My name is Evan Carmichael and I believe that the fastest and most effective way to build a business is to model the strategies of people who have already done what you’re trying to do. I call it Modeling the Masters. My last post with over 30 comments was 3 Success Tips from Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines).

Today we're going to look at how a Vietnam veteran failed with two separate businesses but was determined to become a successful entrepreneur and not have to work for someone else. He would eventually become one of the most successful business writers of all time. This is the story of Rich Dad Poor Dad creator Robert Kiyosaki and the top 3 lessons that you can learn from his success.

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"The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way." - Robert Kiyosaki

Robert Kiyosaki (born April 8, 1947) is an American investor, businessman, self-help author, motivational speaker, and financial literacy activist best known for his "Rich Dad Poor Dad" book series. After serving in the Marine Corps as a helicopter gunship pilot during the Vietnam War, Kiyosaki returned home to work as a salesman for Xerox. Not wanting to work for someone else for the rest of his life, Kiyosaki had dreams of starting his own business.

After unsuccessful stints selling Velcro wallets and T-shirts for heavy metal rock bands, Kiyosaki began promoting the personal growth seminars of Marshall Thurber called "Money & You." When Thurber decided to retire, Kiyosaki took over the business and began traveling the world to educate people about financial strategies. To reach more people he decided to write his first book which he self-published, "Rich Dad Poor Dad."

Robert Kiyosaki has written over 15 books and has sold over 26 million copies. 3 of his books have been on the best sellers lists of The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the New York Times simultaneously and he's a sought after speaker who continues to educate people on how to understand their money.

Action Item #1: Make Your Money Work Hard

One bit of advice that has served me well with my business is: Don't spend money until you're making it. Anybody can spend money. If I gave you a million dollars today for your business I'm sure you could come up with a million different ways to spend it. But not everyone can make money. Bootstrapping should be your mantra. Find ways to get your product or service out without spending money. Get even just a few orders and prove that people will buy what you're selling. Then spend money on expanding your marketing. Your money will be well invested because you know you have something that works. Until you start making some sales, hustle and put your sweat into drumming up some business.

Kiyosaki believes that people go to school to learn how to work hard for money while he tries to teach people how to have money work hard for them. He believes that for many people, success is working hard to land a secure job at a big company or government who will look after you until you retire. That model might have worked in the Industrial Age but now in the Information Age, people have to look after their own financial security because you can no longer rely on your employer to take care of you. One of the best ways of doing this, he believes, is to create your own business and become your own boss.

According to Kiyosaki: "The poor and middle class work for money. The rich have money work for them. The rich buy or create assets that work for them so they don't have to... An asset puts money in your pocket and a liability takes money from your pocket. The rich understand the difference and buy assets, not liabilities. "

Action Item #2: Mind Your Own Business

As entrepreneurs we have to wear many hats. You're everything from the CEO to the janitor when you start a business. If you want to grow your business properly and have confidence in your decision making, you need to understand your numbers. Yes, it may be boring and outside your core competencies at the beginning but when you can understand your balance sheet, income statement, and the numbers that run your business you'll be in a much better position to drive your company forward. It could be one of the best investments that you make into yourself and your business.

If you want to achieve financial freedom, Kiyosaki believes that there are 3 key lessons that you need to master: learn how to make money, learn how to manage it, and learn how to invest it. He encourages people to keep their day jobs until they are earning enough money on the side from their own business or investments to be able to quit. Kiyosaki also believes that money is a "base subject" and that it's never too late to start learning.

According to Kiyosaki: "Many people confuse their profession with their business. To become financially secure people need to mind their own business. Your business revolves around your asset column, as opposed to your income column. The rich focus on their asset columns while the poor and middle class focus on their income columns.”

Action Item #3: Work to Learn, Not for Money

If you haven't started your business yet, a great piece of advice is to get a job where you can learn the skills that you need to succeed as an entrepreneur. Want to set up your own auto shop? Go work for small auto shop. Learn the ins and outs of how the business runs. Ask the business owner to get involved in other projects in addition to what you were hired to do. Work extra hours and on the weekends to over deliver and really understand how the business works. You'll first figure out if that industry is for you or not and you'll also make many of your rookie mistakes while still getting paid by someone else.

