SEHRISH NAEEM - 5 Easy Ways to Stay Motivated

SEHRISH NAEEM Says,

Face it: There are days when being an entrepreneur sucks. Here are a few simple steps to getting your mojo back.

No Matter What You Do For a Living

The key to success is superlative performance, day after day after day. And that’s only possible if you make optimism, expectancy, and enthusiasm part of your daily experience.

That’s easy if you’re pursuing your life’s dearest dreams.  But what if, like almost everybody else in this world, you’ve got a job that’s not exactly perfect. Here’s how to remain a go-getter, even when the getting gets tough:

STEP #1: Realize That YOU Are In Control

Your attitude isn’t controlled by the outside world.  That’s an illusion, a fantasy that, if you believe it, you’re simply using to escape responsibility for managing this all-important part of your career.

For example, if you run into snowstorm that’s making you late to a customer meeting, you can get frustrated and start cursing..., or you can look forward to the appreciation that the customer might feel because you were committed enough to fight the weather to make the meeting.

Similarly, when the economy goes south, you can start obsessing about how it’s going to affect your job, or you can be one of those individuals who use tighter budgets as a way to streamline operations, develop new markets and create innovations.

It’s all in how you see it!

STEP #2: Neutralize Your Negative Triggers

Stop letting exterior events trigger negative thoughts.

For example, suppose you’re traveling to a customer meeting but keep running into red lights and traffic delays. That IS a problem, but if you get flustered, you’ve got TWO problems: the fact that you’re late, and the fact that you’re flustered.

And if you walk into the meeting flustered, the customer might wonder if you’re moody and unreliable. So now you’ve got THREE problems.

To get a better result (and achieve a better attitude), modify your interpretation of exterior events that tend to trigger a negative outlook. Once the events in your life take on a different, more useful meaning, they won’t trigger a bad attitude.

For example, while the delays may be making you late, use the extra time to collect your thoughts, consider your options, and decide on a damage control strategy. Or use the time to come up with a better schedule, so that you always leave plenty of time, just in case there’s traffic.

As a mentor of mine once said: “Life is like those signs that say ‘You Are Here’  What you make of where you are is up to you.”

STEP #3: Detoxify Your Media Consumption

Much of today’s news programming consists of “if it bleeds it leads” stories followed by commercials offering some form of (often addictive) security or comfort. The constant flow of negative imagery automatically creates a negative attitude about life, the world, and everything in it.

If you want to maintain a positive attitude, you MUST reduce or even eliminate your exposure to broadcast news programming. Rather than waste time with that garbage, add material and content into your life that will help you become more successful (like this column!) 

Start and end each day reading something positive! When you’re on the road, rather than listening to negative, emotionally-charged talk radio, listen to motivational tapes, music that raises your spirits, or maybe great literature.

STEP #4: Avoid Negative People

You probably have one or more friends, relatives, or acquaintances who make you feel tired and drained. They always seem to have something sour to say; criticisms come to their lips far more quickly than compliments.

Such folk are toxic to your attitude (and hence to your success) because, if they’re not actively tearing down your enthusiasm, they’re trying to get you to think the same way about the world as they do.  What a drag!  Literally.

If you want to maintain a positive attitude, consider sharply limiting your daily exposure to such people. Don’t show up at the daily “water cooler complain-fest.” Don’t go to lunch with the “grouse and grumble” crowd. If you’ve got family members who are constantly negative, tune them out.

STEP #5: Adopt a Positive Vocabulary

The words that you use—both what you speak aloud and your internal dialogue—have a vast influence in how you perceive what’s happening in the world. All words carry a certain amount of emotional baggage, inherent in their exact definition and the way that they’ve been used in the past.

For instance, the words “despise,” “hate,” and “dislike” mean essentially the same thing, but carry very different emotional baggage. If you “dislike” something, but tell yourself that you “hate it” over and over and over, it will intensify the original emotion.

To keep a positive attitude, use weak words for negative feelings and strong words for positive ones. This thwarts the downward spiral of negative feelings and words, and accelerates the upward spiral of positive feelings and words.

