Small Business Center

This week’s list of contests has some great opportunities for recognition and cash prizes. This list of competitions and awards for small businesses is brought to you every other week as a community service by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com.

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B2B Social Media Integration Case Study Challenge
Enter by March 12, 2010

This is your chance to join an expert panel at the B2B Forum session. How did your company boost ROI by integrating social media into your marketing strategy? Tell us your success story, and you could be telling it to the B2B marketing world in May. Complete this form and tell us your story!

The winner will become a panelist in the “Case Study Swap Meet! Proven Success Stories Integrating Social Media into Overall Strategy” session at the B2B Forum taking place on May 4-5 at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston, MA.

The Black Enterprise Small Business Awards
Enter by March 16, 2010

The Black Enterprise Small Business Awards were created to provide special recognition to African American entrepreneurs who embody the Black Enterprise entrepreneurial spirit. They are looking for companies and individuals bringing new products to the forefront, redefining sales strategies, and discovering new and profitable markets.

Winners will be announced at a special awards luncheon in Atlanta on May 17, 2010 at the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference. Official Award Submission PDF Form is found here.

Limitless VC Contest
Enter by March 16, 2010

One remarkable entrepreneur will receive 50% of the BizBreak app profits + $3,000! + mentoring from top entrepreneurs like Mike Michalowicz, Andrew Warner, Ross Kimbarovsky, Cameron Johnson, and Yanik Silver.

Submissions are made in the form of a video to youtube describing your business and what you will do with the money. 10 videos will be chosen for the finals which will be voted on by the public. See site for details and rules.

The New Deal for Small Business
Enter by March 19, 2010

Create a video of five minutes of your business. Upload your video to YouTube then send the link to VRNewDeal@verticalresponse.com. Your video needs to feature you and your small business, as well as answer three questions:

* What does your business do?
* What makes you do what you do?
* What will you do with the money if you win?

First Place: $5,000, Second Place: $2,500, Third Place: $2,500. Additional details about terms and conditions can be found at the competition website.

The Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge
Enter by March 29, 2010

Have you hatched a great idea for a business? If your business is less than 1 year old or exists only on paper, you can enter our 12th Annual Miami Herald Business Plan Challenge, co-sponsored by Florida International University’s Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center.

This year, we will have three tracks: one open to anyone in South Florida, an FIU track open to students, faculty, staff and alums of the university and a third one for high school students. Winners will be invited to a luncheon in their honor where they will meet with The Miami Herald’s business editors, reporters and judges, as well as a Hall of Fame luncheon hosted by FIU’s College of Business Administration.

The Rhode Island Business Plan Competition
Enter by April 5, 2010

The Rhode Island Business Plan Competition, open to everyone, seeks to promote entrepreneurship and development of start-up and early stage companies. Winners and finalists in the 2010 Competition are expected to receive more than $130,000 in prizes.

Chicago City Treasurer’s Office 2010 Business Plan Competition
Enter by April 5, 2010 at 5:00 p.m.

The Business Plan competition is sponsored by Harris Bank, with Chicago Community Ventures as the managers of the competition. There will be ten semifinalists selected. Business plan summaries will be accepted from those hoping to start up a small business, and existing small businesses owners hoping to reach their next level. Business summaries must be submitted on the official competition template available here. Cash prizes will include – 1st Place $5,000; 2nd place $3,500; and a $1,500 3rd place prize. A new business mentoring program will assist all the finalists.

It’s Time for Business with Office 2010 Video Contest
Enter by April 22, 2010

Small and startup businesses in Washington state can enter to win $10,000 in the “It’s Time for Business with Office 2010 Video Contest” launched by the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Microsoft Corporation.

To participate, contestants must go to itstimeforbusiness.com/contest and download a free trial version of Office 2010 to use in their business. Any business or organization with seven or fewer full-time employees is eligible, so long as they have a Washington state business license and comply with all contest rules. The winning entry will receive a $10,000 grand prize. Best foreign language video and best video by a woman-owned business will receive $1,000 prizes.

