How Criticism Can Save Your Small Business

Mistakes are critical to business growth. We learn the most when we’re faced with trickier problems and customer complaints that force us to get creative. Whether you’re a booming tech leader like Facebook or a local mom-and-pop, your team should always have an ear to the ground, accepting and encouraging feedback from happy and unhappy customers alike.

Below, we share just how customer criticism can transform and save your business.

You hear your customers’ wants first-hand

Maybe you talk to your customers all the time or, as is often the case, just when they’re dissatisfied. While these “negative” conversations can be daunting, they’re far more valuable for than the pleasant ones. Unhappy customers put growth opportunity on a serving platter. They tell you about their issue and often hint (or state outright) the outcome they would have preferred, whether it’s a product improvement, a service offering, better communication or all of the above.

The more you hear this kind of feedback, the clearer your business’ holes become and the closer you are to plugging them. Just remember that many customers never complain. In fact, 96% of them don’t. The majority simply leave. So you have to ask for feedback and work toward building better customers who want to give it, otherwise you won’t hear the good, the bad and the ugly until it’s too late.

You see your business in a new light

You go to work every day and stare at a computer screen, run around helping customers or checking off an endless and ever-growing to-do list. You start to form a routine. After some time, it’s easy to grow so close to the work that you put distance between yourself and your customers. You must make mental edits to your approach, especially if you want to grow business with customer service.

Criticism forces you to take a hard look at outdated and ineffective practices that may be causing trouble in your customer relationships. It gives you a chance to revamp the go-to techniques you use on a daily basis. Maybe your business hours are problematic for customers with full-time jobs, or you’re not offering a service in high demand. Your customers’ feedback can help point out the obvious but overlooked problems that need to be rectified.

Just listening boosts customer retention

Criticism isn’t always fun to hear, but it just might help you save a customer from leaving. When someone raises a complaint, start by empathizing. Let them know that you understand where they’re coming from and you’ll take the initiative to help. Wait for them to finish, then try repeating back what they just said so they know you’re listening.That word is key: listen. Remind yourself that you need to listen, not just hear. Take notes if you want to, and attempt to come up with a solution right then and there or give them a clear, reasonable time that you’ll get back to them. If you offer a solution upfront, your customer is less likely to cut ties. And even if you can’t solve the problem right away, once your customer voices their issue they’ll be more invested in that future solution.

Feedback can ignite action

Criticism can give you that little push you need to make a change. When your employees are constantly hearing similar feedback, that’s when you know it’s time to take action. Meet with your team and determine where the majority of complaints or problems arise and come up with a strategy to fix the issue. Making these feedback sessions a top priority adds credibility in the eyes of your customers and your employees.

That employee bit is key. If you run a business with customer-facing employees, they need to be following your lead and soliciting feedback regularly. Instill an attitude of proactive customer service company-wide and you’ll see a much bigger impact. Your team will begin paying more attention to customers’ needs as well as what’s best for the company.

Conclusion


If companies like Apple and Microsoft disregarded their customers’ feedback, they never would have made it to the top echelons of tech. Their products and services have adapted to changing consumer preferences and needs thanks to constant analysis and action. Though their consumer studies budget probably dwarfs a mid-sized company’s annual revenue, smaller operations can take small measures to start listening that open up a realm of possibilities for growth. Don’t forget that you are where you are because of your loyal customers, so take their criticism as a thank you to your business.

Source: http://www.entrepeneur.com
Photo Credit: BizApp


ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

5 Networking Tips On How To Reach Most Influential People From A 17 Year Old Ishan Goel

Ishan is not your average teenager, while most students his age are working entry level positions and repeating life on a daily schedule.  Ishan Goel is busy expanding and growing his businesses and network globally. It was impressive to see how much Ishan has achieved in his start up years as an entrepreneur.

At the age of 17, Ishan Goel is a distinguished photographer and entrepreneur. I am pointing out a ‘photographer’ part, as this was the reason for his success. He currently runs three companies, where he works and coordinates with organizations ranging from non-profits to Fortune 500 companies. Internationally known public figures like Joe DePinto (CEO of 7-Eleven), Mark Cuban, Brian Cuban (Author and Speaker), Ted Cruz (2016 Presidential Candidate) have crossed paths with this young influencer.


