What Small Business Owners Can Learn From Reality TV Shows
There’s no doubt about it: there are tons of trivial, low-budget, poor quality TV programs currently being aired, that give justification to the label of “ boob tube”.
There are talk shows that don’t “say” much. Programs that promote girls behaving badly. And a host of other fluff stuff.
But, with some selective viewing, you might be surprised to discover that there’s much to be learned on TV that can enhance professional and personal development, and shorten the learning curve.
Particularly when it comes to owning and operating a business.
Below are a few quality choices to check out, for your viewing pleasure and enlightenment.
1. THE CELEBRITY APPRENTICE
When it comes to business, Donald Trump is no chump. The creator of this weekly program, and a larger-than-life leader in real estate, provides many lessons worth heeding regularly for business owners in any field.
The story line? Essentially the show takes famous folks from different industries, (i.e. models, actors, comedians, singers, wrestlers) and divides them into two equal teams of men and women. He then provides them with weekly “assignments” or tasks where each is pitted against the other for the ultimate title of his “apprentice”. The project manager, (each episode), of the winning team is rewarded with a donation to his favorite designated charity. On the losing team, someone has to be fired.
Much like any work “environment” Donald has to deal with egos, catfights, ineffective team members, and general mayhem.
You’ll never be bored in his boardroom. Even though he’s the boss that America “loves to hate”, Donald is decisive, discerning, and demanding. Note that he always surrounds himself with a good “team” (usually his family members or trusted long time friends). He gets feedback from the various people he manages to get a broader perspective of the success of his projects. He’s a survivor. He’s tough, but he also gives praise when earned. Just a few principles and policies that today’s business owner should incorporate in their management practices as well. Visit their site at: http://www.nbc.com/the-apprentice/
2. SHARK TANK
Produced by ABC and originally launched back in 2009, this reality show features five filthy-rich investors, (a.k.a. “sharks”) that are presented with products and services from entrepreneurs where the panel has the opportunity to “buy into” the business, both figuratively and literally.
What can business owners take away from this show? Pertinent questions like why should consumers, advertisers, or lenders “invest” in their business? How are they different from their competitors? Is their price structure realistic? Does there “elevator pitch” quickly and accurately convey what their business is about when presenting to others?
Watch episodes here: http://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank
3. TV COURTROOM SHOWS
Whether it’s Judge Judy, Judge Mathis, or People’s Court, business owners can benefit on discussions and rulings related to labor laws, liability, wrongful termination, and contractual compliance. Knowing a little about the law can potentially save money and serve as a protective measure when conducting business.
These are just a few examples of how reality shows can be used as teaching tools, much like textbooks and real-life experience, to enhance business owners’ know-how, and ultimately their net worth!
About the Author: Jennifer Brown Banks is a noted blogger, veteran freelance writer, and ghost writer.
Her blog, Pen and Prosper was chosen as a Top 10 Finalist at Write to Done’s annual contest. Banks has been featured at award-winning sites such as: Men With Pens, Technorati, Write to Done, Pro Blogger, and Daily Blog Tips.
Vist her site @ http://penandprosper.blogspot.com/
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Photo Credit: linh.ngân
Start a Small Business in a Recession
Many entrepreneurs dream of starting their our small businesses. For many the question is not what type of business to start, but when to start up a business and cut the ties to your 9-5 job. The dilemna facing every small business start up since October 2008 is: ”Do I have enough money to start a small business during a recession?”. Here is information on starting a business in tough economic times and having success in the process.
As the ecomonic crisis of 2008 clearly demonstrated, having enough capital to see your business through is critical. During times of economic contraction banks, other lending institutions, and even venture captialists and angel investors become much more discerning regarding the quality of the business propositions they will fund. According to the Wall Street Journal even proven business models such as franchises are currently having trouble getting sufficient money to expand. International Franchise Association data shows that franchises owned by small business entrepreneurs need over $11 billion in capital this year while banks are only making available $9.5 billion. That’s a gap of over 18 percent which will go unfulfilled.
One factor cited by CNN Money in hampering small businesses is the reluctance to step up debt and borrowing while confidence on the economy is still low – both on the part of business owners and the markets they serve. In fact the United States Federal Reserve is reporting that small business loan demand has been weak of late. The assumption is that uncertainty surrounding the presidential election and what will transpire with the economy post-election is paralyzing small businesses in regard to raising new capital. A recently conducted survey of small and independent business owners by the Nation Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) shows only 7% of small business owners think that right now is good time to expand their business. This data is collected monthly by the NFIB Research Foundation. Click here to view the entire PDF of the most recent NFIB survey data.