Cringely’s (NOT in Silicon Valley) Startup Tour
Enter now through Mid-April 2010 (check site for details)

Robert X. Cringely, author of the technology blog “I, Cringely” (www.cringely.com), has launched a plan to restart America called “Cringely’s (NOT in Silicon Valley) Startup Tour.” People are invited to nominate startup companies in six different categories, discuss them, and vote for favorites on a special website created just for the tour.

After about six weeks of collecting nominations and reviewing candidates, Cringely will announce the top 24 companies. He will then take the show on the road this summer, with a camera crew, to visit all 24 companies to learn about the businesses and the entrepreneurs who started them. Ultimately, the stories he collects will become a 12-hour reality TV series to be broadcast on a major cable network.

2010 Inc. 500/5000
Enter by April 30, 2010

The Inc. 500/5000 list is a distinguished editorial award, a celebration of innovation, a network of entrepreneurial leaders, and an effective public relations showcase. The Inc. 500|5000 ranks companies by overall revenue growth over a three-year period. All 5,000 honoree companies are individually profiled on Inc.com. The top 500 are featured in the September issue of Inc. magazine.

The Better Way Challenge from Verizon
Enter by May 31, 2010

Sign up for a free 30-Day Trial of the Verizon Collaboration Center and be automatically entered to win a Flip MinoHD video camera; 15 per month will be given away randomly to those who sign up for the trial.

There is also a separate video contest: submit a video describing the challenges you face as a small business getting your whole team on the same page and you’ll receive an additional six months of the Verizon Collaboration Center for free.

If Verizon and Cisco select your video, you could be entered to win an exclusive business consultation to help you take your business to the next level in one of these two prize levels:

Grand Prize: An exclusive two-hour business consultation with entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki plus a $2,000 reward card.

2nd and 3rd Place Prizes: An exclusive one-hour business consultation with the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group – an organization that provides customers with innovative approaches to complex business opportunities – and a $1000 reward card.

Click here for official rules and to enter.

The Shopify Build a Business Contest
Runs January 1 – June 30, 2010

This contest is open to legal residents of the United States who are at least 18 years of age and starting a new business. To enter you must open a new store on Shopify.com. The winner will be selected based on their two best selling months between January 1st, 2010 and June 30th, 2010. The store with the two best selling months will win $100,000. Achieve the same for your store category and win $5,000 as a runner up prize.

The Cleantech Open Ideas Competition
Opens for Entries July 2010

The Cleantech Open runs the world’s largest clean technology business competition and is looking for the best clean technology ideas from around the world. Just for telling your idea, you could win a prize package of services worth $100,000 to help you start a business to grow your idea! Winners of each individual National Competition, get to represent your country as a Global IDEAS finalist at the annual Cleantech Open Awards Gala on November 16, 2010 in San Francisco.

There, your idea will be presented in a five-minute pitch in front of a crowd of 3,000 investors, entrepreneurs, sponsoring companies, corporations, members of academia, press, and others interested in hearing your ideas and getting involved.

The crowd will vote via text message for the “People’s Choice” and you could win $100,000 in marketing support, legal advising, conferencing services and more to help launch your business!

The competition will open in July 2010. Sign up to receive the newsletter to get updates.

iNGie Award from Cabinet NG
Enter by August 15, 2010

Cabinet NG will recognize our customers who have best used CNG-SAFE software products to improve their bottom line and at the same time operate their businesses in a more environmentally friendly manner. “iNGie” awards will be presented at the 2010 Collaborate Conference in Huntsville (dates and location to be announced soon).

Awards:

* The first 20 companies to apply receive 2 free passes to 2010 Conference in Huntsville (approximately $500 value).
* Winners get a $1,000 credit which can be applied toward annual maintenance or CNG products.
* Winners will also receive an Amazon Kindle™.
* Recognition at the 2010 Conference dinner.

