by Tina Nies

Make giving back a part of your overall business model and you’ll reap benefits far beyond what you might envision.

You might think you can’t afford to give or you don’t have time or you’ll give when business improves… but there are so many low cost ways to give back NOW that will also GROW your business!

The first step is to think about causes and organizations that are important to you, your family, your employees, your customers, and your community. Think about how your product, service, knowledge can benefit your community; think about where your customers are and what they are interested in.

Ideas to get you thinking:

If you have a physical location easily accessible to the public, bring in foot traffic by collecting donations from the public. Contact a local organization; ask them what they need, send out a press release announcing the collection, tell your current customers, put up large signs, etc. When people walk in, get their contact info, offer a special, or give a coupon.

If you have special knowledge you can share, find opportunities to speak to groups where your ideal customers are like PTAs, college student organizations, classrooms, local companies, Rotary Clubs or other social service organizations. You will most likely have 10-20 minutes to speak and you can leave your business cards or better yet, make up a postcard with your key points. If you have great tips, they’ll keep the postcard and contact you if they need your service in the future.

Become a sponsor for an event. The opportunities are endless, you might be able to offer an in-kind donation and be listed as an event sponsor or you can donate cash and pick a sponsorship package that meets your promotional and budget needs. Pick events that compliment what you do or are important to your ideal customers.

Have unused space or limited hours? Offer your space to local groups to hold their meetings and events. They’ll be promoting your business location every time they promote their own group!

Or simply get out there and volunteer. Whether you are a solo entrepreneur or have a staff of 50, you can grow your business by giving back – just get creative!

Tina Nies interviews Dr. Jack Helmuth, Dean of the School of Management at the University of Michigan-Flint on July 26, 2011

Tina:        Welcome to Dr.  Jack Helmuth from University of Michigan - Flint.  He is a professor of finance and the Dean of the School Management.  Professor Helmuth is an experienced teacher with an exciting combination of considerable academic record along with consulting experiences that emphasize creating value to the firm.   He's also been a proponent of entrepreneurship and family business development at two universities, and a champion of business education on five continents.  And I understand that Dean Helmuth recently returned from teaching overseas this summer. So, we welcome Dean Helmuth here today to talk about creating value and how do we go about doing that, Dean Helmuth?

Dean:       Well, first Tina thank you for having me on the show. It’s always good to see another successful alum, doing something creative and your show is really adding value to the community. When we talk about creating a value in the private sector, we’re looking to find ways in the production for anywhere from the one that supply chain right through the retail aspect of your business.  In doing that we can take an asset and create value.  Think of this example, salt is a just a basic staple product, but Morton Salt was able to package it in a blue container with a girl with an umbrella with the words, “when it rains, it pours.”  They took what is otherwise a commodity and created value because people will now reach for Morton Salt over another. 

This is what really business is all about. It's finding your niche in your product and product line, your core business and  then try to be creative. This is one aspect to business, being creative and creating value. And in finance, when we say creating value, it means, as an example back to Morton Salt, what could be otherwise a 50 cent salt might now sell for 99 cents. The extra 49 cents is associated with the creation of the brand and the image: the value.

You see the same in McDonald's and the Golden Arches, you see it with so many companies here in Michigan. A&W Root beer started here and when you say their name, you immediately have an image of their success.  In Disneyland, the same thing; here’s a guy with just an idea and look at the mega empire he created because he had vision.  Ford Motor Company has the same story; these people now called pioneers, took an idea, and created value.  Of course when value is created in a company and it grows, it’s also good for the community,. You get new products, increase the tax base, people are employed people and that’s what it’s all about.  Here at the University of Michigan we’re emphasizing entrepreneurship and family business and trying to give back to the community and be supportive of those sorts of endeavors for our regional economy.

Tina:       So, taking a small low local business, which is a majority of people that I work with, entrepreneurs who opened  a business because they have a passion for that idea, but maybe they don’t know everything about how to run a business.  How do they make time a to create value, how do they really get that piece of it when they’re so busy just trying to function in their daily business?

Dean:      Well, they need to take time for self-assessment or have someone come in to help them assess their busines, maybe from our entrepreneurship center and we also have students and faculty work with businesses. But you can also do it on your own. You can make time to go ahead and evaluate your business and say "how can I make it better, how can I make it bigger, how can I create more value?"

