Like many girls her age, 11-year-old Maya Penn loves arts and crafts. But unlike most girls her age, she’s taken her passion to new heights and transformed it into a lucrative and innovate online business.

The home-schooled seventh grader is the CEO and owner of Maya’s Ideas, where her handmade eco-friendly accessories designs are displayed and sold all over the world. Maya set up the business when she was eight-year-old and joined Etsy, the online crafts store in 2007. She spent a year coming up with ideas for the shop.

“I always loved to find fabrics around the house and say well, this might make a good headband or a good hat or something and then I thought one day I thought I could probably make a shop,” The Canton-Georgia native tells Fox 5 Atlanta (video below).

Maya’s online business is doing so well that she was even featured on Forbes’ list of Grade School Entrepreneurs. She tells Forbes that her top-seller is her black lace headbands. But Maya also designs bags, hats, tank tops and hair accessories using ribbons, butterfly appliques and jewels, all featured on her website.

In addition to designing jewelry, the creative pre-teen also regularly blogs about her experiences and is learning Javascript so that she can design her own website. She also loves animation, and wants to be a digital animator when she grows up, in addition to her current online passion.

“I’ve learned a lot of life lessons, like perseverance, from this, she tells Forbes.

Maya has also learned to be generous and mindful of social issues in her community and around the world. She gives at least ten percent of her earnings to charities in Atlanta as well as global relief organizations.

“I like making people happy through my items,” she tells Fox 5 Atlanta. “But some people may not have the money to purchase my items, so I try to help other people and make them happy through donating.” You may browse her shop or purchase Maya’s handmade eco-friendly clothing and accessories on Etsy here.  Also visit her blog here to learn about other things she’s doing. (Madame Noire)

Watch Maya’s Ideas Featured on FOX 5 News

The image above features an image and some details on the much-rumored about BlackBerry 10 “London”. The story here isn’t cut and dry though. Back in November a first photo of a BlackBerry London dummy unit hit the internet (see image below), but that BBX phone — it wasn’t re-labeled BlackBerry 10 yet — featured a hardware design that was quite different than the phone in the image above. The first photo of London featured angular edges and a design language more akin to the uber-expensive Porsche Design P’9981 Smartphone by BlackBerry.

1st photo of a BlackBerry London dummy unit.

By contrast, the BlackBerry London in the image above looks much more like a phonified BlackBerry PlayBook, featuring the rounded corners and all-black look of RIM’s first tablet. And while we heard the first photo of London was a legit RIM hardware concept, we’ve been hearing for an even longer time now that the first QNX-based phone hardware was more like a downsized PlayBook. Who’s knows. Maybe by the time it hits we’ll see the design evolve yet again. The plot thickens.

All confusion aside though, our excitement is building for the next-generation of BlackBerry phones that are due out later this year. Word has it that London is actually slated for the UK (go figure), while two other models — “Laguna” and “Lisbon” are in development for the US market targeting AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. We wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Laguna and Lisbon actually launched prior to London. With BlackBerry still the #1 Smartphone in the UK, it’s in America that RIM needs to first make a big splash with BlackBerry 10.

Talking hardware for a moment, we’re hearing that both TI OMAP5 and Qualcomm chipsets are being tested (1.5GHz dual core processors). If we look ahead by looking at BlackBerry history, it could be that Qualcomm is for the CDMA carriers. All we know is that with the BlackBerry PlayBook rocking and rolling the PlayBook OS at 1Ghz, that with 1.5Ghz as a baseline BlackBerry 10 phones will not be lacking in the performance department. (CrackBerry)

Enjoy more images of the new BlackBerry 10 phone below…

These 12 easily implemented steps will help you cut sales costs and increase profitability.

1. Hone your sales lead criteria.

Confirm that you’re going after the right leads. Revisit how you score your sales leads and observe—based on your current experience—what’s working and what’s not. Make changes as necessary.

