1. Featured Sponsor
2. News Update
3. Welcome to Issue Twenty Three
4. The Most Important Thing You Can Do as a Business Owner
5. On Failure & Learning from Mistakes
6. Content for Your Web Site
7. July Discussion Forum Highlights
8. Recommended Book List for Entrepreneurs
9. Featured Organization of the Month: Grameen Foundation
10. Closing Notes
11. Recommended Products & Books

IntelliContact Pro: We Simplify Email Marketing Send out professional permission-based email newsletters with IntelliContact Pro web-based email marketing software. Create as many lists as you need then simply create your message, schedule it for delivery, and hit send. Once your sending is complete, log back into the software to view complete metrics including open and click-through tracking--starting at just $9.95 per month. Improve your sales and build stronger relationships with prospects and customers today. Make your life easier with a built-in HTML editor, surveying, message scheduling, bounce back handling, an autoresponder, list segmentation, and automated subscription management. We encourage you to sign up for a free trial or learn more .

David Siu began working at Virante on June 1. David runs a number of sites. Check out his wine cabinet site, his medical coding & medical billing site, and his secured loans site.

Broadwick Corporation celebrated its 2nd Anniversary last month! Broadwick will reach 2500 clients for its permission-based email marketing software IntelliContact Pro this week. Our team continues to grow as we have recently added three additional developers including Vaughn Clayton, Seth Fowler, and Alan Cox. We are very excited to bring them on board!

Virante is excited to welcome Jessica Motsinger and Daniel Boyd to its team as its newest Lead Graphics Artist and Lead Developer respectively. Virante has unveiled its new Client Results Report. Download the Virante Client Results Report here. If you need any assistance with link building, web marketing consulting, or search engine optimization, contact Malcolm Young at myoung@virante.com or (919) 386-0133. You can now order predetermined link building packages directly at http://www.virante.com/services/. We've found building high quality incoming links to be one of the most effective ways of obtaining top search engine positions.

Sales of Zero to One Million: How to Build a Company to $1 Million in Sales hit a record high in May. Key endorsers include Jay Levinson, author of Guerilla Marketing and David Chernow, President of Junior Achievement Worldwide. We encourage you to discuss the book and the general topic of building a company to $1 million in sales in our entrepreneurship forum. Buy your copy of the book now from Amazon for $10.85.

We hope you enjoy this month's informative Entrepreneurs' Chronicle!

In the first article, "The Most Important Thing You Can Do as a Business Owner" I reflect upon the importance of paying close attention to the needs of your customers and how you can do so in today's technology-based business world.

The second article, "On Failure & Learning from Mistakes " looks at entrepreneurs during their most difficult periods and how they bounced back from failure.

Finally, we have sections that provide free content you may use on your web site and a list of our book recommendations for current and aspiring entrepreneurs and business leaders.

If you have any comments, suggestions, or would like to contribute content to be published in the newsletter or online, I encourage you to contact us at myoung@virante.com. Please do feel free to forward this newsletter on to your colleagues and associates. On behalf of the Zeromillion.com team I thank you for being a subscriber.

Yours entrepreneurially,

Ryan P. M. Allis, founder
http://www.zeromillion.com
The Top Entrepreneurship Resource Online
Author: Zero to One Million: How to Build a Company to $1 Million in Sales

The Most Important Thing You Can Do as a Business Owner

What is the single most important thing you can do as a business owner? That is a question that this week I think I have found an answer to. The answer? Keep your ear to the marketplace by listening to your customers.

Ford's Mistake

In the early 1920's Henry Ford launched his assembly-line produced Model T. The car was relatively inexpensive, yet of good quality for the time. In order to reach production goals, the company decided to offer only one color of the car—black. You could have any color you wanted, as long as it was black the saying went. With this strategy, Ford quickly dominated the market, capturing up to 57% of the car market at its height. It was a brilliant initial strategy, but Ford eventually faltered. He simply forgot to listen to his customers that were asking for additional color options. General Motors saw this trend, and capitalized on it, producing cars in a multitude of color options and quickly taking back much of the Ford market share gains. With all the innovative ideas, industry-changing processes, and brilliant strategies Ford came up with, he forgot the most basic principle—the business owner rarely knows better than his or her customers.

Surveying Your Clients

There are a few ways to listen to your clients. Most business owners, at least in the early stages, maintain contact with and speak with at least a few clients each week. This is a good start, but I have found that it is not enough to speak with only our large clients—as these clients often have very different requirements that an average user.

