Entrepreneur? Or just ‘self-employed’?

By Steve Sipress

Just when you thought last month’s non-stop media circus surrounding the largest-ever Mega Millions lottery jackpot was nothing more than a memory, the story is back in the news again, now that the final winner has come forward to claim the remaining one-third share of the record $656 million prize.

One popular routine used by the news media every time there’s a large lottery prize about to be won is the obligatory “man on the street” interview session with people waiting in line to buy tickets. There might as well be a script, because the questions – and answers – are basically the same every single time it’s done:

The reporter shoves a microphone in front of an excited ticket buyer’s face and asks the classic question, “What will you do if you win?”

The immediate response is almost always the same: “I’ll quit my job.” (Sometimes there are slight variations, such as “I certainly won’t go in to work tomorrow – that’s for sure!”)

The politicians must not be watching any of this, because all they keep talking about is creating more jobs.

A couple of weeks ago, my sister-in-law Lisa took a full week off from work to spend time with my beautiful wife, Michele, and their mother while I attended a business conference.

All week long, everyone took notice of how happy Lisa was (and she even has what people would call a “good job”), and she herself was constantly counting down the remaining hours of her freedom before she had to go back to work.

Lisa also had extra time to read her daily newspaper, which consistently contained stories and headlines about America’s “need” for more jobs.

It’s a well-accepted fact of American life: People “just try to get by” all week long, so they can spend two straight days without having to work. There certainly isn’t a popular restaurant chain called, “Thank God It’s Monday,” is there?

Over the years, popular song titles have told the same story:

• “I Don’t Like Mondays”

• “Working for the Weekend”

• “Friday (Everybody’s Lookin’ Forward to the Weekend)”

• “(Monday I have) Friday on My Mind”

And of course…

• “Take This Job and Shove It”

And yet the American people continue to allow themselves to be brainwashed into believing that “we need more jobs.” Almost all politicians will be positioning themselves as “job creators” for the next six months or so, preying on people’s pathetic lack of ambition to try to get themselves elected.

The facts are indisputable that Americans hate their jobs (even most of those who have “good jobs”), and that the government is horrible at “job creation” – creating too few jobs, and almost zero “good jobs.”

I thoroughly enjoy being a coach and consultant to aggressive, forward-thinking, action-taking entrepreneurs. They are motivating, exciting people to be around.

That’s why although I accept the fact that most typical Americans choose to settle for a life of conformity, mediocrity and general dissatisfaction by adopting a “job mentality,” it makes me sad to see the majority of small-business owners choosing the same limiting lifestyle by settling for being merely “self-employed” instead of striving to become wealthy.

I had the pleasure of attending an intimate gathering of some of Chicago’s top thought leaders Tuesday, featuring a talk and Q&A session by Ziad Abdelnour, author of “Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics.”

As Mr. Abdelnour writes:

“America was created to be a land of opportunity, where the individual could take an idea, develop it, and create wealth in the process. Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with this notion.”

Somewhere along the line, we’ve become a society where the vast majority of people have no real desire to become wealthy – or to help others do the same. Our teachers, politicians and even parents focus on teaching us to conform and strive for nothing more than a comfortable, upper-middle-class-at-best existence.

Creating wealth requires work. It requires drive. It requires passion. It requires sacrifice. And most of all, if requires the guts to take risks.

This country needs more people to step up and lead the way out of our economic funk. It needs more “wealth creators” – not more “job creators.” And those leaders are our nation’s true entrepreneurs.

As Mr. Abdelnour observes, “Just once, I’d like to see a politician saying he wants to create more millionaires instead of saying he wants to create more jobs.”

How about you? Are you one of the few small-business owners who truly wants to be wealthy and to help lead this country back to being the wealthy, admired, respected, world-leading power that it used to be?

Steve Sipress is director of Chicagoland’s Sharpest Entrepreneurs and the author of “Ultimate Entrepreneur Success Secrets: Inspiring Stories of Triumph by Chicagoland’s Most Successful Entrepreneurs.”