2. Enhance your sales technology.

Revisit the online tools that you’re using to find leads and to research companies and individuals. Take more advantage of the free (and almost free) tools that run on smartphones and tablets.

3. Revisit your network.

Friends and colleagues who previously didn’t know of any prospects may know of some now. You’ve also built up a customer base; enlist their aid in expanding your network and finding new customers.

4. Hone your sales messages.

No sales message is perfect. Revisit your core sales message, your elevator pitch, your qualifying questions, and so forth. Make them better, shorter, and more effective.

5. Eliminating more bad leads.

Save valuable sales time by realigning initial conversations with sales leads so that they’re focused on quickly identifying whether a lead is unlikely to buy.

6. Improve your listening skills.

When a potential customer is speaking, listen carefully to what’s actually being said, rather than waiting for something that will give you hope of making a sale.

7. Stop chasing garbage trucks.

A real prospect must have the budget to buy and a need that massively justifies the spending. If those two elements aren’t both present, you’ll never be a priority–so you’d best move on.

8. Reward yourself for disqualifying a lead.

Remember, every lead you eliminate from your list is a victory–because it means you won’t be wasting your time. So celebrate the winnowing process.

9. Research the competition.

Selling to a fully qualified lead (see items above) is always a matter of outselling the competition. Ask the prospect who else is calling on them, and adapt your approach to compensate.

10. Keep track of key players.

The most frequent reason sales reps are outsold is that they didn’t talk to the right people—and the competitor did. Keep notes of who’s who and what’s expected of you–and when.

11. Improve your follow-through.

If you make a commitment, log it in your schedule, and make sure that you do it, no matter what. Follow-through is the only way that a potential customer can learn to trust you.

12. Use discounts sparingly.

Extraordinary discounts offered merely to secure a sale have two downsides: They make the current deal smaller, and if word gets out, they can result in more discounts (and smaller deals) from future customers.

They seem like friendly, harmless queries, but they can land you in a serious legal tar pit. Here’s how to learn safely what you need to know. With success come headaches. More employees, for example. The more employees you have, the more responsibility for you and the more potential legal land mines. In this article, we focus on the first of the employee-related mine fields you have to cross—the new-hire interview.

Along with the obvious don’ts, there are a number of seemingly innocuous topics you should avoid in job interviews. Some of them are things you might ask of a casual acquaintance in other circumstances, and no one would mind. But remember: In the eyes of the law, employment isn’t a casual relationship, and you as employer have to use some caution. Best to stay away from the following:

1.) “You look too young to have this much experience. How old are you?”

While you might think an applicant would be glad to hear they look young, the fact is, age-related questions are almost never appropriate. Federal law flatly forbids discrimination against people over 40 in hiring. A few age-related questions are okay: Asking if a candidate can show proof of age to work (“Are you over 18?”) is generally OK. Also, in the few industries where there is a minimum or maximum age, questions (framed properly) are generally appropriate. But unless you’re starting up a bar, airline, or bus service, stay away from the age question.

2.) “When did you move to the U.S?”

Asking about a citizenship or birth country can imply discrimination on the basis of national origin—and that’s illegal. However, Federal law does require you to verify legal status and right to work. You should ask if the applicant has a legal right to work in the U.S, and explain that they will have to provide verification if hired.

3.) “Are you [pick a religious preference]? I don’t mind. I just want to make sure I recognize all your holidays.”

You can’t ask about a person’s religion or what clubs they belong to, but you generally can ask about availability to work. If your business requires weekend workers, then you need to inform the applicant that weekend work or travel could be a regular part of the job. This can be a good time to add that the company does make reasonable exceptions to allow for an individual to exercise their religious beliefs.

If you are running a manufacturing plant and seniority is how people pick shifts, the new guy might not be able to get weekends off. Same goes for 24-7 customer service. Also, with some jobs, you may need your new hire to travel regularly and meet clients. All of these things might make it legitimately tough for you to hire someone that has an inflexible work schedule.