Award categories and online applications can be found here.

To find more small business events, contests and awards, visit our Small Business Events Calendar.

If you are putting on a small business contest, award or competition, and want to get the word out to the community, please submit it through our Small Business Event Form (We do not charge a fee to be included in this listing — it is completely free to list your award or contest.)

Please note: The descriptions provided here are for convenience only and are NOT the official rules. ALWAYS read official rules carefully at the site holding the competition, contest or award.

It’s time for another addition of our small business news roundup here at Small Business Trends. We hope you find these roundups useful and will visit some of the stories we’ve recommended being sure to let them know where you heard about their post or article.

Marketing

Is the idea of viral marketing a bit too contagious? Viral marketing may not be good for every business so keep in mind it’s a means not an end. Right Ideas/Bright Ideas

Getting personal with your marketing strategy. With all the buzz words out there in the marketing world, sometimes the best advice comes down to a very simple idea. Five Forces Group

It’s not just about the clicks. A look at how to improve sales through more focused online marketing campaigns. Web.com

Operations

Why should your customers trust you? The answer may have to do with how you operate your business everyday. Flying Pig Communications

Forbes puts small business owners on the couch. Another report looks at the mental outlook of the small business community. morebusiness.com

How to get more business. Some thoughts on bringing the new customers you need to you. Unique Insights

Startup

Date your business before you marry it. How can you be sure the business you’re planning is the right one for you? Open Forum Innovation

Is your business making Google nervous? How to create a startup that sells to the big boys for millions. The Huffington Post

You don’t need to go to heaven to meet an angel. How to find these special investors and what they can do to help your business. Youngentrepreneur.com

Policy

For solopreneurs, health care may be getting even more expensive. Health care reform may shift a disproportionately large burden onto the shoulders of the already struggling self-employed. National Association for the Self-Employed

Can risk really be managed? The recent meltdown contains lessons about economic uncertainty, but what can it teach business leaders for the future? The Economist

Why bigger is not always better. Finally government reformers may discover what small business owners and their customers have always known. Huffington Post

Tech

New tools allow a more customized approach to sales. Wouldn’t it be great if visitors could buy from you even after they’ve left your site? smallbiztechnology.com

How to make cool side-by-side interviews for your Website. A warning to PC users: This tutorial is for Mac’s. The Rise to The Top

Contests

Sugartone Sweet Business Blogging Contest. Two of the Net’s fastest growing small business communities join forces to promote great business blogging online with some really cool prizes. Bloggertone

Policy makers, the media, and many other people care about small business owners’ perceptions, making the monthly optimism figures put out by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) and Discover Small Business Watch (DSBW) noticed statistics. The goal of these measures is to tell us if small business owners are becoming more or less optimistic about prospects for their businesses and the overall economy.

Because these indices get reported and discussed in the media, it’s important to recognize their strengths and weaknesses. First, the overall numbers sometimes mask big differences between groups of entrepreneurs because the surveys are given to very different business owners. Some are male, and some female; some sell products and others provide services; and some serve consumers and others serve businesses. The respondents vary in age, income, number of employees, and years in business.

If the optimism and pessimism of all of these business owners moved in lock step over time, the tendency to focus on the average of all of them wouldn’t be a big deal. Whether optimism was high or low would pretty much be the same for everyone. But when the levels of optimism of different groups don’t all move in the same way over time (they aren’t that highly correlated), then knowing the average but not what’s happening with the different groups hides important information.

I don’t have data on the Optimism Index for different groups of respondents to the NFIB survey, but I do have it for the DSBW from December 2006 through January 2010. So I can talk about those correlations.

While the optimism levels of all of groups are positively correlated, the correlations aren’t super high. For instance, the correlation between the optimism levels of the owners businesses that are one to two years old and those that are six to ten years old is only 0.44 over this time period.

