Friday, April 29, 2011
Research Shows People Who Are Their Own Bosses Are Happier
In fact, the number of nascent entrepreneurs has increased significantly from 1999 to 2005, with about 1.4 million people more venturing into a new business. Factors that seem to determine who is more likely to start a new enterprise include:
- Age (25 to 44 years old)
- Gender (men are the most likely to start an enterprise)
- Ethnic Background
However, these factors do not determine the success of the business. Psychology Today published an interesting article about what influences one to quit their job and strike on their own. Several studies also show that small businesses are becoming more inclusive, with more minorities setting up their own ventures.
Many are deterred by the cost of setting up a business, as well as by the uncertainty of the outcome. Several small businesses close within the first year of operation, according to data by the Small Business Administration. Also, small business owners barely get by with their earnings, or still make less than those who have waged jobs.
Assuming the risk of failure comes with the territory of small business ownership, and it takes a certain type of personality to accept this and other risks. This study published by the University of Central Arkansas’ Small Business Advancement National Center examines the psychological qualities of entrepreneurs. Researchers used a DISC test (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Conscientiousness) to evaluate several small business owners, and got the following results:
- Those who started a small business exhibit dominance traits, and have “a desire for independence.” However,
- “No specific personality trait emerges as a determining factor that explains why people start a business.”
A different study published by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship offers these characteristics as strongly related to the propensity of entering a new market:
- Higher ambition
- Strong locus of control (the amount of control that individuals think they can have)
So what is the motivation behind starting a business? The Psychology Today article cites an example of a person who was fed up with his office’s policies, harassment, and backstabbing. Some people also are less than thrilled about having a boss. From personal experience, I can say that having a bad boss can make not only your job, but your life miserable. It can get to the point where you keep toying with different excuses to not show up to work every time you wake up in the morning.
The UCA study also cites these reasons for starting a business:
- Wanting independence
- Previous experience
- No other economic alternative
- Family history
- Job satisfaction
- Finding the right opportunity
It seems like there is a complex relation between personality traits and the influence of internal and external factors in the creation of a small business. Given the amount of factors that come into play in the creation of an enterprise, research has yet to identify the key “ingredients” that make up the archetypal entrepreneur.
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5 Steps to Starting a Franchise – Failure is Not an Option
Going from a single-entity operation to a franchised business is no easy task, but companies can pull it off if they take the right steps. Unlike many other industries struggling to recover on the heels of the Great Recession, the International Franchise Association reports that the franchising industry is poised for growth in 2011. It predicts more than 19,000 new franchise establishments will be formed this year, resulting in nearly 200,000 new jobs added to the U.S. economy.
But how exactly does a business successfully replicate itself, and where should business owners start? Before you move forward with plans for franchising, be certain your business is in line with the following five steps. —Emerald S. Morrow
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- Make sure your business concept can effectively be duplicated.
Owning and operating one company is very different than running multiple businesses as a franchise. “Anytime a company wants to engage in franchising, the most critical step is demonstrating that the initial concept can be cloned beyond that one or two outlets that the current entrepreneur may own,” says Patrick Kaufmann, professor and franchising expert at the Boston University School of Management.
And keep in mind a red flag should go up if the business is too dependent on the people running it. Relying more on a person or team of people for your business’ success than you do on the actual business concept could mean you’re not ready to franchise. You should have full confidence in your business’ ability to flourish based on concept alone.
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- Create a solid training system for your franchise.
“Franchising depends on your ability to systematize the knowledge that you have,” says Kaufmann. This means business owners must implement a roadmap in the form of operations manuals to maintain consistency throughout each franchise. Franchising is about selling knowledge and a certain way of doing business, so you must provide franchisees with adequate instruction, training, manuals, support and techniques.
A franchisee should be able to refer to the manual(s) in your absence and have a clear understanding of how the business will be run. “How can you teach someone to work your business if you don’t have an operations manual in place?” asks Miriam Brewer, director of diversity for the International Franchise Association. “That is a recipe for disaster.”