I can give you an example, near a university I was working at, a woman opened up a Greek restaurant, it was a beautiful restaurant, wooden walls, and wonderful marble floors. Its 5-7 miles away from the area in city where that type of business would be highly successful.  I tried to throw business her away and do some university functions there and so forth, but she finally figured it out after 5 or 6 months of having a near empty parking lot, which means her cash flow was very low and wasn’t making an economic profit.  So, she had the ideato simply put in some big screen TV’s and put up posters of some local football teams, etc. It became a successful sports bar, and she did that by  changing the assets and reconfiguring them, adding a few TV sets and some posters, and soon the parking lot was full every day. 

That created the value for her business and that’s where entrepreneurs and family businesses have to step back and say “what can we do to go ahead and create more value.” Let’s go back to Walt Disney – they re-release their classic movies on new technology - CD’s, VHS and DVDs - and they’ve been releasing them one at a time, over time because they have a huge amount of value and they make more money on movies that were created 30 or 40 years ago.

Tina:      Great tips and often small businesses don’t know where to look for that low-cost outside help. So universities and colleges in any local area are fantastic resources and a great place for people to start – just go in and ask.  

I love the example of just putting up some TVs and getting a full parking lot. One thing that tears at my heart is when I drive down the road and see yet another small business closed. Recently, in one day, I saw 3 businesses that I personally visited in the last 9 months now closed down.  They were missing something, they didn’t have that value that you’re talking about. so what would be the top tip you would give someone today - what would be the first thing that they could to look at their business to improve their value.

Dean:      There’s something called core business. With Disney, it’s is entertainment, not just theme parks and movies. Ford Motor Company is more than just cars, its core is transportation (at one time they also produced airplanes).  So, one of the things that you need to do is step back and say "what type of company are we and what is our core businesses, and what are we really good at?". 

This can also help people narrow their focus, for example a business trying to be a general contractor, when their best skill is carpentry and they are not very good at the other stuff. They should be concentrating on what they are really good at and they can be more creative and create even more value.

Tina:      Sure, so I hear you say that if you’re trying to do so many different things you’re not creating the value of that thing that you’re best at. So if people know you as a general contractor and you’re only okay, you’re probably not going to create a great value in a community. But if you’re an amazing carpenter, you’ll get known for that and your value can sky rocket if you focus on that piece.

Dean:     Definitely

Tina:       That’s really good. Sometimes I think that people are thinking "I just have to make a buck", right? So they might take on other work that isn’t adding value. So, is there some tool or things that they could do that would give them that support in their business and as they’re trying to look at their core business value and create their business plan.

Dean:       Well, I think successful businesses eventually get it. Successful businesses will continue to reevaluate their business, their pricing, their value, so they cover their overhead and become profitable.  And in the process of continuous improvement they can go ahead and figure how to change a product, look for new markets, and essentially be creative with the product itself. There’s a successful entrepreneur in Buffalo, who started a business, Naja foods. Through continuous improvement and putting a little money in the company, she now produces the low fat brownies that are sold in Subway retail food establishments.  And her low fat brownies are so healthy, the American Heart Association is a proponent for her brownies. She also had to figure out a low-cost way to produce and distribute her brownies. So she got creative and contacted local bakery shops around the country; bakery shops generally produce their products at night for sale the following morning. Then the production facility is not operational in the morning, so she cut a deal and Naja would have those local bakeries make her brownies during their off-peak hours. And she was able to match the production as exactly as needed as she grew her business bigger and bigger.

Tina:        You’ve shared so much great information, and I can see that creating value includes being creative and maybe thinking outside the box, like Naja using the bakery downtimes for her production. Today, I think our top tip would be looking at that core value of your business. So, take a few minutes to just think about that piece, think about what is that you are really good at, what is your business, what do you want to be known as, and what do you want your expertise to be. 

You know all those gizmos, gadgets, and pens, i.e. “promotional products,” you’re bombarded with advertisements for at your business?  Maybe you’ve been tempted to order 1000 cheap pens just to have your name on something? Maybe you gave in to temptation and you now have a box full of stuff sitting in the closet right now.

Promotional products can be a great marketing tool… if you have a plan.

Consider these questions:

·         Is it in your marketing budget?

·         What type of promotional products would your ideal client be likely to use?

·         How will you get your promotional product into the hands of your ideal clients?

·         Is there an upcoming event where your ideal clients will be that you can order themed products to tie into the event?

