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Crowdfunding For Startups: 10 Best Platforms For Fundraising

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In recent years, many startups have turned to alternative investment opportunities to get their businesses off the ground. In particular, many startups have turned to crowdfunding platforms rather than business lenders and venture capitalists.

This approach has proved successful for many companies, allowing them to raise funds from a large base of smaller investments rather than relying on one large investment. Major companies like Oculus VR, Peloton, and MVMT all started with crowdfunding campaigns.

There’s plenty of hype around crowdfunding right now, with dozens of crowdfunding platforms to choose from online. As a startup founder, it’s difficult to determine which platform is going to be most effective for your company. In this article, we’ll take a look at 10 of the best crowdfunding platforms for startups on the market today and how to select the right one for your needs.

How do crowdfunding platforms work?

In a crowdfunding campaign, a large number of individual investors contribute relatively small amounts of money to fund a startup company. These contributions typically happen through an online platform.

There are many different types of crowdfunding campaigns. In some cases, investors contribute altruistically without the expectation of returns. However, this approach is rare, and most crowdfunding platforms offer some benefits for investors if the startup is successful.

Many platforms offer equity crowdfunding, where each investor receives a stake in the startups they contribute to. Companies using equity crowdfunding platforms in the United States must follow the SEC’s Regulation Crowdfunding rules.

The most popular alternative to equity crowdfunding is reward crowdfunding. With this type of campaign, investors receive rewards from the company for their contributions rather than receiving equity.

Most startups that take this approach offer early access to the company’s products or special edition items as a reward for investors. Because of this, reward crowdfunding usually works best for companies that sell a physical product rather than a digital product or a service.

What to look for in a crowdfunding platform

There are a variety of factors to consider when choosing a crowdfunding platform for your organization. The first is your chance of fundraising success on the platform. How competitive is it? What is the crowdfunding platform’s target audience, and how does that align with the target audience for your product? What marketing features and other tools do they have available to help you succeed?

It’s also important to look at the fees that the crowdfunding platform charges and consider how they would affect your startup financially. You’ll also need to determine whether equity or reward crowdfunding would be most effective for your business.

Additionally, there are crowdfunding platforms that cater specifically to sustainable companies, artists, or entrepreneurs from specific demographics. If your business fits into one of these categories, you may want to look into one of these more targeted platforms.

On top of that, consider how easy the platform is to use. Is the website intuitive? Do they provide consistent customer support throughout the fundraising process? Is information about the fundraising process readily available and easy to understand?

10 Best Crowdfunding Platforms for Startups

1. WeFunder.

WeFunder was one of the first equity crowdfunding platforms to hit the market, and they remain one of the most popular options for growing startups. So far, WeFunder has raised over $5 billion for its startups, many of which have gone on to launch larger VC fundraising campaigns.

Some of the most notable WeFunder success stories include Meow Wolf, an immersive art installation that has since expanded to three locations, and Goldbelly, a premium food delivery service. WeFunder runs crowdfunding campaigns for companies in a wide variety of industries. They also have a user base of both accredited and unaccredited investors and have impressive connections to VC organizations like Y Combinator. The minimum investment on WeFunder is just $100, which helps campaigns attract investors that wouldn’t normally consider working with startups.

In order to create a WeFunder campaign, you’ll need to provide detailed financial information and create an appealing marketing pitch for investors. Because of this, WeFunder is best for companies who already have a product in place and have some sort of following.

The WeFunder team can help you put together your campaign and manage investor relations, even after the fundraising round is over. You’ll need to set your investment terms and create a contract on the platform in order to start raising money. Because this is an equity crowdfunding platform, you’ll need to have a working knowledge of Reg CF and other financial restrictions to avoid financial complications later on.

WeFunder does not charge startups any upfront fees. Instead, they charge a 7.5% fee if you meet your fundraising goal. This fee covers all of WeFunder’s services, including payment processing.

2. SeedInvest.

SeedInvest is a curated equity crowdfunding platform that has helped over 250 startups raise money since its inception in 2012. Many of their successful startups have gone on to attract the attention of investors like Bill Gates and Mark Cuban.

Because it is a curated platform, SeedInvest startups need to go through a rigorous application process that includes a financial due diligence check. Historically, SeedInvest has only accepted around 2% of applicants, so you’ll need a standout product and business model in order to launch a campaign. They accept startups from all sectors, but focus on companies with products that have the potential to disrupt existing markets.

SeedInvest’s connections to VC firms and angel investors could help your organization continue to grow, even after your initial fundraising round. Right now, SeedInvest’s minimum contribution for investors is $1,000, which is higher than many other crowdfunding platforms and attracts more serious investors.

Like WeFunder and many other equity crowdfunding campaigns, SeedInvest does not charge any fees upfront. Instead, they charge a 7.5% fee for successful campaigns. Overall, SeedInvest is best for established startups that have already seen some success.

3. Indiegogo.

If you’re interested in reward-based crowdfunding for your startup, Indiegogo is a platform worth checking out. They were founded in 2008 and have launched hundreds of thousands of campaigns since then. It’s available all over the world and anyone can set up a campaign without having to go through a financial vetting process.

Investors on Indiegogo do not receive equity in your startup. However, you have the option to offer perks to your investors if they contribute a certain dollar amount. Indiegogo is best for startups that sell physical products. After your campaign is over, you can continue to promote your products using the platform’s InDemand feature.

Indiegogo campaigns are short, with a maximum campaign length of 60 days. The platform charges a 5% campaign fee as well as a 3%+$0.20 transaction fee. They charge fees for all campaigns, regardless of success rate.

4. Republic.

Republic is another curated equity crowdfunding campaign marketed at established startups. They work with both accredited and unaccredited investors, although some campaigns are only available for accredited members. Startups can set their own minimum investment amounts – some campaigns start at $150, while others require $1,000 or more. Republic also promotes real estate, crypto, and video game investments to its user base, but startups continue to be the star of the show.

Since Republic is a curated platform, not all startups can launch a campaign, and there’s a lengthy application process to go through. They have a detailed due diligence process, and they’ll also take an in-depth look at your products and business model to see how you’d perform in a competitive market. Republic is highly selective about the companies they work with.

Republic provides some support for startups through the fundraising process, but you will need to handle SEC filings and other legal obligations related to the campaign on your own. Like most other equity crowdfunding platforms, Republic only charges fees for successful campaigns. They charge a fee of 6% on money raised as well as 2% of securities issued. Additionally, you’ll need to pay payment processing and escrow fees, which add up to about 2% of your total campaigns.

5. Kickstarter.

Kickstarter is another one of the world’s largest reward crowdfunding platforms. Kickstarter is most popular for creative projects like movies and music, but it’s also popular for product development campaigns. This means it could be a good fit for startups that sell a specific physical product.

As with other reward crowdfunding platforms, you’ll need to offer perks to your investors rather than equity. Kickstarter allows anyone to launch a campaign without having to share company financials, although you will need to create a pitch and submit an application.

Once your application is accepted, you’ll run a campaign for 60 days or less. If you meet your fundraising goal in that time, your investors will be charged and you’ll be responsible for providing rewards. If you don’t meet your fundraising goals, you won’t receive any of the funds.

Like many other crowdfunding platforms, Kickstarter only charges fees if your campaign is successful. They charge a platform fee of 5% as well as payment processing fees of $3 + $0.20 per investment.

6. Crowdcube.

If your startup is based in the UK and you’re interested in equity crowdfunding, Crowdcube might be the platform for you. They offer funding campaigns for businesses in many different stages, from your initial seed stage to later rounds of growth funding. They accept startups across a wide variety of industries, although you will have to complete an initial application and review before starting your campaign.

Crowdcube allows investors to get started with only 10 pounds, creating a much lower barrier to entry than many other equity crowdfunding platforms. Additionally, their Cubex feature allows private businesses to offer shares directly to consumers, which you can do separately from your crowdfunding campaign. This gives your investors a way to sell their shares at any time.

After your crowdfunding campaign ends, you’ll have access to Crowdcube’s exclusive community of funded startups. This includes access to a dedicated support team to help with legal filing, shareholder management, and more.

Like many other platforms, Crowdcube charges a 7.5% fee if your fundraising campaign is successful. They do not charge you to maintain a listing on their secondary market.

7. Fundable.

Fundable is a crowdfunding platform that focuses on hands-on customer service for growing startups. The company’s founders have experience as startup founders themselves, so they set out to create a user-friendly crowdfunding platform. Their team helps each startup put together a profile and marketing materials and provide ongoing support throughout the process.

This platform is also unique in that they offer both equity crowdfunding and reward crowdfunding, so you can choose the option that makes the most sense for your company. Fundable reviews all campaigns before they go live to make sure it meets their requirements.

Fundable’s fee structure works differently than many other crowdfunding platforms. Instead of charging a percentage fee on funds raised, they charge a $179 monthly fee for all campaigns, regardless of whether they are successful or not. Rewards campaigns are also subject to payment processing fees of 3.5% + $0.30 per transaction.

8. StartEngine.

StartEngine is a popular equity crowdfunding platform that hosts hundreds of startup campaigns in a wide variety of industries, including tech, finance, travel, food, healthcare, education, and much more. The Startengine platform itself is a crowdfunding success story.

Campaigns on the platform will need to reach a minimum funding goal of $10,000, although you can set a higher goal if you prefer. StartEngine offers either Reg CF or Reg A+ campaigns, both of which require legal guidance in order to launch. The platform charges a flat fee for successful campaign, although the exact amount varies depending on what types of campaign you choose and a variety of other factors. Campaign fees start around 7%.

If you’re looking for a crowdfunding platform that supports larger Reg A+ campaigns, StartEngine may be a good option for you. StartEngine is also unique in that they offer a secondary marketplace where investors can buy and sell shares of private companies after your crowdfunding campaign is complete.

9. MicroVentures.

MicroVentures is a highly respected equity crowdfunding platform that has worked with some of the most notable startups of the past decade. Their portfolio of past campaigns includes Uber, Slack, Airbnb, and plenty of other startups you might recognize.

They have only a few crowdfunding opportunities available at a time, and they also offer secondary trading for private companies. Additionally, MicroVentures supports crowdfunding campaigns that are limited to accredited investors.

MicroVentures is extremely selective with the companies they work with. They perform a thorough due diligence check, and they also assess your business to see if it aligns with their platform. The platform focuses on companies that put a new, innovative spin on existing technology or have a unique concept that hasn’t been brought to market yet.

Although it’s difficult to get listed on MicroVentures, the potential payoff is very high for startups that do make it through the application process. Keep in mind that you will have to pay for legal review and filing costs upfront. The platform also charges a 5% commission fee, 2% equity fee, and an escrow fee of either $1,000 or 0.35%, whichever is higher.

10. IFundWomen.

IFundWomen is the leading reward crowdfunding platform for female entrepreneurs. Unlike many other platforms on this list, crowdfunding is only a small part of what IFundWomen offers. They also provide a variety of other resources and support services for women entrepreneurs. When you launch your crowdfunding campaign, you’ll get access to a library of guides, courses, and networking opportunities to help you succeed.

Unlike many other crowdfunding platforms, IFundWomen lets you keep the money you raise, even if you don’t reach your total goal. They accept many different types of startups in various stages of development and charge a 5% platform fee for campaigns. IFundWomen offers rewards crowdfunding rather than equity crowdfunding, so you’ll need to provide perks for your investors.

With so many crowdfunding platforms out there, there’s a path to success for every startup. If traditional venture capital funding or lending platforms aren’t an option for you, crowdfunding can be an effective way to get your business off the ground. Since crowdfunding campaigns can be competitive, you’ll want to make sure your finances are in order and that you have strong marketing materials before you get started.

 

How To Take An Unusual And Interesting Photo

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If you’re interested in photography, you’re probably wondering how you can take more unusual and interesting photos. The good news is that with just a little bit of technical knowledge and some in-camera tricks, you’ll find you can create some truly impressive shots.

Focus On A Single Color.

If you focus on just one color, you can create a visually aesthetic photo that will be truly unique. Try to find similar colors in a single location, or emphasize certain colors when you’re editing your images. This will make your shots look far more appealing. 

Shoot From A Range Of Angles.

Rather than always taking your shots from eye level, think about shooting from a very high or very low angle instead. You can even rotate your camera for a completely different viewpoint. 

Use Some In-Camera Tricks.

Try panning, freelancing, or zooming while you’re taking an image. These tricks will enable you to experiment with your compositions and create unusual shots. 

Emphasize Overlooked Details.

Usually, when you take photographs, you focus on the main subject, blurring out the background. However, a unique way to take photos is by breaking this rule. Focusing away from the subject stretches the imagination, making images look diverse and unique. For example, instead of photographing a person’s face, focus on a strand of their hair or their hand. 

Make Everyday Items Your Props.

Some of the best unique images feature everyday things in an unusual setting. Think about how you can use regular objects and items to create a fantasy-themed photo. For example, hair can become a scarf, or flour can look like rain. 

Use Reflections.

Once you start looking for reflections, you’ll be amazed by the number of places where you can find them. Water, windows, glass buildings… the list goes on. Reflections are great places to see beautiful patterns and symmetry that makes for very interesting photos. 

Use Filters And Lenses.

Feel free to use tools to take unusual photos. There are numerous lens filters and lenses that you can employ to change how your images look. For example, tilt-shift lenses can give you a new perspective on an ordinary photo. 

Zoom In For Abstract Images.

Using a macro lens is a great way to create abstract images. You can focus on all kinds of details such as textures and features, using them to come up with thought-provoking shots. 

Limit The Light For A Dramatic Atmosphere.

Lighting can be the key to a perfect photo, so to make your images stand out, you can try experimenting with limited light and highlights. Use a single light source, for example, a window or torch, while doing your photoshoot. The result will be dramatic and eye-catching. 

Create Motion Blur.

Motion blurring techniques can be used to focus on how things move. Intentionally doing this gives your image’s personality while creating smoothness in your shots. Put your camera on a tripod and use a slow shutter speed to achieve the best results as you shoot animals, birds, and people as they move.

Using The Right Equipment.

As you can see, there are many ways to turn photography on its head and create truly unique and unusual images that will leave everyone amazed. However, you’ll need to ensure you have good-quality photographic equipment to achieve the best possible results. With the best MPB discount code, you can invest in the best photographic equipment to enhance your shots and to help you make more progress in your photography journey. Before you know it, you’ll be coming up with stunning shots that catch the eye for all the right reasons. 

