GBG Family Team

Interview with Mark C. Thompson
By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
(Photo Courtesy of Mark Thompson)

If you want to succeed in business, look no further than the advice of Mark Thompson (www.markcthompson.com). He’s served at the executive level of Charles Schwab & Co. and collaborated with the likes of Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, and Brian Tracy,. A widely sought speaker and author of many books, including “Success Built to Last,” Thompson often addresses sales and productivity issues. Thompson took a break from attending sessions at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City in September 2010 to speak with Home Business Magazine®.

Home Business Magazine (HBM): How can home business entrepreneurs increase sales with minimal overhead?

Mark Thompson (MT): Do you your homework on your customers, investing the time to learn what’s valuable to them and focus on creating that product or service in a way that it’s unique and special for the customers that you serve. When you have those kinds of relationships, there’s often less pressure on pricing and competition because they feel connected. You’ve taken their special interests into account.

HBM: What are the most common misconceptions that home business owners have about achieving strong sales?

MT: It’s about knowledge, not money. It’s not advertising but going the extra mile to know what makes their products valuable to customers. [Large] businesses may say they have the advantage but they lose touch with what a home business person can do, which is to get a deeper understanding of what the individual customer wants. It’s all about customer intimacy.

HBM: Considering the sluggish state of the economy, is this the age of aggressive sales techniques or soft selling?

MT: I think that there’s a combination: persistence. It’s the age of the educational sale. Customers get abandoned. As a home business owner, you can reach out and touch them with knowledge, caring, and interest in what’s important to them. The way you treat the customer needs to add value. Know everything about your product you can. Be passionate. If you find it impossibly difficult to go deep about it, it’s probably the wrong product. You need to find another one. Given the deep discounts and tremendous competition, knowledge of the product and customer and caring will set you apart. These are the time we see companies gain the greatest market share, during tough times.

HBM: How can technology boost sales?

MT: More and more of the software and information technology tools that used to be the exclusive domain of big guys are now available on the web. It’s really important to keep a database to keep track of customers’ special needs so you’re smarter than the average call center. You can remember what the last transaction was and the names of their kids and spouse, if that’s necessary to the relationship. The access as a newsmaker has changed. Bloggers are making a market. Get up to speed on the social media. It’s hard to see if you’re a home business, but it’s democratizing. There’s more noise out there, but there’s also opportunity. Tweet and wiki in ways that enable you to communicate as an expert in your field.

HBM: What are the top hindrances to productivity, and how can home business entrepreneurs overcome them?

MT: Lack of focus. Set goals and schedule your day. Technology can also be a horrible time waster. You may need to answer e-mail for your products or services. But you need to partition your day for the most important, not the most urgent. Great leaders are very disciplined about how they spend their time. They focus on their outcomes and make sure their activities are focused on that. Focus on what matters during the day, which is hard when so many things are urgent. You can’t manage your business effectively until you manage your time. There’s no way to save time — you can only manage it.

HBM: How can successful home businesses thrive for the long haul?

MT: Whether a business or New Year’s resolution, most goals fail because people start looking at their wish lists at what they want to accomplish, but they don’t focus on what they are passionate about. Most great businesses don’t have sets of goals. Before you do that, be clear about what you’re willing to be an expert about. Is it the kind of thing you’ll be passionate about when you’re tired? Are you willing to do it even when you fail? Are you willing to bounce back? Is it something that when you do it you lose track of time? In some respects, passion is something you’re willing to do secretly for free. HBM

Deborah Jeanne Sergeant writes from her home in Wolcott, N.Y. Visit her online at www.skilledquill.net or http://cheapchownow.blogspot.com.

Previously published in the February 2011 issue of HOME BUSINESS® Magazine, an international publication for the growing and dynamic home-based market. Available on newsstands, in bookstores and chain stores, and via subscriptions ($19.00 for 1 year, six issues). Visit http://www.homebusinessmag.com

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Mark Thompson and his wife, Bonita, and their daughter, Vanessa, 11, live in Stanford, California.

