First Word

Well, it’s true! I survived my 50 th birthday. Here is a tidbit of trivia for you. Did you know that 3L Publishing turned 10-years old at the same time I turned 50? Yes, I’ve now been in business 10 years. I’ve learned a lot about entrepreneurship in those years. I’ve enjoyed some great successes, some abysmal failures, and some important lessons. So in honor of what I’ve learned and to impart this “amazing” wisdom LOL, here is the “Top 10 Things I Learned in 10 Years”. 1.      Whether in business or your personal life, always trust your gut . It never fails you. Now if you ignore your gut then you have to take responsibility for it, too. I’ve ignored my gut a couple of times and regretted it later. 2.      Try and keep your cash flow in real-time . Once you get in the arrears on your cash flow it’s very, very difficult to bring it back current. So as money comes in try and keep your bills and payments current. 3. ...

Hello First Word Friend-Os! We are on the "eve" of New Year's Eve. Can you believe another year has passed? I'm not sure if time is speeding up or slowing down. At the end of the year I always like to do a roundup of things that have happened that amuse me. This year though I think I'm going to end the year by helping you get prepared to conquer 2016 Friend-O style.   Here are some tips and tricks to get your new year off to an effective start. Since my newsletter readership is a mix of authors and business people, these tips apply to your business and your efforts to promote and help your book succeed in a competitive marketplace.   Strategic planning - time to do what most executives and managers do, which is plan for the New Year. Most managers though will do the strategic plan and start the year off with gusto and quickly abandon the document in favor of "wing-it" management. The idea of planning is to plan and execute not fa...

I'm starting a daily blog written exclusively to help business leaders and owners learn more about marketing and public relations tips to grow business. Q: Do you know what your media kit should contain? A: A press release That sound basic enough. Yet many professionals don't know what should be in a media kit. A press release is the most obvious answer, but not everyone knows what a media kit is or what it's for much less what it should contain. A press release is written to give your service, product or business exposure to the media. What does the media want to see? Most media is for entertainment or news. Whether it's broadcast, print or online, every press release should have a "news hook" and the news hook should relate to the headlines of the day or be relevant to something going on in the world. For more information, contact us at 916-300-8012 or send email to info@3LPublishing.com.

I think I learn something new about business almost every day. As CEO of 3L Publishing ( www.3LPublishing.com ), I started this company with a crumb and a bread box (just kidding ... but close). Here are some of my lessons that might help others. Expensive Education -- Distribution If I were to tell you that at one point I actually paid a distributor to sell my books that never paid a thin dime, would you believe me? If I were to tell you I paid that distributor over $10,000 would you believe me? And received no money in return. Well, believe me . The book distribution business is hinky and borderline fraudulent. Bigger publishing houses might suffer through their loop holes, hidden costs, and funky billing, but boutiques like ours cannot afford those practices. To make matters worse our clients' attitudes at that time did nothing to save it. We had to buy returns one time, and the client had the nerve to say, "It feels good to sell books." Well, needless to say those ...

Do you want to build readership for your blog? Are you a non-writer but you want to hire a writer? Are you thinking, "I could pay to have it done a couple of times a week..." Most clients don't want to pay a writer to blog more than a couple of times a week. Understandable given the expense. Blog writers are paid per hour. The obvious value in blogging isn't easily put into a results measurement either. The number one question is almost always, "How do I know if it's working?" So let's walk through some of these points. How often should you really blog to be build effective readership ? This answer may not be the one you want to hear: every day. You have the minimum which I say is 2-3 times a week. Then you have the favorable maximum, which is daily (sometimes including weekends). Two to three times a week builds audience but it becomes more sporadic than consistent. You'll see in the statistics spikes in readership that coincide with articles ...

People always ask me how I get so much accomplished in a day. I have a very specific routine. Yes, it's boring and regimented but it works. One of the first steps you can take in any routine and to start any work day is to get organized. I call this the "first-things-first" model. Of course in my office that requires a cup of coffee ;) first; but the first step to any day is to get organized. Step no. #1 always involves getting the information downloaded for each of the projects from my email. Each client's email (if it contains documents) gets filed in the proper folder -- that way nothing gets forgotten or downloaded in some forgotten segment of the computer. I can't say what your first steps should be, but I always advise entrepreneurs and the self-employed to get a system of organization in place and work it. Routines might take some spontaneity out of the day, but they guarantee your step no. #2 happens, too: make goals. Routines and goals set the pace for th...

As a business owner (I'm CEO of 3L Publishing, www.3LPublishing.com ), we all want to succeed. No one does anything unless, of course they're a little nutty to fail. We all want to succeed and flourish. In my road to entrepreneurship, I've learned a lot. I've had many ups and downs. I've made a lot of money. I've made less money. And I need to make more money. If you're thinking of starting a business or you're wondering how you could improve business, here are three critical things I've learned about succeeding in business. Tip #1: Surround yourself with people who are more talented than you are . What? Yes, if you want to look even better, make sure your team are truly talented. Those who are smarter, more talented, and skilled will shine a better light on you, and they will help you succeed. It's foolish to surround yourself with people with less talent out of insecurity or any other emotional neurosis surrounding your ego. Having an incredi...

Sitting here thinking, "What am I going to blog about this morning?" Hmm ... not sure what to talk about. I try to keep my morning routine and blog each day about the same time of day. I get asked all of the time how I can be such a workhorse? The key, in my opinion, is routine. I have set amounts of time in which I have specific activities. I typically blog and handle social media in the mornings when I feel fresh and ready to dump my thoughts onto the page. (You see the strategy to get moving is to just start typing and see where your fingers go all on their own.) I have friends who are self-professed "fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants" workers. They live in the moment. And, in part, there is something to be said about "flying high," but in order to get a lot done in an orderly fashion, you've "got to pin those pants to a clothes line" LOL. I think spontaneity in my personal life is fun and a little insane at times; but when it comes to runnin...

I've made great discoveries in life about human behavior while out networking. Do you want to hear my infinite wisdom and completely unimportant thoughts this morning? Okay, here it goes. Here are things I learned about human nature from observing various "tribal" behaviors while out networking: People don't listen . Yes, it appears that no matter how you spell some things out, some people have so much wax build-up in their ears, they don't understand a thing you've said. I swear some people you can repeat what you've said two dozen times -- and they still scratch their heads in complete confusion, because they weren't listening. Want to know what they were doing instead? Let me tell. They were either a. planning out what they wanted to say no matter what you said or b. trying to think of something clever to say that would make a wonderful argument to what you just said. Or more importantly when networking, they're only concerned if they can sell...

Up early and ready to what on a Sunday? Work! Yep, I got behind when I went back up to Northern California to do some networking. So now I have to get a few projects back on track. I've also found myself easily distracted ... oh, look it's Facebook ... oh look my favorite person texted me ... oh I have to email that one! The distractions abound just sitting at my desk. I used to be better at managing the distractions, but lately not so much. Now let's not get too distracted writing this, too.  Now surely I must have something more meaningful to say to help improve your business, right? OK, fine I will try and get serious ... sort of ... or not. No, no, no! I'm going to get serious (five seconds worth). Here are three mission-critical things you should be doing if you're in business: Thoughtful Relationship Building . When I say thoughtful, I mean not going out and networking with the sole purpose of just meeting someone and setting up a business coffee-break mom...