 

Dynamic Stars Co-Founder Brad Zackson’s Exclusive Tips For Purchasing Real Estate In A Tight Market

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by Brad Zackson

Arguably, a home is one of the most expensive investments you’ll ever make, and it is every homeowner’s dream that their property will increase its ROI in the long run, according to Brad Zackson, co-founder and director of development for full-service real estate firm Dynamic Star.

But buying real estate, especially when the inventory is low, can be a daunting and uphill task. Ranging from complicated paperwork to securing a mortgage and negotiating a fair price, this undertaking can be a pain for any potential homeowner.

So, what should you do when buying real estate in a tight market? Here are some of Zackson’s tips:

Work With a Budget.

Owning real estate goes beyond securing a mortgage. Even though getting the approval for the mortgage is a huge first step, setting a budget you intend to work with and sticking to it is crucial. Always remember to factor in recurring expenses such as home maintenance costs, utilities and insurance costs—just to mention a few—when creating a budget.

Don’t be the kind of person who secures a property only to find they can’t afford monthly outlays. More importantly, do not make impulse purchases. Evaluate several real estate quotes that fall within your budget in the area you wish to buy, and choose the most appropriate one, Zackson stresses.

Use the Services of a Certified Real Estate Agent.

Buying real estate is not one of those processes in which you can employ a DIY approach, especially if you don’t have industry knowledge. Hiring a realtor allows you to get the services of an experienced and skilled negotiator.

This group of professionals has the necessary market knowledge, is well-connected and will help you make an informed decision. While anybody can buy real estate, a realtor will negotiate the perfect price for you and ensure the complicated process of buying a home proceeds expeditiously, seamlessly and in accordance with the law.

Make Competitive Bids.

Making impulse decisions when buying real estate is an easy way to make a terrible financial decision, Brad Zackson warns. Always have your realtor give you several quotes from different sellers, and make competitive but fair offers. Research local real estate; this way you will know how you should bid without scaring off the sellers. And when bidding, don’t show desperation — this is the easiest way for sellers to extort money from you.

Be Prompt in Making a Decision.

Eventually, you will have identified your dream home and arrived at a price agreement with the seller. According to Zackson, don’t wait too long to make a purchase decision. Instead, be the kind of person who makes up their mind quickly. You may wait so long that another buyer swoops in and scoops up the real estate during your hesitation.

Choose a Desirable Neighborhood and Conduct a “Home Needs vs. Wants” Evaluation.

Buying a home is not easy. You may find most homes fall outside your budget. In this case, choose a neighborhood and create a “home wants vs. needs” checklist to determine what you require and what to forgo. For instance, everybody needs running water but may not require a pool. Learn to prioritize if you wish to get a good deal in your real estate buying endeavors.

With this in mind, buying real estate need not be a complicated undertaking. Follow the above tips, and you’ll stand to get value for your money.

 

Brad Zackson

Brad Zackson is a veteran in real estate development, finance and management in New York City. He started his career as a broker, becoming the exclusive broker and manager for one of the largest privately held multi-family portfolios, where he managed and supervised over 45,000 residential units.

 

4 Things To Look For Instead Of A College Education On Resumes

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by Nicole Levinson, CMO of Audo

You probably heard the same thing from the time you were young: If you want a good, steady, well-paying job, you need to go to college. No ifs, ands, or buts. It’s not bad advice. Getting a higher degree can open your eyes, expand your abilities, and broaden your network. However, traditional degrees are becoming less of a factor for job hunters thanks to the tight labor market.

The Burning Glass Institute notes that “material degree resets” have been occurring for several years across numerous industries and roles. These resets have only been spurred along as more jobs than candidates become available. The result is that approximately 1.4 million individuals who don’t possess college degrees may still be eligible to snag mid- and high-level lucrative positions between now and 2027.

What does that mean for you and me as startup owners? The writing on the wall is clear: We have to think differently or risk losing talent. Rather than continuing with degree requirements for all openings — a condition that limits our talent sourcing options — we would be better served looking beyond applicants’ formal education credentials.

Below are some of the things to focus on when evaluating resumes if you’re dropping degree requirements.

1. The thirst for continuous learning.

No matter what industry you work within, you and your team will have to constantly change. After all, rampant disruption is the name of the game. So you want employees that are going to be eager to reskill and upskill.

To determine if someone is a lifelong learner, ask about any recent training they took. For example, a candidate might not have a bachelor’s degree but might be able to prove that she loves to learn new skills online or offline by attending workshops, seminars, networking events, etc. Be sure to ask about the titles of these experiences and events so you can see if what applicants are learning will be valuable to your workforce.

2. Alignment with your company’s purpose.

When asked by Gartner, more than 52% of employees have said the pandemic made them think about their purpose at work. In other words, more than half of workers want to feel like they’re contributing to something important or bigger than themselves. This is one of the main reasons your organization needs to have a strong North Star that guides everything your team members do.

During interviews, plan to talk with candidates about your North Star. Create questions that help you understand if their purpose aligns with your company’s. Let’s say your purpose is to help people from historically underrepresented communities be able to purchase real estate as a long-term investment. Weave this into your late-stage interview questions. Ideally, you want to find someone who embraces your North Star and can row in the same direction as everyone else.

3. Skill sets necessary for job success.

Every role in your company requires certain skills for job success. Your sales manager has to be an exceptional communicator and negotiator as well as a rockstar coach. Your accounting crew needs to be detailed, organized, and accurate. Without these skills, those employees couldn’t get very far — and neither could your organization.

Measuring candidates for their skills can be challenging. One way to compare applications fairly is with assessments. Around six out of 10 companies currently use pre-hire assessments as part of their recruiting efforts. Your assessments could be in any form that makes sense, like a written test or a hands-on mock run-through drill of a common event. Just be sure that you’re using the same assessments for all candidates who make it to each stage of the hiring process.

4. Consistent promotions.

You’re sifting through resumes for a position opening at your company. You notice a resume from someone who has worked only in retail. Ordinarily, you would have put this resume to the side. Instead, you dig deeper. What you realize gives you an “Aha!” moment: This candidate kept getting promotions at every retailer.

Someone who has been promoted time and again probably is doing something right. Maybe they’re a natural-born leader and rally the troops when times are tough. Or they might be truly hard-working and willing to tackle anything. If you see a resume with promotions, think twice before putting it into the trash bin. Why jeopardize missing out on someone who could end up being one of your best performers after a little on-the-job experience?

Without a doubt, some professions like those in the medical, engineering, and legal fields will always require a higher degree. But employers everywhere are starting to realize that although degrees are nice to have, they’re not necessarily need-to-have. Keep this in mind the next time you’re trying to fill any positions for your startup venture, whether they’re entry-level, mid-level, or even higher.

 

Nicole Levinson is the CMO of Audo, a “learn it to earn it” platform built for the purpose of personalized career-building. Audo uses A.I. to suggest in-demand skills required for your success in the career you want – all without the substantial debt that comes with a college education.

 

Best Ways On How To Promote Your Business In Just An Hour

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Everyone dreams of getting high income and being able to relax, sit back and watch as their business earns a large profit. Unfortunately, it happens rarely, because the fact of life is that work takes a lot of time and there’s no more time for relaxing.

Many entrepreneurs are surprised at how much time it takes to manage a business and to get it started. It might be because the Internet made it easier to establish a business, but it did not make it easier to maintain a business.

Nevertheless, it is right to spend just a short time on a business that delivers a pleasant, constant income. It is possible to consume just an hour a day and establish a successful business. However, you have to do it the right way. Otherwise, you will just be wasting your time.

Produce and share content

This step comes with a little bit of a warning. The issue here is that a long content could take more than twenty minutes to produce. If you can write a high-quality article with 3,000 words in 20 minutes, then do it! But for most people, that won’t be the case.

It might seem like a long time, but there’s a secret for doing it. If you want to have a backlog of content, it is better to use an editorial calendar to manage it. Here is a quick step to do it:

  1. Set up your editorial calendar.
  2. Build your backlog of content.
  3. Always research.
  4. Write in plain simple English.
  5. Share your content.

It might seem like a lot to do in just 20 minutes per day. Just take it step by step every day. At first try, the entire process might take a lot of time, like forty minutes or more than. You just have to get used to the process and learn where to click.

But after a few times of doing it, it becomes natural in motion. Through muscle memory and daily routine, you will be able to perform these tasks quickly and successfully. For the twenty minutes that you spend on creating content, continually work and do as much as you can. After a few days, you will discover that your efforts could add up to an excellent final product.

Build your reputation by being Involved in charity

Promoting a charity, or setting up a clothing donation near me, is also a great way to promote your business. You could even donate some of your products or services to the cause. The more people you can get involved with this, the better. It’s also important that you make sure whatever you do is ethical and sustainable. The more people who are aware of your brand and what you do for them, the more likely it is that they will support it in the future.

The best way to do this is by creating a charitable cause and then promoting it on social media. You can use Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to spread the word about your organization and what you’re doing for the community.

If you have a nonprofit organization that you want to promote, consider donating your used clothing and other items to the local homeless shelter or a charity that provides clothing for children. These organizations will be more than happy to accept your donations, as they are always in need of new clothing and shoes, as well as household items like sheets, towels, soap and shampoo.

When you donate your used clothing and other items such as shoes, blankets or toys to a charity, they will give them away free of charge to people who need them. You can be sure that these items will be put to good use by someone who really needs them!

Spread the word out through building links

This step is where you will be doing some more hands-on marketing through promoting your content. The objective is to communicate your value and share your product or service to millions of potential customers.

And to reach these millions of potential clients, you need to use backlinks. Backlinks are an essential part of any good strategy for SEO. But for promoting your e-commerce business, you need to create a more targeted strategy for your backlink.

One of the excellent ways to build an optimized backlink strategy is to imitate what other marketers are doing. Creating good backlinks is a vital part of advertising your e-commerce, but you also need to combine some social media marketing. 

Strategic social marketing

If you have been doing online marketing for a couple of weeks, you might already work with some of the large social networks like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Some businesses fail and end up with a low return on investment because they don’t improve their social marketing strategies.

Make sure that you have accounts on all large networks. In addition to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, consider creating accounts on some of these social networks:

  • YouTube
  • Snapchat
  • Periscope
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest

Target Press Release

Many people might think that getting press releases is a mystical thing, but it’s not. You don’t also have to be a press release specialist to do it right. Here are some ideas that could help you:

  • Try to write a good press release – You don’t need to be an expert writer to produce an engaging press release. To begin with, you can check what other businesses are doing and duplicate them. After some time, you will eventually find your style.
  • Forward your product out for reviews. Getting positive reviews on your product or service can improve your social verification and your profit.

Takeaway

You can promote your business in just an hour a day. It might sound crazy, but true. The objective here is not just to spend less time because that is a byproduct of a profound strategy.

A lot of businesses fail, and many entrepreneurs get burned out because they work too hard. Always keep in mind that you own your business, and your business does not own you.

 

Recycling Electronics: Protect The Natural Environment

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If you’re considering recycling electronics, you can find a robust recycling program on the websites of many electronics manufacturers. You can search by product type or company to find a program that meets your needs. 

The patchwork of laws and regulations around recycling electronics and e-waste is not enough to make companies design better, greener products. A more comprehensive law such as the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive, or RHSD, that covers the entire EU market can help to set higher standards for the manufacturing and disposal of all electronics and electronic products sold within the EU. It also requires manufacturers to pay for the recycling of their products and helps reduce the amount of e-waste.

Environmental Impact of E-Waste

Recyclable electronics can significantly reduce the impact of e-waste on our environment. Many of these items contain hazardous chemicals, and improper disposal can lead to toxic waste and leachate in local water sources. Toxic waste can also pose a threat to human health.

Several countries around the world have policies aimed at reducing and recycling e-waste. For example, Switzerland, Japan, and the United States have programs to encourage manufacturers to recycle their electronics. These programs require manufacturers to collaborate with local communities. They also help protect freshwater ecosystems by reducing water pollution. You can check SellBroke if you want to sell your old electronics.

Many e-waste products are no longer functional or are outdated. In fact, some of them are still in excellent condition. This is due to technological advances and the fact that manufacturers will often replace products with improved versions.

Reduce Air Pollution

Reducing e-waste is one way to curb the amount of toxic waste in the environment. Moreover, electronic waste recycling helps to reduce air pollution by preventing toxic gasses from being released into the atmosphere. Electronic waste is best recycled and not directly burned. High temperatures caused by electronics cause the release of harmful gasses that can be harmful to life.

Recycling electronics requires a special process to recover useful components and dispose of harmful materials. Many manufacturers and retailers offer programs to help their customers recycle their used electronics. Some retailers also offer drop-off centers where you can drop off your old electronics for recycling. It is important to choose a recycling facility that provides a safe and convenient process for the disposal of e-waste.

Cost of Recycling E-Waste

The cost of recycling e-waste can be a daunting task. Recycling is the only viable solution to reversing the e-waste crisis. But many countries are not doing their part to reduce the burden. Ames University is working on innovations that will make the recycling process more cost-efficient.

To increase recycling rates, companies should invest in training and education programs. Some states should also provide financial aid to recycling companies, which should make e-waste recycling more affordable. Also, manufacturers should be more involved in the recycling process. With these measures in place, the cost of recycling e-waste should be affordable for all consumers.

Recycling e-waste is becoming increasingly difficult as more electronic products are created. It is a major challenge to recycle this waste, especially as the complexity of the materials used to manufacture electronics has increased. Fortunately, researchers have made advancements in the field of e-waste recycling. There are many different recycling processes to recover valuable metals from e-waste.

 

Tips To Boost Your Healthcare Business Growth

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Healthcare facilities are always looking for ways to draw attention to their services. If you operate a medical facility or work in the healthcare field, great marketing is important to attract patients and keep their business. Marketing can be difficult in this industry because it is so heavily regulated, but there are still many ways that healthcare providers like poughkeepsie optometry can market themselves effectively.

There are many marketing strategies online for healthcare businesses, but they all boil down to organic marketing or paid advertising. And the debate between the two marketing strategies has been going on for some time.

Which of these two provide a better marketing value? Which of them will get me the most out of my investments? Should I wait for it or aim for instant results? These are just a few of the most common questions that we face in building our company’s marketing strategy.

Below are some essential tips for healthcare providers like poughkeepsie optometry on how to grow their business. To help you decide, here is a side by side comparison to guide you in choosing the best kind of approach for your business.

The Know-How Behind Organic Marketing

Organic advertising is getting your customers to come to you naturally without the help of paid ads. One example for this is when you type a search query on Google or any other search engine for that matter. The results that you see below the promoted ads are what we call ‘organic results.’