4.) “That’s a beautiful ring. How long have you been married?”

All too often, the hidden purpose of these “family” inquiries is to dig into what some believe is a common source of absenteeism—the need to take care of young or old or sick family members. If you expect that you may need to ask the employee to relocate or travel frequently, or if a set schedule is important (think customer service hours), then you can ask about the applicant’s willingness to comply with those duties. But be direct. Don’t sidle into it with the marriage question.

5.) “Congratulations on your wedding – are you and your wife planning to start a family?”

This one is a two-fer. Not only do you hit on the family situation above, but what if the male applicant IS married—but not to a woman (or vice versa)? Even though there the federal government doesn’t prohibit private employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, many states, like California, do. Regardless of the law, in my opinion, there is really no good reason to ask (even accidentally) about sexual orientation.

6.) “I see that you are very active in the American Cancer Society. Does cancer run in your family?”

Questions about disability, health or worker’s compensation history are unlawful when they imply a disability-based limitation. Any pre-employment inquiry which would cause an applicant to disclose a disability is against the law, so avoid this line of questioning. If there’s any doubt that the applicant is healthy enough for the job, you can ask about his or her ability to perform certain functions. In certain cases, you can even test applicants (as long as you test all applicants) to ensure they can perform essential job functions.

7.) “I see that you were in the military. Are you still a reservist?”

Be careful here. Losing a valuable employee due to a recall of reservists can be a blow, but you cannot discriminate based on a person’s military service. While we’re at it, you can’t even ask what type of military discharged the candidate. You can ask about potential upcoming plans that might cause them to be away from work.

8.) “Did you play basketball in school? Man, you are TALL! What are you, like 6’9”?”

There are many jobs where a minimum height is essential, or where the employee would have to regularly lift heavy objects. Instead of asking questions about height, weight or other potentially embarrassing topics, just ask if the applicant can perform the job.

These are just a few common issues that might arise in the employment application and interview context. Applications, testing, postings and hiring practices need to become a core competency for any workplace that is looking to hire. Researching best practices now can save you a lot of headache—and maybe even a lawsuit—later.

Chas Rampenthal

This is a featured article by Chas Rampenthal for INC.com. Chas is General Counsel and Vice President of Product Development at LegalZoom. He’s also a former talk radio host (KTLK AM 1150 at ClearChannel) and an entrepreneur himself, as the founder of LegalEndeavor. He is licensed to practice law in Massachusetts and California.

Bizness Apps is making mobile apps affordable and simple for small businesses. They’re a do-it-yourself iPhone, iPad, HTML5, and Android app platform that allows any small business to simultaneously create, edit, and manage mobile apps online without any programming knowledge needed.

This webinar will teach you:

• How to create beautiful mobile apps

• How to use our platform to create apps for clients

• How to create an app specifically for non-profits

• How use Photoshop with Bizness Apps

• Sales techniques to sell mobile apps

• How to use Bizness Apps to create and sell beautiful mobile apps to your clients.

There will be special focus on non-profit organizations!

A new career website that launched on Monday aims to be a one-stop shop for hiring managers and job seekers. GetHired.com was co-founded by Suki Shah, 28, who was inspired to create the integrated site after running his own medical diagnostics company and experiencing difficulties with the hiring process.

“We created GetHired.com out of a pure need that we experienced in the market for both employers and job seekers.” “There is no solution that currently integrates job postings, prescreening via audio and video, applicant tracking, interviewing, and social recruiting.”

His goal is to streamline every task of the job search into one place. On GetHired.com employers can search for candidates, sift through multimedia resumes, schedule interviews (and sync those appointments to their iPhones) and video chat with potential hires.

Job seekers can upload a video of themselves explaining their background and expertise, or answer employer-submitted questions via an automated phone system and upload the sound bites to their profiles.

