entrepreneurial success

Biz Success! SunPower – Changing the Way the World is Powered!

Team Altman Business Success Video! SunPower!

One man had a dream to develop the solar power used for satellites in Space as an affordable alternative to fossil fuels, here on Earth. Dick Swanson faced huge skepticism from the industry, but 40 years on runs a thriving, billion dollar company, SunPower – Changing the Way the World is Powered!

As always enjoy, and share the SunPower Success!


Understand Entrepreneurial Success and Sacrifice

Do you view your business as a winning business, and are you willing to let your business sacrifice losing customers in order to win customers?

There is an obvious trait that successful businesses all have in common, “a divisive point of view,” as opposed to failing unsuccessful businesses with a boring and bland personality with “no point of view” that might alienate a customer, a common trait that sparks no passion from anyone including both customers and employees.

Let’s take a close look at Costco and Sam’s Club for example, which both win customers by losing customers, in a model that eliminates customers that are not willing to pay the annual membership fee to shop, and it’s business model that includes bundled merchandise, limited choices, and low prices, which strengthens the loyalty of customers that want the lower prices, and loses the customers that want more choices.

Other businesses have found success through the combination of provocative advertising and political stances on issues that often offend some consumers, while targeting a smaller market niche of select consumers who connect with the unique brand personality the businesses have developed and promote.

It is unfortunate that many Entrepreneurs have been conditioned that the customer is always right and they will do whatever it takes to “not lose” a customer, and always agree with the often nonsensical whims of customers, which brings us to the important point to be aware of and always remember, is that many successful businesses are willing to sacrifice and lose customers, in order to win even more loyal customers that value the business a lot more.

Many successful Entrepreneurs completely understand from experience that to “gain” and build their businesses strong customer base that is loyal to the “brand,” they must be willing to lose certain customers, especially the ones that ultimately prove they are not part of the business’ target market niche.

Think Business as Unusual For Success in 2010 and Beyond

Capitalism is just a word, but unlike any other word it’s meaning creates instant strong feelings in many that hear it on both sides of an economic battle of words that’s been waged for many years, and judging from the popular word on the street, Capitalism has been targeted as the root of all that’s evil in the economy and has been out of fashion in the U.S. and Europe long before the Great Recession hit the global economy hard approximately 3 years ago.

In 2010 and beyond, we as Entrepreneurs and Small Business owners need to adapt a new mind-set in terms of, and prepare for the non-traditional “business as unusual,” since the market has developed a stronger awareness and global understanding, added to an already strong sense of urgency that “economic sustainability” has to become reality rather than a discussion topic, and is the only way to bring much needed “certainty” to the future, while going forward in the near term, and of course, how sustainability impacts consumer driven economic societies remains a major component of continuing discussion and debate.

In closer examination and analysis of the markets that make up the established and mature consumer driven economies represented by the U.S. and Europe, businesses will have to do more than the traditional old school way of doing “business as usual” that dictates just the embrace of the notion of being a good corporate citizen in the global economy. For business to be successful from this point forward they will have to be able to quickly adapt to what the market presents and move with the cultural shifts and evolution of technology to remain CONNECTED.

To build value in the markets of the global economy, with enlightened consumers that possess heightened levels of awareness not seen before, this might require a greater display of transparency and honesty, and taking part in real meaningful conversations as opposed to the traditional approach of one-way advertising, and build strong relationships by championing collaboration instead of the traditionally one-way us-them mindset, or, the message could be presented inherently about generosity versus greed, or build the reputation of being edgy and daring as opposed to safe and bland. All of which can work together to increase, build and leverage the sustainable perceived, and therefore real value in the eyes of consumers in the global market, in whatever niche they reside.

As always, the future of the global consumer markets will be unevenly distributed, but one only needs to look closely at successful business models like Google, Amazon, Zappos and Virgin to get a strong understanding and instinctive feel for what “business as unusual” is all about, and in doing so, not surprisingly, the trends point to the growing success of “doing things differently,” driven by changing identifiable consumer preferences and desires. The wise Entrepreneur will recognize the importance of making the time to study and learn from those brands that they think are already mirroring today’s more diverse, chaotic, networked society, and then even more importantly, develop critical strategies to first join them, and then outdo them as markets continue to evolve.

E-Commerce, Security, and Managing Risk … Part I

Find out how to protect your computer and businesses while managing online risk.

This is a preview of the Table of Contents for the E-Commerce, Security, and Managing Risk eBook. Found only at Team Altman Dot Com!

Table of Contents.:

Introduction

How Hackers and Crackers Can Cripple the Internet and Your PC

Getting into the mind of the intruder

Managing Your e-Risk

What are Viruses, Trojans, Malware and more!

Three Common Security Methods Used in Web Communications

Wireless Security (Wifi security) The good and Bad!

Implementing Fire Walls and Available Configurations

Encryption Technology

Hot Tips and Web Links


Introduction .:

First, we should first realize that the internet’s very nature opens up to harmful attacks. It was designed to allow free information to exchange –success followed quickly growing far beyond the designers wildest expectations. However, this comes with a price! Hackers and virus writers try to attack using the internet and computers connected to the network. I have seen many different large viruses attack servers and databases while working for some large companies as technical support for MSN. I was amazed at how many people were affected by these viruses. I have noticed and learned that many virus writers are targeting Microsoft products like servers and data bases. These same programs can detect and turn off your antivirus software or this was the case once upon a time.