SEHRISH NAEEM - Give Your Employees Unlimited Vacation Days

Sehrish Naeem Says,

Will it improve company culture? Sure. But can giving workers all the time off they want also increase their productivity?

The 9 a.m.-to-5 p.m. 

workplace is almost dead. Throw your preconceived notions about vacation out the window and give your employees the no-strings-attached, unlimited vacation days they deserve or you'll soon be a dinosaur.

With an unparalleled culture in which our people actually enjoy coming to work. Every last employee is unflinchingly focused and devoted to our mission. Producing vast amounts of quality work is the norm, so we reward them with unlimited vacation and they, in return, reward Red Frog with outstanding work that blows me away every single day.

Taking vacation at is encouraged (and even celebrated). And it's not abused. Ever. By anyone. Simply make sure your work is getting done and make sure you're covered while you're away and that's it—no questions asked.

The pessimists and naysayers have said this policy would either be abused or that it's not entirely real—that our employees feel pressured to never take off. I assure you they're underestimating a positive work culture and are simply wrong. Also, I feel sorry for their workplace. 

Through building a company on accountability, mutual respect, and teamwork, we've seen our unlimited vacation day policy have tremendous results for our employees' personal development and for productivity. There. I said it. I think is more productive by giving unlimited vacation days. Here’s why: 

It treats employees like the adults they are. If they’re incapable of handling the responsibility that comes along with having unlimited vacation days, they're probably incapable of handling other responsibilities too, so don't hire them.

 It reduces costs by not having to track vacation time. Tracking and accounting for vacation days can be cumbersome work. This policy eliminates those headaches.

 It shows appreciation. Your employees will need unexpected time off and some need more vacation than others. By giving them what they need when they need it, you show your employees how much you appreciate them and they reciprocate by producing more great work.

It's a great recruitment tool. We hire a mere one out of every 750. When you combine fantastic benefits with a positive culture, it's noticed.

I lead by example. I worked more 100 hours last week, but this week, as I write this column, I'm watching surfers and sipping a delicious holiday. 

SEHRISH NAEEM - Let Your Employees Pick Their Titles

 Sehrish Naeem Says,

Have you ever met a General Counsel who goes by "Juggler of Justice" or a CFO known as "Duke of Dollars?" Why not?

I Cut My Own Hair and am comfortable wearing t-shirts to work. I also happen to be a CEO (but please never call me that).

Typically, CEOs wear fancy suits, answer to boards and act corporate. That's not who I am or who I aspire to be. I'm dead focused on building Events in a way that aligns with our unique, casual culture, and that includes throwing egos and traditional job titles out the window.

Upon getting hired, our employees simply choose their title—most use alliteration and are descriptive of their personality or actual job. Our COO is the "Master of Monkey Business," our General Counsel is the "Juggler of Justice," and our CFO is the "Captain of Currency." 

Drop your company's stale ego-massaging titles, and stop taking yourself so seriously.

Four reasons to ditch traditional titles:

   Creating Unique Titles Breeds Creativity

And that's one of our core values. By having innovative job titles, you're always setting the right tone and context.

These Titles Are Memorable

 At a conference I'd be more curious and more apt to talk to a Duke of Dollars than a Vice President of Northern Operations.

Creative Titles Promote Flatness

  We have a very flat organization and shun the word "boss." Having self-made titles puts a new hire on a level playing field with everyone else.

These Names Are Just Plain Fun

Just the fact that your company has a Titan of Tomfoolery around will probably make you smile a little more. 

Now go rid your company of those boring titles and add a Keyboard Cowboy and Conquistador of Color. Not only will it be a fun new twist for your employees, but it might end up having an indirect positive impact on your bottom line, too.

A playful title structure also can give your office leaders a chance to show a different side of their personality.

My first meeting with our architects had a lasting impact: As it turns out, I'm an architect, too: the Architect of Adventure.

SEHRISH NAEEM - 5 Things They Didn't Teach You in Business School

Sehrish Naeem Says,

So you got a degree. Now it's time to face the realities of running a business, including these lessons you didn't learn in the classroom.

