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How to Spot Vendors Who Are “Drivers”

By Alex Mandossian

Outsourcing is one of the best ways to increase your productivity as an entrepreneur. But the type of vendor you choose can make or break the gain you realize. The wrong vendors may save time in performing certain tasks, but require you to invest additional time in supervising and motivating them.

For best results, I look for vendors who are “drivers.” The fastest way to describe a driver is to borrow a definition I once saw on Wikipedia for entrepreneur: “Someone who boosts productivity from a lower to a higher level.”

Here are four ways to spot a driver when evaluating vendors:

Drivers initiate. They self-start without extra supervision. In fact, they don’t have any supervision. They just drive. If they can’t contact you in phone or by person, they don’t get discouraged. They just keep driving.
Drivers don’t get discouraged if other team members – in other words, their own colleagues – fail to meet their deadlines. It doesn’t matter to them. They just keep driving.
Drivers report, question, and update you on their current progress, and they [Read more…]

The #1 Question Asked by Resourceful Vendors

By Alex Mandossian

One of the easiest ways to identify high-quality vendors when outsourcing is to evaluate the questions they ask you. Top vendors ask, “What is your chief complaint?”

Why does a great vendor look for your chief complaint? The French have a term, raison d’être, which is “reason for being.” Most vendors know that their reason for being is to solve problems.

If there’s no complaint, there’s no reason to serve you. If you have no problems, then a vendor has no place in your life. You won’t have anything to outsource to them.

Reliable vendors approach the challenges they uncover with what Earl Nightingale called [Read more…]

Choose Deadline-Sensitive Vendors When Outsourcing

By Alex Mandossian

When choosing vendors, many people think that the most important attribute to look for is accountability. But I believe that deadline sensitivity is more important, because it protects your business and automatically guarantees a higher-quality vendor.

If someone is deadline sensitive, they’re not only reliable, but they’re also accountable.

For example, imagine that you are meeting someone for lunch, and the person is late. If he’s accountable, he’ll own up to his mistake and say, “Sorry, my bad.” If he’s late again, he says, “Oh, sorry. My fault.” When he’s late a third time, he’ll say, “You know what, I just can’t seem to meet the deadline.”

When the deadline is a lunch meeting, you may be inconvenienced and irritated. But what if the deadline is for delivering sales copy, putting up a web page, or shipping your product? The result may be [Read more…]

Outsource to the Right Team

By Alex Mandossian

When outsourcing your weaknesses, it’s obviously important to assemble the right team of vendors and/or employees. But what many entrepreneurs don’t realize is that timing is key.

As Jim Collins explained in his international best-seller, Good to Great, the executives who ignited transformations from good to great did not first figure out where to drive the bus and then get people to take it there. Instead, they first got the right people on the bus – and the wrong people off the bus – and then figured out where to drive it.

They said in essence, “Look, I don’t really know where we should take this bus. but I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.”

So before you figure out where your company is going or who will do what, you need to first get the [Read more…]

Boost Productivity by Outsourcing Weaknesses

By Alex Mandossian

When trying to increase productivity and improve results, most people mistakenly try to improve their weaknesses. A better, easier and more reliable approach is to strengthen your strengths and outsource your weaknesses.

Trying to strengthen weaknesses only results in a lot of strong weaknesses, which is not the way to have a world-class company. It puts your focus on what you are not good at or don’t enjoy, and a universal truth is “What you focus on expands.”

It’s OK to have weaknesses; everyone does. By the time you were three years old, your brain had all of the synaptic connections it will ever have. Where you’re most densely connected, those are your strengths. Where you’re not densely connected, those are your weaknesses. You are who you are, so don’t try to fix you.

Instead, fix the role you are trying to live into. Take an inventory of [Read more…]

Using Instagram – Content Creation Apps For Business

By Alex Mandossian

Are you using any of the free content creation mobile apps that exist within the iPhone/iPad app store and Android Market for your business?

2012 is all about sharing high-quality, unique, and original content on social media. And it’s all about visuals.

