5 Tips for Mentor Relationships that Produce Positive Results

Certificates from the County of Los Angeles, California State Assembly, California Legislative Assembly and the City of Los Angeles for "Businessperson of the Year" and "Small Business of the Year"

When I started my business, there was no Internet - to speak of. That is, unless you could call CompuServe (a modified CB simulator chat service), the Internet. It wasn’t until the early 90s and AOL that we could send email. It was a dark, dismal, lonely time.

At the Los Angeles Daily News, I had developed what I called a “renegade revenue” department of the newspaper, the Special Projects Division. There, I could come up with ideas, present them to management along with a business plan. If it was approved, we could run with it. We did some really off the wall projects and were very profitable. I should have known right then that I was an entrepreneur, but the word never resonated with me.

The Tribune Company was forced to sell my employer due to FCC issues and I had to take my fate in my own hands. I had no close relatives who were business kingpins, so I had to search for someone I trusted. This mentor had to be someone who had no skin in the game, a neutral third party who could give me advice. Luckily, I knew of a c-level newspaper executive whom I had met at conferences that just moved to Southern California .

Tip #1: You never know where your mentors will come from or when you will meet them. When networking, always be at the top of your game.

I didn’t know if he would remember me, or even take my call. I called his new office. He did remember me and I explained my situation. He invited me to lunch to talk - I assumed it was because he didn’t know many people in his new city.

Tip #2: Find someone to mentor you who is not a self-proclaimed expert. Find someone who is (or was)  a success in your field and is respected by others in the industry.

We’ll call him Howard. Howard (surprisingly) knew a lot about the work I had been doing and had great advice. He asked me if I wanted to be ‘another small fish in a big ocean, or a big fish in a small pond.” Message received, I decided to strike out on my own.

My background in renegade marketing would pay off. I presented my ideas to several regional shopping centers and I got five big clients. Now all I had to do was start my business. I had no concept of how to start a business.

Tip #3: Get business structure help from licensed professionals; someone who doesn’t have a disclaimer at the bottom of their website.

I went to the EA (EA is an Enrolled Agent - someone licensed by the IRS as an authorized tax practitioner) who did my personal taxes for references. I walked away with her advice, the name of a good accountant and a lawyer. I also found out that I’d have to get a loan to bankroll my exploits.

Many long, lunches later, I had everything in order. My business was set up legally and I had fulfilled all government requirements. Today the Internet would make things much easier.

Tip #4. Finding good mentors, those you can trust and resonate with is not an easy task. Don’t attach to the first person you meet; find someone who “gets” you.

By the way, I did get that bank loan and paid it back. My business powered on and was featured in Entrepreneur Magazine. You can read the actual article here - which gives my 1986 "Formula for Success." I was so successful that, in 1990, my company was named Small Business of the Year by the California State Assembly.

Because I have never been one not to take notice of cultural trends, I researched and devoured books. As the world changed and my business progressed I went deep into the writings of by my favorite futurist, Faith Popcorn. The turning points for my business and career also came from the many mentors I worked with during my career, especially Clay Felker, founder of New York Magazine; advertising and marketing genius, Tom Culligan and the engaging Peter Glen, author and customer service advocate for whom the Retail Advertising & Marketing Association's annual Peter Glen Award is named.

Tip #5: On your way up, you may be lucky enough to meet people who become “the greats” of the future. Be sure you keep in touch with them.

My business has morphed in different directions over the years and I still look to those who succeeded for advice. The fact that they will still get on the phone humbles me.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Through a relationship with Pitney Bowes Small Business, they have invited me to be a part of their latest initiative the Pitney Bowes Smallbiz Mentorship Contest which starts today and runs through September 22, 2014.

Pitney Bowes is the perfect example of a business born through mentorship and partnership. Arthur Pitney needed a mentor when he worked as a clerk in a wallpaper store and invented a machine to imprint envelopes with postage. Luckily, he found Walter Bowes who sold a letter-cancelling machine to the Postal Service. Together, they invented the postage meter. 

You can win a customized, one-on-one mentorship with me or my colleague Brian Moran, a small business expert dedicated to helping small businesses owners run better businesses. I’ll work closely with you to help tackle the biggest obstacles you are experiencing, or ones that are keeping you from the success you imagined. We’ll  review your business plans together. Then, I’ll make some actionable recommendations, and follow through with you until the end of the contest period. Hopefully providing some useful guidance to help you ignite your business.

To enter and win a mentorship, all you need to do is "like" the Pitney Bowes Small Business Facebook page and post a comment of less than 200 words letting us know us why your company would benefit from a mentorship program. Then, tell your friends and co-workers to like your post. Every Like helps your chances. Visit this page for the complete (and official) Terms and Conditions. 

National Small Business Week. Entrepreneurs are the future!

When I wrote my Ultimate Online Customer Service Guide, I mentioned that small business often has the edge over large. Being able to change quickly and stay closer to customers and employees are a couple of the main advantages. This week is National Small Business week and I'm glad that that small businesses are getting their due.