One business owner who started his small business in the teeth of the economic downturn is Neil Heuer. Mr. Heuer along with business partner Eddie Martin founded the Naples custom cabinet manufacturing and design firm Grand Woodworking in the summer of 2011. While not the depth of the economic crisis, the timing raised a few eyebrows among competitors in the South Florida real estate and remodeling sector. Mr. Heuer gives the following tips regarding capital requirements at startup, ”I would recommend creating a business plan including finanacials for the first year of the business. Make realistic estimates of what the expenses are going to be in order to keep the business functioning at a high level. This number should be the minimum capital reserve that you consider at startup. That way, if your business takes off and you earn high revenues you’ll be covered. Conversely if the sales are not rolling in, you’ll be covered for the first year or so. That will give you the breathing room to adjust your strategy or pricing models if necessary to agressively grow the business and stay competitive.”
Many entrepreneurs choose to start with a popular resource for those businesses needing capital – the United States Small Business Administration (SBA). The SBA has information on its website to help business owners navigate the process of applying for loans and grants. You can get started on the process by visiting the SBA.gov Small Business Loan web page here. The site includes information on small business loans, grants, venture capital and bonds. Best of luck in starting up your new business venture.
About the Author: Derek Vaughan is an Internet industry veteran and expert. Prior to entering full time consulting work, Mr. Vaughan was responsible for online marketing at The Walt Disney Company where he marketed ecommerce for the ESPN.com and NASCAR.com brands. Mr. Vaughan received his M.B.A. from Vanderbilt University and currently serves on the HostingCon Advisory Board.
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8 Businesses You Can Start Today With No Cash!
If you’ve been wanting to get into business for yourself, but money is holding you back then don’t fret! There are plenty of opportunities available to those who don’t have the start up cash in their pockets. While having a little money on hand for business cards or fliers certainly helps; here’s some businesses that scrape the bottom of the barrel to get you going.
1.) Lawn Care
People are lazy. They don’t want to mow their grass. I’m one of those people and I happily pay somebody else to come and cut my grass for me. If you’ve got a truck, and a mower you could already be on your way in this business. Print up some fliers, start offering to mow friends or family member’s lawns, and post an ad up on Craigslist. A small investment in a magnetic sign for the side of your truck doesn’t hurt either!
2.) Cleaning Service
Again, people like cleaning about as much as they like mowing the lawn. Starting a maid or cleaning service can also be a quick business to get going. Try going door to door to local businesses that are full of busy professionals in small offices. If they don’t have their own full time cleaning staff they may be interested. Again, Craigslist is a valuable tool for starting a local business fast.
3.) Junk Removal/Scrap
My friend’s Dad helped put her through college doing this. If you have a truck or ideally a trailer so you can haul more stuff you can make a pretty penny with scrap or junk removal. You can either charge people to come and get their stuff or just pick metal up for nothing and sell it to the junk yard. There’s plenty people who just drive around on trash day and pick up washers, dryers, and other big metal appliances and are literally picking up dollars off people’s driveway. The home owners are happy to have it gone because they would have otherwise had to make a special call to Waste Management which they may have to pay for themselves. Most people also don’t have enough scrap themselves to bother taking it to the junk yard. It’s a bulk sale type of business.
4.) Start An eBay Business
If you’d prefer to do something online you can start an eBay business. Ebay is generally a very quick way to get started selling online, because the traffic is already there. You can get started immediately by selling things you have laying around your house. This could be old electronics, clothing, ect. A lot of people buy things from yard sales or Craigslist locally and then sell them on eBay where the price is much higher. You could also think about finding dropship suppliers if you want a more reliable product sourcing method and want to upgrade your eBay business.
5.) Start A Consignment Business
Technically this also goes into the eBay business category, but not exclusively! Don’t have any of your own stuff to sell? Why not sell somebody else’s! A consignment business advertises an item for sale by a third party and then collects a commission. If you have a place with high visibility or you know how to move merchandise you could make some cash doing this. Several people in my town with property on busy roads sell cars off of their lots.