Organic traffic is one of the essential forms of traffic which a site can get. Google ranks the website higher thus giving them a higher trust rating. Research even shows that 92 percent of all traffic goes to the front page result, with 33 percent of organic clicks going to the first result. Some of the pioneers in organic content marketing are:

  • Print Advertising. You might be thinking, “Don’t we have to spend money on print ads?” But in reality, a lot of marketing strategists coordinate their offline content with their online efforts. One such product of the new era of print advertising is called native advertising. Native advertising is a type of publicity that matches the functionality of the platform on which it appears. There are even interactive print business card designs nowadays, with QR codes and whatnots.
  • Social Media Marketing. With approximately 3.7 billion people on social media, it proves to be an essential tool in organic marketing. Not only does social media give you a bigger audience, but it is also free! Even without investing hundreds of dollars on promoted posts, you can earn sustained traffic in the long run, with long-term benefits.
  • Email Marketing. Email marketing is an excellent way to engage your clients personally, but only when you email people from an organic email list. Organic email lists allow you to quality check your recipients regularly and accurately monitor your ROI or Return On Investment.

The Strategy Behind Paid Advertising

From the name itself, paid advertising is any form of advertising that you have to pay to use, with emphasis on ‘use.’ Think of paid ads as leasable spaces. Online marketplace auctions usually determine the owner of the ad space through bidding.

Smart marketing campaigns take advantage of the different advertising channels, and that includes paid mediums. Paid advertising is an effective means to target a particular demographic, and they deliver quick results. The most common ways to invest in paid ads are through:

  • Pay Per Click. PPC are ads that you pay for only when somebody clicks on them. They’re straightforward and measurable since you only pay for the clicks that you need. They can also be very flexible as PPC costs are modifiable in real time, and you can choose to place budget caps to avoid overspending.
  • Cost Per Mille. More commonly known as Cost Per Thousand, CPM is measured using user impressions and billed every 1,000 impressions. CPM is an inexpensive solution that will guarantee you the amount of exposure that you paid for it.
  • Retargeting. Also known as remarketing, it uses cookies that follow your internet browsing patterns. For instance, you might be searching for ‘affordable business cards in Manhattan.’ The retargeting provider will then show you ads about cheap business cards in the area. These cookies let your retargeting service know which ads to show you based on your browsing preferences.

The Pros and Cons

Now that you have an idea about organic and paid advertising, the gears in your mind are working the calculations and weighing out the characteristics of each strategy.

  • Cost. Organic ads are free of charge, except time and effort. Paid ads can vary in price, but can be expensive.
  • Credibility. Paid ads have the tendency of being seen as spammy and unreliable, unlike organic ads. Organic ads have higher trust ratings and are more likely to be clicked through.
  • Audience Targeting. Paid campaigns can be tailored to target a specific audience according to demographic. This method is very advantageous in making sure that your content reaches your audience.
  • Long-term. Since organic ads aim for high rankings, they are more reliable in driving more sustained traffic even without constant monitoring.
  • As long as the page’s quality stays top notch, organic ads are going to stay on top of the search results, unlike paid ads, which disappear the moment you stop paying for them.

Takeaway

There is no cookie cutter marketing strategy. What you need is a solid knowledge of your business and the industry. For instance, online course programs might benefit more from email marketing, and shopping sites may see more engagements with social media updates.

Paid ads can help jump start your business, while organic marketing can help you sustain your traffic for the long term. What may work for one, might not work for you, so use both organic and paid strategies and get the best of both worlds.

 

Starting Over Again: How To Deal With Administrative License Revocation

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Getting in trouble with the law because of a careless driving michigan incident is never a good thing. It does not only give stress, but it can also be a traumatic experience. It can cost you a lot of money, and it could ruin your reputation. Additionally, it can cause hassles in your life especially if it affects your daily routine.

One of the hardest things you can encounter perhaps is Administrative License Revocation. ALR causes the automatic suspension of your Driver’s License and which may eventually lead you to lose your driving privileges.

The Basics for ALR

ALR is strictly implemented especially for some states such as Michigan. However, they do not sanction it to anyone who breaks the law. It is a sanction given to those who encounter the worst scenarios.

Blood Alcohol Content

If you were flagged down for possible Driving While Intoxicated (DWI), they would check your Blood Alcohol Content (BAC). If you take the field test and the result is higher than the legal limit in Michigan which is 0.08, you will lose your driving privileges. The duration is from ninety days to two years, depending on the result of your BAC test.

Field Sobriety Test

On the other hand, if you have an altercation with police officers due to field sobriety test refusal, your license may be suspended. These tests include blood, urine, and breath tests. By doing so, they may suspend your license from ninety days to two years. The best way to go once you refuse the field sobriety tests is to consult a DWI lawyer immediately to avoid criminal or civil consequences.

What Can You Do?

One thing you need to know is that ALR is not anywhere a criminal punishment. It is not a conviction either, so there is no need for you to go to court because of that. You will go to court though for your DWI charges. However, if you do not want to wait for the suspension to get done then here are some things you can do.

Hire an Attorney

Your best chance of having the ALR lifted is by hiring an expert lawyer to help you get through the situation. Ask him for advice and allow him to get you through the proceedings. He has extensive knowledge of such cases, and he knows how to deal with the people in court.

Request an ALR Appeal Hearing

You have the right to appeal and contest the ALR given to you. You and your lawyer may ask for an administrative hearing regarding your punishment. You are only given 15 days after your DWI arrest to request an ALR hearing. If you do not, then you face suspension of your driving privileges. It is good to note though that you have forty days after your DWI arrest before the suspension of your license takes place.

Attend the ALR Administrative Hearing 

Once you have filed for an appeal, wait for the schedule of your hearing. But since it is not a criminal charge, it will not take place in court. An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) will handle it. It is best to attend your hearings with your lawyer at all times, so your best interests are protected.

Relax 

Panic is the most common reaction among people who get arrested for any charge. It is human nature, but it is also avoidable. Once you’re out of jail, try to breathe and relax. Think about all the right things in your life and how the worst things could have been. It may be a big deal but do not let it take over your daily life as it could make matters worse for you.

Overcome Shock and Denial

Whether you get to spend time in jail or not, the first few hours will often make you feel shocked and in denial. These feelings will not just go away in a matter of hours though; they could last for days and even weeks. But as days will pass by, it will go away if you try to help yourself. Do not think about it all the time. Try to let it rest and keep you busy.

Accept Pain and Guilt

The next emotion you will feel is pain and guilt. You can feel pain because of what toll it is causing in your life and the embarrassment it subjected you to. You may also feel guilty for not being careful in drinking and driving afterward. There could be many guilt feelings you may have, but the best thing to do is to try moving forward. Just know that stressing yourself over what happened will not change anything in the past.

Manage Anger and Depression

Anger and depression are familiar especially when you need to go to court. Remember, not all judges have the same attitude, and you cannot control how they handle things. They may make you angry but keep your emotions contained. Do not let your feelings be the reason for an unexcused outburst. And when you feel depressed especially when things are not going well, try to seek help from someone close to you. You may also opt for counseling if you prefer that way.

Turn Upwards Not Down

After dealing with all the roller coaster of emotions mentioned above, it is time to take your life back. Do not let the experience pull you down. Yes, take things one step at a time and deal with it but do not make it take over. If you indeed learned from that experience then change your life for the better so it won’t happen again.

A lot of good people end up in jail. Many decent ones end up making mistakes and getting arrested. If you are one of them, do not let the negative feelings consume you. No one is perfect; everybody makes mistakes at one point or another. And yes, it could be embarrassing at times, but it is part of life.

You just have to toughen up, deal with it and get it over. Getting arrested for Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) is one of the most common reasons why many people end up spending the night in jail. For most, they are model citizens, and it’s their first time. It is they who are often affected when they think of the consequences. The process of getting out of a DWI charge could be confusing and stressful, but with the help of a criminal defense attorney, you can get through it. However, the charge alone is not stressful; it comes with the emotional aftershock which is often hard to deal with. Above are some things you can do to make dealing with your emotional stress easier.

 

How To Deal With Your Doubters & Naysayers

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by Sarah Cordiner, CEO of MainTraining

Business can be tough and lonely at the best of times; but trying to forge a pathway for ourselves when we have people around us who actively oppose, ridicule, judge, belittle or condescend us for your edupreneurial plans, can be soul crushing.

My family and closest loved ones were not only unsupportive of my dreams to start my own education based business, but they actively crushed my confidence by telling me that I wouldn’t succeed and did everything that they could to talk me out of it.

Sadly, I’m not the only one who experiences this kind of unsupportive treatment when we share our dreams to be somebody and make a difference to the world.

Here is an overview of 6 main types of doubters and naysayers that I have categorised based on my own experience, in the hope that it will arm you with some power to fight through to your dreams and prove them all wrong.

Dealing With Your ‘Non-Supporters’

Non-Supporter Type 1.

When we find ourselves faced with loved ones, friends and even entire communities who doubt us, ridicule us or just simply don’t seem as supportive as we’d like them to be about our edupreneurial ideas, just remember that leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs see the world differently to that way that the rest of the population do.

We are visionary and futuristic in our very nature. We see things that don’t yet exist. This frustrates our friends, neighbours, and even our colleagues.

Most have no intention of being unsupportive, but the way they are genetically wired quite literally makes it impossible for them to visualise or conceptualise something that doesn’t yet exist. It’s not their fault and you can’t ‘train it into them’. Many simply don’t have that futuristic characteristic within them and never will.

So although it hurts when those around you are unsupportive, try not to get angry at them, as it’s less about their belief in you and simply a lack of the futuristic characteristic that you are so lucky to have.

Non-Supporter Type 2.

The second kind of ‘non-supporter’ is the one who really really loves you and wants to protect you from failure because seeing you hurt or upset would be devastating for them. These people also lack the futuristic characteristic, and because they cannot see how such a dream could be accomplished, they assume failure is inevitable.

Because they care about you so much, they will try to talk you ‘out of it’ or dampen your idea in whichever ways they can.

As much as this can be infuriating and heart breaking, when faced with this kind of treatment we need to remember that these people are coming from a place of love.

Recognise it, thank them for caring about you and do it anyway.

Non-Supporter Type 3.

Some people are unsupportive because they don’t share our vision or they disagree with our beliefs.

Your job as an edupreneur is to share with the world what you believe in.  To build a tribe of people that you can serve who are on the same mission and pathway as you.

With this in mind, don’t worry about the people who disagree with you – you are not here to please them.  You only need to focus on the people who do like and agree with you and have similar beliefs.

It’s not your job to convert non-believers.  It’s your job to serve those who already are.

Non-Supporter Type 4.

Then there are people who are not so much concerned about the activity you plan to get stuck into, but are terrified that THEIR world will change if you succeed.  Many people, particularly the non-entrepreneurial type, are very resistant to change, and they are even more resistant to step into the unknown.

What if you succeed and it changes their world?

What if you behave differently, get new friends, have a new routine?

These people will doubt you, oppose you and give you every reason why your idea is ‘stupid’ and a waste of time – anything to try to keep their world ‘safe’ and predictable.

Reassure them that you will still be there and care for them.

Tell them not to worry and that everything will be ok because you have them beside you; and then go on and do it.

Non-Supporter Type 5.

Some people are unsupportive because they are envious.

Many people cannot see that a self-directed life of freedom is possible for them and their jealousy gets the better of them, spilling onto you as hatred or aggression.

There isn’t much that you can do about the way others feel about their own lives. You certainly should not allow someone else’s reflection to fog up yours.

You could share your journey with them and show them that they can have it too; but you’d possibly be wasting your time, as deeply jealous people would even see your offer of help as an insulting attempt to ‘rub salt into their wounds’.

Send them a wish of hope and luck and carry on with your mission.

Non-Supporter Type 6.

Finally, some people are unsupportive quite simply because they are butt-holes.

In the same way that you ‘cannot polish a turd’, don’t try to win over the butt-hole that it came out of either.

Step away from the toilet, take whatever poop they have thrown at you and use it to nourish and fertilise your own beautiful meadows.  You’ve got a world to change after all.

Keep your vision strong and your determination turned on

If you are determined to succeed, be ready for these oppositional mindsets. You can’t let it offend you.

You see the world differently.

You have a calling that they don’t have, and a fire in your belly that will take you places they don’t even dream of!

You can’t help anyone, or change anyone’s lives by listening to these people.

Time to shine!

 

Sarah Cordiner

Sarah Cordiner is a Postgraduate Qualified Course Creation Specialist with over 180,000 student enrolments from 181 countries in her online education programs. Sarah Cordiner helps organisations, experts, speakers, coaches and consultants to create and launch online courses, coaching programs, membership subscriptions, and build successful education-based businesses.

 

What Should I Do With My Life?

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by Beth Hendler-Grunt, founder and president of Next Great Step and author of “The Next Great Step: The Parents’ Guide to Launching Your New Grad Into a Career“

Most young adults start their search by creating a resume or applying for jobs online. But that approach is skipping the most important step in the process. They need to answer the question, “What do you actually want to do?” This query brings out angst and stress because many young adults have no idea what they want to do. It doesn’t matter that they had a specific major or part-time jobs throughout their college career. Grads are stuck — not only because they are overwhelmed with how to create the right resume, or network effectively, but because they have no idea what field or job they want to pursue. This makes the job search seem insurmountable at times.

I see it every day, students who chose their college majors driven by monetary aspirations, parental influence, and even pressure to be in “popular” industries (as deemed by their peers). They end up completely disconnected from their own interests, abilities, or real-world applications. They say things like, “I think actuarial science is where you make money and I have to make money, so that’s where I’m going to go…” yet their skills or passions don’t align with that field.

Or, “My mother and my father are lawyers so I guess I need to be a lawyer. I don’t know if I really want that, but I’m doing poli sci.”

Or, “My friends are doing engineering so I suppose I will, too.”

Students and grads say, “I have to have this figured out and have a clearly mapped out plan because everyone else does.” Or “I just wasted four years of school.” It’s okay. It’s completely normal to not have it figured out. This feeling of being stuck can be overcome with a little patience, practice, and persistence.

Often grads and their parents will look for a personality assessment like the Myers Briggs test or the personal assessment tool like DiSC, to tell them what to pursue. If people want to use them, that’s great. There are a lot of free online assessments out there as well.