I should state, hope that this is obvious, that the internet is different from the World Wide Web and was started by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991. More servers were put online, and with the Mosaic web browser released in 1993, followed by Netscape in 1994, more and more people installed web browsers and began participating in the Web. The amount of the world that uses the internet and web is simply amazing as we enter into the world of web 2.0!

Wow! What a large topic to cover. Take a moment and think about all the different computers in the world and all the possible security risks that might be involved. This is a tad over whelming for many. I will do my best to provide enough details about what types of technologies are out in the world and strategies for security and managing your risk.  We should start off by looking at what are the types of security that we should be thinking about.

Well, there are in fact two types of general security which are:

  • Physical
  • Logical

What is physical? Generally speaking physical is tangible. This type of security is hard to know and difficult to place a value on. Still, it is important to look at even the intangible. You would think that physical is easy to see and easy to implement security, but it may be that you need less or more security than you would have thought true.

What is Logical? Logical is protection using nonphysical means. We would use programming for instance to help logically protect or add a layer of security. A sensory in your car can detect a person that is walking to close to your vehicle. The logical sensors in the computer will signal and react depending on the logic of the programming.  Each area is important as a general guide. During this course I would like to help you see the different types of threats, ways to think about measuring the risks, and ways to see how we use the internet. There are many built in features to the internet but many we must implement ourselves at home or on the job.

A few more computer security concepts to think about are the following:

  • Confidentiality…..: Protecting Data
  • Integrity……………: Data and System functions
  • Availability………..: Service is Not denied to authorized users
  • Authenticity………: Being Genuine
  • Accountability……: Security Goals are Met

Well, time to dive-in and I hope that I can keep this all simple and straight forward.

Next on the Agenda!

How Hackers and Crackers Can Cripple the Internet and Your PC

Stay tuned… more will be added soon!

========================  HOT Tips  =======================

Hijack This

http://cnettv.cnet.com/quick-tips-permanently-delete-malware/9742-1_53-27657.html

Encrypting your Thumb Drives

http://cnettv.cnet.com/thumbdrive-encryption/9742-1_53-32304.html

Strategies of Successful Entrepreneurs: Mastering the Markets

Entrepreneurs who have owned and operated their business for very long have learned to appreciate the impact the global economy can have on their businesses, even at a local level that seems to be in relatively good shape in comparison to other niche markets, and the ripple effect of negative market conditions tend to migrate both nationally and globally, sometimes very slowly, yet at times quickly depending on the initial market impact.

The track economies take always goes up in good times and then comes down in more challenging market conditions, and then back up, riding the optimism of good times followed by the pessimism of shrinking markets, and back up again, leaving the entrepreneur with greater challenges to successfully adjust operations during economic downturns, and the timing of the adjustments is critical to both lessen the effect of negative conditions, and take full advantage of positive market conditions in the most timely manner, and increase the positive effect on the bottom line profit.

The first thing global entrepreneurs need to do to master their markets is grow emotional skin thick enough to not only keep from feeling sorry when the economy slows, but also not to get too excited when the economies turn, start to grow, and begin performing at higher levels.

A realization and considerable understanding has to be developed and reached about the ebb and flow of economic conditions of the markets, as they are going to do what the markets are going to do normally in reaction to ever changing economic conditions both positive and negative, and of course there is very little that anyone can do to change the natural occurrence of economic events and cycles, although well-intentioned governments tend to always try and take actions to positively impact economic cycles, but too many times they only succeed in the exacerbation and extension of the negative portion of the cycles.

Once Entrepreneurs are able to gain greater control of their emotions it becomes easier to focus on the many processes of operating the business in the most efficient way in relation to economic conditions, with the goal of maximum efficiencies that directly translates to not only maximum profits, but maximized positive cash-flow as well. Also, when focused and clear thinking is developed, the easier it is to maintain greater focus and the more creative one becomes, the more success Entrepreneurs experience in making the correct, yet sometimes difficult strategic decisions at the right time, especially when there is some level of discomfort.

The focused mind set of the successful Entrepreneur always looks for ways they can use poorly performing economies to their advantage, making “lemonade out of the lemons” they have been handed, and they succeed through innovation, which is what the true Entrepreneurs are best known for. Not only are customers, products and services viewed and thought of differently, but promotional strategies are viewed with an emphasis on regular adaptation and modification based on challenges of shifting and evolving market conditions, or “lemons” the economic world has thrown at the Entrepreneur.

It is critically important to keep in mind that when the local, national and global economies improve, the fruits of innovative mindset thinking remain in the form of new ideas and concepts within the business, and the Entrepreneur has developed and put together a bigger bag of new market strategies, systems and processes that ultimately pay great dividends during both growing economies and recessions.

Entrepreneurs collectively with the other millions of small business owners throughout the world are the global economy’s backbone and ultimate solution to moving it towards any economic turnaround, whether locally, nationally or globally. Together, the collective entrepreneurial mind set of Small Business moves from pessimism to optimism, and as people become more optimistic they in turn spend money, and jobs are created.

The greatest advice to remember is to “think globally and act locally”, take the “lemons and make lemonade”, and always be part of the solution as the markets grow and recede, and economic struggles are fought, won and lost, and people go back and forth between optimism and pessimism.

Unexpected events and tragedies will always have an effect on the economy, but how the Entrepreneur views their business and markets, reacts to challenges and quickly develops innovations, will determine their ultimate survival and the level of success achieved, which is why any of us make the choice to become Entrepreneurs in the first place.

Search

Categories