6.) Start A Internet Service Business
The internet is also full of busy people who don’t have time to do everything. Web masters are one of them! If you can do something useful like write articles you could turn that into a business as well. The thing about web masters is they usually have a lot of sites to run and don’t have time to write for them all consistently. If you’re a good writer they could be willing to pay in bulk for your writing services. Try signing up for sites like Fiverr or posting on webmaster discussion forums like Digital Point. Many of these places have a market place where you can sell services like this!
7.) Design Service
If you have any skills as a designer either through graphic arts or web site design you could start working for yourself. There’s probably a lot of small business owners in your area that would like a website or need a high quality logo created for them but don’t know how to get it done. Try marketing your business to local people. If you can meet any face to face at an event it would help you out a lot most likely. The only start up costs for this business are your time and a computer to work on.
8.) Pet Sitting Business
This one is incredibly easy, but can make you a surprising amount of money. I know several people that do this regularly. Most of the time they just go to the person’s house and baby sit their dogs for the weekend or while they are on vacation. If you love animals then this could be a great fit for you. Try advertising in the paper, offering this service to friends, and online. You could also try asking places where people with animals visit if you can put up fliers on their window or cork board. For example the vet, dog groomers, or the pet store. An additional business tactic? Offer the business owner a referral fee if any of their customers purchase your dog sitting service!
These are just a couple ideas, and I’m sure there’s plenty more you can come up with! Do you have any ideas for a great business you can start this weekend with little or no up front capital? Post it in the comments section!
Penny writes more about online business, finance, and investing on her personal finance blog. If you’d like to see more articles from her you can check out PennySeeds.com!
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5 Strange and Profitable Businesses
Have you ever had an unusual thought and wondered if it could turn into a profitable business? Here are five of my favorite unusual businesses:
1. Game Truck
Game Truck – Scott Novis developed Game Truck, a portable gaming party, after he found he was disappointed in his four-year-old son’s birthday party at a pizza arcade in 2006. Scott noticed that children were playing boring, static games, and that most of the kids had better games and better graphics on their home game boxes than were being offered at the party.
Scott went home, and, in his garage, retrofitted a truck with gaming consoles, flat screen monitors, and cool decorations, creating the first Game Truck.
After successfully trying it out at a friend’s birthday party, Scott turned his idea into a thriving weekend business. His company has since grown to nearly $2 million in revenue. Game Truck has nearly 40 trucks in 20 locations across the country, and 12 individuals are employed in its home office. The company also offers franchise opportunities.
2. Zipz Shoes
Zipz Shoes – John Stefani was at a family reunion in 2004 when he and his father began talking about how many pairs of dirt-caked children’s shoes were in their presence. John’s father, Jerry, said it would be great if an interchangeable shoe existed – one where you could mix and match the tops and bottoms, and throw the dirty part in the wash.
The idea stuck. After the reunion was over, John and his siblings went home dreaming about mix-and-match footwear. They sketched several prototypes of shoes held together with everything from Velcro to pins until, finally, Jerry designed a shoe held together by a zipper.
Zipz Shoes’ first year of sales was in 2010, and the company grossed $1 million in that year.
Zipz Shoes retail for $45 a pair and are available online and through boutique retailers. They are distributed in 40 countries, drawing particular interest from customers in Europe, Japan, and the Middle East.
3. The Something Store
The Something Store – In the summer of 2007, Sami Bayrakci was surfing the Internet in search of a birthday present for his friend. After an hour of fruitless browsing, Sami decided it would be so much easier if someone else would just make the decision for him. And so the idea of The Something Store was born.
When Sami first shared his idea with friends, they thought it would never work. At SomethingStore.com, customers pay a flat price for an unknown item. Who would pay for something when they don’t know what they’re getting?
But Sami gave it a try. With a small start-up investment of just $3,000 for supplies, he designed his own website and began selling small, lightweight items in order to keep shipping costs down.
Within his first few months of business, Sami had sold several thousand “somethings.”
4. Beaten Path Trails
Beaten Path Trails – If you don’t have access to nature, it’s not easy to appreciate it. Hikers and backpackers use trails to gain access to nature, but construction of these trails is not easy. Laws prohibit the construction of trails with the use of vehicles and machinery, and that presents a difficult situation for many contractors.