People have been trained to believe that testing will help narrow their focus on what to pursue. It can give some helpful information but it’s not a critical or defining step in your child’s job search process. What we’ve found is that while these tests can give some insight, until a young adult learns firsthand what real people actually do for a living, no assessment can help them determine where they want to be. Instead, clarity on their own skills in conjunction with informational interviewing and networking conversations help our young clients determine what they might want to move toward professionally.

If you would like to learn more about how Next Great Step supports young adults land the job they deserve, we welcome the opportunity to speak with you via a complimentary consultation.

 

Beth Hendler-Grunt

Beth Hendler-Grunt is founder and president of Next Great Step. She is a dynamic leader, advisor and facilitator who has extensive experience consulting with startups, Fortune 500 firms, universities and individuals. Hendler-Grunt leverages techniques and insights from hiring managers and CEOs and brings those secrets to students to help them stand out and get the job. She is author of “The Next Great Step“.

 

What Career Options Do You Have After Completing Your Master’s In Public Health Nursing?

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Public health nursing is one of the most exciting professions around. It’s an up-and-coming field full of opportunity, gaining popularity with students and employers. If you’re interested in becoming a public health nurse, a master’s in public health nursing can help you stand out from other applicants.

The additional training and experience provided during the course take your career to the next level. But what career options do you have after completing your Masters in Public Health Nursing? This article will explore some common careers for graduates with a master’s degree in public health nursing.

Public Health Nursing Coordinator

The public health nursing coordinator is a professional who assists in developing and implementing public health policies. In addition, they provide leadership for health programs and services, manage staff, supervise public health nurses, and coordinate work among various disciplines to promote healthy lifestyles. The role requires a master’s in Public Health Nursing degree.

The typical duties of this position include overseeing all aspects of implementing health care needs within an organization or community. The work also includes developing policy recommendations that address patient or group issues based on their needs.

They coordinate activities such as hiring staff members and reviewing information about patient populations’ demographics. Evaluating the effectiveness of current programs through data collection techniques is also covered in their work.

Community Health Department Director

The responsibility for overseeing the operations of the community health department falls on Community health department directors. They are responsible for managing a team of employees and ensuring they perform their duties accordingly. Therefore, a masters degree in nursing is usually required, along with previous experience in a leadership role.

A career as a community health director is promising and lucrative. In the US, community health directors make an average of $144,176 per year, depending on their experience and qualifications.

Community Health Directors supervise workers who provide healthcare services like vaccinations or screenings to populations at high risk for diseases. They may also oversee programs to prevent these diseases before they develop further.

School Nurse

A School nurse is a registered nurse who works in a school setting. School nurses are responsible for the health of students and staff. They may also be responsible for teaching health classes. You can enhance your career as a school nurse after completing a master’s degree in public health nursing. More than 31,30,600 jobs were occupied by professionals in this field in 2021 in the US.

Working as a school nurse can include working with children, teens, and adults. In addition, they must handle various situations that arise during their day-to-day job duties. Some examples include students’ injuries or illnesses, vaccinations, and overseeing school-based health centers to treat minor illnesses or injuries.

They provide first aid when necessary and talk to parents about their child’s progress at school or behavior problems at home. They are also capable of treating minor injuries like cuts or burns and teaching students about topics related to healthy living.

Epidemiologist

An epidemiologist is a health professional who studies disease patterns, causes, and effects in populations. They use data to make decisions to help prevent or control illness and injury in groups of people.

Many epidemiologists work in public health or for government agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Several others work for private organizations, such as pharmaceutical companies. You need a master’s degree in public health nursing to be an epidemiologist.

However, you should have strong analytical skills, good oral and written communication skills, and problem-solving abilities to become successful. In addition, work can be stressful because it involves dealing with diseases that could lead to death if not contained properly.

The workforce of epidemiology remains understaffed even today. However, the number of epidemiologists has increased by 23% after their supporting response during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Healthcare Administrator

Healthcare administrators are crucial to ensuring that patients receive the best care possible. They provide leadership, management, and coordination of healthcare services in hospitals and other settings.

Healthcare administrators work with different professionals to determine how resources should be allocated. They also make decisions about policies affecting the quality of patient care provided at their facilities.

As a healthcare administrator, you will likely work with people from different backgrounds. It can help you develop strong communication skills and an appreciation for diversity in the workplace. Your job may require international travel or extensive time spent away from home. But it will also allow you to see how various regions approach health services worldwide.

Professor

If you are interested in becoming a professor, you must first become an RN and obtain your Ph.D. While this sounds daunting, it isn’t as hard as it seems. Many universities offer dual degree programs which allow students to earn their bachelor’s and master’s degrees simultaneously.

If you wish to continue earning your doctorate-level education, you need to advance your nursing practice training programs. Once this has been completed successfully, one can begin searching for jobs as a professor at local community colleges or universities around the country.

Regarding what jobs go along with being a Ph.D. holder professor, these include teaching courses such as human anatomy & physiology, pathophysiology, medical terminology, etc.

Research Analyst

One of the most promising career options for a Master’s in Public Health Nursing is that of a research analyst. Research analysts collect and analyze data to help make decisions. As a result, they are in high demand across all industries and can work for government agencies, non-profits, or private companies.

This may be the right career option if you have a passion for research and problem-solving.

Research analysts collect and analyze data and communicate their findings to others. Then, they use this information to help companies decide the best course of action moving forward. It can include anything from tracking the success of a marketing campaign to predicting future demand for a product.

A Master in Public Health Nursing Provides Opportunities for a Great Nursing Career

A Master’s in Public Health Nursing opens up many opportunities for a great nursing career. The program provides training in the development and implementation of public health programs. 

It is also understood that nurses will work with various populations, including adults and children and those with disabilities or mental illnesses. In addition, it makes it easier to work with people from different cultures, classes, races, and ethnicities.

A Master’s degree provides enhanced career options to nursing students interested in research or education. In addition, a Master’s degree can help to prepare you for some positions which require additional qualifications.

Once you have finished your Master’s in Public Health Nursing, several options are available. It is crucial to know what these options are before making a decision.

 

Get To Know The Freelance World Of Car Sales

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Presently, almost everyone employs a car for either personal or professional purposes. If you drive a car, you also need to keep it maintained and repaired. As a result, customers must look for auto dealers to purchase and maintain their vehicles.

Car dealerships provide a range of services to assist consumers with their vehicle needs. An auto repair company, for instance, can service automobiles and handle small fixes like changing the oil and mending flat tyres. A dealership may also sell brand-new automobiles, enabling consumers to get the new cars they need whenever they need them.

Additionally, you must apply for several types of dealer licenses in California or any other US state to be eligible to be a car dealer. Let us share the ready guide with you so that you are informed of the nature of this business and its potential.

Types of dealers

There are two types of car dealerships: used and new cars. Both have an equal scope with different market dynamics.

Used car dealerships focus on selling cars that have been previously owned by other people. These cars may be in good working order or need significant repairs before being sold to customers.

New car dealerships focus on selling brand-new vehicles to customers who want them right away. New cars usually cost more than older models do because they require very little maintenance and upkeep, so they can be sold at higher prices than their older counterparts.

Freelance business model

A freelance car dealer sells cars for a commission. The most common way for a freelance car dealer to make money is by helping the owner of the vehicle find a buyer, and then the car dealer will earn a commission from that sale.

The other option is that the car dealer buys the vehicle and sells it at a profit to their next buyer.

Prerequisite of a freelance car dealer

As the saying goes, “a good salesman can sell anything to anyone,” but if you are too aggressive with your clients, you may lose their trust and turn them off from working with you.

This means that to help clients find vehicles they want at fair prices and get them into your cars fast, you must help them settle on a price that’s fair for both parties.

It’s also important that you show confidence in your ability to do so—if clients feel like they are getting taken advantage of or pressured into making an agreement they don’t want, they will probably never consider using your services again.

The other important aspect of being a car dealer is ensuring everything runs smoothly throughout the process. There are many factors involved in buying or selling vehicles — from finding the right model or color to negotiating with dealerships who may want more money than what was originally agreed upon — and it all needs to go smoothly before either party gets too frustrated or disappointed.

 

Martin Lewis: Does The Money Expert Endorse Bridging Loans?

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Martin Lewis is one of the UK’s most recognisable money-saving experts and a hugely successful entrepreneur. He is perhaps most famous for founding Money Saving Expert in 2002, which at the time cost him approximately £100 to set up. 10 years later, he sold his website and brand to the Money Supermarket group for a huge £87 million.

Even so, Martin Lewis continues to work as a columnist and advisor for a broad range of publications. His advice and recommendations saved millions of UK households billions of pounds over the years, on everything from car insurance to energy bills to mortgages.

However, Martin Lewis himself does not offer any specific financial products within his own brand. Businesses and private borrowers regularly conduct searches for Martin Lewis bridging loans, but he himself does not directly offer (or endorse) any specific products.

There is a little rudimentary information on bridging loans provided by Martin Lewis in some of his reports and advisory columns, but nothing particularly concrete. If you are looking to pick up an affordable bridging loan for any purpose, it is important to consult with a specialist broker before applying.

How Does Bridging Finance Work?

Bridging finance is a specialist type of secured loan, designed strictly with short-term applications in mind. Most bridging loans are repaid within three to 12 months, during which interest accrues on a monthly basis (anywhere from 0.4% to 1.5% per month). This makes bridging finance a uniquely cost-effective facility when repaid promptly – far more affordable than a comparable mortgage or a similar long-term loan.

Perhaps the most important and appealing aspect of bridging finance is the speed with which the facility can be arranged. With all essential paperwork and supporting evidence in place, it can take just a few working days to apply for and access a bridging loan. This makes it the perfect choice for time-critical purchases and investment opportunities, such as buying properties at auction for cash.

There are also no restrictions placed on how the funds raised with bridging finance can be used. Whereas a traditional mortgage can only be used to purchase certain types of properties, a bridging loan can be used for any legal purpose whatsoever.

Maximum loan values are tied to the value of the assets (usually property) used to secure the loan. Most lenders cap their maximum LTVs (Loan to Value) at 80%, but larger loans can sometimes be negotiated. Against an asset valued at £400,000 (which could be a residential property or business premises), a bridging loan at 80% LTV could be secured with a value of £320,000.

The full balance is then repaid in a single lump-sum payment on an agreed date, inclusive of all interest and borrowing costs.

Who Can Qualify For a Bridging Loan?

Bridging finance is also a more flexible and accessible funding option than most comparable loans and mortgages. Eligibility requirements are fairly straightforward – you simply need to own assets of value to use as security for the loan and have a plan in place to repay the balance by the agreed date (exit strategy).

It is even possible for borrowers with poor credit and/or a history of bankruptcy to qualify. You do not need any formal proof of income and nor is your employment status a major deciding factor. Just as long as you can comfortably repay the loan when the time comes, you have a good chance of qualifying for an affordable bridging loan.

For more information on any of the above or to discuss the benefits of bridging finance in more detail, call a provider anytime for an obligation-free consultation.

 

Holiday Event Ideas For Remote Staff

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Everyone looks forward to holidays to refresh their minds and body. A company organizes occasions to add excitement to an employee’s monotonous work life. Consequently, companies plan holiday events for remote staff to strengthen the unity between the employees and optimize the work culture. The holiday events create a wonderful bonding moment and pave the way to celebrate organizational relationships and work spirit. It is also a great way to appreciate each other’s presence in the company.

If you are looking forward to organizing an event or holiday that your entire staff will appreciate and participate in, hire an experienced virtual holiday event planning agency to execute unique occasions. In such moments, remote workers connect virtually, enjoy drinks and food, and participate collectively in games, quizzes, cooking sessions, wine tasting, etc.

Holiday Fun For Remote Employees

Virtual parties are much easier to plan and execute than one might think. If St. Patrick’s Day is arriving, the company can arrange an elaborate quiz session for all its employees. Companies can also go for cocktail parties wherein employees at home have to create a cocktail of their choice from the ingredients sent by the party planner. The company can encourage its employees to be more environmentally conscious and participate in virtual gardening sessions. Bingo is a great game that is known for being engaging and exciting. Bingo can be organized virtually for office workers effortlessly. One can dress up according to the holiday one is celebrating (you can wear a Christmas sweater and Santa cap) and play Bingo with co-workers virtually, drinking eggnog.

Virtual cooking sessions are catching-up nowadays. One can organize virtual cookie-baking and decorating events for employees. Similarly, pie baking can be organized wherein workers will be delivered a baking kit and recipe, and all participants will roll the dough and bake together online.

Thus, there are different types and genres of holiday events for remote staff that a company can focus on. Businesses often hire the best holiday event planning agency to design personalized events per their requirements and budget. For example, the event planning agency can host occasions like Halloween, intern day, seasonal events, cooking events, gardening and craft events, etc.

Company parties and events are great for bonding and encouraging team-building efforts. Party ideas are endless, and professional party planners can do a great deal of work to make a virtual party for company employees successful. While coming up with a thought of a party for office workers is easy, executing it can be challenging. One needs the assistance and planning props of a professional. They can better curate a plan according to the size of the group attending the virtual event.

Conclusion

Through events, leaders get a chance to appreciate their team and subordinates that embrace the opportunities to grow in a better work culture. By executing a holiday event, an enterprise stimulates a positive work environment and its long-term advantages. Appreciating and celebrating your teammate’s growth sows the seed of compassion and empathy, resulting in healthy competition among the members of a company. Lastly, inter-departmental communications are another gain that occurs during such fun events, which helps to attain smooth communication, uniting each department.

 

4 Strategies To Mindfully Enhance Your Creativity 

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by Ronald A. Alexander, PhD, author of “Core Creativity: The Mindful Way to Unlock Your Creative Self“

Creativity is about journeying into the dark and mysterious forest of the unknown. It’s not necessarily about participating in the arts, although it can be. It’s about opening the door to your core creativity and to open-mind awareness to help you achieve your goals, break through a creative block or make a life change. You can stop yearning for the big chance to find a sense of purpose and start experiencing your creativity today, regardless of the mundane items on your agenda.

One of the most effective ways to become creatively toned and start accessing core creativity is through a mindfulness practice. Mindfulness allows you to listen and pay attention to what you might otherwise overlook — whether it’s a fresh idea or a new way of perceiving a situation. With mindfulness, you enhance your creativity and let go of any obstacles to innovation.

“Open monitoring meditation,” a form of mindfulness meditation, involves remaining focused and mindful, however, instead of sustaining your attention on one thing (your breath or a mantra), you sustain it on what you’re experiencing in the present moment while breathing naturally. By relaxing into sensations, emotions, memories, and thoughts as they arise, you broaden your focus and access your witness state. In it, you tap into the creativity that comes from deep within.