“Companies often spend tens of thousands of dollars or more for a fraction of these capabilities. We’re thrilled that we are able to make GetHired.com available for free,” Shah said. For the time being, the site will be free for hiring managers, but eventually charge a nominal fee (about $25 bucks) per job post. It will always be free for job seekers.

The company announced on its blog that GetHired received “$1.75 million in an oversubscribed round of seed funding.

While LinkedIn is a great tool for job seekers–letting you identify who’s viewed your profile and which keywords they used to find you, GetHired.com features a great deal of tools for hiring managers. And unlike LinkedIn, only employers can view job seekers’ multimedia resumes on the site — a job seeker can’t sign-in and check out their competition. Job seekers can also set their profiles to “private” and only allow managers at jobs they have applied for to view their profiles, rather than any hiring manager.

Having audio and video gives each candidate a chance to be heard, Shah said.

“A stand alone, paper based resume is arguably the most discriminating component of the hiring process today. We all know that job seekers are much more than what an 8.5 by 11 piece of paper can represent. And if that is all that employers ask for, candidates may be disqualified for a number of reasons — for example, like the school that they may have attended,” he said. “When you integrate video and audio into the hiring process, you give every applicant an equal opportunity to be seen and heard by an employer. As a result, employers often report that they hire candidates that they may have otherwise overlooked.”

Hiring managers will be able to posts links to GetHired, along with job descriptions, and refer job seekers to their site where employers can manage all applicants in one place. Right now, Monster and Career Builder are the most popular, general job-seeking sites. (Mashable)

Recruiters have long used social networking sites to hire and check out candidates, but could GetHired.com be another tool in their arsenal?

What do you think about GetHired.com? Will you use it? For what purpose? Tell us in the comments.

All children have an insatiable appetite to learn. Between birth and six years of age, the ability to absorb information is unparalleled, and the desire to do so is stronger than it will ever be again. Here’s a collection of educational, but kid-friendly, tech toys that will have your child learning like never before.

1.) Periodic Table Building Blocks

Even before you get them home from the hospital your little one should already have a healthy grasp of the alphabet. So skip the simple ABC building blocks for this more complex set which features 20 select elements from the periodic table.

The solid wooden blocks are also printed with the element’s atomic symbol, scientific facts about their unique properties, and bright colors. After all, they’re still designed for kids. $40 (Buy it HERE)

2.) 55,000 Word Talking Spelling Bee

Every kid likes spelling right? Probably not, but if they want to get into a prestigious private school a few spelling bee victories on their C.V. isn’t going to hurt. While it looks like a cellphone, this pocket-friendly device will speak one of 55,000 words from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, requiring your kid to then spell it out using the slide-out keyboard.

A correct spelling is rewarded with applause, while a mistake results in being reminded what letter was wrong, as well as shameful disapproving looks from a parent. It’s like having all the pressures of a spelling competition in the comfort of their own home. $105 (Buy it HERE)

3.) SmartE Interactive Plush Teddy Bear

It’s probably safer to save the electronics until your baby at least loses that soft spot on its head, but who said a stuffed animal had to only serve as a source of comfort?

This interactive SmartE bear can sing songs, tell stories, and play games with your kid, but since its upgradeable you’ll probably want to erase all that crap and just install a host of educational apps. The bear’s paws can be squeezed to respond to questions, and while it’s not exactly preparing them for their SATs, it’s probably a good idea to start slow during those times when they barely know how to roll over. $100 (Buy it HERE)

4.) Alphabet Flashcards

Even if your kid is struggling to master their ABCs, there’s no reason that a set of flash cards has to be limited to mind-numbing word associations like C is for Cat. So Tiffany Ard created these nerdy flash cards that instead feature scientific concepts.

By making associations like A is for Atom, N is for Neuron, and R is for Rhombus, these cards help your kid get up to speed on physics, astronomy, biology, chemistry, geography, and even mathematics, while they work on mastering the 26 letters of the english alphabet. Let’s face it, if they’re not master multi-taskers by the time they’re crawling, you might as well just teach them to ask customers if they want fries with their order. $20 (Buy it HERE)

5.) Mozart Magical Cube

When he was composing his symphonies I don’t think Mozart ever thought his creations would one day be used to help young minds grow. But classical music has been shown to improve a child’s early mental development.

