business success | Dr. Ivan Misner®

29Aug2022

Accountability for Business Successstring(35) "Accountability for Business Success"

August 29, 2022

accountability, business success Accountability, Business, Success 3

For a business organization to be successful, there must be accountability. If there must be accountability, then it follows that some systems and rules have to be in place.
This is also true for business networking groups such as BNI®.

I have found that one of the strengths of a network is that most of the members are friends, and one of the weaknesses of a network is that most of the members are friends. And friends don’t like to hold friends accountable.

Think about it like this: Ice hockey without rules would be boxing on ice. Without rules, your networking group would be chaos.

BNI chapters without rules and guidelines would be a coffee klatch of socializing around a table or a social club chit-chatting in a video meeting. You have to have rules, you have to have a system. The rules are important for long-term success.

Applying the Rules

Quality leadership is about having a positive attitude while maintaining accountability with diplomacy. It is about coaching people by guiding and helping them. Good leaders apply the policies and rules like Mandela, not Atilla. They use tough love, they show people that they care, and they make sure that the members of their team or of the group understand the why behind the accountability.

Remember: People don’t care HOW until they understand WHY. Accountability is critical for business success. Effectively maintaining accountability in a business or networking group leads to long-term success for the organization and its members.

21Jan2013

Get Ready for International Networking Week 2013!string(49) "Get Ready for International Networking Week 2013!"

International Networking Week® 2013 is almost here and with it comes tremendous opportunity for businesspeople across the globe to grow business through the development of powerful new connections!

International Networking Week® is an initiative of BNI® and its focus is to celebrate the key role that networking plays in the development and successs of business around the world. It’s about creating an awareness of the process of networking. Not just any kind of networking, but “relationship networking”–an approach to doing business based on building long-term, successful relationships with people through the networking process.

Over the past several years, International Networking Week has been gaining momentum worldwide and for the past few years, the Week has been recognized by tens of thousands of people around the world and acknowledged by many governmental agencies and high profile organizations.

The number of people participating in this year’s celebration of International Networking Week®, through hundreds of large events and thousands of smaller events, is expected to be even greater than it was in 2012.

You can join in the celebration of the Week by:

Watching the 2013 International Networking Week Video by CLICKING HERE. Please feel free to share the link with everyone in your network and post it on any websites you may have.
Visiting www.InternationalNetworkingWeek.com for more information and a list of worldwide events.
Participating in this year’s recommended special International Networking Week networking exercise by bringing an individual who has been a significant influence on your business/life to the networking meeting or event you’ll be attending during International Networking Week. For full details, please click on the link below.

SPECIAL NETWORKING EXERCISE–INTERNATIONAL NETWORKING WEEK 2013

How are you planning on celebrating International Networking Week? I’d love to hear your ideas on additional ways to celebrate this year so please leave your thoughts in the comment forum below. Thanks!

8Oct2012

Want to Earn More? You Need to Learn More…string(48) "Want to Earn More? You Need to Learn More…"

It used to surprise me when I heard statistics such as this: 50% of all businesses fail in their first three years. Now that I’ve been in business for several decades and have seen many entrepreneurs come and go, I’m more surprised that 50% of businesses actually make it past the first three years!

Maybe I’m being a tad harsh . . . but not much. One thing I’ve learned is that most successful entrepreneurs embrace and engage in a culture of learning in order to excel. Personal and professional self development is an ongoing journey–not a destination. It’s always a work in progress. Often, businesspeople get so caught up working “in” their business that they forget to spend time working “on” their business. Part of working “on” a business is one’s professional development.

Most entrepreneurs only pay lip service to education (okay, maybe not you since you’re actually taking the time to read a blog post about business but I’m talking about the average entrepreneur). Ask a number of entrepreneurs and businesspeople if they would be willing to attend a seminar on building their business and three quarters of them will say yes. However, if you proceed to tell them that the seminar is four weeks from tomorrow at 7 p.m., only a handful of those who initially agreed they would go will actually sign up.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the highest return.”

With that in mind, here’s an action item that will help get you started on the path to immersing and engaging in a culture of learning:

Look at your financials (or checkbook, or credit card statements) for the past year. Have you invested money into any type of ongoing business education? If you aren’t “emptying some of your purse into your head,” take a few minutes to think about what you want to learn to help you build your business and then sign up for something this week.

Remember, if you want to earn more, you need to learn more (and reading this blog from time to time won’t hurt either)!

Lastly, share with us something that someone once taught you (something from books and seminars are OK) that helped you in some important way.

27Sep2012

Marcia Wieder: Bringing Your Dream & Your Vision for Your Business to Fruitionstring(83) "Marcia Wieder: Bringing Your Dream & Your Vision for Your Business to Fruition"

September 27, 2012

Ivan Misner

business success, Dr. Ivan Misner(R), dream, Dream University, entrepreneurial mindset, FREE e-books, Marcia Wieder, transformation, Vision Author, Business, Educational Resources, Entrepreneurial Enterprise, Global Business, Success, Video Blog 1

In this video, I talk to Marcia Wieder, CEO and Founder of Dream University, about the entrepreneurial mindset of having a vision and a dream for a business and how to successfully realize that vision and that dream. I met Marcia through the Transformational Leadership Council which we are both members of and, let me tell you, Marcia is truly the best of the best of when it comes to understanding this facet of business.

Marcia explains that in business, dreaming is serious business; it’s the driving force for transformation and without vision, many companies fail. Watch the video for key pointers on how to help your business dream/vision come to fruition and to find out how to get three FREE Dream University e-books on the subject. Be sure to visit www.DreamUniversity.com for more information.

27Sep2010

Using the Power of Networking to Go Globalstring(42) "Using the Power of Networking to Go Global"

We now live in a fully global society, and referral networking has become a prominent marketing strategy in this global society for one reason: It works. The idea of growing your business through word-of-mouth marketing is a concept that crosses cultural, ethnic and political boundaries because we all speak the language of referrals, and we all want to do business based on trust.

Referral networking is a cost-effective way to get in front of new clients worldwide, and it’s a much better way to keep a business prosperous over the long term (because it’s built on mutually beneficial relationships between you and your fellow business owners). Referral networking is powered by the oldest and most enduring principle of human society–Givers Gain–the idea that the good you do will eventually come back to you in one form or another.

Earlier this year I did a live telebridge interview with my colleague Paul Martinelli on the topic “Going Global via the Power of Networking,” and we had more than 500 people call in from all over the world. To me, this truly demonstrates the worldwide interest there is in global business building through networking, and it’s a testament to the fact that networking will only become more vital to business success in modern times.

If you’d like to get in-depth advice on how to use the power of networking to go global with your business, you can Click here to get free access to the recording of the interview I did with Paul Martinelli on the subject.