Congrats Marty! RT@Rieva @MartyHeebner: Rebagz receives "Small Business of the Year" from California Senator Carol Liu: http://bit.ly/H0r1G

"Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust." -Zig Zigler

LOL! RT @sandygrason: BITCH: "Babe In Total Control of HerSelf" LOL via @BarbaraStanny

Breath

My dad just sent me this text: have U taken a deep breath 2 day? love U.

He is so cool! Mom too. They watched the Dr. Oz Show about stress and how it really effects women in their 40's (bad stuff- yikes) and Dr. Oz suggests that deep breathing is a simple way to relax and center your whole body. My cute dad was just reminding me that selling businesses, consulting, writing a book, mommying 3 kids and wifing 1 husband is A LOT so don't forget to BREATH!!

Plus, I just love the fact that at 70 years young he texts!! Rock on dad!

Julie Gordon White, Broker BlueKey Business Brokerage 510.812.2233 cell
www.bluekeybma.com www.pinkbizbroker.blogspot.com

RT@Intuit: @quickbooks: QuickBooks 2010 is here! QuickBooks Sr. Product Mgr @ljmesser provides an overview of what's new http://bit.ly/bKMlQ

Hey strangers. I've had my head down all day. Starting chapter 8. Making progress. I did watch a bit the @49ers game- so close- good work guys!

Go Erika! RT @IncMagazine: Female CEOs: Being Strategic: http://bit.ly/2Wmc40

So me... RT@Rieva: Great article RT@FranchiseKing: Run a biz with your mobile device-http://cli.gs/tvTnB2 #smbmobility http://bit.ly/AvXKO

Thanks @IntuitInc's Kiran Patel, EVP and GM of Intuit's small business group for the great presentation. QB continues to add BIG value!!

Business sellers, when the time is right, I'm here for you with expert information and a shoulder to lean on. Cashing out is still possible!

I just saved $60 by giving my Tibetan Terrier a bath at home with $6 shampoo- what a concept! AND I know he loves me more for doing it :)

I so get this @RT zappos Supposed to run 12 miles today. The time spent thinking about it has officially surpassed the time to actually run.

James' entrepreneurial dream came true!

Congratulations to my client and friend James Moore for the birth of his entrepreneurial dream, the Big Easy Car Wash. This has been a 5-year-long labor of love for James and worth every minute. MEGA congrats James and followers, please get your car expertly washed at the Big Easy Car Wash on Highway 29 at the gateway to the beautiful Napa Valley wine country. Well done James!


Julie Gordon White, Broker BlueKey Business Brokerage 510.812.2233 cell
www.bluekeybma.com www.pinkbizbroker.blogspot.com

What's Your Wallah?

Seth struck a nerve with me this morning. I pride myself of being able to multi-task like a mad woman (literally), but there is something to be said for going deep versus wide. In fact, I believe that going vertical is the key to success in small business, but applying to other areas of my life? Hmmm...I don't know. More contemplation required, but for now, ponder Seth's thought...

[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]

Chai Wallah It's so tempting to do a little bit of everything. All the tools are there, a click away. You can be the designer, the copywriter, the head of customer service. Hey, you can even do the manufacturing or easily outsource it to a commodity producer. One benefit of diversification is that you can average out your risk. Or you can be a wallah. Someone who does only that one thing. An old colleague of mine calls himself a chai wallah. Perhaps he loves spiced tea, but I'd prefer to believe it's a reminder that his success lives and dies on the performance of just one task. When you go all in, it focuses your attention and effort, doesn't it?


Julie Gordon White, Broker BlueKey Business Brokerage 510.812.2233 cell
www.bluekeybma.com www.pinkbizbroker.blogspot.com

RT@8secrets: Another Good Reason to Create a FaceBook Fan Page for Your Small Business. Read the article - http://8scrts.com/url/FKStGzjL

This is what a day of working on my book does to me! No glamour shot here people (proceed with caution)!!

Julie Gordon White, Broker BlueKey Business Brokerage 510.812.2233 cell
www.bluekeybma.com www.pinkbizbroker.blogspot.com

Fw: Seth's Blog : The hierarchy of success

Great food for thought to kick off your Monday morning! J

From: Seth Godin
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:15:41 -0400
To: jegwhite<jegwhite@bluekeybma.com>
Subject: [SPAM] Seth's Blog : The hierarchy of success

[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]

The hierarchy of success

I think it looks like this:

1. Attitude
2. Approach
3. Goals
4. Strategy
5. Tactics
6. Execution

We spend all our time on execution. Use this word instead of that one. This web host. That color. This material or that frequency of mailing.

Big news: No one ever succeeded because of execution tactics learned from a Dummies book.

Tactics tell you what to execute. They're important, but dwarfed by strategy. Strategy determines which tactics might work.

But what's the point of a strategy if your goals aren't clear, or contradict?

Which leads the first two, the two we almost never hear about.