Similarly, the optimism levels of business owners 18 to 29 only correlate 0.64 with those of business owners 65 and older, and optimism levels of owners making under $20,000 per year only correlate 0.66 with those making between $75,000 and $100,000. Thus something common affects the optimism of owners of different ages, those running different aged businesses, and those making different amounts of money, but different factors also drive their levels of optimism.

Second, the responses of the business owners to different questions on the surveys don’t all correlate highly. For instance, there is essentially no relationship (correlation of -0.02) between the share of business owners who say the economy is getting better and the percentage that say they have experienced temporary cash flow problems that caused them to hold off on paying some bills over the past 90 days. And the percentage of small business owners who say that the economy is getting better and the percentage that plan to increase spending on business development correlate only 0.36, while the percentage of owners who say the economy is getting better and the percentage that plan to hire correlates only 0.30 over the August 2006 through January 2010 time period.

What about the question everyone wants to know about right now: are businesses going to hire? Over the August 2006 through January 2010 time period, the share of owners planning to increase spending on business development is a better predictor than the percentage who say that overall economic conditions are improving (a correlation of 0.73 versus 0.36).

But here’s a piece of evidence that shows what a lot of people in Washington are worried about. If the data are split into two time periods – from August 2006 to June 2008 and from July 2008 through January 2010 – the correlation between the share of small business owners planning to spend more on business development and the percentage planning to hire is greater for the first period than for the second. That pattern suggests that the factors driving the spending and hiring plans are more different now than they were in the pre-financial crisis period.

What about the two optimism indices themselves? They’re pretty highly correlated. From December 2006 through January 2010, the NFIB and DSBW optimism indices correlate 0.85. Because the NFIB surveys its members (who tend to run larger businesses than the respondents to the DSBW), that level of correlation suggests that both indices are picking up general trends rather than factors affecting larger versus smaller small businesses or NFIB members versus nonmembers.

The overall measures correlate more highly than specific items. For instance, the NFIB’s measure of the percentage of small business owners who answer “better” minus the percentage that answer “worse” to the question: “About the economy in general, do you think that six months from now general business conditions will be better than they are now, about the same, or worse?” correlates only 0.40 with the percentage of respondents to the DSBW survey who answer “better” minus the percentage who answer “worse” to the question: “Generally speaking, are the economic conditions for your business getting better or worse in the next 6 months?” Unfortunately, we can’t tell whether this low correlation results from the types of businesses surveyed by the two groups or the difference between the NFIB’s focus on general conditions and the DSBW’s focus on the respondent’s business.

None of this says that there is anything wrong with these surveys. They provide us with useful information about what’s going with small business owners’ thinking on an up-to-date basis. We just need to be cautious about how we use them. We can’t assume that the patterns over time are going to be the same for both surveys, between questions on each survey, or between different groups of respondents to the surveys.

If you’re like a lot of small business owners I’ve talked to since we rang in 2010, you probably sympathize with this statement: “Enough with the doom and gloom already. I don’t want to know how awful the economy is, I want to know how to make a profit anyway!”

A couple of weeks ago, our very own Anita Campbell tackled that issue with an Intuit Community webinar titled, “Make 2010 Your Most Profitable Year Ever.” Joining her for the webinar was expert Andy Birol of Birol Growth Consulting.

In spite of a few technical difficulties early on, it was another of Anita’s information-packed sessions with a mountain of actionable take-aways for small business owners, sponsored by Intuit.

Anita started the webinar with a couple of poll questions, which elicited the information that a surprisingly high 71% of participants didn’t know what their customer acquisition costs are. From the second question, we learned that most business owners either know who their most profitable customers are (50%) or they have a general sense but aren’t 100% sure (43%).

Birol used the poll results to launch into a discussion of how to analyze your customers in order to maximize profits.

TIP: If your most profitable customers are increasing their purchases, keep them happy and find more like them by asking for referrals. If their sales are low/flat, enhance your products and services to generate more sales from them.

