by Yoon Cannon | Business Growth Tips Blog, Success Mindset
We naturally do not think about all the benefits of failure. As entrepreneurs we just don’t like to fail. We prefer to avoid and even fear failure in our businesses. In reality, failure is nothing to be afraid of. These 6 core benefits of failure can serve as a powerful tool in any business arsenal – and when approached with a success mindset, failure can even fuel our business growth.
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Failure teaches you how to avoid mistakes.
Most of the time, failure
Thankfully, failure shows us what went wrong, and points out our poor decisions. It allows us to identify our mistakes – and if we’re ever faced with a similar opportunity, we’ll know exactly what to do. Most opportunities aren’t once-in-a-lifetime. The benefits of failure is it teaches us how to avoid making the same mistake in the future.
- happens because of mistakes we made. Whether we were careless with our finances, or let a lucrative opportunity pass us by, it isn’t always possible to make the right call. After all, we’re only human; and dropping the ball occasionally is part of the human condition.
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Failure makes you more credible.
Another surprising benefit of failure is it helps you earn your badge of credibility. Entrepreneurs who never fail just are not relatable. Embracing and sharing your stories of failure makes you more vulnerable, which makes you more relatable, which makes you more credible.
More importantly, it shows that you’re willing to keep trying, even when the going gets tough. Whether you’re talking to investors, business leaders or other entrepreneurs, it’s these traits that are most highly valued. Failure isn’t a mark against your reputation. It’s a badge of credibility.
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Failure cultivates your support system.
Failure doesn’t need to be a lonely experience. You don’t have to cope through your struggles alone. If it were not for failure you wouldn’t need a support system – another great benefit of failure. By sharing these experiences with friends, peers and business advisors, failure can forge strong, supportive relationships that empower you to succeed at greater levels.
Talking about failure will help you to accept it and move on, and understand that it’s a crucial part of being an entrepreneur. Each individual account of failure has a story to it. Each story is just another lesson that serves as an important building block to your success.
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Failure keeps you humble.
Business success takes strategy. It also takes heart and leadership. Leaders can’t lead from a place of arrogance. But, it’s a sad fact that success makes many people arrogant. Arrogance leads to under estimating the preparation required to succeed. Of course, showing up unprepared often leads to more failure.
Humility is a powerful benefit of failure. We all need reminders that success can quickly disappear. By bearing failure with good grace, and feeling humbled by the experience, you don’t take success for granted. You’ll realize how fleeting it can be – and you’ll strive to work harder and smarter for it next time.
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Failure helps you focus on the goals that matter most.
Entrepreneurs all strive for success, but many lose sight of the reasons why. Failure reconnects you to your goals. The emotions you associate with your failure are clear-cut indicators of what you really want from your business. Failures force us to re-evaluate our goals and ask ourselves the question:
“What are we missing the most in our lives right now?” Perhaps it’s:
- feeling validated in our talents
- financial security
- finding work-life balance
- freedom of expression
- friendships with like-minded people
- fulfilment in making a difference
Understanding these desires will allow you to refocus. When you rebuild your business, you’ll do it with the “why’s” that drive your goals – and you’ll be more successful at achieving them because of it.
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Failure is a valuable stepping-stone to success.
Each business decision you make has multiple possible outcomes and dozens different paths to take. Every mistake you make allows you to cross-off one of these paths; eliminating a wrong choice taking a step closer towards the right choice.
One myth that can sure paralyze you during a failure is believing that success is overnight.
Remember: you can fail a thousand times. You only need to succeed once.
I’ll leave you with a powerful quote:
- “Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker.Failure is delay, not defeat.It is a temporary detour, not a dead end.Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” – Denis Waitley
QUESTION: What was the best lesson you learned from a failure? Please share your tips in the comment box below.
© Copyright 2016
by Yoon Cannon | Success Mindset
If you’ve gone to the effort of setting up a webinar, it’s crucial that it runs smoothly. There are a host of common webinar mistakes to avoid, from technical issues to problems of promotion and awareness. Any one of these 5 damaging webinar mistakes to avoid can hurt your webinar attendance. Thankfully, I’ve created this short guide to help you identify the critical aspects of hosting a successful webinar:
5 Webinar Mistakes to Avoid
1. Covering too many topics
Webinars are fantastic way to add value to your customer experience. They allow you to market your skills, knowledge and expertise; and educate and help people in the process. As a result, you’d be forgiven for trying to include as much helpful content into your webinar as possible. After all, the more content you can include, the more beneficial your webinar is… right?
