May 9th, 2011 by Larry Keltto | Posted in Client Relations, Health, Marketing, Productivity
For many years I have enjoyed Matt Kramer’s column in Wine Spectator magazine. In the May 31, 2011 issue he wrote a piece titled “Nobody Ever Went Wrong.” Matt is talking about wine, of course, in this column, and he writes:
It seems a good — indeed, useful — exercise to see what truths might be extracted from this “nobody ever went wrong” formulation.
I think it works for our solopreneur lives, too, so here we go.
No solopreneur ever went wrong…
…Asking for help. The return on investment when we ask for help is extraordinary. If you don’t believe me, just try it and see what happens.
April 19th, 2011 by Larry Keltto | Posted in Client Relations, Collaboration and Partnership
These Are the Results of The Solopreneur Life’s
Crowdsourced Question #1
The Solopreneur Life Crowdsourced Question (the name just rolls of the tongue!) is a new, occasional feature for The Solopreneur Life. It’s kind of the like the “Person on the Street” feature that newspapers used to publish.
I’m hedging my bets and saying “occasional.” While I think crowdsourced articles are a great idea, I think their use is going to become very popular and possibly over-used, due to the advent of a tool called BlogStampede.com. We’ll see. Plus, I don’t want to detract from the superb Q&A that Dr. Shannon Reece does on a weekly basis. She was doing this pre-BlogStampede.com, and she does a superb job.
April 11th, 2011 by Larry Keltto | Posted in Client Relations
It’s seemingly part of the solopreneur how-to canon: “Work with people you like.” It sounds great and it makes sense; you didn’t beceome a solopreneur to work with clients that you hate, right? But as a solopreneur, how do you know if a prospect is someone you will enjoy? How do you determine that a person will be a good fit for you?
Join the conversation and share your ideas with your fellow solopreneurs. I will publish the responses next week. It’s great PR for your business and it’s an effective way to network.
March 24th, 2011 by Larry Keltto | Posted in Client Relations, Coaching, Collaboration and Partnership
DISC is a behavioral model based on the work of Dr. William Moulton Marston (1893–1947) to examine the behavior of individuals in their environment or within a specific situation.
I was introduced to this system recently. I haven’t studied it in great depth yet, but I plan to because I think it gives us as solopreneurs a framework for understanding ourselves, our clients, and our collaborators.
DISC also can help us:
• Identify our weaknesses
• Identify growth areas
• Identify our fears
• Explain our motivations
January 25th, 2011 by Larry Keltto | Posted in Client Relations, Marketing, Public Relations
This article was written by Laura Petrolino, managing director of Flying Pig Communications, a communications and business consulting firm that focuses on the needs of startups, small businesses, and nonprofits. She also serves as Chief Communications Officer at Ignite Venture Partners, which brings together consulting, capital, and concept incubation to build value in businesses of all sizes and stages, and across industries.
Laura is an expert in the art of relationship management, and she guides entrepreneurs and executives at all levels on how to best cultivate their networks. The idea for this article arose from comments Laura made during this episode of The Solopreneur Life on BlogTalkRadio.
October 5th, 2010 by Larry Keltto | Posted in Client Relations, Marketing
In the past year, have you:
• Pursued and landed a piece of business that you knew—deep down—would make you miserable?
• Stayed in a business relationship in which the other person had all the power and used it at your expense?
• Agreed to do work for a client who was a bad risk for paying you in a timely manner?
• Decided to provide services that you knew would not deliver high value to a client?