Here are four techniques to help you ignite your creativity.

1. Work mindfully with dreams.

If you feel that you simply have no creative abilities, consider your dreams. Most nights your mind generates at least a few fantastical images that you can recall upon waking if you awake with the intent of remembering your dreams. I often ask my clients to work with the images of their dreams by writing about them and exploring them to see what ideas and insights they have to offer.

Keep a notebook or tape recorder by the bed, and when you first become aware of your dream, record as much detail as possible of whatever fragments, images, feelings, or emotions you can recall. Enter a state of quiet, mindful reflection and let the dream replay itself in your consciousness. Note that each symbol in the dream represents some aspect of yourself, so after recalling the dream, think about how each one reveals something about you.

2. Mood management.

Depression is a loop of unwholesome thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that feed upon themselves, spiraling the sufferer away from an experience of hope, enthusiasm, or curiosity. It chokes off the pipeline to the creative core. If you want to open up to a sense that tomorrow will bring new situations, new people, and new ideas, then eliminating harmful moods is very important.

Mindfulness meditation, a yoga practice, and regular exercise are all excellent for mood regulation. They lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in your bloodstream, increase your interleukin levels (enhancing your immune system and providing you with greater energy), and streamline your body’s ability to cleanse itself of chemical toxins, such as lactic acid in your muscles and bloodstream, which can affect neurotransmitter receptors and alter your mood.

3. Become quiet and do nothing.

You don’t have to “try” to be creative when you access core creativity. You don’t have to “think through” what to do next, because a sense of possibility and wonder will simply come to you, followed by ideas that flow into you. By quieting your thoughts, you allow your unconscious mind to open up. Ideas will start bubbling to the surface of your awareness, often in the form of images or of a sense of deep, inner knowing.

A world-class drummer once took me inside his music room. Slowly moving his hand across the drum kit, he said, “Sometimes I sit here for hours in the silence and quietly wait for the drums to tell me what to write and play.” His ability to patiently wait and remain in an open, listening state was a key element in his ability to create amazing music.

4. Persevere and trust in the creative process.

Although artists are often considered flighty or undisciplined, the most successful ones that I know are extremely disciplined. They may spend a workday seemingly doing nothing, but in fact they’re consciously choosing to remain in a state of openness. They may pick up a guitar and start playing anything, or sit at a computer and start typing whatever comes to mind, in order to start their creative flow. When nothing comes, they aren’t afraid to shift gears — to take a walk, or break from the way they’ve chosen to connect to their creativity by trying something entirely different.

The reason they’re able to persevere isn’t because they have a particular temperament, but because they’ve experienced breakthroughs again and again. They know that they can rely on two distinct channels to glide into that space where we all access our core creativity: honing their craft, a left-brain activity that tones us creatively over time; and persevering and trusting in their ability to access creative transformation.

When you trust in the creative process, instead of merely dipping your toe in the water and playing it safe, you’re willing to be utterly daring. Knowing this, you can navigate through a sea of self-limiting thoughts. Being more mindfully present lets you see with new eyes and hear with new ears.

 

Ronald Alexander

Ronald A. Alexander, PhD, is author of “Core Creativity: The Mindful Way to Unlock Your Creative Self“. He’s the executive director of the OpenMind® Training Program that offers personal and professional training programs in mindfulness-based therapies, transformational leadership and meditation. He is also author of “Wise Mind, Open Mind: Finding Purpose and Meaning in Times of Crisis, Loss, and Change“.

 

Dos And Don’ts When Designing A Product Label

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by Adam Peek, VP of Meyers Printing and host of People of Packaging podcast

The labels on your everyday items go way beyond stickers, logos, or any print material. On a formal definition, the label is the identification or description of a product. But its very concept is to grab the consumer’s attention with its novelty and make the product stand out from others.

True, labeling is the most direct way to communicate your product’s information, benefits, and visualization. But through labeling, you also expand your branding. No wonder many businesses become more creative in their labels.

To get ahead of the competition, consider the dos and don’ts of the process of product labeling:

On planning.

Dos

· Consider your product’s target demographic.

Every item has its own target audience. Thus, knowing your target market can help you deliberate which design to apply, materials to use, and core values to represent.

· Include customer input in planning.

Accordingly, getting your customers involved in the design process can allow engagement to your product. As much as possible, ask for their feedback until the design suits their appeal. 

· Be creative with striking stories.

The popular expression “A picture paints a thousand words” also applies to labels. They can evoke certain emotions or moods. Thus, include storytelling through texts and images.

Don’ts

· Never sacrifice functionality for aesthetics.

While there is nothing wrong with colorful labels, they sometimes distract from the core functionality of your products. Reflect on the very nature of your product first before the design. 

·  Stop being influenced by trends.

Trends can be a sound tactic for a short amount of time. But making it as the basis for your label not only dates it but also costs more.

On label design.

Dos

· Determine the appropriate color scheme.

Colors for your product label should fit with your brand and customer’s taste. Thus, be wise in choosing the color palette. When applying colors, design in CMYK, not RGB.

· Make text and images readable.

The texts and images present give your label an impression. Make sure to apply readable typography and select high-quality images that relate to your product. 

· Stick to the product’s branding.

When designing, represent your business, as well as the product’s USP, through the labels. Make sure your logo and brand are noticeable but not bulky.

Don’ts

· Never overdesign your product labels.

Labels can express so much information at one glance. Thus, it is realistic to keep your design simple yet catchy. Never overstuff your label with tacky design and typography, and remember what restrictions to apply.

· Don’t choose inferior editing software.

While Photoshop and some Windows tools are helpful, they are not the only editing software at your disposal. Practically, you can also use Adobe Illustrator for designing labels.

On label’s content.

Dos

· Research about your product’s attributes.

Of course, before actually designing your product, you have to know what your product truly represents. But, for authenticity’s sake, list down your product’s attributes to make them selling points. 

· Place the necessary product information.

This goes for the product information as well. After you include the product name, brand logo, and slogan, insert essential data like nutritional facts, ingredients, barcode, and standard retail price. 

· Take note of regulations.

Certain labeling requirements are to follow, as mandated by law, depending on the product you are selling. This is clear on food and medicine, which require measurements to be indicated.

Don’ts

· Avoid text or information overload.

Information overload is a huge turn-off for customers. Words on any advertisement (from billboards to product labels) should be quick to read and easy to pick up. Thus, avoid wordiness. 

· Remove false or vague claims.

Businesses are expected to be transparent and clear about their products, which should first reflect on the labeling. Avoid making fabricated or unclear claims. Otherwise, you will face backlash.

And on packaging.

Dos

· Take precise measurements of the container.

As you prepare for printing labels, make sure you get the exact dimensions of your product containers. Use them as a guide for your design and disseminate it to your printer. 

· Ensure product content is protected.

Packaging may tamper with the quality of the product. Make sure your labels indicate how to safely open the packaging and always check your packaging’s safety standards.

· Consider shipping and logistics always.

At a time when e-commerce and online deliveries are rampant, it is vital to make sure your packaging preserves your products in their best condition.

· Take note of packaging materials.

Whether or not you are designing for a client, take note of the packaging materials that will be used so and if they will fit your preferred label printing method.

Don’ts

· Avoid using excessive packaging waste.

For customers, it can be a hassle to see more packaging on their hands than the product itself. Regardless if your products require a level of preservation or not, avoid bulky packaging.

Final Takeaways.

Crafting the perfect label for your product can be a grueling task. But if you fully understand the nature and image of your business and listen to your loyal customers’ side, the rest will follow.

Labeling is another strategic marketing tactic. And in a competitive market, having your product label stand out will draw more customers and attention. So, be creative, persuasive, and attentive to the eyes that will see the next big thing.

 

Adam Peek is a VP at Meyers Printing as well as host of the People of Packaging podcast. His passion for changing the world has also led him to be a sustainability consultant, sales trainer, global keynote speaker/preacher, soon-to-be children’s book author… and a part-time rapper.

 

5 Real Ways You Can Grow Your Business As A Fitness Coach

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Reena Vokoun - virtual fitness studio

Reena Vokoun - virtual fitness studio

Fitness is an important part of our everyday lives. The onset of the pandemic saw the closure of many gyms around the country as people turned to digital channels to meet their fitness needs. In fact, according to a recent survey, the majority of Americans do not plan to renew their gym memberships after the pandemic.

Fortunately, as a fitness coach, you can take advantage of the expanding online market. Continue reading to learn ways you can make big money as a fitness coach.

1. Have a Virtual Studio.

One of the best ways of making money as a fitness coach is by moving your fitness classes online. When you run a virtual studio, you can reach more clients from all over the world. You no longer have to align yourself with clients’ schedules.

You can also create exclusive offerings for your most loyal clients. Any fitness practice can expand its reach and revenue by having an online fitness studio that helps it reach a wider audience. You will make money as clients purchase subscriptions to access:

  • Live workouts
  • Specialized workshops and courses, including motivational talks and nutrition advice
  • Complementary videos, including client and subscriber stories

If you have already established an online audience, you only need to choose a streaming platform that allows you to sell one-off purchases and subscriptions.

2. Launch a Fitness App.

A fitness app will make your online fitness center even more accessible to both existing and potential customers. A fitness app allows customers to view videos from:

  • TVs
  • Tablets
  • Smartphones

Most people might ask, why not just use YouTube? With YouTube, there is limited transparency and control. You will be subject to the ever-changing algorithms and monetization schemes, making it harder to generate income.

You should partner with a custom software development company to help you create a fitness app that includes on-demand videos or a mixture of live content and videos. Ideally, you should go for an app with an OTT platform that gives you full control over the potential to make money.

The right OTT platform should:

  • Include a payment system that allows you to set your price and sell subscriptions
  • Handle all tech, meaning that you don’t have to hire or manage a development team 
  • Own customer support by outsourcing commonly asked questions to save you time and money

With a reliable OTT platform, you only need to focus on creating amazing content.

3. Leverage Social Media.

You need to promote your online fitness studio to drive revenue and increase your client base. This is particularly important if you are just starting to build your online presence. A great place to start is by posting fitness videos on social media.

Promoting your studio on social media could take many forms. For an established brand, social media marketing could involve contracting an Instagram influencer or sharing user-generated content from your satisfied clients. Social media platforms are the perfect vehicle to enhance awareness and create excitement regarding your online offerings.

4. Create Digital Downloadable Products.

One of the most effective ways of making money online as a fitness instructor is by creating digital downloadable products. These products can include fitness journals and workout plans. Downloadable content will continue to generate passive income for years, yet it only needs minimal maintenance. You should take advantage of PDFs because they are easy to create. You don’t require hours of editing to update your content. You will attract clients who prefer reading before subscribing.

5. Offer Free Trials.

Offering free fitness trials is an effective way of attracting new customers. Free trials encourage new customers to give your subscription app or online studio a try. The majority of people who sign up for a free trial eventually convert into paying customers.

Summing Up

Today, people are more concerned about their health than ever before. This makes fitness coaching a straightforward way for fitness instructors to make money. However, if you want to diversify your income as a fitness coach, you need to get creative. Use the above ideas to boost your income and make your business resilient to tough economic times.

 

How To Split Equity In A Startup The Right Way

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Equity represents a startup’s ownership, typically expressed as a percentage of shares of stock. During the early stages of a startup’s formation, founders like you may need to give up a big chunk of equity to match the risk that investors take by funding your startup; however, as your startup grows and displays more success, your (the founder’s) startup equity increases in value. Thus, investors are typically willing to pay more or access less equity in exchange for funding.

In general, four main actors can get startup equity – co-founders, investors, advisors or mentors, and employees. Of course, different startups have different combinations of equity share of the four categories mentioned above. However, what remains constant is the looming challenge that every startup founder faces when deciding to split equity! In such a situation, a startup equity calculator might help. 

Types Of Equity Splits

Simply put, there are two ways of splitting equity: evenly and dynamically or unequally. Before embarking on the daunting mission of equity division, you should understand which trajectory suits your startup. 

  • Equal Splits – Such a division formula is ideal at the very formative stage of your startup when all the work lies ahead. Roping in a co-founder or co-founders lets you divide the labor involved in getting the business off the ground. However, the key is to ensure that all the technical co-founders are equally committed to and invested in the startup’s success. If you are doubtful about offering an equal share of the equity to your business partner, you must rethink partnering with them in the first place.
  • Dynamic Splits – The other and more common equity split is unequal or dynamic. You and the other co-founders have to decide how much each of you deserves based on your contribution to the startup. Dynamic split is also applicable when dividing equity among employees, investors, and the board of directors and advisors.

 Factors To Consider For A Fair Equity Split

After a brief introduction to the two main types of equity splits, let us quickly examine the factors on which a dynamic split must be based. 

  • Ideation – The person who ideated the primary value proposition of the company undoubtedly, deserves the most significant portion of equity ownership. For instance, one of the two co-founders of Instagram ended up with a 40 percent equity stake, owing to the fact that he was the one whose technological innovation made Instagram a reality. The other co-founder, who joined later in the process, received a 10 percent equity stake in the company. The balance is distributed to investors and employees.
  • Startup Stage – Typically, co-founders or people who join a company in the most formative phases of the establishment (prior to the seed round and funding) deserver a large pie of the equity share as a reward for their time and assumption of risk.
  • Salary Replacement – At times, technical co-founders and employees will accept a much lower salary based on their understanding of what their ownership stake in the company will be worth later. For instance, the designer of Nike’s logo, who was paid USD 35 plus a piece of equity, is now worth over USD 640000.
  • Seed Capital – At times, you may adjust a 50/50 split of equity among co-founders to 60/40 or any other figure in favor of the founder who had put more seed capital into the business.
  • Other Considerations – Some other elements that can help make the equity splitting process an easy success include –
    • Gauging the time spent by each person presenting the business model to potential investors
    • Each person’s contribution to the company’s intellectual property
    • Time to be spent on business development
    • Ability to resolve future problems based on professional connection and individual experience
    • Value of opportunities lost to the individual due to their commitment to the start.
    • Having a startup equity calculator and other such tools becomes crucial during such a situation.

 The Basics Of Startup Equity Split

Dividing startup equity split by roles or responsibilities is beleaguered with hurdles, especially for laypersons. However, a simple startup equity guide will help you navigate the process. 

