Anita Campbell posted an interesting article on her blog, Small Business Trends, two days ago entitled It Takes A Million-Dollar Mindset. Here are a few nuggets....


"Women own half of the businesses in the United States, yet less than 3% have revenues greater than $1 Million," said Senator Hillary Clinton at last night's Make Mine a Million awards ceremony. The Make Mine a Million awards are designed to change those numbers, and grow the percentage of women-owned businesses with over $1 Million in annual revenue.
As Nell Merlino, the CEO of the Count Me In organization added in her remarks, "It takes a million-dollar mindset to get to $1 Million in revenues."
What I like about Neil's comment is its honesty and simplicity. Success as measured by revenues and growth do start with a mindset, and everything else comes next. The opposite is also true: Without a vision and the confidence and energy to achieve that vision, coaching, mentoring, financial grants and even positive reinforcement may help, but I think they will not drive success as measured in these ways.
The onus to achieve our vision is on us, not others. Unfortunately, too many, if not most, start businesses without a vision, without confidence, without energy, without goals and objectives, and without a plan to achieve that vision. Not much hope for those businesses to grow. Those businesses likely sit around waiting for the phone to ring. Yikes!
I suspect the award winners above do very little sitting around, and that they are taking advantage of every good strategy and tactic to achieve their goals and objectives. Beyond that, however, I believe the most important factors determining success are:
1. A vision;
2. Confidence to achieve that vision;
3. Energy to achieve that vision;
4. and the brains to hire smart people to help us achieve that vision.
If I were a betting man, I would be that Make Mine a Million award winners possess the traits above and many others.