Russ Altman
Entrepreneurship – Easy Accessibility
Published May 22, 2012 | 
The mistakes with the most severe results are not made because of wrong answers, but, because of asking the wrong questions.
Attributes of Successful Entrepreneurs – Being Accessible
Being accessible has become one of the key factors for the success experienced by many entrepreneurs and small business owners. Let’s face it, we’re all living in a time when we expect our fast food lunch at the drive-thru window to be ready in mere minutes, our dry cleaning to be ready for pick-up on the same day, our money to be readily available at the nearest and most convenient ATM, and of course, our pizza delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free.
It’s not rocket science to see the trend that’s been developing for years. So…you must understand and make it as easy as you can for people to do consistently do business with you.
When choosing a location for your business, consideration of accessibility should be the first thing. Your customers should be able to go to your business quite easily (and they will talk about it).
There is absolutely no use selecting a cheap location with a parking lot, only to make your customers inconveniently drive an hour to get to your business. 
Also, there is extremely limited value locating the business in a high-traffic area if your target market is a small niche, because the excessive rent will just drain whatever profit you will earn, and negatively impact your critical cash flow.
Determining the ideal location for your business is a very delicate balance between accessibility of the business to your clients, and making absolutely certain rent payments won’t eat devour your profits. Unfortunately, the most ideal and very best locations for business also happen to be the ones that have the highest rents. So make sure to use extreme care in evaluating where you finally decide to locate your business.
A key element that shouldn’t be ignored or over looked is that different kinds of products or services need different kinds of locations. For instance, you cannot evaluate a prospective site based on the traffic a fast food business experienced at a given location if you are going to sell furniture. Chances are great that consumers that buy from McDonald’s might not be the same people who buy IKEA products.
Getting to understand and know your customer is the key element to determining the ideal location for your business. 
Establish how difficult it will be for customers to find you, even talking to them if possible. You want to ultimately get into their mind for the best decisions.
In the end, you want your business to be easily accessible to your customers. You want them to easily locate and get to your business and buy your products.
Make it convenient and a highly-enjoyable experience to visit your place and they will keep coming back as loyal customers.
Beware the little details and expenses of business… even the tiniest of leaks can sink the greatest ships.
Entrepreneurship – Investing in Yourself
Published May 21, 2012 | It’s funny that nobody ever talks about entrepreneurship as purely survival, but that’s precisely what it is, and what cultivates creative thinking.
Attributes of Successful Entrepreneurs – Invest in Yourself
Invest in yourself and you are investing in your greatest asset… you. Top entrepreneurs buy and read business books, magazines, reports, journals, subscribe to newsletters, websites and industry publications, all to improve and sharpen their understanding of business and marketing functions and related skills. In addition, they join important business associations and clubs, where they network with other highly-skilled business owners and entrepreneurs to learn their respective secrets of success and ways to help define their own business and personal goals and objectives.
Top entrepreneurs and business owners are sure to attend business and marketing workshops, seminars and training courses, even if they know have already mastered the subject matter. They make this investment of time and resources because they know that learning never stops and their education is an ongoing process. They are always looking for ways to do things more efficiently and effectively, which saves valuable time, with less committed resources. 
In a word, highly-successful entrepreneurs never cease to invest in the most powerful, effective and greatest business management and marketing tool that’s always immediately accessible… themselves.
Entrepreneurs need to stay sharp and highly-focused, preserving and enhancing the assets they have. It’s vitally essential to plan and have a balanced program for self-renewal in four components of your life including the physical, the social and emotional, the mental, and the spiritual.
Physically you need to eat right, exercise regularly, and get enough rest.
Socially and Emotionally you need to make social and genuinely meaningful connections with others.
Stay focused mentally by continued learning, reading, writing often, and teaching others.
For spiritual strength spend time in nature, and expand your spiritual essence through meditation, music, art and prayer, and most important, but most overlooked, service to others.
As you renew yourself, you actually create growth and change in your life. This sharpening and refocus serves to keep you fresh so you can increase your capacity to produce, and successfully manage the challenges that sometimes surround you. Without this vitally-essential renewal, the body slowly becomes weak, the mind purely emotionless and mechanical, the emotions exposed and raw, the spirit highly-insensitive, and selfishness begins to appear. Not an enviable position to be in while attempting to successfully operate a business.
A fact that most people will unfortunately never understand, is that feeling good doesn’t just happen. You are the only one that can take care of you, and living a life in balance means taking the time that’s necessary to renew you. Remember, it’s all up to you. 
Your choices are to renew yourself through relaxation, or to overdo everything and completely burn yourself out. You can indulge yourself mentally and spiritually, or choose to go through life oblivious to your own well-being.
To be the most successful, you should choose the experience of vibrant energy, the many benefits of good health and exercise, revitalization and facing a new day in peace and harmony. Avoid days of apathy, and just remember that every day brings new opportunities for renewal and recharge of yourself instead of hitting the proverbial wall and failure that goes with it.
Success… all it simply takes is the desire, knowledge, and skill.