In the effort to provide high content many webinar speakers deliver too much content. Too many points make webinars too hard to follow. Trying to include dozens of topics in one webinar is more likely to overload your audience than educate them.Instead of skimming over several areas, it’s far better to cover one topic in-depth – and make sure that your audience really understands your content.
2. Forgetting to promote the webinar
Webinars are extremely effective at attracting visitors to your website and business – but they aren’t a marketing panacea. As with every form of marketing, raising awareness and promoting your webinar is key to unlocking its benefits. Well before the day of your webinar, set the wheels of promotion in motion – and raise awareness across social media, industry publications, email lists, press releases, other webinars and through your industry connections.
3. Technical glitches
Webinars are, unsurprisingly, pretty reliant on technology. Whether it’s your audio and sound system, your video feed or even your internet connection, there are dozens of potential technical issues that could rear-up and ruin your webinar. These webinar mistakes to avoid are some of the most damaging; but they’re also the most preventable. Simply running through your setup prior to the live-event will highlight any technical gremlins that need remedying; and allow you to fine-tune your sound- and video-quality.
4. Not making the webinar interactive
Webinars should always be interactive, offering your audience a chance to engage with your expertise and have their burning questions answered. Interactivity is what sets your webinar apart from a helpful blog post or online guide, and it’s the main reason the webinar community is so active and vibrant. Thankfully, you don’t need to overcomplicate matters. You can leverage Twitter for a live-action Q&A. Promote a unique #hashtag for your event and encourage your audience to tweet you their questions during the webinar.
5. Overcomplicating the login process
Most of these webinar mistakes to avoid focus on your presentation itself – but you can easily ruin your webinar before it’s even started.If you’re operating a paid- webinar, the login process becomes all important, allowing your audience to check-in, log-in and get involved. If this login process is particularly long-winded, requiring a ton of personal information and payment verification, your webinar attendance will likely take a sharp plunge. Plan ahead, and sort out registration and payment before the day of the webinar.
QUESTION: What steps do you take to make sure your webinars run smoothly? Let me know in the comments!
© Copyright 2016
by Yoon Cannon | General, Business Growth Tips Blog, Marketing and Sales Blog Posts, Success Mindset
Finding new clients
Thousands of businesses use LinkedIn to connect with new clients every single day – but for some reason, you can’t seem to imitate their success. Let’s say LinkedIn has never worked for your business, and you think that it never will. Worst of all, you can’t figure out why.
I have the answer: the biggest barrier to LinkedIn success is your own attitude.
Adjusting your LinkedIn Mindset
Finding new clients requires a positive attitude about LinkedIn — a belief that it can work for your business, and a willingness to find out how. To help you embrace the potential of LinkedIn, we’re going to look at some of the most common misconceptions – the limiting beliefs that are hindering your ability to find new clients. This is more than just opinion – we’re going to let statistics do the talking, and prove why you need to develop a positive LinkedIn mindset for finding new clients!
LinkedIn Misconception #1. ‘LinkedIn only works for businesses in the United States’
Most people don’t realize just how global the LinkedIn network is. LinkedIn has over 260 million users, in over 200 hundred countries – and less than a third of those users are based in the US. LinkedIn is huge in countries as diverse as China and the Netherlands, making it a viable source of clients for countries the world over. If you’re a local business, finding new clients through local groups and businesses is easy. And, if you’re international, you can target clients from virtually anywhere in the world.
LinkedIn Misconception #2. ‘Twitter and Facebook are better for generating leads’
LinkedIn alone accounts for over two thirds of all visits to corporate websites from social media channels. Facebook generates just 17% of these visits, and Twitter even less, at 14%. As a result, LinkedIn generates more leads for businesses than any other social network. If you aren’t active on LinkedIn, your business is missing out traffic, leads and clients.
LinkedIn Misconception #3. ‘LinkedIn has never generated any clients for me – why should it now?’
LinkedIn is a rapidly growing network, with a year-on-year increase in users of almost 40%. In other words, the odds of finding new clients increase by almost a half every single year. If you haven’t been able to generate new clients, you simply need to try a new approach – and abandoning LinkedIn altogether will cost your business more every year.
