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Be an Example -- 3 Ways to Practice True Leadership

Written by Erik Huberman - Founder and CEO of Hawke Media, a Los Angeles-area outsourced digital CMO agency for companies like Evite, Bally Total Fitness, Verizon Wireless, Eddie Bauer, Red Bull and many other brands. 

Earlier this year, United Airlines became the subject of multiple controversies due to the way its employees treated customers. Those employees received a lot of criticism, but the real root of the problem goes much higher than United's workforce. The employees, as it happened, acted to enforce policies without thinking. They didn’t take initiative or rely on their own judgment. The fact is, a culture built on principles and values -- rather than blind obedience -- might have empowered those employees to behave in an appropriate way. But perhaps they needed stronger role models because, in a company setting, people model what they see.

Defining "true leadership"

If United Airlines had practiced “true leadership,” the company likely could have avoided the public outrage.

True leaders are the pinnacle of what they expect from the people around them. And by setting an example, true leaders encourage their people to aim for that. The most powerful example of a true leader I can think of is a warring tribal chief back in the days of the frontier wars between Indians and settlers: A chief drove everyone else to be better for the sake of the tribe and modeled what that looked like.

Richard Branson is a great modern-day example of true leadership. He knows the culture he wants to curate and makes sure his companies have it. Before this group of companies was sold, interacting with any Virgin company -- whether you flew Virgin America, shopped at Virgin Records or worked with Virgin Mobile -- you almost felt like as though you were working with Branson himself.

In his companies, it was always clear that people understood leadership and culture and held it in high regard.

Practicing true leadership: boss vs. leader

Leaders need to behave in the way they want their employees to behave, and to continually ensure they have what they need to do that. At my company, our first priority is to always check in with people and make sure they have all the resources they need.

Here are some other ways to practice true leadership:

1. Pull the rope. 

I love the image of a "leader" versus a "boss" during a tug of war. The leader is at the end of the rope, pulling along with his team. A boss is yelling at everyone else to pull the rope harder.

In a study highlighted by the Harvard Business Review, 38 percent of global leaders polled said that a good leader cultivates a feeling of failure and success as a team. That’s the difference between a "boss" and a "leader." Leadership is about doing the job, not just telling others how to do it.

The leaders of Daimler Greater China exhibited this characteristic last year when they removed a manager for insulting Chinese people. The incident was a private situation, but Daimler felt it didn’t reflect well on the company to have high-level leadership behaving this way. After all, if high-level staff could do this, so could everyone else.

The takeaway? If you want your people to work hard, work hard yourself. Whatever you expect of your team, take it on yourself and set the example. Never stop pulling the rope.

2. Be the provider. 

A true leader supports the team with time, energy, thought and actual physical support. Whatever needs to happen to keep up with your people, provide: additional meeting opportunities, Q&A sessions, informal happy hours -- whatever it is. Be the support system for your team's success.

At Hawke Media, we want to give people a comfortable place to work hard. That's why we call our office the most comfortable place to be uncomfortable. We have couches everywhere and dogs running around, and now that the team likes hanging out there, we expect them to get things done.

We also provide constant education. One study by Rypple found that 23 percent of employees surveyed said they wanted career development opportunities, and a true leader will listen to that. We provide that through initiatives such as “Hawke U” every Friday. My business partner reads a book each week and then presents his takeaways in an hourlong presentation: short, sweet and highly effective.

3. Become a "personal trainer."

Just as a great personal trainer gets more from clients than those clients may have expected of themselves, a true leader does the same. Never hire or fire based on experience because things change too fast. Instead, see yourself as a coach for your team.

We hired someone out of a retail store background who was smart but had no experience in marketing, but she quickly became a top-notch Facebook advertising manager, grew a team of Facebook advertisers and then became our VP of operations, running a team of 80 people. This took her just three years.

We got her there by hiring for attitude instead of experience. Then we sat with her for months, basically having her work hand in hand with a trainer. In the early days, we mentored her in tactics, and today we continue to teach her what we’re learning so she can take on more responsibility.

True leadership is about helping employees become the best people they can be. You do that by setting the example, doing the work and training others to come along with you -- besides you.

With these tactics up your sleeve, you’ll never end up in the news, the way United did.

  Posted by David Seagraves                                                          

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The Lifeblood of Success: How to Encourage Innovation at Your Company

Written by Gideon Kimbrell - Co-founder and CEO of Miami-based InList.com, which provides an app for booking reservations at exclusive nightlife, charity, and entertainment event.

Last month, President Donald Trump’s hand-picked leader of the newly created White House Office of American Innovation, Jared Kushner, held his first conference call to discuss the nation’s state of innovation. Considering that those on the call included leaders such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Marc Andreessen and Elon Musk, Kushner made a bold entrance.

But that’s not surprising. Innovation, after all, remains the lifeblood of American success, whether the context is technology, military dominance or the economy. And, part of maintaining innovation’s upward trend means allowing the government to help foster it.

In this way, it's edifying to see that the White House has innovation on its radar, as this underscores the point that all businesses need to make innovation a priority. Fortunately, sources of inspiration are all around us, and a few basic practices can keep things moving in that direction.

1. Innovate by example.

Amazon pulled off innovation for example -- and continues to do this -- better than most companies. In very little time, it blossomed from its "online marketplace" origins into a formidable foe for Microsoft in the battle for cloud storage and computing supremacy. Nobody would have expected a "bookseller" to come so far, but when you review all the disruptive, daring innovations implemented by Jeff Bezos and his team, it’s no wonder that Amazon’s innovation exploits stand out.

And internet tech is hardly the only industry benefiting from out-of-the-box thinking. The “alternative to meats” market, for example, is, surprisingly, brimming with innovation. Beyond Meat, to name one such innovator sells realistic-tasting vegan burgers and other offerings and operates under a tent (which sounds a lot like innovation) of “Move fast and break things.” 

Memphis Meats, meanwhile, innovates by creating products that come from animal cells in a lab -- not live animals -- to deliver a true "meaty" taste.

Of course, innovation is often best seen in hindsight. If we look back a few years, we can see the stunning innovation that's occurred in so many areas. Uber and Lyft both revolutionized the ride-service industry. Snapchat turned social networking on its head. And biotech startups like 23andMe expanded what we used to think was possible in terms of personal genetic knowledge.

Innovation is happening all around us, so what simple things can you do at your company to encourage it?

2. Create flat-organization architectures.

Adding layer upon layer to your organization’s structure creates waterfall-style development and business cycles -- but that’s not always a good thing. While this approach has merit, you should avoid taking that route if you’re leading a young company. Instead, flatten your structure out and a free room in the budget for innovation and project development.

Consider Semco Partners. After the usual motivational gimmicks it implemented yielded nothing, the Brazilian joint-venture catalyst-company went for a drastic overhaul, flattening its hierarchy to just one corporate layer and two manufacturing ones. No manager reports to any other; instead, the company's emphasis on self-management allows workers to bring practical skills and common sense to their jobs.

To make that transition, Semco divided employees into work groups of about 150 each. That encouraged ease of interaction and better coordination of their efforts, but it also cashed out for the company in terms of increasing its productivity while lowering costs. Carried out during what proved to be a financially perilous time, the shift ended up being a lifesaver for Semco.

3. Encourage personal projects.

You should allow and budget for your employees to spend a portion of their time building anything they want for the company. This could be 10 percent, 20 percent or any portion of their time that you decide. Creative types will thrive off this liberty and feel more in charge of their future with your company.

Google did something along these lines in its early days; it was called “20 Percent Time” and gave birth to enterprises such as AdSense, Gmail, and Google News. The other big players in tech joined the current company, all offering variations on the “20 Percent Time” model. But the personal project idea isn't just for tech giants. Small startups can and should set aside time and budget for personal exploration.

4. Focus on an inclusive culture.

Include the ideas of everyone on the team -- especially those on the front lines, because they deal with customers and know their pain points. This is critical because innovation is about finding solutions to real problems, not just creating gadgets that nobody will use. You'll often find that the most creative ideas and solutions come from your customer-facing team, not the designers.

While you’re at it, don’t forget your customers. Focus on their needs in a committed and organized way by keeping a record of their recommendations, whether directly or on social media.