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- Research and hire a franchise attorney.
Franchising is a federally regulated industry, and not following the law can get you into trouble. So before you file any paperwork, hire a lawyer with franchising expertise; a lawyer with experience in business or corporate law just isn’t enough. “Most attorneys will say they know all about [franchising] when in fact they don’t,” says Burton Cohen, founder of Florida-based franchise consulting firm Burton D. Cohen and Associates L.L.C., and professor of strategic franchising at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. If you need a starting point, the American Association of Franchisees and Dealers has a list of franchise lawyers by state (www.aafd.org/legaline.php).
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- Work with your franchise lawyer to develop a Franchise Disclosure Document.
The International Franchise Association defines an FDD as a document that discloses information about the franchisor and franchise system to the franchisee. In the document, there are 23 sections covering everything from the franchisor’s history and finances to contracts and franchisee fees. Any franchise sale must comply with FTC rules, one of which is the filing of the FDD. This underscores the need to hire a lawyer with franchising experience: “You don’t want someone creating your FDD who is just learning [franchise] law for the first time,” says Andrew Sherman, lawyer and author of Franchising & Licensing: Two Powerful Ways to Grow Your Business in Any Economy (AMACOM; $45). “No matter what, those documents have to be right, or you’re subjecting yourself to federal and state penalties.”
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- Have a plan for recruiting franchisees.
Don’t forget franchisees are a significant part of the franchise system, so a sound recruiting structure must be in place to attract them. Brewer says businesses should ask, ‘What would make a prospective franchisee decide to go into business with me? What is my plan for recruiting?’ In addition to making sure your business concept is solid, your contracts are fair and you offer ongoing training and support to your franchisees, consider having a “discovery day,” where prospective franchisees come to learn more about your business. This gives you an opportunity to make a good sell and see if those interested in your company will be a good fit for catapulting your business toward franchising success.
For more on franchising your small business pick up the April 2011 issue of Black Enterprise.
Ready to take your small business to the next level? Join us at Black Enterprise's annual Entrepreneurs Conference, taking place May 22-25, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia. Visit blackenterprise.com/ec for more details. As an incentive BE is offering you a discount on early registration: Just enter code BEDG295 and receive $200 off.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Success – How Badly Do You Want It?
“Know what you want – and get it”
- Sushmita Sen, Miss.Universe, 1994
‘Take what you want, and pay for it’ says God
- Old Spanish proverb
The Secret Of Success
I’m going to tell you a little story.
It’s about a man who wanted to know the secret of success, and decided to find out from a Guru.
Now this was a wise, old sage who knew every secret of Life. He lived in splendid isolation on a mountain-top. Our hero set out on his difficult journey to meet this wise man.
He was determined to reach the top, and so he got over many obstacles on his way. Fighting through thick forests, scaling huge boulders, escaping from wild beasts, at last he clambered to the peak and lay on the ground, gasping for breath.
A few minutes later, he sat up… and beheld the Guru seated in deep meditation.
Silently, he waited. Almost an hour later, the Guru opened his eyes and glanced at the man. He raised an inquiring eyebrow.
The man stammered, “Oh wise and all-knowing seer, I come to you in search of the secret of success.”
The Guru didn’t reply. He simply stood up and started walking down the hill.
The man followed. He found it difficult to keep pace with the old man, who seemed to skip from one rock to the other like a mountain-goat. They walked steadily for another hour, and he wondered if they were going back to the foothills.
Suddenly, they came upon a clearing. In the middle was a clear lake. The waters were still, glinting softly in the rays of a setting sun.
The Guru walked up to the edge of the lake and beckoned the man closer. With a gesture, he asked him to kneel down.
Unquestioningly, the man did as the Guru ordered.
Suddenly, he felt himself seized by a strong hand at the back of his neck. His head was forced down under the water, and held there firmly.
“This is some kind of test,” said the man to himself, as he sat still.