As a business owner or entrepreneur, you should be using your mobile device to create and share valuable content with your communities on social media. It’s never been easier than it is now to take photos or record videos that can help spread the word about your business.

I recently started using the mobile photo sharing/editing app Instagram as a way to share news and interesting content with my communities online. Instagram is one of the most popular iPhone photo app that individuals AND brands are using this year (about 27 million users total), and it was recently announced that the Android version is set to be released soon.

Here’s an example of a photo I shared as a way to get the word out about [Read more…]

How To Turn Customers into Promoters [VIDEO]

By Alex Mandossian

It’s not a faith in technology. It’s faith in people. — Steve Jobs

As social media and the web has become more and more a part of the lives of consumers, many marketers are asking themselves the following question: “What can we do to turn our customers using social media into loyal brand advocates?”

It’s a good question to ask. Social media provides an extremely unique opportunity for businesses. Never before has it been easier for consumers to talk to others about what they think of a brand’s services or products.

I want to share a video on this subject that I found helpful. It’s from the Harvard Business Review YouTube channel. In it, Fred Reichheld, fellow and founder of the loyalty practice at Bain & Company, explains how Apple builds loyalty. Take some time to watch it now:

Do you think social media has helped companies reach out to [Read more…]

Developing Productivity Rituals [VIDEO]

By Alex Mandossian

You already have daily rituals that you follow throughout your day—brushing your teeth, making the bed, reading news on your iPad—so it’s no surprise that creating rituals to enhance your productivity can help you get more done, faster, easier, and better.

I watched a video recently on the official Harvard Business Review YouTube channel that I wanted to share with you. In it, Tony Schwartz, president and CEO of The Energy Project, lists four habits that help him get more work done.

Take a few minutes to watch the video now:

What tip from the video are you going to try to implement into your own daily life? Tell me in the comments section below. I’d love to hear from you! —Alex

By the way, I’m launching my new and only membership site, MarketingOnline.com!

MOL is not for entrepreneurs or independent professionals who believe that achieving a wildly successful lifestyle requires a strict separation between your business and personal lives.

We’re a community of family-centered entrepreneurs who whole-heartedly believe that the exact opposite is true: that the ONLY path to joy and success is to combine your personal and professional lives.

Click the image below to gain access:

Join THE Home For Family-Centered Entrepreneurs! | MarketingOnline.Com

By Alex Mandossian

Marketing Online is not for entrepreneurs or independent professionals who believe that achieving a wildly successful lifestyle requires a strict separation between your business and personal lives.

Marketing Online is a community of family-centered entrepreneurs who whole-heartedly believe that the exact opposite is true: that the ONLY path to joy and success is to combine your personal and professional lives.

Our approach to marketing and entrepreneurship is relevant in today’s uncertain economy, because for us, “family” goes far beyond blood relationships and marriage ties. It’s having an “affinity,” “likeness” or “kinship” with our clients, vendors and colleagues, too.

Trying to separate your personal and professional lives is as challenging as trying to separate the sun from the rays it produces. They’re entwined with each other, no matter what you do. So why not celebrate and embrace that fact … rather than having it cause personal guilt or public shame?

Marketing Online believes the [Read more…]

Using Pinterest for Business – Finding New Prospects

By Alex Mandossian

Have you started using Pinterest for your business? It’s growing extremely fast! There are a lot of opportunities for businesses to take advantage of on the site.

In case you haven’t heard of the site, “Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes” (Source).

To help inspire you to create your own Pinterest account for your business, I’m sharing a few of my favorite brands that are successfully using the site. To explore each account, click on the images below:

[Read more…]

How to Spot Vendors Who Are “Drivers”

The #1 Question Asked by Resourceful Vendors

Choose Deadline-Sensitive Vendors When Outsourcing

Outsource to the Right Team

Boost Productivity by Outsourcing Weaknesses

How To Turn Customers into Promoters [VIDEO]

Developing Productivity Rituals [VIDEO]

Join THE Home For Family-Centered Entrepreneurs! | MarketingOnline.Com

Using Pinterest for Business – Finding New Prospects

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