At InList, we’ve seen the value this approach can deliver: We often get our best product ideas from our concierges -- the people listening to our customers. We encourage them to tell us what we could be doing better. We make a point to ensure that our marketing people listen attentively to customer needs and that no social media post goes unnoticed. We can’t implement every feature request, but we try to understand the underlying needs of our users.

Although the past two decades of American innovation have been utterly transformative, it seems like the pace is only heating up. Being on the front lines of innovation is crucial to the success of any company in this increasingly tech-connected world.

The good news? Almost everyone seems to be on board with this innovative future, from the leadership of our country to everyday consumers. By putting into practice a few simple steps, your company too can foster innovation and participate in this exciting new marketplace.

  Posted by David Seagraves                                                              

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How to Know When You Should Partner With a Nonprofit

Written by Kevin Xu is the CEO of MEBO International, a California- and Beijing-based intellectual-property management company specializing in applied health systems.

That's why startup partnerships with nonprofit organizations are now more important than ever, and new opportunities are popping up every day. For instance, while malaria used to be the primary public health concern in Africa, GeekWire has reported that cancer may now be the continent's biggest health threat, according to recent data.

To combat this, Seattle nonprofit BIO Ventures for Global Health partnered in June with the African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer, to create the African Access Initiative. The Initiative will bring in pharmaceutical and biotech companies, such as Pfizer and Takeda, to aid in the fight against cancer.

In a perfect world, a union between a startup and a nonprofit will always make sense. Complementary resources and common goals will also surely help, while timing is just as big a factor.

Timing Is everything.

From the moment it opens its doors, a startup is running on borrowed time. Research by Statistic Brain has pointed to data showing that 25 percent of startups fail within the first year, 36 percent falter after two and 55 percent are dead by the end of year five.

Needless to say, then, every day counts for all young companies, including those that partner with nonprofits. The timing of any partnership must be strategic and help both sides get the most out of the union.

What do you see the fruits of your labor looking like a month from now? How about six months -- or years-- from now? Decide what success looks like now, and work toward creating the change your partnership hopes to see.

Through my company's partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative and the China Association for Integrative Medicine, we're providing monthly training sessions throughout China to teach locals how to tend to burn victims. The sessions provide immediate training and assistance in the communities that need it, while also building a long-term system of burn specialists who can service their chosen areas and serve as ambassadors for the company's joint venture and its chosen charitable organization.

Deliberate timing is vital for both sides of a startup-nonprofit partnership. It ensures that each can pull its own weight and operate at a high frequency.

Taking the plunge With a nonprofit

Thirty percent of respondents in the Statistic Brain study cited "unbalanced experience or lack of managerial experience" as a reason for startup failure; and one of the subcategory reasons was too-rapid expansion, which occurs in a partnership when one or both partners are not ready. This is why it's so important to evaluate your company's financial and structural status to make sure your startup is healthy enough to join hands with a nonprofit.

Assuming you've found that perfect nonprofit, here are three questions to ask yourself to make sure the timing is right:

1. Where do we stand financially? Take the temperature of most failed startups, and you'll find that finances played a hand in a good chunk of their respective downfalls. Forty-six percent of the Statistic Brain respondents listed "incompetence" as the reason for startup failures, with reasons such as "emotional pricing" and lack of knowledge in pricing and finances named as factors.

When entering any partnership -- especially one involving a nonprofit -- ensure that your finances can stand up. Determine whether you're on solid enough ground to donate both time and your young company's scant financial resources. The point of that donation: to help a nonprofit that may also be trying to make its mark but is not as focused as you are, on finances.

2. Are we structurally sound? Money is one factor, albeit an important one, for determining how ready your startup is for a nonprofit teammate. But what about the other aspects of your company's health? In other words, do you have the personnel, work capacity and other support in place to make sure both parties benefit from this union?

Be strategic when entering a partnership, and make sure your company is equipped to handle the load. Strategic timing helps companies understand how a partnership could contribute to both organizations' health, in terms of size and scalability. For example, a small startup collaborating with a large nonprofit could find itself disregarded by others in the space despite heavy contributions to the partnership. This is especially true if the nonprofit's mission isn't updated to reflect the partnership's new objectives.

3. Do both brands look good to the public? Strategic timing is crucial, but don't ignore circumstantial timing, which isn't controlled by individuals and companies, but instead by public opinion. Ensure that your company and its potential nonprofit partner have solid public images so that a bad press story or a single indiscretion won't cast a poor light on your brand or its efforts.

Once that's determined, figure out where your respective brands complement each other. Brand alignment is key for building partnerships, so understand how your mission coincides with that of your potential nonprofit partner. To understand how you can help, understand the needs of your preferred nonprofits and identify gaps in their assistance.

Still unsure about the goal you want to focus on? Check the U.N.'s website and review its 17 sustainable development goals to see whether one fits with your company's current mission statement. From there, perform an internal review to see how your partnership could take advantage of existing infrastructures. Pursuing relevant, timely causes will help ensure that your efforts go to those which need it most and that your startup makes the most of its limited time and resources.

A startup/nonprofit partnership can be great for all parties involved, but it must be initiated at the right time. Ask the questions that get to the core of what your company -- and its potential philanthropic partner -- represent in order to determine whether now is the time to make things official.

  Posted by David Seagraves                                                             

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5 Traits of Powerful Small-Business Owners

Written by Timothy Sykes  - An entrepreneur and a penny stock expert, trader, and advocate. He has been featured on CNN, Fox News, CNBC and more and has spoken at prestigious institutions such as Harvard University. 

Bravery

I can’t stress this enough. Small businesses need to stand out from the crowd and you have to be brave to make that jump.

But don’t confuse bravery with stupidity. They’re not the same thing. Jumping off a cliff for the sake of being brave isn’t the right way to go about it. You must be confident in your decisions without being reckless. That’s bravery.

Self-Motivation

Nobody is on your back telling you to do anything. If you don’t want to go to work on Monday there’s nothing to stop you. That sort of freedom is liberating and dangerous in equal measures. You must have the self-motivation to get up and go, especially when you don’t want to get up and go.

Without that self-motivation, you will use that freedom in the wrong way.

Transparency

Business is under more scrutiny these days than ever before. If you’re not transparent, both in your organization and in the public arena, you will destroy the reputation of your business. You must be transparent and you must be willing to share.

Sometimes this could even be a legal requirement.

Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is important. Why?

I believe it’s so important because this is what’s going to drive you every day to greater and greater heights. Enthusiastic people gain a little bit of success and want to keep getting better. That’s how you keep your business sharp and it’s how you avoid getting swallowed up. The only way to stay enthusiastic is to be passionate about whatever it is you’re doing.

Accountability

Nobody respects a leader who constantly shifts blame, which often leads to making the same mistakes repeatedly. Take responsibility for your mistakes. Own them.

You should do it simply because it’s the right thing to do but also because this is how you learn from your mistakes. This is how you recover and grow stronger.

I believe no small-business owner can be successful without these traits. They’re essential for growth, development, and profitability. 

  Posted by David Seagraves                                                       

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4 Mistakes Determined Entrepreneurs Never Make Twice

Written by Daniel Marlin is a business and digital marketing consultant. His insights have been mentioned on Forbes, Mashable, Entrepreneur and other large publications.

1. They always set boundaries.

"No" isn’t always an easy word to say, especially to your customers. We live in a world where businesses put their customers on a pedestal. Entrepreneurs learn that "the customer is king." No wonder they feel obligated to indulge unreasonable customer demands. That’s why it’s important to set boundaries for your customers.

Your unwillingness to tell them "no" will threaten the control you have over your business. You’ll lose your focus by making other people’s problems your own. Your operation will fall into disarray.

Setting these boundaries is challenging, but it's possible to assert your authority without being disrespectful. Enforce a set of policies within your business and stick to them. Understand that some people will disagree with them, and there will be conflict. When customers challenge your policies, explain why a rule exists. Be honest about the extent to which you're willing to accommodate them. Walk away if they’re still unsatisfied. Sometimes it’s better to take a short-term loss if it means avoiding a much more complicated set of problems in the future.

2. They never underestimate timelines.

Entrepreneurs are naturally optimistic, and that’s great. But, this tendency to be optimistic can result in unrealistic projections about the time it takes to complete specific tasks. This is a psychological phenomenon known as the "planning fallacy." Even though we’ve done a task a thousand times before, we still underestimate the amount of time it takes to complete it. And this can stop us from organizing our days efficiently and setting realistic deadlines.