TIP: If your low profit customers are increasing their purchases from you, reprice your products or services to more accurately reflect the costs of serving them or selling to them. If sales to these customers are low or flat, reduce or rethink your costs for serving or selling to them and how those costs can be reduced so that these folks become more profitable.

TIP: Fire customers that earn no profit (break even) or cost you money.

Profitable growth does not necessarily come from expanding your customer base. Instead, growing profitably — that is, making a profit while your business grows — comes from selling more to the customers you already have.

The underlying theme in all this, which might better have been introduced first, is that it costs less to sell more to existing customers than it does to sell more by acquiring new customers.

Your current customers already know and trust you. That gives you the chance to establish your expertise and experience, which will differentiate you from your competitors.

TIP: Differentiation gives you a stronger brand and more pricing power, so work to establish that expertise and experience in the minds of the marketplace.

On the subject of pricing, which often gives small business owners the willies, here is a terrifically quotable quote from Andy:

“Price, for me, is the single most important demonstration of self-confidence that a business owner can have.”

And finally, profitable growth comes from being willing to take what you make or do and re-package it for new sales or distribution channels.

In short, the general way to grow your business profitably (even during this recession) is to focus on your existing customers, sell your expertise and the wonderful experience of working with you, beyond just your product or service; and packaging your offerings for sale in multiple channels.

And, just for fun, there was a list of 45 ways you can improve your profitability in 2010:

Increase Prices

1. Raise prices
2. Eliminate discounts (or lower discount %)
3. Services: define scope and fight scope creep*
4. Push higher priced products, weed out low profit products
5. Use marketing to convey your differentiation and value

Increase sales and customer retention

6. Improve customer retention through better customer services, better communications, increased value-add
7. Cross-sell additional products or services
8. Upsell to higher priced, higher value products
9. Serve your most profitable customers well
10. leverage additional sales and distribution channels
11. Add self-paying sales like commissioned sales reps, PPC ads, affiliate program

Invoice!

12. Invoice promptly
13. Make sure invoices are complete and accurate
14. Use technology and automation to tighten invoicing and collection processes

Improve productivity

15. Reduce waste through controls
16. Train employees
17. Automate routine tasks
18. Upgrade inefficient equipment and software
19. Supplement tracking systems and analytics (a.la. Google) and “manage to your metrics”
20. Ask employees for cost-saving suggestions.

Reduce fixed costs

21. Find smaller offices; sublet; move
22. Employ part-time staff in place of full-time
23. Subcontract to independent contractors
24. Do preventative maintenance
25. Reduce staff if necessary
26. Change sales compensation to more commission, less guaranteed base

Reduce variable costs

27. Negotiate better deals with suppliers
28. Find less expensive suppliers
29. Take advantage of advance purchase discounts
30. Find cheaper materials and supplies (assuming quality is still there)
31. Hold online meetings instead of traveling
32. Create self-serve resources for customer service
33. If it’s not essential, eliminate

Manage capital wisely

34. Keep your books up to date, and review P&L versus budget forecasts regularly
35. Know your key indicators: DSO; customer acquisition cost; gross profit margin
36. Offer advance payment discounts
37. Put slow payers on “watch list”
38. Collect past due invoices quickly and personally
39. Don’t overinvest in inventory
40. Insist on shopping for alternatives
41. Negotiate for as much time as possible to pay your creditors (e.g., 30 – 45 day terms)
42. Make loan and credit card payments on time, to avoid extra interest and penalties

Be tax smart

43. Keep good up-to-date records to take advantage of all deductions
44. Actively engage in tax planning
45. Follow your tax calendar scrupulously to avoid unnecessary penalties, interest, and attorney and tax advisor fees

Or you can download the checklist here in a handy printable document (a PDF).

If you’d like to watch the webinar event you can check it out at, “Make 2010 Your Most Profitable Year Ever.”