The most important thing to consider is your ideal client. It’s something we forget in our eagerness to try something new! We think we should do everything and anything we can afford to try to get our name out there and hopefully get some new business.

The problem with a haphazard approach to promotional products or any other marketing effort is the lack of focus or a goal. And without a plan, the effort often becomes a disappointment and waste of money.

Example: if you are an accountant specializing in small business accounting, then you might find your ideal clients at chambers of commerce who often have networking events, business to business expos, etc. Your ideal clients probably don’t need another pen or mug, but maybe they could use a zippered pouch to keep in their briefcase to organize receipts or a folder to keep important papers in. The pouch will obviously cost more than a pen, but if you order less and get them in the hands of your ideal clients, you’ll get more value for your dollar!

So what do you do if you already have a box of stuff collecting dust?  Well, where do your ideal clients gather? Do you belong to an business association, club, or networking group? Is there a non profit or school (are parents in your target market) that could use your items?

Get creative and get those items out there! They certainly can’t help you grow your business sitting on the shelf.

Take your business from good to GREAT by fueling your business with “renewable energy.” Renewable Energy is considered to: be energy generated from natural resources; or energy that is replenished at the same rate it is used; energy coming from sources that can be replenished; or even energy produced from inexhaustible sources.

Since our business is fueled primarily by people, a natural resource, we need to be replenished. If you have children in your life, think about them as a great example of inexhaustible energy! They never seem to stop running, laughing, playing; they are excited to learn something new, try something out, and jump up and down. That is the type of energy we want to harness from these sources!

Tap into these 5 Sources of Renewable Energy to Fuel Your Business Success

1. You/Business Partners

Envision your business success and remember why you are doing what you’re doing. Take time to refuel yourself personally too. Do things you love, don’t get so bogged down with work concerns that you become unhappy and frustrated – you need to create energy will fuel your business.

2. Employees – tap into their personal strengths and encourage them to refuel themselves too. Get them to see your vision for the company, demonstrate your passion for success and for giving the best quality of service and product for your customers. If they believe in what they are doing from 9-5, they will perform at a higher level.

3. Customers

Happy customers are the most untapped, yet nearly inexhaustible source of renewable energy: Referrals – Repeat Business – Testimonials. Learn how to ask and learn how to listen when it’s offered. It’s cost effective and produces amazing results!

4. Prospects/Future Customers

Get them to interact with you. There are many new media options to help you do this today – online interactive websites, social media, text message marketing, and more. Tap into that new customer energy!

5. Networking

As you meet people, help them fuel their business by offering referrals, professional introductions, joint ventures, or cross-promotions. They will be excited and jumping up and down to hail your business expertise! Tap into this business world “playtime” to reenergize.

Fuel your business with these renewable energy sources and watch your business grow from good to GREAT!

What if you could finally breakthrough and reach the goals you've dreamed about?

What if you could create the life you envision AND Be Happier Today!

Why wait until you get the raise, or the promotion, or business improves, or you move to a new home, or you get the perfect relationship, or your kids graduate, or you retire, or you find a new job, or you make more money... or, or, or.... WHY WAIT to feel better about yourself and your life?

Today's Be Happier Today show will be simple: creating urgency in your life for living it now... not in the future.

by Tina Nies

It’s already March… are you on track for making this year your best year yet?

If not, it’s not too late! But, do you know what your best year yet would look like?

Imagine it – what does your business look like on December 31, 2011, in your best year yet? Who are your clients/customers/patients? Imagine how pleased they are with your services and products. Imagine their many referrals. Who are your employees? No employees – do you have virtual assistants, accountants, interns, freelancers, etc. – so you can focus on the core of your business? What are your new levels of revenue and profit?

Imagine how your business will look!  Have you expanded your products or services? Have you focused on your current offerings and built more powerful relationships with your current customers? Have you moved your physical office? Are you more organized and efficient?

When you have a vision of your best year yet, write it down, draw pictures/diagrams, and jot down ideas about how you see it happening. Then, create an outline that details what needs to happen starting today to create that vision over the next 9-10 months!

If you have employees, a partner, even freelancers or interns, share your vision with them; share it with passion. Listen to feedback and ideas about creating action steps for success. Working together with your team to create goals, timelines, and accountability will not only help keep the focus on achieving goals, but will also help them feel empowered in creating success for themselves and their role on the team. 

On your own? Consider your own advisory board or share with a trusted friend or advisor or find a colleague and give mutual support. Share this process with them as they create their vision and outline. Be sure to seek out someone with similar values about business and life so you have a common ground.