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Why Social Media is So Important to Your Home Business

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

As one of the top-rated blog platforms, Blogger, owned by Google, represents an authoritative voice in social media. Anil Sabharwal helps shape the product

According to Anil Sabharwal, senior product manager for Google Apps, "Without engagement online, you're at a distinct disadvatage to the competition out there."

direction for Blogger, which boasts hundreds of millions of active readers. He is a recognized serial entrepreneur with more than 10 years of senior leadership experience in the high-tech sector.
    Recently, Home Business Magazine® spoke with Anil Sabharwal, senior product manager for Google Apps about home businesses and social media

Home Business Magazine® (HBM):

How can home business entrepreneurs leverage the power of social media when their company may be obscure/new?

Anil Sabharwal (AS): In the last few years, everything online has become about people and connecting with people. It’s the next evolution: You want people to recommend your business.

HBM: Some home business entrepreneurs may resist investing time in social media.

AS: I think it’s important for home business owners to not think of it as “social media.” Holistically, it’s about how will they attract new customers, engage with existing business clients, and engage them in making recommendation to others. The majority of people start their commerce experience online, look for recommendations, or ask a friend before making a purchase. Think of social media as how to engage new users, and using the power of the Internet and Blogger is critical. Without engagement online, you’re at a distinct disadvantage to the competition out there.
 
HBM: How can home business entrepreneurs attract a following on social media venues?

AS: The most important thing to engage in social media is to be part of the community. Communities resist those who say, “I’m here, I’m part of you, please buy from me,” but don’t participate in any other way. Reciprocate and be part of the community. Be involved and understand what other individuals are involved in the same type of home business. See how they have built up their businesses. Start to engage on these platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Blogger. Put out these feelers to get response. Actually engage with those responses. The last thing people want is for you to say “Look at me,” and you go away and wait for the business to roll in. It’s like anything else you do to engage with customers. If you’re passionate about your home business and love what you’re doing, the community aspect will be the most fun way to engage with customers and attract new customers, because you’re engaging with people equally passionate.
 
HBM: How can home business entrepreneurs develop a "voice" for their social media writing?

AS: The biggest mistake people make is trying to create a voice that’s not their own. People are actually very interested in hearing from entrepreneurs and sole proprietors and what it’s like to setup the business, develop the product or service, the struggles you go through, and the high points when you close a deal or address a large audience. The most important thing is it has to be genuine. If you have a tone you think your users will engage with because it’s corporate, don’t do it because people want to hear from real people not corporate entities. The most important thing is being true to the voice of the entrepreneur.
 
HBM: Would you recommend that a home business entrepreneur hire someone to maintain his or her social media?

AS: Except for extremely rare circumstances, we’d always suggest home business entrepreneurs should do their own writing. It can be a great way to engage with readers. They’d rather hear from the actual person. I’d absolutely encourage any entrepreneur to have their own voice. They’ll hear what the community is saying and be able to incorporate it into the product or service. If the entrepreneur feels writing isn’t his best skill, have a friend, colleague or contractor read it and provide tips about grammar.
 
HBM: What do you see in the future of social media as it relates to home-based businesses?

AS: We’re starting to see a community of home business owners. Instead of traveling to a conference, we’re seeing people get together on blogs talking about how they started up businesses. We’ll continue to see that over time. The world is becoming flatter and flatter, and business is becoming more global. A business that previously saw itself restricted to within its own community, can now sell a product or service to someone halfway across the world. HBM

Deborah Jeanne Sergeant writes web content, marketing materials and magazine articles from her home office in Wolcott, N.Y. Visit her online at www.skilledquill.net or www.cheapchownow.blogspot.com.  V18-3 Add: 7/11 HP:

Anil Sabharwal founded RAYV, Australia’s first and top-rated business review social community, along with Desire2Learn, now the second-largest online educational companies. His leadership roles at various technology firms include Microsoft, IBM, and Viewpoint. He lives in Sydney with his wife and two children.

