JAY LARSON:3 Steps to Aligning Sales Teams and Maximizing Results

As companies grow, one of the most important questions they seek answers to is how to increase results and revenue. Never has it been truer that the key to a successful, growing business is an aligned sales team.

Lack of congruence translates to diminished results and smaller profits. Fix the internal alignment problem first, and you'll be far more successful in all other endeavors. So, how can you get the most out of your sales team and find the precise way to structure and lead its members to obtain the maximum benefit? Here are three ways:

5 Ways to Help Your Employees Feel Empowered

We’ve all seen it: the employee who shows great promise but won’t step up, or the employee who avoids making eye contact during team meetings in hopes that they won’t need to contribute. Or, worst of all, the employee who has no idea how their daily efforts contribute to the company’s overall success.  

These are all classic signs of employees who aren’t being empowered.

The 12 Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are a different breed - they think different, act different, and live different than the rest of society. However, the successful ones all seem to share a few of the same traits with each other. Here are 12 of the most common:

These Wildly Successful Entrepreneurs Once Were Homeless

Rags-to-riches stories have been popular throughout history, proving that you don’t have to be privileged or have things handed to you to be a success. These Fortune 500 success stories encapsulate the idea that hard work, determination, and a positive spirit are the necessary ingredients to bootstrap your way out of poverty, off the streets and into the realm of millionaire and even billionaire.

Chris Gardner

Image credit: 360b | Shutterstock.com

6 Questions You Must Answer 'Yes' to Before Becoming an Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship has recently become a sexy and trendy topic. The media glorifies the startup unicorns that hit big and TV shows like Shark Tank have introduced the entire world to entrepreneurs, leaving many people asking themselves, “Can I be one?”

While entrepreneurship can be rewarding on many levels, it requires a certain type of person to excel, whether he or she is venturing into this world straight out of school or transitioning out of a 9-to-5 career. There are so many questions to ask yourself before making the move -- and a lot of these questions relate to specific circumstances. But here are six things you most definitely have to answer "yes" to. 

STEPHEN KEY:Entrepreneurs Who Embody These 9 Practices Will Gain Loyalty

If you want to create a successful business, set an example for others to follow. Establishing and maintaining the right kind of culture is essential in any venture.

My decades of experience as an entrepreneur have taught me that it doesn’t matter what kind of person you’re trying to get to work with you. If you conduct yourself in the right way, people will want to invest their time, energy and money into helping you. It always comes down to attitude.

JOHN RAMPTON:5 Things Productive Entrepreneurs Do Each Day

This is probably an understatement, but entrepreneurs are some of the busiest people around. A day in the life of an entrepreneur is chock-full of business decisions, research and networking. Because there’s so much to do and so little time to do so, entrepreneurs can easily get off track and become distracted with nonessentials.Chat or listen to some successful people, though, and you'll notice that they have several daily routines or habits that have steered them to success. Here five things that productive entrepreneurs do every day:

JAMES CLEAR:The Proven, Reasonable and Totally Unsexy Way to Become More Successful

There is a common phenomenon in the world of personal finance called “lifestyle creep.” It describes our tendency to buy bigger, better, and nicer things as our income rises.For example, say that you receive a promotion at work and suddenly you have $10,000 more of income each year. Rather than save the extra money and continue living as normal, you’re more likely to upgrade to a bigger TV or stay at better hotels or buy designer clothes.

MANNASTORES RECRUITING: CUSTOMER CARE EXECUTIVE

We at Mannastores help businesses and individuals buy original products from United Kingdom or United States and deliver to anywhere in Nigeria. Due to rapid expansion and focus on serving our esteemed customers better with unparalleled appetite to deliver greater value at all times, we call on exceptional candidates to come and build an empire within our fine and progressive company.

Customer Service Representative Job Duties:

Mannastores Recruiting: IT Students

We at Mannastores help businesses and individuals buy original products from United Kingdom or United States and deliver to anywhere in Nigeria. Due to rapid expansion and focus on serving our esteemed customers better with unparalleled appetite to deliver greater value at all times, we call on exceptional candidates to come and build an empire within our fine and progressive company.