That’s a problem because deadlines help create expectations. If they’re lenient, team members become unmotivated and unproductive. But if they’re too tight, people will become stressed and overwhelmed.

Driven entrepreneurs know that even routine tasks contain hidden surprises. That’s why they need to manage their time in a way that creates realistic expectations while leaving room for unexpected challenges.

3. They don’t try to do everything themselves.

You’ve got a qualified team, yet you complain about how much work you have to get through everyday.

Time is precious. Even if you’re the world’s biggest workaholic, you’ve got other interests to pursue in your free time. So why waste away the hours trying to do everything yourself when there are capable people who could do it for you?

Many entrepreneurs are control freaks and terrible at delegating work. They lack trust in other people’s abilities, or they think that they’re the best person for the job -- and that might be true. But as a business grows, there comes a point where the workload becomes too much for one person handle. During this stage, your most important task as a leader is teaching your team how to think and ask questions for themselves.

You need to set expectations and objectives, but your team members need to be autonomous so that you’re not micromanaging them. Failing to delegate will cause your business to stagnate and put unnecessary stress on your shoulders.

4. They avoid making enemies.

Competitors are not your enemies. If you focus all your energy trying to beat them, you’ll lose sight of what matters in your business -- making customers happy. Now that doesn’t mean you should ignore industry trends and live in a bubble. But you shouldn’t develop unhealthy obsessions about constantly getting ahead of people you have set yourself up against as an adversary.

Instead, spend your time identifying what problems your customers need to solve. Develop products and services that they love using, and create experiences that they keep coming back for. If you keep improving your products, logistics and company culture, you’ll become a leader in your industry without ruffling any feathers in the process.

Mistakes are an unavoidable part of life. But they can cause considerable damage if you don’t change the behavior that causes them to re-occur. Learn from your shortcomings, understand your weaknesses, and dedicate yourself to constant improvement. It’s the only way you’ll solve your problems for good and achieve the determination you need to reach your goals.

  Posted by David Seagraves           

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You Must Ask Yourself This Question Before You Pitch Your Idea

Written by Nina Zipkin - staff writer at Entrepreneur.com. She frequently covers media, tech, startups, and culture and workplace trends.

Kim is the general partner of Forerunner Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in companies that want to take the world of retail and ecommerce by storm.

Prior to her role with the fund, Kim was a management consultant at Bain and Company, an investor at Castanea Partners and founded a luxury leather goods brand called MAVN. She also sits on six of the boards of companies Forerunner has funded.

According to a study by TechCrunch last year, 7 percent of partners at the top 100 VC firms are women. Another 2016 report from the National Venture Capital Association and Deloitte University Leadership Center for Inclusion found that 11 percent of investment partners at 217 firms are women. That makes Forerunner’s team of six -- five women and one man -- something of a rarity.

Kim says that the core of the firm’s philosophy is being active and engaged investors. “We always joke that being a venture capitalist also means you have to be a therapist. It's the ability to build that relationship,” she says. “It's not just about being smart or giving advice, but can you be the first call even when things are bad? Especially when things get bad.”

Since the firm was launched in 2012 by founder and managing partner Kirsten Green, it has backed companies such as Dollar Shave Club, Jet.com, Away, Glossier, Warby Parker and Zola.

More than anything, for entrepreneurs who are just starting out and want to bring their ideas to a venture capitalist, Kim says you need to understand why you are the right founder to grow this business and why this venture is important to you. And it can't just be because the numbers appear to line up.

"We get a lot of smart people, people who were at the top of their MBA classes. They think [an idea works because] this is a big market or a good business model. But when things get really hard, are you going to be excited? If you quit because it gets hard, then we all fail,” Kim says. “It's not just about being smart and identifying opportunity. Do you realize how many years you're going to have to dedicate to this and maybe fail anyway? So why would you do this if you weren't super passionate?”

Entrepreneur spoke with Kim to get her insights on when you should give yourself permission to take the big leap and why she answers every email -- even if the pitch isn’t a good fit.

 In your experience, when should an entrepreneur seek out VC support vs. other types of funding?

You have to be willing to grow a gigantic business. No venture capitalist puts money in hoping that they don't ever get the money out. There's only a few ways you can get the money out. One of of them is you get acquired for oodles of money. There is a scenario where it's a good situation -- you become a nice business that makes good money. But that's not venture. The plan is go big or go home. The clear medium path is not venture. The bold, "we can be a publicly traded company" -- that's venture.

So what's the difference between the two paths? It's what product differentiation you have, but it's also how much tenacity and ambition does the founder have? Oftentimes we ask the question, what does success look like for you?

If someone says, "I think we can be $100 million in five years," [but for venture] $100 million in five years isn't fast enough. One hundred million dollars in two or three years? Now we're talking. It's not crazy, it's just, what do you have to believe to get there? It isn't for everybody. If you do take venture funding, you can almost certainly stay in business if you continue on that trajectory. But with venture, you could be going OK, but then not good enough. So no one will give you more money and you go out of business. The pressures are really different.

What advice do you have for women entrepreneurs about advocating for themselves and their ideas in a fundraising environment?

You’ll see a male entrepreneur and a female entrepreneur pitching the same idea. The male entrepreneur will come in and pitch with so much more confidence and so much more aggressively. Whether or not they are flat out lying or wrong about those numbers, you get so absorbed in the story and think, this person is going to crush it. The female entrepreneur is often really thoughtful, but conservative. As a result, [that approach] makes it feel like it's a small idea. They're going to hit those numbers, but if they hit those numbers, it's not that exciting. It's OK, but it's not a venture-backable business.

That conservatism isn't fair because women tend to want to over-exceed expectations and they set the bar low and then they do a lot better. Men tend to go big and if they come up short they just have a bunch of excuses as to why they came up short, like the market changed a little.

But as a result, you get somebody much more excited when you're talking about the big vision and you're going to go for gold. I think that is, time and again, the situation, so I've given female founders the feedback that you need to crank up your projections. You're trying to hit better than what you just showed me. If you can't, you shouldn't quit your job and do this.

What advice do you have for people who have never been entrepreneurs before who want to start something new?

If you can't stop thinking about something and you are honestly OK with making no money, that you just have to do this one thing, then figure out what is the minimum viable product you can build to start testing it out and go and do it. But have a backup plan. You don't have to willy nilly quit everything just to prove a point.

[Ask yourself], what is it that you're trying to accomplish? Can you do that with maybe saving 20 grand for the year, figuring out what your prototype looks like, building that on the side and then getting some preorders? There are a lot of ways to do this in a scrappy fashion. We really appreciate that, because a lot of people come in and say well, I need $3 million to start my company. Do you? Before you start taking other people's money, figure out if you really have something.

What do you think sets Forerunner’s culture and approach apart from other firms?

There is a Forerunner way of doing things. [We are] super responsive, really humble and really respectful of founders that come in. They're pitching you their dreams. Whether or not it is the dumbest idea you could possibly imagine, it is still their dream and it's an honor to be on the other side of the table when you listen to somebody pour their heart out. They're hoping that they create something special and magical. Whether or not you invest that day is going to make or break their entire idea. It's a lot of responsibility. We reply back to every single email. We do it with courtesy and we give feedback.

Why not help them? If they honestly shouldn't be starting this company, I'm just an opinion of one. But if I say, I've seen this a few times and these are challenges, maybe it will help you start a different company. Maybe you'll be an awesome executive at some big company and then one day come help us in another way. The world is so small. That attitude is really important.

  Posted by David Seagraves                                                                                   Find “The Right Money” for Your Business

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7 Ways to Grow Your Personal Brand in Less Than a Week

Written by Dhaval - an entrepreneur, speaker, and advisor.

Written by Dhaval - an entrepreneur, speaker, and advisor.

 If you want to promote your name and your company online, you have to begin by building your personal brand. You have to begin thinking of yourself and your name as a brand. If you start there, everything else is easy.

How do I know? I've spent years building my own brand, and I'm going to show you how to do it.

1. Do a little preliminary research.

Before you can build a positive personal profile online for yourself, you need to know what is already out there about you. Did you write a mean op-ed in college that has now made it into Google's cache? Do you have some unsavory photos floating out there on the World Wide Web?