LinkedIn Misconception #4. ‘LinkedIn isn’t relevant to my industry’
Regardless of your business niche, you’ll be able to find special interest community groups on LinkedIn full of industry leaders and relevant discussions. All types of business people are active on LinkedIn – from post-graduates looking for experience and knowledge, through to CEOs of multinational companies to athletic coaches from high schools and universities and even facility directors who deal with building maintenance – so regardless of your target audience, finding new clients in your industry has never been easier.
LinkedIn Misconception #5. ’I don’t believe that you can generate leads by posting comments’
Commenting on LinkedIn discussions allows you to show your expertise, and develop relationships with potential clients. If you’re able to solve someone’s problem, they’re going to be grateful to you. They’ll view you and your business as helpful, authoritative and trust-worthy which increases their interest in working with you. Commenting is more than showing off – it’s helping people with your knowledge and thought leadership and nothing is more powerful for finding new clients.
In closing, the statistics don’t lie – LinkedIn is a powerful tool for finding new clients, and if you and your business are struggling to capitalize on that, you might need to adjust your mindset.
QUESTIONS: Have any of these misconceptions stopped you from finding new clients? What other factors are still limiting your LinkedIn success? Let me know in the comments below!
Attract More Clients on LinkedIn – Sign Up for Free Webinar
by Yoon Cannon | General, Business Growth Tips Blog, Success Mindset, Success Mindset
Note From Yoon:
I’ve been taking Richard Branson’s advice. While I don’t have a hammock, my favorite relaxed spot to work is on my front porch chaise lounge.
This is where I usually take my coaching calls. I follow the sun, so I end up moving to the side porch, then to my back porch. Being outdoors is definitely a more fun place to work! Thanks for the tip Richard!
What about you? Share your best success tips you’ve learned and implemented below.
Blessings ~
There is no such thing as a black and white path to success. The road to a successful future is bumpy along the way, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to achieve great things. Sometimes the most unlikely advice is all it takes to catapult you towards greatness. Follow the unlikely advice of these Fortune 500 men, and you can take a step on the path towards your dreams.
Richard Branson: Virgin King
Photo by Shinsuke Ikegame via Flickr
Richard Branson has it all: a multibillion-dollar empire, his own private island and a great head of hair, but what’s his secret? Branson told Askmen.com that one of his secrets of success is to work from home whenever possible. A hammock is a much more fun place to work than a stuffy office desk, and working from home allows Branson to minimize distractions and focus on the task at hand.
Bill Gates: The Ruler of PC Land
Photo by Choice Isy via Flickr
Bill Gates pretty much runs Silicon Valley these days, and he owes much of his leadership ability to his parents. They forced him to participate in activities that don’t come naturally to him. He tells CNN Money Magazine that one of the most important parts of his childhood was learning to stretch out of his comfort zone. He may not have been the best athlete, but he sure made some important memories trying.
Steve Wynn: Big Winner
Photo by MilkenInstitute via Flickr
Steve Wynn isn’t just a hotelier, he is “the” hotelier, and he owes it all to the way he treats people. In his seminars, Steve Wynn explains that his business motto is anything that brings immediate gratification will be repeated, and he uses it to ensure his employees and guests feel taken care of. This way, he builds a loyal fan and employee base that has his back.
What about you? Share your best success tips you’ve learned and implemented below.
About Yoon Cannon: Top business coach Yoon Cannon has helped thousands of small business owners, entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and sales teams achieve dramatic results in growing your business. Over the past 20 years Yoon has started 4 successful companies and sold 3 of them. She offers fresh insights as a seasoned business growth expert. Yoon delivers proven process for your sales, marketing and management development. Grab free valuable gifts and resources at https://www.ParamountBusinessCoach.com To book Yoon to speak at your next event email: YoonCannon@ParamountBusinessCoach.com To schedule a complimentary business coaching consultation call (215) 292-4947.
© Copyright 2016
by Yoon Cannon | General, Business Growth Tips Blog, Success Mindset, Success Mindset, Time Management/Productivity
One of the questions I hear most often from SMB’s is “how can I gain business among so much competition?” I say don’t focus on gaining the business. Focus on gaining competitive edge, and it will lead to gaining more business. How does one do that?
Well, I believe we all have an edge. Some of ours are just more dull than others. So, gaining a competitive edge begins with staying sharp.