Kiyosaki credits much of his success as an entrepreneur to his military education. He learned how to lead men into battle, make important decisions quickly, and be tough. He translated those skills into hiring excellent workers and leading them into business battles. He also credits working for Xerox for teaching him how to sell and how to accept and move forward from rejection.

According to Kiyosaki: "Many entrepreneurs fail to grow because they lack leadership skills. And rather than look in the mirror, they find it easier to blame others. Blame is short for be-lame, and you can’t be an effective leader if you’re lame... Work to learn. Don’t work for money… Look for jobs that can help you develop the skills of managing cash flow, systems and people rather than just pay you well."

True Story

There was once a friend of Kiyosaki’s whose 16 year old son desperately wanted a new car. His friends had all been given one by their parents, and now this son expected nothing less. But, it was not going to be that easy for the boy. His father had played Kiyosaki’s CASHFLOW board game and he wanted to teach his son a lesson in financial management. The father gave his son $3,000 but forbade him from using it to buy a car just yet. At the same time, he gave his son a subscription to the Wall Street Journal. The father told his son that only once he had earned an additional $6,000 from investments could he then use $3,000 to buy a car. The rest of the money would of course go into his college fund. “My friend said it was the best $3,000 he ever spent,” says Kiyosaki. “Not only had his son gained a new respect for the power of money, he also learned to spend money wisely instead of letting money burn holes in his pockets.”

More Quotes

"Don’t work for money; make it work for you."

"Remember, your mind is your greatest asset, so be careful what you put into it."

" If you want to go somewhere, it is best to find someone who has already been there."

What Do You Think?

Did you bootstrap your business? Do you understand the numbers that run your company? What part of Robert Kiyosaki's message impacted you the most? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

Evan Carmichael

To learn more check out my list of Robert Kiyosaki articles or my website, EvanCarmichael.com.

TELUS Talks Business correspondent Julie Bishop recently interviewed Tony Lourakis, the CEO of Complete Innovations, a leading global provider of mission critical fleet, asset and mobile workforce management solutions. The Markham Ontario headquartered company continues to win awards year after year being recognized for its national growth with honours including a spot on IDC Canada’s “10 to Watch” list, being ranked as one of Canada’s fastest-growing companies by PROFIT 100 three years in a row, and being part of Deloitte’s Fast 500 List in 2010.

Last week, Tony discussed financing, building a customer base and the importance of customer feedback.  In this post, Tony looks to the future and talks to his goals for 2012.

What advice would you offer a start up based on your experience?

For a start up, one of the most important things is managing cash flow. Start ups need to move from a money burn situation to a money making situation as quickly as possible. Ensure you have a well thought out plan on how to do that, and identifies the tipping point and work backwards from there and make sure you execute on the plan.

So it’s getting to that financial stability as quickly as you can because, once you get there, it breeds more opportunity and success and it gives you the strength to do just so much more. That’s how you can really scale a business.

What would you say your greatest business success in 2011 has been?

Our greatest business success in 2011 has been launching our products with AT&T in the US in a similar way to how TELUS has been reselling our products for about five years now in Canada.

We launched in June of 2011 with AT&T. The launch was about three years in the making from quoting them initially, to getting our foot in the door, to working various levels of management, to being accepted and brought in.

The way AT&T operates is that they bring you in on kind of a tier initially where you’re not on their bill and they don’t resell your product.  It’s more of a co-sell type relation where you have to prove yourself. If the relationship is successful in this phase then they may start reselling your product.

Very few companies have achieved this point and doing so has been a big accomplishment for us. So 2012 for us is all about ramping up this opportunity to its full potential.

What are your other goals for 2012?

Some other key focuses are to stay focused on our partnership with TELUS in Canada and continue to grow that business. Our business with TELUS has been immensely successful for us and it still represents our biggest business. In fact, it has been a key driver in our success and growth.

Another important goal in 2012 is that we are working to launch our fourth generation product with Courier and Fleet Complete, which are going to be merged together into one platform. I think it’s going to be a game changer so we're looking over it to making that launch in 2012.

How do you keep your team motivated and focused on your business goals?

First off, we try to keep our goals very simple, something you can easily remember so when the teams come in everyday, they know exactly what they're working towards.