A minute passed, and he was growing breathless. The grip on his neck hadn’t weakened. Another minute crawled by, and now he was getting anxious. His heart beat heavily in his chest, his throat tightened, and his lungs screamed for air.
He struggled to arise, and the old man’s grip became even stronger, pressed him further down into the water.
Now, the man was in a panic. He thrashed around wildly, trying with all his energy to loosen the vise around his neck. Precious seconds passed, and he felt his strength slowly ebbing away.
He thought he was going to die!
Just as he was about to give up hope, rueing his folly in ever coming here, the hand on his collar let go.
Violently leaping onto the shore, the man drew in his breath in heaving gasps. Delicious oxygen flooded his lungs. His vision grew clearer, the hammering in his throat slowed down, his hands stopped trembling.
And he felt a deep anger welling up from within himself.
Standing up, he faced the Guru and screamed: “Are you CRAZY? You could have killed me!”
The Guru simply stared at him for a long moment.
Then he spoke for the first time.
“You wanted to know the secret of success. Here it is. Do you remember, just a few minutes ago, how badly you wanted to take that next breath of air? When you want success that badly, you will have it. That’s the secret of success.”
Without saying another word, he turned around and walked back to his hilltop abode.
******
So…
How Badly Do YOU Want Success?
Ask any entrepreneurs if they want to succeed, and you’ll get a firm ‘Yes’. But ask them what they’re willing to give up, sacrifice, suffer, accept, tolerate and forego for that success – and you’ll get a wide range of responses.
A few expect success to be automatic, instant, effortless. We usually call these folks ‘dreamers’.
Some are willing to invest a little time and effort to get results, but won’t go beyond that, being satisfied with whatever they can achieve, or grumbling that this isn’t going to work anyway.
And a very small minority are able and willing to give it their all. They don’t know or accept any limits. They don’t settle for less than their ambitious goals. They are ready to do whatever it takes to reach them – because they want success so badly.
It’s good that they are so determined – because often, the most worthwhile accomplishments require a certain level of commitment to attain. After all, if a target were so easy and simple that anyone could hit it, would everyone really want to?
Every Dream Will Be Tested
These words, spoken by one of my mentors, made a deep and lasting impression on my mind. Because they are so true. When you dream of doing great things, reaching new heights, making a difference, creating enormous value, attaining rare levels of success, those dreams will definitely be tested.
And you can make them come true – provided you have what it takes, and are willing to give it your all.
My ambitious dream was to build an information business that would generate enough in profit to sponsor expensive heart surgery for under-privileged children. At the time I set out with this goal, nothing could have seemed more impossible or unreachable. I mean, here I was selling two or three ebooks every week…and a heart operation cost nearly $2,500.
But there was a special variable at play. My passionate purpose. And my determination to make it happen.
Slowly, steadily, things did happen. I moved up the scale of infopreneur success. Launched a series of products. Made more sales. Generated more profits.
That alone may not have helped – but then, synergy kicked in.
Every promotion I did for raising funds had a higher conversion rate than usual. A Government subsidy brought down the cost of an operation. Buyers of my ebooks were touched by the passion and purpose, and started telling their friends. Soon we had over 1,000 donors, each contributing a little amount of money to the fund.
And today, seven years later, I am happy to look back on 76 smiling little faces – all operated for heart defects from the “impossible and unreasonable” project that’s my online information business!
That’s because I wanted this badly enough.
You can do it too…with anything YOU want badly enough.
Is Success Easy?
Was it a cake-walk? Did things magically go right all the time? Was it always smooth sailing?
Absolutely not.
All along the path, there were obstacles to overcome. Some of them were major, many were minor. And for me, a few were nearly deal-breakers – like the recent series of incidents that almost brought it all crashing down (I blogged about it here, in “Scary, Intense, Yet Fun“).
But I was prepared. And ready. A great part of that was due to an amazing book called “Mountains Beyond Mountains” (suggested by my friend and mentor, best-selling author Guy Kawasaki). It’s a biography of Dr.Paul Farmer, one of the most inspiring people I’ve heard of, and whose non-profit ‘Partners In Health’ is touching the lives of thousands of downtrodden people in desperately poor countries like Haiti and parts of Africa.
