Identifying your Core Values is essential to having a successful company. Core Values are the foundation of a company’s culture. They are the beliefs, the behaviors, the philosophies upon which all decisions are based.

Here’s an “oldie, but goodie” from the recently passed Steve Jobs that will help you see the “value” of “Core values,” if you will; “will.”

Enjoy and, by all means, your comments are welcome below.

Happy Halloween!

Are you signed up for GROW! 2012? What are you waiting for? Click here for more details. Also, you can still sign up for the last 2011 Webinar scheduled for November 17th The Year’s Almost Over: What to Do to Finish Strong & Get Things in Place to Kick Butt in 2012; sign up today

Do you do business with Amazon? I do, quite a bit actually. I don’t like wasting time in stores; my wife likes to shop and I don’t mind going along with her to spend time with her but as a rule I’d rather read a book, write, hang out with the kids or work out than go shopping. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is one bright fella. Recently, there was a nice story about him in The Wall Street Journal. Take 5 minutes now to read it and see how far that company has come in 16 years! And, while you read it, think about what might be possible for your company if you took a couple more risks, if you took some time to put in writing what your dream is, and think about what might happen if you got focused on what you do best for your clients.

Read the article

One thing you could do to help your business would be to sign up for GROW! 2012. Don’t wait, in one more week the price is going up dramatically, so sign up now to save big bucks. Oh, yeah, no whining afterwards or asking for a discount and the like, you will have had your chance!

Talk to you next week.

My friend and client Jarod Hyson recently sent me a simple, but very true, diagram of what it takes to be successful. Here it is:

What do you think? Seems pretty true to me. Entrepreneurs know that running a business is not easy. You know that I believe the steps one needs to take to be successful are quite easy to understand. I wrote a book on that, The 9 Super Simple Steps to Entrepreneurial Success. The steps are easy…..being successful? Well, that takes a lot of work and it’s not easy. In business success is almost always harder to attain than we think it will be. It will cost more than we think it will. And it will take longer than we think it will to find success. For example, many of you reading this think I’m really successful. I know I’ve done well but let’s be honest, if I were really, really smart, I’d have a 10M company, not a 5M company, right? The point is−we all have things to work on and success is not easy. Think about that this week as you work towards success. Relish in the successes, learn from the mistakes and keep on working.

Speaking of working, read this nice article about Jarod that appeared in Lawn and Landscape magazine, the leading publication in the Green Industry. Congrats to Jarod; we’re very proud of you here at Marty Grunder! Inc. You’re a terrific student. Meet Jarod and many of my other successful clients at GROW! 2012 in February. Sign up now for $550….in two weeks the price is going up to $795. And in two weeks I’ll announce an incredible speaker we have lined up for GROW! that will blow you away. Once we do that, the price for GROW! has to go up; once you read our news, you’ll know why.

We still have 1 spot open for the October 21st Grunder Field Trip. If you’ve been thinking about attending a Field Trip, don’t put it off any longer; sign up now! Otherwise, you’ll have to wait until next summer. And you can still sign up for the last 2011 webinar on November 17th titled The Year’s Almost Over: What to Do to Finish Strong & Get Things in Place to Kick Butt in 2012. Sign up today!

I have fired a lot of people in the course of running a business for over 27 years. It’s never a fun thing to do but if your company is run right, it is a pretty easy thing to do and you will know when you need to do it. There is a wrong and a right way.

Recently, a high level person, the CEO of Yahoo!, was fired and it was done over the phone. There is most likely more to that story than we will ever understand but either way it doesn’t look good.

I am fairly certain I have fired someone over the phone in the past, just being honest. The point this week is for you to realize there’s a right and a wrong way to terminate a relationship with a member of your team. It’s not over the phone; it’s in person and it’s short and sweet and to the point.

Watch for a future webinar that I will host on hiring, firing, retaining, and training your team. In the meantime, read this story about the Yahoo! executive and try to treat your people, present and former members of your team, the way you would want yourself or one of your relatives treated!

Next week I’ll be making the announcement about the special speaker for GROW! 2012. The price will be going up after that announcement is made. You won’t want to miss this event. Sign up today!

We’re in the final stretch of the year…it’s the 4th quarter and, for many small businesses, your year still has a lot of opportunity left in it. My message this week is to remind you there is a lot of time left in 2011 and now is the time to keep your head down and stay focused on your work. Here are three things we should all be doing in the next few months. (I do know if we do NOTHING, we can expect NOTHING!)

• Making sure we contact all our best clients. Many times just checking in with them can lead to a sale. For landscapers this could mean asking if you could come by and walk their property with them. For retail operations it could mean making some phone calls and reminding your clients of some new products or offerings you now have. For professional speakers it could mean mailing some postcards or just calling every entity you’ve done business with in the last 5 years and ask them if you can help them with anything.
• Not losing sight of client satisfaction. In many ways, we are only as good as the last transaction we made. The best way to sell another job or get a new client is to treat the current one well. Happy clients will tell others…and so will unhappy clients. Furthermore, no matter what time of year, you should be focusing on making the client happy. Call your past clients and make sure they are still happy. Not many companies do this anymore; when you do, you impress and improve your chances for the next sale.
• Marketing. Don’t stop getting your name out there. There are many effective ways to get your name out there. Postcards, newsletters, signage on trucks and jobs and door hangers continue to pay dividends for me. And if I enter the product or service you offer and your city name in a search engine (i.e., Landscaping, Cleveland, Ohio) and your company website doesn’t come up on the first page, then you need to fix that.

It’s time to finish strong; keep your head down and work hard. Think about how you’ll feel at the end of the year knowing you did everything you could to try and finish on a “high note.”

Speaking of a “high note,” we have some incredible news to share with you soon on my annual GROW! event. I will be announcing it in the next 10 days. In the meantime, you’d better sign up now to save big bucks. Once I make the announcement, the price for GROW! will be going up $250, so act now and sign up.

PS – You have one last chance in the next couple of days to sign up for the Webinar with Joe Calloway for Ideas for Success-Minded Entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this session with Joe. Sign up now!