At The End of Our First Year

In business I got on my knees and prayed to God for a sign: whether we should continue our business.  Even though sales were coming in, we had zero profit to show for it.  A week later, we closed a deal with a large airline to have our wines served on their international flights.  Although we got the sign, there are certain other things I wish I would have known back then. I wish I would have known the real skills required to be an entrepreneur. 

I've learned a lot in the past few years—and a lot of the necessary skills to start and run a fast-growing business just aren't taught in the classroom. Here's my list of five things school didn't teach us about starting a business.

Starting Your Own Business Requires Vast Sacrifice

OK, I'm aware it's cliché to say this. Everyone who writes about entrepreneurship says this. But I can't emphasize this enough.  No one can prepare you for the mental, physical, social, emotional, and spiritual stress starting a business will put on you. 

It's an all-encompassing endeavor that will test you in ways that working a 9 to 5 will not.  For us, For example, in the past seven years of  WORK we've had both the time and money to take one single vacation. During the first three years of  WORK we rarely had time to date—We were performing the equivalent of the jobs of six people with two people, and that meant physically not having time to eat or sleep.

It meant missing out on some of the little things ,we had little time to develop  and we lost contact with both family and friends.  As you consider pursuing an entrepreneurial venture, ask yourself if you can handle the personal sacrifice that comes with this venture. 

Success Rarely Comes Fast

  People read stories about Facebook, Google, Youtube, LinkedIn, Amazon, and all the other expeditious rises from start-up to powerhouse, and think that success comes quickly.  This is rarely the case.  In fact, Amazon and LinkedIn took several years before they made a profit.  In today's world, particularly us Gen Y-ers have been trained to love—and expect—immediate gratification.  We have DVR, iPads, Netflix and the like technologies all catered to give us what we want when we want it. 

Starting a business isn't so fast or seamless. If you want to start a business and want it to be meaningful, be prepared for it to be something of a slow process. With the economy in the midst of a recession, getting the resources, both human and capital, may take a longer than you're expecting. 

This doesn't mean that the business will not be a success; this just means that you have to have some patience to realize that success.

You Need To Be Prepared To Shift Gears

In starting our company we had a vision for what we wanted to accomplish with the company. We created an initial strategy that was e-commerce based. But this strategy also coincided with the downturn in the market for example we saw our e-commerce sales drop by 50 percent. Not to mention within the wine industry as a whole, 70 percent of wine is consumed within six hours of purchase.

Instead, we shifted strategies quickly and began to think outside of the box to assess which consumers would have the most pressing desire for our products. This led us to different industry.

The Real "Sales Secrets" Can't Be Taught

 Whether you are selling a product or a service it is crucial that when you get in front of customers, clients, or consumers, you can close the sale. Only you can’t teach someone all of the elements of closing a sale in a classroom.

Being able to read people, or have the right charisma in front of a customer is something that can't be taught. Thankfully for our company, this hasn't been a struggle for us: we have an uncanny ability to sell in our company's products. This clearly comes from our experience in sales and our passion for our business that shines through.

I believe great salespeople share certain characteristics that go beyond teachable skills:

·         They must like engaging and interacting with people

·         They must like being a problem solver

·         They must have an eye for creating mutual value between you and the client

If you don't have those skills, it does not mean that you can't sell well—it might just not come naturally to you. If that's the case, hire or partner with someone who does. The value of a good salesperson is immeasurable early on.

Think Big, Even When You're Small

 When starting the business we thought early on about how to quickly scale.  We tried to gain national distribution rather than establish a solid footprint in one market. What we didn't know is that it's OK to start small and grow once you're steady.

The name of the game early in a business's life is to generate sufficient cash flow to support the growth of the business.

For businesses that are self-financed, or those in which the founders have significant skin in the game from a cash perspective, this is crucial to the longevity of the business. By pushing to scale your business fast, you place the business in a situation where it needs added investment and resources to grow that you may not have. 

This may result in you losing control, taking on partners that you would otherwise have not, have others empowered to impact your strategy in ways that are not aligned with your vision for the business. So, take your own pace.