We have team goals or departmental goals and for instance, our Canadian sales team has a goal and it’s to hit a certain number of volume or subscribers we're adding for the year. Our customer service department has goals around key metrics like how fast we answer the call, how quickly close support tickets etc. Our R&D team has goals around product release timelines and quality levels.

Every week we measure our results against our targets on a week-to-week basis so we know in real time if we are trending on track, ahead or trending below our goals. And we do that with each department.

Our corporate goals are also simply stated. For instance, it might be as simple as to say here's our revenue goal for this year and here's our market goal in terms of market penetration or strategic thing that we want to do.

We remind people of these goals at every opportunity. We have a couple of company meetings a year, I do a video message every month to keep people up to date on how we're performing against these goals.

We also work to create that team feeling where we're out there competing and we want to win and we want to beat the competition much like a sports team.

And then we have other initiatives like, for example, we give back. Every year we donate some of our profits to charities. I think that helps the team see that the company isn’t just about growth earnings. Obviously there are bonuses tied to our business goals, but we're also doing something good for the community.

Is there any other advice you wanted to offer to SMBs looking to grow their  businesses?

The only other thing I would offer is to always be innovative.  I find some entrepreneurs get bored of their business sectors, as entrepreneurs by nature like creating and once something is running smoothly, they start to loose interest with it. I think that as the business leader you have the power and ability to innovate and transform it to expand into new markets and offerings and services and products.

So always be thinking about the possibilities of the future and innovation because there aren’t any limits. The opportunities are endless.

I had the distinct pleasure of chatting at a TELUS small business event in downtown Toronto last week, about some of the smartphone apps I use on a regular basis.

It wasn't tough to narrow my favourites down to a half-dozen downloads -- ones that focused on productivity and business -- but I also wanted to show some of the best free apps available (or close to it), as well as ones available for most smartphone platforms.

The following are a few recommendations to help you stay organized, productive and informed while on the go.

Dropbox

Create one central and secure place to hold all your "stuff" and access it all on multiple devices – this is the idea behind Dropbox (for BlackBerry, iOS and Android), the increasingly popular cloud solution to storing, accessing and sharing your digital life while on the go. Instead of emailing your info or media from one device to another, or physically copying it onto a disc or USB key, you can wirelessly upload or download your documents – and even stream music and movies right from Dropbox. Similarly, instead of clogging someone's inbox with a huge file, send them a link to access what they need. The basic (2GB) account is free, but you can upgrade to 50GB or 100GB for $9.99/month or $19.99/month, respectively.

Splashtop Remote Desktop

As the name suggests, the $0.99-cent Splashtop Remote -- for iOS, Android and BlackBerry PlayBook -- lets you log in to another computer wirelessly from your tablet to see and control the remote PC or Mac as if you were sitting in front of it. It's not the first solution to do this, mind you, but Splashtop does one better by letting you stream full-motion video and audio from your computer to the smartphone or tablets. Splashtop Remote also lets you access your desktop's Web browser to surf to sites with Flash -- something that's not as easy on the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.

Evernote

Ideal for on-the-go entrepreneurs or small business associates, the free Evernote (available on all major platforms) is a handy app for typing notes, sketching ideas (think restaurant napkin), copying URLs, pasting photos and recording audio on, say, a million dollar idea you want to archive on your smartphone. All notes automatically sync to the web/desktop version of Evernote, so it’s easy to access your information anywhere. Evernote can even take a picture of book or magazine text and convert it to text; this is a great way to save receipts and business cards and make it searchable by keyword.

Siri

The real reason to pick up an iPhone 4S, Siri is a built-in "personal assistant" app that lets you talk to your smartphone and you'll hear a female voice answer your questions or confirm she can perform the tasks you ask of her. For example, you can dictate email and texts to colleagues, ask Siri to check your calendar for appointments, create reminders and notes on the fly, check stock prices and market information, and help you get directions or find locations – such as restaurants, gas stations, hotels or bank machines – while traveling in the U.S. (this feature isn't supported in Canada just yet).

iTranslate

Available for iOS, Android and BlackBerry, the free iTranslate can help you translate words and phrases from more than 50 languages, and is capable of speaking languages to you in multiple languages so you can hear what the pronunciations sounds like. If desired, send your translations to an email address, mobile phone, memo pad or Twitter and Facebook. An optional in-app purchase lets you speak into the smartphone for a direct translation or engage in real-time text conversations with others and your English words and seen in the other person's native tongue.