Set up Google alerts using your name. Try to clean up any negative press or posts. You may even want to consider changing your name slightly -- such as by using your middle initial or dropping our nickname to build your new profile. Get your name as clean and professional as possible before you begin building your brand online.

2. Get a website.

If you're going to make a name for your brand online, you need a site where your audience can visit so they can learn more about you. So, get a personal website with an "About Me" page. There are lots of tools that you can use and websites you can visit to help you build your own website. Some of them are free. Some are paid, but remember, you get what you pay for.

If you want your website to be dynamic and professional-looking, make sure that you allow enough time, effort (and even money) into it. Use high-resolution photos of yourself and keep your copy short and engaging.

3. Think about your audience.

Who are you trying to reach? This is called your target audience.

If I've learned anything in my years of marketing, it's that you need to define your audience early on. Are you trying to direct people to your personal website so they can learn something from you? What do you have to offer them?

By answering these questions, you'll be able to get a better picture of your audience, and this will give you direction on how you communicate with them on your website and on social media.

4. Make friends with influential people online.

Influencers are some of your best assets as you build your personal brand. Over the years, I've made friends with people online who have big audiences in my industry. By building these relationships, my influencers are more willing to share or retweet my social posts to their audiences.

If you get free exposure to an audience that you are already trying to target, it's a win-win for both parties. Try out this technique to see if it works for you. If you have the right influencers in your circle, you'll get more traffic to your website and more engagement in your social posts.

5. The more people you meet, the better.

When you are building a personal brand, the people you know can help promote you. You can't limit these relationships to online. Perhaps you will reach out to some influencers online, and that is perfectly acceptable. I do that all the time, and it is rewarding to see these friendships form. But, you also need to do everything you can to meet influencers in other ways. Go to local events related to your industry. Network at happy hours.

Tell everyone what you do everywhere you go, from the waiter at your favorite restaurant to the people you sit beside at church. Expand your circles -- and your personal brand -- simply by being present with others.

6. Be you and only you.

I'm offering you this advice because I learned the hard way. When you are building a personal brand, you do want to put your best face forward. But you also don't want to create an online presence that isn't true to who you really are. Social users are savvy about honesty -- and they can tell when marketers are not being vulnerable and genuine.

So make sure you are putting forth an honest profile of who you are. When you do this, you’ll effortlessly build trust.

7. Capture information.

Once you have started building a relationship with your online audience, it will be time to collect some of their information. This will be useful in building an email list, for example, so you can communicate more directly with your target audience.

You can test this using creative ways. For example, once you have proven yourself as an established, trusted voice who offers valuable content, you can ask your audience to sign up for your monthly newsletter. You can also create videos to share your brand story. Incentivize this by offering a free giveaway or running a contest to generate excitement around free prizes. Make it fun for your target audience to participate.

It can feel overwhelming as you get started building your personal brand. But, it takes less than a week to try out these tips. It's easy to try one new strategy, and it won't be long before you have a great target audience listening to you and looking to you for advice. That's what a personal brand is all about.

 Posted by David Seagraves                                                                       

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4 Steps to Building a Stellar Personal Brand

Written by Marsha - Growth Marketing Expert business advisor and speaker with a specialist in international marketing.

As an entrepreneur, you want to build a personal brand that shines—and sparkles. And pops. In essence, you want to be seen. You see other brands with loyal followings, and you wonder how you can get there, too. You know your message or product is unique. You just want to get your message out there... To stand out from the crowd. You’ve done the work, put in the hours, and yet the following just isn’t there yet. It can be frustrating. But I’m here to tell you it isn’t the end of the road.

I can say from experience that building a brand takes time -- and patience. But it is possible. This is why I’ve put together four simple questions to ask yourself as you build a personal brand that shines.

1. Who are you? Authenticity matters.

This tip may as well be called The Idiot’s Guide to Being Yourself. But, seriously…the word authenticity is thrown around a lot, and yet, in this case, it’s appropriate. Authenticity matters. Your brand is you. Read that sentence again. Try imitating someone else’s brand and you’ll likely fail. Find out what is unique about YOUR personal brand and put that out into the world. The world will respond to your unique position and voice. Speaking of voice…

2. What’s your voice? Raising the volume.

Your voice matters. It needs to be consistent and focused on inspiration. Gone are the days of marketing through pain; here are the days of marketing through inspirational messaging. Engagement with your audience is everything.

However, if you’re not a natural born writer or you don’t have the bandwidth, it’s crucial to get support with expanding your influence and your voice.

Ashley Stahl, Founder of Cake Publishing, for instance, helps entrepreneurs take their voice -- and personal brand -- to the next level by providing ghostwriters and copywriters to create blog posts, speeches, email sequences, and more that converts their audience into customers. Working with others who fundamentally understand your messaging is an important part of building a successful brand.

3. Can you be trusted? Position yourself as a trusted source.

Why should your followers trust you? Are you an authority on your subject? It’s time you become one. Learn everything you can about your chosen product or service. Who are your competitors? What products is your audience currently reviewing? Read the reviews, and learn from what’s missing.

If your followers are going to follow you, they need to trust you first. So become an expert in your field -- which means you become an expert on your customer’s dreams, hopes, and pains. This deep knowing and understanding allow you to become the go-to voice for your niche. This might mean late-nights spent researching. It might mean finding a mentor and gleaning everything you can from them. Whatever you do, promise yourself that you’ll never stop learning. As they say, knowledge is power. In the end, it will pay off.

4. Who are your friends? The power of community.

As an entrepreneur and brand-builder, you want to think in terms of community. Spreading your message, and rallying your friends or customers to do so, will only help build a successful and lasting brand.

So find your community. (In case it’s not clear, yes I’m suggesting you step outside and contact people in the real world). But of course, you don’t ever want to forget about the power of online tools. Social media is obviously one of the most powerful tools for building a brand. Are you active online? Are you using your voice and your authentic self in a purposeful way on all your various social media platforms? How about your website? If you don’t have your community yet, go out and find it. Start today.

This could mean starting your own Facebook group and providing free value to potential leads. It could also mean establishing a twitter account that adds extraordinary value and growing a following to engage potential customers.

Of course, this is just the beginning. As I mentioned, building a brand takes time. And yes, it also takes effort. But following these steps can only help you on your journey to building your own personal brand. Your brand should be about who you are what you have to give to the world. So do your research, be yourself, and put it out into the world. The world just might respond.

  Posted by David Seagraves                                               

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Magic Johnson's Secrets for Business Success

Written by Bryan Elliott is CEO of The GoodBrain Digital Studios and a Southern California native with 15 years' experience in brand marketing and production in industries including action sports, entertainment and movies, and digital tech.

You might know Magic Johnson from his esteemed basketball career in the NBA with the Los Angeles Lakers. But, since then, Johnson has been able to successfully bridge the gap between athletics, business, and philanthropy like a champion. It has not been an easy road for Johnson by any means. Many people doubted, including friends, family and the business world, whether he could make the jump beyond sports and suggested he "stick to basketball." 

But, his work ethic, passion, and vision for new business ventures, especially those that have a major positive impact on local communities, helped him persevere. Johnson has navigated Wall St. and Main St. like a pro and even partnered with people like Howard Schultz of Starbucks to pioneer localized coffee shops with sweet potato pie and smooth R&B music in urban cities.

  Posted by David  Seagraves                                          

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An Entrepreneur's Guide to Whittling Down Travel Costs

Written by Kelly Lovell - winner of 12 entrepreneur-related awards and is a two-time TEDx speaker who specializes in social innovation, generation gaps, marketing, consumer engagement, entrepreneurship and youth mobilization. 

There'll come a point in your entrepreneurial journey when you're presented with opportunities to travel. But, as I've written before, you've got to carefully filter these opportunities and tips to determine which ones are bringing you the best ROI. Then, once you've figured out what the gems are, the next task is to look at their cost.

These trips, however valuable, can be quite expensive, of course: From airfare, transportation and accommodations to meals, even a short two-to-three-day conference can come with a high price tag.

And that can be tough, because start-up budgets, especially during the bootstrapping stage, don't often leave much room for travel. There's nothing more bittersweet than learning that your venture will be featured as a "Startup to Watch" at your market's largest conference -- or having the chance to present to a prospective client at his or her head office -- only to discover that you can't afford the travel costs to get there.