“Mountains Beyond Mountains” is a book I recommend that every entrepreneur read – and keep for reference, from time to time. It teaches a timeless principle that every worthy goal or mission will be beset by a series of challenges to face and overcome. You scale a mountain, reach its peak, think you’ve arrived at the destination, only to look out and see more (and higher) peaks beyond.
You cannot see those from the bottom of the mountain. You can only see them once you’ve scaled the first peak. And when you do, you already have what it takes to try and climb the next one too.
The only thing that keeps you going is how badly you want to.
It’s what will carry you through – to sweet success!
Dr. Mani
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Hackerspaces: Hubs For Tech-Minded Do-Gooders?
Following the recent disaster in Japan, the Tokyo Hackerspace--an open community space where hackers get together to play with hardware (among other things)--channeled its hive mind not into its usual playing with lasers and forgetting to shower, but rather into helping the country recover from earthquake and nuclear-related woes.
The Tokyo Hackerspace's most high-profile project is its NETRAD geiger shield, an open-source geiger counter shield that detects local radiation levels. Eventually, the hackerspace hopes to expand its sensor network to the Fukushima region. But the geiger counter project is just one of many community-oriented initiatives from the Tokyo Hackerspace. Other quake-related projects include solar lanterns, personal disaster protection packs, and even geodesic dome kits.
The Japan disaster didn't somehow switch the Tokyo Hackerspace into this altruistic mode; it was already there. The group is also working "smart" canes for blind people, solar cell phone chargers, and a rice farm wireless sensor network.
Lest you think that the Japanese are alone in their community-mindedness, other hackerspaces around the world are helping out with the diaster relief---and working on similar projects of their own. Ohmspace in Oklahoma sold T-shirts and stickers to raise funds for the Tokyo Hackerspace's solar lanterns, and Arizona's Heatsync built 300 lanterns for the Tokyo group.
Washington, D.C.'s HacDC is working on its own disaster preparedness project, dubbed Project Byzantium. The project aims to develop a communication system for users to connect and share information in the absence of easy Internet access. Potential use scenarios include natural disasters, a government Internet shutdown (a la Egypt), or "a zombie apocalypse in which the personnel responsible for maintaining key infrastructure have all been turned." See, still nerds, just nerds with hearts of gold.
This isn't to say that hackerspaces don't work on superfluous projects as well; the Tokyo Hackerspace, for example, recently made LED clothing for dancers at a local Michael Jackson tribute concert. But when people with enough free time, knowledge, and good intentions gather together to tinker with gadgets, positive outcomes will often result.
[Photo Credit: John Kit]
29 Things No One Told Me About Business
I was asked during a phone interview recently to share a few things I wish I knew back when I first started out in the world of Internet marketing. Things that maybe could have made my journey easier or lessons I wish weren’t so hard learned. It got me thinking about where I’ve been, what I’ve jumped over (or, trip over, as the case often was) and the guidebook I wish someone would have handed me when I was still fresh-eyed and new to the world.
I wanted to expand on some of the answers I gave during that interview. Below are 29 things no one told me about business that I really wish they would have.
1. You can save yourself 20 redundant emails (and maybe some hurt feelings) simply by picking up the phone or walking across the room to ask the person that question you’re trying to type out in an email.
2. There will be days when you really don’t want to get out of bed to start up again. Do it anyway. Unless there are tears involved. Then stay there until you can make them stop.
3. Firing people sucks, but employing people who don’t fit sucks even harder. Look for culture and value fit. Most other things can be taught, picked up, or beaten into them.
4. You’ll learn more from people who think differently than you, than from those who share your way of thinking. My greatest business conversations have been with people who sit on the opposite side of the spectrum from me.
