How can we be part of the problem? Did WE spill oil and contaminate the waters and ecosystem in the Gulf Region? Of course not….but we support the companies that did.  

Surely we cannot be aware of ALL of the places that BP sends fuel and power to. We may buy heating oil for our homes, or fuel for our cars and motor toys, or electricity from a local vendor and have no idea that BP or TransOcean was behind it in some fashion. The average person (and I put myself in that category) would have little or no way of knowing every transaction that BP is involved in. But folks, please…. There are BP gas stations all over the place with their signage prominently displayed. You can’t miss them. While enroute to a weekend activity, I drove past a BP gas station that had 4 fueling islands with 2 pumps at each island. ALL 8 WERE FUELING UP DRIVERS, AND THERE WAS A LINE WAITING AT EACH ISLAND!

If you want to teach BP a lesson, then simply drive to the next fueling station. One of the strongest votes you can cast, and the loudest scream you can muster is with your dollar. Where you spend your money speaks loudest about you and your views. If you knowingly support BP with your dollars, then you are condoning their actions. Please spare me the argument that the BP station is the ONLY place that you can get gas, and I f you don’t fuel up there, you’ll be stuck. For most of us, there is a station at every corner. A report on CNN yesterday said that BP has spent nearly $500,000,000 so far to cleanup this mess; and by the time they are done, it is estimated that they will spend $5B-$25B to clean up after themselves. Whose money are they REALLY spending? Yours and mine! Every time you fill up at a BP station, you created the demand, that lead to the drilling, which lead to the accident, which then funds the cleanup. You can stop the cycle by simply going to the next station. If you do that, it will send a shock wave in the oil industry that if you can’t manage your own affairs and keep the oil in the pipes, tankers, the trucks and safely into the gas tanks of cars without making a worse mess than my four-year old with a piece of melting chocolate in her hands, then you don’t deserve my business! 

Can you imagine if you did YOUR job that way? What do you think would happen to you? I heard a recent statistic that said that at the rate the oil is pouring out of the broken well head, it is the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez crashing EVERY 4 DAYS. It’s been over a month now folks, and the latest report says the well won’t be properly capped until (approximately) August.

Send BP the loudest and strongest message you possibly can by simply driving to the next filling station, and buy your gas there, even if it means waiting in line. Service stations measure their sales every day, and then compare them to the previous day’s sales as well as the ‘same day last year’ sales. It won’t take long before BP and the rest of the industry realizes that this practice is unacceptable. You are not in the milk business BP; you are in the oil business. You should be doing more that going onto CNN and crying… 

Carl L Gould is the president and Chief DISCoverY Officer CMT International, LLC (www.CMTmentors.com), the farthest-reaching business mentoring organization in the world. Carl’s unique approach to executive coaching, business mentoring and performance training helps his clients achieve results worldwide.  His new book, The 7 Stages of Small Business Success – From Startup to 7 Figures in Three Years or Less, will provide entrepreneurs and business owners a step-by-step formula to taking their businesses to the next level. www.The7StagesOfSmallBusinessSuccess.com

Hey Folks, 

I came across my answers to a print interview I gave regarding single vs. married business ownership. These are the complete answers. I thought you’d enjoy them… 

Q: As a small business owner, do you believe that either being married with children makes a difference in their success?

CLG – Yes, definitely.  Being married and having children in many ways has increased my chances of success. When I started my first business, I was single. I got the sense that customers felt that, as a single person, I wasn’t quite as rooted so therefore my business might not be stable or ‘in it for the long haul’. Once I got married, and then when I began having children I seemed to be more on par with my customers who were also mostly married with children.  I was able to increase my fee structure and command better terms and conditions with less negotiation of my prices. I think my customers had a perception of me of greater stability and so they thought my business was more stable and trustworthy also.  

Q: Family-men-or-women entrepreneurs, what are the biggest challenges & benefits of running a business, specifically related to being married with children?

A:Benefits:

1. Teaching entrepreneurship to your children. Since owning and running a business does spill into your personal life, it gives you a great opportunity to involve your family in the business.  They get to learn hands-on the art and science of entrepreneurship.

2. You build a legacy. Your children can follow in your footsteps in the business you are running now; or in a business they start for themselves.