The best way that I have found to be able to get feedback from our full client base is by sending a survey. Surveys can be sent either by mail or via the web. I would recommend sending web-based surveys over printed surveys as it is much less expensive and provides a higher response rate and a quicker return of information. Within IntelliContact Pro, the email marketing software my company Broadwick has developed, there is an included web-based surveying tool called IntelliSurvey that allows anyone to easily create, send, and receive results from web-based surveys.

In sending a survey, there are a few questions that can be especially helpful to ask. These questions include:

• What do you like about our product or service?
• How do you use our product or service?
• How can we improve our product or service?
• Is there anything we can do to improve your satisfaction with our product or service?
• Are there any other services or products we could offer that you might be interested in?

Generally I would recommend leaving these types questions open ended. You can also ask non open ended questions such as "On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with our customer service?" or "Which of these five features add-ons would benefit you most?"

Once you have deployed your survey, the next step is to wait for the responses to come in. While this may vary by industry, I've found about 90% of the total responses will come in during the first 72 hours after deployment of a web-based survey. With IntelliContact Pro, you can always review and export the results to Excel at any time whether you want to review the initial responses after an hour or download the final results after a week. I've seen response rates for web-based surveys range from 5% to 50% depending on the number of questions, the type of list, and how well your customers know you. When we survey our IntelliContact client-base we generally receive about a 10-15% response rate. Our last survey, sent out on July 22, 2005 had five questions and received 295 responses out of a total 2350 clients who received the survey.

Reviewing the Results

Once you have the results, the next and very important step is to review them. If you have more than a few dozen responses, I would recommend creating a Feedback Summary Document that categorizes each reported method for improvement and tabulates the number of times a similar request comes up. At the end of this process, you'll be able to get a very good idea of why your clients like your product or service and what they feel can be done to improve it, probably the two most important pieces of information you can have as a business owner. With this information you can create an improved roadmap for your product that will allow you to stay competitive and provide the product that your customers want.

In addition to being able to this improved roadmap, you'll also likely have a number of very good testimonials or case study material that you can use from the answers to the "what do you like" and "how do you use it" questions. As an example, my company Broadwick has collected and published a number of case studies and customer testimonials that have come from past client surveys at http://www.intellicontact.com/casestudies/ .

Implementing the Changes

Once you have a good idea of what the most requested improvements are, you can consider how and when to implement these changes. Depending on your production or development cycle, it may take days or months to make some of the requested changes. Know that not all clients will want the same things. Some may even want changes or new features that conflict—causing you to have to consider offering multiple product lines or completing custom work.

When you have made some or all of the requested improvements be sure to get some additional feedback from your clients prior to launching your new version or improved offering. One of the larger mistakes that I've made to date in my still young business career is not getting sufficient client feedback prior to launching a new version of my email marketing product to the full user base a few months ago. If we had allowed access to a few clients to review the new version prior to launch—we likely could have averted a number of the bugs and headaches that occurred after the launch. We since have changed our development process so that this type of beta client review is possible. In your organization, depending on what type of product you are selling certainly consider showing an early version of your new offering to some clients or holding a focus group session to get the very valuable post-change feedback prior to launch. Giving your client, and prospects for that matter, a role in the development of your product will help them feel valued and also be more likely to want to purchase your new product after launch.

Here is a review of the seven step feedback process I've discussed:

1. Ask the questions in a web-based survey
2. Create a feedback summary document from the results
3. Implement the changes
4. Get client feedback on the changes
5. Make final modifications
6. Go live with the changed product or service
7. Wait a few months and then restart the process

Listen to your customers and you'll get the feedback you need to make customer-centric business decisions that will allow you to increase your client satisfaction, lifetime value, and retention rate.

Finally, I'll leave you with a few best practice guidelines for sending out a web-based survey to your client base.

• Survey your clients at least every year, preferably every 6 months
• If your organization offers multiple products or services, create separate surveys for the customers of each major type of product or service you offer.
• Be sure to include questions asking both what your clients like about your product or service as well as any suggestions they have for improving it.
• Use a web-based survey tool such as IntelliSurvey (included in all IntelliContact Pro accounts) to increase response rates, make collecting and reviewing data easy, and save on postage.