Find my phone

Finally, it's critical to set up your phone for remote tracking or wiping, in case it's lost or stolen. Free examples include Find My iPhone (for iOS), BlackBerry Protect and Find my Droid (Android). These apps work in a similar way: track the smartphone's whereabouts via its GPS radio, send a note to its (such as "If you find this, all me at XXX") or sound a loud alarm (in case it's lost in the couch cushions) or remotely see the smartphone on a map; it's not recommended to try and recover a stolen device on your own – instead contact the authorities with the information. If you have critical information on the device you can also remotely wipe the data clean, which is always a good idea as a precautionary measure.

If last week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is any indication, "ultrabooks" are poised to be the hottest laptop category this year.

An "ultrabook" is a new category of incredibly thin and lightweight laptops – "ultraportable," if you will -- that also benefit from a powerful processor.

In other words, there's no trade-off between size and performance as there was just a couple of years ago with small but underpowered netbooks.

A term coined by Intel, "ultrabooks" not only have a fast processor to handle demanding tasks – such as video editing and smooth multitasking – but they also enjoy long battery life, too (once the Achilles' heel of laptops).

At CES, Intel announced more than 75 ultrabooks were it he works for 2012, most of which will house a Core i5 processor, capable of sipping rather than gulping electricity. Most offer at least 8 hours on a single charge.

Ultrabooks also benefit from Intel Rapid Start, a proprietary technology that uses flash memory embedded in the Intel chipset to improve boot-up times considerably.

Some believe the increasingly popularity of tablets had a direct influence on the creation of ultrabooks, as consumers wanted something thinner and lighter to tote around, with a high-powered but low-voltage processor. It would also be remiss not to draw comparisons to Apple's successful line of MacBook Air computers – ultrabooks might be considered a Windows-based version, but many PC makers are adding their own unique spin to the form factor.

At CES, HP unveiled the gorgeous glass-covered Envy 14 Spectre ultrabook with multiple wireless radios under the hood (launching next month), while Lenovo debuted its IdeaPad Yoga, a flexible ultrabook that can swivel into a tablet 9due out later in the year).

I mentioned there were no trade-offs between size and performance but be aware there might be something you're giving up with ultrabooks – and it might be an important consideration for businesses. Most ultrabooks use SSD (flash) memory instead of a HDD (hard drive), which means less storage for all your programs and files. But with "cloud computing" becoming a big trend, it may mean less locally-stored files anyway.

Therefore, if you enjoy carrying around many thousands of documents, presentations or media (photos, videos, etc.) you might opt for a laptop with a hard drive instead.

Lightweight SSD-based computers also contribute to the fast boot-up times and zippy performance, not to mention the lack of rotating magnetic disks means it also helps extend battery life and makes the PC more durable, too.

Also be aware most ultrabooks do not have an optical drive, so you can't run software on a CD-ROM or burn a DVD – unless you opt for an external optical drive that plugs into the ultrabook's USB port. Personally, I haven't used my DVD burner in my laptop in nearly three years, so I wouldn't miss it.

As you might expect, prices for ultrabooks are higher than standard laptops –something budget-conscious businesses must keep in mind, especially if they're handing them to multiple employees -- but prices will inevitably come down over time.

You don't often see the words "free" and "Microsoft Office" in the same sentence – especially when it comes to iPad apps that let you access your Word, Excel and PowerPoint files on the go – but a new download called CloudOn does let you create, view, and edit Microsoft Office files directly on your tablet.

Before we get into the details, there are a couple of catches. You need a Dropbox account to store and access your files, but at least you can sign up for free. And if the name of the app didn't give it away, CloudOn requires an Internet connection to use, as all your files are stored online via Dropbox. Even though you can open an email attachment on your iPad though CloudOn, you still need an Internet connection to perform the task.

If you can get past these conditions, CloudOn can be a handy productivity tool.

I tested the app by first uploading a bunch of Microsoft Word and Excel files on my PC, and then launching the app on the iPad. You're first prompted to type in your Dropbox login information (including password) before you see your files. You can select to log you on automatically going forward or you can be prompted to enter the password each time.