He says it started all early – At the age of 13, Ishan Goel raised the most money for his school’s American Heart Association ’s “Hoops for Heart program.” He was only armed with an official piece of paper and the tenacity to help. Ishan started his own marketing firm at the age of 14 giving out free and discounted services so he could understand the art of social media management and outsourcing.

Today, Ishan Goel is a leader at his school, Coppell High where he has launched a club which offers students to enter the community as medically trained volunteers. He has successfully certified and trained students in his organisation in CPR, First Aid and AED by working with his local Fire Department’s training programs.


His approach to networking is what intrigued me the most during our conversation. He explained to me how his camera was his “ticket” in the doors. He explained how it is hard to get in the same room as a billionaire but with his camera, he is not only able to get in, but he is able to network and connect with top notch professionals and leaders, eventually pitching his other projects and building a strong relationship by sending them his work afterwards.

Towards the end, Ishan Goel shared some of the techniques he used to go from a normal high school student to a business owner. Here are his business tips:

1. Build a strong network

If you haven’t already made a personal website, Facebook FB -2.28%, LinkedIn LNKD -0.06%, Cyber Dust or Twitter TWTR -3.05% account you should do that right now. I highly recommend downloading Cyber Dust to connect leaders and mentors in your area. This app helps you directly communicate with people like Mark Cuban and build new business relationships.

2. Be prepared

Ishan picked that up in Boy Scouts. You have to be prepared physically and mentally for everything. Sometimes you can’t get what you want but that doesn’t mean you can’t stop trying. Get up, dress up and work hard every single day.

3. Find what makes you unique

What gives you the upper hand on everyone else you know? Once you know what it is, get better at it until you can do it in your sleep. Bringing back value is what people look for in anyone who they are interested in bringing on. If you know how to do something others don’t and if you are good at it – nothing can stop you from being successful.

4. Surround yourself with the best. The people around you can and will put you down and drain you of any potential you could possibly have. It’s time to leave those people behind and surround yourself with people who will build you up. Find a mentor who will take you to where you want to be.

5. Be a shark. If you want something and you are dedicated don’t let anyone stop you from achieving your business goals.

  “lead me, follow me or get the hell out of my way” – George S Patton Jr.


If you are giving something fifty percent, why do it at all?  If you are doing something give it your all and you will see results. Make sure you, learn how to rest not to quit that’s what will separate you from an entrepreneur and a wantrepreneur.





Source: www.forbes.com
Photo Credit: Ishan Goel


ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

5 Lessons for Growing Your Small Business

There’s exciting news for those of us who love small businesses: the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) found that nearly 14 percent of working age Americans are now either starting or running new businesses. That’s a record high for this study since it first began 16 years ago.

Small Business Week runs the first week of May to promote and honor America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners. After all, small businesses are the engine of the U.S. economy. According to data from the SBA, roughly two-thirds of all new jobs in this country are thanks to small businesses. And while it’s important to formalize this recognition with an official week, it’s equally important that we support small businesses throughout the year.

As a serial entrepreneur and someone who has helped tens of thousands small businesses get off the ground, I’ve come to appreciate one thing about small business ownership: starting a business may be hard, but scaling that business up can be even harder. That’s why I’m sharing some of the key lessons I’ve learned on how to grow your business and take it to the next level.

How To Grow Your Business

1. Focus On Your Brand, and More Branding

No matter how small your business may be, it has a brand. You may not have a marketing department or outside branding agency, but your business certainly has a brand. This is the emotional attachment that connects your customers to your product, service, and company. And it’s this emotional attachment that keeps your customers coming back more than pricing or any other strategy.

How do you want people to feel when they think about your company and product/service? How is your company inspiring its customers or creating other positive memories? Think deeply about these questions. Then, make sure that every aspect of your company — from your website to products, advertising, and employee policies — reinforces the brand image you want to portray.

2. Dedicate Blocks of Time to Work on the Business

There is a great article on Small Biz Trends offering solid tips on “How to Work ON Your Business, Not IN it“. When you’re running a business, you can keep yourself busy every second of the day. But busyness doesn’t necessarily equal success: in other words, just because you’re working around the clock doesn’t mean you’re driving your business forward.

