Q: What do GE, Disney, HP and Microsoft have in common?

A: They were all startups during steep declines in the U.S. economy. GE started during the panic of 1873, Disney started during the recession of 1923-24, HP began during the Great Depression, and Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft during the recession of 1975.

Q: How much revenue did Microsoft earn in its first year of business?

A: $16,005

Moral of this post?

Great things can be created in times of economic difficulty and even the biggest companies start small. So, rock on people — we’re just getting started! Give the gift of believing in yourself and your dreams.

We just completed the PRODUCTIVITYZEN course with our SMARTSTART Business Success Program members. One of the most important lessons was about managing your energy, not your time. (Besides, as we also learned, time cannot be managed anyway. No matter how hard you try, you’ll never have more than 24 hours in a day to work with!)

Time is a finite resource, but energy is different. It has four wellsprings – the body, emotions, mind, and spirit – and in each, it can be systematically expanded and renewed. We looked at many ways of doing this, including how to establish rituals that will build energy in the four key dimensions.

Managing your energy effectively is one of the greatest gifts you can give to yourself, your loved ones and your business. If you haven’t taken the PRODUCTIVITYZEN course yet, making time to do it before year end would be an excellent way to start giving in a way that benefits you every day. 

If you’ve been following the Alex Mandossian Giveaway you know that it will soon be coming to an end.

On Friday, November 7 we did another call explaining the SMARTSTART Business Success Program and what Alex and I are both giving between now and the end of 2009 to help you, our fellow entrepreneurs closer to home, achieve your business dreams.

If you were on that call, or have listened to it since, you would also know I promised to announce the names of our next 3 winners here today at noon.

We asked Ms. Samantha Jones (not the one from Sex and the City but just as cute) to draw the names for us this morning. Today’s winners are (drum roll please):

Jeannie Fitzsimmons, Beverly Hills, California
Lorraine Beasley, Greenwood, Indiana
Cynthia Barnett, Norwalk, Connecticut

Congratulations, ladies! We’re glad to have you on our winners team. I just called you to welcome you to the program and our team personally. You’ll receive further information by email over the next few days and I look forward to working with you.

Our winners receive private coaching and management consulting until December 2009 to help them build their businesses or move a business idea forward. Their fees for all SMARTSTART Mentoring Programs are waived for life (or as long as they stay in the program since you can leave at any time — there’s no fixed commitment).

Now, don’t despair if your name has not been drawn yet. It’s not too late to get in on the next and final draw!

The final 3 winners will be announced live at the end of our SMARTSTART Giving Final Friday call on November 28th. To qualify for the draw, you must first purchase a seat in the SMARTSTART Business Success Program.

You can do that here: www.SmartStartCoach.com

Just scroll down to the bottom of the page and you’ll see that Alex himself is paying more for you to be in the program than you are paying to be in it (if you decide to join that is).

A year from now, you can still be talking about your business, or you could actually have one working for you. The decision to take action on your own behalf is all yours. We’re doing all we can personally to help you but you have to step up too. I encourage you to take advantage of Alex’s offer and let this be a gift you give to yourself.

Well it started as a $2.7M Giveaway but we have since expanded our list of winners and, instead of having just 9 people in the SMARTSTART Business Success Program receiving a year’s worth of management consulting and coaching, we’ve doubled the number of winners to 18 lucky entrepreneurs!

Listen to Alex explain why he’s doing this and more!

For example, he’s willing to pay more per month than you will just so you can be in this program. That’s how much he wants you to have this opportunity to succeed in creating your business dreams.

(A seat in the SMARTSTART Business mentoring program costs $99. You pay $49 and Alex will pay the other $50 for you. How many teachers do you have that would be willing to do that just to help you succeed hmmmmm?)

Brad Taft is a career coach based in Scottsdale, Arizona.

He is also one of six entrepreneurs who won a SMARTSTART Business Success package, including a year of private consulting and coaching support, in the Alex Mandossian Giveaway draw held October 31.

Congratulations, Brad! We look forward to working with you over the coming year!