I wish I would have known all these things back when we were starting out. Sure, these tips aren't necessarily the most glamorous, but they are essential in determining whether you have the appetite to do what it takes to ensure a successful outcome in founding a business.

There are no guarantees, but if you're reading this article, you at least owe it to yourself to reflect and ask yourself  how you'd respond to being placed under the worst of all "what if" possible scenarios. 

SEHRISH NAEEM - The New Rules of Branding Your Business Online

SEHRISH NAEEM Says,

Mastering branding online takes a lot more than a cool logo and catchy slogan. Experts play by a fresh new set of rules.

It's no longer enough to have a sleek website, social-media presence, and consistent brand aesthetic online. The new rules of branding your business on the Web have a lot less to do with presentation, and a lot more to do with interaction. In order to bring you up to speed, SEHRISH IRUM has compiled nine of the most innovative and ingenious tips from articles, guides, and interviews over the past year. These are the new rules of branding online.

1. Don't just start the conversation.
Be an integral and evolving part of it. "Social media has one very important perspective to share with brand management—the conversation. Like branding, social media is all about the conversation and building effective relationships. They are perfectly suited to one another," says Ed Roach, founder of The Brand Experts, a brand management consultancy in West Leamington, Ontario, the author of The Reluctant Salesperson, a free e-book available at www.thebrandingexperts.ca. The rules for brand messaging through new media versus traditional channels haven't changed, but "the game sure got better and more interesting," says Roach. It's not enough to have a Facebook page or a Twitter account, you must participate in the conversation by making regular posts and replying to direct messages from your customers. Ron Smith, president and founder of S&A's Cherokee, a public relations and marketing firm in Cary, North Carolina, agrees, adding that you'll want to stay on top of what people are saying about you and your brand online. "Monitoring social media is a must for all companies. Social media has shortened the time frame for company responses to complaints or accusations. These days, companies need to acknowledge any issues and control the messaging in a matter of minutes instead of hours or days," says Smith. 

2. Either keep your personal brand out of it…
So you have 10,000 Twitter followers. Does it matter to your customers? Tim Ferriss, the entrepreneur behind the sports nutritional supplements companyBrainQUICKEN and author of The 4-Hour Workweek, contributorJohn Warrillow: "Unless you're in one of a handful of businesses like public speaking, I think managing and growing a personal brand can be a huge distraction for company founders. I see all of these entrepreneurs trying to collect Twitter followers, and it reminds me of a matador waving a red flag in front of a bull. In this case, the founders are the bull. The bullfighter moves the flag away, and the bull comes up with nothing but air. Steve Jobs has a personal brand, but it isApple's product design that makes it such a valuable company. He isn't jumping onFoursquare to develop his 'personal brand.'"

 
3. Or dive in and make all the headlines you can.
Appearing in the media as a source of expertise can go a long way toward building your brand, Inc.'s April Joyner reports. To gain press, identify media outlets that are most applicable to your particular areas of expertise and send them targeted pitches. If you want to be a talking head on radio or television, it also helps to give producers a preview of your personality by referring them to video clips on your site. As with print, the Web has also democratized the world of radio. Through venues such as BlogTalkRadio, anyone can host her or his own broadcasts—or find a show on which to appear. After you have honed an area of expertise, you will find that there are plenty of opportunities to take your message on the road. Becoming active in professional organizations and attending conferences offer valuable opportunities for networking. As you become more familiar within a certain field, more and more people will call on you to share your expertise. Making an appearance as a vendor at an event can also offer long-term personal branding benefits.

4. Don't favor edge over consistency.
Chris Russo had a healthy business. The only thing holding it back, he thought, was its name. Three years after its launch in 2006, Fantasy Sports Ventures's revenue was increasing 40 percent to 50 percent a year, a pace that surprised even Russo. But by the fall of 2009, he was uneasy. Despite the heady growth, Russo felt the company's brand positioning was pigeonholing the business and would soon limit further expansion. "Fantasy Sports Ventures was not a long-term, sustainable, public-facing brand," Ed O'Hara, of the branding firm SME, says. "It felt more like a holding company and was too heavily weighted on the fantasy side." O'Hara and Russo tossed around lots of edgy names, like Fanarchy, Fantology, and Gutcheck, but weren't sure. Rebranding was on the table, but the company didn't want to alienate its huge readership and large fan base. The solution? When the company acquired another brand, The Big Lead, and was integrating it into the existing portfolio of sites, Russo realized he struck gold. The name was consistent with the sites' goals, as well as its existing image.

