Radio Free Enterprise

Last time it was monkeys, this time it’s a donkey (pronounced DUN-key if you’re Tony Kornheiser).

As someone who has seen his share of challenges over the past couple of years, I really appreciated the moral of this story of a donkey who fell down an open well. If you’re a believer in the power of persistence, you’ll love The Donkey Story.

We all encounter difficulties of one kind or another. But what really matters is not what happens to you, it’s how you respond.

In this story the donkey finds himself in a spot none of us would wish on our worst enemy - and then learns that the people he’s depending on to rescue him have decided to not only turn their backs, but actively make his situation much worse. His patient, creative and unexpected response is one for the ages.

The narrator is Alex Mandossian, an Internet Marketing guru whom I have followed for many years.

Give it a listen.

This 7:20 video is the first of seven segments from W. Clement Stone, the famous salesman, entrepreneur, author, philanthropist and motivational speaker.

I’m not sure Napoleon Hill could possibly look or sound more like an old codger than he does in this 7:02 black-and-white video. Nonetheless, here you will find the essence of his landmark book Think and Grow Rich, as well as the germ of the current blockbuster video and book, The Secret.

I don’t know what makes Ulysses S. Grant an authority on family businesses, but this short animated video manages to impart some very important advice in a humorous format. Check it out!

Two sisters, who started Native Angels Home Care and Hospice in 2000 with just two patients, are now serving 760 patients per day and generating over $9 million annually.

Bobbie Jacobs-Ghaffar and Lesa Jacobs can now add another accomplishment to their list: the two members of the Lumbee Indian Tribe have been named National Small Business Persons of the Year by the SBA at the Small Business Week 2007 conference held April 23-24 in Washington, DC.

Among the reasons cited by the SBA in selecting Native Angels were the North Carolina company’s record of stability, employment and sales growth.

During my mother’s illness in the period leading up to her death last July, my family was blessed to have found a local company which provides the same type of service. Very few businesses engage so intimately with people’s lives as these folks do, and they are truly angels bringing blessings at perhaps the most difficult point in any person’s life.

Congratulations to these two sisters and all the angels out there.

It’s how much you keep.

Just ask David Hayden. At one time this serial entrepreneur’s net worth (on paper) exceeded $200 million. Today his stock portfolio has evaporated, he is having a hard time finding V.C. funding for his latest start-up, he’s selling many of his most prized possessions and is being sued for $24 million by Bank of America.

Like many “idea guys” in the late 1990s, Hayden created multiple business concepts which were embraced passionately by the investment community, but less so by the marketplace at large. During those go-go days, he would have been well served to take some of his profits of the table. Liquify as it were. But he didn’t. Nor did he pay close enough attention to the fine print of many of the contracts he was signing.

He also made the common mistake of accumulating possessions which were way out of line with his true needs, or actual cash flow. Now, the 52 year-old Hayden is licking his wounds and banking on his next big deal.

I recommend every entrepreneur read this cautionary tale at CNET (originally published in the New York Times) and then come back and post a comment with your reactions. What should Hayden have done differently? What would you have done differently?

Give it a read and give it some thought. Then come back here and share with the crowd.

Radio Free Enterprise is intended to be supportive and instructive to business owners and those who wish to become self-employed. So why would I share an article with you that lists the 5 most annoying habits of successful entrepreneurs? To be supportive and instructive.

The article in Fortune Small Business magazine is excerpted from the book “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,” written by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter. It outlines 5 behavior patterns the authors have seen displayed repeatedly by successful entrepreneurs, behavior which ultimately impedes their companies’ growth and annoys the heck out of those working with them.

The behaviors include an inability to stop being competitive in every phase of life, having to say “yes, but…” every time someone approaches them with a new idea, and a tendency to play favorites among employees. None of these indicate malice or evil, they’re just human nature for a high-strung Type A personality. But they can be real obstacles to taking a business to the next level.

My suggestion is to read the article and consider buying the book. You might just meet someone you recognize!

Is there an aptitude test for entrepreneurs?

Many people have created tests which purport to tell you whether you have what it take to found and operate a successful small business. But I’m not sure how accurate they are.

My belief is that any human is capable of achieving practically anything, provided that they are sufficiently commited. As for necessary aptitudes, wow… I’m not sure a list that long is appropriate for a blog posting.

The Wall Street Journal’s StartUp Journal has a test that I took myself before sharing it with you. It measures your motivation relative to Achievement, Affiliation and Power. Fortunately, my primary motivation being Achievement aligns me with what the survey describes as “most entrepreneurial people.” Unfortunately, based upon my answers to their questions, I wasn’t terribly motivated by any of these factors.

My guess is that the way they phrased the questions didn’t really connect with me. I only “Strongly Agreed” with two statements and did not “Strongly Disagree” with any of them.

Take the test for yourself and see what you think. Then post a comment on your results.

I’ve never heard of Todd Brown before. Now that I have, I’m not sure that I’ll buy what he’s selling when he gets around to trying to sell it to me.

But there’s one thing that I know Todd Brown and I agree on: giving away free information is a great way to build your book of business. He and I both believe in and are practitioners of Education-Based Marketing.

Todd has put together a page full of nine free informational videos entitled Habits Of The Top Internet Marketers. I watched the first and second - and half of the third - before I decided I had had enough.

But that’s okay because a great maxim of Education-Based Marketing is that you want your audience to either turn up the volume or change the channel. I chose to do the latter for a number of reasons including the green-screen background effect he’s using, the tone, volume and tempo of his speaking voice, and because I didn’t find myself learning anything new or interesting.

Others will find great value in his message and turn up the volume to 11 by opting into his email list.

The primary point I want to drive home is that Todd is reaching a huge new audience of potential customers by casting his bread upon the waters in the form of potentially valuable information available for the asking. If you’ve watched or listened to any of my information on Education-Based Marketing, you’ll know that I believe he’s onto something.

People often ask me about my background - where I cut my teeth in business. In this podcast you get a pretty clear peek at my entrepreneurial roots in the printing business.

This week I was invited to speak to the Franklin Technical Society, a group of folks involved in providing printing and information services to government agencies, corporations and other large organizations here in the Washington, DC area. It was quite a trip down memory lane.

In attendance were executives from the American Red Cross, Library of Congress, Government Printing Office, United States Army and large local printing companies including Stephenson Printing and our hosts, Goodway Graphics.

Though I spent over 25 years in the printing industry, it had been at least six since I last addressed a room full of printers and their clients. This industry has been enduring wave after wave of technological onslaught for decades. And, every time they think they can come up for air, another unforseen marketplace upheaval rocks their world.

Well before desktop publishing, optical disks, the Internet and sub-$100 desktop inkjet printers with photographic quality, printers have dealt with revolutions like the Linotype in the late 19th Century and offset printing in the mid-20th Century. The pace of change only seems to accelerate over time.

If you’d like to hear me tell some stories on myself, and learn about how one industry has continually adapted to change, give a listen to this week’s podcast. And post a comment to let me know what you think.