Editor’s note: Please check out the rest of the webinars in this series, here:

2010 Small Business Trends & Opportunities with Anita Campbell

Integrate Social Media into Traditional CRM with Brent Leary

What is Social CRM and How It Can Help You Get More Customers with Brent Leary

How to Get More From Your Blog & Blogging with John Jantsch

10 Tips for Business Class Web Sites with Ramon Ray

It’s time for another Small Business News roundup.  Here are the news links and blog posts that are shaking up the small business online community for March 8, 2010 hand picked by the team at Small Business Trends.

Operations

Small Business celebrates the Oscars! Hey, what small business leader has time to watch a movie? But if you happen to slip one into you’re busy schedule, here are some cool lessons you can learn, from author and speaker Barry Moltz.  Small Business Trends

Motivating employees in a small business might be a no-brainer for some. Here’s a primer for those of us who may need a bit more help. HarvardBusinessReview.org

Need to sell your business? Call a lawyer. An attorney with entrepreneurship in his blood answers some questions about how they can help. NYTimes.com

Social Media

Just say no to more LinkedIn invitations. When is it time to put an end to endless network building? Global Copywriting

But before you write off that LinkedIn account completely! Here are five ways to make your virtual Rolodex turned business media network really rock. Online Marketing Blog

What Rambo could teach every marketer and small business owner about blogging. It’s all about the risks you take. Much like this post. Flowtown.com

Marketing

What small businesses can learn from Obama, Dunkin Donuts and American Express. And why your business simply can’t ignore the texting revolution. OpenForum.com

Do you have free content about your business online? If not, it could be costing you and your business huge numbers of new customers. Duct Tape Marketing

Forget about e-commerce and get ready for m-commerce. The M stands for “mobile” and it will completely change the way you do business online … again.  SEO-SMO.net

Tech

Touch screen technology enables more mobile small business. Read a review of the latest in tablet computer technology for the small business owner or professional on the move. SmallBizTechnology.com

Who is the “mayor” of your small business? Don’t know what we’re talking about? Better read this. Catalyst Marketers

What if online content creators can’t make money from advertising? An increasing number of online visitors not only want their content free but are employing software to block the advertising that pays for it. WSJ

Policy

Not every cloud has a silver lining. Despite economic gains and government efforts, a recent survey shows optimism among small business owners has not improved.  NFIB

You ain’t seen nothing yet. A proposed health care reform package still being fought over in Washington will likely cost us WAY more than we thought. National Review Online

Startup

Nowadays even a “startup out of a garage” must be global. But managing the cultural intricacies of dealing with a world market instead of one just around the corner takes much more than just an Internet connection. NYTimes.com

Recently I blogged about President Obama’s proposal to help community banks lend more money to entrepreneurs. For many small business owners in the Great Recession, community banks have been a lifeline.

But that lifeline could be about to snap. The Congressional Oversight Panel, which monitors the financial bailout, just released a report on the state of commercial real estate lending—and the news is not good.

“There’s been an enormous bubble in commercial real estate, and it has to come down,” panel chair Elizabeth Warren told the Washington Post. “A mortgage crisis like the one that has devastated homeowners is enveloping the nation’s office and retail buildings,” the Post reports. The fallout will hit community banks hard.

In general, large, community banks haven’t been hurt by the residential real estate crisis. But community banks issued higher proportions of commercial mortgages than did the big banks. Some 3,000 community banks have disproportionate amounts of commercial loans relative to their assets, according to the oversight panel’s report. And, as Warren says, “Every dollar [community banks] lose in commercial real estate is a dollar they can’t use for small businesses.”

Commercial real estate mortgages have shorter terms than standard residential mortgages; according to the report, some $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate debt will come due in the next three years. And Warren says, half of all commercial real estate mortgages will be underwater by 2011.

Areas most at risk? South Florida, metropolitan New York and Washington, DC, lead the nation in the per capita value of commercial real estate currently in foreclosure, default or delinquency, according to research group Real Capital Analytics.

