Great Partnerships

 Friday, October 23, 2009 from 11am EDT to 6:45p EDT
Saturday, October 24, 2009 from 11am to 4:45p EDT

For $29, this 2-day conference aims to educate and inform copreneurs on timely topics for couples in business. We welcome married couples, those who are dating, or are in same-sex relationships. Every registrant receives a FREE 1-year membership to National Copreneur Society. Here is just some of what you’ll find at Copreneur Camp:

·                             A keynote address from Paul and Sarah Edwards, copreneurs and award-winning authors

 ·                             7 sessions led by professional consultants, coaches, authors, or copreneurs

·                            2 opening sessions by the National Copreneur Society co-founders

·                             2 Copreneur Roundtables where attendees can learn and share with each other

·                             Twitter Chat Room for live interaction during the Camp

·                             A virtual swag bag of educational and informative goodies provided to all attendees

Plus, the best part, is that it’s virtual! Attend from your home or business. All you need is access to a computer and telephone (or computer speakers and a microphone).View the schedule, session outlines, speaker list, and register for Copreneur Camp http://www.copreneursociety.org/membership/2009-virtual-copreneur-camp

 If you have questions on anything, please e-mail NCS.

The Wall Street recently reported that the results of the most comprehensive survey of how occupation affects happiness showed that business owners outrank 10 other occupational groups in overall well-being. “Defined as self-employed store or factory owners, plumbers and so on, business owners surpassed other occupational groups on measures of contentment, emotional and physical health, job satisfaction, healthy behavior, access to basic needs and self-reports of overall life quality.” Read the rest of the article here

As promised here are a few more essential skills to master to build great business relationships. 

Managing - The true art of management is knowing when to instruct and when not to instruct. A great manager understands that individuals desire to lead their own lives and they can accept or reject any pressure exerted from the outside. Managers need to recognize those who need clear guidelines for the execution of a task and those who need to be given guidelines, but ultimately given free reign to create solutions and to seek out means. 

Leading - A great leader creates opportunities and winning environments, where people feel liberated to become what they have been born to become. Great leaders encourage their followers to utilize their gifts and talents and develop hidden abilities. They then acknowledge and appreciate all members’ contributions to the overall success of the team. 

Partnering – Collaborating with a partner saves your resources, and can bring innovation and creativity to projects. Learning to include and even lean on others is important because, as the world becomes more connected, the synergy that comes from working together becomes a competitive advantage. Going it alone can cause stress and overwhelm leading to business slowdown, poor customer service, and loss of market share.

Need help mastering any of these skills? Let me know and I will gladly help you build great business relationships. 

Building any relationship requires many skills. Business relationships, where money, power and reputation are involved, require strong specialized skills. Three of the most important business relationship building skills are as follows:

Listening - Listening is essential in effective communication. It serves as the foundation for relationships and improvement. Those who listen well hold the keys to success. Listening requires commitment, an act of the will, and perception. When building a relationship make sure that you help it along by carefully listening. Create an environment where as you listen, you make commitments and agreements upon which you deliver.

Setting boundaries - Professional boundaries are about how you want others to treat you within your business. Boundaries not only protect you from unwanted behavior, but also  foster behavior you desire and need. Strong boundaries let people know where they stand with you and thus foster honest relationships.

Negotiating – Most business situations require some level of negotiation.  In negotiations, mutual respect for each other’s priorities must prevail to build a solid relationship. Negotiating need not be a contest to prove who is better nor involve a battle. It should be a two-way process to come to terms as easily as possible.

Coming soon will be a post about additional important business relationship building skills. In the meantime, if you need help honing any of the above skills, please let me know and I will gladly help you build great business relationships. 

The Law of Attraction, “the right mindset”, and “just believing” are all great, but what most people seem to miss is that they have to think and put in the work to be successful in business. My husband’s favorite saying is “People don’t want to think.” I am beginning to believe him as I hear about so many “takers” for get rich ‘effortlessly’  programs that I see offered on the web.

The ads read “Join my (insert name of a precious metal here) Club, Mastermind, Group” “Go from 0 to 1 million in a year” “I will teach you how I did ‘it’.” “Read these testimonials from all of the others who have also done ‘it’!” “Get in before it’s too late.” “Just pay me $100,000 and you are in”.

These ‘takers’ should wake up! They can start by reading the names on the testimonials. Most of these offers seem to be circle games of ‘insiders’– A joins B’s group, B joins C’s group, and then C joins A’s group. So the insiders’ $100,000s just get passed around the circle.