5. Today’s nemesis may be tomorrow’s ally. The opposite is also true.
6. If something’s not working, change it. You must fail faster.
7. Today’s hot trends are tomorrow’s Friendster. Focus on what you’re after, not the tool you’re using today to get there. Twitter may not last, but your need to have real-time conversations with customers and approach them on their terms will remain. How will you do it post-Twitter?
8. If you’re lucky, your employees will always be smarter than you. Embrace that.
9. You will become who you align yourself with. Pick wisely.
10. Always take the lunch. You never know where it will lead or what unlikely friendship it will create. That stranger in the bar could grow up to be your business partner. [Right, Rhea?]
11. No is a complete sentence.
12. Hire an accountant; never touch your own books. That’s not your strong suit and it’s a waste of your time to mess it up.
13. Getting involved with Internet drama, public flame wars or emotional train wrecks is for people with too much time on their hands. It’s distracting and will derail you from your real purpose. [Though sometimes it does brighten up a slow day.]
14. Always remember why you’re doing this. Know, at your core, what you’re trying to build and why you’re trying to build it. It will see you out of some difficult times. Make sure your team remembers it, too.
15. Don’t trust people who routinely answer questions you never asked. They’re trying to justify something – maybe to you, maybe to themselves. Either way, it probably won’t help you.
16. Having people pen hate blog posts with your name in the title is a sign you’re doing something right. Your skin will get thicker and it will be okay. You’ll actually come to find the attacks amusing.
17. You won’t know always what you’re doing or have all the answers. You just need to know where to go to find them. Or at least have the balls to make a decision and stick with it.
18. When debating with someone, act under the assumption that you’re right. Even if you’re not. If you show uncertainty, you lose anyway.
19. The world will not end if you don’t get that blog post out on time. Eat dinner. And go for that run.
20. The best clients are the ones you’d be friends with and who you’d happily support even if they weren’t paying you. We’re lucky to have more than a few of those currently on the books. However, we do still charge them. ;)
21. If the client isn’t happy, it’s probably because you did a crappy job establishing expectations. Do it better next time.
22. The people in business who you think have it the most together are probably Charlie Sheen’ing it in their home lives. Don’t psych yourself out.
23. It’s never the post you like that will become viral. It’s the best *they* like. Remember that.
24. You’ll get more from promoting others than you will from promoting yourself. You’ll also learn more, be introduced to cooler people, and hear about things sooner.
25. Business is based around relationships. The relationship you have with your partner, with your employees, with your colleagues, and especially with your competitors. Invest in them and treasure them. You’re lucky to be surrounded by people constantly surprising you.
26. Talent and luck only get you so far. You need to create your own opportunity.
27. Think before you execute, but don’t get stuck there. A mediocre idea that’s acted upon will always trump the genius idea still in your head.
28. As partners, you don’t always have to agree on the individual steps, just the course.
29. You are going to meet some amazing people. You just have to relax enough to enjoy the ride.
Those are 29 things I wish someone had sat me down and told me when I started on this path. What do you wish someone told you? What lessons have you learned the hard way? Give me one.
Read more posts on Outspoken Media »
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How To Drive Traffic To Your Company's Contact Page
Every business website should have a "Contact Us" page. It's a must-do. It legitimizes your business by offering a real person to contact, and helps you gather leads. But are you making the most of your contact page?
First, study your website analytics to find out how people use your contact page. If you don't already have a web analytics solution--which helps you analyze your site traffic, including specific details of your visitors and how they navigate your site--sign up for the popular and free Google Analytics.
Is this the only page people send queries from? That means you only have one contact form. Instead, why not have one on every page?
People are used to receiving information nearly instantaneously online. Attention spans online are very short and people will use only the most easily accessible information.
If your contact form is hard to locate and visitors have to go through many pages to reach it, few will use it. But having the form on every page or including a link that goes to a page with the form, it eliminates the obstacle of having to find it, enabling people to easily submit queries.
One great thing about this technique is that it reduces the visitor's urge to close your website. If the contact form is right there, viewers are more likely to take action.