You can learn more about Brad and his business at www.WorkingMyWay.com (isn’t that a great web site name?) or by listening to his post-win interview!

It may be Hallowe’en but today’s SMARTSTART Giving micro-fundraising call was all treats, no tricks! The excitement over Alex’s giveaway continues to grow by leaps and bounds!

Our giving program for helping entrepreneurs closer to home, in addition to our ongoing support for entrepreneurs around the world, has now more than doubled in size!

We started out with a $2.7M giveaway plan but as of today, with our latest winner announcements, we’ve grown to $4.5M!! And since we’ll be doing 2 more draws in November, the giveaway program will get bigger still!

Here are the names of the 6 winners announced today. (Yes, we were originally planning to select just 3 winners but Alex’s promo email said 6 so that’s the number of ballots we pulled!)

Please join us in congratulating:

Tony Roebuck, Renton, Washington
Ricki Linksman, Naperville, Illinois
Bradford Taft, Scottsdale, Arizona
Wayne Kelly, Fruitvale, British Columbia
Will Kautz, San Marcos, California
Mario Pastorello, Orange, California

Our winners are not only members of the SMARTSTART BUSINESS Success Program, they’ll have dedicated coaching and consulting for an entire year to help them build and grow their businesses (or develop their business ideas) and create their own success story. You’ll learn more about our latest winners in the coming weeks. I’ll be contacting them today to deliver the great news!

PS If your name wasn’t announced on today’s call, don’t despair! It’s not over yet. Your ballots will be automatically included in the November 7th & 28th draws. Best of luck to you all!

At the end of our SMARTSTART Giving Final Friday micro-fundraising call October 31, 2008 Alex will be giving away 3 more opportunities for lucky business owners to work with an internationally renowned professional management consultant for one year for free to build or develop their business.

Will you be one of the lucky ones who join our previous six winners?

All you need to qualify for the draw is to have claimed your seat in the SMARTSTART Business Success Program! And, if yours is one of the next 19 seats sold, you’ll have 10 chances in each of the next 3 draws to win.

Read all about it here. Get the Details about the Giveaway! Then take action and claim your seat now to be in the draws here. (Just scroll down to the bottom of the web page presented to join the program.)

Carol Ann Wagner of South Pasadena, California is the last of our winners from the October 3 giveaway (but not the last of our winners as we’ll be selecting 9 more entrepreneurs for this opportunity before we’re done)!

Carol Ann has a fascinating business specializing in selling gerontological courses (she runs the Gerontological Learning Center) and she’s planning to expand her course offerings to service other professions as well.

You can visit Carol Ann’s website at www.bestsourcelc.com to learn more about her current programs and you can bet we’ll keep you posted on her next adventures.

Sandra Dean from Whitby, Ontario is a former school principal and our first Canadian winner in Alex’s history-making giveaway! Sandra is a leader in the education field. Her proven research-based models and programs have been used as the foundation of many highly acclaimed initiatives.

A tireless advocate for children’s education and well being, Sandra has been honoured with many awards for her achievements. Among other accomplishments, Sandra’s work has been showcased by the OECD and the United Nations as well as the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime. She also was the only non-American invited to present to a White House Presidential Commission on Hispanic American Affairs.

Sandra is the developer of the “Together We Light the Way” and the “Creating Safe and Caring Learning Communities” models, and is now an advisor to the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario’s “Aboriginal Literacy Initiative.” Having touched the lives of thousands, she invites educators to “think with her” to create personalized solutions to specific problems. And we’re looking forward to working with her in the SMARTSTART Business Success Program to see what more can be done as she pursues new directions in her business.

William Young hails from Seattle, Washington and his story is interesting because he doesn’t yet have a web site! He’s built a successful coaching practice from scratch on the strength of personal referrals for his work alone. But he is looking to expand his business and develop new methods of marketing his professional services so we’re thrilled to have him in the SMARTSTART Business Success Program and he’s thrilled to have won professional support to help him expand over the coming year.