Link-O-Rama for 11/11/11

Link-O-Rama for 11/11/11

• It’s often said, but not nearly often enough practiced that the best funding to get your business going is sales. It’s always easier to head to the bank or your brother-in-law, but sales trump it all in my opinion. Here is a pretty good primer on how to take a step back and look at your sales process to “Six Sigma It up” a little.
• One thing that always amazing me when counseling with small business is their lack of process around collecting from customers. If you have a business model where you can’t get cash up front or at time of service, you NEED to have things in place to keep the A/R under control. Here is a great read on how to go about it. Waiting it out and playing nice is not always the answer. And when you’ve worked hard for the sale, the last thing you need is a deadbeat that doesn’t pay.
• Jeff Haden over at Owner’s Manual always has good stuff to share. Here he delves into the world of Linked In’s Groups service. Most people end up with a profile and maybe do some reco’s and what not on there, but not enough of us utilize their Groups functionality, which is probably the most powerful piece of the whole site.
• Again from Haden is a great piece for those in the customer service business, which is basically everybody but your brother-in-law the ditch digger.
• With Deal Garden now in town, there are more and more options to participate in couponing websites. The perception is that they can be a dangerous way to lose money fast. Before you assume that, give this a read on ways to strategically do well on a group couponing site.
• I should probably know who Neil Patel is, but I have no idea. That said his list on lessons learned in business is right on the money.
• Good advice for those looking to keep their day job while also venturing out on a path with a start up business. One of the better nuggets is to take a day or two off to work on it, and on those days, books as many meetings as you can. No one wants to meet with you about your crazy start up at 7PM or AM for that matter.
• I love any list of suggested reading, this one is pretty complete. At least I think it is, I haven’t really read any of them, but every list I see on this subject includes most of these. I started Zen and Motorcyles sometime in July I think. I’m about 60 pages in, so yeah, I need to turn the TV off.
• For those afraid of selling, but know they need to get it down, here are some ways around selling while still selling – I think that makes sense. As a small business counselor I see a ton of people with the fear of selling thing going on, this is a good way to think about ways around that.
• I should have put this one higher up for the 2 of you who actually read this, but here are some awesome quotes on taking risk for those that might need to talk themselves into it

Finally, if you made to the bottom, we’ve got a little Mumford & Sons to get your weekend rolling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZzRd3q9pEM&ob=av3n