Let me share a story I heard years ago. Two men were splitting wood. One of the men was tall and muscular and in excellent physical shape. The other man was shorter and much less muscular and appeared to be no match for the larger man.
The two men began chopping wood at the same time. When the first coffee break rolled around, the smaller man took a break while the larger man continued to split the wood. The larger man did not join the smaller man during their lunch break or afternoon break either. Instead, he continued to split wood all day long.
In the evening the smaller man went home, but the larger man continued working late into the night.
Their routine continued for nearly two weeks.
The larger man did not understand how the smaller man’s pile of chopped wood was roughly the same size as his when he was clearly stronger and had worked longer hours than the smaller man.
After about three weeks the smaller man’s wood pile was even with the larger man’s wood pile. After four weeks, the smaller man’s wood pile had surpassed the size of the larger man’s wood pile. The larger man was astonished and confused.
One day, as the smaller man was about to take another break, the larger man said to him “I cannot understand why you have more wood split than I do. You are smaller than I am, and you don’t have the strength that I have”. The smaller man replied “Ah yes, my friend, but you never stop to sharpen your axe”.
When it comes to getting the job done, your greatest tool is your own mind. Here are 4 tips to help you keep your mind sharp as a small business owner:
1) Make the most of your peak performance time Figure out the time of day when you are most energized and focused. Are you at the top of your game first thing in the morning, or are you ready to go after your second cup of coffee? Whatever your peak performance time may be, make sure that you schedule your most complicated tasks during this time of the day. The extra brain power will bring clarity and concentration.
2) Make a to-do list A to-do list lets you focus on the task at hand instead of trying to remember your mental list of the tasks to be done. Writing down your objectives for the day helps you stay focused on your key result areas. It also keeps you from feeling unproductive. One of my clients recently took a trip to NYC with his team to explore opportunities to expand his fast growing food and hospitality business. He later told me how disappointed he was that didn’t feel they accomplished much after a 12 hour day together. I asked him, “What were the key objectives you planned for the day?” He replied, “I didn’t have any clear, set objectives.” His to-do list stopped with a decision to go to NYC which wasn’t clear enough. Make sure to-do list items like this also include what your most important goals are to accomplish.
3) Always be learning. If you want to gain the competitive edge you need to be willing to continue to up-level your skills and knowledge. I’m not talking about trying to be the “Jack-of-all-trades” type of person. I’m also not referring to setting yourself up for complete information overwhelm where you end up not being able to focus on your core competencies. What I am saying is to choose one new important trend to learn more about or skill to hone that is effecting your industry. Those aha moments often occur when you’re in the midst of delving into new subjects, skills and technology.
4) Leave Work at Work I find that business owners tend to be type “A” personalities. You’re character trait to keep on pushing yourself is a large reason why you’ve succeeded thus far. But, be careful because your “strength” can also prove to be a double edged sword which is when we end up hitting the point of diminishing returns. You send in your car for regular maintenance checks. You power down your computers because even a piece of machine needs to rest to reboot. When you go home at the end of the day, it’s time to give yourself permission to leae the work on your desk. Spend time with family or friends and allow your mind to be present, not drifting back to thoughts about work.
I have always found that it’s much more exhausting thinking about work, than the energy it takes to actually get that work done. Your mind needs time to rest, re-energize and refuel — part of the process of sharpening your axe. So, commit to start each day refreshed, ready and re-sharpened to get the job done!
QUESTION: What do you do to keep your skills and your mind sharp as a small business owner? Please share your ideas in the comment box below.
About Yoon Cannon: Top business coach Yoon Cannon has helped thousands of small business owners, entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and sales teams achieve dramatic results in growing your business. Over the past 20 years Yoon has started 4 successful companies and sold 3 of them. She offers fresh insights as a seasoned business growth expert. Yoon delivers proven process for your sales, marketing and management development. Grab free valuable gifts and resources at https://www.ParamountBusinessCoach.com To book Yoon to speak at your next event email: YoonCannon@ParamountBusinessCoach.com To schedule a complimentary business coaching consultation call (215) 292-4947.
© Copyright 2016
by Yoon Cannon | General, Business Growth Tips Blog, Success Mindset, Success Mindset
Stage Your Business to Succeed!
“If you keep on doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep on getting what you’re getting. If you want to get something different, then you need to do something different”
Profound quote isn’t it? …. So, of course, the translation to your business is, if you want to achieve different results by this time next year, you need to take a different approach from how you’ve currently been doing things in your business.