Set up an accountability schedule. At least twice a month, get together and review your progress, talk about successes, brainstorm ideas for overcoming obstacles, modify the goals or timeline if needed.

This process is not easy and it takes time. But this investment of time and energy has the potential for huge dividends at the end of your best year yet!

If you didn't notice, today, we began our 2nd blog talk radio show, Creating business success by keeping vision and passion at the core!

So excited and hope you'll join us each Tuesday at 3pm EST or click on the link to listen anytime. We'll also still have our show each Wednesday with a more general focus on happiness!

You'll also begin to notice some changes in our blog entries - a mix of business and personal tips and tools AND a new email letter subscription will soon be available - watch for details. :-) here is your confident team article for today:

There are many pathways to building confident work teams.

Whether you are working with a new team, or an established already well-functioning team, the guidelines included in this article can support you in building an even stronger, focused, more cohesive team.

Building confident, cohesive, well-functioning teams is an ongoing focus for managers.

Although often managers “inherit” the teams with which they work, rather than start them from scratch, the same rules apply:

Know that teams go through various stages

Any change—be it to responsibilities, addition of staff, loss of staff, or new ways of operating—may mean that already established, well-functioning teams sometimes revert to a period, as when first formed, where roles, mission and process need to be revisited and re-clarified.

Action – Define your teams roles and responsibilities early on. Make sure you to take the lead in this.

Have a clear mission
Teams without a clear mission are like boats without a rudder.

The resulting feeling of aimlessness leads to lack of clarity and fuel for productivity.  Expectations for individual responsibilities remain unclear if not linked to the bigger picture—or team role.

You may be surprised to find your team may not have a clear understanding of the guiding mission.

Action – Provide direction and purpose to the team. Say what your objectives are and where you want the team to go.

Have clear roles and hire for fit

Ensure your staff understands where how roles connect and may be interdependent.

Explore the handoffs and how current processes help or hinder their success.

Hire additions to staff whose values mirror those of your group (e.g. if teamwork is critical, hire those who flourish in team environments rather than those who prefer to work independently).

Clarify what they bring to the team and how they will contribute.

Establish your team-specific “groundrules”



These are the unwritten norms that guide how work gets done in your team.

Do you have an open door policy?

How are suggestions for improvements to be made?  How does communication work amongst team members?

Action – Do this as soon as you can so people know what to expect and what your standards are.

Provide a vehicle for teambuilding




Whether at a fixed period during monthly staff meetings, or at annual retreats, allow some time for your team to bond and reconnect with one another as well as with you.

Listen for their concerns and frustrations, and to the extent possible, empower them to own solutions.

Action – As well as taking this on yourself delegate the “Teambuilding” responsibilities to some people in your time also. Like a “social secretary” for organising team night outs.

Lead your group




Effective teams have a clear leader, with a clear role.

Consistently communicate and play your part on the team.

Proactively address potential concerns and issues, and build a collaborative environment where every member’s strengths and talents are utilized and appreciated.

Action – You don’t need to start this, you should be doing this ALL of the time!

List down all of the things that you can do to make sure that this happens.

These are the pathways to building confident teams.

I'm honored to be a co-author of the upcoming book, The Heart of Success Book and was SO excited to get my copy of the promotional cd in the mail today!

Of course I have listened to my 5 minute audio several times and you can hear it by clicking on the link on the left - but it was so fun to listen to it on the cd with other amazing co-authors of the book, including best-selling author, Joyce Schwarz,  "The Vision Board, The Secret to an Extraordinary Life." (Click to read a free chapter of The Vision Board book!)

The Heart of Success book and media series is designed to showcase and "reflect the value of heart-work that warms the soul." And the theme of the series is based on a quote by Jerry Garcia, "It's not enough just to be the best; you must be the only one!"

That is a great quote and for me it brings to mind that not only can we be inspired and encouraged to be our best, but that no one is just like us! No one is connecting with others in exactly the same way as we do. No one is doing exactly what we are doing in exactly the same way!  We are each unique as a person, as an employee, as a sibling, as a parent, as a child, as an entrepreneur - unique in each role that we play in our life.

I love the title too, "Heart of Success."  It's a powerful statement about what it takes to be successful (which of course is defined differently by each of us!).  If our motivation and desires come from our heart, it's more powerful than if it comes from what we think we "should" be doing. It might take time, it might be hard, and it might take a lot more courage than we think we have right now - BUT we can choose to create our life from our heart and we can make heart-felt choices in our daily life.