Approach determines how you look at the project (or your career). Do you read a lot of books? Ask a lot of questions? Use science and testing or go with your hunches? Are you imperious? A lifehacker? When was the last time you admitted an error and made a dramatic course correction? Most everyone has a style, and if you pick the wrong one, then all the strategy, tactics and execution in the world won't work nearly as well.

As far as I'm concerned, the most important of all, the top of the hierarchy is attitude. Why are you doing this at all? What's your bias in dealing with people and problems?

Some more questions:

• How do you deal with failure?
• When will you quit?
• How do you treat competitors?
• What personality are you looking for in the people you hire?
• What's it like to work for you? Why? Is that a deliberate choice?
• What sort of decisions do you you make when no one is looking?

Sure, you can start at the bottom by focusing on execution and credentials. Reading a typical blog (or going to a typical school for 16 years), it seems like that's what you're supposed to do. What a waste.

Isn't it odd that these six questions are so important and yet we almost never talk or write about them?

If the top of the hierarchy is messed up, no amount of brilliant tactics or execution is going to help you at all.

• Email to a friend • Related • •

More Recent Articles

• The end of dumb software
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Rain is perfect for opening day of fall soccer!! Go G! Go B! Play BIG!!

Plan Your Exit or Exit Without a Plan (and probably no ca$h either)

The life of a business owner is both rewarding and exhausting. All business owners know that to run a successful company you need to be a great marketer, control your costs and deliver unbelievable customer service. However, when it comes time to exit your business, lack of preplanning and strategizing leave even the best owners hostage to poor financials and bottom-feeding buyers. Creating and implementing an exit strategy for your business can be the difference between taking a long vacation or retiring in the lap of luxury after the closing! As a business owner, you deserve to achieve the highest market price for your company. Begin planning your exit strategy with the same amount of thought and detail that you plan your customer service strategy or craft your marketing plan. In doing so, you will be able to walk away from your company knowing that you created something bigger than yourself, and have the financial stability to provide for the next stage of your life.

But what if you don't plan? What might your fate be? Instead of a planned exit, you may be forced to exit your business by one of the following scenarios:

1. Closing the business due to declining revenues

2. Being unprepared for an unsolicited offer from a competitor

3. Succession without adequate tax planning

4. Losing the business due to an accident, grave illness, or even death of a partner or owner

There are a other exit scenarios in addition to the four listed above, such as a merger, private equity investor and an Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) and a management buyout, however, the expertise I bring to you is a planned sale to a third party buyer (ka-ching!).

Next time... Closing the business versus a sale...



Julie Gordon White, Broker BlueKey Business Brokerage 510.812.2233 cell
www.bluekeybma.com www.pinkbizbroker.blogspot.com

Great news! The New York Times 9.8.09 Kraft Foods' hostile bid for Cadbury was only the latest potential blockbuster deal in recent days...

Necklace Made By Fellow WPO Member Nina Cooper- Love it!

Nina's dove with pearl on a green silk chord brings me peace, love and wisdom. Perfect for a long day of writing! Visit www.ninadesigns.com.
Julie Gordon White, Broker BlueKey Business Brokerage 510.812.2233 cell www.twitter.com/pinkbizbroker
www.pinkbizbroker.blogspot.com

PriceMax Pointer: Is "Lease to Own" the new promissory note? With the right background, possibly no downpayment required? Food for thought!

Interesting ladies...RT @cindypond: 43M women using social media networks...66.4% use Facebook, MySpace 16.3%, Twitter 3.1%, LinkedIn 1.4%.

Just keep typing girlfriend :)

Beautiful day to...write my book! My view of the SF bay is fab, I'm 33 pages in (3rd re-write) and kids are w/Dad. Now focus, focus, focus.

As a mom of 3, Great stuff! RT@acags: 10 way to get better grades w/o studying harder. From a letter I wrote in '03. http://tworld.com/blog

Fw: Seth's Blog : The problem with positive thinking

As we say in Facebook "I like this". Read below... TGIF. J.

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From: Seth Godin
Date: Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:15:04 -0400

The problem with positive thinking

All the evidence I've seen shows that positive thinking and confidence improves performance. In anything.

Give someone an easy math problem, watch them get it right and then they'll do better on the ensuing standardized test than someone who just failed a difficult practice test.

No, positive thinking doesn't allow you to do anything, but it's been shown over and over again that it improves performance over negative thinking.

Key question then: why do smart people engage in negative thinking? Are they actually stupid?

The reason, I think, is that negative thinking feels good. In its own way, we believe that negative thinking works. Negative thinking feels realistic, or soothes our pain, or eases our embarrassment. Negative thinking protects us and lowers expectations.

In many ways, negative thinking is a lot more fun than positive thinking. So we do it.

If positive thinking was easy, we'd do it all the time. Compounding this difficulty is our belief that the easy thing (negative thinking) is actually appropriate, it actually works for us. The data is irrelevant. We're the exception, so we say.

Positive thinking is hard. Worth it, though.