In my experience, these realities are difficult to come to terms with. Over the past two months, I've had to travel to eight different cities on two continents. Because each engagement was a stepping stone toward forwarding an important project, I couldn't pass up these opportunities. So, I had to improvise.

Though I lacked the funds to absorb all these travels costs, by following a few simple strategies, I made all of my out-of-country opportunities a reality.

1. Transportation

While flying might be the most time-effective means of transportation, it certainly isn't the most cost-effective. Instead, consider alternate methods of transportation.

For instance, a plane ticket from Toronto to New York can cost anywhere from $350 to $500, depending which deal sites you use and how last-minute your purchase is. Alternatively, if you can schedule in a nine-hour train ride, you can get a round-trip ticket for as low as $90.

While cost savings for one person may not be worth the extra travel time, if you have a couple of founders or coworkers traveling with you, the savings add up. Another option is the bus or, better yet, a road trip where you can save on per-person costs altogether and just collectively pay for gas.

To save even more, consider the timing of your arrivals and departures. Arriving early in the morning of the first day and departing on the red eye after the event may add a bit more flexibility to your budget.

2. Accommodations

While Airbnb is widely known, the advent of the shared economy cannot be emphasized enough. Leveraging it is not only kinder on your wallet, but also vastly improves the quality of your travels by introducing you to new colleagues and cultural experiences. For example, for less than the cost of a small hotel room, you can likely find an apartment on Airbnb equipped with a full kitchen, Wi-Fi and a friendly local host who may be willing to show you around.

3. Getting around

Shared-economy ride apps like Lyft, Gett and via are cost-effective methods for entrepreneurs to get around in a city. Nothing beats a flat rate $5 ride, especially in places like Manhattan!

Moreover, the shared economy doesn't just involve cars: Bike shares -- a slightly newer option -- can be particularly useful for busy cities. You can beat the traffic, get a small work out and do well for our planet, all at once.

A slightly lesser-used, but equally cost-effective measure is carpooling with new colleagues. This sounds overly simplistic, but you would be surprised at how many opportunities you may have missed to save on a ride because you simply neglected to ask.

For busy airports like New York's, there is a high likelihood that many of those on your flight will be headed to Manhattan. You may find a carpool buddy simply by striking up a conversation with the person seated next to you. Naturally, discretion should be used, but splitting a cab with a few new colleagues is certainly a great option.

This strategy doesn't just apply to airport transportation. It's not uncommon, for example, for conferences to book attendees into the same hotels. In the morning-after breakfast or at the end of the night, before you head out, ask if anyone at your table is headed your way. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

4. Food and drink

Eating out on your travels adds up. But I have found that a few hacks have made my per diem very reasonable.

First, to overcome expensive airport pricing, pack smart. Bring an empty water bottle in your carry-on bag. Once you pass security, you can fill it up at a water fountain, or sometimes restaurants will give you a free glass of water. If you can't find water at the airport, ask for a few extra glasses from the flight attendant (naturally spacing out the ask so as to not seem so obvious), and fill up your bottle for the road trip into the city after you land.

Protein powder is another great carry-on essential. All you need is water, and you are good to go for a long flight!

Once I arrive, the first thing I do is find a grocery store, this is one of the biggest ways I save money on my travels. For $35, I often can buy enough food to last me a few days where I am staying. Considering that this is the cost of one meal out in any major city, the cost-savings certainly adds up. It may not be the tourists thing to do but remember: You're there for business, not pleasure. There will be other opportunities for that memorable dining experience.

  Posted by David Seagraves                                                           

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What Is a Sales Funnel? The Guide to Building an Automated Selling Machine

 Written by Robert Adams is a writer, blogger, serial entrepreneur, software engineer, and best-selling author of dozens of technology, SEO, online marketing and self-development books, audiobooks and courses.

 One of the core concepts in the digital marketing industry is the sales funnel. While odd sounding at first, this single core concept can take a business from virtually non-existent and unknown to multi-million-dollar marketing machine with mass saturation, seemingly overnight. In fact, there are skilled practitioners who have built a career around implementing this single concept in business.  

If you're wondering what a sales funnel is, simply imagine a real-world funnel. At the top of that funnel, some substance is poured in, which filters down towards one finite destination. In sales, something similar occurs. At the top, lots of visitors arrive who may enter your funnel. However, unlike the real-world funnel, not all who enter the sales funnel will reemerge out from the other end. 

In marketing automation, Ryan Deiss, co-founder of Digital Marketer, often describes the sales funnel as a multi-step, multi-modality process that moves prospective browsers into buyers. It's multi-stepped because lots must occur between the time that a prospect is aware enough to enter your funnel, to the time when they take action and successfully complete a purchase. 

There are email warming sequences that include things like personalized value-driven stories, tutorials and even soft pushes to webinars, and of course product suggestions that happen over days or even weeks. The truth is that most prospects won't buy from your website at first glance, especially if they're only just becoming aware of you today. It takes time. Thus, the funnel is a multi-modality process, as there are a variety of relationship-building experiences and "touches" that occur through several stages. 

Much of this is steeped in buyer psychology. The best marketers in the world know that there is a psychological process that must occur for prospects to whip out those credit cards and turn into buyers or even hyper-active buyers. One such person who’s perfected this process is Russell Brunson, an "underground entrepreneur" who founded a company called Click Funnels, a sales funnel SaaS business that empowers marketers from around the world to build marketing automation without all the hassle. 

As a software engineer myself, I can tell you that building funnels from an application standpoint takes massive amounts of work. There's a great deal of coding and integration that's required here. From email systems to landing page implementations to credit card processing APIs, and everything in between, so many platforms need to "talk," that it takes the bar too high for the average marketer. 

However, what Brunson cleverly conceived with Click Funnels is to create a SaaS that can integrate with the world's most popular platforms and virtually anyone can quietly launch a funnel in hours as opposed to weeks of hefty coding and programming. As a fervent user of Click funnels myself, I can tell you that the system is impressive beyond measure.

Understanding Sales Funnels

To better understand the concept of a sales funnel and just how you can implement it in your own business, let's look at the following image from Shutter stock. On the left side of the image, you see a magnet. That magnet is attracting customers, which happens a number of ways. From blogging to social media to paid ads and everything in between, how the visitors arrive to your website has some impact on the success of your funnel. 

Stage 1: Awareness

What's more important about the sales funnel is what happens when those visitors (we can call them prospects) actually do arrive. Through a variety of means, many of which you've already seen, such as email newsletter signups, eBook downloads, online quizzes and more, those prospects enter into your sales funnel through an enticing offer.  

The goal of your entire sale funnel and platform is to solve your customer's problem. When you know the problem, and you build content to draw them in, then offer them a product or service to solve their problem, that's when the real magic happens. However, getting to that stage takes work and you have to garner their awareness first. 

Once the prospect is in the proverbial funnel, you've peaked their awareness. That's the first stage of the funnel. However, getting a prospect aware of you is no simple feat. Depending upon how they've arrived to your website (organically or through a paid ad), those customers might view your funnel differently and your opt-in rates will vary significantly. 

For example, when a customer finds you organically through a Google search for example, that means you have some element of authority. When you have authority, prospects are more likely to enter into your funnel because they know that if they found you relevantly, that whatever it is that you're providing must be of a great value. That's just the nature of SEO and organic search. 

Of course, regardless of how they enter into your funnel, your goal as a marketer is to move them through the multiple stages that will take them from prospect to buyer. And once they're aware of you, you need to build their interest. To do this, you need to establish a relationship with the customer. You might have enticed them with a great offer (lead magnet) to grab their email address, but actually moving them through the funnel is a far greater challenge. 

The truth? People are smart. They're not simply going to buy anything from anyone unless they feel there's an immense amount of value to be had there. Thus, your funnel needs to build that value and bake it in through a variety of means. But most importantly, you have to create a strong bond with your prospect, and that happens by being relatable, honest and transparent in your email warming sequence.

Stage 2: Interest

You gain the prospects interest through an email sequence. You begin to relate stories to them that tie into who you are and how you've arrived to this point in your life. Brunson, in his book, Expert Secrets, calls this the Attractive Character. Are you the reluctant hero whose journey happened almost by mistake, but you feel like you owe it to yourself and the world to convey something of great value?