Steve also is a small-business consultant and coach. Look for his insights here every Wednesday.

You can read more on Steve’s blog: www.SteveSipress.com.

Connect with Steve via Facebook. On Twitter: @stevesipress.

Join Crain’s LinkedIn group for Chicago entrepreneurs. And stay on top of Chicago business with Crain’s free daily e-newsletters.

Crain’s small-business editor Ann Dwyer is on Google+.

The No. 1 lesson for excellent marketing results

By Steve Sipress

Just a few years ago, I was a frustrated small-business owner providing a top-notch service but struggling to find new clients and grow my business. That’s when I discovered that marketing is the most important role any small-business owner could possibly have, and I decided to become a serious student and practitioner of direct response marketing.

Since then, I’ve skyrocketed my own business and those of my clients by constantly reading direct response marketing books and newsletters, taking courses and attending events to further my education and hone my skills. I constantly brainstorm with mentors, coaches and colleagues. And I make sure to get an extensive free education by getting on a ton of sharp marketers’ mailing lists and paying attention to smart marketing in all different media.

So it should come as no surprise to you that I’ve been bombarded over the past couple of weeks with Valentine’s Day-related promotions. Some of them were extremely creative and effective, and some were relatively boring and predictable.

But they all followed the advice of one of the greatest direct response copywriters of all time, Robert Collier, who, 75 years ago, first taught the No. 1 lesson for getting excellent marketing results: “You must enter the conversation already going on inside your customer’s mind.”

There have been several topics dominating Americans’ minds over the past couple of weeks, including Groundhog’s Day, the Super Bowl, the Republican primary race and Valentine’s Day.

Did you capitalize on these opportunities to connect with your audience by creating marketing messages and special offers involving one or more of these topics, such as “Our special will run six more weeks because the groundhog saw his shadow” or “Here’s a special offer because we love our customers”?

Even if you didn’t, here’s the good news: There’s always another hot topic on the horizon.

For example, next week is President’s Day. And people are still thinking and talking about the GOP battle, and will likely be for weeks – if not months – to come. Smart marketers are even still capitalizing on the emotion-filled Valentine’s Day holiday, calling February “the month of love.” You may even find a way to combine all three of these themes in a promotion!

Keep in mind that you don’t have to provide products or services related to any particular holiday or event to capitalize on the opportunities they provide. You’re limited only by your own creativity, which you can cultivate and improve by studying and brainstorming with other sharp marketers.

The calendar is one of the best friends an entrepreneur, business owner or sales professional can have. Consider its pages a never-ending stream of opportunities to connect with your target market, and constantly be on the lookout for ways to capitalize on all kinds of holidays and events.

Now here’s your opportunity to show off your own marketing skill: Post a comment below telling me how you used a recent holiday or event to grow your business, and/or how you plan to leverage an upcoming special occasion that everyone will be thinking about.

Steve Sipress is director of Chicagoland’s Sharpest Entrepreneurs and the author of “Ultimate Entrepreneur Success Secrets: Inspiring Stories of Triumph by Chicagoland’s Most Successful Entrepreneurs”.

Steve also is a small-business consultant and coach. Look for his insights here every Wednesday.

You can read more of Steve’s business-building tips and strategies on his blog: www.SteveSipress.com.

Connect with Steve via Facebook. On Twitter: @stevesipress.

Join Crain’s LinkedIn group for Chicago entrepreneurs. And stay on top of Chicago business with Crain’s free daily e-newsletters.

The one word that can kill your business

By Steve Sipress

I don’t watch a lot of television, but when I do, I love to watch entrepreneur-related shows.

I’ve been a fan of the CBS show “Undercover Boss” since its U.S. debut on Super Bowl Sunday two years ago. Ten days ago, I watched Stephen Cloobeck, Chairman and CEO of timeshare giant Diamond Resorts International, explain his business philosophy, “The Meaning Of Yes.”