A few facts have stuck in my mind (these are from the Small Business Administration (SBA):

• Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.
• Employ just over half of all private sector employees.
• Pay 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll.
• Have generated 64 percent of net new jobs over the past 15 years.
• Create more than half of the nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP).
• Hire 40 percent of high tech workers (such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers).
• Are 52 percent home-based and 2 percent franchises.
• Made up 97.3 percent of all identified exporters and produced 30.2 percent of the known export value in FY 2007.
• Produce 13 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms; these patents are twice as likely as large firm patents to be among the one percent most cited.

I'm proud to be a small business entrepreneur and it's nice that our nation chooses to salute the backbone of our economy.

New Report Finds Photos Generate 50% More Impressions for Small Business on Facebook; Twitter: Quotes

Roost, a tech company committed to helping small business go social, today announced the findings from its second quarterly report on the state of local business and its use of social media. More than 10,000 Facebook and Twitter posts by small businesses across over 50 industries were evaluated, indicating that the most effective post types for small businesses to drive meaningful interactions were photos on Facebook and quotes on Twitter.

• Not All Posts Are Created Equal: The Roost social marketing platform for small businesses provides impression and engagement metrics beyond the standard Likes, Comments, Shares and Retweets. Roost takes a deeper look at the various types of posts for each platform and determines which ones yield the highest levels of interaction amongst local business fans and followers.
  
• Photos Rule on Facebook: The two greatest engagement tactics on Facebook are Likes and Comments, with Likes leading the charge. Roost finds that the best way to achieve Likes is through photo posts, quotes and status updates, with photos providing 50 percent more impressions on average than any other post type and quotes providing 22 percent more interactions when compared to all post types.
  
  Findings also show that questions generate almost two times as many comments as any other post type. The second most popular way to get fans commenting is through a compelling business status update. Facebook Shares are a great way to disseminate business and product messages across fans’ networks and links are 87 percent more likely to be shared than any other post type.  
  
• Quotes Rule on Twitter: Roost’s report finds that the most effective engagements for local businesses communicating on Twitter are Retweets. Quotes drive, on average, 54 percent more Retweets than any other type of Tweet, with status updates being the second highest driver of engagement.

“These results are telling for the small business community and provide direct guidance on how to achieve the highest level of engagement with their Facebook fans and Twitter followers,” said Alex Chang, CEO of Roost. “Facebook is inherently visual, so it follows that photos would ignite more activity here, while twitter began, and largely remains text-driven, the home of the pithy soundbite, so it makes sense that quotes create the most engagement on that network,” added Chang.

The study was conducted in September of 2011 by analyzing Facebook and Twitter posts created on the Roost platform by over 8,000 small businesses across over 50 industries.

9 Uncomplicated Tips for Professional and Business Success in Social Media #SmallBiz #Custserv

It's time to get down to the business of social media. This week I'll be speaking again at the eBay Radio conference in Las Vegas (OK, it's more like a party - but I digress) and the most savvy online sellers are already excited to jump on the social media train.

2010 eBay Radio Conference

Like anything new, Social Media has attracted gurus, experts, mavens and scammers, each with a different story to tell. I've been studying Social Media and community for over a decade and I've learned a few important truths.

1. The internet is still a community
   Yes, SEO is important, updating your webspace is too, but keep in mind that the town square of years gone by has moved to the internet. Conversations are barely held in person or over the phone - they happen online. This is a community, where you need to respect your friends (your audience).
2. It is not a soapbox - don't sell, share
   As fascinating as your sales message or opinions are to you, constantly barraging folks with your importance doesn't cause your friends to interact. They don't make people want to converse with you or do business with you. They want to know the person behind the tweets (or the blog or the page) is a real person, with a real life.
3. Be a person
   Every name on the web has a person (or persons) behind it. Share a little of your personal day. If there is more than one person at your business handling the tweeting for your Twitter account, have them sign their tweets with a caret and their initials, like ^mc.
4. Time those tweets
   If you tweet at the same time every day, you're no doubt hitting the same audience over and over. We are creatures of habit and log onto Twitter around the same times every day. Set your calendar to vary the times you tweet - you will hit a different audience.
5. Answer back & retweet
   If you're not interested in what other people are saying, why should they feel engaged in your comments? Read, comment, inquire. Be a part of the community.Share valauble information you see in your online streams to build credibility with your followers. Save your promotional tweets for one in five - one in six is even better.
6. Quality still wins over quantity
   Is it really important that you have a gazillion followers? I think not. There's really no way to effectively follow tens of thousands of people. Go to wefollow and categorize yourself and your business. Find people who are interested in your message and/or your product. Follow them. If they like what the see on your Tweetstream, more will follow.
7. Follow back those of like mind. Do you care about a new MLM program? If that's what you are intesterted in, follow them - but don't clutter up your stream with unusable verbage. If you don't care about the latest get-rich-quick program, pass when those citizens follow you. You have a market. Know it and follow back. 
8. Commit to the community
   Fill out your Twitter profile with links to your site or your Google online profile. Let people know who you are. Isn't it more interesting to know about the person you're following? Is a faceless profile even the least bit interesting?
9. Visit your Facebook stream at least twice a day
   Check the posts of your friends on your Facebook home. Again, comment or "like" what they have to say. It's all about the interaction. Don't post your sales message to other peoples walls. Friend and join fan pages of people and businesses you like and respect. Communities only survive when there are active participants.

Followers and friends stay with you only if they like, respect and trust what they discover.