Or, are you a leader, an adventurer or an evangelist? How you position yourself is entirely up to you, but your message must be consistent throughout your entire "pitch" and it needs to be steeped in the truth. Your backstory, and just how you convey that through parables, character flaws and polarity, has much to do with just how well you can "hook" in your prospects to create a mass movement.

Of course, implementing this isn't easy. You need to first develop your stories, then decide on how you're going to convey those stories and at what drip-rate. For example, your first email or two might go out on the day them first signup, then one email per day might go out afterwards. How much of that will be story-based and how much will be pitches?

In a recent conversation I had with Perry Belcher, co-founder of Native Commerce Media, he told me that you also need to train your prospects to click on links. For example, you could have them click on a link of what interests them or link them to a blog post or eventually to a product or service that you're selling, but you need to train them to build a habit of clicking on those links from the very beginning.

Stage 3: Decision

The next stage is the decision. Getting prospects to make a decision isn't easy. The best way to get them there? Beyond the art of storytelling, copywriting and building the habit of link-clicking, you need to have lots and lots of customer reviews and testimonials. This is one of the most powerful ways that you can get people to take action.

Of course, if you're going the paid ad route, you could also use Facebook and Google re-targeting to keep that awareness and interest level high. For example, if you've ever noticed after leaving a particular website, that you begin to see their ad everywhere, there's a particular reason for that. Especially if they've already entered your sales funnel, this is a very powerful way to get them to act.

For example, you could show them re-targeting ads that have video testimonials or reviews by other customers. If you have media publications that have written about you, you could take that opportunity to highlight those. When they see this in your sales funnel and you follow them around with re-targeting, it's simply an added element of exposure.

But however you get them to decide to act, flipping that switch isn't simple. You need to present them with a great opportunity and use Robert Cialdini's 6 principles, outlined in his 1984 book, Influence, in one way or another to move them through this stage: 

·         Principle of reciprocity -- This is achieved by delivering lots of value, either through whatever it is that you provided them as a free offer (lead magnet) in the very beginning, or in an ongoing exchange through your emails. 

·         Principle of commitment & consistency -- When people commit to something, they're far more likely to purchase from you. That's why getting them to agree to something like a free + shipping offer or by agreeing with something you've said in some way. This is a powerful principle in sales and if you pay attention to some of the best marketers in the world, you'll notice that they work fervently to get your commitment to something, even if it's very small in the beginning. 

·         Principle of liking -- When people like you (i.e. they relate to your stories) they are more likely to purchase something from you. How well you craft your story and convey that to your prospects is going to play a big role in whether they decide to act or not. 

·         Principle of authority -- How much authority do your products or services have? Are their respected people in your community that have endorsed it? Scientific studies that are backing it? Are you yourself an authority? All these elements come into play in this process. 

·         Principle of social proof -- Do you have social proof? Are people on social media raving or talking about how great your products or services are? Do you have some other type of social proof? Best-selling books? Something else? It's important that you present this to prospects if you do have them. 

·         Principle of scarcity -- How much scarcity have you baked into your email sequence? Again, people are smart, but when you apply the principle of scarcity, as in there are only a limited amount of some offer or time left before a discount expires or slots available for an online class, it entices people to take action.

Stage 4: Action

The final stage of the sales funnel is the action that you're intending them to perform. In most cases this is the purchase. Again, how well you move them through the various stages is going to set you up with a specific conversion for this action. For example, if 100 people click on your offer and 10 people enter your sales funnel but only purchase people purchase, then you have a 2 percent conversion. 

However, the best part about this, and the most powerful route that entrepreneurs take to scale their businesses, is that if you know that sending 100 people to your site costs you $200, for example, but you get two people to convert at $300 each, then you have a $600 return on $200 invested (300 percent). When you know that, that's when the entire game changes and you can infinitely scale your offers.

This how the world's smartest marketers scale out their businesses. They know the conversion value and they've tweaked and perfected their sales funnels, so they go after this with a vengeance by simply scaling out their offers. If you know that, by investing $1 you're going to get $3 back, you will infinitely invest $1 repeatedly. Get the point?

However, getting to this stage is no simple feat. It takes an enormous amount of work and effort plus tracking. By implementing sales funnel software, such as the platform built by Brunson, you can definitely cut down the headache, but there's still lots of work to be done. Copy needs to be written, tracking pixels need to be installed and email sequences need to be created. But that's what it takes to succeed.

Think about that the next time you're building out a sales funnel. This complex and intricate concept in business can literally take you from a complete unknown to a global powerhouse quickly through the art of scaling out a highly-converting offer. Don't try to take shortcuts or implement hacks, and put in the time if you're looking to eventually reap the benefits and results.

 Posted by David Seagraves                         

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How Social Entrepreneurs Can Prove Themselves to Investors

Written by Rose Leadem is an online editorial assistant at Entrepreneur Media Inc.

After studying environmental engineering in Australia, Peetachi (Neil) Dejkraisak returned to his homeland of Thailand in hopes of doing something that would change and better his country. Upon learning about the rice industry in the southeast Asian nation and how its farmers were among the poorest in the world -- earning just 40 cents per day -- the idea for Dejkraisak's company, Siam Organic, was born.

Siam Organic aims to help solve farmers’ poverty in Thailand by assisting small scale farmers with seed production, reducing costs and getting organic certification. The company also assists farmer cooperatives in the country with everything from production to exportation.

“We actually help manage their entire value chain from seed to basically consumers' tables,” Dejkraisak explains.

Asked why this cause is so important to him, Dejkraisak says, “These farmers have become my family. I've gotten to know them, slept in their homes, ate their food. We've developed an amazing bond. So right now I'm just fighting for my family.”

And lucky for this social entrepreneur -- he’s one step closer to his achieving his dreams and changing the world. Dejkraisak is the winner of Chivas Venture, an annual social entrepreneur pitch competition launched by whiskey scotch brand Chivas Regal. With a panel of celebrity judges, the yearly competition seeks to find and support social startups that want to help build a better future for the world, with 30 entrepreneurs pitching and competing to win funding from Chivas Venture.

This year, Dejkraisak’s Siam Organic won first place, receiving $400,000 from Chivas Venture. We caught up with Dejkraisak after his victory to hear some helpful tips for winning a competitive pitch competition as a social entrepreneur.

How did you make sure Siam Organic stood out from the rest of the competition?

The main thing for me was to share a story with the audience in a way that touched them, [and] in a way that inspired them.

My whole objective of pitching was to touch people's hearts, to share the farmer's story with them. Because sometimes when we talk about social business, we talk a lot about numbers, [and] we lose sight of the fact that these are real people and real lives. I make sure that, in my presentation, people get to really understand these people's lives. And I think that [was] obviously effective in terms of the competition.

What was your strategy for pitching?

We had more than 300 people in the live audience last night, and sometimes what I like to do is get a feel of the energy in the room. I don't like to be too scripted because that can be a little mechanical when you deliver [a] presentation.

I normally leave about 10 to 15 percent of room for some improvisation where I just look at the crowd, [or] look at somebody -- they may ask a question or I may ask them a question. I probably only practice about 80 to 85 percent of my presentation. The rest I leave a little room for some interaction with the audience.

Any advice for aspiring social entrepreneurs in the early stages of business?

One is you must have a very sustainable business model that can generate sustainable income and revenue to support your company because by nature, when we say social business the only thing that differentiates us from charity or NGO is our ability to earn revenue. It doesn't matter if you win or lose the pitch competition as long as your business works in real life.

The second is persistence -- hard work and persistence. As a social entrepreneur, a lot of people will not take you seriously because they think you're running a charity. You have to prove to them that you are willing to work harder than everyone else to make this work. And that's the only way you're going to be able to help people.

As a social startup, do you think it's advantageous to be a part of a pitch competition, as opposed to traditionally pitching investors?

There are definitely pros and cons. I think when the company is in the early stages, you come to [a] competition to get advice. But once you have sufficient advice, you should spend at least one to two years working on the business. And I think in [those] one or two years you shouldn't pitch -- you should just focus on building the foundation of the company. Because even if you win some money, you will not be able to utilize it without the strong foundation.

So I would recommend [pitching] at the beginning to get ideas, to get advice and then spend the next one to two years working on it.