The only money “made” is from outsiders X, Y, and Z who join one of the groups and pay the fee without getting it back from an ‘insider’. The outsiders you will supposedly get their pay off when they follow the teachings of the guru and do ‘it’. The only catch is that by the time the guru tells them how to do ‘it’, ‘it’ doesn’t work any more because other outside suckers have caught on. They found out that this is no magic ‘it’- and they have moved on to the next . Hopefully, many of them will finally realize that they do have to think for themselves, put in the work and invest a lot more than money to become successful.

“Nothing is as simple as we hope it will be.” Jim Horning

I was recently asked, “What is the most important requirement for partnership success?” My one word answer – “Trust.” 

When a deep level of trust exists between partners, they are each able to take great risks - risks they might not have taken without the trust. The mutual trust provides a safe space to step out in faith and achieve what might appear difficult, impossible, or overwhelming. Remember that people live up to expectations - the more you trust, the more your partner will achieve new heights. When such trust exists in your business relationship it supports growth, improvement, and excellence in the business.     

Follow these guidelines to build and strengthen trust:  

1. Respect your partner at all times.
2. Listen to your partner - make sure you know what they really mean.
3. Don’t make major decisions unilaterally.
4. Honor your agreements to everyone.
5. Realize that you are always connected to your partner.
6. Back up your partner’s decisions to outsiders, even if you disagree.
7. Be consistent.
8. Be honest with yourself and your partner.
9. Have clear boundaries.
10. Do not over promise.

“Trust each other again and again. When the trust level gets high enough, people transcend apparent limits, discovering new and awesome abilities for which they were previously unaware.” David Armistead

• reading The 10 biggest lies entrepreneurs tell themselves http://bit.ly/14iSQH from @econsultancy #

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1. Insist on being right all the time
2. Compete with your partner instead of collaborating
3. Make up the rules as you go along
4. Criticize your partner in front of other people
5. Complain instead of requesting what you really want
6. Don’t forgive or forget your partners mistakes
7. Spread gossip about your partner
8. Keep score of who does more work
9. Second-guess your partner’s decisions
10. Get distracted by outside events
11. Avoid difficult conversations
12. Launch personal attacks against your partner
13. Blame your partner for your problems  

Entrepreneurship was the topic of discussion at a meeting I just attended. One question was – “Do you want your child to follow in your entrepreneurial footsteps?” All 8 people at my table said yes (7 women and one man). I was surprised that so many others feel the same way as I do, given our current economy. Not only do I think that entrepreneurship is a great path to follow but I also think that instilling entrepreneurial values in children is a worthy goal, regardless of what they decide to do with their lives.

You can partner with your children to lay a foundation for your them to have prosperous lives, even if they ultimately decide that entrepreneurship isn’t for them.  A few of the valuable entrepreneurial principles that they can learn from you are:

Goal setting – In many ways, children are hard-wired as natural goal-setters.  The problem is, they usually fail to follow through with concrete action.  You can teach them how to reach a goal by breaking it down into a series of easily reachable mini-goals.  For example, if they want to buy a new video game that costs $20 and they can save $5 per week, help them make a chart that will track their progress.  Every week when they save $5, let them color in the next portion of the chart that shows their progress.  You’ll be teaching them the importance of following through on goals with clearly defined steps. Celebrate with them when they buy the video game. 

Motivation – Keeping children motivated requires plenty of encouragement and positive reinforcement.  For example, if you’re teaching your child the importance of saving money for a rainy day and they want to tap into the piggy bank, praise them for how much they have saved already. Also remind them that being patient now will pay huge dividends later. Consider paying a small amount of interest on their savings, so they can experience how the real world of investing works.

Responsibility – You may not be able to teach responsibility but seeing how you are responsible for the success of your business and do not blame others for your mistakes will encourage your children to act responsibly. They will see you considering options and making choices that may be difficult at times. As an entrepreneur you take action and if something doesn’t work you do something else. You do not depend on others to bail you out. Seeing this in you will encourage your children to be self-reliant and responsible for their own actions and choices.

Teaching your kids these principles of entrepreneurship will, of course, come in handy if they ultimately decide to follow in your footsteps.  However, self-reliant, motivated people who reach their goals are in relatively short supply.  By instilling these values in your children you can help to ensure a lifetime of prosperity for them.  And you’ll be doing your part to help create another generation of success-minded entrepreneurs who can ultimately change the world for the better!