove silos that quickly erode communications.

Cespedes states that "a desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world, especially the sales world." Read Aligning Strategies and Sales , and you'll view the dangers…and how to best avoid them.

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In China, LinkedIn must beat local rivals, win over 'loser' workforce to avoid Google syndrome

BEIJING (Reuters) - After taking a social media drubbing in the West for accepting self-censorship in China, jobs networking site LinkedIn Corp faces bigger obstacles to growth in a market it is counting on - local rivals and a unique workforce mindset.

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Mobile 'net neutrality' faces new day of reckoning at FCC

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A surge in mobile Internet usage has U.S. regulators considering whether to apply the same rules to fixed and wireless Internet traffic, and large technology firms are siding with consumer advocates to call for such a change.

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