  • Splitting Startup Equity among Technical Co-founders – To begin with, equity division among co-founders is reasonably straightforward as long as you abide by some pivotal rules. Firstly, it is vital to make the equity split equal and fair. Avoid roping in multiple co-founders, as it can create confusion and distribution problems down the line.
  • Splitting Startup Equity among Investors – The most challenging aspect of equity division is among your investors, but a simple formula might come in handy. For instance, if you plan to raise USD 3 million, and the investors feel that the company’s worth is USD 10 million, you will have to provide them with 30 percent of your organization in exchange for the money. The investors do not have any new responsibilities or liabilities. In most cases, investors will always have full ownership of any shares they’ve bought (known as “vested”) in the company. Having an app development for equity can be of tremendous relief during such sticky situations.
  • Splitting Equity Among Board of Directors and Advisors – In most situations, the equity offered to the board of directors ranges from around 05 percent to 2 percent. On the other hand, the equity distribution for advisors is approximately at around 1/10 o 0.5 percent.
  • Splitting Equity for Employees – One of the primary goals of splitting startup equity is to provide early employees an incentive in exchange for the faith, blood, and sweat they have placed in an embryonic organization. Such a strategy will motivate them to improve and grow your company in the long haul. An efficient and wise tactic you can follow as a startup’s technical co-founder is to keep 10 to 15 percent of your company’s equity for indispensable and irreplaceable employees. However, the thumb rule is to keep aside equity points from 1 to 10 percent for your early hires.

So, there we have it, a comprehensive overview of how to split equity among various stakeholders of a startup.

 

7 Tips To Protect Your Startup’s Data

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If you have a startup, you would want to ensure its better operation. This could be done by keeping the data safe, and everything backed up properly. 

You never know when your teams could face any unfortunate situation. So, keeping such things in mind, it is better to protect your startup data beforehand. Now, there are several ways by which you can do so.

Check out these tips to learn how:

1. Automatic Backup.

In a startup environment, you never know when a catastrophe can occur. That’s why you must avoid such sudden issues and try out automatic backups instead of manual ones. Make sure these backups constantly occur or on a periodic basis, so you can sigh relief even in worst-case situations.

2. Data Encryption.

You must also keep your data encrypted through backup software products. This will ensure the data gets encrypted and transformed into the cloud through a secured channel.

3. Create Multiple Copies.

Alternatively, you should make multiple copies of the data, so you get a backup, even if the files get displaced. For example, you can try the 3-2-1 rule, where you can keep three backups of essential files, followed by two backup copies in two different stores and one copy somewhere off-site. 

4. Store Data in Public Cloud.

Another way to protect and store your startup data is by transferring the relevant data to the public cloud like AWS or Microsoft Azure. Not only are they secure, but you can stay assured of encryption to get next-level file protection.  

5. Train Your Employees.

To keep your files safe, you must train your employees and familiarise them with possible threats that they might face while working. Teach them about how they shouldn’t be handing over any sensitive information and let them know about cyber threats like phishing. 

6. 2-Factor Authentication.

Instead of using a username and password combination, you should go for 2-factor authentication. This can be done for both the employees and consumers to ensure better protection of the startup data. 

7. Regular Risk Assessment.

You should also ensure efficient risk assessment through regular penetration testing and vulnerability scanning. Make sure that these steps are included in your regular security routine. Also, look for the industry guidelines as for the healthcare industry, it’s required by law to initiate risk assessment. 

What is Data Protection? How to Solve the Issue in Case of Data Damage?

As it’s clear from the name itself, data protection is a method of safeguarding crucial information from getting corrupted, compromised, or lost. 

If your data got lost due to hard drive damage, then we recommend you remove the hard drive from the system and check it on another device. If the file seems damaged in that case, too, you can try using data recovery software. 

Now, if none of the tricks works, we recommend taking professional help from hard drive recovery service providers. They will ensure all your files are retrieved and aren’t damaged whatsoever. As they are professionals, your job will be done quickly and easily. 

That’s it. Hopefully, now you know about some of the effective tips to keep your startup’s data safe and damage-free.

 

How I Work Is As Important As What I Do. This Has Helped Me Succeed As A Founder.

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by Libby Hoffman, author of “The Answers are There: Building Peace From the Inside Out“

When I received a significant inheritance in the early 2000s, my first thought was “How can I use these resources to help create a better world?”

As a political science professor specializing in religion and peacebuilding, I had always felt called to help people and communities to fulfill their own potential and make their own decisions rather than rely on outside aid. I saw the windfall as a sacred invitation to do this work in the way I most deeply believed it should be done.

So I established the foundation Catalyst for Peace (CFP), whose mission is to create space for communities to lead in their own development and peace after war or crisis. The West African nation Sierra Leone had just emerged from 11 years of civil war. Its communities were in need of healing and repair. In partnership with Sierra Leonean human rights advocate John Caulker, I led CFP in designing programs predicated on asking local communities in Sierra Leone what they wanted, and building from there — a nearly unprecedented step in international aid work. Since their inception over 15 years ago, these programs have grown into a major presence in Sierra Leone and a source of inspiration around the world. I write about this journey in my new book, “The Answers are There: Building Peace From the Inside Out“.

Nothing about this work has been easy. There have been countless obstacles and roadblocks along the way, in the form of both outside events and my own internal struggles. There still are today. But there is one thing that has remained constant, something I am convinced is foundational to producing meaningful, lasting results in any field:

The transformational power of being intentional not just about what I do, but also, how I go about it.

This does not mean micromanaging myself or others. Rather, it is about infusing each action I take and each decision I make with meaning and intention by bringing my whole self to my work, while working from a place of wholeness. It’s an approach that’s at once deeply spiritual, highly personal and resoundingly universal.

Here are its foundations, which I share not as a prescription, but as inspiration:

A commitment to embodying my highest values in how I work, and to trusting them as a guide.

When leaders live out the values they advocate, their examples can magnify transformation. When a program or initiative is structured intentionally to invite and support that, what is good for the whole can truly . . . lead. Whether we’re having conversations or reflecting on decisions to be made, when we allow our highest values and a commitment to living them out in practice to guide us, they will pull us forward toward solutions, together. Letting my vision and values lead me has continually challenged me to become a better version of myself as a leader and practitioner. 

Recognizing that I’m part of a much larger whole, and letting my actions reflect this.

At a critical juncture in my work leading CFP, I realized that my capacity to do and lead does not come from personal heroism, or from my individual resources and capacities. Instead, it represents a much deeper and more infinite resource, one that I am merely tapping into and that flows through the communities I serve. When we recognize this, and are willing to see and yield to it, we can draw from a much deeper wisdom. This has informed my own growth as a leader and contributed to the success of CFP programs, which are founded on listening and acting from the perspective of community wholeness. There is power in the flow, in the back and forth, in the mutuality.

Actively making space for not knowing all the answers.

The system we operate in tells us that we must be experts at what we do; that being an expert means knowing everything already; and that being in-process is wrong and bad and unnecessary, a distraction from our “real” work. Yet, I have found immense value in putting aside the tendency to assume we have (or should have, at least) all the answers. When we shift away from that mindset, we can take the time to look and listen, to step back and pause and reflect – individually and collectively – thus actively making space for not knowing. From that place, we uncover new answers and new resources, and discover how not knowing can actually be powerfully generative.

Expecting that to fulfill my vision I must grow and change.

It is said that the best leaders are those who make the most space for others’ growth and development. Yet, leaders, too, must consciously grow more fully into their leadership capacity. In 2013, I ran up against the limits of my capacity to function as I had been since CFP’s inception, as a source of support working behind the scenes and inviting others forward. I had become invisible, and I had lost my capacity to see, name, and claim my own desires and needs. Pouring everything out in service to helping others step into their leadership, now I was spent. I needed help reclaiming what was mine to do —which meant it was time to demolish my strong internal barriers to receiving the same kind of support I so freely and easily offered to others. So I gathered a trusted cohort of friends and colleagues for a week-long retreat to support me in my leadership, in my growth as a person, and in discerning the way forward for CFP.

From the outset, I had invested in CFP not just money, but the fullness of who I was and who I was growing into. This juncture in 2013 was perhaps the most poignant, but not the only, moment to date when I’ve had to ask, “Am I as willing to receive (help, support, learning) as I am to give? Am I as willing to transform myself as I am to support others’ transformation?”

These are questions leaders must ask in an ongoing way.

Acknowledging that my work is a living process.

In our results-focused world, we tend to begin initiatives with a detailed advance plan, predetermined project timelines, goals, and outcomes. These demands make it difficult to work in long-term or emergent ways — all the more so in the realm of social change. “Outcomes” are visible things, outward accomplishments; yet so much of what really drives initiatives forward is interaction — living process, in living relationships, over time.  Building work spaces that honor living processes and relationships is essential to successful outcomes.

Together, these steps open up a more soul-centered approach to leadership, for both an individual and an organization.

 

Libby Hoffman

Libby Hoffman, author of “The Answers Are There: Building Peace From the Inside Out“, is founder and president of Catalyst for Peace (CFP), a private foundation helping empower local communities impacted by violence to lead their own path to peace and development. Hoffman produced the award-winning documentary film Fambul Tok and co-authored a companion book by the same title.

 

How To Live Out Your Entrepreneurial Dreams Through Investing In Multiple Industries

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woman video conference laptop

woman video conference laptop

by Marlo Richardson, founder of Business Bullish

Ask any financial expert, and they will tell you that a diversified portfolio is the best way to avoid the ups and downs of market volatility. Like riding the investment waves as they ebb and flow, having businesses in multiple industries can help entrepreneurs diversify their income streams and follow a host of passions.

Entrepreneurs are creative people by nature. They can also suffer from a bit of multi-passionate lack of focus if they’re not careful. However, if business-minded people play their cards right, investing in multiple industries can be very rewarding — personally and financially.

The Serial Entrepreneur 

Many business owners can’t get enough of it once they catch the entrepreneurial bug. After years of owning multiple businesses and founding a resource for multi-passionate entrepreneurs,  I know the life of a serial entrepreneur all too well. 

The first place I started as an entrepreneur was investing in real estate. I was young, and I knew that I needed something to help offset taxes. I ended up loving building and constructing my visions and seeing it play out in real life.

My visions ran the gamut following the founding of my real estate business. I soon moved on to owning a restaurant, film production, podcasting, cryptocurrency, and the cannabis industry. 

You have a better chance of success when you’re not tied to one specific industry that may fluctuate. However, I would caution budding serial entrepreneurs against having too many pokers in the fire too quickly. The goal of any entrepreneur is to build something great. Being too diversified can sometimes lead to one’s ability being limited, perhaps leading to some “good” but very little “great.” 

Entrepreneurs can avoid the trap of being too diversified by maintaining proper focus. I would urge people who want to start a business to focus on their time and not necessarily money. 

People should take their time and do enough research so that you’re not wasting time or money. You can always make money. Time is irreplaceable and has proven to be very expensive in and of itself.

Focus and Success 

A multi-business empire can certainly be achieved by maintaining proper focus and keeping time as your currency. There are several ways of approaching your bevy of businesses that will set you up for creating greatness, not just something “so-so.” 

There are some things to consider when running multiple businesses that could help ease the more complicated parts of being multi-passionate: 

  • If they wish, people who have brick-and-mortar locations can run several businesses out of the same central location. This allows some streamlining and simplification of your operations. If you have staff for one business, they may be able to assist with another if they are working out of the same place. 
  • Strong business plans for each passion are essential to keep things organized and keep one’s goals for each discipline clear. 
  • Delegation can be crucial. Entrepreneurs should know their strengths and delegate out the tasks that are their weaker points. 
  • I encourage people to involve those they know and love in their various ventures. If there’s any way possible to include your loved ones in your ventures, I highly recommend doing so. People spend more time working than they do with loved ones. Including them in projects is a great way to help them develop skills and spend time that would otherwise be lost.

With a multi-passionate life as an entrepreneur, time should always be an important consideration. Time is a precious commodity and can be in short supply with each business a serial entrepreneur adds to their portfolio. We get so caught up in the day-to-day operations of business. Many things in life can pass us by because we were too busy or too tired.

Running multiple businesses can be challenging and is not for everyone. It takes a special kind of entrepreneur to have so many plates spinning in the air and keep them all aloft, spinning away, serving the public, and creating a dynamic career path. Running multiple businesses successfully can be done, and it is undoubtedly an exciting way to scratch that entrepreneurial itch. 

 

Marlo Richardson is the founder of Business Bullish, a website and resource that seeks to train people in the areas of financial literacy and entrepreneurship. She is a dynamic business woman and leader and is also a keynote speaker and business advisor who shares with local businesses her success stories in hopes that they can replicate her growth.

 

[Infographic] 13 Ideas For A Happier Office

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A positive office environment breeds happy employees, and happy workers are simply more productive than those that are unhappy. Good bosses and managers realize that.

Trying to create a happy workplace is actually easier than it sounds. There are many little things you can do that may seem insignificant, but can actually matter a lot to your employee.

So what can you do?

Award-winning collaboration and work management software Wrike has put together an infographic listing out 13 ways you can help build a healthier and more fun workplace to put a smile on the faces of your employees.

13 Ways to Build a Happy & More Productive Workforce - by Wrike project management software

[Infographic brought to you by Wrike software for agile project management]

 

4 Tips To Avoid Entrepreneur Burnout

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distressed upset man

distressed upset man

You’ll be surprised how quickly things can go from awesome to awful in this job. There are great and bad days, but the role challenges tend to stay with you. Entrepreneur burnout is a serious risk for those who love what they do because there will be days when that love feels like the most arduous task in the universe. Burnout can creep up on anyone, but by staying alert to the early signs, you can avoid it completely or catch it before it significantly impacts your business and your personal life.

And if you find yourself burning out, these tips will help get you back up and running sooner rather than later.

1. Don’t work alone.

A successful business is more than just the work you do every day. It’s about the culture and environment you create for your team. It’s about how you treat your customers. And it’s about how you interact with others in your industry and your community. Dealing with people can be tricky at times, but one way to help alleviate the pressure and keep your spirits high is to make sure you’re not working solo. Establishing and nurturing relationships outside of your business can help you feel less isolated. You may not have time to join a book club, but you can make time to have coffee or lunch with a friend or mentor. There’s a lot of insight to be gained from bouncing ideas off someone who isn’t as close to your project. And that can help you avoid getting stuck in your own head.