This is the key reason why it is critical for you to do a strategic plan each year for your business regardless if you are a Fortune 500 company, a small family run business, or even a solopreneur. Your strategic plan is your written road map that will help keep you from falling into the same ineffective patterns of behavior and from repeating out dated systems that are no longer worth your time and investment.
Better than that, your strategic plan is your road map that keeps you focused on what things you will now commit to doing differently this year — designed to getting you greater results than ever before.
You know, every time I share the opening quote with business owners and Entrepreneurs I find that 100% of them agree with the truth of this principle. But, you know what? I find that less than 10% of the small business owner audiences I speak to actually have a strategic plan each year.
The 3 biggest reasons I hear all the time from small business owners and Entrepreneurs on why they do not do strategic plans each year is:
1. It seems like an exercise in futility for me to set goals and milestones on paper when things in the past never went according to plan anyway.
2. Doing a strategic plan seems like a large daunting project that I frankly don’t have those large chunks of time to be doing.
3. I don’t know where to start in creating an effective strategic plan
Alright, so let me try to de-bunk some of these limiting beliefs, so that I can help you to accelerate your business growth in 2012.
First, think of your strategic plan as a staging plan.
Strategic planning is not just a piece of paper that shows you’ve written down a bunch of numbers and dates on when you would theoretically like to see those numbers and figures achieved by.
So, if you could have a do-over of this past year (knowing the cause and effects of each of your decisions)…
1.) What would you put on your short list of things you want to do the same?
2.) What would you put on your short list of things you would do differently?
That said, you don’t want to be answering those 2 questions for your business as a whole, you want to segment your post-mortem thoughts as you would address a house room by room.Take the analogy of selling a house. In today’s difficult economy, there are an awful lot of homes on the market.
So, if you’re the seller, you’re going to need to maximize the staging of your home to stand out from all your competition. There are so many other homes your buyers have to choose from!Your realtor or your staging consultant will walk you through room by room with their recommended list of changes you should make to maximize your home’s appeal to the type of buyer you are targeting. The homeowner typically, will have 2 common responses to the staging plan:a) Yes, I’ve been meaning to do that for years, but just haven’t gotten around to fixing that yet.
b) No, I never noticed that was a problem (because I live here I just get used to it and have grown immune to noticing that horrible wallpaper throughout the house)
When the homeowner follows the staging plan, he/she watches their home magically transform from drab to becoming the next coveted hot seller.
That’s what your strategic plan does for your business. It should serve as your room-by-room improvement list that will help you to attract more targeted buyers.
It can do even more than that. Your strategic plan is there not just to achieve your sales goals, but all your other business-related goals — like, here’s one I help small business owners with a lot: I want to work 10-20 hours less per week this year but still increase my profits.
Yes, I can help you formulate what you roadmap should look like in your 2012 Strategic Plan to help you achieve that goal of working less while still growing the business so you’re earning even more.
Now, as for the other 2 objections for not doing a strategic plan:
- Not thinking you have the time
- Not knowing where to start
You give me 1 hour a month and I’ll show you how to stage your business to have your best year ever!
If you truly want to achieve better results this year in growing your business and you are ready to commit even just one hour a week, I have a simple 1-page strategic plan system that I can hold your hand step-by-step and guide you to do.
If you’re interested in learning more about how you can invest 1 hour a week using my 1-page strategic plan system, I invite you to call me for a no-charge 30-minute discovery session to explore what that could mean for you.
But, hurry on calling me. Because good intentions often turn into wasting years from procrastinating on what you could have easily and quickly done today.
Why not call me now? My direct line is 215-292-4947 EST.
QUESTION: What is the most challenging part of working on your strategic plan to help you grow your business? Please share your comments in the box below.
About Yoon Cannon: Top business coach Yoon Cannon has helped thousands of small business owners, entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants and sales teams achieve dramatic results in growing your business. Over the past 20 years Yoon has started 4 successful companies and sold 3 of them. She offers fresh insights as a seasoned business growth expert. Yoon delivers proven process for your sales, marketing and management development. Grab free valuable gifts and resources at https://www.ParamountBusinessCoach.com To book Yoon to speak at your next event email: YoonCannon@ParamountBusinessCoach.com To schedule a complimentary business coaching consultation call (215) 292-4947.
© Copyright 2016