But Tyler Johnson has created a different kind of contracting business which has achieved plenty of success building and maintaining trails.
On the Beaten Path Trail Contractors started less than a year ago, and has already acquired around $ 3.3 million worth of contracts. On the Beaten Path Trail Contractors offers $17 per hour to off-season ski resort employees and to college students on summer break for work done creating and maintaining trails.
On the Beaten Path Trail Contractors currently has 63 workers in four states, and there doesn’t appear to be any worry of government cutbacks. Tyler says support from government officials for both access to nature and job creation will ensure that the contracts keep coming.
5. City Slips
City Slips – Susie Levitt and Katie Shea, both finance students at New York University, noticed that many women walked home barefoot at the end of the day because of their uncomfortable heels. So the young women decided to start a company which offered easily portable flat shoes.
They worked with contract designers and manufacturers in the United States and China, creating a pair of flats which folds up to fit into a pocket-sized zip pouch. When women put the flats on, the pouch becomes a tote bag in which they can carry the high heels they had been wearing.
CitySlips began selling in 2009, and they’re now sold by 500 retailers, including Neiman Marcus, Dillard’s, and Bed Bath & Beyond.
Katie says CitySlips have broad appeal. “A 16-year-old leaving her senior prom will grab a pair of CitySlips and put them in her clutch bag, and then there’s my grandmother who will wear them leaving church,” she says.
Launched using $15,000 from personal savings and a $100,000 private loan, CitySlips sells shoes which retail for $10 to $58, depending on the style and material.
About the Author: This is a Guest Post by Vit Kashis from BizStriptease.com. He is also involved with ICLocator.com, Global Marketplace for Hard to Find Electronic Parts.
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Online Video Streaming Options: Easy or Control
Video Marketing for small companies is growing in importance in the media-rich, entertain me society we now live in. That much we know. To show your videos on your website, there are a number of details you need to consider for how to dish out your videos, because they tend to get large and load slowly, so utilizing a service in the cloud to host your videos that has mega-capacity and specializes in streaming video is a great idea. It inevitably comes down to ease of use versus control, with a tad of quality and user-experience mixed in.
Services for Your Videos
There are essentially dozens of competent video hosting sites available you can use, and this is not the venue to review them all. Some you’ve heard of, some you haven’t. I’ll detail and link to some of the big ones here for both cost-free and paid video sharing sites. You can click on the links and try them out and create your own opinions.
Free Sharing Services
- YouTube– Granddaddy of all. The premiere video sharing site. At first videos limited to 15 minutes (used to be 10) but if you put enough of them up, you can get allocated unrestricted length rights.
- Vimeo — Similar to YouTube, but less popular.
- Revver — Permits you to profit on your video with tactical ad positioning.
- Viddler — Free service offered, a bit more customizable than YouTube; paid B2B service as well.
- Google Videos– Part of the Google suite; lets you to sell your video downloads.
- Yahoo Videos– Yahoo’s variation, also integrates a search across hosting platforms.
- Metacafe — Highly rated free service for product service and formats used.
- Daily Motion– Categorized videos into social networking.
Paid Video Sharing Services
- Playstream– Larger volume storage video streamer.
- On Stream Media– Akin to Playstream.
- Amazon S3– Not a video sharing site in essence, but remarkably inexpensive large cloud storage that works in combination with EZ Player or other players for quick video streaming on your website.
- Viddler B2B — Made for business, secure white-label, unbranded options, but starts at $ 100/month.
Options for Small Businesses
If your business is not video production but something else, in most cases you can stream video to your website using any of the free video sharing options listed earlier, YouTube is the most common. A lot of my clients are consultants, engineers, attorneys– people in white collar services, and they use video interviews or some other format to feature their value for site audiences. There are details you should know about free and paid video streaming solutions and questions you should keep in mind.
Free Video Sharing: What You Need to Know
I’ll use YouTube for this discussion as it is where I am most of my video clients store their videos for streaming on their websites.
- Free video sharing sites are typically simple to set up an account and upload videos.
- YouTube takes most file formats and converts them to. mp4 or. flv (flash) for playback.
- In YouTube’s situation, it has a huge search engine and is adored by its parent, Google, so getting your public videos found is more certain from an SEO point of view (which also helps your site). You can regulate access to videos such as items only offered to members.
- Decent analytics and ability to style your channel.