Mannastores Recruiting: Finance and Operations Manager

We at Mannastores help businesses and individuals buy original products from United Kingdom or United States and deliver to anywhere in Nigeria. Due to rapid expansion and focus on serving our esteemed customers better with unparalleled appetite to deliver greater value at all times, we call on exceptional candidates to come and build an empire within our fine and progressive company.

We require a bright candidate to fill the position of a Finance and  Operations Manager in our progressive company. The right candidate must be highly numerate, analytical, focused, result oriented and an excellent motivator of his team.

Good knowledge of business processes, excellent business acumen, sound emotional intelligence and high level of integrity.

AIHUI HONG:6 Ways to Build a Happy Startup Culture the Scrappy Way

Company culture can make or break an organization, and a common misconception is that it’s expensive to foster. Building culture should be viewed as a practice, not an expenditure.

As a startup founder, I’m no stranger to doing things the “scrappy” way and through a combination of the best parts of my previous corporate cultures with trial and error. I was first exposed to the benefits of a happy corporate culture during my time at PeopleSoft (which has been deservedly honored as one of the best places to work in America numerous times). Prior to this I had worked at two other large corporations and I simply assumed happy culture didn’t exist.

Founders are the ones who set the stage, as culture usually mirrors their beliefs. Because of that, it’s important to set the values and tone right at the beginning. Here are some of the tips and tricks that have worked for me along the way:

JAYSON DEMERS: 5 Jobs Every Entrepreneur Should Work Before Building a Business

Few people venture into entrepreneurship as their first gig. Compared to traditional professional careers, entrepreneurship is risky, demanding and requires more capital at the outset.Working a steady job prior to becoming an entrepreneur gives you the skills, experiences, insights and money that you need in order to be successful.

As you might suspect, some jobs are better at preparing you for the entrepreneurial world than others. Any job in the white-collar world can probably equip you with a pool of savings and some new contacts, but even simpler jobs that anyone can get will help you build the skills necessary to run a business effectively.

A new study offers a brilliantly simple way to beat procrastination

 

Procrastination is, in essence, stealing from yourself.
The reason goals are so hard to reach, many psychologists think, is because each person believes they are really two people: Present Me and Future Me. And to most people, Future Me is much less important than Present Me. Present Me is the CEO of Me Corp while Future  Me is a lowly clerk.

What You Need to Know About the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus

If you’ve been waiting to upgrade your iPhone, the time has arrived. Apple unveiled the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Wednesday during an event in San Francisco. The newest versions of the smartphones become available for pre-order this Saturday, then officially go on sale on Sept. 25.
As expected, the phones are more incremental upgrades from last year’s models rather than completely new. That said, they both have a number of new features that make them well worth an upgrade if you’re due for one. Apple also unveiled a new way to buy the phones which will make upgrading all the more easier in the future.

ANDRE LAVOIE:Instead of Flexing Authority, Leaders Should Influence Employees

When it comes to managing employees, most employers tend to take one of two key leadership approaches. There’s the “power/authority” approach, where it’s their way or the highway, or the “influence” approach, where the goal is to get employees on the same page and empower them to make decisions that will have a positive impact on the organization.

In today’s work world, employees want to feel like they are a part of the decision-making process. Millennials, especially, want managers who give them the freedom to do their jobs and trust they will deliver.

CHARLES MICHAEL YIM:5 Business Lessons From Billionaire Mentors

If you scour the Internet looking for tips on entrepreneurship, you can read forever. Unfortunately, a lot of the advice is of mixed quality and comes from people who haven’t necessarily succeeded at anything. To me, the “who” behind the advice matters as much as the “what,” because ultimately, you have to believe that the person giving you advice has actually been in your shoes.

6 Apple Patents We Hope Will Be Used to Make Actual Products

As nectar was to the Greek gods, patents are to the tech industry.

