I subscribe to Jeffrey Gitomer’s weekly newsletter, Sales Caffeine. Today’s article was part two of “How to Become a Power Influencer.” His timely article gives some nice tips to hone your influencing skills. As any business owner knows, real and sustainable sales come from building relationships. You have to become the person that customers count on to get things done. You need to be able to influence their decisions- not just about your service but in other ways as well.

In a nutshell, here are his tips:

• Read a wide range of books.
• Write articles and maybe even a book.
• Drive sales with extraordinary service.
• Gain trust by performing consistently.
• Tell the truth.
• Always complete your jobs.
• Be trustworthy.
• Think long-term.
• Don’t be greedy.

You can read the entire article, including part 1 here. The reason I like part two so well is because they are things you can actually do, not just traits you are born with. Another reason I like part two is because all the tips require long term commitment, patience, and perseverance. They don’t sound easy, but deep down you know that if you were able to do all these things, your power to influence would increase dramatically.

If you keep up with the local news, then I am sure you have seen this story:

Bookkeeper Accused Of Stealing Nearly $400,000 From Employer

A bookkeeper for a local company is accused of stealing money by paying her own credit cards with company funds. I’m sorry to say it, but it reminds me of the movie Matchstick Men with Nicholas Cage. The conman’s famous saying is “I didn’t steal it, you gave it to me!” In order for her to steal that kind of money over four years, she had to go virtually unchecked the entire time. All the money was put right in her hands with no accountability!

After waiting about 20 days our sites finally got approved for Woopra beta.  For those of you that don’t know what Woopra is, according to their website:

“Woopra is the world’s most comprehensive, information rich, easy to use, real-time Web tracking and analysis application. And it’s free!”

At this point, most small businesses that care about the statistics for their websites are using Google Analytics.  Google Analytics is a great tool; I have been using it since our sites were launched.  Woopra is better.

I generally try to blog about twice a week. As some of you may have noticed, I haven’t been blogging nearly as much lately. This blog entry will serve as both an excuse and resolve to get more organized.

About a month ago, my 4-year-old son, Ethan, had surgery to correct a Chiari malformation. Since the surgery, life has been a blur as we struggle to get Ethan back to his old self. Several *minor* complications have caused Ethan to be put on steroids and other medications. My once off the charts small boy has gained 11lbs and grown 2 inches. Much of his time these days is spent eating, sleeping, and talking about eating.

I usually like to talk tech in my blog entries, but today I’m digressing a bit in the interest of health.  I was in the middle of a four mile run the other day when I realized just how out of shape I am - a real desk potato.  A year ago I was running more than 20 miles a week without a problem.  I took a bit of time off after getting very busy, and now I can’t even run four miles without cringing and gasping.  This got me thinking about fitness and the entrepreneur, or even the busy office worker.  We get so busy trying to market, grow, and operate our business that we start to neglect our own bodies.  This is a recipe for disaster.

It’s a pretty easy concept to understand that the healthier you are, the better and longer life you are likely to live.  So we owe it to ourselves, our families, our employees, our customers, and our businesses to be and stay healthy.  Healthy living is really quite relative, but entails watching the input and output of your body.  Input being everything your body takes in (food, air, absorption), and output being the energy your body uses.  My focus for this blog is the output item called fitness, as this takes the most time.  The big question is: how can you jam fitness into an already overloaded day?  The answer is simple: you must make time!

“What’s the difference?” is what consumers are asking themselves when preparing to make a purchase. This product is known for quality, this product does more, this product has a better warranty, and, lastly, this one is cheaper. These are all potential answers your would-be customers are giving themselves as they wade through the features and benefits of the competition. Many small business owners find it difficult to compete in any of the categories except price. By offering the lowest price, you can rest assured that you will at least grab some of the market and you might even be able to survive.

Have you ever been to a Cold Stone Creamery? If not, set aside some time and check it out - there’s one in the Old Port. They have delicious ice cream, and it’s a fun, entertaining experience. Employees seem eager to serve you, and they are fun and interactive. The ice cream is top notch, and they mix it with any candy or sauce you want. I’m something of an ice cream connoisseur, and I think 5 bucks for a dish of ice cream is worth it.

Have you ever been to Marble Slab Creamery? Didn’t think so. There aren’t any around in Maine. They offer essentially the same product as Cold Stone- top grade ice cream mixed with goodies in front of the customer on a cold marble slab. While still expensive, Marble Slab charges 10-20% less than Cold Stone.

If you own your own business and have a little success, at some point you will be looking for an employee. Employees of small businesses tend to be a little different from employees of large firms. For instance, instead of looking for someone who is the best at one particular thing, you may be looking for someone versatile enough to wear several different hats. You definitely need help for at least 40 hours a week, but sometimes that 40 hours comes from several different places.

Finding the right person can help take your business to the next level. This person could become your right hand, and you could eventually trust them with running the entire business. Finding the wrong person, conversely, is a complete and utter disaster. You have wasted valuable time and resources hiring and training this person, only to find out they aren’t really as capable as you thought.  Is there one magic question or task you can require of a prospective employee to uncover their value?

This morning Carl “tweeted” a link to a Wall Street Journal Article about CEO’s dressing casual. Its a good read, and its right up my alley. I hate wearing suits and ties.

Favorite quote of the article: “A suit has become something you wear when you’re asking for money.”

The article includes a video:

To me this is about more than just dressing in something that fits your industry. When you create a company of your own, it is up to you to fully develop your brand. A sign, logo, website, and letterhead is just the beginning. Everything, including what you wear and what kind of furniture you have in your office, is part of your brand.

Mike has been blogging of late about Seth Godin’s new book and the associated social network, Triiibes.com. A little bit of browsing and you’ll notice that Seth’s “tribe” is used Ning to create this social network. That got me thinking…is this the next step in the evolution of social networking?

By “this”, I mean people and companies creating their own fully developed social networks. There are more ways than just Ning to do this. You can create a network using tools like vibEngine and PeopleAggregator. Or you can do it totally on your own using an OpenSource tool called AROUNDMe. After looking at each of these tools, it seems to me that Ning is both the most popular and the easiest - so I decided to experiment.