Essentially, this means that Diamond Resorts employees always seek to say “yes” to its customers, resulting in “a relentless commitment to customer service.”Of course, such a philosophy is crucial in the hospitality industry, but it certainly applies to every business. It’s an unfortunate fact of our increasingly impersonal culture that simply providing basic customer service is a powerful differentiating factor in the marketplace. If your business adopts a policy of seeking to please every customer, you will be in a position of tremendous advantage over your competition that offers only an impersonal, lackluster or unsatisfactory customer experience.

Even if you can’t always say “yes” to any request, one of the most important things you can do as a business owner is to manage the expectations of your customers, clients or patients.

That being said, with this concept of “The Meaning Of Yes” fresh in my mind, I feel compelled to share a recent personal experience of mine that stands as a cautionary tale for all small business owners and entrepreneurs.

On a friend’s recommendation, I reserved a suite in a luxury resort hotel on a recent business trip to meet with an out-of-state client. I was told that the resort had recently emerged from bankruptcy, and was a beautiful property looking to make a clean start.

Unfortunately, my experience was more telling of why the company went into bankruptcy, instead of how they will rebound from it. Later, I was informed by one candid employee that while the resort had new ownership, it was still under the same poor management. Here’s my personal horror story …

When I first pulled up to the entrance, there was no valet or bellhop in sight – in fact, there was a couple who told me they had been waiting for an attendant to show up for more than 15 minutes. So, after my own short wait, I proceeded to unload my own bags out of the trunk of my rental car and carry them into the lobby myself.

(As I was standing at the check-in counter, an out-of-breath young man came running up behind me, explaining that he had been on his lunch break when I pulled up. A valid excuse for him personally, but that did little to overcome my negative first impression of the resort. Only one valet/bellhop for a property with more than 400 rooms? And no one to cover for him on his lunch break? Really?)

LESSON: Are you properly prepared to handle the number of customers you plan to acquire? As my companies grow, I am always quick to add additional staff to handle customer inquiries and problems. After a booming 2011, I have already hired three additional customer-service assistants here in January 2012, with plans to add at least two more in the very near future.

Not a great introduction to the resort, however I had not yet heard the deadly word “no.” That was about to change – and change drastically. Before I would unpack a single item in my suite, I would hear the word “no” more than my rambunctious cocker spaniel on his most rebellious day …

• Could I check upon my early arrival three hours prior to the regular 4 p.m. check-in time? “No.”

• Wasn’t there even a single empty suite available? “No.” (The front desk clerk had the audacity to lie to me that the hotel was full, when I knew full well that it was operating at only about 25% capacity.)

• Had the maids cleaned and prepared even one single suite in the three hours since the 11:00am check-out time? “No.”

• While I waited, was there any hotel information I could read (I asked, pointing to a stack of such material right in front of me at the front desk)? “No.” (Of course, I was later handed that exact material with my room key tucked inside when I was finally allowed to check in.)

• Could I please be seated outside at the hotel restaurant when I decided to grab some lunch while waiting to be allowed to check in? “No.” (Changed to a “yes” when I politely refused to eat indoors, offering to stand in the middle of the near-empty restaurant and wait for an outside table to become available.)

• Could I be placed into a suite with one of the hotel’s famous spectacular views? Here’s where I heard my first “yes” – but unfortunately it was a case of over-promising and under-delivering, as it took no fewer than three moves of me and my luggage to finally put me into one such suite.

The annoyances continued, as I had to make no less than four calls to the front desk for items which should already have been in my suite, such as hangers and an Internet cable. (I was promised a wireless router to make up for all my troubles – but it never came, despite repeated assurances over the remainder of my stay.)

Overall, the resort and its employees were extremely impressive. But it was unfortunately a case of “too little, too late” to make up for my initial hours of frustration upon my arrival. Do you think I’ll ever consider returning to that resort, or referring others to it? Not a chance, of course.