- Easy to embed player for your site.
- Recognizable with the YouTube logo in the corner and can literally lead to more clicks.
These are all advantages, but like all FREE services, they get paid one way or another, and if you’re not cautious can pull visitors away from your video to other videos. You also relinquish a bit of control when using a free service like YouTube or Vimeo.
- YouTube restricts videos to 15 minutes. Often for high users they will upgrade you to unlimited video upload file size, but you don’t know when this will take place. I was fortunate and use longer videos for my Vlogs on the Smart Blog.
- As a standard feature YouTube displays other people’s videos at the end to yours next to a “replay video” option. The good news is that you can disable this in your embed code.
- If a viewer clicks through to your channel, the blog comments are beyond your control, so unhappy customers can post ill will and weaken your rep
- YouTube is in absolute control. Make sure all your videos are backed up on your device because people have been closed down, even large users, for no apparent cause. This is a rare occurrence but a possibility.
The good news is, for small businesses with just a handful of videos to promote products and services, these dangers are manageable. Most people will watch the video on your blog if you properly embed the player code (and not link away to the YouTube site) you prevent the distracting other videos that might lure users off.
What to Keep in Mind with Paid Video Hosting
In this case I’ll use as an example the progressively popular Amazon S3 hosting possibility, suggested to me by my buddy Phil Montero of The Anywhere Office. S3 stands for Simple Storage Service and is a nice control solution to free video hosting services.
- Any size video uploads right out of the gate.
- Video is protected so it is only available where you provide the player and stream it. S3 is a storing option, not a video sharing website of itself.
- Very economical for a dedicated storage solution, as in $ 0.14 / GB per month.
- Your video is your video, with no links to other people’s videos to contend with, ads, etc…
However, Amazon S3 has downsides as well…
- S3 isn’t so simple, and there is some tech stuff needed to get set up, upload files, and install what normally is a paid player on your site to get the videos. Not for the do-it-yourselfer unless you are a geek.
- It’s not a search engine nor catalogued so in and of itself S3 doesn’t aid your off-site SEO.
Tips for Small Business Video Hosting
For most marketing video, you want it seen by as many people as possible. Complimentary sites like YouTube make that simple, as well as providing a fairly high-speed streaming embed for hosting on your website. In social media profiles, you may have to link away. Your YouTube channel itself can be searched and rated by Google, and the video on your page supports its Search Engine Optimization also. Because of its ease of use and find-ability, I suggest using YouTube for your promotional videos.
However, if you are creating paid video content like course material, you may prefer to restrict access to your paid members and serve up the professional, won’t link away capability produced by a service like Amazon S3, where you are in control yet get the same speed of stream (some say it’s quicker) than your free hosting option.
A combined strategy offers you with the best of both worlds of control and public accessibility hinging on your small business usage.
About the Author: Karl Walinskas is the CEO of Smart Company Growth, a business development firm that helps small to mid-size professional service firms build competitive advantage in an online world of sameness. He is author of numerous articles and the Smart Blog on leadership, business communication, sales & service, public speaking and virtual business, and Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership, available in theSmartShop. Get your FREE LinkedIn Profile Optimization eBook & Video Course, Video Marketing video and course, or Mastermind Groups e-course & video now.
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To Startup or Not To Startup? Five Things to Consider Before Launching Your Own Company
Why start your own business? After all, it may be one of the most masochistic decisions any individual can make.
To begin, startups come with financial risk, and impact of failure on one’s finances can be severe. Moreover, starting a new business is a sure-fire way to distance oneself from friends and family. Startups can be all-consuming, leaving little time for much else—including personal relationships. Finally, starting a business can take a heavy physical and emotional toll. Late nights and meals at one’s desk are not a healthy lifestyle, and the highs and lows of the startup game can drive a person mad.
Here is why I love being an entrepreneur. In short, starting a business is one of the most exciting, challenging, and rewarding ways to spend my working years. Yes, it can be hard and cruel, but six years into it, I haven’t experienced a single day of boredom.
Startups are not for everyone. Here is some advice if you are considering whether to get into the game:
(1) Get some experience first
Some recent academic literature has concluded that the ideal age for entrepreneurship is 40. This is no doubt because can help to have working experience before you start a business. For one, it provides an opportunity to save up some potential capital to invest. Moreover, you will inevitably pick up some useful skills and knowledge along the way—some of which could prove handy, even if your new business is in a field outside of your expertise. In addition, as you work, your network of contacts will grow. This can prove useful in a variety of ways, including client development, recruiting, the pursuit of capital, to name a few.
