How much time do you spend nurturing the business connections you’ve made?

Chances are, you’re not spending enough.

As a freelance copywriter, I’ve learned that my business connections are some of the most valuable assets I have. My network is at least as important as my copywriting skills.

Daymond John, creator of FUBU clothing and one of the “Sharks” on the TV show Shark Tank says this: “I’ve learned, like with anything else, business is only as good as your connections and your resources.”

The inventors and entrepreneurs who appear on Shark Tank know this, which is why they’ll sometimes accept less favorable terms to get connected with the one Shark they believe will be most beneficial to the success of their product or company.

In the video clip below, Dave, the owner of Clean Bottle, gets two strong offers, one from Robert Herjavec and one from Mark Cuban.

Robert offers $60,000 for 5%, which is what Dave originally asked for. Mark offers $60,000 for 8%.

Based on the numbers alone, Robert’s offer is much more attractive. It is the offer I would have accepted. But ultimately, Dave accepted Mark’s offer because Mark is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks. Dave placed a high value on Mark’s network of connections in the sports world.

Remember: Business is not a solo enterprise. Many people contribute to the success of a business, not least of which are the people you know.

So nurture your network and treat it like the valuable asset it is.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. One of the ways I nurture my network is by staying in touch via mail.

This is why I use Send Out Cards. It makes staying in touch easy and affordable. I’ve been using it for 3+ years for both personal and business contacts.

I strongly encourage all service providers to use Send Out Cards to nurture and develop their business contacts. Click here to learn more about Send Out Cards.Similar Posts:

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On the one hand, getting testimonials from colleagues and clients can boost your credibility in the market and help you get more business.

On the other hand, giving out testimonials can be risky business.

If you give somebody a testimonial or endorsement after only brief interaction with him, you’re playing with fire. You don’t really know the person in question, and you don’t know what that person may (or may not) do in the future.

Consistency in behavior… longevity in the market… these are the kinds of things that breed trust. This is why I only give testimonials and endorsements to people I’ve known and interacted with for a couple years.

It’s also why I’ve turned down a number of requests for testimonials. It’s just not worth the risk.

I realize it’s easy to get caught up in the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” world of testimonial swapping, but my advice is… don’t.

If you’ve really done good work, the testimonials and endorsements will come in over time.

No need to rush or hurry things up by whoring yourself out to every marketer who asks for a piece of your credibility in hopes they’ll reciprocate.

Be stingy with testimonials.

Protect your credibility.

Because at the end of the day, it’s all you’ve got.

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

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Last year, I bought the Kindle version of The 25 Best Time Management Tools & Techniques by Pamela Dodd and Doug Sundheim.

What intrigued me about the book wasn’t the title or the authors, but rather the story behind the book.

You see, Dodd and Sundheim took a different approach to writing their book.

First, they bought the top 20 time management books on Amazon based on user ratings. They read all of them, noting which time management tips and strategies were most commonly cited or recommended. Finally, they picked the top 25 tools and techniques and then wrote their book.

In a way, The 25 Best Time Management Tools & Techniques is like the Cliff’s Notes version of productivity and time management. It doesn’t include everything you’ll ever want to know about the subject, but it does include some of the best information you can find in a book format.

I’ve read the book once, referenced certain chapters when needed, and now plan to read it again.

The Kindle version is only $7.99; the paperback is currently $14.93. Either way, it’s a steal, and I highly recommend you get a copy.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. If you’ve got the time management basics down and you want to supercharge your productivity (and your income) this year, there’s still time to sign up for Perry Marshall’s 80/20 Productivity Express.Similar Posts:

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So I just signed up for this… the $500K class in particular:

http://clickora.com/productivity

The reason?

I’ve been “stuck” at essentially the same income for the last 5 years or so. And I’m betting it has something to do with my daily work habits.

Not that they’re bad, per se. But there are many things I bet I could be doing better. And so that’s why I’ve signed up for Perry Marshall’s “80/20 Productivity Express.”

Here’s what Jack Born (Perry’s affiliate manager) says about it:

[I wanted to tell you] about Perry’s new coaching program on how to apply 80/20 thinking to productivity.

http://clickora.com/productivity

It’s called 80/20 Productivity Express and it’s definitely NOT a “me too” time management course.

Perry’s sharing his recent success at breaking through some of his own productivity challenges AND his team is each giving their unique talents and perspectives on getting projects done fast.

He just spent several weeks in China — mostly out of communication with us — and while he was gone his business grew.

Who wouldn’t love that?