Now before you quickly move on and put a contact form or contact page link on every page of your site, here's another technique for making your contact form more effective. Anyone can put a contact form on every page, but it's the way you word your "call to action" form that makes the difference. Your "call to action" form must be worded in a way that clearly inspires visitors to take action and instructs them how.
Every website has a unique goal, whether it's to contact your company, download a particular product, purchase a product, set an appointment, or sign up for your newsletter. Your call to action depends on the nature of your website goal. You need to craft your call to action to not just achieve your goal, but to relate that goal to your target traffic.
Here's an example of a good call-to-action statement that relates to its targeted audience, describes clearly how to contact the business, and also offers bonus incentive for doing so:
"To contact us, simply enter your first name, e-mail address, and comments below and we'll send you a free copy of our e-book The Seven Ways to Double Your Income, valued at $29.95. Contact us now."
Wording is crucial whenever you're writing a call-to-action statement. Words are powerful and must be carefully crafted to get your message across quickly and effectively. Also, the call-to-action font size must be large so it can be easily seen amid your website text.
Here are few ideas to get you started crafting a good call to action:- Include verbs or "doing" words.
- Offer an incentive for people to contact you, such as a free cup of coffee, coupon or discount, free initial consultation or e-book.
- Remove the risk factor for people by including words like "guaranteed" or "no obligation" so they don't feel pressured to sign anything or think that they'll lose money. Remember, no one likes to be pressured into doing things.
- Instruct people exactly how to contact you. You'd be surprised how many people struggle to find your contact form or have trouble understanding how to complete it. Remember, it may be easy for you, but not for other people.
- Don't require people to give up a lot of information. Many internet users want to remain anonymous and fear the security risks of sending private information online. If you ask people for too much information, they'll get scared or irritated and won't want to fill out your contact form.
- Make the form easily accessible. Is it buried under layers and layers of pictures or text so it's hard to see? Make the form stand out.
- Keep it simple.
Finally, direct visitors to an automatic thank-you page after they fill out the form. This builds trust and shows them that you care about them. It also ensures that the visit doesn't immediately end after the form is complete.
This post originally appeared at Entrepreneur.
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How To Get Your Product Into Walmart
Getting into the retail major leagues is something many entrepreneurs dream about. Have you ever envisioned your products on the shelves of a big box retailer but wondered just how to get your company ready for the prime time?
According to experts--and some entrepreneurs who've already made the leap as vendors or suppliers--there are some basic principles that can help guide you through the process. If expanding into the retail big leagues is your goal, these eight steps can help you get placement for your product.
Click here to see the steps >
This post originally appeared at Entrepreneur.
Begin With Questions
Before you try to make the leap to multiunit retail, ask yourself these basic questions: Does your product fit a demand just waiting to be tapped? Have you already found a multiunit retailer that's a good fit for your product? What is it about your product that would make a buyer see fit to take a chance on your product? If you land the deal, can your production handle the volume? Do you want to sell your product directly to the retailer, or do you want to license your product to a manufacturer who'll then distribute it for you?
Lake Charles, Louisiana, chef Kevin Hester took the licensing approach with his Cajun Chickcan, a wire caddy he designed to solve the problem of beer can chicken recipes run amuck by the cooking bird's toppling tendencies.
After patenting his idea and marketing the caddies to local, independent hardware retailers, Hester asked himself all the right questions and discovered his product was ready for prime time. It didn't hurt that a popular cookbook on making beer can chicken and a barbecue guru extolling the beer-tender fowl's virtues were fueling demand for his product among American barbecue chefs in love with the idea of poultry impaled on a can of suds.
Hester's next step? Knowing that he needed some help getting exposure for the Chickcan, he went in search of a licensee. Walking the aisles of Home Depot and Lowes led him to Rodney Barber, owner of Bayou Classic in Brandon, Mississippi, who agreed to license the product, manufacture it and get it on the shelves.
"Barber invented the turkey fryer, and he saw what a good product could take off and do ... He helped me launch into the big box stores, which I would not have been able to do [on my own]," Hester said. Now the Chickcan is on the aisles in Wal-Marts throughout the country, and Hester earns royalties from an estimated $4 million in sales per year.