(2) Analyze your opportunity costs
If you have nothing to lose, it is easier to take the leap into entrepreneurship. If you are the sole breadwinner for a family of 5 with a limited nest egg, it probably makes sense to save up some cash first, and think very carefully about the impact that a bombed startup would have on your life. One other word of caution here in a different vein: Be aware of the risk of your opportunity cost rising too high. Although an increasing employee paycheck is generally a good thing, the higher your salary rises, the more difficult it can become to quit your job and scratch that entrepreneurial itch.
(3) Build a detailed financial model for the business and test your assumptions thoroughly
Once you begin reducing the business to a spreadsheet, the realities of the numbers will begin to emerge. Taking into account all of your expenses and revenues, as well as when they should occur, will give you a sense of whether the business can make money. It will also give you a sense of how much capital you will need and by when. While there are always financial surprises in the startup experience, waiting to build your projections until after you commit to a business is a dangerous proposition.
(4) Speak to potential clients
Treat your new venture as a sophisticated investor would treat a new potential investment and determine whether your idea can be monetized. Do some due diligence and explore whether there is interest in your product or service. Ask client prospects whether they like your value proposition. If you are entering a competitive industry, ask what it would take for clients to switch providers. Knowing what potential clients want and need is critically important to know if there is room in the marketplace for your business.
(5) Ask yourself whether you have the right DNA
Jumping head first into a startup is not for everyone. If you are the type who needs others to motivate you, or who has trouble staying focused when times get tough, starting a business is probably not be the right move. But if you have self discipline, a fair amount of confidence, passion, and a good deal of intestinal fortitude, you may well be the perfect fit for entrepreneurship.
Keep in mind that starting a business is not for everyone. But for those who have what it takes, becoming an entrepreneur may be the most fulfilling professional path.
About the Author: Paul Mandell is a Founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Consero. In this role, Mr. Mandell provides strategic leadership for the company with a rigid focus on excellence at every level of the business. Prior to founding Consero, Mr. Mandell founded and was the President of a national legal support company that was acquired in 2007. The successor entity was recognized as one of the world’s top legal process outsourcing companies during his continued tenure as President the following year. Prior to entering the business world, Mr. Mandell practiced law at Arnold & Porter LLP and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in Washington, DC, and New York, New York, respectively, where he focused primarily on antitrust and pharmaceutical litigation. Prior to his law firm experience, Mr. Mandell clerked for the Honorable K. Michael Moore of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
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What an MBA Won’t Teach About Starting a Business
There is much discussion about how beneficial an MBA education is for entrepreneurs starting a business. The debate is about whether the skills required for success as an entrepreneur can be taught and whether the current MBA curriculum allows its graduates to succeed in today’s business landscape. Entrepreneurs must decide whether to invest in a top Online MBA as a prerequisite for starting a business, or rather instead to invest that money directly into a new business.
According to the article, “Seven Essential Qualities of a Successful Entrepreneur” published in the Wall Street Journal, having a vision and being passionate about pursuing that vision are believed to be key requirements for entrepreneurial success. Given that most entrepreneurs accept this driving force as a critical component for entrepreneurs, the question germane to the MBA debate is whether you can teach a student how to think in an innovative manner and to come up with a new idea that they are willing to pursue with an intense and ongoing commitment. Considering the enormous commitment and sacrifice that most new companies require, if an entrepreneur does not make a business dream a top priority in the beginning, it will be very difficult to stick with it when the big challenges arrive.
Education Cannot Teach Passion or Innovation
Considering the large number of highly successful entrepreneurs without formal MBA training, a persuasive argument can be made that entrepreneurs do not need an MBA to succeed when they have a good idea and are willing to pursue it against all odds. Some of the better-known entrepreneurs who are recognized as high-profile contributors to society without an MBA include Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft. Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple computer is another entrepreneur that must be recognized as one of the most celebrated entrepreneurs without an advanced education. These visionaries created technologies that have directly impacted the lives of most people in technology-savvy cultures. The problem with MBAs is that its curriculum teaches students what’s worked for businesses in the past; it doesn’t teach them what being innovative and determined are.