Viral Video! Yves Rossy – The Jetman
Published May 20, 2012 | Team Altman Viral Video! Fly with the Jetman – Yves Rossy
Yves Rossy is the Jetman… strapped to a jet-powered wing and flying free, using his body as the rudder steering the flight, high above the Swiss Alps and the Grand Canyon. After a powerful short film shows how it works, we actually get to see Rossy take the TEDGlobal stage to share the magical experience and thrill of flying.
On May 7 of 2011, Swiss pilot Yves Rossy stepped out of a helicopter 8,000 feet above the Grand Canyon and … took off. Wearing a very rigid wing that is powered by four model jet turbine engines, Rossy flew for eight awesome minutes over the mile-deep trench, soaring over the red rocks before parachuting down to the Colorado River far below. It’s the latest exploit in a life powered by one dream: to fly like a bird.
Wearing his single wing, Rossy really flies, steering with the movements of his body. In the last couple of years he has crossed the English Channel, flown over the Swiss Alps and performed aerobatic loops around a hot-air balloon; for his next quest, he is developing a new kind of parachute that will enable him to fly as low as 200 meters.
With a jet-powered wing attached to his body, Yves Rossy expands the possibilities of human flight!
As always enjoy, and share Fly with the Jetman – Yves Rossy!
Viral Video! From Mach-20 Glider to Humming Bird Drone!
Published May 19, 2012 | Team Altman Viral Video! Regina Dugan and From Mach-20 Glider to Humming Bird Drone
“Since we took to the sky, we have wanted to fly faster and farther. And to do so, we’ve had to believe in impossible things and we’ve had to refuse to fear failure.” ~ Regina Dugan
Rated “Jaw-dropping” by hundreds of thousands of viewers, in this amazing presentation, Regina Dugan, the director of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency describes some of the extraordinary projects — a robotic hummingbird, a prosthetic arm controlled by thought, and, well, the internet — that her agency has created by not worrying that they might fail. Imagine what it might be like… if failure is never an option.
Regina Dugan directs the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the DoD innovation engine responsible for creating and preventing strategic surprise.
Dr. Dugan is a business woman, inventor, and technology developer known for rolling up her sleeves and going directly to a problem no matter if it’s in the lab, or in Afghanistan. With a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Caltech and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Virginia Tech, she’s known for inspiring creative thinking, an artist-engineer, which many credit as a scientific coach, mentor, cheerleader and of course, taskmaster. As a 2010 New York Times article explained, there are four stages to an encounter with Regina Dugan, which are “being a little scared, really scared, frustrated and then enlightened.” Vision alone is insufficient for Dugan. Rather, vision must be paired with the power of execution in order to make impossible things possible.
As always enjoy, and share Regina Dugan and from Mach-20 Glider to Humming Bird Drone!
Entrepreneurship – Create the Competitive Edge
Published May 18, 2012 | When customers complain, get excited about it. Complaining customers represent an enormous opportunity for more business and strengthening the competitive edge.
Attributes of Successful Entrepreneurs – Own the Competitive Edge
Create a competitive advantage, since every successful business has a clearly definite unique selling proposition. This is the simply the answer to the vital question, “Why will people choose to do business with you rather than doing business with a competitor?” In other words, what aspects separate your business from your competition? Is it be better service, better selection, longer warranties, better and more flexible payment options, longer business hours, lowest price, highly-personalized service, far better customer service, availability of layaways, better return and exchange policies, or combinations of several of these?
Let’s look at few tips, ideas and ways to own the competitive edge.
Make sure all your staff and employees are trained and treated well, since treating staff well and training them well directly impacts the chances that you will be more likely to keep them, which in turn saves you increased staff costs, plus you will more likely have them creating buzz which translates into highly-effective free marketing and promotion.
Differentiate your sales method, business model, line of products, or services that you specialize in. Remember, being different contributes heavily to getting noticed.
Offer excellent customer service for free, since every single customer or potential customer enjoys royal treatment, especially when they are spending their hard earned cash, so treat them accordingly with superior and memorable customer service.
Build a solid reputation, through networking, including knowing other people and other businesses, which contribute directly to building brand recognition and reputation, something that you will be remembered by and instantly recognized by.
Keep it fresh by keeping your products, lines, services and so on “fresh,” not changing them so often that people never have an idea about what your offering, but do change them so that people know you will stock, sell or offer something different from the competition.
Check out your competition and competitors, and what they’re offering, and more importantly, what they are NOT offering. This way you are able to stay ahead of the game, and at the same time, keep on top of what they are doing, and creatively do something to gain a competitive edge.
Plan for change by putting together the process of dynamic business planning, a plan for frequent change, which ensures that your business doesn’t turn stale, boring, and unattractive to the market niche you serve.
Use the media and press and get them on your side. Always use the media and press that you can develop strong relationships with, and remember, no publicity is bad. Be familiar with sending out press releases, news releases, and anything else to garner attention from the press and media on your side. Build and keep a positive and strong image within the press and media, which will help you gain the competitive edge over your competitors.
Always be aware of what others are doing, congratulate their efforts, recognize their successes, and support them in their pursuits. By helping one another, we help ourselves, and everybody wins.