Now you can tap on the file you'd like to open, such as abc.docx, and you'll see it full screen in landscape view. All of the Office options, tabs and pull-down menus at the top of the screen will be familiar to you. But once you launch the keyboard to edit the document, be aware it takes up a lot of the screen real estate -- too bad you can't view or edit files in portrait view. I tried to open a PDF document but it wasn't supported, nor can you access other types of files, such as music, photos or videos.

You can also create Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files on your iPad, which are then saved to your Dropbox account to be accessed later on (even on multiple devices, if desired). It's also possible to rename and delete documents from within Dropbox; spell check, track changes and insert comments; and view and edit animation and transition sequences in your PowerPoint presentations.

Despite its limitations, CloudOn is a completely free way to give you Microsoft Office to go on your iPad, whether you're on Wi-Fi or 3G. While not perfect, it's hard to argue with a free solution that lets you access, manage, edit and create Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.

My name is Evan Carmichael and I believe that the fastest and most effective way to build a business is to model the strategies of people who have already done what you’re trying to do. I call it Modeling the Masters. My last post with over 50 comments was 60 Inspirational Quotes for 2012.

Today we're going to look at how a mother of two was forced to start a business when her husband left her to travel the Americas. Having no formal training, her survival instinct kicked in and she built one of the most trusted brands in the world. This is the story of the Body Shop's Anita Roddick and the top 3 lessons that you can learn from her success.

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"Whatever you do, be different... If you're different, you will stand out." - Anita Roddick

Anita Roddick (born Anita Perella, 23 October 1942 – 10 September 2007) was a British businesswoman, human rights activist and environmental campaigner, best known as the founder of The Body Shop, a cosmetics company producing and retailing beauty products that shaped ethical consumerism. She was born into a hard-working immigrant family and her mother ran a successful cafe which kept the young Roddick occupied for most of her childhood. In addition to a strong work ethic, her mother also taught her the concept of recycling and how valuable it could be for businesses. After graduating school she took a trip around the world and eventually wound up in Johannesburg, South Africa where she disobeyed the laws of apartheid by attending a jazz club on ‘black night’ and was sent back to England. Upon arriving back home she met Gordon Roddick and felt she had an "instant bond" with him. The two married and opened up a restaurant and hotel together.

After three years of running the two businesses, Gordon decided that he wanted to fulfill his life-long dream of riding a horse from Buenos Aires, Argentina to New York City. They sold the restaurant business and Anita stayed home with their two children. While Gordon was away on his adventure she decided to create her own cosmetics store that would sell natural and environmentally conscious products. She started off selling 15 cosmetic products that she made in her garage and packaged in recycled bottles to reduce the cost. She soon opened a second location and by the time her husband had returned from his trip, people were already asking about franchising rights.

By 2004 the Body Shop had almost 2,000 stores and served over 77 million customers around the world. It was also considered one of the most trusted brands in the world. On March 17, 2006, L'Oréal bought the Body Shop for £652 million ($973 million). With the sale Roddick became more involved in charity work and began giving away her money to causes she believed in. When she died in 2007 she left her estate to charities.

Action Item #1: Get Past Survival

We all have big dreams for what we want ourselves and our companies to become but in order to make those dreams a reality you need to first get past the survival point with your business. You need to know that your company will be able to give you enough money to put food on the table and pay your bills. This is one of the most important first steps you need to accomplish as you start your business. Once you have enough money coming in you can focus on shooting for your bigger goals.

When Anita Roddick first started the Body Shop it wasn't because she wanted to create social and environmental change. With her husband gone she had to find a way to make money to support herself and her two children. The main reason behind opening the Body Shop was so that her family could survive. As an example, she couldn't afford more than 700 empty bottles so she took the unusual step of offering five sizes of every product. Even though she had very few products initially, when you entered her 370 square foot store it would give the illusion that she carried over 120 products.

According to Roddick: "Nobody was stupid enough to offer five sizes of one product; it simply didn’t make sense. We turned it around into a survivor’s option: customers pick up the size they want and come back every week for a refill. Recycling had nothing to do with being environmentally conscious at that point... My goal was livelihood... At the forefront of my mind at the time there was really only one thought – survival... I started the Body Shop in 1976 simply to create a livelihood for myself and my two daughters, while my husband, Gordon, was trekking across the Americas. I had no training or experience and my only business acumen was Gordon’s advice to take sales of £300 a week. Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that's exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking."