3. You can foster and nurture the entrepreneurial spirit within your family. Whether or not anyone else in your family decides to start a business, the entrepreneurial spirit within them can still grow.  i.e. They may pursue a managerial position, they might travel the world, get involved in a charitable organization or get behind a cause. It gives them a chance to step up and make them a leader regardless of title.

4. My business allows flexibility in my schedule so that I can be present and participate in my children’s activities. If there is an activity during the day at school, I can, in most cases, arrange my schedule to be there.

5. Travel: My business takes me to places around the country and around the world and I get to bring my family with me. 

6. Exposure: Being in business exposes you to a variety of experiences and opportunities. Your family gets to choose which would be the right path for them.  

Challenges:

1. Managing time: The blessing and the curse of running a business is that I as the business owner create the structure of my time.  In a job your schedule and structure is given to you. One of the biggest challenges is maintaining discipline is to constantly and ruthlessly manage your time. Early in my career I lacked discipline and consistently and I, my business, and my family all suffered.  Now, I am very disciplined and ruthless with time management and, as a result, I, my business, and my family have all benefited.
2. Being present: It is easy to allow your personal life to spill into work and vice versa. When I am with my family it is important that I BE with my family and not thinking about work.  When I am at work, it’s important that I focus on the task at hand and not allow personal challenges to affect my work. I work hard at compartmentalizing my work and my personal life so that I can be as present as possible wherever I am at the time or whomever I am with; I make them feel most important by giving them my undivided attention.

Prioritizing:   As I am dictating these responses, Brigitte, my assistant is thinking “What is this guy kidding, he is horrible with time! We set appointments that he doesn’t make and his calendar changes hour by hour.” The reason for that is I am constantly prioritizing and reprioritizing my time so that I am making the highest and best use of my time at any given moment.   It is a delicate balance and I fall down sometimes, but I have to focus on, as Steven Covey would say, focus on the ‘Big Rocks’ constantly. Since I am responsible for business development in my company, I find myself in ‘Prioritization mode’ most of the time. 

Regards,

Carl Gould

Chief DISCoverY Officer

The Global Leader in Business Mentoring

Watch It Here: http://www.fox4morningblend.com/tabid/3530/story/42764/Default.aspx

Wealth building in your business takes many forms. Interesting ly enough, wealth building, debt reduction and weight loss also follow similar principles. In wealth building, you are seeking to generate more revenue to outpace your overheads. In wealth building, you may build equity in your assets (stock/mutual fund prices may rise, value of real estate increases, etc), you may increase your sales (either by acquiring more new customers or selling more products to existing customers). To reduce your debt, look to consolidate loans, refinance, negotiate lower interest rates or better payment terms. In other words, SPEND LESS, EARM MORE (or maintain sales). In w.eight loss, the principles are MOVE MORE AND CONSUME LESS. Very simple principles thatt require a lot of discipline.

I am seeing tremendous focus placed on the area of expense reduction. Businesses are looking into every area that they can reduce overheads. Look at the capacity you own versus its usage; and seek to reduce capacity as close to usage as possible. For example, do you reaaallllllly need all of the minutes on your mobile plan? Are you utilitzing all of the features in your insurance policy? Where in your business do you have excess capacity and where can you mke cuts? These decisions are not always comfortable and requires you to tighten the belt in some areas.

What do you do with the savings?

1. INVEST IN MARKETING!!! Generate new customers and communicate to your existing customers and offer them additional products and services.  

2. PAY DOWN BAD/REVOLVING DEBT. Take any saving s and immediately allocate it towards any revolviong debt that you can.

3. CREATE AN EMERGENCY FUND. Do you have 6 months operating expenses in reserve? Having cash on hand to either handle a crisis or take advantage of an opportunity will help you accelerate the results you are seeking.

Keep squeezing!

Carl Gould, Your Coach and Business Mentor

Did you catch Tiger’s apology? When under stress, people tend to go to their strengths. Well, Tiger has been known as a control freak, and he has shown it today. While the intent of his apology may have been sincere, the choreographed and emotionless apology became the story and not the apology itself.

From a body language perspective, Tiger displayed much of the signs of a lack of congruence (alignment of the words with the body language); swaying side to side, avoiding direct eye contact, looking right and downward often; and holding an eery, non-blinking stare at other times.

Too robotic for a man that is known for his passion and enthusiasm that has revolutionized golf and the the way that it is viewed. Now is a time for the vulnerability and the transparency that endeared us to him in the first place.

