Howard Partridge grew up on welfare in Mobile, Alabama. He arrived in Houston, Texas on a Greyhound bus with 25 cents in his pocket. At 23, he started his first business out of the trunk of his car and built it up to a multi-million dollar enterprise.

Howard is the exclusive small business coach for the Zig Ziglar Corporation and teaches small business owners, around the the world, how to STOP being a SLAVE to their business.

Entrepreneurial Rookie Mistakes: Becoming a technician rather than an entrepreneur – spending more time working in the business rather than on the business. You can’t grow BIG trying to do it all yourself.

What contributed the most to his success: 1) Clarity of vision; 2) Building relationships; 3)Positioning; 4) His willingness to learn and be a student of business.

 Best business advice: The one and only reason your business exists is to be a vehicle for your life’s goals. Once you’re clear on your goals, you’ll have clarity on how to design and guide your business.

Phenomenal business ideas for aspiring entrepreneurs: 1) Start part time; 2) Understand how your business will be built; 3) Begin immediately building your list of prospects.

Get Howard’s books: The 5 Secrets of a Phenomenal Business and The 7  Secrets of a Phenomenal L.I.F.E.

Immediate action step (If he were starting over from square one tomorrow): Find the person or company that is already working with the clients he wants, and then offer to serve. A perfect example of this is what he did with the Ziglar corporation. He understood that the kind of clients he wanted were already with Zig. He then offered to help (no strings or expectations). The result was, he was invited in. Howard is now the exclusive small business coach for Ziglar.

Follow Howard on Twitter, Facebook, Google-Plus, and visit his site.