Action Item #2: Use Your Business to Do Good

The most successful businesses seem to be the ones who don't just focus on making money but instead try to be a force for good in their industry. Entrepreneurs are also now leading the way to help others beyond their customers - they are using their companies to support the communities around them and give back - not just because they can but because it also makes good business sense.

Anita Roddick's social and ecological conscience initially stemmed from a lack of money. She had to recycle bottles because she couldn't afford to buy new ones. The store was painted green because she wanted to hide the damp stains on the walls. However, as the Body Shop grew to become a powerful player in the cosmetics business, Roddick began to use her newfound influence to try to have a positive impact on the world around her.

According to Roddick: "I hate the beauty business. It is a monster industry selling unattainable dreams. It lies. It cheats. It exploits women. I want to work for a company that contributes to and is part of the community. I want something not just to invest in. I want something to believe in... If I can’t do something for the public good, what the hell am I doing?”

Action Item #3: Learn by Doing

It's hard to learn how to be an entrepreneur from a book. You can read to get inspired or to get new ideas but nothing is really going to happen until you start to apply those ideas into your business. You can use books and courses to supplement your knowledge and give you guidance but you have to actually apply what you're learning if you really want to understand and retain the information.

Anita Roddick never learned about being an entrepreneur at school. Instead she learned from her mother who she saw worked tirelessly to make her cafe successful. While other cafes kept regular 9 to 5 hours, her mother opened at dawn for the local fishermen and didn't close until the last customer had left. Roddick had never read a book on economic theory in her life and while her naysayers believed this would be her downfall, Roddick saw it as one of her competitive advantages.

According to Roddick: "I often get asked to talk about entrepreneurship – even by hallowed institutions like Harvard and Stanford – but I’m not all convinced it is a subject you can teach. How do you teach obsession, because more often than not it’s obsessions that drives an entrepreneur’s vision? Why would you march to a different drumbeat if you are instinctively part of the crowd?... They will not teach you the most crucial thing of all: how to be an entrepreneur. They might also sap what entrepreneurial flair you have as they force you into the template called an MBA... If I had learned more about business ahead of time, I would have been shaped into believing that it was only about finances and quality management...by not knowing any of that, I had an amazing freedom... Potential entrepreneurs are outsiders. They are people who imagine things as they might be, not as they are, and have the drive to change the world around them. Those are skills that business schools do not teach."

True Story

Anita Roddick's first location was next to a funeral parlor, giving a whole new meaning to the Body Shop name. When she began franchising she had little experience and decided not to charge startup or royalty fees. However, before she would accept franchisees, they would have to interview with her. Roddick asked off the wall questions like "What is your favourite flower?" and "How would you like to die?" to get to know her candidates on a more personal level.

More Quotes

"Crazy people see and feel things that others don’t. But you have to believe that everything is possible. If you believe it, those around you will believe it too."

"To succeed you have to believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a reality."

"If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito."

What Do You Think?

How did you get past the survival stage with your company? Do you think entrepreneurship can be taught? What part of Anita Roddick's message impacted you the most? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

Evan Carmichael

To learn more check out my list of Anita Roddick articles or my website, EvanCarmichael.com.

As we continue to look back at the top biz tech trends in 2011, here we reexamine the growing role of video for your business -- for both B2C and B2B initiatives -- and how it relates to mobility, social media, telecommuting and SEO strategy, among other current trends. This post was originally published in the spring of 2011 here at Telus' Talking Business blog.

It could be argued video has become an incredibly important tool for your growing small-to-midsized business, whether it's providing streaming video for websites and social networks or using live video for real-time conferencing and collaboration between remote employees.

And as more of your customers rely on wireless devices like smartphones and tablets, video is no longer limited to computers, either.

"Video is indeed becoming more pervasive in the enterprise," says Phil Karcher, a researcher at Forrester Research. "Tools like online video platforms make it easy for marketers to embed video on their websites and syndicate content to their YouTube and Facebook pages."

However, there are a few challenges in keeping up with the Joneses -- from taxing network resources to privacy and security concerns. Is video really worth it for your business? Consider the following:

The value of video

Even though it takes some planning and careful execution, Forrester Research says your business can't afford not to embrace online video. Why, you ask? Video is 53 times more likely to appear on the first page of search results than text-related pages on the same topic.