2. Take occasional breaks.

This doesn’t mean you should take a vacation every month. It means that you should take regular breaks from your routine to re-evaluate your goals and get a clear view of your present situation. You can take a walk outside, go on a mini vacation with friends, or spend a day on a hobby that doesn’t have anything to do with business. Even tiny breaks during the day where you play a game of Spider Solitaire or do some pushups can have an effect. All of these activities can help you get a new perspective on the world around you, which can, in turn, help you make better decisions when it comes to the future of your business. Taking breaks is also important because it’s the only way to recharge your batteries. Taking time away from your daily tasks isn’t just a luxury: it’s vital for your health and happiness.

3. Delegate what you can.

Being an entrepreneur gives you the freedom to make your own rules, but it doesn’t give you the freedom to do everything. It’s important to understand which tasks are critical to your success and which tasks aren’t worth the risk. The trick is knowing where to draw the line. This can be a struggle for many entrepreneurs, especially when you’re working in a field that you’ve chosen because you’re passionate about it, not because you’re qualified to do it. But the fact is, you can’t do everything yourself, and trying to do so is a surefire way to burn out. So, if you know you’re not skilled or experienced enough to do something, don’t feel bad about outsourcing it. From managing social media to answering customer support, there are plenty of ways to take some of the burden off your shoulders that don’t require you to hire employees.

4. Make your why bigger.

You have an “inner why”, which is often the driving force behind your business. You have an “outer why”, which is how you explain that same driving force to others. If your business is a combination of passion, experience, and good ideas, it won’t be easy to put yourself out of a job. But if you’re not able to clearly explain what your product or service does, how it benefits your customers, and why people should buy from you, you’ll find it much more difficult to make this a long-term career. Make your why bigger by writing it down, reading it aloud, and sharing it with others. Your customers may not know the exact reason they’re buying from you, but if they understand the why behind your business, they’ll be more likely to recommend you to others. When your why is bigger, it will be easier to stick with your business during tough times, which can help avoid a serious case of entrepreneur burnout.

Conclusion

Entrepreneur burnout is a serious risk for those who love what they do, because there will be days when that love feels like the most arduous task in the universe. Burnout can creep up on anyone, but by staying alert to the early signs you can avoid it completely or catch it before it has a significant impact on your business as well as your personal life. And if you do find yourself burning out, these tips will help get you back up and running again sooner rather than later.

 

How The Most Successful Entrepreneurs Take The Risk Out Of Risk-Taking  

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by Will Russell, CEO of Russell Marketing and author of “Launch in 5: Take Your Idea from Lightbulb Moment to Profitable Business in Record Time”

What comes to mind when you think of “entrepreneurship?”

For most, the concept of risk stands out when they think about the life of an entrepreneur. Take, for example, often-quoted one-liners about starting a new business: “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take,” (attributed to hockey star Wayne Gretzky); or “The biggest risk is not taking any risk” (Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, allegedly); and “To win without risk is to triumph without glory” (French dramatist Pierre Corneille). Popular wisdom has glamorized risk and deemed it necessary for a new idea to become a successful business.

Many in the world of startups suggest that risk and entrepreneurship are interconnected. As a result, would-be entrepreneurs are often driven to taking make-or-break risks, even when they can’t afford failure. In this pro-risk culture, many entrepreneurs make huge, often dangerous leaps because doing so — risking everything — is considered the norm.

The truth?

Most risk is unnecessary for the vast majority of people starting a business. In reality, risk aversion — even in the high-roller, fast-paced world of entrepreneurship — ought to be recognized and defined more widely as an asset.

One edifying example of risk aversion put into practice by successful entrepreneurs is the story of the eyeglasses company, Warby Parker. In 2009, the founders approached the investor Adam Grant. But, because they weren’t working at their startup fulltime (they were students at the time) and had accepted jobs post-graduation as a backup plan, Grant assumed they weren’t committed enough and declined the offer.

With hindsight, Grant reflects: “When I compared the choices of the Warby Parker team to my mental model of the choices of successful entrepreneurs, they didn’t match… In my mind they were destined to fail… If they truly believed in Warby Parker, they should drop out to focus every waking hour on making it happen.” He continues: “But in fact, this is exactly why they succeeded.”

They didn’t go full steam ahead with only a Plan A, but instead they covered their bases, hedged their bets, and minimized the risk of failure.

How did the choice to be risk-averse turn out for them? Well, Warby Parker went public in 2021 and ended its first day of trading with a $6.8 billion valuation. Not too shabby for a pair of risk-averse entrepreneurs.

The message is clear: most successful entrepreneurs take the risk out of risk-taking. To reduce risk when developing and launching a new venture, a Five-Step High-Profit Launch System minimizes the consequences of failure by enabling new entrepreneurs to determine whether an idea will fly before massive amounts of money, time, and energy have been wasted.

If the stock market is dropping rapidly, Wall Street can halt all trading to avoid catastrophic losses. Entrepreneurs can do the same. The sooner they can determine whether or not people will actually pay money for the product or service, the sooner they can shut an idea down and move on to another one — saving yourself blood, sweat, money, and tears, and saving investors thousands or even millions of dollars.

The Five-Step High-Profit Launch System consists of five core steps:

1. Validation, research, and strategy.

Validation is about proving there’s a market for your idea and how much the market will be prepared to pay for it. The most recognized form of validation or product market fit is the focus group.

2. Audience acquisition.

Once the idea is validated, the next step is finding your potential customers and bringing them into a community. You want to launch with a bang not a whimper, so building an audience in advance of launch is important.

3. Audience engagement.

Beyond finding potential customers, you also need to get them excited. Sharing information with your community to ensure that potential customers are primed to buy the product once it launches increases the likelihood of early traction.

4. Audience conversion.

This is the big moment. It’s when potential customers become real-world customers.

5. Scale and optimize.

Once your idea is alive, you must think ahead. Scaling is all about ramping up your sales from first gear to fifth and building a foundation for future stability and growth.

While some risk may not be entirely avoidable — after all, life is full of risk — there’s a huge difference between taking risks because that’s what you think has to happen for success, and being smart about the risks you take on your path to success.

Whether you’re thinking about launching a product or brand for the first-time, or you’re an experienced entrepreneur, changing your mindset to a risk-averse approach, rather than a risky approach, will save you time, money, and heartache.

 

Will Russell is CEO of Russell Marketing, specializing in e-commerce launch marketing, which has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs validate their ideas and execute successful launches. He has been featured in Business Insider, Forbes, Crain’s New York, Indiegogo, StartUp Nation and more. His new book is, “Launch in 5: Take Your Idea from Lightbulb Moment to Profitable Business in Record Time“.

 

What Automation Technology Can Do For Your Finance Department

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by Paul Henderson, global controller at Tipalti

Technology has been transforming the workplace for decades.

Almost every business has been integrating advanced solutions to improve operations, overcome challenges, and provide better experiences for their partners, including vendors and suppliers. However, one sector is still lagging in its move toward greater digital transformation, and that’s financial services. Even with all the technology available, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation in the financial sector are more of an exception than a rule.

Switching from legacy systems to newer technologies can feel like a risk to security and compliance, especially when many organizations are still uncertain about how to prepare for the technological implementation process. Besides, technologies are emerging and evolving rapidly, so it can be daunting to decide exactly where to start.

With most finance departments being asked to do more with fewer resources, accounts payable is one area ripe for improvements. Almost all the mundane, repetitive tasks related to accounts payable can be automated with the right AP software. Invoice management, purchase order matching, payment reconciliation, vendor management, and more can all move to finance automation technology.

In fact, 91% of accountants believe that accounting technology has improved their productivity — which is just one component of the finance function. When it comes to automation in general, 44% of employees felt the technology saved them time. Another 43% said automation helped them finish tasks at a faster rate. If your company were to move to a cloud accounting solution, chances are that you could experience what other businesses experience: a 15% year-over-year increase in revenue.

The Impact of Automation Technology on Finance

Finance automation can be a precursor to substantial change within the finance function, yielding many positive results. The following are just a few of the greatest benefits to operations:

1. Increased efficiency and accuracy.

Using finance automation to perform manual, repetitive tasks is a huge time-saver. There’s simply no way around it. Processes that once took days—or sometimes weeks—can be done almost instantaneously. And, with fewer chefs in the kitchen, it all but eliminates the potential for human error. Questions about the accuracy of the numbers are gone, freeing up time for the finance function to work on more value-adding activities.

2. Higher levels of strategic planning.

By removing mundane, time-consuming manual processes from the finance function, finance teams can stretch out and become more strategic parts of their companies’ financial decisions. Cost cutting, exploring money-saving strategies, and researching new revenue streams are just a few of the verticals that finance can now focus on and propel forward with automation solutions.

3. Better quality service.

The right finance automation tool can provide a self-service portal, allowing vendors to onboard themselves and simplifying the collection of payment information—a time-consuming process often prone to errors. More importantly, you give vendors the ability to manage the timing of payments, choose preferred payment methods, and check in on payment statuses.

4. Improved vendor relations.

Finance process automation allows teams to “set and forget” even time-sensitive responsibilities, so little worry remains around whether vendors or suppliers get paid on time. Automation technology does all the heavy lifting for you and provides vendors and suppliers with a clear view of payment statuses and purchase orders. Better yet, vendors can opt in for early payment discount programs, resulting in decreased spend and better relations. 

5. Timely risk mitigation.

Finance automation can do more than take over back-office tasks. Functionalities such as automated fraud detection make it possible to quickly scan data, documents, and transactions for signs of inconsistencies. Should an issue be found, the technology pauses the payment and alerts the finance team for further investigation.

Fraud detection automation can also reduce the number of false positives, minimizing the chances of incorrectly flagging legitimate transactions and frustrating vendors. All in all, the technology cuts overhead costs and improves the supplier payment experience.

Given the uncertain financial landscape we’re currently in, organizations need to explore all the possible ways to improve operations. Finance automation is just one of them. Implementing automation technology into the finance function offers a business’s finance leader and their team the luxury of focusing more on strategy than on processes and deadlines, which can make a big difference to not only the department’s efficacy, but also the company’s bottom line.

 

paul henderson

Paul Henderson is the global controller at Tipalti, a payment automation software that helps businesses manage their entire supplier payments operations by streamlining all phases of the AP and payment management workflow in one holistic cloud platform. Paul has decades of experience in the financial industry across a variety of companies, and prior to Tipalti, he served as vice president and controller at ForgeRock.

 

 

How To Take Your Next Idea From Concept To Creation

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by Roger Osorio, Founder of The School of Reinvention and author of “The Journey to Reinvention: How to Build a Life Aligned with Your Values, Passion, and Purpose“

For the last eight years, I have been traveling around the world teaching aspiring entrepreneurs how to take a business idea from concept to creation. As a global facilitator for Techstars Startup Weekend, I have had a special opportunity to facilitate close to 70 of these three-day entrepreneurship bootcamps. In addition, I have facilitated similar events for companies that include: LVMH, Orlando Magic, IBM, Georgetown University, and many more. This experience has allowed me to learn a lot about the biggest challenges people face in bringing their ideas to life.  

One of the biggest challenges in taking ideas from concept to creation has nothing to do with the idea and everything to do with the problem the idea solves. Most people who have an idea for a product, service, or business fall in love with their idea and can’t wait to get to work on building it out. I can’t blame them, I am tempted to do the exact same thing when I have an idea even though I have been teaching this for almost a decade!

However, the more we know about the customer and the problem, the better our products and services will eventually be.

Recently, I published my first book, “The Journey to Reinvention: How to Build a Life Aligned with Your Values, Passion, and Purpose“. In an interview for the book, the host asked me about the book writing process and I reflected on how similar it is to taking a business idea from concept to creation.

There are four steps that help you bring an idea to life and it applies to book writing as well!  

1. Identify and validate your ideal client (or reader) and the problem to be solved.

When I started my author journey, I had a target reader in mind for my book. I really believed this was the group that was going to benefit most from my book. In fact, I had a different working title at the time – “The Keys to Reinvention: How to Reinvent Yourself at Any Age”. My ideal reader was someone approaching their retirement or recently retired and feeling stuck with this new chapter of their life. My initial research focused fully on this group.  

In my entrepreneurship courses, I always teach aspiring entrepreneurs to talk to as many people as possible in order to validate their target customer and problem to be solved.  It’s critical you make sure you prove that the problem you intend to solve is real and more importantly, that you understand it correctly.  

When it came to my book, I did exactly the same thing. I started talking to anyone that would listen to me in that age group and really anyone for that matter. One night, while discussing the book idea at a rooftop party in Brooklyn with a mostly mid-to-young millennial group, I was surprised to discover the ideas I wanted to cover in the book appealed to them too. One woman, in her late 20’s, shared with me that she and her friends discuss the topic of life and career reinvention at least once a week. I was not expecting this at all and that is exactly why this step is so critical to the process. At this point, I had very little written for the book and it was the perfect opportunity to begin pivoting my book idea to address a different audience. 

2. Build a prototype or minimal viable product of your idea and test it.

Now that you have validated your ideal customer and problem, which may be different than what you originally thought it was going to be, it’s time to start building out a prototype of your solution. In my case, this was a 30,000 word draft manuscript of the book. However, even as I built my prototype, I continued to speak with my ideal customers, interviewed some of them, and researched others. From their stories, I was able to develop chapters that reflected the real world problems and challenges they went through on their reinvention journeys and the solutions they leveraged along the way.

While writing the draft manuscript, I noticed how my idea started to evolve and develop in response to my ongoing interviews and research. My target readers were driving the direction for my book in a way that made it meaningful to them. As the months passed, I became more of a facilitator of the book development process and less of a sole creator.  

Testing a business idea is no different. As you build prototypes, it’s important that you respond to the feedback you get from your potential customers. While it is SO TEMPTING to bring YOUR original idea to life, allowing it to develop in response to customer feedback will significantly increase the chances that it is successful in the market. The same went for my book. My manuscript writing instructor said, “if you let your interviews and research guide the development of the book, then you can rest assured there will be people interested in reading it when you publish it.”

It’s so true, people respond much more to products and services that they can see a little bit of themselves in or maybe even a future self that they aspire to be.

As you test subsequent versions of your idea, if you carefully listen to and observe your customer’s feedback, each new prototype or MVP should perform a little better than the last. After 20 or 30 rounds of this, you’ll notice the idea is starting to take on a life of its own. This is when you know you are getting closer to the finish line!

3. Finalize your product and prepare for launch!

After you’ve conducted 20 or 30 tests (or more!) you can start to finalize the version of the product you intend to officially launch into the market. By the way, always remember that even this version won’t be your last one.  

In the writing process, this is the equivalent of finishing up the revisions for the book and submitting it to copy editing, the final stage of the editing process.