LESSON: Even if your initial knee-jerk reaction to a customer request is “no,” as business owners we must train ourselves and our representatives to approach every customer request with an attitude of “Can I figure out a way to make that happen?”

A response of “Let me see if I can do that for you” will go a long way toward gaining favor with prospects and customers, especially in this difficult economy when everyone is much more careful how and with whom we spend our money than ever before. But the attitude of “No, that can’t be done” can absolutely kill your business.

Should you adopt such a dangerous mindset towards prospect and customer requests? My simple advice: “No.”

Steve Sipress is director of Chicagoland’s Sharpest Entrepreneurs and the author of “Ultimate Entrepreneur Success Secrets: Inspiring Stories of Triumph by Chicagoland’s Most Successful Entrepreneurs.”

Steve also is a small-business consultant and coach. Look for his insights here every Wednesday.

You can read more of Steve’s business-building tips and strategies on his blog: www.SteveSipress.com.

Connect with Steve via Facebook. On Twitter: @stevesipress.

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Are you being naughty or nice – to yourself?

By Steve Sipress

At this time of year, we’re reminded that Santa makes a list (he even checks it twice).

Many people have shopping lists – for groceries during most of the year; presents during this holiday season.

And most entrepreneurs and business owners are constantly making – and hopefully completing – “to do” lists.

But one thing most business owners are sorely lacking is a list of customers and prospects with which they communicate regularly and build an ongoing relationship.

And that’s a shame.

Building and improving such a list is what makes all the difference between a transactional business and a relationship-based one – between one where the business owner must always wonder where his or her next sale is coming from and one with long-term security and value based on systems.

All sharp marketers know that “the money is in the list” (and more accurately, in the relationship with the list).

Yet the overwhelming majority of business owners refuse to realize this truth.

Think about it…

When’s the last time you enjoyed a great dining experience, and the restaurant was actually savvy enough to collect your name and contact information?

How often do you walk into and out of a retail store, sometimes even shopping for a significant amount of time, without anyone asking how they can keep in touch with you? (Someone always asks “Can I help you?” – but unfortunately they’re really only referring to that one visit.)

How many websites do you visit and leave without ever being asked to enter your email address (or asked in a thoroughly non-compelling way)?

All are prime examples of businesses run by people who don’t get it.

You want to make sure that isn’t you.

Actually, don’t worry if that is you right now – it used to be me. It’s not your fault; you’ve probably never been taught where the true wealth is in any business. Ask any business owner what his best assets are, and he’ll likely talk about things like his employees, or his equipment, or the money in his bank account.

Yes, it’s certainly true that all of those are valuable, but if a sharp businessperson lost all of those, she would get them all back sure enough – if she were only able to keep her list.

If you get the opportunity to sit on Santa’s lap during this holiday season, you should ask for a list of your ideal prospects with whom you’ve built a great relationship.

But if you don’t find one all nicely packaged and wrapped under your tree, you should make it a priority for yourself in the coming year to concentrate your efforts on building and growing not only a sizeable list of your ideal prospects, but developing a strong relationship with them.

Will that take work? You bet it will. But by investing your time, money and effort into it, by the time next year’s holiday season rolls around you’ll be able to buy all the fancy presents you want – for your loved ones, and for yourself.

And that’s my holiday wish for you.

Steve Sipress is director of Chicagoland’s Sharpest Entrepreneurs and the author of “Ultimate Entrepreneur Success Secrets: Inspiring Stories of Triumph by Chicagoland’s Most Successful Entrepreneurs”.

Steve also is a small-business consultant and coach. Look for his insights here every Wednesday.

You can read more of Steve’s business-building tips and strategies on his blog: www.SteveSipress.com.

Connect with Steve via Facebook. On Twitter: @stevesipress.

We welcome your comments, but to comment, you have to register! Registration is free – click here to get started.