The Heart of Success Book is a great tool to help you do that and you will be able to pre-order the book very soon on Amazon, or better yet, right here on my site where you'll also get some great bonuses! So watch for that coming soon.

How many times have you started a diet, a new way of thinking, or tried something new and then a setback occurs and you just go back to the way you were?

Don’t worry, you are not the only one!  Setbacks and difficulties occur all of the time – they are a natural activity of life.  There are two ways of facing difficulties.

You either change or alter the difficulty or you can alter yourself to be able to deal with it.

Deal with difficulties correctly and it will enhance your confidence, deal with them incorrectly and they can do some serious damage to your self worth.

Your response to issues and difficulties
When you are faced with any setback your ability to deal with it can be turned around into a position of strength by asking yourself positive empowering questions.
There is an unwritten rule that says:
Ask your mind a stupid question and you will get a stupid answer!

So, if after setback you ask yourself something like “Why does this always happen to me, I never have any luck?”

Your mind will probably come out with: “Because you are useless and good things do not happen to you!”
Sound familiar?

Instead, if you ask yourself a positive empowering question like: “What did I learn from this setback for next time?” Your mind will kick into solution mode and help.

Here are some rules and things to think about when setbacks do occur:

• Acknowledge that it has happened. Don’t hide from it. These things happen. So what?
• What positive empowering questions can you ask yourself?

What is good about this situation?

How can I make the most of this situation?

What can I learn from it?

What are the facts about this problem?

How can we make it a successful outcome?

• Acknowledge that setbacks occur to everyone and you are not being singled out.
• View them as a challenge to overcome rather than an issue or problem

Think about the negative dis-empowering thoughts that you think on a regular basis after a setback.

What new empowering questions could you ask yourself to give some better answers!

Write these down now and make them a habit.

A new look at “failure.”
Learn why you should look forward to it, and how it can help you ultimately get where you want to go.

“There is no such thing as failure”
When you read the quote above, what’s your reaction?

Do you think it’s untrue?  Silly glass-half-empty stuff?

What if I told you that only you have the power to decide whether or not something is indeed, a “failure?”

In fact, there are some individuals—highly successful people—who believe the very word “failure” has no place in our vocabulary.

Let’s talk about why.
Opposite DayAs a kid, you probably played that game “opposite day.”

You’d play practical jokes on your family and friends and release some passive aggression in the process of claiming “opposite day.”

It was great—you could call the cutest girl in the class “ugly,” and then take it all back by simply exclaiming “opposite day!”

But, the end result is the same; you still would have acknowledged her cuteness.

Well, let’s play the game.
What if today, failure really means success?

How can you acknowledge your success, even as you utter the word “failure”?  Well, you can point out:

• everything that was learned in the process of getting to where you are now—surely not everything goes to the scrap heap
• That simply being able to recognize everything hadn’t gone according to plan, or achieved the desired outcome (i.e. “failed”), is in itself a positive outcome
• that the specific path you took this go round, clearly wasn’t the right one and so it has successfully been eliminated and will not be repeated
• that you’ll know to do things differently in the future
• that the experience has enabled you to grow in some way

“Failure” is feedback

“Failure” can simply be a great way to get us to pause in the midst of our process, and get some critical information to indicate that we may need to change direction, try something new, continue our learning, or shift our focus.

Imagine what would happen if we didn’t get that feedback, and continued endlessly along the wrong path, toward the wrong goal, or without ever learning a new approach?

The thought is pretty scary, isn’t it.

Failure then, can really be seen as positive feedback—information that gets us back on the right track!

For, without it, we would surely be lost.

The key then, is to identify it quickly, and change direction, try something new, or shift our focus.

Here are some tips:

• Always have a clear idea of where you want to go and continue to re-evaluate it as you move forward
• Identify specific milestones or markers along the way, to let you know you’re on the right track and celebrate each success
• If something doesn’t appear to be working, or working fast enough, don’t hesitate to try something new
• Continually learn—from others with whom you work, seek out experts, find others who may have traveled down a similar road before

And always remember:

“You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call “failure” is not the falling down, but the staying down”

“You NEVER fail until you stop trying”

“If you are not making any mistakes, you’re not really doing anything with your life” - S.McPheat