If you are constantly focused on the day-to-day tasks and reacting to every request, email, or issue, it means that no one is actually working on building out the business for the long term. That makes it very hard to grow from where your business is right now. Set aside time in your schedule to work on getting new business and your company’s long-term strategy. Some choose to work only on new business deals every morning until 11 am; others schedule Friday afternoons or Monday mornings. Pick whatever time works for your schedule and stay disciplined: focusing on the future is the only way you can grow.

3. Surround Yourself with Great People

Small business owners are used to wearing all (or at least most) of the hats in their business. However, a successful company requires a team, not just one person. With only one person responsible for each decision or activity, there’s only so far your business can scale. Consider some of the tasks you could hand over to contractors, employees, interns, and even family members. Try delegating some of your major pain points first; this will free up your time to focus on the important stuff.

One word of advice. When small businesses start growing, owners often feel compelled to bring on a senior employee from a big company with an impressive resume. While this specific expertise can help in some cases, you should be hiring for smarts, work ethic, and culture-fit with your business rather than fancy words on a resume.

4. Invest in Your Legal Foundation

If you started a business without a clear growth strategy in mind, you may not have been thinking about a legal business structure. If you didn’t designate a structure, then by default, you’re operating as a sole proprietor (one owner) or general partnership (more than one owner). As you start growing, or are thinking about growing, it’s time to formalize your business structure — either by becoming a corporation or LLC (Limited Liability Company).
While there are several benefits to the corporation and LLC, the main advantage is that these structures help protect your personal assets. This means that if something should happen in your business (e.g. it gets sued or can’t pay its debts), then your personal assets can be protected and the responsibility falls on the shoulder of your business as its own entity.

5. Invest in Your Health and Sanity

A study from Bank of America found that managing a small business is twice as stressful as maintaining a healthy relationship with a spouse or partner and three times as stressful as raising children. Furthermore, small business owners routinely skip free time, exercise, and other personal priorities in order to focus on the business.

I can’t stress enough the importance of taking care of yourself, while you’re taking care of your business. After a few debilitating panic attacks brought on by business stress, I’ve learned to make my well being priority number one. When I’m feeling stuck or down, I get to the gym. Exercising and listening to music are my reset buttons. Find what feeds your soul and schedule it into your calendar just like an important client meeting. Because running a business is an ultra-distance marathon, and you need to have fuel in your tank to keep going.

Kudos to those of you who are traveling the exciting road of entrepreneurship. I know how hard the journey can be, but the challenges are so worth it!


Do you have any great tips to share on how to grow your business?





Image Credit: Shutterstock
Source: http://smallbiztrends.com/



ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

Are Twitter Emojis a Growing Business Trend?

Social media has completely changed the way businesses communicate with customers. Instead of the same dry, text-filled marketing messages, businesses are finding new and interesting ways to get their messages across. One such technique is the use of Twitter emojis.

In fact, Twitter recently released some ideas for ways brands can work emojis into their Tweets. Here are some ways you can use emojis to enhance your Twitter marketing.

Add Some Personality

One of the great things about social media is that it lets brands connect with customers on a more personal level. So you don’t need to be super professional and mundane in every Tweet. In fact, showing off your personality, or the personality that you want to portray for your brand, can be a real asset on social media. And emojis can be a really great tool for showing off that personality.

In the example from Toca Boca above, the addition of the little party emoji at the end of the Tweet adds a bit of personality that sets this message apart from all those other plain “Happy New Year” Tweets that brands put out. It’s a small thing. But it fits with the company’s branding and gives it just enough of an extra boost to set it apart from the competition.

Give Followers a Glimpse of Your Offerings

You have a limited amount of characters to work with on Twitter. So you probably don’t have enough room to show customers all of what they might see if they clicked on your website or did business with you. But certain emojis can say a lot without taking up a lot of those precious Tweet characters. So you can use them to give customers a sort of sneak preview of your offerings.

In the example above, travel company Locatour is promoting a blog post that includes some ideas for things to do in the Aquitaine region of France. The emojis in the Tweet offer a little preview of the suggestions contained in the post. This gives followers an idea of what they’re going to see if they click, but not enough to keep them from reading the post.