People Skills
While many innovative entrepreneurs in the technology industry have not suffered from a lack of people skills, in many other industries this lack could prove a block to success. We’ve all heard the saying that it is not what you know, but whom you know that makes you successful. If this is true for most entrepreneurs, then it is easy to understand why so many people who are well liked do so well in business.
Networking is promoted as a plausible way to find business partners and key employees. An entrepreneur must be able to depend on talent and commitment to make up for a lack of other resources to compete. This is where leadership and charisma play a key role in recruiting the talent necessary for success.
Conclusion
The debate will continue about whether an entrepreneur needs an MBA to succeed as an entrepreneur. Some questions that any new entrepreneur must consider is whether they can commit for the long-term, and whether they can withstand the pressure to compete under duress. Some of the considerations to think about are financial demands and a support system. Entrepreneurs’ challenges are often not limited to business competition, but also include family concerns. Having a spouse or partner who is also committed to an entrepreneur’s dream can make a substantial difference in whether an entrepreneur succeeds.
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Three cost-effective ways to market your start-up in 2012
Friends sneered at you when you said that you are going the entrepreneurial way. You quit your job in that MNC to build this dream product. Now the product is finally out in the open but how do you find takers for your product.
Needless to say, being a startup you always have this financial question mark staring blankly at your face. Keeping in mind the limitations, startups can easily use these three tools to market their product. It is working for us and if you do it right, it will work for you too.
Social Networking might be passé but networking is not :
Start by using your own personal contacts and their contacts. Ask your friends to try and use your product. Talk about your product when you meet each other during social gatherings. You somehow have to ensure that the optimism you have for your product, gets communicated around. And all said and done, Facebook and Twitter are still one of the best ways to talk about your brand online.
Data Visualizations:
A picture is worth a thousand words. People might not be interested in your 1000 words article but they would love to see a nice graphic communicating the same idea. Try exploring infographics to market what your product stands for, what problem it seeks to solve, industry trends in your market, etc.
Blogging:
This is an effective way to make yourself heard online. Post articles that you think your target market would be interested in. Try and establish yourself as the thought leader in your industry. Encourage the idea of blogging within your organization. Ask employees to contribute their own take on things.
All the best and have a rocking year!
About the Author: Shilpi Choudhury is an Inbound Marketing Specialist and Business Blogger based out of Bangalore, India. She is currently working for DiscountPandit, Bangalore, which is a deal search engine that provides users a faster, simpler and a comprehensive deal search experience.
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Reach Success: 5 Easy Ways to Increase Your Clientele
Establishing a solid customer-base is crucial for any start up or small business owner—after all, without any customers/clients, you make no money and without any money your small business will crash and burn. While hiring a strong marketing team can help you acquire a good number of costumers, this route can be pretty expensive. And naturally with any small business owner, funds are tight. But there are few things you can do on your own to help build your number of customers that is relatively cheap or even better, free. To learn how you can increase your clientele and help ensure the success of your business, continue reading below.
1. Do Research
First and foremost you need to get in touch with the needs of your target audience. You could be selling the most innovative product or service known to man but if you don’t know how to appeal and relate to your target audience’s wants and needs, your campaign may fall flat. For example, could your audience be hesitant about taking a chance on you because they are hard up for cash? If this is the case you need to directly state how your product or service is beneficial to your customer despite their economic hardship, which leads us to out next tip—
2. Offer Exclusive Deals
The truth of the matter is that consumers are always looking for a good bargain, especially now (during the holidays). To appeal to the masses, offer some discounts and exclusive deals to new customers or offer a promotional limited time-only offer to people already on your email list serve for example. You can offer an immediate discount or a next-purchase discount, you can offer a 2-for-1 deal, offer free shipping and handling, or even offer a free consultation or an introductory class. The goal is to find a way to persuade new costumers to try your product or service because the deal is irresistible (and of course superior than your competitors.)
3. Get on the Social Media Map
This is crucial. If you do not know how to use popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to self-market your business it’s time you learn now. Right now. The power of social medial isn’t going to dwindle anytime soon and these free tools are a great way to reach your target audience and establish your brand free of cost. In fact, even those that refused to give-in to social media in the past will be jumping on the bandwagon come the New Year. According to statistics, 40 % of surveyed small business owners said they finally plan on using social media in 2012.