  Posted by David Seagraves                                                                                     Find “The Right Money” for Your Business

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5 Strategies for Women Entrepreneurs to Save for Retirement

Written by Marilee Falco - Principal and financial strategist at Joyce Payne Partners in Bethlehem, Penn., responsible for client financial strategy and counsel, comprehensive financial planning and investment management.

Saving for retirement can be challenging for anyone, but especially for business owners who invest much of their own savings and earnings into their companies. Although to many entrepreneurs funding a business and saving for retirement may seem like mutually exclusive propositions, they should not be. And since, in general, women live longer than their male counterparts, a robust retirement savings plan is even more critical for them. 

To better understand the views of women retirement savers in general, a review of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies’ December 2016 survey is beneficial. Some noteworthy takeaways from the survey are:

·         46 percent of the women surveyed are not confident that they will be able to fully retire comfortably.

·         56 percent of the women surveyed plan to work beyond the age of 65 and are unsure if they will retire at all.

·         81 percent of the women surveyed are concerned that Social Security will not be available when they reach retirement.

·         21 percent of women baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) have no backup plan if they find themselves forced into retirement earlier than expected.

In order to allay such concerns and fully fund their retirement, then, female entrepreneurs should consider following these recommendations:   

Develop a plan for caregiving responsibilities.

Because women are often the primary family caregivers for children and aging parents, it is important for women business owners to have a plan in place for how to manage and share these responsibilities. Building a support network is key.

Considering the financial ramifications of a work absence is also advisable since less income means less retirement savings -- and a prolonged period away from work could negatively impact the future success of the business. That being said, finding work-life balance is important, since family time and life experiences often enrich and sustain the lives of female entrepreneurs.

Invest in retirement, even in those lean early days.

During the startup phase of a business, when companies are cash poor, business owners may have little to invest in their own retirement. And even as a business gets its legs and ramps up, entrepreneurs often feed the beast and reinvest in their business. Women business owners would be wise to work with a financial advisor who can make recommendations during these lean times for their personal retirement savings -- as well as for their business.  

Invest cash distributions in retirement vehicles, not the business.

When a business owner receives cash distributions from her business, she would be well-advised to invest her personal draw in stocks, bonds and non-traditional investments so as to diversify away from the single enterprise, concentrated risk of her business. Of course, it would not be prudent to invest business profits in these same investment vehicles. Businesses require a certain level of liquidity to meet their financial obligations and having funds tied up in investments like long-term bonds, for example, would be problematic.

Consider cash balance plans when profits are soaring.

When a business is in its “cash cow” phase, women owners should consider fully funding retirement plans, including advance strategies such as cash balance plans. What sets these plans apart from other retirement savings vehicles for business owners is that they have higher contribution limits that increase with age.   

If they have not worked with a financial advisor, it is possible that older female entrepreneurs may need to make up for some lost time on the retirement savings front after spending their prime savings years focused on building and investing in burgeoning businesses. For them, the higher contribution limits permitted in cash balance plans are appealing, allowing them to accelerate retirement saving. In 2017, the contribution limit for 401K plans with profit sharing is $59,000. With cash balance plans, business owners and executives are able to amass more pre-tax dollars; up to $137,000 in total employer and employee contributions for a 50-year-old, up to $235,000 for a 60-year-old and up to $303,000 for a 70-year-old. Of course, significant cash flow is required for businesses to be able to make such sizable contributions to these plans. 

Reduce tax liabilities through HSAs.

For those female entrepreneurs with the ability to pay for upfront medical expenses through a high deductible plan, the tax advantages of health savings accounts (HSAs) are many: a) if the contribution is made as a payroll deduction, no taxes are paid on the contribution, b) investment earnings in an HSA account are not taxed, and c) qualified health expense withdrawals from an HSA account are tax-free.  

By adopting these strategies to balance retirement savings with business growth, female entrepreneurs can look to their futures more confidently -- which can only be good for business.

 Posted by David Seagraves                                                         

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Quick Business Tips From Superstar Athletes at the 2017 ESPYs

Written by Scott Duffy - TV/online host, keynote speaker and business growth expert.

Entepreneur Network partner Scott Duffy hits the red carpet of the Vayner Sports ESPYs party, interviewing superstar athletes past and present. Duffy asks Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon about how to ace an interview, then talks to current players like Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall and Jacksonville Jaguars defensive lineman Malik Jackson about good preparation and habits.

 Posted by David Seagraves                    

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5 Progressive Ways to Reduce Stress and Increase Productivity

Written by Manish Dudharejia - Co-Founder of E2M, a full-service digital marketing agency and Moveo Apps, a mobile apps development company. 

Stress is a fact of life for professionals. But there are many ways you can cope so it doesn't take over your day-to-day performance or well-being. Business leaders from all backgrounds are looking for outside-the-box strategies to reduce stress and make the most out of each hour. Here are some approaches to consider implementing so you and your team fire on all cylinders -- minus the afterburn.

1. Promote transparency.

No matter how many employees you have, commit yourself to being upfront about everything from small goals to the company's overarching vision. Transparency has proven vital to employee happiness.

Maintaining authentic transparency isn't quite as easy as it sounds. This practice starts at the top. Be sure that upper management on down encourages open communication. A central virtue of transparency: Everyone feels free to speak his or her mind. Make it clear to all who work in your operation that honest feedback is crucial to the company's growth and development. Embrace transparency, and you'll soon learn it doesn't just help workers discover their full potential, it helps build trust and credibility across the board.

2. Create to-do lists and prioritize them.

Superior organizational skills set successful professionals apart from the rest. It's incredibly easy to get overwhelmed when you fail to create and maintain an organizational system that works for you. Before you can collect yourself, tasks can slip through the cracks.

Instill a firm strategy for organization throughout your entire company to help ensure high productivity and a focus on important objectives. You don't have to reinvent the wheel, either. Project-management software and team-collaboration programs can assist as you work to keep your entire team on the same page in terms of workload and prioritization. Tools such as WorkZone allow you to create in-depth to-do lists, ease individual workload and promote open communication across a wide variety of tasks.

3. Go pet-friendly.

What is one of the main reasons why people buy pets? The unique human-animal relationship helps make life more enjoyable.

Many college campuses now dedicate rooms to pet-therapy programs. This helps students deal with stress throughout the semester and particularly during finals time.

Welcoming pets into the workplace could do the same for your employees. At the same time, it would eliminate the need to leave pets alone at home all day and give your team members a good excuse to get up, walk around and interact. A study conducted by Virginia Commonwealth University found that people who brought their pets to work had lower stress levels throughout the workday than those who left pets elsewhere -- or simply didn't own a pet.

In most cases, dogs are the furry workplace companion of choice. Work becomes a second home (and family) to them. Depending on how far you commute, you and your four-legged friend will benefit from keeping tabs on pet-service providers near your workplace. If you already have a dog or are planning to own one, you know it adds an extra layer of responsibility in your life.

Those who consider their dogs to be a child-like part of the family will appreciate the convenience of dog-parenting apps such as Barkily. This tool allows you to store important medical/health information and access all your dog-related details. Barkily also helps locate dog-friendly parks, restaurants, bars and caretakers in the area. It makes your office home-away-from-home much easier to navigate for you and your best friend.

4. Expand the work environment.

The thought of being cooped up for hours and hours every day can seem like a death sentence for some people. Before email and the internet, submitting to 40 hours a week within the same four walls was the norm.

Modern workers can be productive nearly anywhere their bandwidth connection can find a steady signal. For this reason, many companies are offering flexible work arrangements, including remote teams. More than 90 percent of workers who responded to a recent TinyPulse survey claimed to be more productive when working from home. In addition, giving employees the ability to work outside the office allows more time with family and less fear they'll miss out on life's precious moments.

Managers often cite lack of communication as a primary argument against remote work. But tools such as Slack and HipChat make it simple to stay in constant contact with employees or give them more freedom, as appropriate to the individual and the project at hand.

5. Disconnect.

As great as social media is, no one can deny it poses a serious -- and possibly detrimental -- threat to productivity. You won't be able to prevent each and every employee from checking their newsfeeds. And blocking social-media sites from your company's server isn't a realistic option. (This isn't grade school.)

However, you can implement a number of strategies to help people disconnect when needed. For starters, try encouraging everyone to use a time-blocking model. You and your team members might set aside certain times strictly for checking to-do lists, answering emails, catching up on industry news or some other agreed-upon task. Once a productive flow develops, budget time for checking social-media updates as its own (smaller) time block.