That’s just the tip of the iceberg that Perry’s going to share.

I just listened to the free Q&A preview webinar and I was impressed.

That’s why I signed up.

There are two tracks:

• One track is for people who want to crack the $100K mark.

• The other track is for people who’ve already cracked the $100K mark, but now want to crack the $500K mark.

If you’re truly serious about breaking through your own self-imposed productivity barriers in 2012, I recommend you join me here:

http://clickora.com/productivity

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

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The world is full of unexamined opinions. If you doubt this statement, here’s how to prove it to yourself:

Educate yourself deeply on just about any subject, then go engage somebody in a discussion. After that discussion, go have another. And another. And another.

Over the course of these discussions with your friends and family members — maybe even a few neighbors and co-workers — you’ll quickly discover just how common unexamined opinions are. You may even quietly wonder to yourself, “How could these people be so ignorant?!”

The thing is, we all have blind spots at different points in our lives. We’ve accepted certain things as truth — we’ve blindly accepted “the way things are” — without subjecting these assumptions to any kind of rigorous “truth filters.”

• Would you be willing to challenge some of your cherished — but potentially unexamined or under-examined — opinions?

• Would you be willing to read an author who has a contrary opinion?

• Would you be willing to fully investigate a serious issue — reading even those opinions and theories that differ from yours?

I used to be afraid of such mental exercises, but no longer. Over the course of the last 10-plus years, I’ve become willing to examine my beliefs at a very deep level.

Now I relish this kind of self-examination. It challenges me. It pushes me to greater levels of understanding.

But not everybody can tolerate different viewpoints. When I quoted Howard Zinn recently, a disgruntled reader unsubscribed and lashed out at me. He wrote:

I don’t want my box cluttered by someone who appears to think Howard Zinn was a historian. Even liberal historians such as Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., have harsh words for him. Marxist historians like Zinn create “false consciousness”, not understanding.

Ignoring the fact that this reader contradicted himself in the span of three sentences and knows nothing of how much history I read, perhaps his criticism of Zinn is legitimate. That is why I still intend to examine his allegations in the near future.

Because I want to know the truth.

I’ve found very few people actually want to know the truth. Many claim they do, but their actions prove them otherwise. They’d rather read gossip mags, watch ESPN, and research their next big purchase.

I’m hoping you’re different.

I’m hoping you have the guts… and the raw mettle… to closely examine your opinions and pursue the truth no matter how much discomfort it causes you. Make this one of your resolutions for the new year.

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

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The U.S. Post Office is drowning in red ink, posting multi-billion dollar losses every single quarter of the year.

Their solution?

Charge more, provide less.

I kid you not, this is the strategy being pursued by the Post Office in 2012.

They’re going to save an estimated $3 billion in expenses when they:

• Slow down first-class postal service.
• Eliminate next-day delivery for letters.

Oh, yeah… they’re going to raise the cost of a first-class stamp, too. So you get the privilege of paying more for slower delivery times.

Cutting Costs at the Post Office

The USPS’s cost-cutting plans also involve consolidating processing centers, closing 3,700 post office branches, and laying off approximately 100,000 employees. (You can verify these statistics here.)

The one thing I don’t see in the plans is a reduction in retiree benefits, and that just blows my mind.

This year the Post Office owes $5.5 BILLION in retiree health benefits alone. That does not include pension pay, which makes the figure much higher.

The first thing the Post Office should do (if they want to survive) is reduce or eliminate retiree benefits. Retirees add NOTHING to the business… and never will. They will continue to be a net drag for years, possibly decades.

The Big Myth People Have Believed for 70 Years

The big myth people have bought into ever since World War II is the idea that, once you retire, a company will take care of you until you die.

While this has worked for a few lucky people at the front end of the curve, it simply will not work for “the rest of us.”

The traditional retirement equation works something like this: Work 40 years, get paid for 60+.

But since when does this math add up?

Best-case scenario, for this equation to work, you’d have to be underpaid by at least 33% for 40 years.

Of course, retiree benefits are considered sacred. And in the Post Office’s case, they are actually required by law to pay retiree health benefits in advance…

In announcing the financial results Friday, officials also said that questions remain about the Postal Service’s ability to make a $5.5 billion payment to prefund retiree health benefits. That’s a congressional mandate postal officials have long argued is onerous.

Frederic V. Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, agreed. He said the announcement about the Postal Service’s finances comes as no surprise and underscores the need for changes.

“For the Postal Service to improve its financial situation, the government must let USPS manage its financial affairs in the most effective manner possible like any other business,” he said.