Interview with Robert Kiyosaki
By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

Robert Kiyosaki has made a living from doling out counterintuitive advice. The New York Times best-selling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad recently spoke with Home Business Magazine to discuss his seemingly divergent financial tips.

Home Business Magazine (HBM): How did you come up with the idea for Rich Dad?

According to best-selling author Robert Kiyosaki, “For people who want security, the price is freedom.”

Robert Kiyosaki (RK): It’s a true story about my two fathers. My rich dad was my best friend’s father who started teaching me at the age of nine. My poor dad was my real father who was a smart man, a PhD who died poor. I never did well in school. That forced me to seek other teachers.
 
HBM: How did you launch Rich Dad?

RK: My rich dad showed me about money with Monopoly. I made my board game, “Cash Flow,” a little more sophisticated than Monopoly. It’s a game on accounting. In 1997, I wrote Rich Dad Poor Dad. It was turned down by every publisher, so I self-published and in 2000, it became the only self published book to ever make the New York Times best-seller’s list. Then Oprah called, and the rest is history. It’s been published in 51 different countries or so and lots of languages.

 
HBM: What is your worst financial mistake, and how did you recover and learn from it?

RK: The problem with most people in school is you’re taught to not make mistakes. If I’m not making mistakes, I’m not learning. How do you learn to walk or ride a bike without making mistakes? I’ve lost millions of dollars and I’ve made millions of dollars, but when I’ve lost, it’s for the best because I learn. Most successful entrepreneurs have made lots of mistakes.

HBM: How do you learn from your mistakes?

RK: I ask myself what didn’t I know. I have friends to ask why did this happen. It’s like being a detective. I have very good friends which is a key to being an entrepreneur. We help each other out. If your friends are all employees and government workers, you won’t make it until you change your friends. Your husband or wife is the most important person on your team. If he or she is security-oriented instead of freedom-oriented, it will be a lot harder to be an entrepreneur. I don’t want job security.
 
HBM: Why is the “old” financial advice — go to school, get a job, save money, get out of debt, invest for the long term, and diversify — flawed advice in your opinion?

RK: The more money you make as an employee, the more taxes you pay. The problem with saving money is you’re taxed on it. 401k and mutual funds are highly taxed. I can make millions and pay no tax if I don’t follow that advice. Every time the Federal Reserve prints a dollar, two things happen automatically: Taxes and inflation go up. That’s why employees go back to school and work harder to move up the tax bracket, and they never get ahead. Most people diversify into stocks, bonds and mutual funds. Warren Buffet said diversification is protection against ignorance. I know exactly what I buy and why. When I buy a business or an oil or real estate project, I know exactly what it is, and I buy the best one.
 
HBM: What are the top three mistakes that home business entrepreneurs make?

RK: They’re focus on the product, the least important thing. They lack sales skills. You have to have integrity and extremely good people skills. I have almost no business skills. I hire people with business skills. I have leadership skills and am a good team player.
 
HBM: Why is it important to keep growing as a person?

RK: You grow or you die. If you’re growing, your friends and business partners will grow. If not, you have the same old people and same old problems. Being an entrepreneur is the best personal develop program you could get into. The more you work on yourself, the better your business. I’m always taking courses. Before I wrote Rich Dad Poor Dad, I took a course on how to sell books. I can’t write, but I’m a best-selling author, not a best-writing author. For people who want security, the price is freedom. The more security you have, the less freedom you have. That’s why in jail, it’s called “maximum security” because they have the least freedom. HBM

Deborah Jeanne Sergeant writes articles, press releases and web content from her home in Wolcott, N.Y. Visit her online at www.skilledquill.net or www.cheapchownow.blogspot.com.  V18-4 Add: 9/11 HP: