By Marc Diener

When you’re the little guy, you have to be realistic. Chances are you won’t have the time or leverage to negotiate everything you’d like. Pick your battles wisely.

Start by putting yourself in your opponent’s shoes. Big businesses often say no based on “policy.” These internal rules keep them running smoothly. Understand this if they declare certain requests off-limits.

Other times, calling something nonnegotiable is simply a ploy to wear you out. Use your business network and clever research to find out what’s really going on. You may have more leverage than you think.

If you have the opportunity, negotiate. But limit your demands. Focus on just a few points—the important ones that you may actually be able to win.

If they say no, demand a plausible explanation. Dismiss the canned deal-maker’s dialogue: “We always do it that way,” or “Take it or leave it.” Use open-ended questions to get the other side talking.

If you go over someone’s head, beware of blowback. At the very least, count on that subordinate carrying a grudge. Also, consider a “most favored nations” clause—their obligation to treat you no less favorably than others with whom they’re making similar deals. If it works, you’ll coattail on someone else’s better terms. If it doesn’t, at least you’ll know you’re not alone. And misery loves company.

A speaker and attorney in Los Angeles, Marc Dieneris author of Deal Power.

This is it–your chance to strike it very rich because suddenly, the internet has changed all the rules. For a half-century, the big players in business, from IBM to Exxon, dominated the game, leaving little room for newcomers to move to the top of the heap. Then in 1994 a little startup named Netscape introduced a web browser, and the race for cash was on. Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, 1-800-Flowers, drugstore.com, Priceline.com, WebMd.com–today, they are million-, and in some cases billion-dollar businesses, but where were they ten years ago? Out of nowhere these companies, and hundreds more, have emerged to challenge the gods of commerce. They’re succeeding because the new rules favor small companies that are flexible, smart, tough and ultra-quick to react to changing market conditions.

Chew on these numbers: E-business research firm IDCexpects the total worldwide value of goods and services purchased by businesses through e-commerce solutions will increase to $4.3 trillion by 2005 from $282 billion in 2000. By 2007, total online retail spending will reach $105.2 billion, up from the $51.7 billion consumers were expected to spend by the end of 2003. And in the 2002 Christmas shopping season, consumers spent $7.92 billion online, a 23 percent increase over the 2001 holiday season, according to e-commerce research firm BizRate.com.

The web is both a new distribution channel and a new way of doing business. Don’t miss either part of that statement. Think of the web only as a new channel–a different way of putting products and services in front of customers–and you miss the threat and the promise of the Internet, which is that it will utterly change how you do business.

Reasons to Dotcom

Need convincing that the Web is the place for your business to be? Here are 10 reasons why you have to be online:

1. It’s cheap. There is no more inexpensive way to open a business than to launch a web site. While you could spend up to many millions of dollars to get started, low-budget web sites (started with as little as $100) remain viable businesses.
2. You cut your order fulfillment costs. Handling orders by phone is expensive. Ditto for mail orders. There’s no more efficient–cheap, fast, accurate–way to process orders than via a web site.
3. Your catalog is always current. A print catalog can cost big bucks, and nobody wants to order a reprint just to change one price or to correct a few typos. A Web site can be updated in minutes.
4. High printing and mailing costs are history. Your customers can download any information you want them to have from your web site. Sure, you’ll still want to print some materials, but lots can be distributed via the web.
5. You cut staffing costs. A web site can be a low-manpower operation.
6. You can stay open 24 hours daily. And you’ll still get your sleep because your site will be open even when your eyes are closed.
7. You’re in front of a global audience. Watch your site log, and you’ll see visitors streaming in from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia–wherever there are computers and phone lines.
8. There are no city permits and no hassles. It could change, but in most parts of the country, small web businesses can be run without permits and with little government involvement. As you expand and add employees, you’ll start to bump into laws and regulations, but it’s certainly nice to be able to kick off a business without first filling out reams of city and state forms.
9. There are no angry customers in your face. You can’t ignore unhappy customers in any business; in fact, how well you deliver customer service will go far toward determining how successful you are. But at least with a web business you’ll never have to stand eyeball-to-eyeball with a screamer.
10. It’s easy to get your message out. Between your web site and your smart use of e-mail, you’ll have complete control over when and how your message goes out. You can’t beat a web site for its immediacy, and when a site is done well, it’s hard to top its ability to grab and hold the attention of potential customers.

By Tom Hopkins

Too may people in business look at the telephone as an anchor–that’s how they feel about lifting it when they have to make outgoing calls to potential clients. For some, you’d think it was covered with spiders or that it might electrocute them if they touch it. That reaction revolves around the fear of rejection. Granted, not too many people are brave enough to willingly put themselves in a position to be rejected. However, those who do will find all sorts of long-term rewards for the temporary pain they’ll experience.

With the right attitude and by paying close attention to what happens, each rejection you deal with will be a learning experience. You’ll learn what not to say and when not to call. The key here is to turn that around so you can master what to say and when to call. With every rejection, you’ll want to take a quick moment to analyze the situation in order to benefit from it. Rather than letting it ruin your attitude for the next call, you should find yourself saying, “Well, that didn’t work. What’s a better way to say it?”

With proper fine-tuning, you’ll soon find your calls being well received and you’ll experience fewer rejections. To save you some time on this learning curve, here are eight points you need to consider before making any business calls.

1. Develop a professional greeting. Don’t just say hello and jump into your telephone presentation without taking a breath or allowing the other party to participate. Your greeting should err on the side of formality. Begin with Mr., Mrs. or Ms, as in “Good morning, Mr. Smith.” Or “Good evening, Mrs. Jones.” Everyone else says, “Hello.” Be different. Be professional.

2. Introduce yourself and your company.“My name is Sally Smith with ABC Company. We’re a local firm that specializes in helping businesses like yours save money.” Don’t get too specific yet. Don’t mention your product. If you do, that allows the other party to say, “Oh, we’re happy with what we’ve got. Thanks anyway,” and hang up. By keeping your introduction general, yet mentioning a benefit, you’ll peak your prospect’s curiosity and keep them on the line longer.

3. Express gratitude. Always thank the potential client for allowing you a few moments in his busy day. Tell him that you won’t waste a second of his time. “I want to thank you for taking my call. This will only involve a moment of your time so you can get back to your busy schedule.” Don’t say that you’ll “just take a moment.” The feeling evoked by them hearing that you’ll take anything from them will put them off.

4. State the purpose of your call. It’s best if you can provide the purpose within a question. “If we can show you a way to improve the quality of your product at a lower cost, would you be interested to know more?” This is very likely to get a yes response. At this point, you’re ready to start selling an opportunity to meet this person or to get their permission to provide them with more information. You’re not selling your product yet–you’re selling what your product will do for him.

5. Schedule a meeting. Get a confirmation to meet, either in person or to teleconference to get the information you need in order to give a solid presentation. If he’s so interested that he wants to do it right then and there, that’s OK.

6. If a face-to-face meeting is the most appropriate next step, use the alternate-of-choice questioning strategy. Offer him two times, “Mr. Johnson, I can pop by your office at 2:15 p.m. today to discuss this further. Or would 9:45 a.m. tomorrow better suit your schedule?” You didn’t say, “When can we meet?” When you use the alternate of choice, you take control of getting the appointment. And note: Asking for an off-hour gets you noticed. There’s something about setting a meeting at an off-hour that says you’re a salesperson who’ll be punctual and respect your prospect’s time. Try it.

7. Thank them for their time today and for the upcoming appointment. Reconfirm the date, time and location of the appointment. Ask for directions if you need them. Tell him how much preparation you’ll do in order to make the best use of the time you’ll share. Give him your contact information this way: “If anything else comes to mind that I should be aware of prior to our meeting, please contact me at (212) 555-1212.”

8. Follow up. If your meeting is more than a few days in the future, send a letter of confirmation immediately. If the meeting is tomorrow, send an e-mail confirmation. Keep it short and upbeat.

Tom Hopkins is the “Sales Basics” coach at Entrepreneur.com and is world-renowned as “the builder of sales champions.” For the past 30 years, he’s provided superior sales training through his company, Tom Hopkins International.

year ago I was convinced by our technology team to start blogging. I had to ask them what that meant. Today, I am not only comfortable blogging but I am actively promoting it to other business-owner colleagues of mine and clients. For me, blogging is like having our own Versant media channel – a channel that creates conversations with people inside and outside the company. It’s inexpensive, effective and puts our brand front and center in a very complex business world.

I see results from blogging.

What I’ve learned about blogging this past year is that it allows prospective associates (future hires) or clients (past, present and hopefully future, too) to find out more about my leadership vision and values, and what this place is about. I have learned to write openly on all sorts of topics that are relevant to our business. I have become comfortable using this technology to let those prospects inside Versant to find out what kind of thinking is occurring from this office and what we are learning and doing along the way. I do not write on personal issues, however, because I do not believe that would do much for brand Versant – although I think I have an interesting albeit crazy life with four kids.

Back to business.

Newsweek said last month, “It’s about the We in Web.” That sure makes sense to me. So yes, I have more than embraced blogging as it solidifies what our brand is all about – people! Our people create dialog through blogging. They share ways we function as a team, think and communicate, and the way we partner with clients. We don’t need a search engine to tell me about our core business – it’s relationships. The blogoshpere adds more personalization to the relationship side of Versant. That translates into more opportunity for dialog and less monologue. It has increased the value of our brand because it showcases how we are managing our own communication channels with this technology and putting the power to the people, so to speak.

This week some of our key associates were interviewed in an article on blogging (PDF). The old days of passive communications don’t seem very efficient, effective or attractive to our associates or clients as you can tell. I hope you can take a moment to read the article. Quite honestly, our technology team is ahead of the game as it relates to helping clients apply the new technologies to business and business development. It works for Versant and it is working for our clients.

The innovation of new technologies in the communication space is huge and growing. I am thrilled to be a part of it and would like to hear what you think.

This is about trading money for press coverage. That’s becoming the new meaning of Trade Press. It’s about enlisting The Ben Franklin PR firm, in voluminous quantity, on behalf of glowing visibility. Ya, OK, I’m hot tonight. I’ll calm down. But here’s the story:

Over the past two consecutive days I have been in two separate client meetings, in two different cities, in which our corporate contact was talking excitedly about — or a trade media publication sales rep was making a provocative presentation about — paid editorial. That’s as in, you know, literally, “give me $18,000 and our editorial staff will author a white paper on your behalf that I guarantee you’ll love, love, love.” I won’t name the clients, the publications or the cities. OK, city wise I must have been in Sodom on Tuesday and Gomorrah today.

It’s not the client’s fault any more than it is the adolescents fault on the playground when some wheeler dealer offers them a similar escape. Of course, the dealer in this instance, like the dealer at the school, never mentions the side effects of this alluring, easy end to anonymity, as in everyone knows it is a paid endorsement; everyone knows you bought their love; everyone knows there isn’t anything really credible in the piece.

The only difference between this (the world’s second oldest profession, as they say) and the world’s oldest profession is that these folks in the trade media will actually kiss you on the lips, too. In fact, they’ll shine your shoes, wash your car, clean your house and just about anything else to sustain their business model and the revenue stream. What is not so apparent is how overt or opaque they plan to be letting their “subscribers” and “pass along readership” know that money exchanged hands in return for the glowing feature.

HAI DUONG — A new Ha Noi-Hai Phong international airport has been suggested by planners as necessary to meet the increasing demand for air travel in the country’s northern region.

The proposed airport would be located in the province of Hai Duong because of its location between the cities of Ha Noi and Hai Phong and its greater proximity to major tourist, mining and production centres in Quang Ninh Province than the current Ha Noi airport.

At a recent meeting in Hai Duong Province, Nguyen The Ba, chairman of the Viet Nam Association of Urban Development and Planning, said the construction of a new international airport would enhance the country’s economic development by making the northern economic region more accessible to air transportation.

“Many foreign investors and enterprises have expressed interest in investing in northern Viet Nam if it has a large-scale international airport in the region,” said Ba.

To meet future air traffic demand, planners said the new airport would need to have a capacity of 60-80 million passengers and 1.5-5 million tonnes of cargo per year.

It would need to be built on an area of about 3,000-4,000ha and would require a capital investment of about US$4-5 billion, said Pham Vu Nghi, former director of the Institute of Airports and Aviation Projects Design.

Ba explained that it would take about 10-20 years to implement the proposal. Opening the new airport during 2015-20 would coincide with the growth in demand and development expected by that time, he suggested. — VNS

GENEVA, Switzerland — The working committee of the World Trade Organsiation (WTO) has approved the reports on bilateral and multilateral agreements of Viet Nam, putting the country on the final stretch towards accession to the international trade body.

Viet Nam now needs only the approval from the WTO council for full membership, expected in the first week of November.

Earlier, Vietnamese representatives in Geneva said they were hopeful of getting the approval from the working committee after it completed examining the three key documents including one on the service sector, such as banking, insurance and communication.

The working committee had started inspecting the documents on Wednesday and continued its task yesterday.

After the conclusion of the meeting, the Working Party Chairman, Eirik Glenne, is expected to declare the negotiation process on Viet Nam’s WTO bid as over, paving the way for the country becoming the 150th member of the trade body.— VNS

By Romanus Wolter

Traditionally, businesses require increased production to maintain their competitive edge. If someone arrives at the office early and leaves late, that person is labeled a “hard worker.” We’ve been taught that to attain economic freedom and professional success, we must spend many hours with our noses to the grindstone.

For most entrepreneurs, starting a business leads to greater financial and personal freedom. As our businesses grow, we learn a simple rule: It’s not about the number of hours we spend on a goal, but the ultimate outcome of our efforts. Taking the right actions is much more powerful than just working.

In order to achieve success, we must discover how to balance the time spent on our work with our personal lives. Our families, friends and colleagues support our success by providing exceptional strategies and fantastic resources that propel our goals forward. Follow these practical steps to embrace life as an entrepreneur and experience real results with less effort:

1. Remember that time is not an adequate measure of hard work. Hard work does not have to be associated with pain or long hours–it’s simply the action of applying effort to produce favorable outcomes. No one else can define the number of hours you must spend working; it is an individual choice. The true measure of your hard work is the personal awareness that you have worked to the best of your ability to complete a goal. You can thrive as a business owner by continually taking thoughtful, action-oriented steps and inventing new ways to stay ahead of the competition.

2. Periodically review your work habits to eliminate nonproductive tasks. Perfection does not equate to being productive. Free up your time for completing vital duties by eliminating tasks that add unnecessary burden without adequate reward. Learn what you don’t need to spend time on by trusting and acting on your instincts. If you are always taking the time to neaten your desk or you are continually refining your filing system, consider eliminating one of the tasks for a week, and analyze the outcome. You may find that you’re still able to achieve your goals, but with less stress.

3. Give guilt a rest, and delegate. At times, being your own boss means that you spend less time doing what you love because you become bogged down with the day-to-day duties of your business. Identify two time-consuming administrative tasks, such as accounting, customer service or collections, and delegate them to an employee or outside vendor. As the leader of your business, your success depends on your ability to spend time developing and fostering your dream.

4. Continually follow through on your commitments. Time spent worrying about anything is time squandered. Complete each task before moving on to something new. If a particular undertaking is frustrating you, write down the next steps you need to take, and include a specific time frame. This allows you to quickly revive your momentum when you return to the task.

5. Work passionately. All aspects of your life demand hard work–both on the job and at home–but constantly burning the midnight oil is often ineffective. By ensuring that each of your actions moves you forward, you’ll find that your hard work will be more productive and less stressful.

Speaker and consultant Romanus Wolter, aka “The Kick Start Guy,” is author ofKick Start Your Dream Business.

By Robert Kiyosaki

As a Marine lieutenant in Vietnam, I learned some important lessons–lessons that apply directly to business. One of those lessons was on speaking out, even if what I say may be wrong or unpopular.

Serving as a helicopter pilot, I looked down on many battles and saw the enemy–Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army–fighting with more ferocity than the South Vietnamese. One day, after sustaining terrible losses, I asked my commanding officer, “Why do their Vietnamese fight harder than our Vietnamese?” Needless to say, that comment nearly got me court-martialed. It bordered on treason. In the military, you are not to ask why?

Today, some young officers question their leaders. If you haven’t been in battle, you have no idea how frustrating it is to take orders from a civilian thousands of miles away and fight a war. 

When we first begin a business, we’re on the front line. If successful, we tend to retreat to the ivory tower and lose touch with the front line–our employees and customers.

Can you take criticism from your workers, customers and associates? Entrepreneurs I’ve met believe they’re in touch with the front line and take criticism well. Still, I have not yet met one entrepreneur who has agreed with the criticism and said, “I can improve in those areas.” That is the real problem.

My commanding officer in Vietnam was a great guy, but he had his hands full. The last thing he needed was a young lieutenant asking questions. But it was an important question, worthy of being pushed up the chain of command. I believe the reason he did not relay the question up the chain of command was simply because they were deaf.

Don’t be deaf to what’s really happening in your business. Entrepreneurs are leaders and should constantly ask themselves questions such as “Can we do something better?” “Are we fulfilling our mission?” “Am I listening to my customers and my employees?” “Am I being told the truth?” As an entrepreneur, your job is to get your workers to work harder than your opponent’s workers. That’s what leaders do.

Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad series of books, is an investor, entrepreneur and educator whose perspectives have changed the way people think about money and investing.