“Essential to that process would be for Congress to fix an onerous congressional mandate from 2006, which obligates the Postal Service to make annual payments of $5.5 billion to prefund future retiree health benefits.,” Mr. Rolando said. “No other institution in America, public or private, has to do this.”

Maybe the Post Office isn’t so crazy after all. They would change how retiree benefits are handled — if they could.

But they can’t.

This video explains it well:

Yet Another Case of Government Meddling

I have two observations:

Observation #1. The U.S. government has a clear conflict of interest. They are receiving $5.5 billion per year from the Post Office to prefund retiree benefits. That means the money does not need to be immediately spent on retiree benefits, so the Treasury probably spends it on other things. (This is how Social Security works. Money paid in today is not saved in a segregated account. It goes into a general fund where it is then spent on everything but Social Security.)

Observation #2. The Post Office is suffering financially because of government meddling. For the Post Office to be viable long-term, they must be allowed to operate as a private business without interference from the Congress or laws that prevent the Post Office from operating efficiently. As Rolando says so well, “The government must let USPS manage its financial affairs in the most effective manner possible like any other business.”

Of course, I’m highly skeptical the Congress will ever take its grubby hands out of the Post Office’s pockets.

Therefore, the USPS will most likely face bankruptcy in the near future. Then everybody who benefits from that system will be screwed, including the Postal employees and the retirees and the customers who send and receive mail.

In the end, nobody will win.

And Congress is doing their level best to make sure of it.

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

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As you may know, I spent most of September and part of October on Siesta Key beach in Florida. In spite of some of the challenges of working and traveling at the same time, I’d do it all over again. But there are a few things I’d do differently.

The biggest failure on my part was to make sure I had a QUALITY Internet connection. I knew the condo we were staying at had a common WiFi connection and I assumed it would be good. Turns out, it was terrible. It was so slow and unreliable it reminded me of working on a 56K connection. It was that bad.

This influenced my productivity quite a bit. I was not able to work as quickly as I normally do. Simple tasks took five times as long.

While this was extremely frustrating, it probably forced me to spend more time on the beach. If any given task was taking too long, I’d often just head down to the beach to play with my kids.

But when I plan my next big trip, I’ll plan better. I’ll make sure I have a quality Internet connection. If that means working at a Starbucks on designated days, so be it. It’s a small price to pay for efficiency.

If you’re planning to travel much, I strongly recommend you read Steve Scott’s article The Dark Side of the Internet Lifestyle. In it, he uncovers six negative impacts of running an Internet business while traveling. He also outlines six strategies for maximizing your travel enjoyment — without adversely impacting your business.

One of the suggestions Steve makes is to complete your work before any trip that will last one month or less. He writes:

This recent trip has reinforced the importance of doing work ahead of time. My original plan was to do the important things throughout the trip. Unfortunately I didn’t anticipate all the obstacles I would encounter during this time.

That about sums up how I felt. Fortunately, I had intentionally reduced my work schedule in anticipation of reduced productivity and unplanned obstacles. So I was able to weather the difficulties without too much trouble.

In addition to the suggestions Steve makes, I would suggest minimizing the number of overnight stops you have to make, especially if you have young kids. Every move to another place is a major ordeal with young kids. Plus, it’s pretty much impossible to work if you’re all sharing a single hotel room.

So: If you have young kids, and you plan to work during your trip, make sure any extended vacation involves staying at a single location for at least a few days and preferably for at least a week.

This is why we stayed in a single location for a month. We were able to save money on our rental; we were able to save money on food by shopping at a grocery store and eating in; and we were able to develop a weekly routine that had a good balance of work, exercise, and relaxation.

Do you have experience running a business while traveling? If so, feel free to share any advice you have in the comments.

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Everybody is talking about the merits and disadvantages of mixing politics and marketing, and by “everybody” I mean two people in particular.

On Google+ Travis Campbell asks:

Are you willing to put your brand at risk to stand for what you believe in? Aaron Wall does great work, and is someone I’ve learned a lot from. How do you react to this? Is this something you’d consider?

When I saw Travis’s question and the accompanying image, I was immediately reminded of a post I wrote three and a half years ago. In that post, I asked Does Transparency Hurt Business?

Of course, there are many opinions on the answer to this question. My opinion? Transparency is a good thing — even if that means talking about your own mistakes or issues that polarize people.

Taxes, Government & Fraud… Oh, My!

In case you hadn’t noticed, I intentionally talk about things I support and things I disagree with, including bad government policies, excessive taxation, and fraudulent marketing practices.