At the least this Mozart Magic Cube toy, which plays one of eight different compositions, is easier on the ears for parents. But a set of buttons that can add and subtract individual instruments while a piece is playing could put your young’n on the path to becoming a musical prodigy. They can even use the instrument buttons to compose their own symphonic masterpiece—or a moving rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. $35 (Buy it HERE)

6.) Baby Coloring Book For Very Young Scientists

Coloring books are a great way to develop your child’s creative side, but there’s a reason the term ‘starving artist’ exists. While you might not be able to pry the crayon from their hands, this Coloring Book For Very Young Scientists will at least subliminally introduce them to important scientific concepts.

The book is filled with sixty pages of puzzles and other activities, covering topics from famous scientists to particle physics. Your kid might feel a sense of accomplishment from successfully coloring inside the lines, but you’ll feel just as satisfied knowing you’ve secretly put them on the path to greatness. Even if they just managed to insert that crayon up their nose. $12 (Buy it HERE) (Gizmodo)

In a world driven by innovation, new ideas are powerful tools for building your career and your bank account. That said, ideas (even good ideas) are a dime a dozen. What really matters isn’t whether you’ve got an idea, but whether you’ve can sell that idea–to investors, customers and colleagues. Use this simple five-step plan to present and sell your idea:

1. Have Prior Credibility

When deciding whether an idea makes sense, investors are initially more concerned with the person who has the idea, rather than the idea itself. Unless you have some kind of track record, you’re probably not going to get a hearing.

This does not mean that you must have already built a company, for instance, before you can ask somebody to invest in one. But your idea is more likely to fly if you’ve been a departmental manager than if you’ve only worked in the mailroom.

“Buyers ask themselves: ‘Is this person competent, based upon past performance?’ and ‘Is this person speaking with candor or handing me some BS?’” says Neil Rackham, author of the bestseller Spin Selling.

2. Have the ‘Next Big Thing’

Buying is always an emotional act, especially so when it’s an idea being sold. People get excited when an idea makes make intuitive sense, when it appeals “to the gut.” This is far less likely when an idea seems totally off the wall.

“When you’re trying to sell somebody a new idea, you must persuade them that the idea confirms their own opinions, rather than proves them wrong,” says Seth Godin, author of Permission Marketing.

Ideally, the idea should also make people who feel that they’re doing something positive and powerful if they decide to invest in your idea. There a reason that “we’re going to change the world” is a business mantra.

3. Adapt Your Story to the Listener

Decision-makers inevitably see ideas from their own perspective, so your idea should be expressed in terms that address the practical business concerns of the potential buyer.

In your business plan, you’ll cover all the bases, naturally–but when you’re face to face or on the phone, tailor your remarks appropriately. If you’re talking to a tech-head, talk technology. If you’re talking to an accountant, focus on ROI. “This is important, because investment decisions usually involve a team of people, each with different expertise,” according to Edward R. Weiss, who as general counsel at Group One Software oversaw the acquisition of 15 firms.

4. Make Buying Less Risky

Once somebody has decided to buy, their mind automatically starts looking for reasons not to do so. So don’t wait for the inevitable defenses: Instead, anticipate problems and objections in advance and be ready with a convincing response.

For example, if the objection is “we did this before and it didn’t work,” be ready to articulate how your idea is substantially different. Note exactly which factors and circumstances make it more likely to succeed. “If it’s a good idea, everyone will say it’s crap, at least at first, so you go for a pilot project,” says Ken Gidge, who among other things invented and sold the hanging plastic “strip doors” used in service-station garages.