4. Be Mobile and Tablet Compatible
If you’ve created a website or blog to get your name out there that’s a great start but it isn’t enough—it’s the age of the smartphone and the tablet and consumers must be able to access your website/blog through these devices. Your site has to be compatible. While some platforms will automatically convert, others do not and you may need to download a special plug-in like WpTap to make your blog compatible. And you’re going to want to make your site convert. After all, some experts predict smartphones and tablets will replace the laptop one day and since the latest figures say one-third of the U.S. population owns a smartphone and uses it for its remote mobile access, you don’t want to risk missing out on a pool of smartphone/tablet- using costumers.
5. Hire Ambassadors
Lastly you can hire someone to utilize the traditional “word-of-mouth” marketing technique by hiring someone closely related to your target audience. For example, if you created a product that is specifically tailored to college-aged students, then you can hire a few students at the campus nearest to you and get them to tell their friends and other students how great your products or service is. You wouldn’t have to pay them much (or you could offer free merchandise instead for example), but it’s a great way to dig in deeper and go straight to the source.
Of course these aren’t the only things you can do to expand your costumer-base, but it’s a start. Do some research and investigate all of the other resources that are available to you to ensure that you find costumers and keep them coming back.
About the Author: This guest post is contributed by Katheryn Rivas, who writes for online universities blog. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: katherynrivas87@gmail.com.
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How to Run Your Small Business (Instead of Having Your Small Business Run You)
Owning your own business is like going on a new adventure every day, without knowing where it will take you, what dangers you’ll face along the way, or even whether you’ll make it out alive. That last part depends mostly on the business you’re in, but hey, it can certainly feel like your small business is going to kill you, or at least get the better of you on any given day.
A very close friend of mine, who happens to own his own apparel company, came to me recently, shaken, unshaven, and obviously stressed. He began telling me how he was missing meetings, losing track of time, neglecting personal relationships, and generally forming more bad habits than he could keep up with, on account of his business was taking over his life.
I definitely related to his situation, and then started thinking about ways to help him (and other small business owner like him, myself included).
Here’s what I came up with:
Know How (and When) to Say No
Small business owners should have four legs, we scramble so much. And while the world appreciates our hustle, we often agree very hastily to much more than we can actually take on, in the hopes that we can cut a better deal here, or get more funding there.
Much of this hustle is necessary, but much of it is not. Yes, it is important to make contacts, to pitch your product, and to get funding, but missing meetings because you have too much on your plate is much more damaging to your reputation than saying no ahead of time. If you are feeling like your business is running you instead of the other way around, than examine your current commitments to see which are essential, acknowledge to yourself that it is OK to say no, and then, in the future, say no to the things that aren’t.
Plan Every Second of Your Life
No, I’m not exaggerating. What kills many small business owners is ambiguity in their schedules. Don’t allow this to happen. Get a planner, a journal, a piece of notebook paper, or a napkin — whatever it takes — and write down exactly what you have to do that week, and when you will be doing it. Zero in as microscopically as possible, to the point that you include such details as “eating ham sandwich alone at 12:05,” or “meeting with (x) investor at Starbucks on 1234 Main at 1:39pm.” Specificity in activity and time count. Don’t leave any “wiggle room”; free time is time that is unaccounted for, unless, that is, you schedule it in. See how that works? You can’t feel guilty about free time if you knew you were taking it.
This should go without saying, but often we small business owners need to hear what goes without saying, so: DO NOT VARY FROM THE SCHEDULE. Once it is written, DO IT.
Take Free Time
This is extremely important. There’s a reason the normal work week is only Monday to Friday: Neither the human body nor the human mind were designed to work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. With that in mind, plan some free time, and even some vacation time, into your week. You will be able to focus better, and will feel more in control of your life if you do things outside of running your business, and, best of all, you will be able to run your business better when you are refreshed and thinking clearly.
By the way, after I presented my friend with these strategies, he adopted them, and while I can’t vouch for his business, I can vouch for his health and happiness, and I can say that after following my advice for a few weeks, he looked like a million dollars, and felt like it, too. And you can’t run a business if you feel like anything less.
About the Author: This is a guest post by Eliza Morgan who is a full time blogger. She specializes in writing about business credit cards. You can reach her at: elizamorgan856 at gmail dot com.
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