Sending Your Own Web-Based Survey

If you are a current user of IntelliContact Pro, all you need to do to get started with your survey is log in and click the Survey tab. If you are not yet an IntelliContact Pro client or trial user, you can test out our survey feature for free by signing for a fifteen day free trial at http://www.intellicontact.com/trial/ .

Ryan P. Allis, 20, is the author of Zero to One Million, a guide to building a company to $1 million in sales, and the founder of zeromillion.com. Ryan is also the CEO of Broadwick Corp., a provider of the permission-based email marketing software and CEO of Virante, Inc., a web marketing and search engine optimization firm. Ryan is an economics major at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is a Blanchard Scholar. [ learn more ].

This article may be republished online as long as the byline remains

On Failure & Learning from Mistakes

By Ryan P. M. Allis, CEO of Broadwick

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

– Theodore Roosevelt, 1910

Most people are afraid to fail. They worry constantly about not meeting expectations, making a mistake, or trying something new. Because of this, many never get started on the path toward reaching their goals—and thus assure themselves of the very thing they are afraid of—failure. In order to become a successful entrepreneur you will likely have to ‘pay your dues.' You'll likely have to fail a few times, learn from your lessons, and only then be able to come through a winner. While you don't have to take wild chances, you do have to take calculated and educated risks.

In the world of academics, mistakes are perceived as bad and to be avoided. For the first twenty-two years of your life, you are taught that mistakes are bad and embarrassing—when in fact mistakes are simply opportunities to learn something new. The more mistakes a person makes, the more they will have learned and the greater chance they will have of succeeding on their next try. The key, however, is to learn from your mistakes and never make the same mistake twice.

Thomas Edison would have never invented the light bulb if he did not take this principle to heart. Edison failed more than 10,000 times before he found the filament that would create light for a sustained period of time. He did not view these as failures, however. On the 6,635th try to find a proper filament for the light bulb, Edison did not see himself has having failed 6634 times. He reframed the situation so that to him he had successfully eliminated 6,643 possibilities, refining and narrowing his search as he proceeded, drawing him closer and closer to his goal.

Two other failures you may have heard of are Levi Strauss and Christopher Columbus. Strauss headed for the gold mines of California in hopes of gold and glory. But he found none. Instead, this failure gave him new knowledge of a gap in the marketplace. He began selling pants out of canvas for the miners that were succeeding. Today, we've all heard of Levi Strauss jeans. Columbus failed miserably on his goal to find a route to India . However, in failing he ran into a new opportunity—that of the new world. By taking action and learning from your mistakes and failures, you'll gain new knowledge and become aware of many new opportunities. When you come to the edge of what you know, it's time to make some mistakes.

Ryan Allis is the CEO of Broadwick Corporation, a provider of permission-based email marketing and list
management software IntelliContact Pro (www.intellicontact.com), and CEO of Virante, Inc. (www.virante.com), a Durham, North Carolina based web marketing consulting firm. Ryan, who is 20, is
currently studying at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is an economics major and Blanchard Scholar. Additional information on the author can be found at www.ryanallis.com.

This article may be republished online as long as the byline remains.

If you have a web site that has to do with business, entrepreneurship, marketing, web marketing, ebusiness, personal development, or economics and would like high quality free content for your web site, you may syndicate the following articles from our web site. These articles are stored in zip format and can be downloaded by clicking on the appropriate link. We simply ask that you keep the author byline at the bottom of each article per the instructions included with each zip file. If you choose to use any of the articles we ask that you notify us at info@zeromillion.com.

48 Articles - Authorized Excerpts from Zero to One Million

45 Articles - Articles by Ryan Allis, June 2002 - July 2003

Members: 865
Posts: 1089
Location: http://www.zeromillion.com/forums/

In July we saw some great topics come up for discussion in the Zeromillion.com Forums. Some highlighted topics included:

• Market Research
• A New Business Idea
• Survey for my Business Idea
• Member Introductions
• Handmade Jewelry Biz
• Want to start e-biz but no ideas
• What is a broker?
• Young Man Looking for Guidance in Entrepreneurship

The following books are recommended for reading by aspiring and current entrepreneurs and business leaders. The books in bold are must reads. Please email any recommendations for additions to this list to myoung@virante.com.