5. Create Momentum

Ask for feedback frequently throughout the dialog. The best part about this is if you continue to check for agreement, the buyer will often preemptively close the sale by saying something like, “When do we start?”

If the buyer doesn’t do this, however, you’ll have to ask for the next step, according to Linda Richardson, author of the bestseller Perfect Selling. Summarize your idea and ask a few final questions to ensure that the idea-buyer agrees it’s workable. For example, “Does this makes sense to you?”

If you get agreement, you have the green light you need to move forward. So the next question is: “When can we bring this to the other partners?” (INC)

This is a TechCrunch featured post by James Altucher, an investor, programmer, author, and entrepreneur. He is Managing Director of Formula Capital and has written 6 books on investing. His latest book is “I Was Blind But Now I See“. You can follow him @jaltucher.

I loved talking to the skankiest prostitutes at three in the morning with a camera crew around me, fires burning in the street, sad, abused people clinging to scraps of life for their pleasures, bailed out prisoners and the drug dealers waiting for them to be released, homeless addicts with nowhere to go and they only weren’t freaks if you saw them at three in the morning .

In short, I loved my job.

Entrepreneurship ruined it. I’m not like how Mark Zuckerberg describes himself: “a builder”. My guess is, I’m not like most of the smart people who read this blog who go out there and build things to improve the lives of others. And yet, I kept doing it to myself over and over again. Once you enter the world of “eat what you kill” you can’t go back to being spoon-fed by the pencil factory anymore. Sadly. I write about my first job here (and the prostitutes).

I had a regular job at HBO. My title: Junior Programmer Analyst in the IT department. I told HBO, “you do original TV programming so why not do original web programming.” And magically, from 1996-98, they let me do whatever I wanted to do at three in the morning and then put it on their website. My original job was to do some Unix/ Oracle thing that I was totally unqualified for and didn’t know how to do. So I figured out a more fun idea for myself and persuaded them to let me do it.

Exactly what you should do in your first year of being an entrepreneur. Do everything I say below or you’ll probably fail. I’m dead serious.

1.) Don’t hire anyone.

Only hire people when you are absolutely desperate for more hands. And then start with freelancers. So you can fire them right away. When people raise money from VCs I notice the first thing they do is hire people. After my first company, which was profitable from day one and never raised a dollar, I started a second company where I raised $30 million from VCs and then hired $30 million worth of people, was fired as CEO and from the board, they then raised another $50 million or so and sold a year or so ago for about $1.

2.) Keep the cash.

If VCs put money in your business then no matter what they say, keep cash in the bank. Don’t act like a big company all of a sudden. Do you really need your lawyer at $400 an hour to take notes at a board meeting? Do you really need a board meeting? You don’t need a secretary until you have at least five, paying, profitable customers, if ever. You don’t need a head of sales or marketing your first year. You are the head of sales and marketing. You don’t need any VPs. You’re all VPs. You just started!

3.) Get a customer.

In order, here is the easiest cash you can get for your business: Customers, borrow against receivables, borrow against your house, friends and family, angels, venture capitalists, the public. Note that the VCs are near the end. Maybe you never need them. Why does everyone chase big-time VCs all the time? Do you really need $10 million in the bank. You just started! I shoud’ve made this point number one. Don’t even start your business unless you have a customer.

4.) Get a customer, part II.

Give equity if you have to. Sell your first baby (or take mine). Do whatever it takes to get one paying customer. If you are a content site: get a sponsor. If you are a product or a service, get a customer. If you can’t get a customer then that means you have a shitty product or you’re not passionate enough about it. Go back to the drawing board. Take an extra $5,000 and make some new features. Note: I said “$5,000”. Not “$10 million”.

5.) Get a customer, part III.

I mentioned this last week. Say “yes” to everything. EVERYTHING. If they need surgery performed on them, you’ll do it. If they need a database updated and your company makes tennis balls then say, “no problem, I have a guy for that. He was the database expert of Bangalore. And now he makes tennis balls for us. I’ll send him over Saturday morning to fix your database. And he’ll bring some pastries.”