It's not atypical for big players – your Googles, Apples, Microsofts – to add thousands of them to their portfolios every year. While many are granted only to remain unused, the most interesting ones offer sneak peaks at possible future products.

Apple may not lead the tech pack in terms of quantity, but many of its patents have a distinctive 'it' factor. For example, take Apple's patent for earbuds that – get this – actually stay in your ears! (Apple seems to have followed through on this one.)

If we had our way, the company would consider doing the same on all five patents listed below.

DANIEL ALLY:5 Tips to Read 100 Books a Year

To be a successful entrepreneur, you must increase the quantity and quality of the books you read.

We all hear about about how Bill Gates and Ben Carson would stay home and read books relentlessly. Reading may not be an easy habit to develop, but it's one that can help you expand your business.

HAL ELROD: 7.1 Steps to Create Multiple Streams of Income

“Don't let the opinions of the average man sway you. Dream, and he thinks you're crazy. Succeed, and he thinks you're lucky. Acquire wealth, and he thinks you're greedy. Pay no attention. He simply doesn't understand."-- Robert G. Allen
At age 25, I began planning my exit strategy to leave a lucrative career in sales to become an entrepreneur and pursue my passion: empowering people to maximize their potential and make significant improvements to their results.

ANDREW COHEN: Managing Your Brand Is an Intangible Investment That Pays Off Big

We live in a return-on-investment-driven society that is obsessed with instant gratification. Whenever we implement a new product feature, make a pitch to investors, launch a marketing campaign, interview a key job candidate or make a sales call, we want to see tangible and immediate results.

Our obsession with seeing measurable business results can make it easy to forget the most important intangible investment we can make: managing our brands.

AJ AGRAWAL: 3 Reasons Why You're Not Learning as Fast as You Can

The personal-growth industry is skyrocketing. These days, everyone is looking for the secret formula to become better, faster.

While I’m all about growing both professionally and personally, I believe that improving has more to do with efficiency than the content you study. When I started Alumnify, an alumni-engagement platform, I knew nothing about startups, leadership or running a business. Overtime, I experimented with a ton of strategies and became aware of all the mishaps I was making when it came to personal growth.

Here are the biggest three errors I made:

LARRY ALTON: 5 Reasons Why a Good Business Idea Is Never Enough to Succeed

Good businesses start with a good business idea. That fundamental principle has inspired dozens of generations of hopeful entrepreneurs, fueling them with the promise that one good idea and a lot of work is all it takes for anyone to become a billionaire. Unfortunately, there’s another side to this equation: Just because all good businesses need a good idea to get going doesn’t mean that a good idea is the only thing they need to get going.

The amazing life of Stewart Butterfield, the CEO of one of the fastest-growing business apps ever

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BRETT RELANDER: Are You Making These 4 Leadership Mistakes?

While it is certainly "human to err," when you're leading a team, it is important to learn how to avoid some of the most common mistakes that could lose you the respect of your team and potentially affect productivity. Below are four of the more common leadership mistakes you can avoid making:

Apple wants to make its own TV shows and movies, according to a new report

Apple has been meeting with Hollywood executives with an eye toward making its own original TV shows and movies, Variety reports.

The news comes just more than a week before Apple's September 9 event, where it's expected to launch the next version of its Apple TV set-top device.

ALAN ZIMMERMAN: 6 Keys to Employee Engagement During Times of Distraction

Gallup concluded that 71 percent of all employees are either "not engaged" or "actively disengaged." In simple terms, most workers are producing far less than they were capable of producing.

ERIC SAMSON:8 Ways to Do Big-Time Marketing Without Spending a Fortune

Marketing is essential to any company’s bottom line. However, traditional advertising channels such as newspapers, radio and television can get expensive really quick. Furthermore, they may produce little or no ROI. Contrary to these earlier practices, your own marketing strategy does not need to break the bank. Here are several tactics for saving money on marketing while still ensuring that your message reaches your target audience.