Plan Ahead for Profit
Before you even think about becoming a multiunit chain's vendor, you need to make sure you can build a reasonable profit margin into your product's wholesale price. Plan for a manufacture cost that's one-fifth the retail price--or less. Then build the cost of packaging, commissions, marketing and distribution into the wholesale cost of your product. Check the retailer's guidelines for other fees as well that you'll have to build into the cost of your product.
A discount retailer will trim profit margins to the bone to squeeze those famed low prices out of products--but there are some advantages for vendors willing to go lean. In the case of Wal-Mart, for example, there's the sheer power of numbers that goes along with exposure to the world's largest market.
Retired retailer Martin Lehman, a volunteer with SCORE , a national organization that provides business counseling for entrepreneurs, says companies wishing to sell to big discount retailers need to closely examine their bottom line. If a widget costs $1 dollar to make, and the retail price is $4, and the product wholesales to boutiques at $2, a big box retailer may only offer the manufacturer $1.25--just 25 cents over the cost to make it. "They're a tough buy," Lehman says. "A manufacturer has to ask, 'Can I make enough with that quarter?'"
Look for the Right Store
A search for the best retailer for your product starts with you browsing stores for similar or related products. Spend some time in local retail stores to see what's on the shelves. Picture where in the store your product would sit on the shelf, and keep that in mind when it comes time to approach the store's buyer and make your presentation.
Check to see if the retailer offers any special programs that could give you a leg up, such as local vendor programs that serve as an entrée to regional markets or programs that offer breaks to women-owned or minority-owned businesses.
Kate Crosby's Charlottesville, Virginia, company, Dionis Inc. , grew from a cottage industry to a small business as the line expanded from soap to include what is now the company's driving product, lotion--all still using goat's milk from the Blue Ridge Mountain area. The company had more than a decade of business under its belt before courting the attentions of Cracker Barrel . Crosby just knew her product was a perfect fit for the chain, which bills its 538 company-owned units in 41 states as "Half Restaurant, Half Store, All Country." And the company agreed, first placing Crosby's products in just a fraction of its stores to test its customer interest.
Happy with the placement she was getting in just one district, it never occurred to Crosby that her products could be a national presence in Cracker Barrel stores. "It was above our radar," she recalls. "But one day we got called out of blue, and we went national. We went from 10 to 15 stores to 350 and had to start ordering [in quantities of] 50,000 and 100,000."
See the rest of the story at Business InsiderFor the latest career news, visit War Room. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
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Wednesday, April 27, 2011
What Birthname Makes You Most Likely To Be CEO? [INFOGRAPHIC]
What’s in a name? Well, according to a new study by LinkedIn, it’s the key to your success. The social network for employment recently did some digging on which names spell job prestige and found that the top CEO names on LinkedIn are “Peter” and “Deborah.”
LinkedIn compared CEOs worldwide with the average LinkedIn member to find the most common names among those with that job title. Men were most likely to be called Peter, Bob, Jack, Bruce and Fred, while women were often called Deborah, Sally, Debra, Cynthia and Carolyn.
LinkedIn points out that men’s names tend to be shortened nicknames — a sign that said CEOs are friendly and open — while women tend to use their full names, an effort at appearing professional.
The site also culled out the most popular names in other industries, including law enforcement (Billy, Darrell, Pete, Troy, Rodney), human resources (Emma, Katie, Claire, Jennifer, Natalie), athletics (Ryan, Matt, Jessica, Matthew, Jason), sales (Chip, Todd, Trey), engineering (Rajesh, Jeremy, Andrew) and the restaurant business (Thierry, Philippe, Laurent). Note, also, in the above infographic, some professions boast longer names than others.
LinkedIn also serves up some info on which names are most popular for CEOs in specific countries around the globe. (Check that out below). Do you think your name reflects your profession of choice?
Images courtesy of Anita Lillie, Flickr, Alan O’Rourke
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