Corollary to the above…Get the potential customer to say “yes”. Even if you have to do stuff for free. Just get them to yes. They can’t say no, for instance, if you say, “we can blow up your enemy for free.”

6.) Over-promise and over deliver for every customer.

But only the first time. Don’t kill yourself for everyone all the time. You need sleep!

7.) If a client says, “I’d rather have this conversation in our offices,” then listen to me: DO NOT EVER go to their office.

Don’t go there ever again.

8.) Most important: Stay Lucky.

If you don’t stay healthy: physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, in your first year, its a guaranteed failure. I’m an expert on failure. Not having the four legs mentioned above means the chair you are sitting on is going to break and you are going to fall.

9.) If someone says, “I’m taking a big chance by hiring you”, get paid as quickly as possible.

Get paid up front. You’re never going to do business with that person again. If his version of “chance” was hiring you then that’s it. He’s back to the pencil factory for his next vendor (no insult to pencil factory workers.)

10.) I’m horrible at follow up. But you have to do it.

If you have a potential client, move it from the phone to the meeting, to dinner as quickly as possible. Dinner seals the deal. Pick up the tab. Ask about their love lives. If they are lonely, hook them up with your best single friend of the appropriate gender and sexual preference.

11.) Once they are a client, make them a partner. There’s three ways to do that…

• Always hold out the bait that they can eventually make the jump from their crappy job at the pencil factory to the cool VP of Marketing position eventually opening up at your company (no offense to pencil factories).

• Ask for advice. Ask them what else do they need that you can help them with, for free if you have to (over promise and over deliver the first time).

• Ask them if they know anyone else who might need your services.

The best new customers are your old customers. The second best new customers are your old customers’ friends.

12.) In all of your spare time, do favors for your clients.

Hire their mentally-challenged nephews. Contribute to their charities. Volunteer where they volunteer. Give double everyone else when they run in one of those stupid marathons for cancer. I say “stupid” because why can’t the cancer thing just ask for the money without forcing people to run for 26 miles. Your entire free moments of the first year of being an entrepreneur should be spent thinking of favors to do for your clients. Use the techniques of “Super connecting” to build up your clients’ networks. The bigger their networks, the more valuable yours becomes. Don’t horde your network or your favors.

13.) Fire immediately any employee with a negative attitude.

Employees start to smoke in the stairwell and talk about you. So negative attitudes spread like a cancer. The only way to get rid of advanced cancer is radical chemotherapy to burn off the bad cells. Fire all negative employees immediately. No second chances. You won’t regret it. This doesn’t mean keep only yes-men. But the no-people have to work with you, not against you. If they start grumbling in anger, then they are fired.

14.) If someone wants to be your head of sales, only hire them if they are immediately bringing in enough revenues and profits to cover their salary. Everyone else is a waste of time.

Corollary: if someone makes an intro for you and it doesn’t work out (i.e. no customer results out of it) then never listen to them again. They gave their best shot and it didn’t work. So their second best shot won’t work either. And once you are on their third best shot then you’re probably an idiot.

15.) Reseller agreements are for suckers.

Companies have a hard enough time selling their own products. Nobody really gives a shit about your products or services. Maybe in year two. But in year one, if someone wants to resell you then say, “sure, give me some phone numbers to call right now.” Then refer to the corollary above.

16.) Steal your competitors’ customers from them.

Remember, they over-promised and over-delivered the first time. Then they began to disappoint (or perform like everyone else). Call up the decision maker and offer to do a little project for a little bit of money and totally over-deliver. You’ll be first on the speed dial when your competitor eventually disappoints. Which they will. Nobody can make the best purple tennis ball forever. Remember the easiest new customer is…err… your old customers! And then their friends. And then…your competitors’ customers.

CLICK HERE TO RSVP

CLICK HERE TO RSVP

CLICK HERE TO RSVP