Emphasize a Call to Action

Calls to action are important parts of most business communication plans. And the same goes for Tweets. If you want people to click a link in your Tweet, visit your site, make a purchase, or take any other kind of action, you can use emojis for emphasis.

The example above shows home décor company One Kings Lane emphasizing a link in a really simple way. The company uses a finger pointing emoji to point straight at the link. This offers a very direct though at the same time playful and whimsical call to action telling customers exactly what to do next. Yet it only takes up one character.

Show Quick Appreciation

It’s important to say “thank you” to customers or followers when they say nice things about your brand or share your content on Twitter. But just saying “thank you” can be repetitive and boring. Emojis allow you to switch up your appreciation messages from time to time. You can use hearts, faces or any number of other combinations to let people know you appreciate them.

In the Tweet shown above, beauty brand Drybar uses a simple yellow heart to send a message of appreciation to a customer who spread the word about the business on Twitter. The yellow color of the emoji even matches the color scheme in the company’s other branding materials. And there are plenty of different colors for other brands to choose from as well.

With all the different emoji characters available, you can even use some of them as part of your Tweet’s message. This can help you save characters but also add just a bit of fun for those followers who might just scroll past all those boring, text-filled Tweets.

For example, the Tweet above from money management app Mint uses emojis to emphasize the words “hide” and “hello.” The company could have gotten that message across without the emojis. But having little pictures in your Tweets can be fun and eye catching, setting your message apart. And that’s the whole point of marketing anyway.

How to Get Started Using Emojis on Twitter

To use emojis in any of the ways above, you’ll first need to know how to add them to your Tweets. If you’re Tweeting from an iPhone, you just need to add the emoji keyboard. To do this, open any app that uses the standard keyboard (Twitter, perhaps?) and click the small button at the bottom left that looks like a sphere. This should give you options for new keyboards to add. Once you select emoji, there should be a smiley face icon at the bottom of your keyboard that you can use to add emoji the same as you would text.

For Android phones, the process can differ based on the type of device. But some do allow you to add on emoji within the Android Keyboard settings.

On a Mac computer, you’ll need to make sure that you have the latest OSX installed. Then you’ll have access to the emoji keyboard. On Twitter, just hit command-control-space to bring up the keyword so you can use it in Tweets.

And on a PC, you can search for the Chromoji plugin on Google Chrome to get access to an emoji keyboard for use in your Tweets.

There are also some hashtags that have emojis appear automatically with them. For example, hashtags surrounding the Super Bowl, TV shows or major news items have had related or custom emojis attached. Right now, you can see a tiny bracket emoji show up after Tweets that include the #MarchMadness hashtag, for example.

Some brands have even paid for custom emojis to appear after specific hashtags. That is reportedly an expensive endeavor, so not one that’s realistic for most small businesses. Still, if there’s a hashtag with an emoji that could be relevant to your business, you could still use it within your Tweets to grab followers’ attention.

source:smallbiztrends.com

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is an organization consisting of professionals and entrepreneurs which focuses on the success of our Members. We help our Members establish lasting relationships and generate new business opportunities towards the growth of their business.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

The Key to Success? Relationships.

Image credit: stvp.stanford.edu

If you ask 10 entrepreneurs to tell you the key to business success, you're likely to get 10 different answers. I'm sure one would say product innovation, and while that's definitely a significant factor, it's not the right answer. And, yes, there is a right answer.  

The key to business success is winning and keeping customers. And the key to winning and keeping customers is, and has always been, relationships. The world's greatest business experts - Peter Drucker, Mark McCormack, Regis McKenna and others - have all said the same thing in one way or another.

Unfortunately, you, my friends, have all been sold a bill of goods. You've been told that spending your time building your personal brand, growing your social media network, improving your productivity, identifying and enhancing your strengths, and engaging your employees, among other things, will make you successful. They won't.

No matter what you do for a living or aspire to become, none of those fads du jour will have a material impact on how things turn out for you or your business. But building real relationships with real people in the real world will. Not convinced? Here's why relationships are the key to business success:

Your most important asset is your network - not your virtual network, your real one. Every successful executive and entrepreneur will tell you, their most important asset is their network, and they don't mean social network. They mean people they actually know and work with in real time because they're the ones that actually get things done. One real relationship in the real world is worth more than 10,000 social media links, likes or followers.