5. Be persistent in finding and targeting your niche.
Even if you're entering a flooded marketplace—and online is certainly a very crowded forum—you always have a chance to make your brand and company stand out. People used to think water was all the same; now stores carry half-a-dozen brands or more. "Marketers struggle with differentiation because they give up too soon," says Derrick Daye, managing partner of The Blake Project. "They think that this can't be differentiated, it can't be unique." Experts say the constantly shifting marketplace creates the need to be creative with your approach. The toothpaste market is one that professionals cite as a constantly changing product selection that requires vigilance on the part of brand managers. Additives like baking soda, breath freshener, or whitening strips are now taken for granted.

6. Excel at telling your customers "About Us."
You may not be paying much attention to your About Us page, but visitors to your site are, writes Chana Garcia. And considering that your About Us page is where the world first clicks to learn about your company and the services you offer, it deserves a little more consideration and a lot more respect. Sure, you need to include all the basics. But a few simple tactics can make your About Us page a more exciting read and your company come across as more accessible, says Lorrie Thomas, aka The Marketing Therapist, a marketing strategist, educator, writer, web marketing expert and speaker. Avoid writing a soliloquy (too much text can be a turnoff) and focus on connecting with your site visitors. Thomas asked her employees to write their own bios for her company's About Us page. Her only mandate was that in addition to providing a snapshot of their professional history, they include personal information, such as hobbies or their favorite activities. Some even set up links to their blogs and personal websites. This might also be a good place to include e-mail addresses for your staff. Readily available contact information shows customers that you want to hear from them and that you have nothing to hide. 

 
7. Fully integrate social media into your site. 
You'll not only look savvy, but increase your connectivity, and gain traffic to you site from elsewhere. You don't necessarily need to put out the next viral marketing video or hire an expensive marketing agency (although both would probably help) to achieve a high rate of traffic. All you need is a bit of elbow grease, a few tricks up your sleeve, and a commitment to making your site a quality destination for visitors. Add Facebook Like buttons, have a dynamic blog section, utilize SEO, and build your site heavy with links, for starters. More tips can be found in our guide to "How to Drive More Traffic to Your Website."

8. Monitor your brand's reputation, and be ready to respond. 
Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp have become essential components of many companies' online marketing strategies, but there are countless other sites on which customers rant and rave about their experiences. A question or complaint left unanswered on any of them has the potential to tarnish a company's brand and scare away prospective customers. That's why companies like Beachbody are using new tools to monitor what's been said about them online. The most basic services, like GoogleAlerts, allow users to select keywords to track and to receive e-mail updates whenever they appear on the Web. Others, like Social Mention and HootSuite, specifically scour profiles on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace for relevant comments. Nate Bagley, a social media expert at Mindshare Technologies, a Salt Lake City company that makes software that helps companies keep track of customer feedback, uses Google Alerts and Social Mention to keep track of references to his company, as well as news on its clients, competitors, and the industry at large. "It's a good way to gather business intelligence," he says. Some of these services, including Radian6 and Viralheat, detect whether a post is positive, negative, or neutral, so businesses can easily determine which mentions require the most attention. Those features have allowed companies to maintain greater control of their brands. 

9. Showcase your best work. 
In this new environment, a sturdy brand is all about trust and relationships. With that goal in mind, there's no better way to build both than by posting testimonials or listing big-name clients you've partnered with. That will lend your business a good amount of credibility. You might consider incorporating your clients' logos somewhere on your page as an added visual element. Mentioning awards and recognitions your company received, as well as community service work, green initiatives, and interesting facts, will also make your business more appealing. Additionally, timelines, company history, and major milestones are attention-grabbing.