Carl Gould, Your coach and business mentor.

This is a commonly asked question. My company, CMT International has become the farthest-reaching business mentoring organization in the world.  I am an award-winning coach and entrepreneur. I founded CMT (Coaching-Mentoring -Training, and yes, I thought that one up all by myself…:) to combine the best of life coaching and business advisory.

     A coach is a facilitator that looks through a problem and addresses the psychology, or thought process, of the problem. The coach explores with the coachee the core issues and, through the increasing awareness gained by the coachee, designs a solution to the problem. The mentor is a subject-matter expert who guides the mentee through a process that they have already been through. The mentor sees the person in the problem and helps them navigate that minefield as they successfully navigated themself once before.

 When I created CMT Intenrational,  wanted to blend the best of life coaching and business advisory and that is how I arrived at a dynamic business mentoring model. Work/life balance is such a common challenge to business owners and professionals. Business owners and entrepreneurs know when they get something wrong. Mistakes are often met with immediate, and often negative, feedback. We don’t always know when we have gotten it RIGHT! How do you know you are on the right track? You’ll know when you are being coached by a someone who has significant experience and expertise. Success in life and business leaves a familiar trail; and when you have been down that path many times, it becomes easy to recognize.

     Working with a business mentor allows you to accelerate performance and success because you are working with someone who has been there, won that, lived to tell the tale, got the t-shirt, and now wants to help others do the same. To your success!

Carl Gould, Your Coach and Business Mentor

This statement seems to capture the attitude of the Olympic athlete. I have heard some version of this statement a number of times when an Olympian was interviewed and asked if they are satisfied with a non-medal result. The competitive spirit of these athletes will not allow them to settle for anything less than a medal; and for most of these athletes, the gold. What an inspiration to watch these athletes commit four years of 24/7 commitment to their sport. The amazing part for me is that the performance of their event is seconds to just a few minutes long – - – and then it is over. Hours of training per day for a chance at that moment of glory….Incredible! Yes, as you have guessed, I have been bitten by the Olympic bug and have been inspired by the hard work and dedication of the athletes.

Carl Gould. Your Coach and Business Mentor

This is a commonly asked question. My company, CMT International has become the farthest-reaching business mentoring organization in the world.  I am an award-winning coach and entrepreneur. I founded CMT (Coaching-Mentoring -Training, and yes, I thought that one up all by myself…:) to combine the best of life coaching and business advisory.

     A coach is a facilitator that looks through a problem and addresses the psychology, or thought process, of the problem. The coach explores with the coachee the core issues and, through the increasing awareness gained by the coachee, designs a solution to the problem. The mentor is a subject-matter expert who guides the mentee through a process that they have already been through. The mentor sees the person in the problem and helps them navigate that minefield as they successfully navigated themself once before.

 When I created CMT Intenrational,  wanted to blend the best of life coaching and business advisory and that is how I arrived at a dynamic business mentoring model. Work/life balance is such a common challenge to business owners and professionals. Business owners and entrepreneurs know when they get something wrong. Mistakes are often met with immediate, and often negative, feedback. We don’t always know when we have gotten it RIGHT! How do you know you are on the right track? You’ll know when you are being coached by a someone who has significant experience and expertise. Success in life and business leaves a familiar trail; and when you have been down that path many times, it becomes easy to recognize.

     Working with a business mentor allows you to accelerate performance and success because you are working with someone who has been there, won that, lived to tell the tale, got the t-shirt, and now wants to help others do the same. To your success!

Carl Gould, Your Coach and Business Mentor

This statement seems to capture the attitude of the Olympic athlete. I have heard some version of this statement a number of times when an Olympian was interviewed and asked if they are satisfied with a non-medal result. The competitive spirit of these athletes will not allow them to settle for anything less than a medal; and for most of these athletes, the gold. What an inspiration to watch these athletes commit four years of 24/7 commitment to their sport. The amazing part for me is that the performance of their event is seconds to just a few minutes long – - – and then it is over. Hours of training per day for a chance at that moment of glory….Incredible! Yes, as you have guessed, I have been bitten by the Olympic bug and have been inspired by the hard work and dedication of the athletes.

Single vs. Married Entrepreneurs: Who Has the Edge? – FoxSmallBusinessCenter.com