Sales transactions are between two real human beings. Even with ecommerce, most sales transactions are still between two human beings. Think about it. Every significant B2C and B2B transaction involves a buyer and a seller, not to mention all the channel development and pre- and post-sales support. And the best product doesn't necessarily win. Buyer behavior is mostly subjective and relationships are a big factor. In a service business, they're the biggest factor, hands down.

When opportunity knocks, it's always a person knocking ... and answering. As much as we like to fantasize about opportunities just falling in our laps, the truth is, that never happens. Of the thousands of career and business opportunities I've been involved with over the past 30 years, every single one involved a real relationship. Every job, every piece of advice, every business deal, every vendor relationship - there's that word - every single one.  

So what does all this mean? It means there's a good chance you're wasting precious time, even years of peak earning potential, focusing on the wrong things to build your career and grow your business. I learned that lesson the hard way.

Ten years into my engineering management career, I thought I had everything going for me. I was young, I was smart, and I worked hard, but it was all about the job, the product. And you know what? I wasn't really going anywhere. Until one day, some guy changed my life by talking me into making the transition to sales and marketing.

It took a while to learn the skills that would ultimately make me a senior executive in the high-tech industry and then, a successful management consultant, but I can attribute everything good that happened to me over the next 20 years to that fateful day and the relationships I've built since.

Which reminds me of a time, long ago. I was working at home and had just gotten off the phone and looked up to find my wife standing in the doorway. She looked at me in a sort of circumspect way and said, "Aren't you supposed to be working?"

"I am working," I replied.

"No you're not," she said, "You're just BS-ing."

I said, "That's right. That's my job."


Back then, she didn't get it, but now she does. It's just like watching grass grow. You can't see anything happening but one day you wake up to a beautiful lawn. Building relationships and a successful business career is just like that. Call it a leap of faith or delayed gratification if you want. All I know is, it works.

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is an organization consisting of professionals and entrepreneurs which focuses on the success of our Members. We help our Members establish lasting relationships and generate new business opportunities towards the growth of their business.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

ANNOUNCEMENT: 2016 VIP Membership Enrollment Now Open

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is an organization consisting of professionals and entrepreneurs which focuses on the success of our Members. We help our Members establish lasting relationships and generate new business opportunities towards the growth of their business.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

Business Organization Offers New Membership Benefits for 2016

SUMMARY:  Membership with a business organization provides businesses with the opportunity to make professional connections and expand their business.

Monday, November 9, 2015 – Westchester County, NY

 Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is proud to announce that they are no accepting applications for 2016 VIP Membership enrollments. WNFP is dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop and grow.  Whether you’re a startup company, emerging business or individual looking for ways to network with like-minded professionals, gain additional exposure, expand your business or/and increase your company’s brand awareness and credibility; WNFP can offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.

 WNFP partners with over 800 members and investors located in Westchester County, NY and surrounding areas. Members have immediate access to services and exclusive benefits including, networking events, educational workshops, advertising and marketing programs.

 WNFP membership allows business owners and entrepreneurs to have a voice in the community, connecting you to other business professionals and providing you and your business with instant exposure to new customers.

 VIP Membership rates start at $69.00 for a full year and new members who enroll prior to the official 2016 enrollment date of January 1, 2016 will be an active member through to December 31, 2016.

 “Whether you choose our standard or enhanced VIP membership options, Westchester Networking for Professionals provides valuable resources that support your business throughout the year,” says Founder, Theresa Todman.

The mission of WNFP is to provide alternatives that their community of business professionals can utilize to enhance their business, professional growth and development through events, services and programs.

 For more information about Westchester Networking for Professionals VIP membership options or to learn more about the organization call (914) 266-0347 or visit their website at http://www.wnfp.org

Managing Stress While Running a Business

Owning and running your own business can be very stressful. Business is very unpredictable and always changing. Leading almost every entrepreneur to experience high levels of stress periodically.