Unlike television, radio and newspapers, online video also lives forever, is forever searchable and helps create a personal connection with the viewer, as it can generate discussion and debate between commenters. As opposed to other media, Internet video can also be viewed whenever, wherever -- whether the viewer uses a computer, a smartphone, a tablet, a portable media player or an Internet-connected television.

Video conference for productivity

Companies are also recognizing the added value of video conferencing, says John Bartlett, principal of NetForecast, a consulting firm that benchmarks, analyzes and helps improve performance of networked data, voice and video apps. "It's a better way to establish and enhance a relationship," says Bartlett. "Video enables the ability to read body language when communicating with a client and provides a more efficient way to collaborate with colleagues."

However, video conferencing presents a bigger issue for your network, says Karcher. "The major gating factor is the network's ability to handle two-way video, which is more sensitive than one-way streaming video," explains Karcher. "Desktop videoconferencing puts a lot of pressure on the network backbone, therefore companies that add more video to the network need to think about tools to manage bandwidth and assure reliable performance."

Choosing a network for your video needs

Depending on your company's needs, size and budget, you'll have to decide if a regular Ethernet connection can handle everything, or if you should invest in a dedicated enterprise-grade pipe to handle your business's video and other applications.

"Companies need to understand the impact on the network," explains Bartlett. "If Skype is acceptable to you, then your regular broadband connection might be fine. But an enterprise network, while more expensive, will give you more bandwidth and better-quality video".

Privacy and security concerns for video

Don't embrace video without a security strategy in place, cautions Bartlett. You'll need a secure firewall, and you must "consider tools or services for encrypting video calls so the man in the middle can't listen in," he says.

"You need to think of how it affects content management, compliance and security -- and you will need tools to search, secure, track and report on video too," adds Bartlett.

Readers, what's your take on this? Can you talk from experience and tell us how video has helped (or hindered) your business? Does it give you an edge over the competition? Any tips on reducing costs yet still maximizing video technology? Let us know what you think. If you like, follow me on Twitter: @marc_saltzman

My name is Evan Carmichael and I believe that the fastest and most effective way to build a business is to model the strategies of people who have already done what you’re trying to do. I call it Modeling the Masters. My last post with over 35 comments was 3 Success Tips from Ted Turner.

Today we're going to look at how a young man who had never written an advertisement in his life started an advertising agency with only $6,000 to his name and went on to become one of the most sought after marketers in the world. This is the story of advertising legend David Ogilvy and the top 3 lessons that you can learn from his success.

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"Don't bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of immortals." - David Ogilvy

David Ogilvy (June 23, 1911–July 21, 1999) was the founder of Ogilvy & Mather and is known as the "Father of Advertising."  He took the long road to success working as a hotel chef, a British Intelligence officer, and a traveling salesman selling kitchen stoves door to door. He had success in sales and thought he could help other companies improve their marketing efforts so he started his own advertising agency in 1949. He was 38 years old, had never written an advertisement in his life and only had $6,000 to his name, but he had a big dream and wanted to see it through.

Attracting clients was a challenge in the beginning but he focused on getting results for his clients and he firmly believed that the best way to get new clients was to do outstanding work for his existing clients. The few clients he was able to get loved his approach. They rewarded him with larger budgets and referrals to other potential accounts. After building up his business in New York he decided to merge with the London based  agency Mather & Crowther in 1965. It gave his firm an international reach and the next year Ogilvy & Mather was the one of the first advertising agencies to go public.

His company was acquired in 1989 for $864 million after Ogilvy built up a reputation for being "the most sought-after wizard in the advertising industry" according to TIME magazine. He was elected to the U.S. Advertising Hall of Fame in 1977and was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame. His legacy continues to leave a mark on everyone in the advertising world and his story provides lessons in marketing that we can all learn from.

Action Item #1: Get Your Clients Results

Do you want more referrals for your business? Blow your current clients away with how great a job you do! Don't just exceed expectations. Go way above and beyond. Your customers are busy people. If you want them to talk about you then you need to give them a reason to. Referred clients spend more, buy more often, have a shorter sales cycle, and are way easier to work with. Referrals are the best way to attract more ideal clients so start offering so much extra value into what you do that they can't help but talk to everyone they know about you.