As I started to approach the final weeks of revisions, I could not help but notice that the book had changed a lot from the original vision. Firstly, the title was no longer the same.  Second, the content that I included in the book was not part of my earliest writing for the book. I left so much of my earliest content out of the book. When it came time to submit my final table-of-contents (TOC) I noticed how much this book had changed. My editor asked me to take the TOC I submitted about 8 months earlier, revise it, and submit it. I pulled up that file and opened it. When I did, my first thought was that someone got into the shared drive and messed around with it. I didn’t recognize that version of the TOC. There were a few words or chapter titles that sounded a little familiar, but most of it seemed like someone else wrote it.

Well, I wasn’t totally wrong, someone else did write it. Thanks to all of the research and interviews I had done, I grew and developed into a new person. Book writing or business-building will do that to you. When I checked the revisions history, I was the last one to have edited that file. This was my TOC, however, it looked nothing like the final version of my manuscript. The book radically transformed in response to the interviews and research I did.  

This is what customer validation does to your products and services. It ensures it’s all about them and less about us – the founders, authors, or creators.  

About a month later, the book was ready for publication to all of the major book-selling platforms.  

4. Design your business model.

As much work as it took to write the book, it was now time to start thinking about how to get it into as many hands as possible. When you are writing a book or building a business, you are so deep into that work that you sometimes lose sight of the fact that you still have to figure out how to market and sell it.  

Building the product is one challenge, selling it is another challenge entirely. Both are important. 

In this final step of the process, it is important that you think about where your products/services will be sold and why that makes sense for your ideal customer. This is much easier to figure out if you already know your ideal customer really well from your initial customer interviews and validation exercises.  

For me, getting into all platforms that sell books was going to be critical, however, it doesn’t stop there. I also thought about the different ways I could introduce and deliver my book to my ideal reader. For example, since I speak at many large events, selling books on-site at events is very important to my sales strategy.  

Also, since I see my book as the first step along a greater customer journey, I designed bundles that included a signed copy of my book and complimentary access to The School of Reinvention, my reinvention coaching community.  

When it comes to any product or service, we need to figure out the most relevant way to bundle, price, and place our product so that it reaches our ideal customer in the right way, in the right place, at the right time.  Other things you will have to consider include scaling your product (especially if it’s physical), support and maintenance, customer experience, partnerships, and sales systems.  

You don’t need all of these to be perfectly in place, but you do need to start testing out your ideas for the business model as soon as you can. For my book, I have been doing nothing but testing different ways of marketing and selling it. I am testing ways to strategically connect it to The School of Reinvention. It’s an ongoing and iterative process. But just like when we built the product, it’s important that we talk to and listen to our customers. Pay attention to how they interact with your products and services. Then extract lessons and ideas that you can apply to future versions of your product.

The journey is only getting started!

These three steps will help you get up and running quicker and more effectively. The goal isn’t to be right, it’s to learn from your mistakes and make it a little better with each version. I still remember talking about my book early in its development. I fumbled my words and at times made no sense. I probably sounded like I had no idea what I was trying to write about, but it didn’t matter. That’s how the beginning is supposed to be. Embrace that and know that if you keep on talking about it, you will get better at articulating your ideas. And as you get into prototyping and testing, you’ll start to notice how much better you get at explaining what your product or service is all about. When I delivered my first prototype book talk, it took me about 75 minutes to deliver it. By the time I was on my ninth book talk, I was able to do it in under 15 minutes.  

If you have an idea for something you want to bring to life, start talking to people about it today!

 

Roger Osorio is the founder of The School of Reinvention and author of “The Journey to Reinvention: How to Build a Life Aligned with Your Values, Passion, and Purpose“, a #1 New Release and #1 Bestseller on Amazon. Since 2014, Roger has served as a global facilitator for Techstars Startup Weekend. In addition, Roger is an entrepreneurship professor at Sarah Lawrence College and University of Pennsylvania.

 

4 Things Upcoming Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Elon Musk’s Takeover Of Twitter

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Elon Musk just bought Twitter. 

According to various reputed media outlets like the BBC, Elon Musk took control of Twitter on October 28, 2022, for a total of $44 billion. The world’s richest man (as of writing this article) and CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX had been teasing the deal for a while now. He finally got what he wanted after months of back and forth with Twitter.

Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has had several consequences. It also offers a lot of lessons for upcoming entrepreneurs. 

Here are four things young and upcoming entrepreneurs and startups can learn from Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter:

1. Social Media Platforms Can’t Make Money without Ads.

Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are free to use. As a result of that, they have to run ads to manage costs and run their business. 

The idea behind social media is that users will provide their personal information to these platforms in exchange for being able to connect with others who share their interests. The problem is that this information isn’t valuable on its own. It only becomes valuable when it’s used by advertisers to target consumers with relevant ads.

Thus, if a social media platform wants to make money, it has two options. It either has to charge its users money for using the platform or make money off of ads shown on the platform. 

Twitter was free to use, but it failed to generate more ad revenue due to various societal pressures. For them to run ads without incurring financial losses, they needed to retain old clients or at least find ones that could match their standards and generate the same amount of revenue. 

A strategic B2B account planning process is vital in this regard. It requires the business to ensure strategic account management, which, in turn, means retaining key accounts to maximize revenue. Such an extensive account planning process also helps with various financial decision-making processes.

If only Twitter had ensured such a strategized approach, they wouldn’t have had to suffer financially because of losing ad revenue.

2. Not All Businesses Can Afford to Pay High Salaries to Their Employees.

There are many reasons why not all businesses can afford to pay high salaries to their employees. 

First, the cost of living in different areas varies greatly. This means that a business located in an area where the cost of living is higher, such as New York City, will have difficulty affording salaries that are competitive with other businesses in their industry.

Second, not all businesses have the same profit margins. Some businesses may be able to afford higher salaries than others because they can charge higher prices for their goods or services. 

Third, some industries require low turnover rates and, therefore, cannot afford high salaries because they would lose too many employees who could not find jobs elsewhere.

Despite being a tech giant, Elon Musk still had to lay off many of Twitter’s highly-paid employees since the business wasn’t performing well. According to Payscale, average salaries at Twitter range from $75,536 to $173,659 a year. Not having to pay some of these high salaries meant Elon could save a lot of money on employee costs. 

For startups, it’s even more difficult to pay high salaries. After all, even with funding, there’s no surety that you’ll be continuously making profits. Thus, one slip-up can force you to let go of your highly-skilled and highly-paid employees. 

3. You’ll Face Backlash from the Public If You Layoff Your Employees.

Layoffs are not an easy decision to make. It can be a tough choice, but it’s often necessary for the long-term health of a company. The public will react negatively to your decision if you lay off employees at all. The backlash could be even worse if you lay off employees without finding any fault with their work or work ethic.

For Elon and his new empire at Twitter, the backlash came in the form of lawsuits and threats of ad boycotts. According to an NPR news report, Free Press CEO Jessica González was quoted saying, “ Twitter was already a hellscape before Musk took over. His actions in the past week will only make it worse.”

The report further expands on how employees are preparing to file lawsuits against Elon and the overall backlash he’s receiving from the general public.

You can’t expect to mass fire your employees and not receive any backlash. Thus, before you hire or start paying your employees salaries you can’t afford, think things through. 

4. It’s Difficult to Survive in the Tech Industry.

The tech industry is notoriously competitive. It’s hard to survive in this field because the competition is fierce, and many people want the same job as you. You need to be able to prove that you’re capable of doing what they ask of you while also showing them that you can grow and improve in your field.

Any sign of failure means you’re seen as vulnerable to others. That’s when many might try to take over your business, just like Elon Musk did when he realized Twitter was struggling financially.

Elon isn’t leaving Twitter any time soon. As you follow him on his new journey, you’ll discover more things you can learn from this takeover as a young and upcoming entrepreneur.

 

What’s Contained On An Insurance Declaration Page?

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When you buy an insurance policy, whether it’s home, car, or life insurance, you may feel overwhelmed by the paperwork. Learning to read and understand your insurance policy is essential to help you understand your coverage. While the entire policy document is important, the declarations page is the most essential.

Let’s break down the information on your policy’s declarations page so you can review your policy confidently.

What Is a Declaration Page?

We can only start talking about the declaration (DEC) page after first defining what it is. You may be wondering, what is a DEC page? An insurance policy document declaration page (or DEC page) is a conscious overview or summary of your policy, and coverage’s essential information as your insurer provides.

Make sure to distinguish the DEC page from other important insurance features like your insurance ID card, policy package, insurance bill, or certificate of insurance. They may contain some similar information, but they’re generally different. Each insurance policy (car, homeowners, renters, life insurance) will have a separate DEC page, usually located on the policy’s first page.  

What Does the DEC Page Contain?

The DEC page contains important information sensitive to your insurance policy and package. Most insurers categorize the DEC page into four categories on the same page, each with specific information:

  • Page introduction 
  • Summary
  • Coverage 
  • Your policy documents

Page Introduction 

The DEC page introduction isn’t specified as the intro, but it is by virtue of introducing the page. The intro often contains three important things:

  • The name of the insurance company
  • The policy number
  • Policy effective date
  • And other general policy information
  • The order or arrangement may differ from one insurer to another

Policy Summary

The DEC page’s policy summary is right below the intro category and contains sensitive information. The contents of the policy summary may differ but include important info, such as:

  • Named insured and address
  • Your agent’s name and contact
  • Policy number
  • Policy period or duration with the start date and end date
  • Property insured
    • If it’s a car, this part names the drivers listed, drivers excluded, description of the vehicle(s), annual mileage, and vehicle identification number (VIN).
    • If it’s a home or renters insurance, this part names the property location, type of residence and more. 

Coverage and Limits

This section contains the bulk of the info on the DEC page. It’s on the middle of the DEC page and highlights important about your policy, including:

It gives this information complete with figures and premium, or cost, associated with each coverage’s level. You’ll also see your total insurance premium, policy number, period and billing account number.

Policy Documents and Endorsements 

This category provides a reference to your policy forms and endorsements. If you have more than one policy, you’ll see more than one document listed under policy documents. If you have an endorsement, or more than one, they’ll have specific forms detailing specifics of your coverage and endorsements. Those form numbers will appear on this section of the DEC page for reference.

Endnote 

The DEC page is a simple summary of your entire insurance policy into a page. Look at it and ensure all information is accurate before signing the document. You should see it in front of your policy document. If you can’t find or see it, contact your insurance agent to help locate it.

[Image by Netto Figueiredo from Pixabay]

 

[Interview] Bardya Ziaian, Founder Of Bardya Pictures Ltd

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Bardya Ziaian

Bardya Ziaian

Bardya Ziaian is president and CEO of SITTU Group Inc., a global think tank focused on creating opportunities from current economic macro environments. The former President & CEO of Pario Technologies Corp. and founder of BBS Securities Inc. as well as Virtual Brokers (ranked the “Best Online Broker in Canada ” by the Globe and Mail) has an impressive 20 years of experience in the fintech world.

However, he recently embraced his life-long passion and became a film producer and actor by launching his film company, Bardya Pictures Ltd.

We spoke to Bardya Ziaian on his entrepreneurial journey in film.

Tell us about your background and how you got started in this line of work.

Bardya Ziaian: My entire adult life, my career and working life has been centered around finance. I’ve built businesses, managed hundreds of millions of dollars and found success. Despite what some may think, there is a certain level of creativity that is demanded in business and finance, particularly with entrepreneurship. I felt this other side of me, the far more artistic aspects of myself were untapped and I have aged, I have realized that to not embrace that would ultimately equal something lacking in my life. So, I made the decision, prior to the pandemic, that I would learn scriptwriting, assemble an amazing team, and make a bold move into the film industry.

Films have always inspired me. From the first time I stepped foot into a movie theater. They bring laughter and wisdom; remind us to treasure moments with loved ones and to value our time on this planet. I wanted to be a part of that magic.

Tell us about your current company, Bardya Pictures Ltd.

Bardya Ziaian: Well, we started writing and pre-production of our first film Super Dicks just before the pandemic hit. The process went along the lines of generating the idea, writing the script, securing the funding, finding the talent and then producing the film.  Now, a lot goes into each of those steps, which were particularly onerous since neither myself nor many members of my team had connections to the film industry and were unaware of the standard operating procedures. Still, I wanted us to all learn together. That was a primary goal, because teams that learn together function better long-term.

We finished production of Super Dicks, which is a comedy combined with cultural undertones. Now, everyone knows comedies can run the gamut from slapstick to sophisticated, this one is witty and thought-provoking.

We were able to bring some incredible talent onboard after we solidified much of the pre-production. Lead actors Paul Braunstein, Michael Man, Jennifer Hui, Greg Bryk (of Saw V), and Keara Graves (from the Netflix series Grand Army) brought years of experience to the film.

We recently launched production of another comedy tentatively titled, “Golden Boy” that will be directed and executively produced by Damian Lee, a veteran in the film industry. We are not revealing too many details about this latest project, except that we are all excited and the cast is phenomenal.

What inspired you to become an entrepreneur and build your business?

Bardya Ziaian: When you take a long look at the film industry, what is  one of the greatest challenges? Financing. Bringing productions out of the red is something of which even major film companies struggle. With a background in finance and a driving desire to embrace my creativity, it just seemed natural and right that I would venture into this industry. Was it technically a leap of faith; a risk? Absolutely, but often some of the greatest gifts in life come from when we believe in ourselves and in what we can create with others.

What does your business do? What problem are you solving? What is the biggest setback or challenge you have had to face? How did you overcome it?

Bardya Ziaian: I like to think we are bringing much-needed levity to people, while also bringing a message of cultural acceptance and the embracing of our differences. The entire goal of my company is to enhance people’s lives through laughter and effective communication. Amazing things happen when people connect through shared laughter.

Our greatest challenge was starting a business while the pandemic was in full swing. We followed all guidelines to keep our people safe while also navigating production. It was challenging, to say the least.

I believe the company was able to overcome the setbacks simply because the team I assembled has an innovative mindset. When there are roadblocks, we don’t stop in defeat, we immediately begin finding solutions.

What do you think the next five years will bring?

Bardya Ziaian: Greater innovation within the film industry that will make it more affordable. I think that will mean greater creativity overall and will open it up to more people, since it will no longer be as cost-prohibitive. Also, the likelihood of making a profit from film will be increased since the cost of production will decrease.

To close, what piece of advice would you give to other entrepreneurs or people looking to follow your path?

Bardya Ziaian: I think you absolutely have to follow your passion, wherever it leads. Sometimes that will mean taking risks, but what life is worth living without a few calculated risks along the way?

 

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