In recognizing April as National Stress Awareness Month, we want to share with you some strategies we found to help you deal with the stress of running a business:

1. Accept responsibility
2. Think positive
3. Understand its okay to make mistakes
4. Talk about the stress with others
5. Plan your day and set a schedule
6. Stay organized
7. Identify the source of your stress
8. Eliminate or alter the issues that cause your stress
9. Find the right work/life balance.

These strategies will help you reduce stress and run your business more successfully. Stress can lead to many health problems and it's very hard to run a business from a hospital bed or doctors office.

It's normal to experience stress, but how you handle your stress makes all the difference. Don't let stress ruin your life or business. Tackle it with the 8 strategies above and start living a healthier more enjoyable life.

What are some techniques you use to handle stress? Comment and share below.

ABOUT WNFP Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is an organization consisting of professionals and entrepreneurs which focuses on the success of our Members. We help our Members establish lasting relationships and generate new business opportunities towards the growth of their business.

The New Rules of “Success” aka 1 Reason Why It’s Essential to Have a Professional Portrait.

As part of my never-ending quest for knowledge, growth and understanding success, I recently read the book The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann which I heard about from one of my unofficial mentors Marie Forleo. It's a quick read that I recommend to anyone who wants to be successful - whatever that may mean to you. Anyway, in the book, there was one concept that was introduced - which was not one of the major themes, but which reaffirmed something I've been coming to learn about life and success recently. In the book, a character explores the idea of "stories" and the comparison between children and adults in how they approach problem-solving (for lack of a better term) and life in general. The character says, "You just make it up." And that stuck with me.

What I've really begun to realize is that life has no rules. It's cliché, but true, that life is what you make of it - and we all just make it up.

I've noticed that the people that are the most 'successful' and the most happy, have really figured this out.

These people may have gotten to where they are by following conventional wisdom and common steps, but I've realized that success is many things and its definition is fluid and individual. And, because of that, and because of the "chaos" (cough cough, I mean change) that has been going on for the past few (or more) years in the economy and the job market, I've come to realize that what used to be true is no longer true and to get where I want to go, I really do have to "make it up." I reiterate:

There are no rules. ...Why am I saying this?

Well, because, being the young entrepreneur I am, I kind of fell into entrepreneurship as a means to an end and by complete accident (though I do believe now that this is where I'm supposed to be). But, I fell into it because of the state of the job market and a number of other factors relating to finding full time work. You see, I adopted the mentality that we create our own opportunities. But it was an accident. Seriously. I was always a goody-two-shoes, by the book kind of girl. Maybe not in terms of my fashion sense (I was a poster child for Hot Topic in high school, and I have an affinity for dying my hair fun colors), but I followed the "rules" as they were laid out to me: 1. get good grades, 2. do every extra curricular activity you can, 3. go to college, 4. repeat 1 and 2, 5. do internship(s), 6. graduate .... So far so good... but, the problem came after that.... because number 7 was always "get a good job". (8. work, forever, 9. retire, 10. die...) Except... that that didn't happen. I felt like, "I did everything right, so why can't I get a job?" And, you know what I was told: "it's the economy." I was told to not blame myself, that it was not my fault - basically that the problem was outside of me and I couldn't really do anything about it. The problem is, that wasn't super helpful because where does that leave me? Still jobless and questioning. However, I'm lucky that one of my strengths in life is adaptability and that I learned before that it doesn't matter what happens TO us, but rather what we make of the situation that counts. Said another way, adapt or perish, and we create our own opportunities... So, what did I do?

I embraced my skills and found a way.

I found an internship by interacting with someone on Twitter. Then I found another internship on Craigslist... Then... after a year or more and even with more work experience, something was still wrong... because I STILL was not getting a job. Well, I said, "to hell with it." I still needed to make money, so I took inventory of my skills (again) and took to the networking groups. I made myself a website and poof, the world had it's newest freelancer. I had no idea what I was doing, and I had no role models in business, but, I managed to get a few clients, by chance. And I started learning and studying business. Fast forward. Now, I'm a business person. What did I learn about success, or how to be successful?

Step 1 to being or becoming successful is to define success on your own terms.

Success, for me, isn't about having a job. Success isn't about having a big house, a picket fence, a husband, 2.5 children, and a dog. Success is different for everyone, and for me, it has many definitions. And, it's not as much about the external things, as much as about having a strong, healthy and resilient mindset to be able to continue achieving.