Globalization & Economics

• The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas L. Friedman
• The Commanding Heights by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw
• Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal by Ball and Dagger
• The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L Heilbroner
• Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets by John McMillan
• The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto
• The Other Path by Hernando de Soto
• Economics by Stanley and Brue
• Macroeconomics by N. Gregory Mankiw
• Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy by Joseph A. Schumpeter
• International Business by Charles W. H. Hill
• Against the Dead Hand by Brink Lindsey

Entrepreneurship

• Zero to One Million by Ryan P. M. Allis
• Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
• Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing by Robert Kiyosaki
• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• The E-Myth by Michael Gerber
• New Venture Creation by Jeffrey Timmons
• The Young Entrepreneurs’ Edge by Jennifer Kushnell
• The Young Entrepreneur’s Guide to Starting and Running a Business by Steve Mariotti
• The Portable MBA in Entrepreneurship by William D. Bygrave
• Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker
• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• At Work with Thomas Edison by Blain McCormick
• Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G. Allen
• On Entrepreneurship by Harvard Business Review
• Entrepreneurship.com by Tim Burns
• The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki
• Fire in the Belly - an exploration of the entrepreneurial spirit by Yanky Fachler

Marketing

• The Anatomy of Buzz by Emanuel Rosen
• The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
• Obtaining a #1 Ranking in the Search Engines by Ryan Allis
• What Clients Love by Harry Beckwith
• Building Thousands of Links to Your Site by Ryan Allis
• Net Results 2 by Rick E. Bruner
• Protégé Training Program by Jay Abraham
• Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
• Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson
• Principles of Marketing by Kotler and Armstrong

Personal Development

• Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
• The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven R. Covey
• Succeed and Grow Rich Through Persuasion by Napoleon Hill
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons by Napoleon Hill
• The Student Success Manifesto by Michael Simmons
• Secrets of the Young & Successful Jennifer Kushnell
• Soul of Money by Lynne Twist
• Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins
• The Millionaire Mind by Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D

Grameen Foundation is a dynamic, nonprofit organization that uses microfinance and innovative technology to fight global poverty and bring opportunities to the world's poorest people. By making microcredit loans available, it helps the poor start self-sustaining businesses to escape poverty. Its global network of microfinance partners has already reached nearly 1.1 million families in 20 countries.

Past Highlighted Organizations:

July 2005 - Oxfam International
June 2005 - Habitat for Humanity
May 2005 - National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship
April 2005 - Opportunity International
March 2005 - The Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization
February 2005 - United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
January 2005 - United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
August 2004 - Youth Development & Entrepreneurship Foundation
July 2004 - Lead America
June 2004 - Students in Free Enterprise
May 2004 - Junior Achievement

This concludes issue twenty three of The Entrepreneurs’ Chronicle. We'll see you September 1, 2005. If you are not subscribed and would like to subscribe, please visit http://www.zeromillion.com. If you would like to contribute content, become involved with the zeromillion.com team, make suggestions, or provide feedback please feel free to contact us at info@zeromillion.com. We encourage you to participate in our discussion forum at http://www.zeromillion.com/talk/.

This newsletter is published by www.zeromillion.com with support from the Entrepreneurs’ Coalition. The newsletter is sent using the IntelliContact Pro web-based email marketing and list management software.

Comments/Suggestions: myoung@virante.com
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Archives online at: http://www.zeromillion.com/echronicle/

Zero to One Million Guide for aspiring entrepreneurs on how to build a company to one million dollars in sales. Price: $10.85 | More Info

Obtaining a #1 Ranking in the Search Engines The book the professionals use to consistently obtain top search engine rankings. Price: $37.00 | More Info

IntelliContact Pro by Broadwick Corporation is web based software that enables you to send out permission-based email newsletters to your prospects, customers, and subscribers, track campaign metrics such as opens and clickthroughs, and create and send surveys. Manage and contact all of your prospects, customers, affiliates, employees, and suppliers. IntelliContact Pro v3.0 includes the added features of an Autoresponder and List Segmentation. With plans starting at $9.95/month and a free fully functional fifteen day demo, IntelliContact Pro is a top choice for list management software. We encourage you to sign up for a free 15 day trial or learn how IntelliContact can benefit your organization. If you have any questions about the software feel free to contact Director of Customer Service Brad Gurley at (919) 968-3996 or via support@broadwick.com.

Virante provides web site design, web marketing consulting, and search engine optimization services. Learn more and request a quote at www.virante.com.

All Contents Copyright © 2005 by Zeromillion.com, the top entrepreneurship resource online

"If you had one chance, one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted--would you capture it, or let it slip?" - Eminem