Responding to the problems many borrowers are already having refinancing commercial mortgages. President Obama has proposed expanding the SBA’s 504 loan program to temporarily support refinancing for owner-occupied commercial real estate loans. Currently, these loans cannot be used to refinance maturing debt.

The full report from the Congressional Oversight Panel is interesting reading.

Movies have a big impact on our everyday life. There is no denying that even with DVRs where we can record everything on cable television, we still take a lot of time to watch movies. The 2009 movie “Avatar” now has become the highest grossing film in history — by a wide margin.

In fact, technology has increased our appetite to watch to entertain ourselves since we can now watch not only on television, but computers and smartphones.

There’s no reason to feel guilty about watching a movie, thinking you should be working instead.

Relax! You can actually learn about business by watching movies!

I asked a few small business leaders what were their favorite movie quotes of all time and then I thought about what I learned from that movie. Grab your popcorn and take a look at what they shared:

NO EXCUSES!

Movie:  Goodfellas. “Business is bad? F-you, pay me.  Oh, you had a fire? F-you, pay me.  Place got hit by lightning, huh?  F-you, pay me.” (From Bob London)

• Lesson: If you are part of the organization, there are no excuses for results. It is also an incentive to keep your company overhead low so you have cash to pay for what you really need.

FOCUS FIRST, GROW LATER!

Movie: Jerry Maguire: Remember the Mission Statement? “We are losing our battle with all that is personal and real about our business. Every day I can look at a list of phone calls only partially returned. Driving home, I think of what was not accomplished, instead of what was accomplished.”

• Lesson: Fewer clients, more personal attention makes for a better business. Growth for growth’s sake is a bad business strategy.

STAND UP FOR YOUR BUSINESS!

Movie: Road House: “Be nice.  Be nice until it is time to not be nice.”  (From Prasann Thakrar)

• Lesson: Being nice in business does not always get the results you want. Many times, we need to press our point.

RISE TO THE OCCASION

Movie: Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium: “Your life is an occasion. Rise to it.” (From by Phillip Zannini – @PhillyMac)

• Lesson: We need to remember that we are responsible for our own success. Never look for that one magic bullet in business or for someone to save you because no one is coming. The magic comes from the hard work you give to your business.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO SELL

Movie: Glengarry Glen Ross “Good leads are for closers”.  (From Vicki Donlan)

• Lesson: You need to know what to do with a lead if you are going to close a sale. There is no substitution for being able to sell. We all need to learn and have skilled sales people on our team.

GET TOUGH — DON’T COMPLAIN!

Movie: A League of Their Own: “There is no crying in Baseball”.  (From Scratch at Boston Baby Dolls).

• Lesson: No matter how bad it gets, long term, crying does not help us in business.

From the same movie “Of course this is ‘hard’:

• Lesson: People always tell me that their business is especially hard. Guess what, every business is hard.

RELATIONSHIPS ARE POWERFUL

Movie: Hustle & Flow – You’re in charge of your business and the power of marketing relationships.  (From Elizabeth W. Wilson)

• Lesson: No matter where you come from, you can become successful.

DON’T LET ANYONE TELL YOU WHAT YOU CAN’T DO

Movie: Legally Blonde: Elle uses what she has to achieve her goals. (Submitted by Phillip Zannini)

• Lesson: We all need to make it work from where we are right now

LEAD BY EXAMPLE

Movie: It’s a Wonderful Life:  The movie shows the principles of leadership. George Bailey puts his customers, employee and family interests first by taking responsibility.  (From Stephen Antisdel of Precept Partners)

• Lesson: If more financial institutions has operated this way maybe the “Great Recession” would have been avoided.

LOVE YOUR LIFE

My favorite movie quotes are from the movie, Jerry Maguire, as said by Jerry’s mentor, Dickie Fox:

”Hey, I don’t have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my wife. I love my life. And I wish you my kind of success.”

Want more? Check out Kevin Coupe and Michael Sansolo, the co-author of The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies interview on my radio show.

What are your favorite quotes or business lessons from movies?  Share them below.