So a small banner stating “I Support the Occupy Movement” is fairly innocuous, especially compared to some of the things I’ve written about.

For proof I haven’t shied away from “hot button” topics, you can peruse these posts (if you haven’t already):

• How Taxes Kill Business
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My business seems to be doing fine in spite of my views on business, marketing, and politics.

Actually, that’s not quite correct. I know for a fact I’ve attracted new clients because of my views. And potential clients I may have offended probably would not have been a good fit for me anyway.

“A Narrow Focus on Marketing Stunts Your Thinking”

As luck would have it, Drayton Bird wrote about politics and marketing on Sunday, November 6th, a few short days after Travis had posted his question on Google+.

Apparently, Drayton received some criticism from a fellow speaker a couple weeks ago. This person advised Drayton to stop writing about politics and focus solely on writing about marketing.

Drayton responded by writing a blog post. He titled it “Politics and marketing: why I won’t shut up no matter how much it bores you”.

He writes:

Two weeks ago one of the speakers at EADIM took me aside and made some helpful suggestions. One was that I should stop writing about politics – “I find it infuriating” he said.

He said I should stick to marketing, because that’s what I’m known for and what people want to hear about from me.

I respect his views so I listened, said nothing and thought about it.

He may be right but I don’t think so.

I believe a narrow focus on marketing stunts your thinking. We live in a wider world; everything we do is affected by what politicians do. If you doubt it, consider the current chaos and ask who is responsible.

[...]

Maybe this sort of thing doesn’t interest you and you don’t think it is worth learning from. I disagree. As John Donne wrote, “No man is an island”. Nor is our trade.

As Drayton points out, marketing is not practiced in a vacuum. Rather, it is connected with many other areas of life. We can learn volumes by observing and analyzing what is happening in other fields.

You see, marketing requires you to understand the world in a way most people never will. It requires you to understand human behavior in a way most people never will.

The depth of your understanding of the world and human behavior is based largely on your study of complicated topics like history and government and politics and (dare I say it?)… religion.

What I Didn’t Tell Travis

When I replied to Travis, I never explained why I write about controversial topics. It’s simple: I like to write about things that I get emotional about. That includes subjects most people avoid for fear of its effect on their business.

But I’m not too concerned about the potential impacts on my business. That’s because I feel that writing and publishing ought to be more about changing minds than making a buck.

Sure, you gotta have some money to get by. That’s why I work. But one of my primary motives in blogging is to persuade readers to see things differently than they do now. The money is secondary.

What do you think? Is it ever a good idea to discuss your political or religious views in a business context? Leave a comment and let me know.

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

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There are far more beggars in Florida than there are in Colorado.

It’s hard to go anywhere without being panhandled.

Not only that, the beggars in Florida are much more aggressive. They walk in between cars stopped at busy intersections doing their best to make eye contact. They make you uncomfortable.

Clearly, these men and women are professionals.

One man in particular stood out to me.

As he used body language to communicate with me through the windshield, he held up his index finger, raised his eyebrows, and mouthed:

“Just one penny? Just one penny?”

I gave him a dollar.

After all, who gives a poor man just a penny?

As I thought about this experience, I wondered:

• Am I being aggressive enough in my salesmanship?
• Am I asking for the sale more than once?
• Am I accepting the first “no” as the final answer — or am I viewing the first “no” as the first opportunity to get to “yes”?

Lesson: If your prospects don’t feel a little bit uncomfortable, you’re probably not selling hard enough.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. For more lessons hidden in this simple story, read the comments below.Similar Posts:

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A man named Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr., was the 2011 winner of the America’s Got Talent competition.

Prior to trying out for America’s Got Talent, Landau was washing cars in West Virginia.

Landau loves to sing. He would sing all day as he washed cars. And he would sing in his church on the weekends.

Yet it would be many years before the rest of the world discovered Landau’s unique voice and talent.

Success is largely a combination of two things: talent and timing.

Like Landau, you can have all the talent in the world, but still be washing cars. It takes the second “success ingredient” — timing — to finally step into your destiny.

You can’t predict or force your defining moment to show up. But by continuously practicing your craft and refining your talent, you’ll be ready for success when your time comes.

Today, Landau is the winner of a $1 million prize, as well as his own show in Las Vegas. From car washer to millionaire in about 6 months.

“It’s been a long, hard journey,” Landau said after learning he was the winner, “ever since I was a kid. And it’s finally paying off.”

What future are you preparing yourself for?

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

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