Here's another approach: Use AntiSocial or another app to track exactly how much time is spent on social media. This same tool can -- at the user's request -- block those time-wasting sites to remove the temptation. Interruptions can be extremely costly. Many people are addicted to social media in some form or another. The inability to control it can spell death for productively.

The work environment you create has an effect on your general outlook and affects everyone engaged in your mission. Company cultures are changing, in part because millennials are rewriting the rule book as they flood the marketplace. But keep in mind that nothing should be written in stone. As your company evolves, assess the strategies in play and adapt them to change how your business helps everyone manage stress and boost productivity.

  Posted by David Seagraves                                                                                   

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How to Avoid Burnout in a High-Stress Environment

Written by Jayson DeMers is founder and CEO of AudienceBloom, a Seattle-based SEO agency.

Career burnout can manifest as a growing distaste for your line of work or frustration with your current venture, as well as an emotional and physical response: Among other symptoms, you may experience changes to your sleep and appetite patterns. You may become more irritable and depressed. You could even be more susceptible to disease.

Physicians, nurses, social workers and other high-stress positions are notorious for their burnout rates, and for good reason: High stress, managed improperly, can wreak havoc on both your personal and professional life. Before you know it, the job and environment you once craved could become more like a hellish prison sentence, forcing you to decide to either continue your misery or abandon your original goals.

This all sounds terrible, but it’s actually an entirely avoidable outcome, so long as you practice the following strategies.

Identify the root causes and eliminate them.

This may sound obvious, but don’t underestimate its power as a strategy. Each day, take notes on what you do, how much time you spend and how you feel about the way you spent that time. Chances are, you’ll identify a selection of tasks that disproportionately contributed to your stress. You might find you've spent far more time on them than you realized. Or they may be tasks you hate doing due to your personal preferences.

Your main strategies here are to:

·         Automate the work, by finding a software tool that can handle the task for you.

·         Delegate the work, by training another staff member or hiring someone new to handle those specific responsibilities.

·         Rework your processes, possibly reshaping the business so you no longer have to focus on those specific tasks as an organization.

Keep in mind that even if you genuinely tolerate all the work you do, you may still be overburdened. If your workload is chronically high, you’ll eventually burn out no matter how passionate you are, so don’t be afraid to rebalance your workload with other people within your company. Delegation is a skill.

Manage stress through healthy lifestyle choices.

There are dozens of lifestyle choices and strategies that can help you manage your chronic, high levels of stress -- and you probably know what they are. For example, physical exercise helps you manage stress both as a short-term measure (by releasing endorphins and endocannabinoids that give you a kind of natural high), and as a long-term measure (by lowering your blood pressure and improving your overall health).

Eating healthier foods can give you long-lasting energy throughout the day, and regular sessions of meditation are shown to dramatically reduce levels of stress. You’ll also want to get a full night’s sleep (at least seven hours) every night.

The big problem most entrepreneurs have with these lifestyle choices is finding the time to accomplish them. Sleep instantly cuts seven hours out of the day, and finding even more hours to prepare healthy meals, work out and enjoy life can be difficult. However, if you want to be successful, you do need to make time for yourself and your health; otherwise, all the hours you pour into your business could end up wasted.

Take breaks (and a vacation).

Whenever you can, let yourself take breaks (even if that means sneaking in a nap at the office). You’ll see a boost in productivity, and you’ll foster a more positive relationship with your work. Things won’t seem as intimidating or as burdensome, and by allotting time for a break, you’ll create slots in your schedule for more relaxation and enjoyable activities. In a similar vein, make sure you take a vacation at least once a year.

Even if you don’t leave the house, taking a few consecutive days off work can give your mind the refreshing breather it needs to stay sane in your high-stress environment.

Know the symptoms.

Finally, learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of burnout. They tend to start out being somewhat innocuous, growing more intense over time, and include:

·         Persistent feelings of exhaustion

·         Feelings of self-doubt and recurring frustration

·         Feelings of cynicism or the tendency to be overly critical at work

·         Loss of motivation and/or dread about coming to work in the morning

·         Isolation or the feeling that you're alone

·         Use of food, drugs or alcohol to cope with your frustration.

·         Avoidance or abandonment of your responsibilities

·         A change  in sleep or eating habits

·         Headaches and/or muscle soreness

·         Susceptibility to illness and fatigue

If you start to notice these signs, it’s your responsibility to take action, increasing your attention to the above-mentioned strategies and making an improvement before things get worse. If that happens, you could be dealing with significant health consequences, including depression and heart disease.

Fortunately, you’re equipped with the knowledge and awareness necessary to nip the problem in the bud -- you just have to invest your time in the strategies that can make it happen.

 Posted by David Seagraves

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3 Strategies to Triple Your Company's Growth

Written by Shaun Buck is the co-author of No B.S. Guide to Maximum Referrals and Customer Retention (Entrepreneur Press, March 2016) as well as CEO of Boise, Idaho-based The Newsletter Pro, the largest custom print newsletter company in the world—printing and mailing millions of newsletters annually for diverse industries all over the globe.

I see friends of mine with really cool software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies that are growing at rapid rates, albeit typically with low profits. I see the insane multiple the market applies to the resale valuation of these companies, and it makes me want to be in the SaaS business.

I listen to people yell from the rooftops that mobile is going to take over the world and that pretty soon no one will buy anything or make a decision without first asking Siri. Hearing that makes me want to create an app.

Why am I telling you this? As entrepreneurs, we are nearly all attracted to new. Someone at some point even coined the term Shiny Object Syndrome to describe what ails us. In my 20s, I jumped from business idea to business idea; some worked and some didn’t. But, the things I learned in that phase of my life may have been my most valuable business lessons.

1. Marketing assets trump marketing tricks.

In many cases, that shiny object is just crap in a shiny wrapper. The trick or tactic may work for a time, and trying it out may even be used for a while (as long as you don’t divert any other resources -- time, money, etc. -- from proven winners to make this new campaign work), but soon enough, the true colors show.

If you want to be more successful tomorrow than you are today, never stop a successful campaign to test a new idea -- no matter how bored you are with the old strategy. If you want to test a new idea, allocate additional marketing dollars to do it. Don’t pull the budget from something that is working; that’s how an amateur operates.

2. Retention is king.

Big business gets this, but so few of us small business owners get how important retention is to growth and profitability. Retention is simply basic math, which I get isn’t sexy, but it is profitable. A percentage of annual sales needs to go toward customer retention. If you can decrease customer churn, you will massively increase growth and profits.

Let me give you a simplified explanation. Have you ever heard the media talk about the average American’s tax freedom date? It’s the date that the average American has to work up to before they actually earn any money for the year. Similar to your personal taxes, your business has a churn freedom date. It’s different for every customer, but it’s the date upon which that person’s business actually helps your company grow.

In the end, churn is a real problem, and the solution for nearly all businesses starts with building a relationship. You need to be your customer’s friend in the business. Here at The Newsletter Pro, we’re experts at building relationships, and if you want our help, we’d be happy to chat with you and give you a solution that will help you get the best results for your business.

3. A process for everything.

I am surprised by the number of businesses that are simply winging it -- no structure, no process, no systems. When I tell entrepreneurs they need to add processes into their business, they often say things like “My business is too difficult or different,” which, quite frankly, I’m going to call BS on.

I’m sorry to break this to you, but your company is no different than six dozen other businesses like yours. You need to have a system, and once you create that system, you need to give it time to work; then, you make tweaks to the system to improve it.

At the end of the day, business is business 99.99 percent of the time. Unless you’re blazing trails in a brand-new industry like asteroid mining, your business needs just a few basic things to grow, succeed and profit. I may not be in the business of drilling teeth, but give me 12 months as the CEO of any dental office in America, and we’d be well on our way to doubling the size of the practice. That sounds like an incredibly cocky statement, but my point isn’t to say I’m great -- my point is that your business does not need to have today’s shiny object.  

So what does it need?                                                                                                                                               

Your business needs three things:

1.       Marketing assets you use over, and over, and over again -- don’t get bored with tactics that make you money.

2.       A focus on decreasing customer churn.

3.       Systems and processes to keep things running.

And that's it. There’s your foundation for long-term success.

  Posted by David Seagraves                                                               

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