Ogilvy made getting results for his clients his firm's top priority. He realized that if he didn't deliver then he wouldn't get repeat business or client referrals. He didn't want ads that were too creative that people couldn't understand. He also didn't want well written ads that were boring and weren't going to be read. He focused instead on creating ads that would bring in dollars for his clients which is what he believed he was hired to do for his clients. When he believed that too many awards were being handed out in his industry for creativity, he created his own David Ogilvy Award to recognize the campaign that did the most to improve a client's sales or reputation. The award let everyone at his company know that they should focus primarily on making the cash register ring and not being the most creative.

According to Ogilvy: "In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. We sell – or else. The recommendations we make should be the recommendations we would make if we owned their companies, without regard to our own short-term interest. This earns their respect, which is the greatest asset we can have. We exist to build the business of our clients.”

Action Item #2: Test, Test, Test

What you start off with is never what you end up with. Your products and services change, your marketing changes, and your business plan changes. The only way to figure out if something is going to work or not is to test. Don't wait until you have the perfect idea or perfect plan because they don't exist. Start sooner, get feedback from potential customers, and make changes and continue to test, test, test until you start getting the results that you're looking for.

Ogilvy liked to create campaigns that had a "big idea" attached to them. If you don't promote your business with a big idea then people will largely ignore you. He realized that in order for your big idea to work, you have to test it. Ogilvy believed in the importance of research so much that when he opened his company his official title was "Research Director."  He tested everything about his campaigns until he honed in on the concepts that delivered the best results.

According to Ogilvy: “You aren’t advertising to a standing army; you are advertising to a moving parade. The most important word in the vocabulary of advertising is TEST. Test your promise. Test your media. Test your headlines and your illustrations. Test the size of your advertisements. Test your frequency. Test your level of expenditure. Test your commercials. Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving. If you pretest your product with consumers, and pretest your advertising, you will do well in the marketplace."

Action Item #3: Hire Great People

Read almost any famous entrepreneur profile and you'll see that hiring great people was one of the core strategies that helped propel their success. You need to figure out what you're really good at and where you add the most value to your business. Then hire amazing people to do everything else. Hire people who believe in what you're doing and who love doing the tasks that you need them to do so you can focus on building your business.

Ogilvy understood how important it is to have a great team of people working with you. He therefore spent a great deal of effort making sure they were given challenging opportunities, recognition for achievement, and as much responsibility as they could handle. He invested into hiring, training, and gave them impendence and flexibility. If an employee was battling a personal problem like illness or alcohol abuse, the company would make every effort to help them. In return, however, Ogilvy demanded the most from his people and had exceedingly high expectations of them.

According to Ogilvy: “If we hire people who are smaller than we are, we will become a company of dwarfs. If we hire people who are larger than we are, we’ll become a company of giants. Some of our people spend their entire working lives in Ogilvy & Mather. We try to make it a stimulating and happy experience. We put this first. We see no conflict between adherence to high professional standards in our work and human kindness in our dealings with each other. We treat our people as human beings. I believe in the Scottish proverb: ‘Hard work never killed a man.’ Men die of boredom, psychological conflict and disease. They do not die of hard work. Set exorbitant standards, and give your people hell when they don't live up to them. There is nothing so demoralizing as a boss who tolerates second rate work.”

True Story

In his ads, Ogilvy would often make the company logo twice the size – “a good thing to do because most advertisements are deficient in brand identification.” He would also show his client’s faces “because the public is more interested in personalities than in corporations.” Other Ogilvy techniques included studying and imitating graphics used by editors, since “it has been found that the less an advertisement looks like an advertisement, and the more it looks like an editorial, the more readers stop, look and read.” He would place photographs at the top of his ads, given that “people have a habit of scanning downwards,” and also learned that there is little value in saying something without illustrating it because “the viewer immediately forgets it.”

More Quotes

"The most important decision is how to position your product."

"The psychiatrists say that everybody should have a hobby. The hobby I recommend is advertising."

"Raise your sights! Blaze new trails!! Compete with the immortals!!!"

What Do You Think?

What do you do to get results for your clients? How do you test your marketing concepts? What part of David Ogilvy's message impacted you the most? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

Evan Carmichael

To learn more check out my list of David Ogilvy articles or my website, EvanCarmichael.com.