Step 2 is realizing and embracing that there are no rules anymore and that we not only have the power to create it ourselves, but we must take control and "make it up" ourselves.

To really achieve whatever your version of success is, it's absolutely essential to realize that, while we don't have say over what happens to us, we do have say over what actions we take in pursuit of what we want. Let's face it. (Pardon my French, but...) Shit's gonna happen. We'll face less than ideal circumstances. But it doesn't matter. Success, to me, is taking responsibility, climbing out of the hole and taking action to improve the situation. And making it up. It's not necessarily just the achievement of our goals or having what we want, but it's being strong enough to take the steps and keep trying, and embracing failure as part of the process, but continuing to learn, grow and try again. I know, what authority do I have to be talking about success, at my age and level of accomplishment? It's true, I don't match the "traditional" definition of success, in that I'm pretty young, my business is still young and not yet where I'd like it to be, but when the advice from more experienced individuals I receive is to keep doing what I'm doing, that I'm doing it right, and when I see my approach being validated by bestselling books on business and productivity, I can't help but feel that I'm successful. That I'm really making something happen. Coming from complete ignorance of business and success, and stereotypical rules, and job market failure, I feel successful because I know that I'm on the right track, and that the challenges I'm facing right now don't define me, but what I do to overcome them and how I learn and grow from them is what matters and will have more of an effect on how things play out.

...Then, how do we be successful in this economy? Especially if there are no rules?

There aren't rules because everyone's definition of success is different, but there are some principles that I've learned which are helpful, that are not solely applicable to business, but also if you are an employee. Firstly, everything that we do must create value. Even having a job is about value creation - as an employee, a person is providing a service to their employee which is valuable to them (i.e. why you get paid to do it). In business, we make money because our service or product adds value to the customers. So.

1. Aim to create/add value.

Secondly, success (I mean... Life) doesn't happen in a vacuum. If success (defined by achievements) is what you seek, it won't happen on it's own, or by yourself. It requires other people. For example, money won't just appear out of thin air - it requires an employer or customers (or an inheritance, which sort of comes out of thin air... or death of another person). So, it pays to have a strong group of people who believe in you.

2. Aim to have a strong community of supporters and friends.

3. Aim to add value to that strong community.

Ok.

I know, I still haven't addressed the title and why this means we all need a professional portrait to be successful.

Well, because what I am essentially describing, about creating our own opportunities and having a strong network, basically means that in order to achieve "success" - or at least build a career that you are proud of and is fulfilling - even as an employee - we have to have a personal brand.

And, in having a personal brand, we have to "market" (or present/promote) ourselves in a similar way to how a company would market itself. That means, having a mission, vision, goals, and taking control of our reputations.

Having a personal brand means managing how you are seen, how you come across to strangers online. It means understanding that you are being seen and that everything you do has an impact on your reputation - so, if you want to be seen as professional, you need to represent yourself as a professional online. That means, using professional images to represent yourself on your social media, on your website/blog, in email (perhaps) - on anything you use to promote yourself.

Said another way, if you want to have a fulfilling career (whether in business or as an employee), you need to stand out from the croud by adding value, having a strong network, standing for something and being able to communicate that, and coming across as professional wherever you are. (By the way, this doesn't have to mean boring headshots, but can mean creative, high quality, professional images of you being you - not "cell-fies".)

And, by the way, while we’re on the topic of success and photos… having these photos is not just so you can put them on your own marketing (social media, website, etc.). As an acquaintance of mine, Kim Nicol, recently pointed out, it’s also helpful to have for when others request images of you to publish when you are featured somewhere, which is likely to happen at some point, so you want to be in control of what picture they use and be confident in the photo.

There you have it. So, it's not quite a "rule" that success = having professional photos, but it's definitely an essential step in the process. 

---

Well, I hope you found this post interesting and/or helpful, or at least that it inspired some new thoughts for you.

Thank you for reading.

If you found anything about this post helpful, please be sure to share it with your friends.

And, if you are interested in learning more about having me do your photos, contact me (845-418-2718 or contact@caylena.com) and visit my website: http://www.ccphotoandmedia.com.

Now - go be awesome!